- John Hennessey says that his team is planning to heavily tune the new Corvette ZR-1.
- If he gets his way, the final version will make some 1,200 horsepower (894 kW).
- He also praised the engineers at Chevrolet for the work they do.
The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is unquestionably one of the most lauded American cars this year. That’s true even though it’s not available for sale yet. What’s perhaps even more interesting is that tuners like Hennessey are already thinking of the additional power that they can extract from its twin-turbo V8.
The stock engine in the ZR1 makes 1,064 horsepower (793 kW) and is capable of reaching 215 miles per hour (346 km/h). That’s bonafide hypercar territory. It is, however, not enough in the eyes of John Hennessey who has made a career out of making fast cars even faster.
More: The Corvette ZR1 And Ford Mustang GTD Define American Performance, But Who Did It Better?
He recently praised the Corvette team while speaking with CarBuzz. “That kind of performance for 200 grand? God bless America. God bless General Motors and the Corvette guys,” he says. The Venom F5 creator also talked about what he plans to do when he gets his hands on a ZR1.
“We’re going to modify the ZR1 to probably 1,200 horsepower. We’ll put that news out there in the next, I don’t know, some in the near future, but we’re absolutely going to modify the ZR1 and it’s going to be an amazing car.” So what is already a very fast car is going to be even more extreme after Hennessey works on it.
Interestingly, he also commented on the tagline Chevrolet is using concerning its ZR1, “the most powerful V8 ever produced in America from an auto manufacturer.” The Venom F5 makes a whopping 1,817 horsepower (1,354 kW), but Hennessey recognizes a major difference between the two.
“We build 12 cars a year, when ZR1 goes into production, they’ll build hundreds if not thousands,” states Hennessey. “So, I think it’s fair for them to say that they have the most powerful American-built engine that is in high volume. We’re small volume. So I think that would be, that would be the delineation.” We can’t wait to see if Hennessey actually beats its early horsepower estimate.