Corvette Stingray Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

Nine times out of ten, when a US tuning firm slaps a power adder onto a factory V8 engine, it's a belt-driven supercharger. Positive-displacement superchargers have the benefit of producing boost all throughout the RPM range, providing boatloads of torque from the moment you first step on the throttle.

But turbochargers carry a number of advantages. They operate more efficiently by not sapping energy through the crankshaft, instead leveraging energy from the car's exhaust system that would otherwise just be wasted. That's why we're thrilled to see the folks at Hennessey Performance Engineering deploying turbos - not belt-driven superchargers - to add power to the new 2020 Chevrolet Corvette.

A new video from Hennessey shows the rear-mid-engine sports car with a prototype twin-turbo setup blasting around a race track, which is pretty big considering the company hasn't properly tuned the car yet. Which also means it *isn't done yet*.

GM's latest engine control units are designed to be virtually unhackable, so until Hennessey receives some factory tuning support straight from GM, the tuning firm is making do with the stock engine calibration.

That the original factory tune can even accommodate moderate boost from a pair of turbos is rather remarkable. Even without a tune, Hennessey's twin-turbo 'Vette is putting out around 643 horsepower at the wheels with 5 psi of boost pressure. That alone would be enough to satisfy plenty a leadfoot.

But Hennessey is far from done, and the company is hoping to achieve up to 1,200 crank horsepower with its twin-turbo setup - an incredible figure equal to what Bugatti's multi-million-dollar Veyron Super Sport was spitting out back in the day. Of course, in the video, company founder John Hennessey is quick to point out that no one really knows how much grunt the C8's factory transmission can take before breaking like fine china.

With any luck, something else - like the half-shafts - will let loose first; we're guessing Tremec dual-clutch units don't come cheap.