From the factory, the mid-engine Corvette Stingray is rocking a small-block V8 with 490 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. Not bad for a pushrod engine, right? The NPP performance exhaust system, which is available as a standalone option or as an auto-include in the Z51 Performance Package, unlocks five more ponies and five more foot-pounds of torque.
Often described as a supercar, even though it’s not, the Corvette Stingray Z51 can definitely keep up with Italian exotics from zero to 60 miles per hour. 2.9 seconds is all it takes to reach that speed, and if you keep your foot on the gas, you may cover the quarter-mile in 11.2 seconds at 112 mph (180 kph).
There is, however, a huge market out there for performance upgrades. ProCharger is the latest player to join the C8 club, and as you can tell from the headline, you can expect 700-plus horsepower from nothing more than a bolt-on upgrade. “But why didn’t they tune the ECU as well?”
You have a point, dear reader. Switching from natural aspiration to forced induction requires different mapping for the engine control unit, but General Motors doesn’t allow that kind of stuff in the Corvette. Lest we forget, the ultra-encrypted ECU has been often described as unhackable.
Turning our attention back to the Procharged C8, the video at the end of this story doesn’t feature any shot of the engine compartment. The go-faster company doesn’t mention what model of centrifugal supercharger is using for this application, but I have a sneaking suspicion they used an extremely similar setup to the one found in the seventh-gen Corvette.
More to the point, we may be dealing with a P-1SC-1 running at 7 pounds per square inch of boost or thereabouts. For the previous generation of the American sports car, ProCharger is promising 180-plus HP.
The P-1SC-1 is a self-lubricating centrifugal supercharger that requires an oil change every 6,000 miles or so. The SC series also eliminates the need for oil lines and punching a hole in the oil pan. Oh, and by the way, the P-1SC-1 is covered by a three-year warranty for extra peace of mind.
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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