Last month, Hennessey Performance Engineering released a video showing off its new twin-turbo 2020 Corvette C8, which is seemingly the first-ever eighth-generation Corvette to be equipped with two turbochargers.
Unfortunately for Hennessey, the General Motors Global B digital architecture that serves as the central nervous system for the mid-engine sports car was engineered specifically for improved cybersecurity. That means the Texas-based tuning shop cannot crack the car’s ECU to change things like air and fuel flow, limiting the amount of power they are able to extract from it. However, the twin-turbo Vette is still rather powerful, with Hennessey claiming the development car is good for an impressive 643 horsepower.
The twin-turbo Corvette C8’s ECU may remain under lock and key for the time being, but that hasn’t stopped Hennessey from taking the development vehicle out for a drive. In a recently released video, shop owner John Hennessey is seen doing some wide-open-throttle pulls in the Sebring Orange-painted Corvette and explaining the company’s future plans for the vehicle.
After giving the car the full beans on the straightaway, John Hennessey concludes the car “feels every bit of 640 wheel (horsepower),” and says the car is making almost 200 horsepower more at the wheels than stock.
“This is an awesome car, these things are going to be so fast,” he says in the video. “Once we’re able to put a built motor and a tune and a little more boost, I mean on pump gas, I think we’ll be able to make 1,000 horsepower.”
Hennessey is confident its 1,000+ horsepower Corvette C8 upgrade package will enable the mid-engine sports car to clock in a high nine-second quarter-mile at around 140 mph. Not only that, Hennessey is also confident the car will remain a comfortable cruiser and road trip car even after it’s done with its upgrades. He says the car is much more comfortable than the McLaren 600LT he currently owns, though it’s worth noting the 600LT is a hardcore, track-focused version of the softer, more approachable McLaren 570S.
You can see Hennessey twin-turbo Corvette C8 development car in action in the video embedded below.
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Comments
The first thing that comes to mind is WHY bother adding twin turbos if it’s just to try getting another 145 horsepower from what the naturally aspirated engine generates as what happened to the 900-1,200 hp claims that Hennessey twin-turbo V8 engines that they had developed for Cadillac and would drop one of those engines in the chassis of the C8 Corvette; the first twin-turbo V8 and it only generates 145 hp more than stock which is whimpish.
You do realize that these things are developed in stages right? If you took more than 5 seconds to look into the company, they have 650/750/1000hp kits for Corvette and Camaro. C8 is new. They’re developping the 650 first and will get to the 1200 when the time comes. You can’t expect them to shoot for the moon and potentially blow the engine right off the bat.
6 bills to the wheels on stock tune, hm yeah ok. The guy is a fraud, research this company
So they had some difficulty delivering cars to customers now and again, big whopp. Happens with every tuning shop. If they were an actual fraud, they would no longer be in business. Sounds like you’re just a jealous little keyboard kitty. Is that your mom yelling for you to clean your basement?
You gotta know Chevy’s got a lot more tricks up its sleeve, in the months and models years to come The C8 version of the Z06, or better yet, the ZR1, should be awesome.
With the new C-8, everybody and their brother will have an “improvement” to make on the stock version. Guess if stock isn’t good enough, throw more money at it. Faster, faster.
There’s a saying in racing that “how fast you want to go is dictated by how much money your willing to spend”
or
“The last 10% in performance gains cost 10 X more then the previous 90%”