[1]
The C5 Corvette platform may represent the best bang-for-your-buck bargain on the road these days. Today you can pick up a low-mileage example for under $20,000, and if you look hard enough (and don’t mind a worn-in ride) you can even find C5 Corvettes for under five figures. Pretty amazing when you consider that even the base ‘Vettes came with a 345 horsepower V8 that has one of the most prolific aftermarkets the automotive world has ever seen.
So how do you make a bargain muscle machine even better? Slap on a huge turbocharger and dial up the power, as Abel Racing [2] did with this 1,078 horsepower Corvette we found on the YouTube [3].
We’d be lying if we said 1,000 horsepower Corvettes are a rare beast these days, but considering that the C5 has been out of production for the better part of a decade, many people have simply “moved on” to more modern offerings. Of course that doesn’t diminish the performance potential of the C5 Corvette, which has since been tuned and tweaked to near perfection. This example, built by Abel Racing in Oklahoma City, has been fitted with a massive 91mm turbocharger, which is an upgrade from the 74mm turbo they used to use.
With the 74mm turbo, this boosted Corvette made 894 horsepower to the wheels. Using the 91mm turbo at 23 pounds of boost and running on E85 ethanol (which has a higher octane rating) this same car managed to make a whooping 1,078 horsepower at the wheels. And there is something still very visually appealing about a blue C5 Corvette. It even looks fast, and with that lonely-but-massive turbocharger, it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Sound off if you want us to show the C5 Corvette some more love!