Chevy Performance reveals 1,004bhp V8 crate engine

This is the largest and most powerful crate engine Chevrolet Performance has ever built, prosaically labelled the ZZ632/1000. Chevy clearly left its Beginner’s Guide to Automotive Hubris book at home, because that badge reads like a new printer cartridge.

The only thing it’ll likely print, however, is a ginormous set of elevens anywhere it is installed, for it is leviathan. A veritable Goliath of a unit; a 10.3-litre V8 packing 1,004bhp and 876lb ft of torque, all available for you, the no-replacement-for-displacement racing enthusiast, to purchase.

The ZZ632/1000 is 632 cubic inches of V8 fury. It hits peak power at 6,600rpm (and peak torque at 5,600rpm), before maxing out at 7,000rpm. CNC-machined high-flow aluminium cylinder heads get symmetrical ports – they’re all the same length, size and layout. Ditto the exhaust ports. (As a nod to powertrain engineer Ron Sperry, the ‘Symmetrical Port’ cylinder heads are badged ‘RS-X'.)

It’s a cast iron block, with steel used for the crankshaft and connecting rods. Only those aforementioned ports and the pistons are from aloominum. Heavy metal indeed. Chevy is so confident of its longevity and strength, it says one single engine “endured more than 200 simulated drag strip passes on a dynamometer”.

That’s right, it’s not a crate engine you can pop in your Nineties Honda Civic (though what a mod that would be) and use on the road, but one ‘exclusively for racing competition separate from public streets or highways’.

“This is the biggest, baddest crate engine we’ve ever built,” explains GM’s director of the 'performance and racing propulsion' team. “It delivers incredible power, and it does it on pump gas.”

So, fantasy engine-swap time: what is the most ludicrous combination of this engine and car you can come up with? Answers in the space below.