When former member of the Volkswagen Family, Roland Gumpert decided to leave the marque back in 2004 in order to create his own interpretation of the track ready and road legal super car he was out to make a statement. His current creation is powered by a 700 HP version of Audi’s bi-turbo 4.2 Liter V8, the Gumpert Apollo can go from 0 to 120 MPH in just 8.9 seconds and has a top speed just shy of 225 MPH. However if you want to be taken seriously as a super car manufacturer, you need more than just straight line performance. That is why back on August 13th, Roland hired 26 year old driver Florian Gruber to pilot an Apollo Sport around the Nurburgring, the young racing driver crossed the line in exactly 7 minutes and 11.57 seconds. Setting a new record for a production car around the Nordschleif.
The new record is over 10 seconds faster than the Viper SRT-10 ACR that is currently in third and a full 15 seconds ahead of the Nissan GT-R/Porsche 911 Turbo conspiracy. It is even faster than the upcoming Lexus LF-A around the ’Ring. If you can think about it in racing terms, if you can compare the lap times between an F1 car and the similarly shaped Indy car at the 2.71 mile, 15 turn Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal where both cars race. Sebastien Bourdais was able to win pole position in the Indy car with a time of 1:20.396 while Jenson Button won the pole in his F1 car with a lap time of 1:15.217. In this instance 5 seconds is the difference between night and day, a racing engineer would kill for that kind of advantage; and we are talking about a few hundred horse power and a couple hundred pounds difference. So spread that around the 12.9 mile Nordschleife circuit complete with its 33 left and 40 right turns; completing a lap in only 7:11 is quite an impressive feat.
For four years, a lot of supercars have taken the Nurburgring track in hopes of breaking the fastest lap recorded by a production car. Set by the Radical SR8 way back in 2005, its record time of 6 minutes and 55 seconds has remained untouched by all those supercars that have tried in vain to topple the SR8 from its lofty perch. While it’s beginning to look like there won’t be a road legal supercar from other carmakers that will come close to besting the SR8, Radical is looking at breaking its own record with the SR8’s successor, the SR8LM.
Just like the SR8, the SR8LM is a fully legal road car, built to the same specifications of road-legal cars with matching Dunlop Direzza road tires to boot. The car will be driven around the track by Michael Vergers, the same man who set the current record while driving behind the wheel of the SR8 Supersport back in 2005.
While there’s still no timetable as to when the SR8LM will take the Nurburgring, the folks at Radical are excited about the prospects of having one of its own break a record it set four years ago. “It’s been several years since we last went for the record, and we’ve carried out a huge amount of development work on the SR8 in the meantime,” said Radical’s Mick Hyde. “The car’s aerodynamics has been considerably improved, now creating more down-force and less drag. In addition, the 2009 chassis is much safer after passing the FIA production sports car crash tests, and the engine is also improved, producing 460 HP and driving through our in-house designed six-speed transmission.”
The auction house Gooding & Company did alright for themselves this past Saturday the evening before the highly anticipated Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, selling an impressive 83% of all their lots earning more than $21 Million. The star of the block was a red 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider that sold for $2,750,000. There were also a few records set that evening, with the 1953 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Drop Head Coupe that went for $1,650,000, and the 1953 Jaguar XK120 SE Roadster that sold for $192,500. On a more technical note, the 1938 Buick Limited Series 80 Opera Brougham only set a record for pre-war Buicks at $506,000.
Aside from the record breaking Aston Martin and Ferrari’s, the crowd in attendance was eager to catch a glimpse of Lot 31, Ettore Bugatti’s own 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Special Coupe. Originally assembled as a birthday present for Le Patron, founder of the ultra exotic car company, this particular Type 57C has been deemed as one of the automaker’s most cherished creations. The factory’s workers even went to great lengths to protect the Bugatti during World War II, the fighting between that Allied Forces and the Axis Powers ended up destroying the factory in Molsheim, France.
Even after Ettore’s death in 1947, the 57C was meticulously maintained and continued to receive updates as they were developed. The car is said to be extremely unique, with a distinct engine and transmission package, upgrades to the interior and one-off coachwork that is believed to be based on the last design ever created by Ettore’s son, Jean Bugatti who died at the age of 30 in an unfortunate incident, test driving a Le Mans winning Type 57 tank-bodied race car. Making for one very interesting conversation piece.
A few days ago, the new Devon GTX super car achieved a Laguna Seca record setting a single lap record of 1:35.075 with second generation sports car driver Justin Bell behind the wheel. This made America’s newest super car, the fastest production based automobile to drop into the corkscrew.
Being one of the most technical racetracks in North America, Laguna Seca plays host to world class motorcycle racing featuring rounds of the AMA, World Superbike and MotoGP championships as well as the worlds of sports car and prototype racing through the ALMS and the Grand-Am Rolex Series. However the most impressive feat for the 2.2 Mile track is that it is chosen time and time again to host the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. "The Laguna Seca test session showed us just a glimpse of what the Devon GTX is capable of from a performance perspective," said Devon Motorworks CEO and founder Scott Devon. "Through further validation and testing, we know this car is capable of even greater lap times and making an even stronger statement about the future of the American supercar."
The American upstart Devon Motorworks is planning to unveil the GTX super car at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concourse d’ Elegance. However before they bring the new production car to the greatest car show on Earth, the company meandered down the Monterey Peninsula for a stop at the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, where the new Devon GTX super car achieved a record setting time of 1:35.075, becoming the fastest production based automobile to drop into the corkscrew.
Being one of the most technical racetracks in North America, Laguna Seca plays host to world class motorcycle racing featuring rounds of the AMA, World Superbike and MotoGP championships as well as the worlds of sports car and prototype racing through the ALMS and the Grand-Am Rolex Series. However the most impressive feat for the 2.2 Mile track is that it is chosen time and time again to host the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. "The Laguna Seca test session showed us just a glimpse of what the Devon GTX is capable of from a performance perspective," said Devon Motorworks CEO and founder Scott Devon. "Through further validation and testing, we know this car is capable of even greater lap times and making an even stronger statement about the future of the American supercar."
The American high performance tuning house Hennessey Performance Engineering has launched a new power package that puts a boost under the hood of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The modified pony car is called the HPE550 2SS Camaro, and is the first automobile to feature the tuner’s latest edition chrome Magnuson supercharger.
The HPE550 2SS Camaro features a set high-flow fuel injectors to deliver enough go juice into the combustion chamber to match the additional pressurized air being pumped in by the special edition supercharger, a stainless steel cat-back exhaust to allow as much air as possible to pass through the system and an HPE cold air intake to make sure that enough fresh air is making its way into the LS3. None of these products would work nearly as well as a unit if it weren’t for the HPE dyno tune that comes complete with every HPE550 purchase. Last but not least the 2SS package comes complete with a set of 20 inch wheels that resemble the ZR-1 and a pair of modified valve covers compliment the chrome blower nicely and dress up the engine bay as well.
The HPE550 has also become the world’s quickest 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, completing the standing quarter mile in just 11.76 seconds at 121.2 MPH, although it was wearing a set of drag radials.
Just last week, classic racers were screaming up the hill outside Lord March’s estate at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Have a look back at a previous year’s festival when the Pikes Peak champion Rod Millen brought his record setting Toyota Tacoma race truck to England.
The German sports car maker Porsche finally has something to brag about when it comes to ‘Ring times. When John Heinricy piloted a Cadillac CTS-V around the Nordschleife in 7 minutes and 59 seconds it officially gave General Motors the title of having the fastest four door to conquer the Green Hell. However, the title no longer belongs to America, it is now the German’s time to shine. Porsche’s test driver was able to complete the 12.9 mile circuit behind the wheel of a Panamera Turbo in just 7 minutes and 56 seconds. The luxury four seater bested the pride of General Motors by a full three seconds.
The Porsche Panamera Turbo is powered by a 4.8 Liter turbocharged V8 that makes 500 HP and 516 lb-ft of torque that make the new Porsche sprint from 0 to 60 MPH in 4.2 seconds in just 4.0 seconds with the with the Sports Chrono mode enabled, and hit a top speed of 188 MPH.
This is good news since the last time the words Porsche and Nurburgring were in the same sentence, the name Nissan wasn’t too far off. This is even bigger because news because it comes on the heels of the recently released in car video evidence of Toshio Suzuki setting the 7 minute 26 second record that the German automaker demanded as proof. Now the video doesn’t show what kind of tires are on the car, but we’re sure all that was well documented.
When the Japanese automaker Nissan announced that they had broken their previous lap record at the ’Ring, the German sports carmaker Porsche wasn’t very happy about it and demanded proof. So here it is the run made on April 23rd earlier this year. What’s interesting is that Nissan’s test driver, Toshio Suzuki, barely needs to use the GT-R’s top gear. It looks like the Nissan engineers sized Godzilla’s fifth cog to make the super car run right under redline and in the VR38DETT’s sweet spot around the Nordschleif circuit.
When you think of setting speed records, there is only one place that comes to mind, the endless dried up lakebed in Utah, the Bonneville Salt Flats. However this is not the place where the most recent land speed record was broken. The English crew traveled to the northwest corner of Nevada in order for their Thrust SSC jet powered streamliner to hit 714 MPH, making it and Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green, the fastest man and machine of the planet.
The Thrust Super Sonic Car was powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce turbine engines and after their initial record setting attempt and a little fine tuning, the team came back two weeks later to go 763 MPH. It would take the velocity of three Bugatti Veyrons just to come close to the Thrust SSC’s top speed run that was set on October 15, 1997. What is most impressive is that this record has stood uncontested for over a decade.
It is only fitting that the fastest man in the world will make an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, but it has also been announced that the 1000 MPH hopefuls, team Bloodhound SSC will be on hand as well to show off their super sonic machine for the thousands of automotive enthusiasts on hand.
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