This is how you break-in a new toll road.
You know what they say, “Everything is bigger in Texas.” Heck, even how they open their toll roads upon completion is bigger than your average mass-transit grand opening. At the newly-completed Segment E of Texas State Highway 99 (aka the Grand Parkway) Hennessey Performance teamed up with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to break the 200-mph barrier with their HPE600-equipped C7 Corvette Stingray.
What better way to showcase how flat and smooth your new toll road is than by having a sports car complete a 200-mph run?
“The road is perfectly smooth and the Corvette was very stable and easy to drive at 200 mph,” said driver and company founder John Hennessey. “I’d put the Texas highway system up against any other highway in the world, including the German Autobahn. Our roads have proven to be smooth and safe at speeds well above 200 mph. Of course, under normal driving situations, drivers should observe speed limits that have been determined to be safe for travel on the road.”
While the stock Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is impressive in terms of speed and power right from the factory, it needed a little bit of help before it broke through the 200-mph mark. That’s where Hennessey Performance came in with their HPE600 upgrade for America’s sports car. The team equipped the 6.2-liter LT1 V-8 engine with long-tube headers, ported cylinder heads, high-flow catalytic converters, HPE camshafts, and an HPE tune to top it all off, resulting in an overall output of 603 bhp at 6,500 RPM. Add in a Nitrous-Express 100-hp nitrous oxide system and the 200-mph mark doesn’t seem so daunting.
With the stretch of road closed down by the TxDOT, the team was able to reach an incredible speed of 200.6 mph, verified by VBox GPS-based data system and Texas DPS State Trooper radar. This made the Hennessey Performance HPE600 Corvette Stingray the first Stingray to break the 200-mph mark. It also gave the TxDOT and their toll road engineers from TransCore a chance to test their toll tag RFID system.
In addition to bringing its HPE600 Corvette Stingray out to play in Texas, the Hennessey Performance team also brought along its HPE600 supercharged Chevrolet SS that reached an impressive 164.2 mph on the road.
httpvh://youtu.be/B-gzNi6MRwI
The newly-finished segment E of Texas State Highway 99 that connects Interstate 10 with Highway 290 will open to the public on Saturday, December 21st, just in time for holiday traveling.
The featured HPE600 upgrade package on the Corvette Stingray is currently available sans Nitrous Express. The team is currently working on a supercharged HPE700 upgrade with TVS2300 supercharger for $22,000.
HPE600 Corvette Stingray 200-mph Gallery
Source: Hennessey Performance
Will the Hennessey Performance HPE600 Corvette Stingray stop at 200 mph or will it go faster?
