When we first stumbled across the V12 LS engine being produced by V12LS.com we were both stoked and skeptical at the same time. The very proposition of adding four more cylinders to the already amazing LS platform was nothing short of astonishing in our minds—the more the merrier right? But at the same time, we wondered if the build would ever be available to the public or make it between the fenders of an awesome build. Well, we’re here to tell you that both of those things have happened and the V12 LS is hitting American shores as we type this.

We stopped by V12LS.com’s booth at this year’s SEMA to ask them a few questions about just how this LS unicorn came to be and find out what is new and upcoming. Their answers have us even more excited for the future of this platform.

“The whole thing started off as an engineering challenge for ourselves, but we quickly realized that there was this big gap in the market,” said Matt Corish, co-founder of V12LS.com. “We came to SEMA last year and saw all these multi-six-figure cars that had common $3,000 engines in them—we just kind of said, ‘performance car building has reached this height where everything on the car is a custom one-of-a-kind piece, but it has a factory built engine in it’ so we wanted to provide something a little, or rather a lot, different.”

Corish says they owe a lot of thanks to companies like Falconer, who built the first-gen V12 and showed that the concept could work.  From there, V12LS.com took a different approach by utilizing the immensely popular LS architecture. This allowed them to produce a V12 that adopted cutting edge technology and design. One of their main goals, however, was to bring everyone’s attention back to the engine at car shows, much like the builds of yesteryear.

“We wanted to do something that would be modern, but would be a show stopper, too,” Corish said. “This puts the engine back as the star.”

The aluminum V12 is actually two separate LS1 blocks welded together, as are the heads. In fact, you may even recognize the head casting number, as it still has the stock 241 casting number on the front of the 12-chambered head. A custom billet crank and camshaft provide the mill with unifying engine pieces and it is fed by twin throttle body injection units. All in all, the LS1-based version makes 715 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque on the engine dyno, but Corish says that an LS3-based build is on its way and should be capable of nearly 900 ponies.

The new block will be their own one-piece castings as will the heads—making this truly a bespoke piece. This bullet was also just placed between the fenders of the Quality Custom Ride’s ’67 Camaro which debuted here at SEMA as well. Check out the full feature on the ’67 and stay tuned for more.