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I recognize that 1,000 horsepower isn’t as rare as it once was. These days there are piles of giant custom trucks called the Super Ram Titan Juggernaught Apocalypse Super Duty with 46 wheels and 220,567 hp. I believe these custom jobs have turned us spoiled or maybe jaded, and I can prove it. This 1,000-hp Chevy Silverado built by the folks at Late Model Racecraft is completely terrifying, and it’s still pretty mild compared to other factory vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV – not that it matters to compare them; you’ll never get a Hummer EV

How do you make more power in your Chevy Silverado? 

There are plenty of ways to make a stock Chevy Silverado make a little more power. You can change the air intake, fuel injectors, add a turbo or supercharger, and so on. However, there aren’t nearly as many ways to make a custom Chevy Silverado model have 1,000 hp. This is a bit of a job. 

The crew built this very-blue Chevy Silverado in the only way you can to give it power like this; a 427 V8 from the folks at Texas Speed with a Whipple supercharger upgraded with a 10-rib belt setup. On top of all that hardware, the V8 also got a tune to make it run on 91-octane premium gasoline. According to GM Authority, there was also some other tuning work done to pull as much boost from the supercharger as possible. If that weren’t enough, the builders also added an Alkycontrol methanol kit keeping inlet temps lower. 

That covers the power mods, but you can’t throw this much power on a stock transmission unless you want a transmission pretzel. Despite how delicious that might sound, it isn’t all that much fun. The eight-speed automatic transmission has been built to withstand immense power, and it also got 4.10 gears in the back. 

The other thing you have to do if you are going to build a “monster” Silverado with 1,000 hp is make sure you can stop it once it goes 1,000,000 mph. Wildwood Brakes gave this Chevy Silverado a new set of stoppers.

Trucks like this make more sense now that new trucks are so expensive

The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 parked in the dirt
2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 | Chevrolet

Watching the 21-minute video might have you questioning why someone would spend this much time and money just to make a truck that has the same power but far less features than a stock GMC Hummer EV. However, given the price of pickup trucks today, building your own might be the way to go. Shoot, I doubt this Chevy Silverado build was anything close to resembling cheap, but at least the owner has a completely unique truck that he knows every part of intimately. 

The custom car and truck world has always leaned on this explanation for why they do what they do. It’s only now that the market is so inflated that the reasoning is actually fairly logical. 

We often forget how far-reaching the effects of this newly inflated car market are. When used cars are selling for more than MSRP for new cars, and new cars are selling for far more than that, it will inevitably have an effect on how we interact with and spend money on our vehicles.

It might be made well, but it’s still terrifying

The 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor driving down a hill in the sand is a powerful and expensive new pickup truck
2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R | Ford

Despite the extreme lengths taken to build this truck the right way, it still has 1,000 hp. That means it has over double the power of a Ford Raptor. Hell, that’s double the power of most Ferrari models. That is a terrifying idea. Whether or not a custom Chevy Silverado model like this build is a good idea we’ll leave up to you. But that kind of power and acceleration in a vehicle that sits this tall with a giant steel box on the back? Yikes.