E85 sometimes gets a bad rap from the hot rodders of the world. There’s this myth that E85 means slow, or low performance.

At the 2007 Specialty Equipment Marketing Association Show (SEMA) in Las Vegas, GM set the record straight once and for all.  If they could convince a high profile car nut, like, say, Jay Leno, they thought they’d have a pretty good shot of burying the myth.

Jay has a reputation as a die-hard car guy, and he likes extreme performance as much as any hot rodder. He partnered with Pratt & Miller – an engineering company that works with GM Racing to make the C6.R Corvette for American Le Mans Series racing. They created a special Corvette C6RS, with E85 in the tank and 600 horsepower under the hood. The idea behind the creation of this custom ride is to demonstrate that powerful cars can still be environmentally-friendly.

The 500 cubic-inch V-8 engine that generates that 600 horsepower was developed by Katech Engines, the same company that makes the engines for Corvette’s racing program. The car has many of the accessories you’d find in a race car, such as wider front and rear fenders, a carbon-fiber ram-air induction system and aerodynamic styling to reduce wind resistance.

The Corvette C6RS, with its E85 capabilities, joined 27 other GM vehicles on display at SEMA, literally driving home the point that power and performance can still be green.