Edmunds: Hennessey HPE550 Camaro Smacks Down the Dyno

[Scotsman]

What's that? You're a power addict and the 426 horsepower with which Chevrolet endowed the 2010 Camaro SS is weaksauce?

Here's your fix. The orange 2010 Camaro SS you see above has been given the full Texas-style treatment, and I'm not talking about barbeque. Hennessey Performance Engineering, headquartered in Sealy, Texas, coerces more power out of more than just Mopars and Mitsubishis these days, and he's turned his attention to Chevy's latest pony car.

It's called the Hennessey HPE550. The centerpiece of the conversion is the breathing enhancement delivered by a Magnuson Roots-style blower and liquid-to-air intercooler. Supplementing the 6 psi generated by the supercharger is a cold-air intake and free-flow exhaust. Owner John Hennessey tells us that the package swells peak power to 562 hp as measured at the flywheel.

Aftermarket horsepower claims are notoriously optimistic, so we did the obvious thing and strapped it to MD Automotive's Dynojet in Westminster, California. The result was anything but weaksauce.

Click the jump for the dyno chart and video.

First, a caveat. Before we did any dyno runs, we noticed that the insides of our HPE550 test car's tailpipes were curiously free of the typical fine sooty layer that coats every car that runs on pump gas. Instead, they were fairly clean save for a light gray coating.

The rest is here....
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[MRK III Z28]

Nice! Thanks for posting this up

[THE EVIL TW1N]

Originally Posted by Scotsman

The rest is here....
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That was a waste. They don't even show any correction factor and can't even clearly verify which fuel they are running. The state ~98 octane. I know with the cobra's there is a good 15 rwhp difference between 93 octane compared to 91 because of the added 2* of timing or so.

[radz28]

Well - maybe seeing SLP's 500 RWHP is perhaps closer to the real output on 91. I'm not going to call BS because they did disclose splashing higher octane in there, but like you said, timing can be added for more power in that case. Still, even if we call it 500 at the tire, that's not too bad. And, if you have 93 or throw in some unleaded 100, then you can crank-up the timing/boost and get more power.

We didn't learn much from this, but those are some beautiful photos and we got a little more information about the car, IMHO

[Andro]

Noice!

[Scotsman]

I'm f'ng speechless...

Automotive lust in America means blown Camaros. You know, like the red '69s on every cover of Car Craft. A big BDS 10-71 supercharger sticking through the hood and massive M/T drag slicks under tubs in back. Let the rest of the world dream of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and dinky little British two-seaters. In this country speed doesn't look like that.

It looks like this.

This is the Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) "HPE550" supercharged 2010 Camaro SS. That's right, it's a blown Camaro. The first blown 2010 Chevy Camaro. And that makes it the very newest version of a true American icon. Ranks right up there with the Beach Boys, buckets of deep fried chicken and our incomprehensible Internal Revenue Code.

Be proud of it. We Americans invented the greatest car ever: The loud, tire-smoking, V8-powered, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive muscle machine. And we should celebrate the accomplishment just as John Hennessey is, by building more.

Rest here...
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...opanel..1.*#52

[Vash]

It's one heck of a build.

[PQ]

I thought it was a perfectly fair article. Little too pricey for an extra .3 or .4 secs in acceleration. I know that's considered alot but I will only track mine once or twice.

[phiz118]

Originally Posted by irpq11

I thought it was a perfectly fair article. Little too pricey for an extra .3 or .4 secs in acceleration. I know that's considered alot but I will only track mine once or twice.

i have to agree here, wow 19k for an extra 150 hp... Sounds a bit rich to me especially when others will get that for much less.

[Scotsman]

If I had more money than I knew what to do with........well you'd know where I'd be spending it. The car looks bad ass. Reality is though I could do all the same mods for much much less money and get somewhere near or at the same results. Kick ass car though and I'm thankful to Hennessey performance for giving all of us with the intent to mod our rides some inspiration.

[Unfair]

Ummm you can get that exact same setup or better for MUCH MUCH less in the "real world".

This is like jeans, they are all jeans, it's the name that makes it expensive.

[carguy]

Originally Posted by radz282003

Well - maybe seeing SLP's 500 RWHP is perhaps closer to the real output on 91. I'm not going to call BS because they did disclose splashing higher octane in there, but like you said, timing can be added for more power in that case. Still, even if we call it 500 at the tire, that's not too bad. And, if you have 93 or throw in some unleaded 100, then you can crank-up the timing/boost and get more power.

We didn't learn much from this, but those are some beautiful photos and we got a little more information about the car, IMHO

That is what the computer is for...Timing is retarded when there is pre gnition.

Several things effect if and when this takes place.

Using lower octane will only effect performance if the Knock sensor detects pre ignition and retards the timing to compansate. Obviously ...this won't happen with high enough octane fuel.

If they would have added more boost with the octane than the results could be clasified as tainted.

Ambiant Air temp, boost, elevation all come in to play. The computer will make adjustments to keep the motor from Detonating hence, Poking a hole in a piston or breaking a crank since the LS3 on has a cast bottom end.

At all cost you must stay away from pre ignition!

Otherwise.....Keep turning up the boost till she blows and put a forged bottom end in her.

[nards444]

looks nice and all but for the price you only get it up to 550. And I dont like hennesey plastered all over it

[aosborn]

I think I'm going to get the american racing exhaust for +36 HP and the hennessey air intake for +18 HP, but I'm waiting to see how the GM performance parts exhaust and air intake results come out to be. If they are good the GM warranty should still be valid on everything. +54 HP on those to additions seems pretty good to me.