Building a dream car can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Sometimes it's the car you wanted as a kid. Others want to recapture their youth by rebuilding their long-gone high school ride. Some just want what somebody else has. But it's those few who let their imagination run wild who often birth some of the most unique, stylish, and outright awesome machines. HP Performance Corvettes in Mundelein, Illinois, has answered the call from many a Corvette enthusiast who wanted their "dream car," but usually those dreams are limited by cost, materials, or a narrow vision of the final product. But when a certain unnamed client approached HP Performance about his third dream car, HP asked, "How do you want it?" His only reply while whipping out his checkbook was, "Extreme."
The client's previous builds were C5s, having topped each previous vehicle in styling, customization, and performance. So when an '05 C6 convertible was opined for this latest project, HP Performance had quite a bit to start with. The silver drop-top was stripped down to the bare nuts and bolts. The chassis rolled on the factory Z51 performance suspension package with six- and four-piston calipers, front and back, on 14-inch rotors, respectively. The Kentucky-installed 3.42 posi-traction gears needed nothing, and so remained untouched. One-off HRE custom built and chromed 19x10 and 20x12 cement-roller-size rims were wrapped in P275/30ZR19s and P345/25ZR20s, fore and aft. For the power the HP crew intended the C6 to swallow, they figured the more tire on the asphalt, the better.
Screwed: The LS2, though...
Screwed: The LS2, though receiving a Comp Cams roller camshaft and new springs, is relatively stock. This made for an ideal platform for a Magnuson supercharger. Only a program edit was needed to get this plant to punch out some serious horsepower numbers.
The body was massaged and reshaped to give the Corvette some distinctive features, such as chromed C6 roadster bars, a custom aluminum-mesh grille and side cove screens, LS2 Supercharger badges advertising the powertrain being built simultaneously, frame and body under guards, and a XM antenna relocated to the inside of the trunk wall. Measured and marked, the flip-forward hood was opened up to expose the Magnuson roots blower to the outside. HP then sent the roller to Performance Restorations where the quarters would be spread 2 1/2-inches each to house the large rear meats. In the paint booth, the once silver convertible would emerge in custom Cosmic Purple with purple pearl scallops. The glistening purple set the car off from anything HP had done before.
Inside the doors, the interior was wholly customized to match the exterior. Caravaggio Corvettes located in Concord, Ontario, Canada, recovered nearly every surface. Purple stitching was added to the black Italian leather seats. The headrests received a subtle modification-the embossing of the Corvette logo. Purple stitching also found itself on the custom wrapped steering wheel that now featured a built-in thumb rest. All the body-colored surfaces that came from Bowling Green in silver were now matched to the external purple, as were all the boots, grips, and the console pad.
The LS2 would get the same level of attention, receiving a new Comp Cams roller bumpstick at .589-degrees of lift, while the aluminum heads would get matching high-compression springs to handle the jump in lobe lift. A supercharger kit from Magnuson would "put the screws" to the otherwise stock small-block with a LS2 edit programmer, Melrose long-tube headers with Jet Hot coating and flowing into Random Technology catalytic converters. B&B's Bullet mufflers and 3-inch tubes complete the system. between the pipes, the factory six-speed gearbox was rebuilt by HP Performance and topped with a Hurst shifter.
Once reassembled, the crew wanted to put their product to the test and ate up an 11.20 quarter-mile time at 133 mph. it's obvious that with better driving and possibly some resolved traction issues (read drag slicks and shocks), the blown Vette will happily click off mid-10-second quarters.
At the '06 Chicago Chevy Vette Fest, HP Performance offloaded the wickedly purple convertible and presented it to its rightful owner. Elated, he exclaimed, "I simply love it! I wanted to see what HP Performance Corvettes was made of, and now I know." But he held onto the keys for just a short while (but long enough to rack up 840-plus miles on the odometer), and then graciously handed the custom Corvette back to HP for some promotion photography and show touring.