This comparison exposes the diminishing returns of supercar prestige by highlighting the raw, high-maintenance brilliance of a well-tuned LS7. It proves that engineering soul and raw physics often outweigh a $300,000 price tag on the tarmac.
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$300,000 McLaren 720S vs $12,000 C5 CorvetteAdded:
Hey, look at me.
Remember when they hat just to look at me? Remember when they called you?
Look at me.
want to get one.
Good. 1 2 3 And what up? What up? What up? What's good with y'all? I So, what are we getting into today? All right, man. So, today is the day y'all been waiting for and y'all have been anticipating this. Well, here it is. You guys have been wanting a C5 POV driving video and y'all have been asking questions about how does it feel?
uh the difference between the LS3 and the LS7. Uh what is it comparable to?
And just a bunch of questions uh regarding the LS7 and the C5, even for my C5 people that are in the uh groups and stuff that are DMing me. Well, today here y'all go. I'm going to do a full review, excuse me, full review, drive around video of the C5. Um we do have the new exhaust on now. If you haven't seen that, you can check out um the last video. The box is right here. Ended up doing a Hooker Heartbeat. I don't even know if I can say that, but that is a brand name. Ended up doing the Hooker Heartbeat muffled exhaust. Well, axle back for this car. And I want to say it does. It sounds good. It's nice and like that almost came out so sus. I was about to say the hooker exhaust sounds nice and deep, but if you take some words out of there and I get cropped, it's going to be like the hooker was nice and deep.
But yeah, man. It sounds It sounds nice and deep. It has like that bassy tone to it. It actually got rid of the rasp that I wanted to get rid of right around that 2100 RPM range. I want to say between 1,800 and 2200. um right where you're in sixth gear doing about 75 80. It had like this crazy ass ras with the other exhaust on and that's why I really wanted to get it off of there. But this exhaust is still loud. Like it still has a certain RPM frequency to where it's kind of unbearable. Instead of it being in sixth gear, now it's like if you're in fifth gear doing like 70. So I'm still trying to find the perfect setup to get rid of the rasp. So, I think eventually what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna probably order some mufflers tonight. I'm going just go to my tried andrue combination, which is going to be a set of Borlas. And I think I'm gonna have Jeny um weld those things in there because right now I'm just like ah it's still kind of like getting, you know, to the like I want it to sound either like how my C6 sounded, how my 350Z sounded, or how my C6 sounded when I gave it away. And you only get that with the Borla exhaust. And it has no drone at those RPMs where you cruising and you driving. It sounds nice and tame. It doesn't rattle your ears and make your ears feel all tickly, but it's a matter of have to cut and chop and redo it. But like it seems like for me always get the perfect sound when I have the Borlas on there. So I run the Borlas on a lot of my V8 cars and it just seems to give me that right pitch.
especially when you're driving around.
It doesn't give you any um any of the weird frequencies at certain RPMs, but then it's loud enough up top to be like, "Damn, that sounds good." And it's louder at idle. That's what I like. It's louder at idle, but then in that certain RPM range, it gets rid of that cruising drone that you have and it just sounds good. And then when you get on it, it sounds nice and loud. So, yeah, looks like I'm going to be uh doing that. But today, y'all get to see the C5 in action. Let's uh open up the garage for the people that may be new or viewing for the first time.
for a cold start.
All right. So, for the people that may be viewing for the first time, this is my Turbo LS E36, my little baby bolt-on GT500, and then this is my LS7 swapped CF fizzle Corvette. Actually, let me unlock this thing and let it roll back down the driveway. That way, we don't have a weird sunline shadow going down the car.
And I can pop the hood right now and let y'all take a little look. Yeah, we got a red interior. It's three shades of red technically, but all the reds in here match another red, so it's fine.
Oh yeah, new steering wheel for those that didn't see it.
Come on, little. There we go. That should be good.
We are going to start this thing up in a second or so.
All right, here it is. This is the heart of what we're going to be talking about today. I think I did a review on this car, so I don't want to get too ind depth in it. Just the basics. Uh, it is a C5 F FRC. For those that don't know, the F FRC is basically the Z06 before the Z06 was a Z06. The way you can tell the difference between the F FRC and the Z06 is the simple, easiest way. If you look down there by the rear wheel, the Z06 will have a air duct right there, and that air duct goes to the rear brakes. Other than that, the F FRC doesn't have it. But that is really the only identifying factor of the two cars.
The the F FRC comes with a standard LS1, whereas the Z06 comes with a LS6. LS6 is basically LS1 with 243 heads and a better flowing intake manifold, but other than that, essentially the same car. Um, minor differences. Z6 has bigger sway bars and blah blah blah. But this is F FRC. So, my F FRC, widebody, wheels, full coilovers, suspension, the whole little [ __ ] Um, redid the interior, blah blah blah. Carbon goodies, track spec, the race edition of their uh hood vents. These are the the race edition ones. You could tell by the longer vents, the standard ones are a little bit shorter, but I guess this is more of the race and whatever. Um, yeah.
Other than that, carbon fiber stuff. Got tow hooks on here because if you have a C5, you know, it is a pain in the ass to get these things on trailer if your car does break. So, I decided to put tow hooks on here. That way, it just makes it so much easier because it is a pain in the ass. Last time I was trying to grab it from the control arms, it was pulling on the lip and all kind of [ __ ] So, did tow hooks on the front and rear.
No, I didn't do it for looks. I literally did it so I can tow the damn car or get it on a truck or trailer if I needed to. So, now that we got all that out the way, let's talk about the heart of this thing. If you familiar with the channel, you guys know that I've had this LS7 set up for a cool little minute. It ended up blowing up. Um, not surprised there. That's typical LS7 [ __ ] LS7s make the most power naturally aspirated out of all the LS, but they come with a cost of being [ __ ] glass.
So, since then, this LS this LS7 has been fully rebuilt. Uh, forge pistons, forge rods, forge crank, uh, ported atomic MSD, ported Frankenstein heads, um, pretty much the whole [ __ ] that you would do if you were going to be rebuilding the LS7. Um, everything's all done. This car ended up making, um, 631 horsepower on uh, E85. We revved this thing to about 7300.
uh car set up to rev the 76. But we have like a a stage 3.2 cam in here. And that's pretty much where the uh power fell off at. So that's there wasn't no point in revving it higher if the power already started falling off. But overall, man, this car does feel [ __ ] phenomenal. This is my very first like actual real NA build. I've had NA LS3s, um NA 5.0, like little little [ __ ] like that. Uh, but I must say that the LS7 is by far the most rowdiest NA car or NA setup that I've ever got to experience.
LS7s are known for big broad power bands. And literally, this is no different. This car pulls like at every point in the RPM range. It feels absolutely amazing. I don't even know what car I would be able to compare this to because if you look at the numbers, you like, it only makes 630 horsepower.
But if you know, a naturally aspirated car that makes the same power as a boosted car will feel faster and technically it will be faster. So the numbers aren't the true like telltale story of how crazy the car feels. Like it's one of those things where you just ignore the numbers. It's like all my NA people will know like if you got a 650 horsepower naturally aspirated car and you race another car that's like 700 horsepower, more than likely you're going and if it's in the same chassis, more than likely the you feel me the uh NA car is going to feel faster and it's probably going to win. Um you don't have all the extra weight from the supercharger or adding turbo or anything like that. Uh you guys know me man, this is my only naturally aspirated car. Everything else that I own is boosted, boosted, boosted.
my Supra big boosted. The Viper's boosted. Uh the other cars that aren't here boosted. So, I am a boost dude. But for what I wanted out this car, I just wanted something that was going to be reliable. You guys know that this is my daily driver. It's always been my daily.
It was just down for a minute. Um so, for this, I didn't want to deal with any heating issues, none of that. I wanted to just be simple, raw, fun power to where I didn't have to worry about it and it was just a simple car that just made power and felt good on the streets.
Uh, it's not my fastest car. That wasn't the intentions for this, but it is overall a very fun, balanced car. It's not too overpowered to where as soon as you get on it, tires are blowing off and, you know, you got to correct and fight the car. I was like, nah, this car hooks and books. Um, I'm on a regular tire. I'm actually on a 315 Kinda, which is nothing special. It was probably like a I think for the set it was like 300 and something bucks for both tires. Uh yeah, it's not nothing crazy, but the car does handle hella good. I got three sets of wheels for this thing. These wheels are the lighter setup. So, I got these on here for the streets, but I do have a set of three-piece and also has a I also have a uh a drag pack, a custom drag pack that was on my C6. But yeah, that's pretty much the the basics on here. Man, this car does handle hella good. Feels hella good. The power comes on like perfect. It pulls [ __ ] phenomenal. But I just want to give you all that rundown. And now we're going to jump in the car and y'all get to see for yourself how this thing pulls. So, let's get this thing fired up. This is going to be the first cold start that you guys get to hear with the new exhaust on. And then we're going to be switching cameras to the uh other compact little POV cam.
So, let's get this thing fired up with a co start.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
We'll let this thing get all the way up the operating temps. Once it warms all the way up, you should hear a little bit more of the I can't lie, man. It's a good looking car.
Good looking, fun car.
All right, this is also something I want to note because I've obviously had a a super fast pass C6 uh driven C7s, but I must say that the C5 is my favorite variant of the Corvette when it comes to like overall driver feel. Like the thing about the C6 that I mean I I like the the the look of the C6, the sharper body lines, the um updated interior obviously and the more refined uh chassis and sound ending and stuff is great on the C uh C6. But the thing with the C5, man, it just feels like so much more of a raw feeling car. Um the thing about the C5 is the steering feels stiffer than the C6. The C6 feels a little softer. Uh, I feel like the C5 drives smoother than the C6. Like I'm saying smoother in the st standpoint as like let's say you just put the car in neutral and let the car coast. The C5 actually just feels like the smoother chassis and it coast better. Like I don't know. It's a it's a weird feeling. But just from having both cars and jumping in and out of both cars the same day and like all right, one minute I'm going to drive the C5 to the gym and and now I'm about to go somewhere. I'm going to jump in the C6.
I've driven both cars back to back and I've always felt like the C5 was the better driving car. Even with uh both cars having suspension and and all that [ __ ] I just I don't know. I just feel like the C car uh the C5 is the better driver car. I would say like inputs on the steering and everything feels heavy and and stiffer versus like less electronic and assisted, I guess you could say.
I wish the C5 had better interior.
That's like my only gripe, but just everything's outdated. But I mean, [ __ ] It's a 1990 car, you know, like you can't really complain.
Overall, I do love the OG pop-ups and just the slickness of of a C5, man.
Like, a C5 with just wider arches on it is like that's it. All you need. Good looking car right off the box.
Especially when you get the F FRC or Z06. I'm not a really a big fan of the hatches. I had one, but the fixed roof coupe is where it's at.
There it is.
All right, let's go swap the camera and jump on this road and get some POV driving.
All right, we are off.
Had to do some adjusting for the camera real quick.
Last time I um was recording videos, I noticed that the EV comp was like, oh my god, this car about to die. Yeah, we got some stuff to uh figure out still, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.
All right, so as far as the little dying thing, um we've been trying to look here. It goes about do it again. Almost about to do it. So the thing that we're still trying to figure out, which is going to be probably in the um we think it's something with possibly tuning.
We've been trying to figure it out, but every time we make changes to the tune and we get it to where it's like everything's good, it ends up doing this like shortly after. So, we think what's happening is the older operating system is struggling to keep this throttle body in check because it only does it when it when it's time to come to uh come to a stop. It it does that sometime, but it's it's weird. It's like an intermittent thing to one minute it does it, next minute it doesn't. Uh, right at between I want to say 1,500 to 2,000 RPM is like where the rough patch is on here. But G is still trying to iron that out for me.
But I think what we're going to end up doing is we're going to end up uh Look, look. I hate this so bad.
But what we're going to end up doing is we're going to be putting a new operating system in here. Um, we're going to be using a newer computer, something that should have more control over the throttle body and just allow us to modulate it faster than what this old ass ECU can uh can do. I think that's where the problem is um is lying. But this ECU also doesn't have the option for flex wheel, so we have to upgrade it anyway. But I'm pretty sure later in this video, you'll see that car ends up running fine. It's just like one of those things where it doesn't when we first start driving it. I don't know why the car is already warmed up, but I don't know if it needs to relearn or what the [ __ ] it's doing. It just it just does it like I don't know. I think it's all it I want to say it's always done this. Even with the old uh combination in there. So even with the old tuner, it didn't it didn't really matter. This is just how this car ran.
So it's something going on with the whole little shadiggity dag dang thing that's going on in here. Just go. Why y'all being so damn nosy? Jesus Christ.
Other than that, car drives hella smooth.
Just driving around. Once you're out of that low ass RPM range, everything's fine. Let's just [ __ ] drives like normal.
Roll this window up that way. We don't got too much. I don't think we should have wind noise, though. We got wind noise. Whoopde-doo. My bad. Nah, roll it up. Leave it down.
I just roll it up for the sake of the video.
But, uh, one of the questions I want to answer to compare this to the LS3, again, I've always said this, best bang for buck to me is going to be the LS3.
If you want a naturally aspirated car and your goal is over 600 horsepower and you want to make that easy, even if you want to do a 700 horsepower naturally aspirated car, your best bet is going to be to do that with a LS7.
Can a C5 uh can a can a LS3 make 600 horsepower naturally aspirated?
Absolutely. Yes, it can. It will just take extensive naturally aspirated parts and it would get expensive. Whereas the LS3 just breather mods, compression, and E. That's all we did. Like there's nothing special or fancy on here other than ported heads, ported intake, high compression, and then E85. That's it. It and it made that. On top of that, with the forge pistons, the forge rods, and crank, my rotation assembly is actually heavier than what a factory LS7 uh rotation assembly is because the factory stuff is titanium. So, if I would have utilized the titanium rods, which we thought about doing with forge pistons, we actually probably would have made a little bit more power. But seeing as how we made 630 horsepower with maintaining a forge rotation assembly and not going with the lightweight stuff is pretty [ __ ] impressive. So, um Josh said that he thinks this car if it had like a just a different inte roughly around 600. Oh my god. Look at this [ __ ] Come on. Get it together. Get it together. Get it together. Are you going to die? You're going to die.
Jesus Christ. You going to die.
This is going to get annoying. But we're going to be addressing this uh in the upcoming week. We're going to be putting the right now it's tuned on MAP. We're going to be putting the mass air flow sensor back on here. Um, we're going to be checking and changing all the plugs or not the plugs, but the plug wires just to see if there's any resistance in any of them causing this. Um, we're going to check out the coil packs, check for vacuum leaks, which we don't think we have. But I think the corporate is really going to be just this old ECU cuz again, it did this exact same [ __ ] with the other combination in here and it was no different like Sergey idle and [ __ ] like that.
But watch eventually it's going to go away. I promise y'all. Watch.
But again, um, if you're asking if I say LS3 or LS7, and my answer is always going to be the same. If you're trying to do a naturally aspirated setup, you're going to want to go with the LS7.
Um, if money is an issue. If you only want like a 500 550 horsepower, go somewhere around here between, let's say, between 450 horsepower to 600 horsepower, then you can do that without a problem with the LS3. to make 500 plus horsepower is relatively easy. Um, just a LS3 with a cam in it usually makes about 480 horsepower to about 530 horsepower depending on what heads you use or if you use the stock heads ported blah blah blah. But if you do a 416 stroker, then making 520 to 570 horsepower isn't going to be that hard on a a 416 setup if you have a LS3. But I always tell people if you want uh if money isn't an issue, then obviously go with the LS7 just for the big dog flex.
There's not a lot of people that do LS7 swaps and [ __ ] If you're on a budget and you want something that's going to be reliable, then obviously the LS3 is going to be more reliable than the LS7. The LS um the LS3 also does a lot better with boost. The problem with LS7s is the cylinder walls are uh on the thin side.
So keep that in mind. But all things equal LS7 bolt-on for bolt-on will make more power than LS3 because it has bigger cubes. Plain simple math. But anyh who, we've got enough talking.
Let's [ __ ] get to doing some pulls.
Pretty sure that's what y'all want to see anyway.
This thing has long ass gears. So, second gear from a 45, let's do 50. It's only like 4,000 RPM. And then we just nail it.
As y'all can see, that [ __ ] pulls.
And even with these tires in this combination, like the car hooks hella good.
Like this car hooks hella good. And the power band is the power band feels huge.
All the way from whatever what pretty much wherever wherever you floor this thing at, it has power. if you're in the uh in the right gear. Obviously, it being NA, you ain't about to be in you ain't gonna be in fifth gear and be like, I'm at 2,000 RPM, let me floor it because then is, you know, do that [ __ ] But if you're in the right in the right gear and you floor it, bro, it has power everywhere.
And my bad if I sound a little bit raspy, y'all can probably tell I'm sick.
But yeah, the car has power everywhere, man. By far the best balance setup I think I've ever had in a car. not too overpowered. I'm not worried about the car not hooking. It's not spinning when I get ready to go into another gear.
Like the car feels amazing, bro. Like it's one of those cars where you have to be in it to feel it. Like I gave my tuner guide the ride and that fool was just like, "Bro, the car feels hella good and it's well balanced. Like going through turns and [ __ ] the car is hella hella planted.
And let's see if I can go into a six.
And y'all can hear kind of the what I was talking about with the the drone.
Not not too crazy. But if I was to go down to fifth gear and be cruising at 70, then you really get to hear the drone right right there. I'm pretty sure the camera will pick up how much louder the car got in that RPM range. See that right there? Right at 70.
speed up a little bit.
Going to six, the drone's gone.
But if it drops down to that RPM range, you'll have drone in this gear also.
Which way do we want to take? Uh, take this way. I say we take this way.
Want to go this way? Yeah, we can go this way.
I did upgrade this to uh front and rear sway bars. Car definitely feels more planted with the sway bars on here. Now look at that. Just grips the road. Good C5.
See that? Now it's not dying. There you go. It fixed itself.
Show y'all some low-end power.
Jesus.
Jesus.
Yeah, first and second are going to spin. I'll let y'all know that now.
Especially if you grab them hard. But the car goes straight.
The car goes straight for the most part.
Oh [ __ ] it's a Lamborghini behind us.
Maybe this would be a good chance for us to uh get some gapage.
Little Lamborghini behind us. Oh, we got a we got a fleet of supercars up here.
Let's see if any of them want to get a run in real quick.
Heat A group of McLarens. Look at that.
A group of McLarens.
And I'm the one odd Corvette in their group.
I am more than confident that this car would beat a McLaren.
This would be a good This would be a good time to show y'all like how fast a 600 plus horsepower naturally aspirated car really is. If I can get one of these people to run me.
There's three of them right here. Then I seen a blue one back there. But it's definitely a group of McLarens.
McLaren. McLaren.
McLaren. That one looks like the fast one.
That [ __ ] got a He got the police mustache. They for sure not racing.
Race? No. Got his wife in the car. He ain't racing.
No, he for sure not racing.
Beautiful cars though.
McLarens are definitely beautiful looking cars.
McLaren.
He's recording. He's recording. You want to get gapped, bro? You want to get gapped?
I know y'all might think in my videos I be like I be like talking smack, but like I really really really really love like cars in general. Like I'm not one of those people that's going to be like, "Oh, I love all builds." Because some people be building whack ass [ __ ] But I am a car enthusiast to the point where I definitely respect and like these cars.
Maybe we can get a run in with him. He was already recording it. So I think he would give us a run.
I think he would play.
He looked younger. So I think he a little bit more, you feel me? A little bit more uppy and down down for the cause.
Let's see if we can get a little run in.
Get a little run in with them.
Want to want to get one?
Can we get a run in?
Do it, man.
>> Good. Oh, can we get one run in?
Good.
Told you.
I told y'all this little LS7 would do it.
I told y'all the little LS7 would do it.
But he was definitely coming up up top.
Up top that [ __ ] was coming up fast.
Good.
Oh, my bad. My bad. My heart was tripping.
All right, there we go.
Three-way.
Oh, it's [ __ ] spun.
A hell of spun.
That was a good one. That was a good one.
We'll get one more in tiebreaker.
Not bad for a little NA car.
One more. I was expecting Heat up here.
And that was the 140 when I let out.
Good. I can't be mad. I really can't be mad.
I'm glad he gave me the opportunity to get the run in.
Thank you, bro. I appreciate it. It's It's not often you get to race something like that, you know?
Huh?
Okay, it's good. What's yours? How it going?
That's dope.
That is dope.
Oh, you want some too?
You want some too, Mr. Mustache? Come on, Mr. Mustache. N.
But no, that's what it's all about, bro.
Like that. that I love. Like win or lose don't really matter. It's just the opportunity of getting to test something like this that you know you and your homie put together versus like a mechanical [ __ ] machine right there.
But yeah, man. Good runs, fun time. Oh, look. We got the Lambo right there.
That's what I really want. I want that [ __ ] That's what I want to race right there. Come on. Let me get that.
Come on. Come on. Let me get that. Come on. I need that, bro. I need that.
This shit's fun.
All right, man. I'm just grateful for the opportunity. Got some good runs in.
Dude said he follows me on Instagram, so hopefully he sends me a DM. That way I can uh tag him when this drops.
But yeah, I'm glad. See, everything works out for a reason. I'm glad I decided to come this way because we got to run into some [ __ ] like that. Like, you know, how often do you get to see a group of McLarens and a [ __ ] Lamborghini?
I know a lot of us poor people hate on these supercars, but we know deep down inside when we see them, we we love seeing them in person. Like, don't act like you don't like seeing them. Even though we can't afford them, we love seeing the [ __ ] even more. We like beating them, you know?
Tunnel baby.
Tunnel baby.
tunnel, baby.
Damn. What are you doing, [ __ ] Jesus Christ. He's trying to take me out the game.
black ass gay ass Tesla.
So, remember how I told y'all it was going to fix itself and it did. So, it's no longer doing a little thing. Like, after you drive it a little bit, it fixes itself.
Little clutch in coming to a stop. Now watch. Nothing.
Perfectly fine.
No surge, no nothing.
Now watch. The moment we come to a stop, idle's going to go down and it's going to start chopping and chop.
Yeah. I don't I don't know. Maybe the throttle. I don't know.
tunnel.
All right, boys. We are on the way home.
Had a nice little chill day for the most part, but we are officially on the way home.
You want to race, bro?
Ah, a long day, man. Long, long day, but a fun day. Definitely had some fun.
I' been going too crazy. These [ __ ] too shady. Speed limit 65. I'm about to do 80. [ __ ] a ninj.
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