Watch 1,500-PS C8 ‘Vette rear up, then leave quarter-mile strip behind in 8.8 seconds

The owner of Late Model Racecraft (LMC), a car shop in Texas, has set a world record among C8 Chevrolet Corvettes by taking his extensively modified example to a top speed of 257.8 km/h (160.2 mph) on the drag strip. He crossed the finish line in 8 seconds 835 milliseconds.

According to the tuner, he is daily driving the car, which is designed to support switching between multiple performance presets. You could dial it down to 700 PS (690 hp / 515 kW) for the road and then revert to the supercar-eating 1,500 PS (1,479 hp / 1,103 kW) for the drag strip.

Modifying the drivetrain took months of hard work, thanks not in a small extent to the frustrating encrypted ECU Chevrolet chose to install on the C8. However, it was the dual-clutch transmission that gave the most grief: persuading it to switch gears rapidly and reliably under that kind of stress was an ordeal.

In the video, the mid-engined sports car kicks up its front wheels, but is able to regain traction quickly and proceeds to set a new record. What a sight!