Top Camaro has an engine so huge you can only drive it on the track

The muscle cars of today might look different than their ancestors, but the idea is still the same: shove a huge V8 engine under the hood and crank up the horsepower. Now, GM is revamping its famed Camaro for 2022 and offering it with the largest gas-powered V8 available in a passenger-sized car today. When customers want to buy a new car these days, some automakers let potential buyers simply configure their desired vehicle online and wait for it to be delivered. In the 1960s, however, customers had no option but to go into a dealership and place an order in-person. The dealer would then order the car with the manufacturer through a specific ordering process—for Chevrolet, this could be performed through the Central Office Production Order system. The process was meant for dealers to order very specific options for fleet cars. But before long, some dealerships figured out that they could use the process to order crazy performance-oriented versions of street cars by inputting part-specific codes into the vehicle configuration order sheet. In 1968, one Illinois dealer found out that they could order the compact Chevy Nova with a larger big block engine only meant for Chevrolet’s full-sized cars like the Impala. This was the same process used to order the powertrains for some of the famed. Within a few years, General Motors got wise to this process and shut it down. There would be no more built performance cars until Chevrolet officially unveiled its factory-built Camaro in 2011, using that famed term but definitely designing it to using the big block’s larger engine casting, Chevy was able to significantly increase the engine’s internal volume by widening the diameter of each cylinder (called the “bore”) and increasing the distance that the piston can travel (“stroke”). These two dimensions make up the displacement of a motor in cubic inches—a measurement of how much air can be pumped through an engine. The 9.4-liter V8, for example, has a bore of roughly 4.6 inches and a stroke of 4.4 inches, yielding a total volume of 572 cubic inches across its eight cylinders. The small block 5.7-liter V8 has a bore of 4 inches and a stroke of about 3.5 inches, or 350 cubic inches. Larger volume doesn’t necessarily mean more power out of the box. Displacement can generally translate into higher power outputs, but there are a number of other factors that influence an engine’s final horsepower. The 2022 Camaro’s flagship motor is its 5.7-liter small block. Thanks to a factory-fitted supercharger, this engine makes 600 horsepower. The 7.0-liter LS-based V8 is another option, though it offers a more modest 470 horsepower. And counterintuitively, at the bottom of the rankings sits the new 9.4-liter V8, which (despite its physical size) is rated at just 430 horsepower. The organization works to host drag racing events all over the U.S., all of which contain different classes that cars can compete in. These classes help to ensure that a race is fair for participants by imposing restrictions on power, weight, safety equipment, and modifications.