In 2022, TRIFECTA shocked the GM aftermarket by announcing they were first to successfully native-tune the 8^th Generation Chevrolet Corvette (C8) as well as other GM Global B applications.  This began a new era for Corvette, finally enabling native tuning to support some of the best aftermarket power adders from the biggest names in the industry.

Never one to rest on their laurels, TRIFECTA has remained at the forefront of aftermarket calibration technology and solutions for Corvette, leading to being able to claim to be first – and second - to tune the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray!

“We’ve been watching the development of the E-Ray very closely and worked hard to hit the ground running once the cars hit the streets.  We had the 2024 Engine Control Module (ECM) in hand months before the cars were on the street, just to be sure there wouldn’t be any surprises.”, says Vince Geglia II, Owner/Founder of TRIFECTA Performance.

The First E-Ray – Lingenfelter Performance Engineering

First Tuned, First Boosted, and First Supercharged

Leveraging the TRIFECTA Calibration Platform, the claim for first tuned E-Ray belongs squarely with Lingenfelter Performance Engineering.

“We had Paragon Performance an Official Lingenfelter Installer call us about installing our stage 1 Magnuson supercharger on the new E-Ray. They had a long-standing customer who purchased VIN# 36 and wanted to have the world’s first supercharged E-Ray.  We knew this was unchartered territory, we’d just finished one of the first 2024 C8s.  Knowing the challenges we faced there, now we were staring down the first ever hybrid Corvette!”, says Mark Rapson, Vice President of Operations, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering.

Lingenfelter did the project in collaboration with Paragon who did the initial break-in miles and the first baseline test where the car made 573 HP and 630 TQ. Arrangements were made and soon the beautiful red 2024 Corvette E-Ray was at the LPE Build Center in Wixom, Michigan.  After validating the baseline with the car on the SEMA Garage’s All Wheel Drive chassis dynamometer, LPE’s best-in-industry technicians began the supercharger installation, while the factory ECM was sent off to TRIFECTA for their magic.

“Our calibration team and engineering partners at TRIFECTA got together and discovered a few months back that the 2024 Corvette ECM calibration and software had many changes to it.  Fortunately, we’d had the opportunity to do 2024 Stingray supercharger builds prior to the arrival of the E-Ray, so we had experience on the new code base when we started calibrating the E-Ray.  From an install perspective, we weren’t sure what challenges we might run into as the E-Ray has lots of parts and controls the regular Stingray doesn’t”, explains Mark.

Once the blower installation was complete, Christian de Saint Preux, the lead calibrator at LPE set to work to develop a calibration for not only the world’s first tuned E-Ray, but the world’s first supercharged E-Ray!  The question that’s sure to be at the forefront of every GM tuner: Did the hybrid propulsion system cause any concerns or roadblocks?

To this, Christian demurred, “We definitely had concerns.  I’ll just say it’s a different world with the E-Ray, but I do want to thank the GM Engineers for not making this impossible.”

“There was a torque security calibration that we needed to chase down.  In many cases, the ECM software will tell you where these types of faults come from, but this diagnostic routine was so new we didn’t know much about it, so we had to rely on static code analysis to determine what the source of the fault was.”, explains Vince.

What about power and performance?  After calibration, the E-Ray was taken back to the Paragon Performance dyno for another power test.  The car now made an amazing 734 horsepower and 792 TQ at all four tires.  As for track performance, the E-Ray will soon be at the track but according to Mark, it has blistering performance on the street!

“On the street, this car has ripped out a 2.0 second 0-60 [miles per hour] on the car’s built-in performance monitor, and with our Supercharger Control Module handling the additional engine sensors, the car has exceptional drivability and better manners than it did before we modified and tuned it!”, explains Mark.

“Positive displacement superchargers, from a control and calibration strategy are meant to have two sensors – a manifold pressure sensor and a supercharger inlet pressure sensor.  If you look at the factory LT4 engine it comes this way, for a reason.  Through our work with TRIFECTA, we’ve been able to enable these control routines, the associated diagnostics and with our calibration, offer OE quality drivability and precise throttle control.  We also have full OE diagnostic capabilities, including sensor rationality tests.”, explains Christian.

Exclusive to LPE supercharger kits, the Supercharger Control Module (SCM) was originally designed to feed accurate air temperature data to the ECM to allow it to optimize spark control strategy.  Through a collaborative effort between LPE and TRIFECTA, it was extended to add these additional and crucial sensors to the engine.

Vince jokes, “I’ve been ranting from my soapbox for years about these sensors!  People have even accused me of being an angry person over this, but our work with LPE gave us the opportunity to prove this is the way to go.  But, pinning in additional sensors to an engine harness connector is difficult and error prone, so LPE challenged the whole team to make it plug and play using the factory LIN bus.  This is truly a first - we modified the ECM code to accept additional sensor input using the LIN bus by extending the messages on the LIN bus, in concert with the protocol extended by the SCM.”

So what’s next for the world’s first tuned and supercharged E-Ray?

Mark explains, “The car is back with Paragon Performance for some additional cosmetic and performance upgrades before going to the owner who will thoroughly enjoy it.  With the weather improving, we’re looking forward to seeing some track results.  I’m certain this is a nine second car!  This is a nine second emissions compliant car!”

The Second E-Ray – Boost District

..and the First Turbocharged

There’s one thing that Boost District isn’t, and that’s a stranger to GM tuning and modding!  Already a Lingenfelter authorized reseller and installer for the LPE Corvette C8 program, Boost District wasted no time in shooting for the moon with their new E-Ray.  With barely 500 miles on the clock, they went and ran deep into the 9s with surprisingly few mods!  For frame of reference, MotorTrend published the new E-Ray in stock trim runs 10.6 seconds in the quarter mile, at 128 MPH. 

“The goal for this car is simple – to get into the eights in the quarter mile with as few changes as possible.  First time out, we got a best of 9.7 second quarter mile at 153MPH!”, says Roshan Poptani, owner of Boost District. 

After picking up their E-Ray, in short order, Boost District’s expert team upgraded the engine internals, then installed fuel system upgrades and twin turbos screaming at 12.5psi to boost the E-Ray’s LT2 internal combustion engine’s output to the stratosphere.

“Already, we are nearly mid nines on stock tires and suspension.  The engine mods are few – our valvetrain, Lingenfelter’s pistons, fueling upgrades and twin turbos.  Everything else is stock, including all of the OE emission controls.”, says Roshan.

Next, building with TRIFECTA’s Calibration Platform, Christian masterfully updated the new-for-2024 engine control software calibration to support the upgraded fuel system and twin turbos.  Support for each new model year generally requires seeking out every single calibration table and constant, identifying them and properly tuning them.  The 2024 software posed an exceptional challenge, but Christian had the advantage of already having been down this road.

“GM generally makes small changes to their ECU application software and calibrations from one year to the next, but the 2024 brought in many new changes.  Tuning for the upgraded fuel injectors took a bit of time, since GM decided to remove some of its strategies for injector characterization.  This will require aftermarket companies to come up with these new calibration definitions which GM has been rolling out, but until now has been nice enough to leave the old strategy in place and selectable.  However, having the experience of calibrating 2024 Stingray and E-Ray at LPE under my belt, it went much more smoothly this time around.”, says Christian de Saint Preux, also the calibrator for this project.

Once the new ECM calibration was mapped out, Chris worked hand in hand with Roshan at Boost District to dial in the calibration.

“Once we got the car started, the job wasn’t too bad, all in all it took about a day from start up, to three to four pulls on the dyno, and then to our nine second run at the track.”, Christian explains.

So what’s next for Boost District’s E-Ray?

Roshan explains, “We’re aiming for eights on a build that would be 50 state legal, with a CARB [Exemption Order].  We worked closely with the turbo kit manufacturer – ETS - to produce a version of the kit which retains the OE emission control devices.  TRIFECTA has made clear their vision for supporting power adders that can and will eventually meet emission compliance.”

Vince adds, “It’s exciting!  We’re in an era where gasoline engines, even with full emissions controls meeting modern emissions standards, and we’re still making this kind of power!”

TRIFECTA Calibration Platform

...and the secret sauce.

Dealing with all the tuning idiosyncrasies and challenges of the C8 has been an on-going effort.  TRIFECTA’s Calibration Platform for the C8 Corvette now includes access to over fifteen different custom application software changes / additions, including support for LPE’s Supercharger Control Module (SCM).

“Over time, collaboration with each of our partners, their engineering teams, and calibration teams, combined with our own experience has allowed us to develop an ever-increasing list of custom and exclusive software features for the C8 that all our calibration partners can take advantage of.  For example, our ‘clutch saver’ feature allows the OE clutch to handle power levels far in excess of its design capacity without requiring friction and steel changes.”, explains Vince.

“The factory E99 engine controller software for the C8 has some surprising limitations in airflow calculation, which affects driveability, clutch holding capability and emissions just to name a few.  TRIFECTA’s platform gives us the tools to get past these limitations.”, says Christian.

Roshan explains, “Boost District also has a Stingray coupe which, by the way, on the same night our E-Ray ran, also set a new record for world’s quickest supercharged C8.  Without TRIFECTA’s platform, this wouldn’t have been possible without the ability to recalibrate the transmission’s launch speed.”

Erik Radzins, an industry renowned calibrator, and Director of Communication and Calibrations for ProCharger offered his thoughts as well, “Working with TRIFECTA to build the calibration for our C8 full supercharger systems has been great!  We worked hand in hand with their engineers to develop software and calibration solutions to some of the more tricky challenges the C8 posed.  They also transformed some of our ideas into reality, such as moving the transmission launch speed around, and selectively disabling the AFM mode on the fly.”