Based in Houston, the guys and gals at Late Model Racecraft are specialized in performance upgrades for domestic cars, trucks, and SUVs. In the case of the C8 Corvette, the mid-engine sports car has already been treated to twin Precision turbos.
Customers who don’t want to go all out with the go-faster mods can opt for a complete exhaust system such as the cat-back upgrade like the one we’ll be talking about today. Including high-flow cats, this package promises 20 RWHP across the powerband.
This improvement is joined by 20 more pound-feet of torque at the rear wheels without any sort of upgrades to the intake or internals. Painted in Rapid Blue, the Stingray Z51 in the following video laid down 437 horsepower and 419 pound-feet of torque at the wheels completely stock. Following the exhaust install, LMR squeezed out 459 RWHP and 441 RWTQ even though the car is literally brand new.
Only 20 miles are shown on the odometer, which means that the ECU limits the engine’s torque by 25 to 30 percent in first and second gear. This limitation is enforced in the first 500 miles of the break-in period, which totals 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) according to the owner’s manual. As a brief refresher, the redline switches from 4,500 to 6,500 rpm after the first 500 miles or 805 kilometers.
Like every other tuner out there, Late Model Racecraft has yet to crack the engine control unit in order to unlock more performance from the small-block V8. Hennessey Performance Engineering has recently called out General Motors for the draconic encryption in the case of a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. According to HPE, “you’ll need to buy something else if you want to modify your new sport utility vehicle.”
In other words, General Motors declared war on a huge part of the aftermarket. The biggest of the Big Three in Detroit did this before with the L5P Duramax turbo diesel and the supercharged small-block V8 in the C7 Corvette ZR1. In these cases, HPTuners needed as many as two years to crack open the engine control unit.
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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