THE 2,000HP RECIPE

In the Fall of 2021, Chevrolet Performance introduced their most powerful crate engine yet—a 632ci monster big-block that churned out a naturally aspirated 1,004 horsepower. Hot rodders cheered, and magazines lauded the accomplishment of engineering—which, indeed, it is.

But in an unassuming brick-walled shop in Chatsworth, California, we have to imagine that Tom Nelson and the crew at Nelson Racing Engines (NRE) couldn’t help a subtle shrug at the news.

The team had visions of 1,000-plus-horsepower, road-ready crate engines years before most ever deemed that goal to be in the realm of possibility. Today, after 26 years in business, the NRE team churns out horsepower in glorious, gratuitous gobs.

Their hyper-developed, innovation-fueled monuments to internal combustion are available in countless forms of aspiration; engine architectures; and dispositions, ranging from mild-mannered to aggressive; and the big dogs regularly tip the dyno scales with four-digit power outputs, beginning with the number 2.

In an era where muscle