Thursday, November 17, 2011

Keating TKR

SSC Ultimate Aero TT
Do you remember the first generation of hypercars? The first one was Köenigsegg CCR, a completely bonkers beast from Sweden producing 800 horsepower and maxing out at 241 mph. But then came Volkswagen and said they wanted to produce the fastest production car, not with 800 hp, nor with one thousand, it had to be 1001! So they ressurected Bugatti and made the Veyron, possibly the best piece of engineering out there. It was a bit faster (254 mph), thus they succeeded in the quest of producing the fastest car. Not for long though - Shelby decided it has to be the US to make the fastest one. Few months later they made the SSC Ultimate Aero TT which was 2 miles an hour faster than the Veyron. And it took Bugatti 3 years to strike back with Veyron SS, capable of 267 mph. Are you trying to say there was no faster car then the SSC Ultimate Aero for 3 years? Of course not, there was one... And this is the story of one completely forgotten car.



Keating TKR
Once upon a time there was one man who had a dream - to build his own car. His name was Anthony Keating, the owner of Keating Supercars. He had a foolish idea to make a car so fast it will outrun all the hypercars and still run smoothly at 260 mph. They were capable of building such a chassis, but there was no engine that powerful. So Anthony called his friends in the US - Nelson Racing Engines. I'll definitely write another story about NRE, because they deserve it. Let's just say for now that they make engines so powerful, that I just simply can't believe it. Anthony used one of NRE's 427 TT Hot Rod Series engine, producing... wait for it... here it comes... one thousand and seven hundred horsepower! 1700 hp!!! Oh my god!


Keating TKR at El Mirage dry lake
The car was finished and ready to be tested, so they took it to El Mirage dry lake to make a run. They knew it was fast, so the staff from the Guiness Book of World Records was invited. It did 260.1 mph... That doesn't sound that much faster than the SSC, but keep in mind it ran out of track, there was still so much more power left in the engine, it could easilly do a few more miles an hour. I am just speechless, once more I have found a car that almost nobody knew of and it was the fastest production car ever made. And sorry for the big pause on my blog - Skyrim stole my soul :-(



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