Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology (SRT) brand, which is now a separate brand for performance vehicles and motorsport activities across the various brands in the Chrysler group, has unleashed the fifth generation of what was previously the Dodge Viper at the New York Auto Show this past week! The new Viper carries on the tradition of the previous generations of the Viper, sporting a naturally aspirated 8.4 liter V10 and a six-speed manual transmission. The engine now pushes out 640 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque!
SRT Viper strikes out!
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According to Nissan’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, the Datsun brand will be making a comeback since it’s disappearance in 1981. This will make Datsun the third brand in the Nissan stable, alongside Nissan and Infiniti and will reappear in 2014! Back in the 1960s and 1970s Datsun made some great cars, such as the Datsun 2000 Roadster of 1967 and its successor, the Datsun 240Z, not to mention the Datsun 510! In 1981 the Datsun nameplate disappeared when the Nissan nameplate replaced it.
What does a Ford Mustang GT and €8,000 get you? If you ask the guys at Reifen Koch they’d say the Konquistador! So what’s that you ask? Something pretty!
Apparently Nissan will be returning to the Australian V8 Supercar Series with V8 powered Nissan race cars to be run by Kelly Racing, which will be fully-fledged Nissan factory team from 2013 and will have access to the resources of NISMO, Nissan’s internal motorsport division. Nissan will enter under the Car of the Future program, which was designed to attract competitors and sponsors to Australia’s premier race series.
Mini has announced a change in approach to participation in the World Rally Championship (WRC) which was initially set to be a full-works entry into this year’s championship under the auspices of Prodrive. Instead, Mini’s future participation in the WRC will be as a works-supported private team, to be known as WRC Team MINI Portugal, run by Prodrive. Prodrive will also be responsible for building Mini John Cooper Works WRC vehicles for private rally teams around the world and for providing support to those teams.
Following the credit crunch in 2008 and the subsequent slump in automotive sales, Honda withdrew from Formula 1. Four years later, Honda is to make a return to world circuit racing, focusing on the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) alongside the British Touring Car Championship winning team. For the WTCC, Honda will partner with Mugen Motorsports and J.A.S. Motorsport. Honda R&D will develop a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder direct injection turbo-charged petrol engine to conform to the FIA’s Super 2000 regulations, which will be manufactured and maintained by Mugen Motorsports, while J.A.S. Motorsport will develop the race car based on the new Honda Civic 5 door that is available in the European market.
Toyota has announced its intentions of enter a hybrid endurance race car, and it intends running it later this year at the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race, in the LMP1 category. The purpose-built Toyota TS030 is the successor to the TS010 and TS020 race cars which raced at Le Mans in the 1990s. The TS030 will be powered by the THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System – Racing) powertrain, making it the first LMP1 race car to employ hybrid power! The THS-R consists of an all-new 3.4litre normally-aspirated V8 petrol engine and a hybrid system with capacitor storage!
Bad news for Peugeot and Le Mans fans; Peugeot won’t be challenging for victory at this years Le Mans 24-hour endurance race! It seems economic instability in Euroland is to blame as PSA Peugeot Citroën have announced Peugeot will withdraw from Le Mans racing indefinitely. Peugeot is Europe’s second-largest car manufacturer but the company has been experiencing a decline in profits over the last few months. Last year Peugeot chief announced plans, which includes 6,000 job cuts, to reduce expenditure by $1.03 billion in 2012. Now Peugeot’s participation in the prestigious annual Le Mans endurance race has been added to the cost cutting plans.
Before Lexus brought its LF-LC concept to the Detroit Motor Show, it teased us with leaks all over the web but seeing the concept in the flesh still turned out to be something else! Sexy by far! This 2+2 coupe was designed by the compay’s Calty design studio in Newport Beach, California and really got the adrenaline rushing. It might not make it to production but we’re hoping it rubs off on future Lexus models!