Extreme Turbo Systems (ETS) has been doing crazy things with the Chevrolet Corvette C8 powertrain lately. Their most recent attempt culminated in the car tearing through a 402-meter strip in 8.64 seconds, hitting 276 km/h (170.7 mph) at the finish line.
The tuner was the world’s first to dial up the output of the mid-engined ‘Vette to 1,014 PS (1,000 hp / 746 kW). This necessitated massively upgraded turbos, a nitrous oxide injection system, Mahle Motorsport pistons, Carillo connecting rods and a host of other high-end components. The car can switch between running on pump gas and C85, which is advertised as a mildly improved E85 fuel mix.
Engine control overrides played a major role in setting the new record. According to ETS, the car makes sure to supply exactly 17 psi of boost pressure at the first gear, then bumps it up to 26 psi going into second gear, keeps raising it only slightly for the next two gears, and then actually drops it a bit for the fifth gear in order to go easy on the clutch.
Another technical challenge with the C8 is that it still has an encrypted transmission control unit. Without access to it, ETS has to keep the engine revs under 6,500 RPM at all times, which can be challenging when you are after quarter-mile speed records. Still, as you can see for yourself in the video, they have succeeded massively in their endeavor, encryption or not.