Banana Yellow C7 Corvette Leaves Nearly 1,000 Ponies on the Dyno
Fitted with a custom sleeved big block and a big intake manifold, the Corvette takes to the dyno with E85 in the tank.
How much power can one squeeze out of a given Corvette? No matter which generation you have in the garage, the platform has always been flexible regarding what all can be done with it. Some prefer to keep things easy to handle with their gains, others throw all caution to the wind with all sorts of superchargers, turbos, size increases, special heads, and so on, all to climb to the top of the mountain.
The yellow C7 Corvette in the care of Complete Street Performance in West Chester, Pennsylvania currently falls in the latter. In the shop’s latest video documenting the build, the ‘Vette’s power source is fully assembled and ready to hit the dyno to determine how much power it will make when testing is complete.
“So, this is the sound of that CSP go-to camshaft,” said shop owner Andrew Zurick, “except it’s at 550 rpms. We raise it up a little bit because it sounds kinda awesome, but it’s not very stable at 550 rpm. It can still idle there but still have a pretty good sound. I wouldn’t deliver it to a customer like that, though.”
Zurick then takes us through some of the other Camaros in the shop, like CSP’s ‘Freedom Rocket,’ whose rear shocks had to be replaced after a horrible time on the drag strip. Meanwhile, a fourth-gen customer car has issues breathing due to a malfunctioning idle air control valve, and the shop’s new ZL1 just had its new fuel cell and lines installed.
“Oh gosh! What’s that?” asks Zurick. “I don’t know if you guys have seen this lately, but this is the wife’s red lemon… The turbo system is M.I.A. at the moment, but we did spend some time fitting-up the new turbo, the replacement turbo, to it to see what is needed to get it all mounted, because it’s different.”
Zurick adds that the red C5 Corvette’s old turbo he sent to its maker was so old that the manufacturer told him — after he had sent it — that they didn’t work on that piece anymore, and wanted him to not only buy a new model, but pay to have the old one sent back. He laments having wasted some money sending a relic to the manufacturer, but has hope his wife’s car will become a 10-second terror “with some serious top end” once the turbo setup is all sorted.
After some work getting the custom big block put together, the yellow C7 in the shop’s care roars to life before being backed onto and tied down upon the dyno for the big runs to come.
“This has the LME billet intake manifold,” Zurick said. “[It] has the F194 and the LME 427 cubic inch sleeved block, which is really exciting. I’m excited to see what it makes. Thinking close to a thousand [horsepower] and a whole shitload of torque.”
Zurick was concerned about how much fuel the Corvette would have for its dyno runs, stating that pump gas was fine, but E85 would be difficult even with the fuel pump running “on the low side” of things. It seemed it didn’t matter, though, as the car climbed up in horsepower with nearly every adjustment, topping out at 978 horses and 810 lb-ft of torque on the final dyno run.
This Corvette is ready to destroy all on the highway, but it’s just another day for Zurick and the crew at Complete Street Performance.
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