The Biggest Hammer Of Them All Is Sharper Than Ever
We would love to be able to look you square in the eye and say, “All you need to know about the can be summed up in one figure: 662.” After all, that’s the obscene amount of horsepower ripping at the rear tires courtesy of the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 under the hood. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. For the first time in its life, the GT500 has found itself lined up against a legitimate competitor in the . The muscle car/supercar crossbreed from General Motors is stitched to conquer not only the quarter mile, but nation’s road courses as well.
In order to answer that threat, the engineers at have laid a hand on nearly every mechanical and electrical system on board the GT500. While that means the blown V8 churns out a diabolical 112 more horsepower than the previous model, it also means the top-tier now comes with tricks like user-selectable Bilstein dampers, adjustable electronic power steering, larger brakes and an array of optional cooling systems. In fact, if this car came wrapped in a slightly different shade of sheetmetal, we’d be talking about an all-new model instead of a refresh.
It’s darn near impossible to overemphasize the impact that has had on the automotive world as we know it today. Born in 1923, Shelby took part in his very first race, a quarter-mile drag, in 1952. Later that year, he’d go on to win his first road race in an MG-TC. By 1956, Shelby had garnered enough race wins to earn the title “Driver of the Year” from Sports Illustrated. He would win that award again in 1957.
Carroll Shelby was nothing if not a keen businessman. In early 1957, Shelby opened his first car dealership in Dallas, Texas. Bolstered by his success behind the wheel – Carroll won the 24 Hours of in 1969, driving an – Shelby went on to build the iconic using a chassis built by in England and powered by a V8 engine. Officially homologated in 1962, the Cobra Roadster won its first race in January of 1963.
Driven by legendary drivers like Phil Hill, A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney, the Shelby Cobra and its aerodynamic Daytona Coupe sibling won the Sports Car Club of America’s A-production title and the United States Road Racing Championship in ‘63. The following year brought with it the big-block 427 Cobra, and the machine went on to deal serious blows to , the dominant sports car manufacturer of the time.
Shelby began his long-running relationship with the Ford factory in 1965, as the Shelby GT350 hit both the street and the race track. That year, Shelby secured the FIA World Championship of GT cars. In 1966, a Shelby-backed Ford team finished in first, second and third place at Le Mans; this was the first time an American team claimed victory in the historic race, but it would not be the last – Shelby’s team would go on to win Le Mans again in 1967. The Ford GT40 ended up in first place four straight years from 1966-1969.
The Shelby GT350 claimed the Trans Am racing title in 1967, and in that year, the very last 427 Shelby Cobra was built. In 1970, Ford ended its partnership with Shelby, and the man would remain mostly quiet in the automotive industry until the 1980s, when approached Carroll about building high-performance versions of products. The Omni and would Go Like Hell for several years, embarrassing V8-powered Mustangs and Camaros along the way.
Carroll Shelby received a heart transplant in 1990 and would go on to reintroduce Cobra 427 S/C continuation cars and 4000-series cars throughout the 1990s. Shelby was also involved heavily with both the and programs. No wonder why Carroll Shelby was inducted into the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
Today, the name Shelby may be most often tied to the latest and greatest models from Ford, but it’s clear that the man has impacted the performance world for decades. While he may no longer be alive, there can be little doubt that Carroll Shelby’s influence will be felt by enthusiasts for as long as cars move us from one place to another.
We’ve collected a couple of videos that we thought were a fitting tribute to Shelby’s unending legacy. Join us in watching them by .
General Motors stock has been , failing to climb past $30 per share since July of last year. Trading at around $22 per share today, the optimism that surrounded the company’s emergence from bankruptcy and in November 2010 has all but vanished. So it’s no wonder that the United States Treasury has decided to sit on its GM shares, with no plans to sell of its remaining 26 percent stake in the automaker.
According to The Detroit News, the Treasury believes that GM is underpriced given the changes that have happened at the company. Assistant Treasury Secretary Time Massad told the News, “Our perspective is that the company has made real progress, but the market hasn’t given them as much credit for that as it might.”
The government stands to lose $15 billion on the bailout at today’s stock prices, according to the report. Of the $49.5 billion spent on the bailout, the government has already recouped roughly $23 billion in reducing its stake in GM from the 61 percent it once held. GM shares would have to more than double in value to $53 for the Treasury to break even in liquidating the 500 million shares it still owns, according to the report.
When Lingenfelter Performance Engineering announced it had in its tuned , the man guiding the wheel was Hot Rod editor-in-chief Dave Freiburger. We of the run in the 702-horsepower – that’s at the wheels – coupe, but in the latest episode of Hot Rod Unlimited, Freiburger offers the long-form backstory of what it took to get to 202.6 mph exactly.
Continental Tire’s proving grounds in Uvalde, Texas aren’t Italy’s Nardo Ring (where the did 202 mph), and there was much more involved than keeping steady on the straights and hanging on the banks. for the video.
The folks at Motor Authority snagged some spy video of the new hitting the Nürburgring. Unfortunately, rain hit the ‘Ring first, so while there are still some potent exhaust noises emanating from the 662-horsepower ‘Stang, there isn’t a lot of tearing it up on the slick surface.
Let’s talk nemesis, namely the 580-horsepower Camaro ZL1. The battleground established, the folks turned their verbal turrets on the Shelby and fired high-impact rounds – see Exhibits and – on their way to setting an time and a “Holy smokes!” . Since there’s no reason to dawdle round the ‘Ring, we have to expect that Ford’s fly-by has some sort of recon purpose.
As many will bring up once the time is set, the Shelby has a mess of advantages on paper: more horsepower, more torque, less weight. No matter, for as Cormac McCarthy wrote, there will be blood. We still don’t know whose blood it will be, but oh yes, one of these cars is going to bleed. Embedding of this video has been disabled, so follow the link to watch the Shelby in action.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. The sentiment certainly applies to cars as well, but doubly so. Years of driving and photographing new vehicles have taught us that you can’t evaluate a new model – or even judge its styling – based on photos alone, no matter how good or bad the images or the sheetmetal might seem. And you can’t really know anything until you get that car off the auto show stand and out in the wild, driving it on the street in its natural habitat.
We explain this because when we first spied the new , we didn’t think much of it: Mostly carryover front fascia, grafted-on taillights, Bangle butt. Move along, nothing to see here. But a funny thing happened when we got behind the wheel of the Malibu Eco for a week. We warmed up to it. We actually liked it.
We’ve taken the bone-stock down the quarter-mile drag strip at Bondurant in Arizona . The very first pass we made netted us a time slip in the mid-12-second range. That’s an impressive performance for a car wearing road-legal radial tires with zero preparation and a driver familiarizing himself with the car.
We instantly knew this car was capable of more, and wondered how long it would take before we saw our first elapsed time in the 11s. Turns out the wait is over.
itself is the perpetrator of the blazing-fast quarter mile. engineers took two completely stock ZL1 coupes to Milan Dragway in Michigan – one automatic and one manual – and recorded a best pass of 11.93 seconds at 116 miles per hour. That was with the automatic; the row-your-own model managed 11.96 at 117 mph.
Those looking to drag their new Camaro ZL1 ought to be pleased with this news. But even if your race track aspirations lean more toward a curvy strip of asphalt, the baddest production ever made has you covered. Consider its as proof of its prowess.
Likely sensing that there would be plenty of Ford fans skeptics demanding proof of its quarter mile performance, Chevrolet has released a video showing off its drag strip exploits at Milan. for the video, along with the related press release… and join us in waiting for a from .
*UPDATE: We’ve placed a call to Chevrolet inquiring whether these times were recorded on stock tires, as the press release indicates, or on drag radials. We’ll add another update as soon as we hear back.
We’ve taken the bone-stock down the quarter-mile drag strip at Bondurant in Arizona . The very first pass we made netted us a time slip in the mid-12-second range. That’s an impressive performance for a car wearing road-legal radial tires with zero preparation and a driver familiarizing himself with the car.
We instantly knew this car was capable of more, and wondered how long it would take before we saw our first elapsed time in the 11s. Turns out the wait is over.
itself is the perpetrator of the blazing-fast quarter mile. engineers took two completely stock ZL1 coupes to Milan Dragway in Michigan – one automatic and one manual – and recorded a best pass of 11.93 seconds at 116 miles per hour. That was with the automatic; the row-your-own model managed 11.96 at 117 mph.
Those looking to drag their new Camaro ZL1 ought to be pleased with this news. But even if your race track aspirations lean more toward a curvy strip of asphalt, the baddest production ever made has you covered. Consider its as proof of its prowess.
Likely sensing that there would be plenty of Ford fans skeptics demanding proof of its quarter mile performance, Chevrolet has released a video showing off its drag strip exploits at Milan. for the video, along with the related press release… and join us in waiting for a from .
The General wants more rear-wheel drive vehicles in its lineup and has plans to bring a few more to America, including a sedan and possibly a wagon and sport utility, according to .
GM already sells a rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet sedan in the U.S., but only sworn law enforcement officers are allowed to drive it: The Chevrolet Caprice PPV.
Now, GM will reportedly build a civilian offshoot of the the PPV and market it as the SuperSport sedan, as we . Under the hood would be GM’s 6.2-liter V-8 creating more than 400 horsepower. That SuperSport badge will also go onto Chevrolet’s NASCAR entry next year.
Car and Driver reports that after the V8 SuperSport launches, a milder 300-plus-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 model will follow. By 2015, when the rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform is improved, production of this vehicle (as well as the PPV) will come to America, thus opening up the market for more police car sales, as some local governments can only buy American-made cruisers.
Furthermore, GM is considering building a rear-wheel-drive wagon as well as a sport-utility (read: ute) model. The updated Zeta II platform can handle both vehicles, especially since the next-generation Camaro will be shifting to the new Alpha platform that will underpin the and next-gen .
Really, all of these vehicles are derivatives of the , which is still on sale as the Holden Commodore in other markets. It was, arguably, the best Pontiac ever made. Bringing cars, wagons and utes like that to America, under any name or brand, is an immigration policy we can fully endorse.
had a bright start to the 2012 Pirelli World Challenge season, capturing its first podium in the series earlier this month with a solid third place finish at the Streets of Long Beach. It looked like Kia was going to build on that momentum this past weekend when its two race cars found themselves in a 1-2 position with just a few laps left in the race. Would Kia capture their first World Challenge win in spectacular fashion? Well, the result was spectacular, but not in the way Kia would have preferred.
With just one lap to go, the two Kia teammates had developed a comfortable cushion between themselves and the rest of the GTS class field, and it seemed they would cruise home to a 1-2 finish. Apparently Colin Braun, driver of the No. 38 Kia, wasn’t about to let his teammate, Michael Galati, take the win that easily and made several bold attempts to pass with just a few turns to go. In the last corner of the last lap, Braun pushed too far and smacked into the rear fender of Galati, spinning him off track in the process.
The third place of Peter Cunningham was collateral damage, leaving a pleasantly surprised Andy Lee to burst through the wreckage and take the checkered flag in his . Braun managed to finish second while his teammate Galati got back on track fast enough to finish in fourth. In a fitting twist of irony, the crash was reportedly named the Kia Turning Point of the Race.
You can watch the race footage over at . In case you don’t want to sit through all 65+ minutes of footage (although it’s an entertaining race), fast forward to the 56:30 mark to watch the final lap carnage. You can also read all about the race in the official results .
With the putting out 662 horsepower and 631 pound-feet torque, we’re guessing that more than a few owners of the new will be looking to even things up via the aftermarket. The speed-obsessed guys over at are already putting a few options on the table with a three new upgrade packages that boost the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 to anywhere from 630 to 700-plus horsepower.
Apparently, Lingenfelter was eager to prove the merits of its work, and just a couple weeks after taking delivery of an early production Camaro ZL1 had it out on the track putting down times. The test car, pushing out 720 horsepower, laid down a 10.79 second quarter mile pass at Muncie Dragway in Albany, IN, and later recorded a 202 mph top speed at Continental Tire’s proving grounds earlier this week. Coincidentally, that’s the same top speed that the 2013 Shelby GT500 reached during its high speed testing at the Nardo Ring in Italy last year.
You can read more about Lingenfelter’s upgrade packages for the 2012 Camaro ZL1 as well as more details on the high speed test in the press release .
You’ve never seen a 1981 Yenko Camaro? Maybe that’s because only 19 were made and they usually sell for well north of what a new will cost you from your local dealer.
One gorgeously restored, matching numbers example is on eBay Motors for the eye-watering Buy-It-Now price of $180k. But please consider the car’s claimed history and stat sheet before passing judgement.
As the legend goes, in 1969, of Murray, Pennsylvania took a 12-year break from modding Camaros. But low compression ’80s engines got under the skin of , and in 1981, the tuning legend proceeded to cram a turbocharged, four-barrel, 350 V8 under the hood of the second-generation car. Horsepower on the rare Yenko is unclear, but it should definitely be way more than the stock Z-28’s meager 175 hp. Reports suggest this was to be , and the owner of this eBay find says this one is the very last 1981 Yenko produced.
On top of all that, the Charlotte, North Carolina seller says that the car has fewer than 30k miles, some of which were supposedly put there by curious automotive journalists. The winning bidder will get the original build sheet, window sticker and a production intent letter signed by Don Yenko.
In the high-stakes world of performance cars, horsepower is king. It’s the first stat bragged about by owners trying to explain why their , or is better than their foes’, and it’s the headline figure promoted by the automakers themselves year after year.
When announced that the would be punishing the pavement with , the world stood up and took notice. Remember, though, these were just estimated figures, as the car had not yet been SAE certified. If reports from the Team Shelby message board prove accurate, the 2013 GT500 has finally gotten its official figures.
How’s about 662 horsepower and 630 pound-feet of torque?
Yep, that’ll do. It’s notable that these figures represent increases of 12 horsepower and 30 lb-ft over the earlier estimates, and they also put even more distance between Ford’s top-performing Mustang and Chevy’s 580-horsepower . It also means the Shelby lays down considerably more ponies that the and its 638 horsepower and 604 lb-ft.
Now, will we see a corresponding horsepower-addled response from or ? Only time will tell.
There’s a that the designers at might have been dreaming about before they penned the Lithia. We don’t think this kind of inspiration is anywhere near criminal, though, and before anyone broaches the topic of Chinese design, they should know that the is an ex-General Motors man: , who has work on the and the on his resume.
CH Auto helps automakers prepare cars for sale in China, from design through to engineering – part of Darancou’s brief is to make sure those two departments work together. The Lithia, showed off at the , has probably been done as a company calling card. Powered by lithium-ion batteries, the spec sheet claims a 150-kilometer range (93 miles).
Last year aimed cameras at the the 150 Camaros making the drive to Phoenix for Camaro5 Fest. The footage has been pieced together into a ten-minute documentary called Alter Ego, a celebration of owners in celebration of their cars.
It’s more than that, though, since it pauses to take a look at the model that made the name, and the annus horribilus of 2002 when Camaro production ceased.
There’s also lots of tire smoke. Naturally. to watch.
If you’ve got an hour to kill and an itch to watch some exciting Targa Newfoundland action, we’ve got good news for you. SPEED has been kind enough to stream the network’s one-hour special free online. The episode spends plenty of time following both the Modern and Classic divisions with barely a nod toward Open or Grand Touring. That’s a shame for plenty of reasons, both because the competition was incredibly tight across the board this year and because I hung out with in both the latter classes during my .
Still, the Flyin’ Miata guys get a little time on screen. The rest of the coverage details the fight between Scott Giannou in his and Bob Yuille in his . There’s also plenty of interviews with Ralph Gilles. You can check out the full episode by clicking .
Some would say that the already looks like a car come to life when fitted with the factory installed 20- or 21-inch alloy wheels. But others – including the folks in this video, apparently – would say that those wheels simply aren’t large enough. Twenty-fours? Still too small. Twenty-sixes? You’re getting warmer.
No, the Camaro you see here is rolling on 32-inch wheels – in chrome, of course. We can’t even imagine how this hinders the Camaro’s drivability, but as for whether this modification is hot or not, we’ll leave that for you fine readers to discuss in the comments.
to see two videos starring the donked-out Camaro coupe, as well as a matching droptop model, as well.
On the surface, drag racing seems so simple. Apply right foot liberally, keep the vehicle pointed down track and wait for a quarter mile to pass. Unfortunately, the real world is rarely so black and white. Pesky details like applied horsepower, traction and the fallibility of materials results in all manner of challenges. Just ask the driver of the in the video . Shortly after launch, the high-horsepower machine sheds its left axle. With a massive racing slick under full thrust, the resulting carnage is, well, impressive.
The video is a pleasant rarity in the drag racing universe. Not only are we afforded a look at the ensuing drama from inside the cockpit, but a solid look at just how quickly a situation can turn hairy from outside as well. for yourself.
Episode #277 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Executive Editor Chris Paukert are joined by to chat about the . Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #276:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:26:42
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There are many names you could associate with tuning, but few are as iconic as Steve Saleen. The American tuner extraordinaire made a name for himself tweaking the muscle coupe under the Saleen brand until he left his own company to start SMS Supercars. But now that the two have been , word has it that Saleen is moving ahead with plans to produce a new mid-engine exotic to follow in the footsteps of the famed S7.
Saleen, as you may recall, branched out of tuning pony cars with the S7 in 2000. The car packed a 7.0-liter V8 that was later twin-turbocharged up to 750 horsepower to make it good for a 0-60 run in under three seconds and a top speed of nearly 250 mph. The car endures as an American performance icon, but while an S5S Raptor concept (pictured above) was showcased four years ago at the , the schism between the two Saleen companies kept it from ever seeing the light of day.
With that ugliness now behind us, however, Autoweek reports that Steve Saleen is intent on picking up where the S7 and S5S left off. Getting to that point is expected to take Saleen a while, but in the meantime, he’s working at integrating the two operations. The SMS facility in California will continue building the cars – White Label for mild upgrades, Yellow Label for supercharged models and Black Label for the works – while his Saleen facility in Michigan will distribute the parts. Look for a tuned to come rumbling around the corner in the near future.
