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How Engineers Developed The Most Potent, Robust Supercharged V-8 Yet — The 760-Horsepower 5.2-Liter Predator.
Alone in a dyno cell the Predator is in hibernation. Its core temperature reached zero degrees Fahrenheit. It hungrily awaits its next hunt for horsepower. Suddenly it snarls to life and revs freely to its peak output. Once the 5.2-liter V-8 reaches operating temperature, the engine stops firing and rests until it is chilled again. It endures enumerable deep-thermal tests as well as many high-speed cyclic dyno tests, which run the engine at speed for long durations. All this testing is designed to represent the full life cycle of an engine in the field, and the supercharged 5.2 passed with flying colors, which allowed engineers to finally sign off on those official numbers that you are probably sick of hearing by now — 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque.
Described as the most "power- and torque-dense supercharged production V-8 engine in the world," the engine, which carries the off-books codename, Predator, underwent a development evolution that led right up until the last moment before the final numbers were realized. In previous model years, the company has announced numbers and augmented them as the program approached to production. This time the engineers held out, and these are the absolute final, SAE-certified numbers.
