Dyno Test: Hennessey HPE700 LS9-Powered Chevy Camaro

[DainBramaged]

Forget Ford's "Mod" motor. GM does modularity darn near like Legos. The pushrod V8 engines found in the company's trucks all the way up to and including the mighty Corvette ZR1 are fundamentally based on the same architecture. You can imagine, then, that engine swaps across chasses in the General's portfolio are a tantalizing prospect.

It is this swappability that has us warming up an LS9-powered Camaro on the Dynojet rollers at MD Automotive in Westminster, CA. It's the 2010 HPE700 LS9 Camaro. It's built by Hennessey Performance Engineering. And it's completely badass.

Just how badass? Jump with me. But first,

See, the Camaro's stock 426-hp LS3 can be replaced with the rip-snorting LS9 from the Corvette ZR1 in a fairly straightforward manner (easy for us to say). It bolts right up to the Camaro's transmission and engine mounts and you don't have to "tune up" the firewall to get it to fit, either. GM's sorted out the hard stuff already.

This has allowed Hennessey to focus on other things. Like making more power. A smaller blower pulley, a more capable intercooler circuit and a massaged calibration has endowed the HPE700 with more more sauce than the meek 638-hp rating given to the LS9 in the ZR1. The HPE700 moniker, we were told, is a nod to its power output as measured at the flywheel. It's a claim we just had to test.





http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2009/11/dyno-test-hennessey-hpe700-ls9-powered-chevy-camaro.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. I wouldn't let Hennessey work on my lawn mower

his reputation for quality and service is one of the worst in the tuner industry (go check his background on the Viper forums)...He is of course great at making the one-offs for magazine shoots, test drives and dyno pulls, but for real customer cars, the blank check is better spent elsewhere...

You don't exactly have to be a NASA engineer to make insane power out of the GM LS-series engines, anyway...

[DainBramaged]

2. Point was the simplicity of dropping the LS9 in, no endorsement of Hennessey

[Blue_Tires]

3. no doubt it would fit without too much hassle

but the hand-made LS9 doesn't exactly grow on trees :)

[flvegan]

4. Nice, but I'd ship my Camaro to Lingenfelter before Hennessey.

They crammed a near 800 horsepower LS7 into a 2010 Camaro. That's a car, that with a very good driver, will get thrown off the track (from the showroom mind you) for not having a full cage and a window net, per NHRA rules after her first run.

Amazing what they're doing with GMs these days.

[Mopar151]

5. Since John died, I've heard similar rumors

About LPE (Lingenfelter).

There are better ways to get performance than blowing money on new cars and (very) high-buck engines, then spending $100+ an hour for "tuners".
Personally, I'd look at a World Products 434" SBC (also available with LS heads)(a 600" aluminium BBC would tempt me if it'd fit) in a salvaged 5 or 7 series Bimmer.I know a wizard fabricator who can put a cage in it that you can hardly see - most is behind the headliner! Kirkey roadrace seats (in sizes, or made to measure!), and as close as I can get to magnesium Hailbrand wheels.