Nissan just ruined Porsche’s summer vacation. Instead of having some quiet time to work on the 998 generation of the 911, Porsche is now going to have to try and recapture bragging rights at the Nurburgring from the 2010 GT-R.
There has been some bad blood between Porsche and Nissan lately over the legitimacy of the 2009 GT-R’s 7m 29s run around the Ring. Porsche claims the car was heavily modified, and Nissan claims Porsche is a sore loser over the slower GT2.
Just to prove its point, Nissan took a 2010 GT-R (which got a 5 hp bump and a few other minor tweaks) back to Germany. The result: a lap time of 7m 27.56s, which now even beats Porsche’s top ring time of 7m 28.71s in a Carrera GT.
Nissan says it’s not done making lap record attempts. The next stop is the Corvette ZR1’s 7m 26.4s time, but that’s still a far cry from the production car top spot of the Dodge Viper ACR’s 7m 22.1s.
The American tuners Hennessey, who made a name for themselves turbo charging Dodge Vipers, are now the proud owners of the world’s fastest Nissan GT-R. This past March at the Texas Mile, Hennessey drove their 700 HP GT-R through the traps at 193.7 MPH. Owners of Nissan’s Super car can purchase the Godzilla 700 kit for $18,500, or $24,500 installed.
Vaughn Gittin Jr, Drift alliance founder and Mustang drift extraordinaire, recently took a trip across the U.S. in a stock Ford Mustang GT. Along the way he took in some sights and broke some records. During a brief pause at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway JR set out to lay down the world’s longest drift.
The Bugatti Veyron makes the 0 to 60 mph sprint in 2.5 seconds, and the Ultima GTR does it in 2.6 seconds, but that’s only good enough for second place now when drag racing Maxximus G-Force. The G-Force hits 60 mph from a standstill in 2.1 seconds, which make it the quickest supercar according to the World Record Academy.
The car was developed by Marlon Kirby and backed by David McMahan (both pictured above). It starts with a modified Ultima GTR chassis and drivetrain, and then added a 1600 hp 7.0-liter engine sourced from Chevrolet. The result is not only a car with the best 0 to 60 time, but it can also hit 100 mph in 4.5 seconds and go 0-100-0 in 8.8 seconds.
There is one little hitch...to put one in your driveway will cost $3 million.
Only 22 total 250 TRs were made over a two year period. Although this one spent its racing career in the Americas at tracks in Brazil, Cuba, and Portugal, this is the model that led Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill to a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1958. So its desirability is understandable.
“This legendary 250 TR is one of the most exciting motor cars ever to be presented in auction history,” said Max Girardo, Managing Director of RM Europe. The event will take place in Maranello, Italy on May 17, 2009.
Back in the early 90s, the Jaguar XJ220 was considered a supercar. It’s 500 hp engine made it the fastest Jaguar ever produced with a 1992 top speed run of 217.1 mph. Now flash foward 17 years later where that record gets shattered by a sedan. Jag took its new XFR to the Bonneville Salt Flats to record a top speed of 225.675mph.
The new XFR is powered by a 5.0-litre V8 engine developing 510 hp and 625Nm of torque. But Jaguar did admit that the record setting car had minor aerodynamic and safety modifications to meet the requirements for a Bonneville run, as well as additional horsepower was “liberated” by a remapped ECU, a modified air intake, modified exhaust, and revised supercharger settings. Still, no internal engine components were changed and the six-speed automatic transmission was standard, including the gear ratios.
But don’t despair, the factory-fresh version should be no slouch either. It makes the 0 to 60 mph sprint in 4.7 seconds, but that car will hit an electronic limiter at 155 mph.
Sedan drivers wish they were driving supercars. Usually a need for space to haul kids and clients means a Bugatti is not in the driveway. Well rich dads of the world can now unite and get the little ones to soccer practice in record time. German tuner G-Power took a BMW 5-Series and turned it into the world’s fastest sedan.
G-Power now says that it has documented a 228.4 mph top speed on its M5 Hurricane RS. The Hurricane RS seems to accomplish this using brute force, as the V10 engine is massaged to make 750 hp (250 hp more than a stock M5.)
While 228 mph is a great accomplishment, it’s amazing considering that it is only about 29 mph shy of the all-time record set by the SSC Ultimate Aero. While the M5 is based on a sedan built for everyday use, the Aero is a completely custom car that has the aerodynamics and engine specifically built for speed.
Shelby Super Cars (SSC) produces the world’s fastest road-going car, the 255 mph Ultimate Aero, but SSC isn’t going to cool its record-stetting heels. For 2009 SSC has decided to upgrade the the ultra-rare supercar’s twin-turbo V8 from 1183 hp to 1287. This kind of power also has SSC setting the bar for a new world record: 270 mph.
Besides the impressive output, the Ultimate Aero also gets a redesigned frontal area with enhanced aerodynamics, as well as carbon fiber louvers on the side intakes draw in 20 percent more air into the radiators. SSC is also introducing a system called AeroBrake, which will alter the angle of the rear spoiler during hard braking (similar the system is used on the Mercedes SLR).
Although 2009 pricing has not been announced, the 2008 model is priced around $650,000. So if the cost doesn’t change too much, that’s a paltry sum to be the fastest person on your block — no matter where you live.
Pilot lights and a waiting for water to boil seems more like kitchen stove concerns than cars. That’s why steam engines have not been in vogue since the early 1900s, but they can still be a novelty. Just ask Jay Leno, he owns and drives multiple brands of steam cars. But one thing that hasn’t been tried in a while is going fast with there land-locomotives.
It seems that the British want to be the fastest people on earth, after announcing plans to build a rocket car to go 1000 mph, a separate British team has assembled a car to break an over ninety-year old steam record. The aptly named British Steam Car is built to go 170 mph, which will shatter the 121.57 mph record set by a Stanley Steamer Rocket in 1906. If all goes right, British Steam Car could be making runs t the record by this spring.
RM Auctions sold a 1997 McLaren F1 for £2.530.000 (about $4.12 million at current rates). Although this does not come close to the all time record set by a Ferrari GTO for $28.5 million, it does set a new record for McLaren F1 prices and is about four times the origional sales price a little over a decade ago.
The McLaren F1 is powered by a BMW sourced 6.1-liter V12 engine that delivers 627 hp at 7,400 rpm. In March 1998, the F1 hit a record speed of 240.14 mph. It held this record until February 2005 when it was broken by a Koenigsegg CCR going 242.2 mph.
The F1 wasn’t the only high dollar car of the day. The auctions sold a 1965 Ferrari 250 LM Berlinetta and a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France each for a price of £2,255,000. A 1938 Horch 853 Special Roadster was sold for £1,127,500 and a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante for £660,000.
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