It’s okay, lean in a little and check this thing out…
Back in November of last year, we like so many others were in awe when FuelTech’s C8 Corvette broke the quarter-mile record. It was the first C8 to dip below 9 seconds, polishing the run off at 8.973 seconds at 160.92 mph. While that might not sound like a phenomenal run to some racers, the fact is the mid-engine ‘Vette has proven to be incredibly difficult to tune, thanks in large part to GM providing zero support on the software side of things.
Watch our interview with a car detailer here.
This means tuning shops have to hack the Chevy sports car, then figure things out from there. And since this isn’t an evolution of the C7, they’re all starting from scratch instead of building off lessons from the past. It’s really not shocking that FuelTech has figured out how to do this better than anyone else, considering they’ve tweaked some mid-engine Ferraris for maximum hoonage.
Thanks to Top Gear American, we get a closer look at what’s currently the world’s fastest C8 Corvette. You get to see up close the twin Garrett G35-900 turbos sitting atop the LT2, which combined, along with a long list of other mods like nitrous and a fuel cell for running methanol, crank out 1,350-horsepower. Fat drag radials in the rear help put that power to the ground, as we saw in the record run when this thing just hooked up and was gone.
As an aside, Top Gear is a mere shadow of what it once was. Then there’s Top Gear American which is just a mess. The producers really need to find a Clarkson-type personality, someone who recognizes you have to break some eggs to make an omelet and isn’t scared of offending anyone. Instead, we get oatmeal served up with this presentation of FuelTech’s C8 Corvette. Still, it’s interesting to see the FuelTech C8 Corvette up close instead of it rocketing down the track, so watching the video is worth it.
