With the 2020 Corvette now making its way to owners, we’re starting to get a better picture of the power being produced by its 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8. The latest car to hit a chassis dyno is this orange model acquired by Hennessey Performance, and the baseline run is quite impressive. Hennessey says the ‘Vette is factory stock, and on the company’s Dynojet it registered 466 horsepower (347 kilowatts) and 451 pound-feet (611 Newton-meters) of torque to the wheels.

We will skip the dramatics on this and get right to the point. This is a higher number than what we’d expect to see from an engine that Chevrolet rates at 495 crankshaft hp. It’s not the level of bonkers we saw last year with Motor Trend’s ill-fated 558-hp run, but if we apply an 11-percent driveline loss – a percentage believed to be more accurate for modern dual-clutch transaxles – to this figure, we come up with 524 hp. Interesting.

Take this with a grain of salt, however. There are numerous variables that can factor into the estimated power figure, not the least of which being the type of dyno used and the accuracy of the calculated driveline loss. We’re not dealing with an old-school manual or automatic gearbox utilizing a driveshaft, so its possible driveline loss with the eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle could be even less than 11 percent. The gear used for the dyno pull also makes a difference, as you want a ratio as close to 1:1 as possible to get an accurate assessment of power at the crankshaft. Hennessey made this pull in fourth gear, but we just don't know how close to the golden ratio that cog really is.

Gallery: C8 Corvette Dyno At Hennessey

We also must consider another C8 dyno pull we saw earlier in March from the folks at Carlyle Racing. That car was also reported to be stock, and the figure was much lower – 440 hp at the wheels to be exact. Factor in the 11 percent driveline loss and you arrive neatly at 495 hp to the crank, the official figure quoted by Chevrolet for cars with the Z51 package.

What’s the takeaway here? Chassis dyno figures aren’t gospel when it comes to determining specific engine power. We can glean general estimates with enough data, however, and with two reliable dyno sessions in the book, the data suggests the C8’s old pushrod V8 is at least making its advertised ponies, if not a few more besides.

Top comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
Comment!
Got a tip for us? Email: tips@motor1.com