Having Debuted the Twin-Turbo LT7 V8, Will GM Keep Ignoring the Supertruck Market?

Members of a competitive set are usually pretty evenly matched as they either move to offset or duplicate the proven strategies of the other. When a mismatch is revealed, it is dealt with swiftly. These tit-for-tat moves have varying degrees of success – Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich legitimately made Chick-fil-A sweat, but Coke just can’t field a viable Mountain Dew rival no matter how many times it tries. Whether or not it works out, the effort is almost always there, and that in and of itself is commendable.

Every now and then, though, an obvious shortcoming goes unaddressed for so long that even casual observers start to question the company’s internal decision-making. In the automotive space, there isn’t a more head-scratching example of this transparent dropping of the ball than General Motors’ continued refusal to meet the Ford Raptor on the sand-covered battlefield.

The SVT Raptor debuted on the 12th Generation F-Series in 2010. It brought desert-running trophy truck-inspired fender flares and long-travel shocks to a segment that had become a wasteland for specialty products since the lineage of muscle trucks like the Syclone, SS 454, SVT Lightning, and Ram SRT-10 died out half of a decade earlier. Its rugged good looks, along with its ability to go fast after the pavement ends straight off of the showroom floor, made it an instant success, created a palpable halo effect over the already strong F-150 brand, and famously became one of the most profitable trim levels in American automotive manufacturing.

Yet, somehow, this game-changing statement piece went unchallenged until Ram finally got around to upping the ante – and taking the fight nuclear – with the 702-horse Hellcat-powered TRX… in 2021. By this time, the Raptor was in its third iteration and had long ago eschewed its V8 roots for the 450 HP and 510 lb./ft. of the EcoBoost V6 favored by its parent company. From this point, it was on! The Blue Oval didn’t take kindly to a superior dinosaur-themed truck shaking up the niche it created!

Photo Credit: Ford

Dearborn returned serve with a Raptor R model that utilized an S550 Shelby GT500-derived 5.2L V8 modified for the drastically different workload of an F-150 and sand dunes. The resulting lump, dubbed “Carnivore,” was down to 700 from the Shelby’s 760 HP, but it made more torque and, like the truck it called home, was significantly lighter than Ram’s offering. A 2024 upgrade brought the Carnivore into clear pole position with 720 HP just as Stellantis pulled the plug on the TRX. But the French, Italian, and American conglomerate didn’t simply bow out after retiring the Hellcat. For ’25, it readied a so-called “RHO” that slots neatly between the “regular” Raptor and the Supercharged Raptor R with a twin-turbo inline-six “Hurricane” motor good for 540 ponies.

And All the While, GM was…

Not exactly twiddling its thumbs on the sideline – there was significant attention paid to more pedestrian offroad trims like Trail Boss and ZR2 – but it was definitely keeping its distance from, and purposefully not tangling with, the dino-rigs from across town. For the roughly one-third of the truck-buying public that is exhaustively dedicated to the Bow Tie and Jimmy brands, the maddening part of this whole situation is that it hasn’t been for lack of corporate engine options – which is something that both of the Toyota Tundra’s committed fans have to live with. As it did in the Raptor’s first decade, The General has minted multiple trophy-worthy V8s since the TRX finally made things interesting in this segment, including:

The Blackwing “LTA”

• Starting with the underdog intrant and the ultimate expression of Bob Lutz’ famed quote about Americans “buying horsepower but driving torque;” the 4.2L Twin-Turbo “Blackwing” LTA. Before it was unceremoniously axed, the top LTA tune paired 550 HP with a double-take, inducing 640 torques. It would have brought a singular personality into the supertruck fold.

• Then there was the other short-lived but likely best-suited option: the C7 ZR1’s monster LT5. With 755 horses and 715 lb./ft. of twist, it would have put the Silverado/Sierra at the top of the heap, and if the next option is any indication, it wouldn’t have had to be detuned for a 4×4 application like Ford’s higher-strung Shelby mill above.

• The most obvious candidate has always been the now-ubiquitous 6.2L LT4. This supercharged bent-eight can be found in everything from the C7 Corvette Z06 to the final Camaro ZL1 and the current – and confusingly named in this context – Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. It makes 650-668 HP, which is a little down from the Raptor R and TRX, but it does make slightly more twist than both, with up to 659 lb./ft. It also combines desirable features from its competitors – the larger displacement of the Hellcat and the lighter aluminum construction of the Carnivore – into one proven package. With the aid of the LT5’s bigger supercharger, a mutant “LT4.5” version has also already made its way into the engine bay of a three-ton vehicle in the Escalade V, where it drives all four wheels with 682 luxurious ponies. Why this motivator has been purposefully left out of truck order guides is an absolutely maddening thing to contemplate!

Enter the LT7 and the Unfortunate Age of Stingy Stingrays

All of GM’s previous engine options would have merely been competitive in the supertruck space, but as of late July, the General’s arsenal now contains a Death Star! The C8 Corvette ZR1 just rewrote what a domestic V8 (or one from anywhere, now that we’re thinking about it) can be with its “unthinkable” 1,064 twin-turbocharged horsepower LT7.

Photo Credit: Chevrolet

Now, putting the LT7 in the front of a Silverado might not be as cut-and-dry of an operation as the other “LTs” mentioned above, but even if the transition necessitated something as extreme as a swap to a cross-plane crank, it has two significant benefits working in its favor. First is the excessive cushion between its baseline and the Raptor R. No matter what kind of rework is required in the LT7’s hypothetical shift from amidship in a supercar to in front of the cabin of a half-ton pickup, it has a whopping 344 horses – which 47% of the 5.2 Carnivore, or one whole LS1, worth of grunt – to give before it falls off the top step of the podium.

Second is the team of engineers that would oversee the engine swap. Flat-plane V8s rev higher than their cross-plane brethren, and they also create higher levels of vibration that only worsen as displacement rises. Because of this, Ferrari never dared to exceed 4.5L in its flat-plane V8s; in the C8 Z06’s LT6, these guys saw that caution and decided to add a full liter and mass produce their audacious design. Through multiple racing seasons and three model years of regular production, they’ve been rewarded with a track record for reliability. On the way, the LT6 also happened to shatter the record for output from a free-breathing V8 with 670 HP vs. the previous mark set by Mercedes-AMG with 622 horses from 6.2L. After they followed that up with an LT7 that makes more power on its own than hypercars like the Ferrari SF90 and Lamborghini Revuelto make WITH the assistance of hybrid-electric tech, it’s time to admit that the best engine maker in the world is workaday General Motors in Michigan and Kentucky, USA! Compared to the monumental engineering feats they’ve accomplished with the C8 Corvette, getting an LT7 to function in an off-road vehicle would be a relative walk in the park!

Unfortunately, the once-generous Corvette has become quite the bogart in its old age., Patrons have almost always been able to get “Corvette Power” in lesser Chevrolets and GM Performance cars. That’s been especially true since the Gen III Small Block V8 debuted in 1997 with the C5’s previously mentioned LS1. The OG LS could be had in multiple Fourth-Gen Camaro and Firebird/Trans-Am trim levels and later in the first round of reborn and Ausie-imported Pontiac GTOs, setting up the blueprint for every iteration of the world’s most famous V8 to come. The C5 Z06 then lent its LS6 to the original Cadillac CTS-V, while the base C6’s LS2 (which kicked off the lifecycle of the Gen IV small block) and later LS3 were optional in everything from the usual suspects – Camaro, CTS-V, G8 GXP/Chevy SS Sedan – to some truly unique applications like the SSR two-door convertible retro truck and the Saab(!) platform mate of the TrailBlazer SS SUV.

With the 2014 and later Gen-V Small Blocks, though, GM started pulling back. While the LT4 was allowed to be fruitful, the Sixth and final version of the Camaro was the only non-Vette to get the naturally aspirated LT1. So far, throughout five full model years, the C8 hasn’t shared a single one of its powerplants. The 495-horse 6.2L LT2 could quite possibly transform the top-tier CT4 into the world’s greatest sports sedan and would have turned an updated Camaro SS 1LE into a glue and dog food factory for “Dark Horse” Mustangs, but sadly, the Stingray isn’t sharing. LT6? Same story. While it’s too early to tell, we don’t expect the ZR1 to be overly charitable with its state-of-the-art motivator; after all, save for an extremely limited run of Downunder-exclusive “Going out of Business” HSVs, none of its predecessors have ever dropped their big dog motors to a lower branch of the GM tree. But, we’re saying that the pieces are there, and no matter how many internal forces are working against what’s been humorously referred to as “project meteor,” as in dino-killer, as long as there’s a V8 F-150 out there printing money and earning its makers truckloads of even more valuable street cred, don’t ever fully discount the General and its uncanny ability to make a better-late-than-never splash in a prosperous niche.

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