2006 Chevrolet Corvette

Exterior and Interior

2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Except for a few additions on the Corvette Z06’s aesthetics, Hennessey opted to keep the design changes of the car to a minimum. Not to say that these guys aren’t capable of design modifications, it’s just that they prefer to concentrate their time on the meat of the car: the engine. Certainly, you won’t find any complaints from any of us.

Of the few aesthetic enhancements on the American sports car, customers will receive Hennessey’s own premium floormats, a serial-numbered dash with matching engine plaques, and exterior badging that features tags like "Hennessey" and "HPE1000" added on certain parts of the car.

Performance

Packing an insane 1,000 horsepower courtesy of its twin-turbo LSX upgrade, Hennessey has done the Corvette Z06 proud once again. On its own, the 2011 Corvette Z06 already boasts of a 7.0-liter V8 engine that packs an impressive 505 horsepower and 470 lb/ft of torque with a 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 198 mph.

Those figures are already insane by all accounts, but thanks to Hennessey’s massive twin-turbo LSX engine upgrade, the 1,000 ponies the engine produces takes the Corvette Z06 to a whole new atmosphere.

There are plenty of factors, parts, and elements that can be attributed to this massive performance upgraded featuring a full breadth of the overall package of the Twin-Turbo LSX upgrade. Among the items that were added to give the engine more bite include forged aluminum pistons, forged steel connecting rods, a Callies 4340 forged steel crank, a Hennessey HPE1000 camshaft, and high-flow cylinder heads, twin-ball bearing turbochargers, upgraded fuel injectors, and an electronic boost controller. Proper cooling and control was achieved courtesy of high-flow K&N air filters, a stainless steel exhaust, an air-to-air intercooler, and an LSX intake manifold. Likewise, Hennessey also outfitted the car with its own HPE engine management calibration to be able to carefully control the changes made on the car’s engine.

Pricing

2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Should you be interested in purchasing the most powerful Hennessey upgrade for the Corvette Z06, pricing for the whole program is available upon request. The 2011 Corvette Z06 retails for $74,305, but once you factor in the engine upgrade on the sports car, prepare to reach for your wallets. We’re guessing it’s going to cost in excess of around $140,000. Heck, that just might even be a baseline figure.

Competition

Somehow, all of Hennessey’s cars turn up competing against one another here in our pages. It’s not that we can’t find another tuner that can rival what these American bad boys are capable of; it’s just that these guys have turned 1,000-horsepower upgrades into an art form all by themselves.

For this instance, the new Z06 upgrade can find competition in another one of the tuning company’s latest offerings, the Cadillac CTS-V Twin-Turbo V1000.

Based on everything we’ve seen from the two upgrades, the work on the Caddy seems to have been more elaborate compared to the Corvette Z06 - the former comes with a bodykit too! - so that’s a big plus for the CTS-V. In terms of performance, both American sports cars have been given their own versions of the most powerful upgrade available to Hennessey so you can call that a wash.

Price tag for both will be given when asked, but from the looks of things, you’re going pay a premium price tag for both cars.

So really, it all boils down to a matter of preference between the Corvette and the CTS-V. Old school proponents might pick the former over the latter for its deep-seated American sports car roots, but that’s not to say that the latter won’t attract its fair share of fans, too.