It’s been noted throughout the years that Corvette engines, stock, can take quite a bit of power. However, if you really get down to the nuts and bolts, and properly build up a racing engine from an LS or LT block, the power that you can get is astronomical.
Take, for example, a Corvette C7 that was built up to be a full-on drag racer in 2017. Owned by Andrew Alepa, this twin-turbo monster pushes out over 4,000 HP when running on race fuel.
And the fact that we mentioned the word “astronomical” was not just to prove a point. It seems that Mr. Alepa’s Corvette attempted to actually launch itself into orbit.
It should be noted that in the class that he was racing in, wheelie bars were not apparently required. As such, when all of that power and torque hit the rear wheels, they hooked up.
And when they hooked up, they hooked up hard. The front lifted as the C7 was passing through second gear, which on a drag Corvette is probably around 80 to 100 MPH.
Air got underneath, and that was all that was needed to send the Corvette nose up. It quite literally flew for about a hundred feet, then landed hard, and started to skid to a stop.
And, after all that, the parachute deployed.
We’ve seen some pretty high powered street Corvettes, but the drag racing world has an entirely different view on the word “power.” Mr. Alepa, as seen in the latter half of the video, escapes unscathed, thanks to stringent rules around roll cages, safety gear, and kill switches.
