American


Vector W8

Vector-W8An American 90’s supercar. Huge power coming from twin turbos and along with a big styling statement it definitely had something to say back in it’s day.

The Vector W8 is an American supercar produced from 1990 to 1993.It was manufactured by Vector Motors. The company utilized the newest and most advanced aerospace materials in building the W8s, which they said justified applying to the car the term “Aeromotive Engineering.” Just 19 W8s were produced (17 customer cars and two pre-production cars, the prototype W2, and two prototype Avtech AWX3 and AWX3R with a mock up of the 7.0 liter DOHC TT engine evolution). A total of 22 automobiles produced by Vector Aeromotive over the life of the company. The car originally sold for $448,000 new, however on today’s used market, they are available from $389,000 to well over $1.4 million depending on the condition of the car.
The W8 was essentially an upgrade of the same company’s earlier prototype, theVector W2. The Semi-Aluminum Monocoque chassis was epoxy bonded and riveted with an aluminum honeycomb floor pan, and 5,000 aircraft specification rivets were used in the car’s assembly. Everything on the Vector was designed to last the life of the owner, assuming reasonable maintenance. The body was made largely of lightweight carbon fiber and kevlar, known for its strength, and lightness.The cars level of fit and finish was well beyond that of its competitors. The car was based around a Rodeck resleevable V8 racing engine, coupled to a custom three-speed transmission. The engine had twin turbochargers, and produced an advertised 650 bhp at 5700 rpm and 649 lb·ft of torque on 8lbs of boost. Boost levels were driver adjustable between 8 and 14 lbs and during dyno testing at the factory the engines put out 1200hp at 14 lbs of boost.
The W8 had an estimated top speed of over 220 mph. However, in testing at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the W-2 reached 242 mph with the less powerful Donovan block, as reported by Top Wheels magazine. This top speed was reached while still using the “high downforce” wing. Later aerodynamic testing further honed efficiency, bringing the car’s drag coefficient (Cd.) down to just .32 prior to Department of Transportation crash testing in Ann Arbor, MI. The W8 design included subtle changes to the body during the production run, so that the initial car off the line looked slightly different from the last. These include the elimination of some gills, a lower front fascia and air splitter, revised rear wing, mirror intakes, and front grill. After the top speed testing was completed, no more Vector W8s were fitted with a removable glass roof, due to buffeting that occurred at those extreme speeds. read more

Ford GT40

GT40_V2Ford’s answer to beat Ferrari back in the late 60’s for long distance racing and one of my cars of choice in Gran Turismo 5, the GT40 certainly done that, winning 4 times in a row at Le Mans from 1966, ’67, ’68 and ’69. The car was named the GT (for Grand Touring) with the 40 representing its overall height of 40 inches (1.02 m, measured at the windshield) as required by the rules. Large displacement Ford V8 engines (4.2 litre, 4.7 litre and 7 litre) were used, compared with the Ferrari V12 which displaced 3.0 litres or 4.0 litres. read more

LM Race Car

LM-race-carWell, ok, a little tongue-in-cheek but hey, he’s a film star.! V8 pure muscle race car.!   😉

Dodge Challenger SRT8

2012-Dodge-ChallengerThis just oozes muscle and looks fantastic, it’s the top of the range model in the Dodge Challenger muscle car line-up. Powered by a 6.4 litre HEMI engine developing 470bhp and 0-60 times are less than 5 seconds. read more

Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

Mustang Shelby GT500The Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is one of my favourite classic cars. A front engined, rear wheel drive 7 litre V8 (428 cu) water cooled, 1967 stunner.

The 1967 Shelby Cobra is featured in the 2000 film Gone in 60 seconds as ‘Eleanor’, the holy grail of Memphis Raines’ car-jacking mission, and the Kenichi Sonoda Manga Gunsmith Cats as the ride of main character Rally Vincent. In the sequel Gunsmith Cats Burst the car is blown up by a bomb, whereupon Rally replaces it with a Mustang II King Cobra rather than a Shelby. read more

Hennessey Venom GT

hennessey-venom-gt-2011An American supercar, based around the Lotus Elise, stripped re-worked and with a new power implant in the form of a 7 litre twin turbo charged V8. The top model delivering over 1200bhp.

“The Story” as quoted from the Hennessey website
In 2007, Road & Track Magazine invited Hennessey Performance to participate in a shootout between some of the world’s fastest supercars. The contest? Find out which car could accelerate from 0 to 200 mph in the shortest amount of time. Some of the heavyweights competing where the Mercedes McLaren SLR, Lamborghini Murciellago, Ruf Porsche 911 Twin Turbo and the 1001 bhp all-wheel drive Bugatti Veyron 16.4.For our entry, the Hennessey team brought the company’s latest Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper. Several runs were made by each car on the 2.9 mile long runway at Lemoore Naval Air Station in central California. At the end of the day, the Hennessey Venom 1000 Viper was crowned king of the ROAD & TRACK “Speed Kings” shootout by posting the quickest time of the day by running 0 to 200 mph in an astonishing 20.3 seconds. By comparison, the 2nd place Bugatti Veyron 16.4 was nearly 4 seconds behind the Venom with a time of 24.2 seconds. read more