COLOGNE, Germany - GM's small-block V-8 added another accolade to a long list of honors when Corvette Racing's LS7.R was named the Global Motorsport Engine of the Year at the inaugural Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, Germany, on November 9. The race-prepared LS7.R engine, which shares its architecture with the production LS7 small-block V-8, propelled Corvette Racing to its fifth GT1 class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 18, 2006. The 7.0-liter engine also powered the Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars to the 2006 American Le Mans Series manufacturers, drivers and team championships with a perfect reliability record.

"Winning this award is another milestone in the history of the legendary GM small-block V-8," said GM Racing director Mark Kent. "The championship-winning LS7.R has evolved to a very high level of development, yet it retains the longstanding virtues of compact size, simplicity, reliability and high specific output that have made the GM small-block V-8 the world's most successful production-based racing engine."

The LS7.R is the heir to the GM small-block V-8's winning tradition that began in 1955. The small-block V-8 is the foundation of the hot rod and high-performance industries and the cornerstone of racing series around the world. GM has produced approximately 90 million small-block V-8 engines with a combined output of 27 billion horsepower.