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The 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 Looked Insane at Goodwood

Vaughn Gittin Jr. was Behind the Wheel

The 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 is the most powerful street-legal Ford ever produced, and it had to be showcased at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Vaughn Gittin Jr. was behind the wheel, and after a smokey start, he launched the GT500 up the tight course.

The car comes with a 5.2-liter V8 that’s supercharged to a whopping 760 hp and 625 lb-ft of torque. It can do a 0-60 mph sprint in just 3.5 seconds and will do a quarter-mile run in just 11 seconds. The car is as powerful and quick as some supercars. It’s designed to put more expensive cars in their place, and it will look good while it does it.

Ford has slapped a $73,995 price tag on the Mustang Shelby GT500. That means the car is a little more expensive than its biggest rival from Dodge, the Challenger Hellcat Redeye. It has less power, too, but its 0-60 and quarter-mile times are extremely similar despite the power deficit.

Gittin Jr. appears to have no issues with the car as he sprints it up the course. The car hits triple digits at more than one point as it rockets along. It looks awesome in green, too. You can watch the full video below.

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July 11, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Has Built 200 of the 500 Chirons It Plans to Make

Bugatti’s Chiron is a Truly Impressive Machine

Bugatti has now built 200 of its Chiron supercars. The company plans to build 500 total. That includes the Chiron and Chiron Sport. The latest car was a specialized 110 ans Bugatti Chiron Sport. The model featured the Sky View glass roof option. The car is intended for a customer in Switzerland. Bugatti boss Stephan Winkelmann discussed his admiration for the car and the company’s hard work.

“You can’t feel anything but pride when you see this 200th Chiron emerge from the factory. The quality and dedication of everyone involved in a Bugatti car is unique in the world and demonstrates the passion that we bring to our work.”

The next 300 models of the Chiron to be built will take the company around four years, according to Motor Authority. Each Chiron takes 20 people around 10 months to build. There are around 1,800 parts included on the car. The company still has around 100 build slots available for the Chiron.

If you already own one and want a special Bugatti, the company will be building special coach-built versions each year. They’ll only do two of them a year, so you’ll need some influence and some seriously deep pockets to secure one of those slots.

July 11, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bentley EXP 100 GT Concept

This Is an Amazing-Looking Machine

Bentley has finally unveiled its EXP 100 GT Concept car and it’s simply stunning. It has the elegance of the company’s old cars but the technology and looks of a car from the future. Bentley says it’s looking ahead to 2035 with this car, and we definitely see it. If this is the future of motoring, we’re all for it.

The EXP 100 GT Concept comes with an all-electric powertrain that makes 1,340 hp and 1,100 lb-ft of torque. The model can do a 0-60 mph sprint in just 2.5 seconds. It tops out at 186 mph. While that’s very impressive what’s more impressive to us is that it has a range of 435 miles and can be recharged to 80 percent in just 15 minutes.

Stefan Sielaff, Bentley’s Director of Design spoke about the car a little bit as the company revealed it:

The Bentley EXP 100 GT represents the kind of cars we want to make in the future. Like those iconic Bentleys of the past, this car connects with its passengers’ emotions and helps them experience and safeguard the memories of the really extraordinary journeys they take.

In addition to its impressive powertrain and looks, the car also has an awesome artificial intelligence system called Personal Assistant. This system is supposed to preempt driver and passenger needs. There’s biometrics to monitor eye movement, temperature changes, etc. This is one advanced Bently, and we can’t wait for 2035.

July 10, 2019 / Comments Off

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This Is the Best New Outdoor Gear, According to Experts

While our team headed to Denver’s Outdoor Retailer to check out all the awesome adventure gear to look forward to in 2020, Europe has its own showcase for innovative products called OutDoor by ISPO, which went off last week in Munich. And amongst 203 items in 28 categories, judges chose just four Outstanding OutDoor Award winners. Here’s what caught their attention and is worth keeping an eye out for next year.

Vaude Redmont All-Weather Jacket

Judges loved the sustainability touches in this wind- and waterproof jacket. Vaude eliminated pesticides and herbicides from the organic cotton that forms the building blocks of this coat. All the accents, such as the trims and logo, are made of certified cork, keeping with the earth-friendly trend. Plus, the jacket looks great on city streets and the mountainside.

The North Face Futurelight Jacket

Our team is very familiar with The North Face’s newest technology, Futurelight, thanks to an Aspen ski trip this past winter. It’s no surprise that this waterproof yet breathable coat won at OutDoor by ISPO. Nano-spinning technology changes the level of breathability throughout the jacket, keeping it comfortable and waterproof through winter storms and sweaty uphills.

Petzl Mountaineering Belt Fly

Petzl’s newest harness aims to please ski mountaineers. The combination of metal and conventional buckles is both balanced and lightweight at just 90 grams. The comfort foam is removed to make more space for gear loops that will hold your ice axes, ropes, carabiners and more.

Adidas Terrex Myshelter Parley Jacket

This Adidas jacket passes muster with us too thanks to its cowl-like collar and beautifully tapered fit. The all-white three-layer piece is breathable (surprise!) and built to keep you dry during your commute. OutDoor by ISPO judges liked the blend of performance fabric with a lifestyle cut and design, plus the Parley sustainability mission means ocean plastic makes up at least part of this jacket.

July 9, 2019 / Comments Off

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Nissan Releases Pricing on the 2020 GT-R

The Revised Lineup Gets Its Numbers

Nissan has four wonderful trim levels of its 2020 GT-R. The vehicle comes in Premium, 50th Anniversary Edition, Track Edition, and NISMO. As the date of the U.S. debut for the car approaches, Nissan has let loose with pricing for the car.

The car will go on sale on July 25. When it does, it’ll come with a starting price of $113,540 for the Premium trim level. The 50th Anniversary Edition comes with a price tag of $122,040. Next up, the Track Edition is priced from $145,540. The NISMO version of the car comes in at $210,740.

The Premium version of the car gets all of the basic revisions that the car gets for 2020, including updated turbochargers, a new titanium exhaust, and active noise canceling and sound enhancement. The 50th Anniversary Edition comes with some special colors and materials inside and out.

The Track Edition gets 20-inch NISMO wheels, carbon fiber brakes, some exterior and interior aesthetic changes, and an engine tuned to 600 hp up from the base model’s 565 hp. Finally, the NISMO version of the car features a lighter overall weight, improved tires, brakes, wheels, and an improved gearbox.

Basically, if you want a Nissan GT-R, there’s a model for you. With such a difference in price between the base model and the NISMO, anyone seriously looking for a version of Godzilla should be able to get one.

July 9, 2019 / Comments Off

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Porsche Redesigned the 911 RSR for 2019

Improving a Car That’s Already Excellent

The Porsche 911 RSR is a car that has won more than 20 FIA World Endurance Championship races. Porsche hasn’t decided to rest on its laurels, though. The company didn’t even want to make evolutionary changes to its winning racecar. Instead, it replaced 95 percent of the car with all new components and parts, making the 911 RSR better than ever before.

In the last 911 RSR, the major design change was from a rear to a mid-mounted engine position. That change remains in the new car. What also remains is the headlights, brakes, clutch, driver’s seat, and a few other small parts in the suspension, according to Car Throttle. Everything else is all-new.

The engine grew to 4.2-liters, and now the naturally aspirated flat six-cylinder makes a strong 507 hp, which is up slightly from 503. The engine also has a wider rev band, and better power delivery and control. The transmission is a six-speed sequential constant-mesh manual gearbox.

There’s also a multi-disc, self-locking differential. Power goes to the rear wheels. The exhaust pipes have been rerouted and shorted, helping reduce weight. Porsche also reworked the exterior of the car and says it’s more aerodynamic than it has ever been before. If the old car won more than 20 races, you can bet that this one will win even more.

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July 8, 2019 / Comments Off

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Watch the McLaren GT Do a Run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

Beautiful Sights and Sounds

The McLaren GT made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This gorgeous grand touring car features a strong 4.0-liter V8 that makes 612 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. The car is able to utilize that power on the course at Goodwood for all to see. In the video included below, you’ll see and hear the car move through the course. It’s one of McLaren’s most elegant-looking cars ever, and the engine note is something wonderful to behold.

One of the reasons the GT sounds so good is because it has a bespoke exhaust system. While the engine itself isn’t all that different from the one found in other McLarens, the new exhaust gives it a distinctive and unique sound. This is exactly what you want from a supercar.

The GT also stands out from the rest of the McLaren lineup because it’s a straight up bigger car. The mid-engine vehicle is longer than any other McLaren. The car also has more luggage space than any other car, meaning it can be used as an everyday car. That doesn’t keep it from being fast, though. This car can do a 0-60 mph sprint in just over three seconds. It’ll do all the way up to 124 mph in just nine seconds. The top speed is 203 mph. You can view the GT getting down at Goodwood in the video below.

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July 5, 2019 / Comments Off

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Radical Sportscars Reveals a 350 Horsepower Street Legal Racer Called the Rapture

Literally a Race Car for the Road

Radical Sportscars has many racing cars for sale, but it just recently released a new road legal vehicle called the Rapture at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The car looks like a race car. That’s because, for the most part, it is a race car. The company focuses on lightweight construction and strong power. This car has both.

The car is built for UK roads and complies with the Individual Vehicle Approval framework. While the car will start in the UK, Radical Sportscars does have plans of taking this vehicle to other markets around the world. That will come at a later date, though. So, what is the Rapture, really?

The car is an exercise in lightweighting and aerodynamics. Its aerodynamic design means it creates plenty of downforce for track maneuvers. The car’s spaceframe chassis and composite bodywork help keep its weight down to only 1,687 pounds. Because the car is so aerodynamic and lightweight, it doesn’t need a massive engine.

Speaking of the engine, the car features a 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine sourced from Ford. That engine is mated to a six-speed sequential transaxle transmission and tune to 350 hp and 320 lb-ft of torque. To say this car is fast for a street-legal car is an understatement. It’ll do 0-60 mph in three seconds flat. The sprint up to 100 mph takes 8.4 seconds. The car tops out at 164 mph.

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July 4, 2019 / Comments Off

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The New De Tomaso P72 is a Stunning Machine

A Car Worthy of De Tomaso’s Name

De Tomaso revealed its new P72 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The company was revived just in time for its 60th anniversary, and the P72 is a car worthy of the company’s name and reputation. We knew the company was coming with something, but this is on a whole other level. The vehicle is said to be a modern-day classic by De Tomaso. It definitely takes cues from the company’s history books and past iconic supercars in general.

Ryan Berris, De Tomaso General Manager said the car is a special one that will help define a new area of the market. “A similar way the Pantera created a new category when it debuted in 1970, the P72 will create a new benchmark of its own,” said Ryan Berris, De Tomaso General Manager. “We have created a modern-day time machine that pays homage to an integral part of history and a car with its own provenance.”

Ideal Team Ventures acquired the rights to De Tomaso in 2014. Since then it has been working to revive the brand and the P72 is the car that will do it. The P72 features some of the sleekest and sexiest curves we’ve seen in a long time. Inside, the cabin looks like it was crafted for a king. It has polished copper and thick-looking leather all over the place. The gear shifter looks extremely intricate. The whole car has a kind of expensive and exclusive look to it that isn’t found elsewhere.

De Tomaso decided to keep technical specifications under wraps for a while longer. While we’d like to know, we’re also kind of glad. This allows people to fall in love with the P72 visually, and that’s not hard to do. Every inch of the car is like a piece of artwork. The details are important here, and that means the car should be quite good.

July 4, 2019 / Comments Off

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Ford Launched the GT Mk2 Track-Only Supercar at Goodwood

A Super Special Supercar

We knew Ford was going to release something special at Goodwood, and we knew it was going to be some kind of GT. The company has unveiled its latest creation. It’s the Ford GT Mk2. The car is a track-only supercar that’s a modified version of the race-spec GT. The Mk2 version of the car cannot be driven on the road, and it can’t be raced in any existing series.

First up, the engine. Ford went over the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 and tuned it to make 700 hp. The company outboard-mounted air cooler with water spray technology. There’s a big hood scoop designed to bring air to auxiliary engine parts, the clutch, and transmission. The transmission is the same seven-speed, dual clutch affair, but modified for the additional power.

Ford has also adjusted the exterior of the car, adding a new splitter, diffuser, dive planes, and a large rear wing. All told, the exterior enhancements manage to produce 400 percent more downforce than the street version of the car. This allows the car to pull 2 gs in the corners.

Ford will sell these cars for $1.2 million. The company won’t make very many of them, though. Only 45 of the cars will be built. That means the fastest version of the GT will be a scarce sight. This is one special car. We’d imagine Ford won’t have any trouble selling them.

July 4, 2019 / Comments Off

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VIDEO: Morgan Plus Six Review

A Modern Morgan?

The new Morgan Plus Six seems wrong to us in many ways. It’s a more modern Morgan, and isn’t the point of the Morgan to revel in the experience of driving a car that harkens back to an older age of driving? Well, Henry Catchpole of Carfection had some time to find out when he reviewed the Plus Six along some twisty roads in Wales on a summer day.

The car features Morgan’s new CX-Generation aluminum bonded platform. This car still has wood construction, but the underpinnings are mostly aluminum. As Catchpole finds out this new platform makes for the most direct and precise Morgan car yet.

Another departure for Morgan is the BMW-derived turbocharged straight-six, the same that’s in the Z4 and the Supra. This leaves the V8 engines of the past in the dust in terms of sophistication, but it still provides the speed you’re looking for. Catchpole says the improvements to the car, while they don’t mesh with what you typically think of when you think of Morgan’s vehicles, actually don’t ruin the Morgan for what it needs to be.

“To me, if you want a Morgan, then this still does all the things you want from a Morgan in terms of that charm.” That’s exactly what we want to hear. While the Plus Six is a new chapter in the Morgan story, it’s not a completely different narrative, and that’s good news, indeed.

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July 3, 2019 / Comments Off

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The BMW M5 Competition Is the Sports Sedan Supercar

The True Ultimate Driving Machine

The 2020 BMW M5 Competition is a special car. It takes the attractive but not ridiculously sporty looking 5-Series as a base for the car and then turns the dials up to 11. The car comes with 617 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque and that power gets sent to all four wheels via a slick 8-speed dual clutch transmission. That makes for a 0-60 mph time of just 3.1 seconds and a 10.9-second quarter-mile time.

The car is even more hardcore than the standard M5. Its minor power bump is complimented by 10 percent stiffer dampers. The anti-roll bars are also stiffer, and the car rides .28 inches lower. Instead of rubber mounts for the toe links, this car gets ball joints. All told the M5 is a sharper, stiffer, and even more performance-oriented M5. It should have no trouble competing with Mercedes-AMG E 63 S, and the Audi RS7 Performance.

Autoblog was able to take the M5 Competition to a racetrack in Monticello, New York, and came away from the experience seemingly in love with the car. Here’s a bit of what Lawrence Ulrich said in his review:

So is the BMW fun on track? Yes, in a mildly silly, tiger-shark-out-of-water fashion. But it’s twice as fun on the street, where the M5 Competition underscores its Autobahn-style ferocity and magisterial handling. Mopar fans may howl, but in most street situations, the M5 Competition will easily smoke even a Dodge Challenger Hellcat from a stoplight – minus the smoke. Where even skilled drivers can struggle to launch the rear-driven Hellcat without the tires lighting up like Cheech and Chong, the BMW sends every molecule of rubber and scrap of torque to the pavement.

That’s high praise for any car, and you have to give it to BMW. It sounds like they have a real winner on their hands. The 2020 BMW M5 Competition starts at $110,995. The car that Ulrich of Autoblog tested came with the carbon-ceramic brakes and that made the price rise to $132,095. Pricey, but we think this is one BMW that’s worth the price.

July 2, 2019 / Comments Off

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Chris Harris Drives the Dallara Stradale

A Lightweight Road Car Built for Speed

The Dallara Stradale is a wild machine. It looks futuristic and fast, and as Top Gear’s Chris Harris finds out, it is just that. Harris drove the car on the Top Gear track to showcase just how impressive this little car is. The Dallara Stradale is a road car, but its performance numbers mean its at home on the track. This is truly a racecar for the street.

The Dallara Stradale can sprint from a standstill to 60 mph in a little more than three seconds. The car has a top speed of 174 mph. It’s not the fastest vehicle out there, but it’s close, and it’s lightweight and agile, meaning its perfect for a twisty road or a racetrack.

The car is made almost entirely of carbon fiber this means it clocks around 1,900 pounds on a scale, which is about the same weight as some racecars. Pair that with all of the aerodynamic designs featured on this car, and you get a vehicle that can produce about 1808 pounds of downforce with the optional rear wing.

All told, the company says it’ll do lateral forces of around two gs. That’s force you won’t find in just about any other car on the road. Chris Harris sounds pretty excited about the car, and he is, as always fun to watch. Check out the whole video below.

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July 2, 2019 / Comments Off

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Lamborghini R&D Chief Dicusses the Death of the Manual Transmission in the Company’s Cars

A Sad Reality

The death of the manual transmission is a topic hotly debated among sports car and supercar enthusiasts. It’s true that a manual transmission enhances the driving experience in many ways. It’s also true that cars are often faster without them. Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s research and design chief, recently sat down with Road and Track to discuss why you’ll never see a manual transmission in a Lambo ever again. He said the following:

All the systems that are integrated in the car need to have a dialog with one another. The clutch is one of the fuses of the system, whether you’re engaging or disengaging the torque. This creates a hole in the communication between what the engine is able to provide and how the car reacts to the power of the engine. For this reason, unfortunately, I must say I am sure that in a premium supersports car like the Huracán, we will only do a semiautomatic.

Maurizio went on to note that he understands and enjoys manual transmission cars. He said that the issue is really about chassis control. It’s easier to control the chassis of the car with the modern day semi-automatic transmissions found in vehicles like the Huracán.

He also discussed some puzzlement over the idea that manual transmissions are held up as the purest driving experience. He said almost all new manual transmissions have servos at the clutch. This helps you keep from burning up the clutch. That means there’s a filter between the driver and the clutch. It’s not as pure as many people actually think.

High-powered Lamborghinis of the future and likely of most other cars will come with an automatic or semi-automatic transmission. With horsepower, torque, and the resulting speeds being so high, an automatic transmission simply makes more sense.

July 2, 2019 / Comments Off

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We Go Off-Roading in the All-New Jeep Gladiator Overland Pickup

In this episode of This Week In Gear: Will Sabel Courtney goes off-road in the all-new Jeep Gladiator; Tucker Bowe extolls the virtues of Naim’s $1,600 all-in-one speaker; Will Price introduces us to booze from New Riff Distilling; and Josh Condon reveals Issue Ten of the Gear Patrol Magazine.

This episode of This Week In Gear is presented by Flipboard, where quality content from the world’s best publishers and storytellers of every type is discovered.

Featured Products

Jeep Gladiator Overland

After a 30-year hiatus, Jeep’s Gladiator pickup truck nameplate has been reborn. Based on the Wrangler, it’s much longer and boasts an extended wheelbase to accomodate the bed out back while still retaining almost all the off-road chops Jeep is known for.

Naim Mu-so 2 All-in-one Speaker

The Naim Mu-so speaker system ($1,599) is a great all-in-one speaker option. It’s designed to work on its own or with Naim’s other speakers, but you can easily integrate it into an existing multi-room system thanks to built-in AirPlay 2 and Chromecast.

New Riff Distilling Whiskey

Few new whiskey makers stand out like New Riff. Unlike many of its craft competition, everything you need to know about its whiskey is right on the bottle – age statements, proof, non-chill filtered and age (you can find mashbills and production info online, too). Whiskey geeks are starting to take note.

Gear Patrol Magazine, Issue Ten

In this, our 10th magazine, we dive deep into innovation in all of its forms. We profile Levi’s head of global product innovation, the surprisingly complicated future of coffee, as well as the revolutionary power of meditation. And because any discussion of modernization has to include (semi-)autonomous vehicles, we pit a Tesla Model 3 Performance against a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL on a road trip through California to experience first-hand how much driving has changed.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here. In some instances, brands have provided access to, or loans of, the products included in this episode.

June 29, 2019 / Comments Off

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Production of the SSC Tuatara Begins

The 1,750 hp Hypercar Will Be Here Soon Enough

The 2019 SSC Tuatara was officially unveiled at Pebble Beach last year. Now the car has entered into production. The cars are being built in Richland, Washington. According to Carscoops, the first of these cars will be delivered in quarter three. After that first car is delivered, the company plans to keep churning the cars out.

The 2019 SSC Tuatara will be a true force to be reckoned with. The car is said to have the lowest drag coefficient of any production car out there. The car has a drag coefficient of 0.279. That’s better than Bugatti, Koenigsegg, and Hennessey. The Tuatara is powered by a twin-turbo 5.9-liter V8. When it runs on the right fuel it will produce 1,750 hp. That means SSC should have a good chance at hitting 300 mph, which is a goal all hypercars are chasing right now.

The engine is mated to a 7-speed transmission that operates on a special hydraulic Automac AMT system. The setup should help the car make faster gear changes, which would help the car accelerate quicker. Performance numbers in terms of 0-60 mph times and top speed are still being kept secret. The number of models the company plans to produce in total was also not listed. We hope it’s a lot of them.

June 28, 2019 / Comments Off

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Aston Martin Will Have a Manual Available for the New Vanquish

Aston Upholding Its Promise

Aston Martin’s CEO Andy Palmer has said in the past that he wants to be the last company out there to offer a manual transmission. That means the car company will have to be able to offer one on its upcoming new models. According to Car Sales, the manual is now a definite thing in for the new mid-engine Vanquish.

This is an interesting and honestly smart move by the automaker. Sure the number of people who want a manual transmission might be pretty low, but Aston will be one of the few companies out there with a mid-engine supercar with a manual transmission. This makes the Vanquish even more of an alluring car in the eyes of many people.

What manual transmission will be used, Palmer did not say. Motor Authority suggests it would be the 7-speed that was recently added to the Vantage.

Palmer’s comments might make you think that all of Aston’s cars will have available manual transmissions, but that’s not the case. The upcoming Valhalla will not offer a manual. When asked if it would Palmer said, “No, now that car will only come with a paddle-shift transmission.” That’s unfortunate but not surprising. A paddle-shift transmission makes sense for that car.

June 28, 2019 / Comments Off

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Dodge Unveils the Charger Hellcat Widebody and Scat Pack Widebody

Two Widebody Muscle Sedans

Just the other day we reported on the teaser that Dodge posted for its new Charger variants. Now the company has officially revealed the cars. Meet the Charger Hellcat Widebody and the Charger Scat Pack Widebody. The two cars will be added to the Charger range in 2020.

The Charger Hellcat Widebody is exactly what you think it is. The company took the venerable supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that’s used in other Hellcat models and put it in the Charger. Yep, 707 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, baby. Then the boys at SRT decided to widen the car by 3.5 inches overall. The car can do a 0-60 mph sprint in just 3.6 seconds. It will run a 10.96 quarter mile time. It can also pull .96 g on the skidpad, which means it’ll handle pretty well around a track, too. It has a top speed of 196 mph.

The Scat Pack Widebody gets the same widebody treatment. Under the hood, the car gets the naturally aspirated 6.4-liter V8 engine that makes a hearty 485 hp. This car obviously isn’t quite as fast as its Hellcat brother but it’ll still do a 0-60 mph time in 4.3 seconds and run the quarter mile in 12.4 seconds. It manages to pull a slightly better .98 g on the skidpad, so it’s also a decent handling machine, too.

It’s amazing that Dodge can keep powering on with the Charger. The design is an old one that dates back more than a decade, but the company keeps finding new ways to make it enticing. These two models are by far the most impressive performance versions yet.

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June 27, 2019 / Comments Off

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The Ferrari 250 GTO Recognized as a Work of Art by Italian Court

They’re Not Wrong

In a blow to companies who are seeking to make replicas of the iconic Ferrari 250 GTO, an Italian court recognized the car as a work of art, which means it can’t be copied or reproduced without consent from Ferrari. According to The Telegraph, the court decision came after Ferrari found out there was a company in Modena that planned to build replicas of the 250 GTO. The company started a petition for the design and intellectual property rights to be recognized.

In a commercial tribunal, the court ruled in favor of Ferrari. It designated the car was a work of art. Therefore couldn’t be replicated in the manner that the company planned to. The court ruling stated, “the customization of the car’s lines and its aesthetic elements have made the 250 GTO unique, a true automobile icon.”

The Ferrari 250 GTO is one of the most highly sought after classic cars out there. It makes sense that companies would want to copy its design. There were only 36 of the cars made, and those cars go for obscene prices at auction. Last year, one went up for auction and sold for $48 million. With the real item demanding that kind of price, it makes sense that people would be interested in replica cars. They’d go for a fraction of the price. That won’t be happening, though.

June 27, 2019 / Comments Off

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Audi May Build a GT3-Inspired R8 for the Street

An Upgrade to the R8

We recently reported that the current Audi R8 would be the last R8 generation. However, that doesn’t mean Audi has plans of letting the car languish as this generation of the car moves forward. A report from PistonHeads indicated that Audi Performance boss Oliver Hoffman wants to build a higher-performance version of the model based on the GT3 racing car. This model would borrow heavily from that car but it would be a street car.

Hoffman said that in order to meet some of the high-performance offerings from other manufacturers, like Porsche, the company should add another version of the R8 to its lineup. He said people love the GT3 R8 but they want to be able to drive that car on the street. It sounds like it could be pretty easy to make it happen, too, according to Hoffman.

The racing car engine is almost identical to the road car’s, so that’s already proven, but we have the GT3 drivers doing chassis testing for us. For example, Frank Stippler, he’s driving our GT3 car and is also our development guy doing the Nurburgring testing for road cars.

All this is good news. It’s nice to see Audi continuing to work on and come up with new ideas for the R8 even as it draws ever closer to eventual discontinuation. We have a feeling there are still great things to expect from the V10 supercar.

June 27, 2019 / Comments Off

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