The most recent AutoWeek magazine (see www.autoweek.com) has a news flash in it regarding the fastest road-registered car. The record for nearly seven years had been the almighty McLaren F1 at 240.1 mph. Most people didn't think it would be beaten, except possibly by the upcoming Bugatti Veyron (see http://www.bugatti-cars.com/bugatti/index.html). In fact, many in the industry did NOT expect the Veyron to beat that number, because although it should have the power to do so (987 hp and 938 lb-ft of torque from a quad (!!!) turbo, 64 valve, 8.0 liter W-16 engine), the company has been having aerodynamic difficulties in addition to problems finding a tire company to build a 250 mph tire. Therefore, the latest news was the company had dropped its target top speed from the 250 originally quoted to a 'more modest' 230 mph. In that case, obviously, the McLaren's record would be safe. However, the news in AutoWeek claims that a German Porsche tuner company, 9ff (see http://www.9ff.de/Englisch-htm/home-eng.htm), last December set a new record at the Nardo track in Italy. AutoWeek claims the new time is 241.1 mph, while the company's website claims 243 mph. Either way it is crazy, crazy fast, especially coming from the car it did. The car was...? You guessed it, my favorite car, the Porsche 911 GT2. Here are some numbers from the tuned GT2: 3.8 (up from stock 3.6) liter twin-turbo inline six; 828 horsepower (!!!) at 7200 rpm; 649 lb-ft of torque at 6450; 2860 pound curb weight. That translates to a 3.5 power-weight ratio, which would put it in a third place tie on my power-weight ratio chart (behind the F50GT (see Post below), the ME412 (see Post below), and tied with the McLaren F1 LM version. Good sweet gracious. The German company says they are planning on building up to 20 cars at $400,000 a pop. Pretty crazy. I'll take two please.
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