This 1,000 Horsepower ‘Vette Makes Dreams Come True

Call me old fashioned or cliché, but I have always been a sucker for a Corvette. I remember being about 6 years old and thinking that the $100 that my grandmother made off of a garage sale would be suffice for purchasing a Vette but oh how naïve I was. I loved Vettes so much that my wife even surprised me at our wedding by renting a, then, brand-new ’14 Stingray as our getaway ride for our wedding (we got away really, really fast). However cool Corvettes were or are in some people’s minds, they have always lacked supercar status. As a brand, they have performed well at the various endurance races in their respective class over the past 10 years and they have some classic performances to their resumes as well but they are mostly known for being a sub-par icon of the middle-aged crisis. Corvettes simply were not engineered as well as their German or Italian counterparts in the past. Chevrolet has greatly reduced that gap in the past 10 years and in many ways the Corvette delivers similar performance at value pricing but it has yet to really be recognized as a true contender; especially in relation to supercars. I got my introduction to the people that make their living changing that sort of reputation about 3 years ago with this YouTube video.

This was a promotional stunt to test the license plate cameras for a toll road with an 85 mph speed limit in Texas. Even at 200 mph, you are still going to get an annoying bill in the mail. I’ve been able to drive this stretch of highway and it is absolutely delightful because not only can you drive around 90 to 95 in some areas without worrying about getting a ticket, but it avoids the dreadful Austin traffic as well.

It seems hard to imagine a time before Hellcat engines and basically every high-end car making at least 600 hp but a 200 mph Corvette was pretty impressive just 3 years ago. Hennessey Performance seems to embrace the Texas mindset of taking an American concept and supercharging it literally. They hop up every current American muscle car, GM trucks and SUV’s, Ford Raptors (the ones that Ford already tricked out), McLarens, and even make some of their own concepts like the Venom F5 and VelociRaptor SUV. The reality is that entire articles can and should be devoted to each and every one of their projects but I would like to focus on what Hennessey has been doing with the Corvette.

The Hennessey HPE1000 Supercharged Engine Upgrade basically takes a run-of-the-mill 2015-2017 Z06 which is no slouch and turns it into not only a supercar but almost a hyper car with specs that would mean it could run with the big boys like the Porche 918 Spyder in a quarter mile. The upgrades listed on the site seem to indicate that Hennessey Performance does a complete engine rebuild that improves everything involved in the internal combustion process from the supercharger to the exhaust. A 1000 hp Vette that can run a sub 10 second quarter mile is the result.

The website does not list the price of this upgrade which leads to the old axiom, “If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it,” but it does have contact information if you are interested in the upgrade. Whatever the price is, the cost of purchasing the Z06 and getting this performance package is sure to be a fraction of the price of the top-end Porches, McLarens, and Ferraris while delivering a comparable performance level. The HPE1000 upgrade now allows Corvette enthusiasts to enjoy the lofty heights of supercar status without having to have the bankroll of a Saudi Prince.

 Check out more cool Hennessey projects at Here.