C8 CORVETTE HORSEPOWER WORLD RECORD NEWLY SET BY FUELTECH

The Chevy C8 Corvette has an encrypted engine control unit which may put a roadblock in some people’s plans to modify their Corvette, but for others, it’s just a challenge worth facing, and Fueltech managed to overcome the obstacle, and this time they cranked the horsepower up to 1,350 by using a secondary system.

The FuelTech C8 Corvette factory ECU remains un-tuned, but nevertheless features two Garrett G35-900 turbochargers with a dual fuel system installed to bypass Chevy’s encryption, thanks to a parallel-running FT600 ECU. FuelTech mounted this ECU in the Corvette cupholders, because who needs drinks when you’re surpassing 1,300 horsepower? The secondary fuel system is activated when the intake manifold sees positive pressure, and uses methanol fuel to cool the turbo air. In fact, this build doesn’t even have an intercooler as a result.

FuelTech C8 Corvette Modifications, Continued

FuelTech has also added Nitrous Outlets to give the engine extra air so that they can cool the non-inter-cooled turbocharger. However, FuelTech does state that they didn’t use the nitrous when they broke the record on the dyno. Instead, they built a wiring harness that was designed to allow a second FT600 control system to govern the functions of the transmission. The purpose was to “prevent the factory PCM from triggering the OEM torque reduction table.” They also made improvements to the gear shifting so that it could handle the additional power.

The 1,350 horsepower Corvette will be seen again as FuelTech has made plans to take their modified C8 to the track for further testing. The previous record-holder was Emelia Hartford, who leapfrogged FuelTech’s previous record when she dyno’d her Corvette at 1,201 horses. Extreme Turbo Systems holds the world’s fastest C8 Corvette record after running 9.05 seconds at 159 MPH. That record may also be overtaken if the conditions are favorable for FuelTech during their day on the track.

It should be mentioned that all of these record setting, bespoke C8 Corvette record-setting builds are one-off products, and are sometimes broken. Which explains why you don’t see such upgrades from, say, Callaway Cars.