Back in November we told you that kit car builder extraordinaire Lee Noble was coming back with a new venture called Fenix Automotive when he announced that they will unveil a new super car by the end of 2010. These are the first teaser images supplied by the manufacturer. The new automobile will be a more natural and even more focused successor to Mr. Noble’s iconic M12. The firey Fenix Automotive super car will be bow tie powered, available with either a 480 HP 6.2 Liter fuel injected LS3 V8 from a Chevrolet Corvette or a 620 HP LS9 from the ZR-1. Tipping the scales at around 2400 pounds, the lightweight Fenix will be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 MPH in under 7 seconds on its way to a projected top speed in the neighborhood of 200 MPH.
The F40 is surely the favorite special edition Ferrari for any fan of forced induction. Celebrating the Italian super car maker’s 40th anniversary, the 288 GTO’s twin turbocharged V8 was fitted in between the wheelbase of wedge shaped rocket ship made from kevlar and carbon fiber. Not only did the F40 pave the way for future greats like the F50 and Enzo both ten and twenty years later. Although the men from Maranello never intended to compete with the F40, the special edition super car made its race car debut in 1989 at Laguna Seca competing in the GTO category of IMSA competition with Jean Alesi behind the wheel.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the question then becomes, what do you do with a twenty year old super car? Sure you could restore it to what it was like when new, but even then modern super sports cars like the BMW M5 will leave you in their slipstream on the street. One particular Ferrarista decided to take his aging F40 and give it a new lease on life as an LM racing recreation. The car was rebuilt from the ground up and has everything the old race car came with, except that it was built with the knowledge of how to make an F40 go. The LM spec race car has everything from a fully adjustable suspension and Motec gauges to the original LM computer and turbochargers, albeit being fed from a fresh set of pipes. The owner has yet to turn a wheel on the track with the car and he is staring the bidding war at $200,000. So far there haven’t been any bidders and we have a feeling that in this climate, two hundred grand is quite a lot to pay for a 20 year old car, even if it is a red Ferrari.
Bad news super car fans, according to the automotive journal Automobile, the record setting 650 HP carbon fiber Devon Motorworks GTX will not come to be. As Chrysler’s Viper fast approaches the end of the line due to both economic and efficiency reasons, the GTX project became even more unstable due to the fact that the GTX’s lightweight bodywork was built around the 8.4 Liter V10 powered behemoth. The tragic news comes as a double blow to American muscle enthusiasts, while the snake was expected to end production, the hopes of a domestic super car that could compete on the world’s stage with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini will fade away as well. Devon Motorworks had planned to move 36 vehicles per year, however the brainchild behind the operation, Scott Devon, has had second thoughts.
The budding American entrepeneur had this to say: "The Viper platform being discontinued and the inability to amortize tooling costs are the key reasons. But we have two beautiful prototypes and might still race the Laguna Seca car with Justin Bell in GT2. However, our Devon brand plans have expanded to include jeans, leather jackets, watches, scents, and eyewear. Our Beverly Hills flagship store will open this April. We also have a line of motorcycles being made by legendary builder Shinya Kimura. And the black and chrome GTX will be in the store as a display piece of automotive art. I wish we could have gone into production but have no regrets and feel we achieved a significant contribution in auto design along with the Laguna Seca record." We will certainly be sad to see it go, but at least we can still buy the memorabilia.
Just the other day we were talking about just how happy we were to see tuners paying a bit of special attention to alternatively powered hybrid automobiles. While these types of gas/electric vehicles tend to go towards efficiency minded hyper milers, there are still a few enthusiasts out there looking to make these cars, like the 50 MPG Toyota Prius, truly their own. When it comes to the art of automotive aftermarket styling, there are few tuning firms that can compete with Tommy Kaira and this is the latest kit to roll out of their design studio.
The kit includes a reworked aero package consisting of a more aggressive front bumper with built in carbon fiber splitter, lower hanging side skirts and a new rear apron complete with vents on either side and a diffuser in the middle to finish off the ground effects package that actually improves the Toyota’s coefficient of drag. Tommy Kaira is also offering a host of other upgrade options like HID headlamps, hatch mounted spoilers, high performance suspension components and a sporty exhaust to finish off the body mods available in either carbon fiber or more traditional FRP. The Japanese tuner also offers more wheels then you can shake a stick at in order to satisfy every one of their customer’s wishes for a fun next generation green vehicle that unites ecology and sports to create a truly unique mode of personal transportation.
The Japanese automaker Honda didn’t become the world’s best selling engine manufacturer by resting on their laurels, in fact ever since the 1960s Soichiro Honda’s baby has been competing in the top tier of open wheel motor sports, Formula One. Despite withdrawing from competition last year, the current champion Brawn GP was born from the defunct Honda team. On this side of the pond we are more familiar with a different kind of high speed open wheel racing, the IRL, and Honda had quite a display set up at the largest specialty car show in the world, SEMA.
Honda had a few variations of open wheel competitors at the show in Las Vegas ranging from professional to grassroots efforts and even added a look into the future. Even though the Dallara Indy Racing League chassis is a non working show car, it was hard imagine anything other than the red and white winged wonder screaming as it climbs the high banked turns of a super speedway before rolling back into the throttle and rocketing down the back straight at 200 MPH. The other full sized single seater on display is the prototype Honda Formula F race car, intended for up and coming cash strapped SCCA racers, the Formula F is based around Honda’s 1.5 Liter four cylinder from the Fit as a cost effective racing solution.
Despite being trapped inside a glass case, the 2012 Indy Car Chassis Concept offered quite a view into the shape of things to come. Looking more like a stealth fighter then an Indy car, Honda promises to keep making things interesting well into the future. Aside from the cars, Honda had a few of their race engines on display as well, and the only way to get this good a look at the exotic power plants would be against the wishes of an angry pit mechanic. The display included a trio of championship winning CART V8s engines in both boosted and naturally aspirated forms as well as one very special IRL spec Indy V8. Having all these engines on display like this makes us laugh and think back to when we were nearly chased out of the paddock for snapping a few photos of the inside of an Indy car. Oh how the times have changed.
If you ever have the opportunity to attend a high quality racing school, you will find that the experience is worth more then its weight in gold. While the amount spent could easily buy a few more horse power for your daily driver, in the long run you will be better off being able to squeeze the most out of any vehicle you climb into. Programs like Skip Barber’s allow individuals to push their own limits as well as those of their vehicles in a safe and controlled environment. Skip Barber allows their alumni to hone their skills in everything from “fender cars” like the Lotus Elise and Mazda Miata to a much more visceral open wheel Formula machine. The school usually uses a wingless single seater with a traditional H pattern gearbox to instruct their students, however on the day that we showed up for class we were pleasantly surprised to see that we would be driving the cars that compete in their regional racing series, the Formula 2000.
Like a true racecar, the Formula Skip Barber 2000 is based around a steel space frame chassis much like that of the old Formula Ford racecar, a proven cost effective rigid body that has been lapping track around the world since before most of us were born. Despite the Mazda logos on the winged Reynard designed fiberglass body work and side pods, the engines are carried over from the school’s involvement with Chrysler, so the Formula Skip Barber 2000 is powered by a 2.0 Liter 16 valve four banger that has been modified to withstand the constant full throttle abuse of the track. The oil system has been converted to a hybrid dry sump, the ECU has been retuned to advance the ignition timing a bit in order to get the most out of the old Neon motor while a conical K&N air filter and custom racing headers allow the motor to breathe much easier. Providing a genuine racecar feel, the power plant is mated to a Ricardo 5 speed sequential gearbox meaning that in order to shift up all you have to do is quickly lift off the throttle and pull back on the billet shifter, while downshifts require a bit more heel toe expertise.
The 2009 Dodge Caliber SRT-4 is a bona fide mini muscle car and it is looking as good as ever. The Mopar engineers have done an excellent job transforming the this plus sized traditional two box hatch into an extremely aggressive pavement pounder. This Bright Silver Metallic clear coat SRT-4 differentiates itself from standard Calibers thanks to a very stylish body kit consisting of everything from a big mouth front bumper and vented hood all the way to an oversized spoiler and 19 inch rims on the outside while the interior benefits from bits like sport buckets and an Autometer boost gauge so that you can keep tabs on what the go fast compressor is doing.
The heart of any true muscle car is the power plant, and the SRT-4 won’t disappoint horsepower junkies. The 2.4 Liter turbocharged four cylinder offers plenty of torque due to its rather large displacement while the hairdryer under the hood ensures that you will have fun all the way to redline at 13 PSI. The mill is good for a total of 285 HP and 265 lb-ft of torque and will accelerate the SRT-4 from 0 to 60 MPH in a mere 5.4 seconds and complete the standing quarter mile in 14.4 ticks at a very fast 103 MPH, all while returning 19 MPG around town and as many as 27 MPG while cruising at highway speeds with the turbo singing.
Starting at $25,470 the Dodge Caliber SRT-4 is very well styled, from the vents in the hood to the diffuser out back this car had enough show to match the 285 HP worth of go and proved to be one of the best examples of affordable speed on the market today and despite consumers leanign towards fuel economy over fun for their new car purchases we just hope that Mopar continues to do what they do best by sticking SRT badges on Chrysler’s compacts.
Aston Martin recently invited us to take a closer look at their latest entry into the rapidly expanding high luxury sports car segment, the all new four door Rapide. It’s not every day that a part of the Frankfurt Motor Show comes to you, and that is the exact feeling that the English coachbuilder is hoping their clientele experience when they come to take a look at it. The car being shown to us happens to be the actual concept car from Frankfurt, and the preproduction Rapide was making its sixth stop on its cross country tour just up the road from us in Palm Beach. Aston’s hope is that by showing potential customers the car in person, they will be compelled to fill out one of the detailed order forms for the production version.
From the sound of things they were doing quite well, collecting almost 50 orders from the South Florida market and over 150 on the tour so far, with 1800 Rapides being produced for worldwide consumption and only around 500 making their way into the U.S., a large chunk of the limited production hand built $200,000 four door super cars have already been spoken for. The car in front of us was essentially fully finished stretched DB9, while the 2010 model will feature a bespoke chassis with the familiar 6.0 Liter 470 HP V12 up front and six speed semi automatic transaxle out back, but the entire underpinnings are going to be unique, which happens to be a big selling point for Aston.
Just glancing at the Rapide’s order form gives you an idea of the extent that Aston Martin is willing to go to in order to tailor their new four door to their pickiest of customer’s demands. As far as paint and upholstery are concerned every available option was on display in West Palm and aside from the standard options, the coach builder will match any color you can deliver. However Aston’s attention to detail even surprised us when they pulled out the leather case containing every one of the Rapide’s interior stitching options, available in both fine and coarse.
The Japanese automaker Honda recently announced that their SuperGT NSX succeeding HSV-10 GT will be making its competition debut on March 20 at the beginning of the 2010 season. It is now apparent that Honda isn’t taking any chances in front of their home audience when the green flag drops and in doing so have been spotted at the Suzuka Circuit stretching their legs around the automaker’s own testing facility. It appears that unlike the Lexus LF-A, the Honda Sports Velocity has no plans of becming a production vehicle, instead of homologating the new car, Honda has found a place in the Japanese GT racing series’ rule book stating that possible production vehicles are allowed to compete.
Powered by a low displacement 3.4 Liter V8 with a maximum output of over 500 HP, Honda will campaign four different HSVs at the Suzuka race while the high output engine is mated to a Ricardo sequential manual gearbox, the same unit used by Nissan and Toyota in their SuperGT machines, ensuring that the Honda drivers will be hard pressed to miss a shift. Thanks to the video we can hear that while Toyota engineered their latest super car to sound like a screaming Formula One machine, the pair of Hondas on track could easily be mistaken for some of the automaker’s classic F1 machines.
It was almost 40 years ago when the American racing legend Parnelli Jones captured the 1970 Trans-Am title in a very special yellow Mustang. What made the yellow and black number 15 so special is that it was based on the best handling Mustang of all time, the Boss 302. Complete with hockey stripes and all, the blue oval will offer a special order Ford Racing Boss 302R, a 5.0 Liter thoroughbred with a blacked out deck lid and a familiar paint scheme that will continue the modern Mustang’s road racing efforts that was revitalized back in 2005 with the FR500C.
We were privied to see the new car in person a few weeks ago, however we weren’t allowed to tall you about it until now. As soon as they fired up the all new fuel injected 302 cubic inch V8 we could smell the spent race gas all the way in the back of the room and we knew that this was going to be something special. Starting where the rubber meets the road, the all new Boss 302R wears a set of 275/35 Hoosier racing slicks wrapped around a set of slick BBS 18x10 inch racing wheels. Housed inside the lightweight mesh alloys are a set of Brembo four piston brake calipers up front clamping down onto a set of two piece rotors, because the Ford was designed to be raced in the Koni Challenge series, the Ford Racing Mustang has a set of fully adjustable dampeners from the Netherlands based suspension manufacturer.
A 20 gallon cell resides in the trunk complete with racecar style fuel fillers for fast pit stops and an FIA sanctioned roll cage and fire suppression system inside to safeguard the driver in the even of a worst case scenario. The pilots resides in the sole Recaro race bucket, strapped in with a Sabelt harness and directing the front wheels with a special Sparco/Ford Racing small diameter steering wheel while a Stack type racing gauge cluster provides all the necessary information about the 21st century 5.0 Liter power plant. Perhaps it was an oversight, or it might just be a testament to the 302R’s production car roots, but the Grand-Am spec racecar even has power locks.
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