Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette Option
Written by Bill Bowman
In the late 1980s, international race car driver Reeves Callaway was running a successful business of turbocharging various high performance European cars. At the same time, GM was struggling with ways to boost performance of the recently introduced C4 Corvette to help improve sales. GM was already experimenting with various techniques including turbocharging as well as DOHC engines. GM took note of Reeve’s turbocharging work and contracted him to evaluate the turbo design they were working on (while they continued development of the LT-5 engine). Callaway judged the system good but not particularly practical for production. Callaway was contracted to develop a system of his own and within six months it was in Chevy’s RPO catalog.
The Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette was available from 1987-1991 as option (RPO) B2K and could be ordered from select dealers in the U.S. Corvettes with this B2K option where then delivered to Callaway Cars in Old Lyme, Connecticut for the Twin Turbo conversion.
Once converted and tested, the cars were then shipped to dealers for delivery. Dealer repairs of the Callaway Twin Turbo option were covered by the standard GM, 12-month/12,000 mile warranty with Callaway Cars Inc., reimbursing the dealers for time and materials on repairs. This was the first and only time were GM has had a factory orderable non-GM performance enhancement on the Corvette.
On the performance side, the 1987 production version of the Callaway Twin Turbo B2K option provided 345 HP/465 Ft. Lb of Torque, on a stock car with a top speed of 178 MPH. The price of the B2K option was $19,995.00 that raised the total price just over $50,000. This brought the Corvette into the performance category of Ferrari and Lamborghini which cost in the range of $100,000-$175,000.
For 1988, Callaway increased the stock performance of the Twin Turbo Corvette, producing 382 HP/586 Ft.Lbs of Torque. The 1988 B2K was also optioned on only 7 of the 35th Anniversary cars; making them one of the rarest Corvettes ever built. On the performance front, as the years passed Callaway continued to increase the performance of the B2K option. By 1991, the stock Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette produced 403 HP/575 Ft.Lbs of Torque, providing a top speed of 192 MPH.
In 1990, GM introduced the ZR-1 Corvette which obtained similar performance characteristics as the Callaway Twin Turbo option (and at a similar price) with a normally aspirated engine beginning the demise of the Twin Turbo B2K. The GM contract with Callaway for factory ordered (B2K) Callaway Twin Turbo Corvettes concluded in the 1991 production year. At that time, GM focused its efforts on promoting the ZR1 Corvette, which was internally produced by GM in cooperation with Lotus. Lotus designed the LT5 engine and Mercury Marine manufactured the blocks.
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