John Hennessey is bringing some divine power to the 2019 SEMA Auto Show. The model is called the Hennessey Resurrection, but don’t confuse the perceived grace attached to its name. The Resurrection is a super-limited, take-no-prisoners, 1,200 horsepower Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that can lay waste to any ill-fated automotive soul that gets in its way. Hennessey only plans to build 24 units of the Resurrection with each model priced at around $200,000. That’s right. If you want to be showered by the grace of the Resurrection, you need to pay up some serious cash for the opportunity. This is why it's worth every penny.

2020 Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2020 Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro
  • Engine/Motor: V8
  • Horsepower: 1200 @ 6800
  • Torque: 1000 @ 4500
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array
Pros
Cons

<

Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro Exterior

- Carbon fiber hood with increased clearance - New front splitter - Aero fins integrated into the air intakes - Larger rear spoiler - Graphics package

ids=870517,870518

no_overlay=false

before_label=Hennessey Resurrection

after_label=Hennessey Exorcist>


It’s important to establish this fact because save for a few new pieces of equipment that have been added for performance’ sake, most of the Camaro ZL1’s body remains intact in the Resurrection. Hennessey followed a similar script with the 2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1 Exorcist back in 2017, and it looks like the tuner isn’t veering away from that blueprint.

One of the few exterior additions is the new carbon fiber hood. The massive scoop remains as it does in the Camaro ZL1, but this particular hood also comes with increased clearance to accommodate all the updates and modifications that took place underneath it. The Resurrection also comes with a more aggressive front lip spoiler and rather cool-looking flared aero fins that are integrated into the front air intakes. In the rear, there's a larger rear spoiler than the stock piece on the Camaro ZL1. With the Resurrection working with so much power under its hood, the larger rear spoiler is crucial in helping keep the muscle car’s large posterior firmly planted on the ground.

ids=870519,870520

no_overlay=false

before_label=Hennessey Resurrection

after_label=Hennessey Exorcist>


The rest of the exterior modifications come in the form of a graphics package that’s impossible to miss. With the muscle car sporting a pearly white paint finish, Hennessey added sleek-looking complementary graphics, including black strips running on opposite sides of the Resurrection’s body. The stripes get thicker when they reach the rear fender to account for the “Resurrection” name sitting just above the rear wheel arches.

Overall, Hennessey played it smart by not overdoing the exterior of the Resurrection. There are no useless colors that detract from the cleanliness of the body. Hennessey also kept the aero bits to a minimum, sticking to the important pieces that needed to be there to account for the whole Resurrection experience.

Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro Interior

- Serial-numbered dash and engine plaques - Mostly stock interior

About the only meaningful thing the tuner did to the interior of the Resurrection was to add a serial-numbered dash and engine plaque to denote the specific model number of each unit of the Resurrection. Given that Hennessey only plans to build 20 units of the 1,200-horsepower muscle car, these plaques should come in handy when it comes time to trace a specific model’s history and provenance. It’s a cool touch, but if that’s the only thing that Hennessey added to the interior of the Resurrection, it does leave us wanting, or at least asking, for more.

One thing that we would’ve liked to see from Hennessey was some initiative in improving the Camaro’s outward visibility. Granted, this is far easier said than done because any attempt at improving visibility would require significant changes to the body and aesthetics of the muscle car. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on our part to ask for something that Hennessey can’t solve, but let it still be said: nothing the tuner did to this Camaro ZL1 erased the fact that it’s a challenge to see out of the car from the interior.

While we’re lamenting all the things the Camaro ZL1 lacks, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that interior space beyond the space occupied by the driver and the passenger are cramped beyond belief. Again, if Hennessey worked on improving this deficit, it would have to make wholesale changes to the body of the Camaro ZL1. That wasn’t happening, so it’s best to concede that the Camaro ZL1 does not have much useful interior space to work with.

The good news is that if you can accept this shortcoming, the rest of the Resurrection’s interior should follow the Camaro ZL1’s understated and surprisingly loaded interior. The comfortable, power-adjustable front seats, for example, come with heating and ventilation. The steering wheel also gets the heated treatment while the rest of the cabin benefits from dual-zone automatic climate control.

The Hennessey Resurrection should also benefit from the Camaro ZL1’s loaded infotainment features. Chevy’s touchscreen infotainment system is among the easier-to-use units in the market, It has clear menus, large on-screen buttons, and it features all the latest app must-haves for you and yours. That includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, and a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot with 4G LTE capability. A few more standard goodies include a Bose sound system, a driver head-up display, and wireless phone charging.

Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro Drivetrain

- LT5 supercharged V-8 engine - High-flow air induction system - High-flow 112 mm CNC billet aluminum throttle body upgrade - CNC ported LT5 2.65L supercharger - Upgraded supercharger pullies & belt - Upgraded fuel system - Custom HPE camshaft - CNC ported LT5 cylinder heads - Upgraded valve springs and retainers - Upgraded intake valves and exhaust valves - Upgraded pushrods - High-flow intercooling system - Intercooler heat exchanger upgrade - Long-tube stainless steel headers - Stainless steel midpipes - High-flow catalytic converters - All necessary gaskets and fluids - Professional installation - HPE engine management calibration - 1,200 horsepower at 6,800 rpm - 1,000 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm - 0 to 60 MPH at 2.3 seconds - 220-plus-mph top speed

Hennessey’s work on the Camaro ZL1 that ultimately evolved into the Resurrection is nothing short of otherworldly. The whole thing begins with something you’d expect from Hennessey: an engine swap. Yes, if you thought the Camaro ZL1’s 650-horsepower LT4 V-8 engine would suffice for Hennessey, you’re sadly mistaken. And so, the ‘Vette ZR1’s LT5 V-8 unit takes center stage, bringing its 755-horsepower output to the dance floor.

But that’s just the start of it. Hennessey didn’t just do an engine swap for kicks; it brought in the LT5 V-8 unit and proceeded to upgrade this engine to meet its desired power and performance goals for the Resurrection. The key highlight is the addition of a 2.65-liter supercharger, which is nuts on its own. But Hennessey also upgraded the LT5 V-8 engine by adding a high-flow air induction system and an upgraded throttle body. The tuner also dove deep within the engine to make upgrades on critically important components. The ported cylinder heads and the custom cams are new while the valve springs, intake valves, and exhaust valves are all upgraded. The tuner also improved the fuel delivery system to make for a more efficient distribution of power across all bandwidths of the engine. Rounding out the extensive work on this area of the muscle car are the all-too-important software improvements that tie all the new and improved pieces together.

An extensive upgrade breeds high expectations, and Hennessey delivered on all fronts in that regard. All that power is channeled through either a six-speed manual transmission or a 10-speed automatic transmission before it’s distributed to the two rear wheels. For a little perspective, the car that the Resurrection effectively succeeds — the Exorcist — tops out at 1,000 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 966 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.

Notwithstanding the significant increase in output and the different rev ranges from which they play with, the Resurrection makes the Exorcist look like a less-than-stellar version of its own self. Anytime you can make a 1,000-horsepower muscle car feel that, you know you’re on to something.

The Resurrection’s performance numbers bear fruit, too. On top of that, the Resurrection peaks at a top speed of 220-plus-mph, which is at least three mph faster than the Exorcist and its 217-mph top speed.

If there was ever any question about what the Hennessey Resurrection is capable of, these performance figures are about as good of a response as you can get.

Naming the Beast

That statement comes from no less than John Hennessey, the founder and head mad scientist of the company that’s named after him. According to Hennessey, the company settled on the “Resurrection” name because it “seemed to be the perfect evolution of The Exorcist, which was a name that was ultimately inspired by the Dodge Demon.”

Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro Prices

The Hennessey Resurrection Camaro ZL1 is expected to cost around $200,000 when all is said and done. That includes the donor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 muscle car. Hennessey plans to build only 24 units of the model so if you’re interested in one, don’t think too much about buying one. Do that and you might miss out on the production allocation. Buy the car and worry about what to tell the wife later.

Hennessey Resurrection ZL1 1LE Camaro Competition

Dodge Challenger SRT Demon

When Hennessey unveiled the 1,000-horsepower Exorcist Camaro two years ago, it did so with the idea of competing against one car: the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. Hennessey even picked out a clever nickname for its masterpiece. The Exorcist was created specifically to snuff out the devilish Dodge muscle car. It was a bold move on Hennessey’s part to challenge a car that, at one point, was considered as the fastest and most powerful production car in the world.

That’s the kind of bar the Challenger SRT Demon set. It was powered by a 6.2-liter V-8 engine that came with a 2.7-liter supercharger.

Torque stood at a metal twisting 770 pound-feet, and when you combine those numbers with the muscle car weighing only 1,930 kilos (4,254 pounds), you had a machine that could hit 60 mph from a standstill position in just 2.3 seconds. Top speed was limited to just 168 mph, presumably for safety purposes, but the Demon lived up to its billing as one of the most demented production cars in the world. In addition to its 2.3-second, 0-to-60-mph time, the SRT Demon could also go from 0 to 30 mph in just one second and hit the quarter-mile in just 9.65 seconds at 140.09 mph. Yes, the Demon was better than a 10-second car.

All told, Dodge capped the production of the Challenger SRT Demon to just 3,300 units. It’s hard to come by a barely used SRT Demon these days, and it’s even harder to find one in the market. Remember, the last-production Challenger SRT Demon was auctioned off alongside the final-production Dodge Viper last year. Both cars combined to sell for $1 million at the Barrett-Jackson Northeast Auction in Connecticut.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon may have rested in peace, but rest assured, its legacy lives on to this day. Why else would Hennessey make such an effort building the Resurrection Camaro if it still didn’t think about the muscle car that inspired the automaker to build the Exorcist in 2017?

Read our full review on the 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon

Conclusion

When you’re talking about a company like Hennessey, there tends to be a level of expectation that’s set that very few automakers get to. The mere mention of “Hennessey” invites whispers of over-the-top tuning programs and custom-built creations that defy the laws of physics. Ok, so it’s not that exaggerated, but the point is clear: when Hennessey works on something, we all stand up and pay attention.

The Hennessey Resurrection is the latest example of this. It’s a headline-grabbing muscle car in so many ways. The name “Resurrection” calls your attention immediately. It has a proper history, too, as the successor to the Exorcist. But more than the built-in legacy and provenance, the Resurrection lives up to the standards that Hennessey is known for. How often will you find a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that’s powered by a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1-sourced LT5 V-8 engine that produces 1,200 horsepower and 1,000 pound-feet of torque that can sprint from 0 to 60 mph around the same time as an electrically enhanced Tesla Model S and hit a top speed like a bonafide supercar?

There aren’t that many cars that are capable of what the Hennessey Resurrection brings to the table. Actually, there probably isn’t one, to begin with. Give thanks to Hennessey for that.