The wicked-fast, twin-turbocharged Corvette C8 Stingray built by Anderson Dick and his team at FuelTech USA experienced a minor setback at the dragstrip recently after the vehicle spat out one of its rear-wheel liners during a hard launch.
This rather humorous mishap happened while BBC’s Top Gear was filming an episode featuring FuelTech’s impressive 1,350-horsepower Corvette Stingray, with the tall-sidewall slick drag radial tire impacting the wheel well and stripping the plastic liner off the vehicle as it turned. The wheel well liner then ends up underneath the spinning tire on the drag strip, causing the Corvette to run it over as it launched. The liner also stripped wires out of the vehicle, causing it to become stuck in first gear for a brief period.
As we reported previously, FuelTech USA’s record-breaking Corvette features two Garrett G35-900 turbochargers, which pump the 6.2L V8 LT2 engine with enough boost to produce a frankly absurd 1,350 horsepower at the rear wheels. The internals were also beefed-up with forged Diamond Pistons and Wiseco Boostline connecting rods. These modifications are enabled by FuelTech’s FT600 fuel management system, which works in conjunction with the factory PCM to control things like spark and air/mixture. This piggyback ECU is able to sidestep GM’s encrypted ECU to alter the vehicle’s engine settings and allow for forced induction modifications to be more effectively applied.
FuelTech’s heavily modded Corvette also includes a beefed-up, reinforced version of the OEM eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, a nitrous system, OMP racing seats and racing wheels wrapped in the aforementioned drag radial tires.
Check out the video embedded below to see FuelTechUSA’s modded Corvette in action on Top Gear.
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Comments
Another modification is the ability to jack the car up at the rear end from the middle ?
Drag tires, which typically expand on acceleration, gripping the textured inner liner….
The C8 liners are something I have never seme before, I am used to plain plastic, like a sheet.
These have a carpet like texture, and I have had them out to access other parts. But several screws hold them in.
I never felt the C8, or C5 on was as much a drag car as a road car. Certainly more fun on twisty roads.
But I realize drag strips provide a way to measure certain dynamics.
For me, a drag strip is about a gutted car with lots of motor, and big-ol tires on the back.
Straight line, reaction time, G force.
Aside from the huge meats on the back, that car is a true sleeper! Well done!
Despite all of their performance experience, it appears that they mis-calculated (or didn’t even consider) just how much those slicks would “grow”
what made the car go down was taking a passenger, usually in the sprint it takes only the pilot
The idea of colocating alcohol fuel with a high pressure bottle of nitrous oxide, a strong oxidizer and monopropellant in the front crush zone of the car gives me pause. These are the kind of materials seen “reacting” in rocket failures.