Truth be told, it's impossible not to think of the risks that come with squeezing more ponies from a car's engine. Even professional jobs take their toll on the powerhouse's reliability and running smoothness, but Nelson Racing Engines made the impossible possible. With a twin-turbo V8 that purrs like a kitten to boot.
Starting from a Chevrolet Performance 427 cubic inch (7-liter) iron block LSX/LS3 V8, the company reworked the engine into a piece of mechanical art. Before we go into specifics, we'll highlight that this package churns out 1,004 horsepower on 91 octane pump gasoline, all of that using the factory ECU and sensors. Moreover, the cam and valvetrain specifications are quite mild for a 1,004-pony mill, but that's because Nelson Racing Engines wanted maximum brunt and maximum reliability as well.
Slated to get shoehorned into Bryce Blair's 2012 Chevrolet Camaro for the 2014 SEMA Show, the powerplant boasts with JE pistons, a Callies crank and Oliver rods, as well as trick Inconnel exhaust valves. The cylinder heads have been modified as well, together with the block itself. These were O-ringed and sealed with copper head gaskets for ultimate reliability. Then there's the turbochargers.
Two 72 mm turbos work simultaneously thanks to an Ozmo TTB controller and, get this, a General Motors E67 ECU and 90 mm GM drive-by-wire throttle bodies. Running 6.5 pounds of boost gave the engine 706 ponies at 5,800 rpm and 683 lb-ft of peak torque at 4,600 rpm, exceptionally good figures that aid with reliability. With 14 lbs of boost, the vee eight develops a steady 947 horsepower at 6k rpm and 904 lb-ft at only 4,400 revolutions.
But what strikes you the most is the X-Ram intake made from cast-aluminum. Not only does it look incredible, but it was specially developed to feed the right amount of cool air to the combustion chambers. In total, Nelson Racing Engines spent the last five years working on this mill.
If you want one, a similar package to the one you can admire in the video below costs upwards of $40,000, approximately the same money as a brand spanking new Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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