While the wait for the Mercedes SLS AMG roadster version continues on, Mercedes is making the wait a little more bearable by surprising us with another SLS AMG: the GT3 version. The sports car will compete in the 2011 racing season.
The SLS AMG GT3 features a new new front apron with a splitter, the bonnet with central cooling air vent, wider front and rear wings, sideskirts with cooling ducts for the rear brakes, a rear diffuser and the adjustable rear aerofoil.
The race car will be powered by the same 6.3-liter V8 engine, but has been tuned to deliver an impressive +600 hp, a pretty significant spike from the road-going version of the SLS AMG which comes with a "standard" 571 hp.
Also on the interior, the SLS AMG GT3 version will drop all of its luxury amenities, including the air conditioning, navigation and upholstery. Instead, the car’s interior will be stripped down to only include a steel rollover cage, a racing bucket seat with a six-point seat belt and HANS system.
UPDATE 09/22/2011: Tobias Moers, Member of the Board of Directors and Head of Vehicle Development for AMG has confirmed that the SLS GT3 would not be racing in the US market because the company did not want to go through the added expense of re-certifying it for use on US soil.
UPDATE 02/03/12: Mercedes is continuing its series on the SLS AMG GT3’s production with a new video on assembling the body of the car. Enjoy!
If there was every any skepticism surrounding the Nissan Juke-R, this amateur video of the Nissan UK project taking on some of the world’s most powerful supercars is all the evidence Nissan needs to validate the tuned-up crossover.
The site of this race is the Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai, where the Juke-R incidentally served as the official safety car. We can imagine that this race was set up pretty quickly with the Juke-R taking on a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Ferrari 458 Italia, and a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG on a short and improvised sprint track.
With the credentials of the European exotics, it appears that the Juke-R has some serious competition - at least until the light turned green. That’s when the Juke-R simply flexed its GT-R-powered muscles, blasting the three exotics like they were plastic traffic cones.
Surprising is an understatement, but we do have to pay attention to the track conditions. It wasn’t the best one for racing, but all things considered, elements included, the Juke-R more than held its own against three of the most powerful exotic cars in the world.
We don’t always hear from the people over at Weistec Engineering, but every so often, these guys resurface with a program that just blows you away.
With that being said, Weistec has unveiled the first details of their latest
project involving the mighty Mercedes SLS AMG. Packed with an extensive list of performance modifications, Weistec was able to put enough added horsepower on the supercar to make it, at least according to Weistec, the most powerful SLS AMG in the world...period.
The biggest addition to the SLS AMG is a new 2.3-liter Twin-Screw compressor, a supercharger system that clearly defies anything we’ve ever seen before outfitted to an SLS AMG. On top of that, Weistec also put in dual high flow cast aluminum T6 intake tubes, brisk spark plugs, a fuel delivery system upgrade, and a 1,000-hp liquid-to-air unit with aluminum lower manifold and aluminum throttle body inlets.
That’s not all.
A Constant Mu, Delta Pressure (CMDP) cog drive system was also added, as was a billet aluminum cog drive cradle assembly, a new cog belt, a new drive belt, aluminum serpentine idlers, a 30 liter intercooler water pump, an intercooler recovery tank, a new heat exchanger, a high flow fuel rail system, silicone couplers, and a power-steering reservoir relocation assembly.
The list of modifications is already making our heads spin. But through it all, Weistec was able to improve the SLS AMG’s 6.3-liter V8 engine and increase the output from the standard 563 horsepower and 479 lb/ft of torque all the way up to an insane 750 horsepower and 664 lb/ft of torque.
YouTube member, Jorrie2, struck gold when he encountered a Mercedes C63 AMG, a Mercedes SLS AMG, a Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black Series, and the lone Porsche 997 GT2 as they were topping off at a gas station. And, as a bonus, the CLK63 AMG Black Series left the gas station in quite a bit of hurry, accelerating rapidly and leaving some tread marks on the road!
Following the Mercedes CLK63 AMG were the 997 GT2 and the C63 AMG, which also took part in a little acceleration action, producing some lovely exhaust notes for our hearing pleasure.
As a reminder, the CLK 63 AMG Black Series is powered by a 6.3-liter V8 engine that delivers a total 507 HP and sprints from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.1 seconds. The Porsche 997 GT2 is powered by a 3.6-liter boxer engine that produces 530 HP at 6500 rpm and 502 lb-ft of torque between 2,200 and 4,500 rpm. It makes the 0 to 60 mph sprint in just 3.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 204 mph.
The Mercedes C63 AMG is powered by the usual 6.2 liter V8 engine producing 457 HP. This power output can be increased to 487 when equipped with the AMG performance package. The Mercedes SLS AMG is powered by a 6.3-liter V8 engine located front-mid that develops 563 HP and 479 lbs-ft of torque. The engine will help sprint the car from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, while top speed will go up to 197 mph.
We’re rounding off our Best of 2011 lists with one that is near and dear to our hearts. This list is all about top speed and top speed only, those who have it and one who hopes to achieve it.
Of course, speed hopes are nothing new. The battle for the fastest car in the world has been ongoing since the sports and super cars first made their appearance and more than likely, it will never end. These past couple years have been a game of one-upmanship between SSC and Bugatti with both succeeding in one way or another. But who tops the list for 2011?
Before getting into that, we think it is important to note that we only incorporated vehicles that were sold in 2011. For example, the Koenigsegg CCX may have a top speed of 240 mph, but that production ended in 2010, which takes the supercar out of the running for this list in particular. Don’t worry, though, Koenigsegg is still well-represented.
Hit the jump to see the top ten list of the fastest cars of 2011.
