Unless you’ve been living underground or some hidden mountain cave for the last three or four years, Dodge’s Hellcat Challenger/Charger and new, all-powerful Demon probably ring a bell. But years before the first of Dodge’s devilish duo began roasting America’s asphalt, Chevrolet’s C6 Corvette ZR1 was the king of horsepower.

Spawned in GMs skunkworks, the 2009 C6 ZR1 would be the most expensive GM product ever, costing $106,000 and with 638hp, the most powerful car ever built by the “General.”

The brainchild of then GM CEO Rick Wagoner, the pilot car for the new ZR1 was nick named “Blue Devil”. Though it would seem to be a reference to it’s evil intent or gorgeous Jet Stream Blue exterior paint, it wasn’t. Nor was it about the blue-colored engine cover and “Corvette”-stamped “dual brick” aluminum intercooler peaking through the polycarbonate hood window; no, it was supposedly chosen by Wagoner himself to commemorate his alma mater: Duke University.

The beating heart of Chevy’s ultimate machine was the 6.2L/376-cid all-aluminum LS9 SFI V8 topped with an Eaton R2300 positive-displacement Roots-type supercharger. Starting with the same cubes as a “regular” Corvette, the ZR1’s motor was a new animal, hand-assembled at GM’s Wixom Michigan Performance Build center, right next to the ZO6’s LS7 mill. The very fact that Chevrolet had another Corvette to rival the vaunted ZO6 was high praise to both incredible cars.

2009 LS9 6.2L V-8 SC (LS9) for Chevrolet Corvette. X09PT_8C009 (United States)

Building an engine that made 638 horses and 604 lb-ft of jockey-staining torque was definitely a deal with the devil…but it was worth it. Performance numbers for the new ZR1 were astounding, with 60mph reached in first gear in 3.3-seconds and the 1/4-mile eclipsed in 11.2 at a blazing 130 mph.

And that’s not the best of it. The ’09 ZR1 was a true supercar with a real top speed of 200.4 mph. According to then Corvette chief Engineer Tadge Juecter, without the electronic limiter set to 210 mph and with an increase of boost beyond the stock 10.5 psi, speeds in excess of 215 mph is more than possible.

At the beginning of its reign, the ZR1’s competition, like the Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 or its aforementioned sibling the ZO6, could muster only 500 and 505 hp, and Dodge’s sinister serpent – the Viper – with two more cylinders, still fell shy of the king of Vettes, putting down 600 naturally aspirated horsepower. Not until the final year of C6 ZR1 production in 2013, did the Viper gain 2-ponies on the ZR1, at 640 hp. The ZR1 could even out-gallop Italy’s pricey prancing horses of the day, like the Ferrari 430 and 458.

Even against today’s malevolent Mopar muscle, like the Hellcats, with their satanically-seduced- supercharged eight cylinder motors making 707 hp, the ’09-’13 C6 ZR1s still come-out on top in the stats.

As for the 840-horse Dodge Demon, the mean Mopar definitely has the edge on power out of the box, but with tuned C6 ZR1s in the 1,000 hp range, anything is possible.

The actual Blue Devil pilot ZR1 was almost reclaimed by the prince of darkness, when it was sucked into the sinkhole that cursed the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Thankfully, the ZR1 was pulled from the chasm and fully restored, blessed with a new lease on life.

As the 2018 C7 ZR1 is about to make it’s debut and Chrysler’s muscle cars seem to be sharing the mantle of ultimate power, the Blue Devil C6 ZR1 still holds it’s rightful place in automotive history, as the first American factory-built car with crazy horsepower.

Keep ‘em coming, Detroit…