Hennessey Venom GT

Well, the new Hennessey Venom GT is the fastest production car... in the world.

It has 1244 bhp. Take a look.
Here you can see the GT setting the world record time for 0-300 km/h at 13.18 seconds.



As of now, the Hennessey Venom GT is the fastest car that you can buy, with a top speed of 267.8 mph. It beats the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which held the previous world record at 265.7 mph. The interesting thing is that the real top speed of the production Veyron is only 258. Bugatti limits the top speed of all their hypercars. 

Hennessey made sure that they pointed this out before beating the previous record anyway.

Until recently, Bugatti held the claim to "Fastest Production Car", but the reality is that the Veyrons that are available to the public - defined as a production car - only go 258 mph. So the Veyron that broke all of the previous production car speed records wasn't actually a production car at all.

You can actually buy a Hennessey Venom GT identical to the one used above, which goes almost 10 mph faster than the Veyron you'll find at your local Bugatti dealer.

I have only one real problem with Hennessey though, and that is that they don't make their own cars. The Venom GT is just a Lotus with tweaked and tuned performance bits. Hennessey does this with plenty of other cars too. They'll take things like a Camaro, a Mustang, or an M3, and just make it insane. It's really cool, but they aren't a "car-maker". Hennessey, takes perfectly good cakes and puts the icing on. Still, you have to wonder what kind of cake they could make on their own. That's only a minor qualm though. I like Hennessey's icing.

Bugatti, alternatively, is backed by Volkswagen, and they make their cars from the beginning. The Veyron is not a tuned up Lotus.

You see what I'm saying here. It just feels better when you have a car that was born to be a hypercar. It was purpose built to be crazy fast. It was not born as an average Lotus Exige, that underwent a procedure later in life and received the ability to perform. 

Comparing the Veyron to the Venom GT is like comparing Superman to Spiderman. The Veyron was born with superpowers on another planet. The Venom GT was a nerdy, journalist that was bitten by a spider, and later received superpowers.


I have to say I always preferred Spiderman though. He was kind of the underdog. You have to like the Hennessey Venom GT for the same reason.

Well done on the new records Hennessey.







This whole argument about "fastest production car" will probably start back up in September, when Bugatti reveals the new 1600 hp Veyron. If Bugatti doesn't limit the top speed to the new one, Superman will be bulletproof.

Australia Wins

I have been quite intrigued lately by the new push in NASCAR to return to actual stock car racing. What I mean to say is that the cars that are being used in stock car racing this year are closer to actual production cars used by Chevy, Ford, and Toyota. Personally, I love this. I feel like its a bit of a revival. The rebirth of something that had been killed by the inception of those cookie cutter so called "stock" cars that were all essentially the same but held different badges on the front.

However, I am not going to ramble about on NASCAR racing. What I have been recently excited by with all this is the new Chevy, the Chevrolet SS.

There it is. The right one, of course, is the one I'm mostly talking about here. The fact that it is similar to the racing car is simply a nugget of extra excitement for Chevy fans.

Here's a few other reasons that I can't wait to see more about when this car is released for public sale:

• 6.2L V8
• 6 speed automatic transmission with TAPshift - we'll have to see if that actually works at all.
• Front Brembo brakes
• Sport Suspension - which is probably just a bad thing.

Here's the spec sheet if you're curious yourself.

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Chevrolet/northamerica/usa/nscwebsite/en/Home/Chevy%20Culture/News/PreReaveal%20SS/02-PDF/SS_HeroCard.pdf

Let me tell you something else that is of great concern to me: The new flagship sports sedan for Chevrolet is designed by a group of some Aussie horseback riders.

Yes. Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors has designed the Chevy SS.

Here is the Holden Commodore SS.

I do not feel that I need to argue this point any further. they are identical.

I simply find this to be rather intriguing, since within the next two years, I expect that many middle aged American men will be so excited to talk about their new personal 4-door race car that, to them, should be really be associated with Steve Irwin and Outback Steakhouse.

I am sure that the BBC Top Gear three just love this. The Americans stealing from Australia to have a decent sedan.

I am also fearful. Why you ask? Because, as a traditionalist American, I hate cars that have stupid designations like the LP640, or the MP4-12C. There is a simple reasoning behind this. I feel that cars are not just things. They aren't washing machines or robots. They have personalities. We can connect with them. I have only known one person to be okay with calling his friends C3PO and R2D2, and even then, they weren't his best friends. When it came down to it, Lando and Chewy were more personable.
So, I am okay with calling my car a Commodore, or a Stratos, or even a Fiesta. They are names that add to that character. I fear that Chevy will become like Infiniti or Lexus, who give their cars only these sort of code sequence designations. I don't want Chevy to let go of this character that they have had forever.

That's neither here nor there. 

I am genuinely, very anxiously, and hopefully anticipating the release of the bow-tie SS in the States. I think that it will be a good, solid little replacement for the SS Impala and SS Monte Carlo that Chevy has recently done away with entirely. 

I will be posting more later to confirm my happiness over what is likely going to be the best, somewhat reasonably priced GM car to have been released in the US for several years.

Until then, if you would like to make a commentary in regards to Australia becoming invested in middle-aged Americans, feel free.

The Viper

Lets start with a video about the history of the Viper, from its creation, up until today. 

http://vimeo.com/39664078

Right. So here's a little list of reasons why the SRT Viper is great.

1. Its roots: The Viper started basically as a dream, that took shape with a couple of guys with a passion for genuinely great, fast cars, working after hours for pure enjoyment. The Viper was born as a commitment to American muscle, but not in the way that we see so commonly, sacrificing handling and grip for tail-happiness and straight-line speed. The Viper is the American supercar.
2. The maker: Street and Racing Team, or SRT, has taken on different names since they first conceptualized the Viper in 1989, but their goal has remained the same: build a supercar that, while rooted in American muscle, can win against the best on a track
3. The performance: The engine is just a massive V10. The power that the Viper's engine puts out was enough to break the record time for an American production car around the Nürburgring in 2011 - only second in all "production" cars to the Gumpert Apollo. The Viper ACR of the same year also broke lap time records at Laguna Seca and won numerous events Le Mans.

But all those records was the old Viper. That is in the past.

This new 2013 Viper, is almost definitely going to be even quicker - take a second to think about that.

A picture comparison: notice the body styling and and the lines. They have barely changed.

This car was released for retail sale in 1991. Not far off a Ferrari 599. In truth, it looks so modern that I would buy this if it came out today. The Viper's production team was a group of visionaries.

Now two little things have changed that have drawn some complaints; the lights and the logo. The lights have been changed  due to new government mandates, that require headlamps to be a certain height. The logo was voted in by current Viper owners. Beautiful customer involvement strategy, SRT. Outside of those little things, the meat of it is the same. The engine and tuning is about the same, but apparently this one is going to handle better and be more grippy while cornering.

You may want to hear what is realistically wrong with this car, after all, the Americans could have never actually built a supercar that is any good, could they? Oh yes. They have done just that.

The only real complaint I heard that may be of concern to prospective buyers, or car enthusiasts was from racing car driver Randy Pobst, who, while taking the Viper around a track test at Laguna Seca, said it is "fun and satisfying, but you better be on your game if you're going to drive fast in a Viper." So okay, maybe its still a little bit of a bear to drive,  but I think that SRT weren't going for the same target market as Hyundai and Kia. 

Pobst also said that the "ride is terrible, but who cares on the track." He's exactly right about this. Viper drivers aren't into their speedy investment because is comfortable or plush. 

That, to me, is what's great about the Viper - unashamedly loud, uncomfortable, and blazing fast. And in addition to that, this can serve to silence all of those European petrol-heads, who seem to think that Americans can't make a proper supercar.

The old Viper was undoubtedly a wonderful car.
The new Viper is just as fantastic, but improved in terms of grip. I can't wait to see some of the records it'll break.

indisputably

GREAT CAR