There’s something to be said for a Chevrolet Corvette that’s considered the fastest and most powerful of its kind that has ever been created. That’s the distinction the new Corvette ZR1 comes with. It has 755 horsepower and 715 pound-feet of torque at its disposal, allowing it to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds. Those are impressive numbers, but not quite good enough for a company like Hennessey. The American tuning shop that’s responsible for some of the most extreme tuning programs in the business has developed not one, not two, but three programs for the Corvette ZR1, topping out with the HPE1200 kit. Care to venture a guess what the “1200” in that kit’s name means?

We’re saving our full review of these programs for a later day. For now, it’s all about giving all of you a preview of what’s to come. See, Hennessey has a long history of tuning kits that bring power levels up to four figures. It has done so for cars like the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, Chevrolet Camaro, and of course, past versions of the Corvette. All received massive tuning upgrades, and all of them showed results that were borderline inhuman.

This is what we can expect out of these programs for the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The first stage kit only gets the power level up to 850 horsepower, but even with that many horses, the ZR1 can already lay waste to some of the finest exotics in the land today. Now imagine if 1,000 ponies are coming out of the Vette’s 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine. Your guts will be coming up to your throat when you’re blasting off at speeds in excess of 220 mph.

It paints a pretty morbid picture, but still, that’s nothing compared to getting the top-of-the-line program. That’s the HPE1200 tuning program, and yes, that “1200” means that Hennessey was able to tune the ZR1’s V-8 to produce a staggering 1,200 horsepower. That’s hypercar-level power, folks.

Hennessey hasn’t said how much each of the tuning programs will cost, but it did say that only a handful of examples of each upgrade will be made available. That’s probably for the best because I can’t imagine someone being able to enjoy the full potential of a 1,200-horsepower Corvette ZR1 without soiling his trousers.

References

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1

Read our full review of the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

Read our full review of the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Convertible.

Read more Chevrolet news.