These Are The Most Unexpected Street-Legal Cars With Over 1,000 HP

Back in September of 2005, the Bugatti Veyron officially entered production and changed the world of cars forever. As the very first production car with more than 1,000 horsepower, reflecting on 20 years of the Bugatti Veyron allows some perspective on just how far ahead of its time it was. The groundbreaking engineering and frankly silly performance turned it into an icon.

However, for some cars — like the Bugatti Chiron, the successor to the Veyron — it makes sense to have 1,000-plus horsepower, as it follows a legacy of hypercars defined by extreme power and performance. These days, though, you can buy family cars, SUVs, and even pickup trucks that come with more than 1,000 horsepower. 

No matter how you look at it, justifying more than 1,000 horsepower in any car is not easy — after all, cars are mostly just meant to act as transportation. But these are the types of vehicles that celebrate why enthusiasts love them in the first place. Therefore, these are the five most unexpected street-legal cars with over 1,000 HP.

When you think of "Hummer", you probably think of the Hummer H1 or H2, both characterized by their massive size, weight, and engines that struggled to keep up. With the new GMC Hummer EV, the story is almost similar. You get a massive weight and size, but you also get an engine that actually can keep up. The electric Hummer is powered by three electric motors pushing out a combined output of 1,000 horsepower.

Sure, behemoth size and weight might be the defining reasons behind the GMC Hummer EV being the least efficient EV you can buy, but it also underscores the engineering compromise in making a 9,000-pound off-road truck with 1,000 horsepower. With a 0-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds, it sure sounds fast, too. Although, for a spot of context, an entry-level Porsche 911 Carrera also makes a time of 3.1 seconds with a traditional combustion engine and "just" 388 hp.

Although we are all used to seeing muscle cars with a lot of horsepower, some of them still surprise us when we peek under their hood. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, with 1,025 horsepower, is approximately 3.4 times more powerful than the entry-level Challenger SXT. The Demon is also at the edge of what a street-legal muscle car can do. Without any street-legal restrictions, the 2020 Mopar Drag Pak Challenger was able to push out more than 1,500 horsepower — almost five times as much as the Challenger SXT.

With 1,025 horsepower, the Demon 170 can launch from 0 to 60 in just 1.66 seconds. Granted, these numbers are thanks to Mickey Thompson drag radials, a high-boost TransBrake launch, and a prepped surface, but it's still an impressive result. Regardless, the Challenger is a staple of American car culture. Giving it four-digit horsepower numbers is definitely a show of engineering audacity. But if the Demon is still too tame for you, check out the off-road Hellcat 4x4 that fixes every problem you had with the Challenger.

Pick-up trucks are workhorse vehicles, primarily designed for utility, hauling, towing, and overall ruggedness. This is why so many of them use diesel engines that never really focus on making a lot of horsepower. Diesel torque is seen as king in the heavy-duty truck world, but the Hennessey's Mammoth 1000 upgrade for the RAM TRX somehow didn't get that message, offering 1,000 horsepower and 969 pound-feet of torque

Compared to the Ford F-150, the most popular truck in the U.S., the Mammoth 1000 can do most of the truck-like stuff — but it can also do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. Where the 700 hp Ford F-150 Raptor R is scary quick, but shockingly friendly, driving the Mammoth 1000 was described by EVO reviewers as "riding an avalanche." Trucks don't usually come with 1,000-plus horsepower because performance is not what they were designed to do, and that's why the Mammoth 1000 deserves a place in this list.

The Lucid car company is a relative newcomer, only introducing its first vehicle – the Lucid Air EV — in 2020. Its top trim model with the most power made a 1.881-second 0-60 time, making the Lucid Air Sapphire into the quickest car MotorTrend has ever tested. One of the newer additions to the Lucid family is the Gravity, which acts as a mixture between a full-size electric SUV and a minivan. It continues the tradition of Lucid cars boasting extreme power.

Thanks to two electric motors, the Dream pushes out 1,070 hp and 909 lb-ft of torque. This is enough to propel it from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds. In comparisons between it, the Rivian R1S Quad Motor, and the Porsche Macan Turbo EV, the Gravity Dream came out on top with a trap speed equal to the McLaren 750. Even with such performance, the Gravity Dream is a three-row family car with 450 miles of EPA-rated range, letting it do grocery runs akin to any other average minivan.

Although the Corvette is indeed a performance car, the 1,064 hp ZR1 with a 9.5 second quarter mile time is on a completely new level. With the help of a hybrid power train, its electrified version takes things a step further. The modern car industry embraces hybridization to increase efficiency and lower emissions, but the ZR1X decides to go the other way by using all of those electrons to make even more power and even quicker quarter mile times. Specifically, the 1,250 horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X hybrid runs the quarter mile in under 9 seconds.

The newest C8 generation of the Corvette is a festival of "unexpectedness" since it ditches its front-motor configuration and embraces a mid-engine layout we've come to expect from supercars and top-end hypercars. Chevrolet has also decided to use a flat-plane crank V8 to make the engine lighter and more powerful. With a 0-60 time of under two seconds, Chevrolet rightfully crowned the ZR1X as "the true American hypercar."