People will modify and race anything these days, even a full-size luxury SUV. Hey, when you have to get up to take your kids to school in the morning, but racing is life, a twin-turbo GMC Yukon Denali might be your cup of tea. In this video, we see just a build challenge the extremely capable 2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1, and we’re not sure which driver is more out of their mind for agreeing to this race.
So let’s talk about these two cars, starting with the oddball, the twin-turbo Denali. These come equipped with a heavy 6.2L engine that makes a measly 420-horsepower. With a handful of modifications, tuned port injection, Armageddon twin-turbo kit, and E85 fuel, this particular hunk of vehicle makes over 1,000-horsepower. This GMC Yukon Denali might have a lot of horsepower, but it’s also got a lot of weight, coming in around 5,400+ pounds.
Its contender, a 2017 Camaro ZL1, has a few modifications to bring it up to 700-horsepower to carry about 3,800 pounds of weight. Before these two go head-to-head, the ZL1, which is also the camera car at the beginning, seems to be getting beat up on pretty well by a mixture of other 700-horsepower range cars.
When it comes time for the 1,000-horsepower SUV to lineup against GM’s most capable Camaro, the ZL1 finally gets one, and it needed it badly. However, the ZL1’s win isn’t as impressive as the full-size Denali’s ability to hold its own. While the SUV didn’t pull on the Camaro, it also didn’t let the ZL1 get too far away. After the race with the SUV, the ZL1 gets the jump on an EVO before getting put in its place again by a C7Z, then it’s time to switch camera cars to a nasty little G8. Feel free to enjoy all the race footage, but the Denali was still the most surprising contender of the group.
Shawn Henry is a Texas native who has spent the majority of his career building and selling F-Bodies and Corvettes. Now studying journalism, he is taking a new direction with his love of GM Performance vehicles.
