Driving north on the Ventura Freeway, with the tach showing about 1600 rpm in sixth and the fuel-flow readout showing 28 mpg, I can't help but be impressed by the stock Corvette Z06. As an old-school, hard-core enthusiast, my initial impression of the Z06 was straightforward: I wished that it was smaller, that the steering was more communicative, and that its overall level of refinement was closer to some of its competitors. Still, as I'm making my way down the highway, its benefits are hard to ignore—it's lightweight, brutally fast, and at the moment it's returning the same freeway mileage as my wife's Volkswagen GTI.
Even though I'm now at least partially convinced by the abilities of the Corvette Z06, I can't help but wonder how it can be improved. Like all mass-produced cars, the Z06 is built to a price, and there are naturally a few areas where the factory compromises can be adjusted. The first area most—if not all—enthusiasts like to address is power. And even though the Z06 makes 505 bhp and 470 lbs-ft of torque right out of the box, more power is always better, right?
For road cars, more power is not universally a good thing. Additional grunt can be a destabilizing influence, and it usually requires other modifications to the chassis, brakes, and other supporting hardware to work effectively. The challenge facing all tuners is to successfully integrate any additional power into the car's existing dynamic character while being careful of not diminishing the latter.
Dick Guldstrand is well aware of that hurdle—though he's as happy to pump up an engine as any other tuner, he's wary of adding thrust without regard to the consequences. "The trick to improving a Corvette is to not screw it up," he remarks. As one of the longest-tenured Corvette modifiers, he's had plenty of time to think about that idea. "The cars are very well engineered, and they don't need much to make them work even better," he continues. "It's not like the old days, when we had to change everything."

since the mid-1980s, Guldstrand Motorsports has been producing heavily tweaked road Corvettes for a small group of loyal customers. In total, Guldstrand has produced about 65 complete "GS" cars over the years, making ownership of one of these examples a special privilege. Guldstrand's latest effort is the GSRT, which is based on the 2008 Z06. The package is comprehensive, including a more powerful engine, a revised suspension system, and upgraded wheel-and-tire packages. Cosmetic changes are also available, including a removable roof panel for the Z06 body (the "RT" stands for "Removable Top") and a louvered hood. These improvements are intended to optimize the Corvette's attributes, without sacrificing reliability, drivability, or overall character.
Knowing that more power is at the front of his typical client's mind, Guldstrand's first upgrades happened under the hood. One of the most straightforward ways of increasing Z06 output is by using some form of forced induction—right off the bat, Guldstrand was faced with the decision of whether or not to go that route. Concerned about the added weight, cost, and complexity of a forced induction setup, Guldstrand ultimately elected to leave the GSRT's LS7 unpressurized.<

Of course, normal aspiration does not necessarily normal levels of power, and Guldstrand's selection of a Katech-built powerplant virtually guarantees the dyno figures will be anything but normal. Plus, from a chassis dynamics standpoint, not installing heavy blower or turbo hardware helps to maintain the stock Z06's excellent chassis balance. The Corvette's engineers worked very hard to maintain good weight distribution when designing the Z06, so adding a bunch of weight to the front would require retuning the already brilliant chassis. Another benefit of Guldstrand's approach is the immediate throttle response of a well-tuned aspro mill—In the real world, balance and throttle response are two attributes that not only make a car feel faster, but allow it to be driven faster as well.