MERCURY Racing — the petrolhead arm of Mercury Marine — are well versed in making things go fast in the water. Now they’re turning their expertise to making cars go fast too, but interestingly it’s not the first time they’ve done it. Remember the quad-cam ZR-1 Corvette? Well, that engine was manufactured and assembled by Mercury Racing as well.

They have developed an LS7 with twin-cam heads that they will be offering as a crate motor as well as a kit. It’s pretty much a bolt-on kit, although there are some modifications required for the sump to get the oil to drain back and the intake is offered separately. It won’t be cheap, around $26,000USD, but they will also be offering a kit that you can retro-fit to your own LS3/6/7 for around $12,000USD. Once again, the manifold is separate but they figure most people will probably want to fabricate their own.

Naturally aspirated, the motor makes 800hp! That’s around a 300hp increase over the stock LS7. If that’s not enough, then they also offer the QC4, a 9.0-litre, DOHC, twin-turbo monster that puts out 1650hp on race gas, and a still stonking 1350hp on pump fuel.

Speedkore Performance Group are the first people crazy enough to stuff these engines into cars and they’ve chosen a couple of rippers. The blue Challenger isn’t quite finished yet but will have the naturally aspirated version, while the sinister black ’70 Charger has the twin-turbo monster.