Twin-Turbo Corvette E-Ray Hits 613 HP With ZR1-Style Aero

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Thursday, 8 Oct 2026 03:00 0 9 autotech

A Louisiana-bought 2025 Corvette E-Ray Convertible just turned up on Bring a Trailer wearing ZR1 bodywork over a drivetrain combination Chevrolet has never built: a twin-turbocharged LT2 V8 paired with the E-Ray’s factory front electric motor. Late Model Racecraft in Katy, Texas, bolted on its Stage 1 Twin Turbo package in November 2025, and the dyno numbers back up the aero. Stock, this car put down 427 horsepower and 394 lb-ft at the rear wheels. After the turbo install, that jumped to 613 horsepower and 526 lb-ft, rear-wheel figures that put it in the same neighborhood as a factory Grand Sport X once you account for drivetrain loss.

That’s the hook here: nobody at GM has offered a turbocharged E-Ray. Chevy’s hybrid AWD Corvettes top out with the ZR1X and its factory twin-turbo LT7, while the E-Ray keeps its naturally aspirated LT2. LMR’s build fills the gap nobody asked Chevrolet to fill, and it does it in a car that looks like it rolled straight out of a ZR1 press photo.

The ZR1 Disguise Hides A Turbo V8 And A 160-HP Front Motor

The visual transformation is the first thing anyone notices. AGMotorsports supplied the carbon-fiber ZR1-style hood, the Carbon Flash high wing, and front-trunk trim, while Paragon Performance contributed a Z07-style front splitter. A Z06/Z07-style rear bumper and center-exit exhaust finish the look from behind. Park it next to an actual ZR1 and the only giveaway is the lack of a ZR1 badge, because underneath that bodywork sits the E-Ray’s mid-mounted 6.2-liter LT2, now fed by Comp Turbo bottom-mounted ball-bearing turbochargers and an air-to-water intercooler, with HP Tuners handling the calibration.

The V8 still routes through the stock eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle, and the E-Ray’s front-axle electric motor, rated at 160 horsepower and fed by a 1.1-kWh liquid-cooled battery, is untouched. That’s the part that makes this build different from the growing pile of twin-turbo Corvette projects showing up lately. The E-Ray’s hybrid AWD system wasn’t designed with forced induction in mind, and Chevy has never paired turbos with that front motor in a factory car. LMR did it anyway, and the dyno sheet suggests the combination holds together just fine at 613 rear-wheel horsepower.

Grand Sport X Numbers, ZR1 Looks, And A Factory Interior Underneath It All

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LMR’s builder is framing this as Grand Sport X territory, and the comparison isn’t unreasonable. Chevy’s factory Grand Sport X combines a

535-hp LS6 V8 with a 186-hp front motor for 721 horsepower combined, but that’s a crank figure against this car’s 613 rear-wheel number, so the gap closes once drivetrain loss gets factored in. This E-Ray isn’t going to out-drag a stock GSX, but it’s close enough that a quarter-mile side-by-side would be worth watching.

The rest of the car stayed mostly stock underneath the mods. It rides on black 20-inch front and 21-inch rear forged wheels wrapped in 275/30 front and 345/25 rear Michelin Pilot Sport All Season tires, and it kept its Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes with Z06-spec orange calipers. Inside, the factory 2LZ package and GT2 bucket seats with orange belts remain, along with a front-axle lift system with memory settings and Magnetic Selective Ride Control. A new leather-and-carbon-fiber steering wheel replaced the factory microfiber wheel back in March 2025, before the turbo work even started.

It Still Didn’t Sell

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Despite the aero, the turbo kit, and the Grand Sport X-adjacent numbers, this Hysteria Purple Metallic E-Ray failed to find a buyer at auction. The highest bid topped out at $122,000, short of whatever reserve the seller had in mind. That’s not necessarily a knock on the build. Modified cars are a tougher sell than stock examples in the Corvette market right now, where buyers chasing resale value tend to favor unmodified, warranty-eligible cars over one-off tuner projects, no matter how much power is on the dyno sheet.

For the Corvette tuning scene, though, the build itself is the story. It’s proof that the E-Ray’s hybrid AWD system can absorb a serious turbo upgrade without falling apart, and it opens the door for more shops to chase the combination Chevrolet still hasn’t offered from the factory.

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