If you know anything at all about Corvettes, you probably understand just how much of a monster the ZR1 is. With things like selective magnetic ride-control and a 2.3-liter supercharger, the car was engineered to outperform – and that’s exactly what it does.
The heart of the beast is, of course, the LS-family’s crown jewel – the hand-assembled, 6.2-liter LS9 powerplant, boasting 376 cubic-inches that churn out 638 horsepower. And thanks to the boost-friendly 9.1:1 compression ratio and the high-spinning forged internals, it does so efficiently and reliably.
How then, does one improve upon such a glorious design? It already beats damn near everything on the road and the track, it already has forced induction, and it’s already comfortably seated at the top of almost every Corvette-lover’s wish-list – what’s left to do?Enter D3 Performance Engineering (D3PE), who has successfully (and drastically) upped the ante on the ZR1. Passed to D3PE from Malone Racing, this particular ‘Vette was already pushing its limits with engine upgrades and a full nitrous system. The NOS was ditched, however, and the car was instead gifted with compound boost.
The twin-charging was accomplished using the factory LS9 blower and a rear-mounted, 88mm billet snail from Precision Turbo. D3PE fabricated their own mounting system, centering the unit for the sake of weight distribution. Tial waste-gates and blow-off valves were used for both the supercharger and the turbo.
No additional intercooling was implemented either; the factory intercooler bricks, modified by D3PE, are still in charge of keeping things cool. The fuel injection was also upgraded to a level 4, E85-compliant system, along with the clutch being replaced by an RPS quad carbon unit.
D3PE finished off the build with their own ZR1 ProEFI tune to manage things like boost, back-pressure and fuel management, while maintaining traction and launch control. This build was completed in October of last year, and – running a hefty 34 pounds of boost – put down 1,425 horsepower and 1,198 lb-ft at the wheels.
In the four months since then, obviously some further work has been done: after nearly achieving lift off during the dyno run in the video, the twin-charged ZR1 maxed out at just shy of 1,500 horsepower and over 1,300 lb-ft of torque.
Emphasizing the fact that the Corvette is the ultimate driver’s car, the owner claims that the car still has great street manners despite the mind-boggling power output. The Corvette is one of the few cars that can more than double its ponies and still play nice.
However, this ZR1 seems to be approaching the line between highly-built supercar and destructively-fast drag machine; there’s talk of either ditching the 88mm turbo for a 94mm, or installing a new short-block and upping the turbo to a 106mm.
Either way, the twin-charged animal that is this Corvette will continue to snap plenty of necks at race events. It’s already visited a few events so far – like the Texas Invitational and Shift S3ctor – and has made quite a reputation for itself. It’s experienced a few minor problems here and there, but at this point most of the kinks have been worked out. We’re eager to see just how high D3PE and Malone Racing can get those numbers.