Hennessey is renowned for making fast American muscle cars even faster, so it came as no surprise when the Texas tuner announced plans to increase the output of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray up to a staggering 1,200 horsepower. Just as well, a supercharger kit is in the works for $25,000, on top of the C8 Corvette itself, and is projected to make 700 horsepower. The top-shelf twin-turbo kit will increase the output to over of 1,200 horsepower for more than $75,000, says the Texas tuning company.
To make any of this possible, Hennessey Performance will have to figure out major obstacles: the Corvette's E99 engine control unit (ECU) paired with GM's Global B electrical architecture. In short, tuning companies are unlikely to have the same kind of success with the E99 ECU as they did before with the C7 Corvette ZR1 due to the cyber security of Global B.
Should the tuning company be unable to breach the defenses of Global B, it will likely have to receive official support from GM itself.
"We also hear that GM may offer its own tuning program and we would be happy to use their software as well," a Hennessey company representative told Hagerty. "No one knows when C8 tuning software will become available but we are hopeful that this will be available sometime before the end of 2020. In the meantime, we expect to receive our first C8 in March or April and we will be busy mocking up our first supercharger and twin-turbo systems while we await tuning software."
Hennessey added that it shouldn't encounter any difficulties tuning the Corvette's LT2 engine as its analysis shows it's nearly identical to the LT1 apart from the dry-sump oiling system and the tubular exhaust manifolds. The tuner explained how it's tuned over 500 examples of the LT-series engines over the years, which should make it easy to modify the LT2, from a hardware perspective.
To achieve 1,200 horsepower with the Corvette's stock fuel system, Hennessey's twin-turbo tuning kit will use E85 ethanol. Hennessey hasn't got its hands on a C8 Corvette yet, but the tuner is already planning to modify its Tremec dual-clutch eight-speed transmission and will work with a vender that upgrades transmissions for the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8, and Lamborghini Huracan.
"Most likely we will have to upgrade clutches and maybe other DCT internal parts," the Hennessey representative added. "Depends on how the customer is going to drive the car. On the street with street tires is less strenuous, but for customers who want to run down a sticky drag strip with sticky tires-that may require more upgrade work in the transmission."