BluePrint Engines has been in business for over 40 years, starting in the owner’s small four-car garage doing machine work for local racers and hot-rodders. It has since grown to a massive facility that specializes in crate engines for everything from pickups and classic cars to high-performance engines. In recent years they have even started designing and manufacturing their own engine blocks and heads. But now have taken their crate engine program further with the new BluePrint Engines LS ZF 8-speed engine and transmission packages.

Transmission technology and design have come a long way over the last few decades. Newer designs are more efficient, reducing drag, which helps more power get to the tires, and increase gas mileage. More gears helps performance as well, as having a transmission with eight gears allows for stout performance ratios for the first few gears and steep overdrive ratios for the last few gears. BluePrint decided it was time for the masses to enjoy the benefits of this modern technology with their new LS crate engine and transmission packages.

Showcased here at SEMA with a 585 horsepower 427 LS, but you can expect packages to offer up to 800 horsepower LS engines.

The LS engine featured at SEMA for the BluePrint LS ZF package was a 7.0-liter LS making 585 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque mated to the robust eight-speed automatic. There will be packages in the future that will feature lower-power, entry-level LS engines and even a supercharged version of the 427 LS you see here, making over 800 horsepower.

The ZF 8HP automatic transmission debuted in 2008 in the BMW 760Li sedan fitted with the 6.0-liter V12 making 536 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. It has since been widely used by manufacturers like Audi, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Maserati, as well as several Gen-III Hemi-powered production vehicles, including the supercharged 6.2L Hellcat.

The gear ratios are not official yet For the German-sourced 8-speed automatic, but you can expect them to be similar to the following: 4.71, 3.14, 2.10, 1.67, 1.29, 1.00, 0.84, 0.67

This eight-speed comes in various versions, from smaller units you can find in lower-powered pedestrian cars up to applications that need a robust and efficient automatic transmission that can handle up to 738 pound-feet of torque. Those who modify their ZF 8HP performance cars have already proven that this rating is a little conservative.

The German-made eight-speed features a controller mounted directly to the valve body, similar to the 6L80e GM transmissions, which will be preprogrammed to work with BluePrint’s engine controller for a simple plug-and-play installation for swaps into classic cars and trucks. The gear ratios have not been specified just yet, but you can expect the gear ratio spread to be similar to those found in higher horsepower factory applications like the Dodge Hellcats.

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