Twin-Turbo C8 With Standalone ECU Aims for Huge Numbers
Twin-Turbo C8 With Standalone ECU Aims for Huge Numbers
After a ton of work and many failures, this infamous twin-turbo C8 is running again with a little help from Holley & Crawford Racing.
While we wait (im)patiently for someone to crack the C8 Corvette’s vault-like ECU, a small handful of people have or are working on installing standalone ECUs on Chevy’s mid-engine masterpiece. That includes YouTuber Emelia Hartford, who has been trying to extract serious power from her twin-turbo C8 for some time now. That journey has included plenty of failures, including blowing up the stock LT2, much to the chagrin of almost everyone.
Now, however, the twin-turbo C8 is running on a brand new built engine and it’s ready for more. Thus, Hartford is circumventing the factory ECU with something completely different. “We will be adding the first Holley Dominator on the C8 Corvette as a standalone ECU for additional fueling,” Hartford said. “This will allow us to help control timing, fueling, boost, and of course, giggle juice.” That’s nitrous, in case you’re not down with the lingo.
[Full disclosure: Holley is a sponsor of the Internet Brands Auto Group, CorvetteForum’s parent company.]
Hartford will also be using a Crawford Racing plug-and-play harness to tie it all together, along with 200 pound Holley injectors to feed the motor. This requires the use of a fuel cell, which the crew is making from a 5.5-gallon surge tank. New valve springs were also on the shopping list since Hartford plans on pumping a whopping 25 pounds of boost into the new engine.
The video continues as Hartford’s team is wrapping up all of these little modifications and doing myriad things like wrapping the headers. Once everything is buttoned up, all that’s left is wiring, though that’s reportedly a 6-7 hour job all by itself. Finally, everything is complete, and Harford gets to start her revamped twin-turbo C8 for the first time.
Amazingly enough, the car starts up without hesitation on the first try, and it sounds pretty wicked, too. “This is a huge win for us,” Hartford says. “We changed a ton of stuff and it’s running. We have a little bit to go before we can do a first drive, but overall, these 16 plus hour days have been 100% worth it.”
Despite her previous shenanigans, we’re certainly interested to see how Hartford’s unique C8 build turns out. Obviously, not a lot of people are willing to go to this extreme to modify their brand new Corvette, but we’re hopeful that this build will help bring about some breakthroughs and new bolt-on parts for the C8 in the near future.
