Twin-Turbo C8 Corvette Breaks 1,000 Horsepower Mark With Standalone ECU

After a blown piston and track fire, this freshly rebuilt twin-turbo C8 Corvette hits the dyno and breaks some records.

Those following along with the journey of YouTuber Emelia Hartford and her twin-turbo C8 Corvette are likely well aware of the struggles she’s gone through in her quest to make big power. Shortly after installing a pair of Precision huffers on her car, Hartford promptly cracked a piston, which led to a rebuild for the car’s 6.2-liter LT2 V8. Then, a turbo oil line leaked on the exhaust and led to a fire on the track. But now, the car has been totally rebuilt with a slew of new parts and just hit the dyno.

Most recently, in addition to a standalone ECU, Hartford and her team fitted the car with a Peitz Performance control unit, a custom fuel cell filled with methanol, a Holley Dominator electronic fuel injection system and intake manifold, Texas Speed valve springs, and a whole lot of heat wrap. Meanwhile, the dual-clutch transmission was treated to Dodson Motorsport clutches to help handle the extra power.

After the last video chronicled all of these parts being installed and the car starting up rather quickly and easily for the first time, this latest video shows Hartford taking her newly-fortified twin-turbo C8 Corvette out for a test drive. After that’s all over with, we’re finally ready to find out what the freshly built LT2 is capable of on the dyno.

On the first run, the twin-turbo C8 Corvette lays down an impressive 825 horsepower, then gets awful close to 900 before reaching 935. The car just keeps on giving more, with 984 on the next run before finally hitting an incredible 1,022 ponies – making this a record, at least for now. Needless to say, Hartford is more than a little excited with her freshly tuned toy but also isn’t quite satisfied, either.

“It sounds nuts – it feels nuts,” she says. “There’s still more tweaking that needs to be done. It feels fast, but I know there’s more in it. I would say today was hugely successful – I think we accomplished what we were trying to do, and now it’s just a few little minute things for street tuning.”

We’re confident this isn’t the end for Hartford’s quest to extract as much power as possible from her C8, however, so we’ll be keeping tabs on how the build progresses moving forward.

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