The most powerful engine to ever be offered by General Motors has gone out of production, being quietly taken off the company’s parts page last week.

Originally built for the Chevrolet Corvette C7 ZR1, the LT5 was a 6.2-litre, pushrod V8 with a 2.65-litre supercharger, feeding 14psi of boost into the engine – which develops 563kW and 969Nm.

According to Motor Trend, the LT5 engine was fitted to less than fewer than 3000 ZR1s from the factory, although it was added to GM’s inventory of crate engines in 2018 with a price tag of US$19,000 (AU$26,300).

High production costs and a low sales volume are likely to be blamed for the LT5’s death, as it’s understood GM wouldn’t be fitting the engine into a ZR1 variant of its latest, mid-engined Corvette C8, instead boosting the flat-plane crank, DOHC V8 which is currently in development for the Z06 instead.

While the LT5 was the best GM could offer its customers off the shelf, it could never match Mopar’s “Hellephant” crate engine – a 7.0-litre supercharged mill which boasts 746kW/1288Nm.

GM and Ford are also moving towards offering electric motors from their respective parts departments, providing a future-proof alternative to internal combustion engines – which retain the ability to be bolted into classic vehicles with only minor modifications.