Magnuson’s Insane 1,150 HP Sixth-Gen Hits Hoonigan

Magnuson’s sixth-gen Camaro has been taking the internet by storm lately. It’s understandable since it has a new TVS2650 sticking out of the hood, produces over 1,000 horsepower, and howls like a banshee. Some of you have mentioned you don’t care for the sound, but we can’t get enough of it. The car made its drag racing debut at Red List last year and promptly broke its way into the 9s, earning our respect and admiration in the process. 

The Magnuson team says there’s plenty more in the car and they aren’t done running it up and down the track just yet. But in the meantime, they took the car over to the Hoonigan crew to let them get a closer look. Needless to say, they were more than impressed. While the Hoonigan guys are pretty knowledgable, their lack of intimacy with the General’s latest powerplant is apparent. So we’ll fill you in on the details.

Magnuson sixth-gen Camaro

The LT1 was pulled and taken back down to basics. The block was then sleeved and stuffed with a longer throw crank. This brought the engine’s overall displacement to 416 cubic inches—large enough to take advantage of all of that available boost from the massive 2,650cc blower. And speaking of the blower, the rotor pack used in the unit is borrowed from none other than the C7 ZR1 Corvette.

Needless to say, it’s more than capable of keeping up with even the highest demands. This is apparent on Magnuson’s beast of a Camaro. The team said they came up with the idea for the car when they realized the blower base that was destined for the Silverado would technically fit the Camaro with a little, we’ll say, massaging of the stock hood. But to make sure it was as eye catching as ear catching, they set the car up with a twin throttle body setup.

The coolest part about this particular arrangement is the operation of the throttle bodies in tandem. The first throttle body handles all partial-throttle cruising while the secondary throttle body stays shut. This ensures good drivability characteristics, vacuum, and as decent as can be expected fuel milage from something that can slow the rotation of the Earth when you stomp on the loud pedal. However, once the throttle pedal sends a signal above 75%, both throttle bodies snap wide open, giving the blower as much air as it can take.

Two “card style” mass air flow sensors are mounted in each trumpet and feed the throttle bodies. The signals are then combined and sent to the ECU—again, ensuring good drivability with killer power production. The cam specs are unknown but provide the Camaro with a nice chop without overdoing it. As the Magnuson team mentions in the video, the car made 1,153 horsepower on the dyno before being let off the chain.

And though it’s obviously very fast, the Camaro’s best feature isn’t its unadulterated speed, it’s the blower peaking out from underneath the hood. Due in large part to it missing air filters of any kind, the Camaro emits a shrill wail that could likely wake the dead. Regardless of its power production, we absolutely love the sound. In fact, not loving it seems somehow un-American to us. If you love it like we do: sit back, crank it up, and listen to this thing rip!

About the author

Chase Christensen

Chase Christensen hails from Salt Lake City, and grew up around high-performance GM vehicles. He took possession of his very first F-body— an ’86 Trans Am— at the age of 13 and has been wrenching ever since.
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