It’s been a long time coming! GM has finally unveiled the Corvette ZR1, and its a beauty! I don’t even know where to begin here, so lets talk about appearances first. At first glance, the ZR1 doesn’t really look all that different from the current Z06, and that is probably due to the fact that the aluminum and magnesium frame of the current generation Z06 forms the basis of the ZR1. There is a carbon fiber splitter on the front, not dissimilar to the chin splitter found on the Le Mans winning Corvette C6R. The hood bulges out on the top to cover the impressive new engine, but on the top, lies a transparent lexan window to show off the powerplant. Moving to the side of the vehicle, an astute observer would notice 2 vertical fender vents. All that hot air in the engine bay has to go somewhere, and 2 massive holes aught to help that. The roof of the ZR1 is all carbon fiber, to help lower the center of gravity, and to make it look absolutely badass. But to help with the latter, GM spent a small fortune to develop a special clearcoat to put on top of the carbon fiber to help prevent resin oxidization, which on any other car would turn yellow and crackly over time. GM wanted to ensure the carbon fiber would look good for the lifespan of the vehicle, and apparently a gallon of the clear coat cost $60,000. The front clip of the ZR1 is also carbon fiber, although painted to match the rest of the vehicle.

Lets talk engines.
The new ‘Vette uses a new V8 LS9 engine, which produces at least 100hp per liter of displacement. Though GM hasn’t released any info about the power output, they told us that engine displacement is 6.2L. Now, obviously, simple minded folks wouldn’t be able to form the kind of hypothesis that I am about to, but then again, not everyone has been a 3 time winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for being a math whiz either. Not to brag or anything… I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that the ZR1 will produce between 620-650 horses. How do I come up with that number? I am a genius, that’s how.

Make the jump for more info on this beast of a Corvette
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A british car magazine claims to have inside information surrounding McLaren’s latest automotive offering, tentatively codenamed the ‘P11.’ This time around, it seems McLaren isn’t trying to break any records, or beat the Veyron and SSC in a battle for top speed supremacy. Instead, McLaren is seemingly taking a step downmarket! (It feels so wrong even saying that…)
The P11 is targeting Ferrari 430s and Porsche 911 GT2s. Not that this is a bad thing! Power is thought to come from an AMG sourced 6.3-liter V8, generating an expected 500 horsepower down through the rear wheels. The P11 should be quick, with an anticipated sub-4-second run to sixty and a top speed over 200 mph. It should be able to stop quickly as well thanks to carbon-ceramic brakes and a lightweight frame made from aluminum and carbon fiber.

The McLaren P11 will be the first new vehicle from the British company since they paired up with Mercedes to make the SLR. But everyone knows that McLaren’s major claim to fame is the F1 supercar, which for many years had held the record for its staggering top speed.

CAR says the renderings are fairly close to the mark for the supercar that will launch in 2010. In this blogger’s humble opinion, this is a very very good thing. Because these renderings have the potential to reverse the effects of advanced erectile dysfunction in a way that could make Viagra jealous. Plus, I haven’t seen such a sexy rear end since… well, since I woke up next to three supermodels this morning. Yep. That’s how I roll.

[Source: CAR online]

I came across something pretty interesting today while scouring the web for the latest automotive news. While this is certainly nothing new, I’d like to present you with Volkswagen’s answer to Ferrari. What you’re about to see is the promotional video for the 2001 Volkswagen Nardo concept car.

The Nardo had a top speed of 217 mph and reached 62 mph in around 3.5 seconds.i Powered by Volkswagens W12 engine, it has twice broken the world 24 hour speed record. In February 2002 it covered a distance of 7,749.4 kilometers at an average speed of 322.89 km/h.
Weighing just 1200kg, it is one of the fastest sports cars in the world.

I’m not entirely sure why it wasn’t made, although I would guess that it would cannibalize sales from Lamborghini, whom Volkswagen owns.
Either way, this was a sweet car!

[Source: Volkswagen]

Perhaps Hennessey Performance Engineering is best known for their twin turbo Hyper-Vipers. Indeed, nobody can make the Dodge Viper more more potent then the boys over at Hennessy, but the company is about to show you they are more than a one trick pony. They are preparing a mid-engined supercar of their own, called the Venom GT.

Built from lightweight composite materials, Hennessy hopes to shoehorn their 1000hp twin turbo Dodge Viper V10 engine into a package that tips the scales at no more than 2700lbs.We’re pretty bad at math, but fortunately someone else figured it out for us. The weight/power ratio is an astounding 2.7 lbs/horse. Figures like that translate to a 0-60 time of roughly 2.5 seconds, and a top speed that could make a bullet weep from inadequacy.

Now, if you’re looking at the concept photo shown here, and thinking “Hmm, that looks like a Lotus” you’re not alone. That sketch was penned by a British auto designer named Steve Everitt. Evidently, Steve was inspired by the Lotus Elise/Exige, but probably figured he could butch it up a bit.

Hennessy plans on creating 2 different concept cars by 2009 to gauge public interest in the vehicles. Their plan is to begin production at their factory in Houston shorty after, and are hoping that existing Hennessy Viper owners will make up the beginning of their customer base.

Now, I honestly did want to remain professional here, but then I remembered that I don’t actually make any money from this site so screw it. HOLY CRAP, This car is wild!

What are your thoughts on it? Love it or hate it, please leave a comment.

[Source: Autoblog]

(Make the jump for the press release)

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Honestly, We’re not entirely sure what this guy was attempting to do here, but we’re guessing he felt a bit like a douchebag afterwards. According to the YouTube user who submitted the video, the Veyron was being driven by a test driver at a local meeting in France.

There’s no way to tell if these pictures are legitimate, or just very high quality forgeries, but we don’t really care either. Just look at these photos! Its a beautiful vision!

We expect the car to use the same basic underpinnings of the hard top, with the same 4.2L v8 powerplant producing 414 rampaging horses. Audi ultimately plans on equipping the R8 with a Lamborghini sourced V10 engine which will make over 500hp.

Photos Courtesy of 4Wheelsblog.com

[Source: 4Wheelsblog.com]

NISMO, Nissan’s racing branch revealed that the GT-R will be replacing the Fairlady Z (350Z) in the 2008 Super GT Championship racing series. The car will compete in the top GT500 class. While Nissan hasn’t released any specifics, we’d wager a guess that the race GT-R will have the maximum allowable 500 horsepower.

We reported a few weeks ago that Nissan execs confirmed a GT-R Spec V will see production, and the V spec may produce even more horsepower.

Ultimately we’ll have to wait until February before Nissan releases any more details on the racer, but for the time being, you can make the jump to read their official press release.

[Source: Jalopnik]
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The Lamborghini Reventon is an astonishing piece of work. Only 20 examples are being built, each one selling for a ridiculous $1,000,000 sum. Sorry though, if you’re rich and crazy enough to want one. All 20 have been spoken for. Powered by the Mucielago LP640 v12 engine, the Reventon is capable of thrusting itself from 0-60 in just 3.4 seconds, and will only stop accelerating once the speedometer shows as going 211 miles per hour.

We have a video of Popular Science car reporter William R. Snyder as he took Reventon for its first test drive by the press. Warning: The video may cause slight arousal, and therefore we’ve moved the video after the jump.

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Nissan execs have confirmed that there will be a spec v variant of the GT-R. This means that we’ll soon get to drool over an even more powerful, lightweight version of the 473 horsepowered super car from the land of the rising sun.

The Spec V GT-R can be expected to become available in the U.S. market some time in 2010. There has been no details released on pricing or performance specs, but we guarantee you that as soon as we find out, you’ll be notified.

We suggest subscribing to our RSS feeds so that you can get your daily fix of Driver’s Life.

[Source: eGM Car Tech]
Image by by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

Dodge has just announced information about the 2008 Viper SRT10 through a press release which you can sink your fangs into after the jump. This iteration of the super snake has an incredible 8.4L SRT10 V-10 engine which pumps out 600 horses to the rear wheels. That’s 90 horses more than the last version!

We’ve got some high resolution images of the snake. Just click on them to open them in a new window. Make the jump for the press release.

[Source: Autoblog]
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