Supercars race :)
Audi S8 MTM 300HP
Porsche GT2 315HP
Porsche Carrera GT 330HP
Carlsson SL 55 RS 330HP
Techart Porsche GT Street 335HP
Lamborghini Murcielago 335HP
Ferrari Enzo 350HP
Audi Le Mans Quattro 345HP
Posted in Video | Tags: audi, carlsson, carrera, enzo, ferrari, ferrari enzo, lamborghini, le mans, mtm, murcielago, porsche, s8, techart
Jaguar XK Sports Car Joins The Lightweight Supercar Club
By John Hartley
Jaguar’s new XK supercar is a stunning looking car, bound to turn heads wherever goes. It has the beauty and sleekness of some of the old Jaguars of the 1960s. Yet like those masterpieces, the real story of the new XK, and what sets it apart from its competitors is what lurks beneath the paintwork.
No, this time it is not some sensational engine, as it was with the XK120, but the fact that the body is made from aluminum - like the new Jaguar XJ.
The idea of using aluminum – Honda started the trend 15 years ago with the NSX, and was quickly followed by Audi with the A8 – is to reduce weight. Honda reduced a lot of weight with the NSX sports car – the body was 40 per cent lighter than if had been made from steel.
Aluminum bodies last longer than steel ones because the metal does not corrode like steel, and they also absorb crash impact well – so they are safe. Now, several auto companies use aluminum for some body parts, but Jaguar is a world leader in making cars from aluminum sheet and extrusions.
There is no doubt that the new car is light. After all it is 300 lb lighter than the previous model, and is actually slightly larger. Not sure why the new car is bigger as the old one is a pretty big car. Here are the figures:
New Jaguar XK 3,513 lb (1,595 kg)
Current XK 3,820 lb (1,734 kg)
BMW 650i 3,778 lb (1,715 kg)
Mercedes-Benz SL500 4,064 lb (1,845 kg)
Compared with these competing supercars the new XK comes out very well. It is 250 lb lighter than the BMW and makes the Mercedes look the overweight fatty it is.
Yes, the new XK is a lightweight, but not in the way that the Lotus Europa S or Elise compete with their rivals. Sure, it is a good deal lighter than old fat 1990s design, but unfortunately Jaguar bosses wanted the car to have all the bells and whistles of a luxury sports car rather than the light weight of a super sports car. These all add weight. And they decided to make the car a bit bigger.
Even so, as a lightweight luxury sports car or supercar, the new Jag will do well. Why? Because it looks terrific - a real show stealer –has good performance thanks to that reduced weight, and handles like a much smaller car.
The engine guys have done a pretty good job of improving the response of the V-8 engine so that the 300 bhp mill gives much better performance than the current model. Once they put the supercharged engine in, the car will surely be a real cracker. And when you park it and look back, you’ll be sold on the Jaguar XK supercar every day of the year!
John Hartley is editor of http://www.fast-autos.com, an online magazine devoted to fast cars and supercars. He has written from many of the world’s top auto magazines, and has written about 10 books about cars and the auto industry, including ‘Suspension and Steering Q&A’ and ‘The Electronics Revolution in the Motor Industry’. He has been writing about fast cars and testing them for over 20 years, and has been involved in race car design, and has also raced cars
ZL1 Camaro - A Super Car Beyond Super
By David Atkin
The COPO 9560 “ZL1″ camaro was a very special car, and to say it was a super car was an understatement, the ZL1 camaro was capable of a 10.05 in the 1/4 mile with the right person behind the wheel, and this was off of the show room floor, of course with slicks added, and the headers uncorked, not a lot of mods to achieve a 10 second 1/4 mile huh.
The ZL1 camaro came with a 427 CID all aluminum big block chevy the was rated at 430 hp from the factory, which of course was an underrating, the flywheel hp was closer to 721 hp, big underrating huh lol, this car was nothing short of a terrifying ride for those who were not ready for the ZL1 camaro’s awesome display of raw power and torque.
There were only 69 of the cars ever built, so you can imagine how hard they are to find, commanding prices of over $800,000 dollars on the auction circuit, the ZL1 camaro was a car that would never be produced again after 1969, with the rising price of fuel, and the whining of the insurance companies that had to insure them, it just kind of came to a quiet death in 1969.
This was without question one of the most awesome cars ever built, and still to this day it’s one of the most powerful cars ever built, to the look it was a plain Jane camaro, with no fancy rims, it just had a Chevrolet dog dish hub caps on regular steel rims, it had no emblems on the car denoting engine size, the only thing this car had for external appearance items was a cowl induction hood, no racing stripes, as far as I remember the car came in black, yellow, red, blue, and orange.
The ZL1 had no fancy amenities on the inside either, it did not come with a center console, it just had a Hurst shifter sticking out of the floor, a few of the did come with the RS option, which added hide-a-way head lights to the car, but other then that, you’d never guess by looking at one of these cars, what it was capable of doing to you in a race, this car could scare the devil back to hell.
I’ve been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it’s where my heart is.
Posted in News | Tags: camaro, chevrolet, zl1, zl1 camaro
The 2009 ZR1 Corvette - The King Of The Hill
By David Atkin
Chevrolet plans to release a new corvette in 2009, well not exactly new, it’s and upgraded version of the ZR1 corvette from the 1980’s, and when I say up graded I mean up graded, more power, better handling, more comfortable, well yo get the idea, this car is the king of the hill, the best of the best that Chevrolet has to offer.
With it’s supercharged LS9 engine it is putting out about 650 horsepower, making it the most powerful car built by Chevrolet for a long long time, and making the corvette set salivate, waiting with anticipation, chomping at the bit ready for something new, and this is just what the doctor ordered for a corvette freak.
With more then enough power to satisfy the most power hungry corvette freak, and the Euro styling of the new corvette, it will no doubt be a huge seller, and no doubt be unbeatable by any stock muscle car on the market, yes I said any, and that includes the Viper, being as how the corvette can already hold it’s own against the viper.
Chevrolet has dropped the displacement of the engine down to 6.2 liters, and added another 149 horsepower, obviously this will not be a cheap car, it’s not going to be a car for a person that makes $30,000 per year, it will be in the low to mid $100,000 dollar range, making it out of the budget of a normal person.
With all the technology that Chevrolet is throwing at this car, it’s no wonder that it will not be cheap, I have to give them “CUDOS” for building such a cool car, it’s just like that old days, when Chevrolet was the top dog, they are on their way to being the king again.
To put all that power to the ground, in a manor that won’t have you fish tailing all over the road Chevrolet has added Michelin Pilot Sport 285/30ZR19s at the front of this monster, and at the rear the awesome power of this engine is being distributed by way of Michelin Pilot Sport 335/25ZR20s, this car has the stance of a muscle car, but will handle like a sports car making it the only choice for a true American muscle car guy or girl.
The ZO6 corvette had a very stiff suspension, making it difficult to drive quickly on the road, whereas the new corvette ZR1 will use some Euro tech known as magneto-rheological dampers, like the Ferrari 599, the fluid in these units is filled with iron particles and the viscosity can be instantly changed by varying an electric current passing through it, ride sensors in the car take measurements every 0.001 seconds, and translate the information to the dampers every 0.002 seconds, adjusting the firmness of the ride to handle the corners much better then a stock mechanical system would.
With a six speed gear box, and Ferrari disc brakes at all four corners, stopping should be no problem either, as you well know, what speeds up must at one time on another slow down, and the brakes and transmission are just as important as the engine is to your safety, the brake rotors are made for a carbon ceramic composite, the Ferrari Enzo used these brakes on the front wheels, the corvette will use them at all four corners.
The Tremec 6060 will handle the power distribution from the engine to the road, and to show off a bit of it’s new attitude, the speedometer will move for a 200 mph unit in the ZO6 Corvette, and a new 220 mph unit in the all new ZR1, with all of this awesome technology, it will be a car lovers dream come true, all that power and grace in a Chevrolet corvette, not a Porsche, not any Euro car, the corvette, and American built sports car, yes I said American.
I’ve been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it’s where my heart is.
Corvette Gets 7-Liter Engine
By John Hartley
You might think that 6 liters was enough to make the Corvette two-seater fast enough, but not for the competition department lurking inside GM. They wanted to be able to compete head-to-head with the European supercars in the international endurance races for sports cars.
To do so, they took a leaf out of Ford’s book. In the 1960s, when Ford found it could not compete with the smaller Ferraris at Le Mans with the 4.2 (ex-Indy) or 4.7 liter engines, they brought out their 7-liter mill. And it was so much bigger than the competition that they won. So the guys behind the Corvette decided to produce a 7-liter version of America’s favorite and most famous sports car.
By the way, the 7 liter Corvette more than competes with the Dodge Viper SRT-10, which could give the standard Corvette a bit of a run for its money. Of course, this is not just any old engine. This is a very special version of its GEN IV 7.0 liter V-8.
This 2006 Corvette is challenging for muscle car of the year with no less than 500 bhp on tap at 6,200 rpm. Maximum torque from this mammoth engine is 475 lb ft at 4,800 rpm. This is bound to be a stunner with a top speed of about 185 mph and 0-60 in under 4.0 seconds. GM expects the quarter-mile be under 12 seconds.
To give durability, the engine has been beefed up in a number of ways. First, the connecting rods and inlet valves are now made of titanium – these weigh about half as much as steel ones and are used in quite a number of high-performance engines. Because of the low weight, the titanium parts put less load on other critical parts of the engine - the crankshaft, bearings and in this case the valve gear as well. The titanium valves also allow the engine to rev faster safely.
In fact, titanium used to be an aerospace-only material because it was so expensive, but it is now bein gused more in exotic cars and the heads of golf clubs, helping the lesser pros feel not so outclassed by Tiger Woods as they might with ordinary drivers.
You will see that the Corvette 7 liter is intended for the race track by the fact that the engine has a dry sump lube system. A dry sump system prevents the oil in the oil pan from slopping away from the pick-up on fast cornering – the sort you can do only on a track – and thus damaging the main bearings.
Instead of staying in the oil pan, the oil is pumped out to a tank, and then pressure fed from there directly to the engine bearings and other critical areas. Definitely a system for top supercars.
The underpinnings of the car have also been beefed up with a new aluminum perimeter frame which reduces weight. Further weight reduction comes with a new magnesium engine sub-frame. To ensure the car is stiff enough, it will be available only as a hardtop. The front fenders and wheelarches are now carbon fiber composite panels, which also reduce weight.
But there’s more…
To get all that power onto the road, and to get it to stop, bigger wheels, tires and brakes have been fitted. The front brake discs are now 13.9 inch diameter, and 19 x 12 inch wide rims are used at the back; front wheels are 18 x 9.5 inches. Such massive rear tires for a car with 50:50 weight distribution suggest that the car will have a tendency to oversteer – smoky drifts could be the order of the day!
All-in-all, this is a really special car, developed to compete with the best.
John Hartley is editor of www.fast-autos.com, an online magazine devoted to fast cars and supercars. He has written from many of the world’s top auto magazines, and has written many books about cars and the auto industry, including ‘Suspension and Steering Q&A’ and ‘The Electronics Revolution in the Motor Industry’.
Nissan R35 GTR 7:38 Nurburgring lap
Skyline R34 GTR Nismo Z- Tune on Nurburgring
Nissan R33 GTR attacking Nurburgring
Ferrari 430 Scuderia on track
Is A Bugatti Veyron Better Than A Pagani Zonda?
By John Hartley
Is a Bugatti Veyron better than a Pagani Zonda? It depends what you mean by better. Sure it is faster and more expensive. In theory it is more exclusive, but in practice any of these exotic cars is so exclusive it does not matter. What about the Ferrari FXX - now that is so exclusive you can’t drive it on the road.
If you want to accelerate faster than anyone else you don’t need a Bugatti. There are other cheaper cars that do the job. The Ultima GTR is one, and the Caparo T1 will be another. Maybe the SSC Ultimate Aero TT is another.
The Bugatti Veyron gets to 100 mph in about 5.5 seconds – the actual figure varies according to who timed it. However,the Ultima GTR can reach 10 mph in 5.3 seconds which is blisteringly quick – that was timed independently.
The Pagani Zonda is not as quick as that, taking 2 seconds more than the Veyron to get to 124 mph (200 km/h).But believe me, for practical purposes there is very little difference between the performance of these cars. In real life, the difference is smaller because neither the Zonda nor Ultima have turbochargers, so when you press the accelerator you get instant response; with the Bugatti you will wait an instant for the turbos to cut in.
Sure, the Veyron looks and sounds different from other cars, and if you like the looks. well, go for it.
On the other hand if you want a car that accelerates, handles, is very fast, beautifully finished, and causes excitement wherever it goes you might go for a Pagani Zonda or another exotic car, like the Ascari KZ1 or Saleen S7. The Ultima is the world champion for out-and-out acceleration and braking.
All depends what you want it for. Me, I fancy a Pagani, although it is not the prettiest of cars, but it sure has fantastic presence on the road.
John Hartley is editor of http://www.fast-autos.com an online magazine devoted to fast cars and supercars, where you can read the latest articles about fast cars. He has written from many of the world’s top auto magazines, and has written many books about cars and the auto industry, including ‘Suspension and Steering Q&A’ and ‘The Electronics Revolution in the Motor Industry’.
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