As much as Jeremy Clarkson complains about fat, uncool Americans and their crudely-made, overweight cars, General Motors managed to come out on top in two categories in Top Gear's annual awards.

If you said the Corvette ZR1 was a winner, you'd be totally correct. The 638-hp supercar was a shoo-in to win over the Top Gear team, just as we guessed when they were caught driving at at the Bonneville Salt Flats earlier this year. Chevrolet's baddest Vette ever sped off with top honors in Top Gear's Performance Car of the Year category.

Mated to a Corvette ZR1, the LS9 can get you from 0-60 in 3.3 seconds, and it will travel a quarter mile in 11.3 seconds. GM Performance Parts announced earlier in the week that beginning next fall, you won't need to own a ZR1 to get your hands on an LS9. The supercharged, 638-hp beast will be available as a crate engine to put under the hood of any project car that can handle the power.

General Motors has announced that the blown beastie that lives under the hood of the Corvette ZR1 will be available as a crate motor next fall and our head is spinning with the swap possibilities.

With 639 hp and 604 lb.-ft. of twist available from the 6.2-liter supercharged V8, and dimensions shared by the LS3, any number of vehicles could make a happy home for the LS9. According to GM, the engine comes fully dressed, with an ignition system, exhaust manifolds and supercharger, and only needs an external oil tank and coolant tank (for the charge cooler), an ECU and wiring harness.

When we got behind the wheel of the 638-hp Corvette ZR1, we were pleasantly stunned at the raw, violent pull exhibited by the 3,364-lb supercar. Motor Trend was equally impressed during a recent trip to Chrysler's Arizona proving grounds where they brought their considerable testing equipment along to add their own cold hard stats to a growing list of platitudes.

The rumormill is a funny thing, and sometimes it can run amok. This appears to be one of those times. The DigitalCorvettes.com forum posted a note earlier this evening saying that Corvette ZR1 production has been halted (Bowling Green is shut down this week, so no Vettes are being built at the moment) and suggesting that the ZR1 may be cancelled. A post on dealer Rick "Corvette" Conti's blog, linked in the referenced DigitalCorvettes thread, added to the intrigue.