Customer deliveries for the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray have begun, but if you're craving more performance, Hennessey Performance is already working on extracting more power from the mid-engine sports car's 6.2-liter V8. Officially, the C8 Corvette has a top speed of 194 mph, depending on the configuration. But it hasn't taken long for the Texas tuner to increase the C8 Corvette's top speed to a couple notches over the 200 mph barrier.

In an official video, Hennessey takes the C8 Corvette to the Continental Tire Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas, to attempt a new top speed record with the car. By installing a stainless-steel exhaust and a nitrous system that's rated for 135 horsepower, the C8 Corvette's output was temporarily increased from 490 horsepower to 650 hp.

In addition to the nitrous kit, the rear spoiler was also removed to reduce drag and increase the top speed. Then, former GM Performance Division director and 15-time SCCA National Champion John Heinricy (who will also be engineering the Hennessey Venom F5) got behind the wheel.

With his steady inputs, and 650 horsepower, the C8 Corvette achieved a recorded speed of 205.1 mph, as verified by a VBox GPS. That makes this the fastest C8 Corvette in the world right now.

"We designed a new stainless-steel exhaust system for the C8 that slightly increases power (20 hp), improves sound and is lighter by around 12 pounds," said company founder, John Hennessey.

"We've been doing some validation testing and thought that a run over 200-mph would be the ultimate test of performance and durability for our new exhaust system. We also installed a Nitrous Oxide system to bump power to around 650 HP. We are very pleased with the results and we will be releasing our C8 exhaust upgrade in the very near future".

In the future, Hennessey plans to build a 1,200-hp version of the C8 Corvette called the HPE1200 with an upgraded LT2 V8 engine, a bespoke twin-turbo system, a dual-clutch automatic transmission, and a Brembo brake system. A supercharger system upgrade and the aforementioned stainless steel exhaust system will also be offered. But they will have to figure out how to tune the engine first, which so far, doesn't appear to have happened.