HPE1200 Camaro ZL1 Lays Down 1145rwhp

The team at Hennessey Performance is on a roll lately, with their new HPE1000 package for the Dodge Challenger and Charger with the supercharged Hellcat Hemi getting a world of attention over the past week, but today, we bring you a high performance, Hennessey-tuned beast from the folks at General Motors. The video below shows a 5th generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the HPE1200 package, but unlike the HPE1000 Hellcat package – the 1,200hp from this Camaro is very near its power figures at the wheels.

HPE1200 Camaro
Unfortunately, the HPE1200 package for the 5th generation (2010-2015) Chevrolet Camaro isn’t listed on the company website, but the details in the video are all that we really need to drool over this Texas-tuned beast.

The Camaro ZL1 comes with a supercharged LSA V8 measuring 6.2 liters and putting out 580 horsepower at the transmission. The HPE1200 package replaces the supercharger with a pair of turbochargers and I expect that there is also a significant upgrade to the fuel system – if not some internal work as well.

In any case, the HPE1200 package for the Camaro ZL1 should – in theory - offer around 1,200 horsepower at the transmission based on the normal naming procedure for Hennessey’s high performance package. With a very conservative drivetrain loss figure of 18%, the HPE1200 Camaro should make around 985 rear wheel horsepower, but that is not the case – not by a longshot.

This particular HPE1200 Camaro has been filled with high octane racing fuel and tuned to handle that big octane. As a result, this Camaro makes a stunning 1,145 horsepower and 1,109lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels. If we use the same 18% drivetrain loss figure, this Camaro is making closer to 1,400 horsepower at the transmission, so it seems that Hennessey could have called this package the HPE1400 Camaro ZL1. Perhaps they stuck with HPE1200 since the 1,400 figure was achieved with a special tune for the race gas, but in the video comments, we see that the HPE1200 package with 93 octane made 940 rear wheel horsepower. That is still mighty impressive, especially considering that the HPE1000 package for the Hellcat Challenger and Charger “only” makes about a hundred more horsepower than that at the transmission.

In short, if you are a Camaro ZL1 owner with deep pockets and an overwhelming desire to have a car that will lay down better dyno numbers than almost anything on the road – the HPE1200 package could be the ideal answer.

For everyone else, the Hennessey HPE1200 Camaro ZL1 package makes for a great way to burn a minute of your day, listening to the sweet, sweet roar of the twin turbo LSA in action on the rollers.