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 :-(

Agera R - the best of Sweden

If you ever wondered which hypercar is the most hyper, Koenigsegg's got an answer - Agera R. Let me show you some figures to prove my point. This beast has, and there is no other way of saying it, 1115 horsepower (using bioethanol E85) and over 1200 torques! All of them powering the 345/30 R20 rear tires, 345!!! Those tires are so wide you could park another car on them. But wait, Bugatti have made an 8-liter W16 engine to produce those figures, how could Koenigsegg make such an engine? Well, they started from scratch, this one is powered by Koenigsegg's own alluminium twin-turbocharged 5-liter V8. And here's some more - Agera R just set some new records:

• 0-300 km/h = 14.53 s
• 0-200 mph = 17.68 s
• 300-0 km/h = 6.66 s
• 200-0 mph = 7.28 s
• 0-300-0 km/h = 21.19 s
• 0-200-0 mph = 24.96 s

Would you just look at this sweet design.

I'm telling you - if this car was any faster, it would travel in time! You get basically the same performance as Bugatti Veyron SS (0-100 km/h is 0.4 second slower - 2.9s), stunning looks, more fun and it costs half the price of an SS. So this is the car to buy if you've got 1 million euros. Or is it?

   If you are the type of a person that loves the smell of a proper V8 in the morning, eats tires and drinks petrol, you should consider buying something a bit crazier, something even faster, something American. Hennessey have gone completely mad - they've used Lotus Exige's bodywork, pumped it up a little bit, ditched the 1.8-liter engine and put some Corvette engine back in. And turbocharged it, a lot! Thus the Venom GT was born. The V8 now produces up to 1200 horsepower!!! In a car that weighs just a bit over 1000 kilos. Top speed of this car is 440 km/h, oh my god! They are only making ten GTs, so you better hurry up and prepare one million dollars as well.

Venom GT - the craziest car around

Anyway, I'd like to apologize for not updating my blog during this week, I had an all-week-long houseparty. So I'm resuming to my usual 2 posts per 3 days :-)

Nürburgring record

Earlier this year Peugeot set a new electric car record around the Nürburgring. 9m 1.338s was almost a minute faster than previous record holder, Peugeot used their high-performance EX1 Concept electric car, a 340bhp all wheel drive beast. But the 'Ring demands some serious competition and to hold a lap record there is very prestigious.

 

Peugeot EX1 Concept

It didn't take long to beat that record again - by Toyota. About a week ago they let their own high-performance electric car TMG EV P001 (this really sounds like a kitchen appliance) lap the 'Ring and it did it in 7m 47.794s! This Radical-based 375bhp racer wiped the previous record so hard Peugeot's executives shed a tear...

Toyota TMG EV P001

To put this time in perspective, let me show you some other cars that lapped the 'Ring in 7m 47s - Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 and Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. And here are some other amazing lap times:

• production vehicles - Radical SR8 LM - 6m 48s
• non-series vehicles - Pagani Zonda R - 6m 47.5s (fastest road-legal car)

And the absolute record holder Porsche 956 at 6m 11.13s driven by Stefan Bellof in 1983. I will definitely come back to this legendary car later, it deserves it!