To be exact, 54.5 seconds
Hennessey Performance has not wasted any time benchmarking its 2020 Chevy corvette. Yesterday the car produced 466 horsepower (347kilowatts). It was driven by Hennessey on his Dynojet chassis. We now have a top speed run where the new mid-engine Vette rockets from naughty to more than a buck eighty in just 54.5 seconds. This is not bad for the C8 base model.
This video shows the Corvette’s digital speedometer, along with a V8 soundtrack. It’s the same car that was featured in the company’s previous dyno video. The Z51 performance package is available for this bone stock car. Chevrolet states that the car can reach 60 mph in just 2.79 seconds and produces 495 horsepower (369 kilowatts). Chevrolet claims that the Z51 package includes aero components which limit the car’s top speed to 184 mph.
How does Hennessey’s speed run compare with official C8 stats. Although the dyno pulled suggested that the engine produces more horsepower than advertised, real-world performance does not support this. Hennessey runs a 0-60 time in 4.1 seconds which is well under Chevrolet’s claimed time. The quarter-mile is completed in 11.98 seconds at 112 mph and the half-mile takes 18.76 seconds at 135 mph. Although the speedometer shows an average speed of 181 miles per hour, the video indicates that it was GPS-verified to be at 182 mph.
There are many factors that can impact real-world performance. The car had significant wheel spin in the first gear. It’s possible that the 184-mph speed mark could have been achieved with more space. We don’t have an exterior view so we don’t know how much space there was or what the condition of the launch surface. It suffices to say that the Corvette is fast by any means, even though these numbers are slightly behind Chevy’s official figures.
What’s next for Hennessey’s C8? As part of the tuner’s quest for baseline performance, we suspect drag races will be held. It remains to be seen if Hennessey can crack the C8’s engine computer for power upgrade. Previous reports stated that the Corvette’s brain was untunable. However, the same could be said about the ZR1. That nut was eventually cracked.