World's fastest? Hearse from hell has 1,300 horses

Just in time for Halloween comes the hearse from hell.

A performance shop wanted what its vice president, Arne Toman, calls a "strange project." And it found one.

The shop, AMS Performance, based near Chicago, took a 1996 Chevrolet Caprice that it found in Knoxville, Tenn., and gave it a hot-rod makeover. The goal was to keep the hearse fully functional for hauling around corpses, but adding to its power.

The 6-liter Chevrolet V-8 from an old van was worked over and power was boosted to 1,000 horsepower. As if that wasn't enough, a new engine was installed to boost horsepower to 1,300 horsepower. The hearse is good for zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.26 seconds and a 9.94-second quarter mile. The team thinks it is the fastest hearse on earth.

Mostly, though, it's just fun.

"It's the most entertaining car I've ever made," Toman writes in an email.