Volkswagen CNG Racers Demo Winning Green Power

As any car enthusiast nowadays will have noticed, green technologies for cars are all the rage with manufacturers and being brought up with gasoline-fed performance engines, we cast an uneasy eye on non-traditional methods of producing the power we crave from our rides. Luckily for us, bold engineers, notably German engineers, are not afraid of experimenting with new concepts, and thinking outside the box. Witness the success of Audi at Le Mans with its diesel engines and Porsche with its hybrid racer. We can now add to the list the engineers of Volkswagen, who entered a trio of Sciroccos in the 2011 edition of the Nurburgring 24 hour race, using CNG-powered engines for their race cars.

These engines are modified versions of the production 2-liter turbocharged TSI engine, which produce 330 hp from its CNG fuel. CNG is an excellent fuel because it has very high anti-knock qualities and in the blend used in the races cars, have the equivalent of 130 octane. Furthermore, natural gas vehicles emit 25% less CO2 emissions compared to conventional spark ignition engines, with almost zero particulates. For the racers themselves, Volkswagen claimed an 80% reduction. Transmitting the power on this front-wheel drive racer is a six-speed DSG transmission, actuated by steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Volkswagen also fitted one of the cars with an active electro-hydraulic differential.

Fruits of the hard work of VW’s engineers came in form of a class win for alternative powertrains and finishing 17th overall against a field dominated by the giants of racing, such as Porsche, Audi, and Ferrari. With these developments, gearheads need not worry about the future because with developments in low-emission and non-polluting technologies, racing diehards can have their cake and eat it too.

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Pulsar GTi-R Replaces Lancia Integrale As Enthusiast's Ride

What makes a Lancia Integrale owner, winner of multiple World Rally Championships, give up such an iconic car? Decades later, the Integrale has become a cult icon and collector’s car but for a hardcore enthusiast in England, such status was not enough for him keep his example. Instead, he replaced it with a Nissan Pulsar GTi-R, which is not as well-known but which also has a cult following.

Stock, the Pulsar GTi-R is a compact hatch with all-wheel drive and a 2-liter, 230 horsepower turbocharged engine. This particular car already had a 350 hp engine when the current owner got it, which was enough for awhile. But then, he decided that 500 horsepower was a nice figure for such a car, so he sent the engine off to be rebuilt with stronger internals and larger displacement. An HKS GT3040R boosting to 1.9 bar replaced the stock unit and when all was said and done, engine output was calculated and verified to be at 510 hp with 430 lb-ft. of torque.

A twin-disc clutch and Quaife gearbox handle all this power and Wilwood 4-piston brakes ensure that stopping power is available when it becomes necessary to slow down. Since the Pulsar was intended to be a Group A rally contender, the rest of the car is readier than most to cope with double the horsepower that the car came with from the factory. Nissan did not see success with the Group A rally program for the GTi-R, but its foray into that arena became the reason for producing the rare GTi-R homologation specials that are sought after up to today.

Build video for a 500-hp GTi-R

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Corvette Show Winner Is No Trailer Queen

All too often, a show car, specially a show car winner, is synonymous with being a trailer queen. Despite having engines to die for and suspension gear that can tackle any mountain road, these cars never turn a wheel in anger and the most they travel is a few meters of pavement to get on and off a truck or trailer.

But not in the case of this C1-RS Corvette which was made by The Roadster Shop. This car was intended to be a showcase for the C1 chassis that The Roadster Shop has developed and it became the basis for this stunning build that literally modified everything in the car. While the car is obviously a Corvette, anyone can see that the aluminum panels have been reshaped to obtain a one-of-a-kind look. Carbon fiber trim panels give the body a more modern look, which match the car’s dual-wishbone and multilink front and rear suspension. Aside from the high-performance shocks and springs, Brembo 14-inch 6-piston brakes ensure that the car stops as well as it goes.

Which brings us to the engine, which is a decidedly modern Chevy LS7 tuned and modified to produce 618 horsepower with 640ft lbs of torque. Carbon fiber intake runners and custom stainless headers with 2-inch primaries give the car a solid engine note that gives a hint of its power.

In the mandatory Autocross competition at the 2009 Goodguys PPG Nationals this ‘Vette gave the best performance of the day with a lap time of 32.22 seconds, besting 30 other contenders.

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In The RC Realm, 11 HP Is King

Nic Case is a Southern Californian who has had a lifelong passion for cars, RC cars that is. But unlike RC enthusiasts who buy off-the-shelf parts to modify their cars, Nic modifies cars with a combination of stock parts and custom-fabricated parts. One of his latest projects was recently recognized by the Guinness Book of Records with a World Speed Record certification, because of his car’s 161.76 mph run.

To get to this level of performance, Nic spent $4,000 and the better part of six months testing and tuning his car to set the speed record. Using a Schumacher Mi3 carbon fiber chassis, Nic fitted a streamlined body that looks like a land speed record vehicle. Reportedly, computational fluid dynamics was used to design the streamlined body. Underneath that simple-looking exterior, this extreme RC builder installed top-of-the line components such as a 12-cell Power Edge Lithium-Polymer battery, a Castle Creations power management and speed controller module, and an 11 horsepower Neu motor. Radio control components from Futaba are used.

Although this car’s specific weight is not known except to a few, lightened Mi3 cars run around 1265 grams and this world record car should be lighter. The power-to-weight ratio for this car is off the scale, so much so that performance calculations predict this car’s 0-60 mph time at 0.285 seconds. On July 5, this car was ran again and it has unofficially reached a speed of 175 plus miles per hour. Not bad for a 11-horsepower car!

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Top Fuel S2000 Is Top Time Attack Contender

Time attack events are a very popular form of motorsport nowadays and the car builds that you find there sometimes rival factory efforts, like this Honda S2000 prepped by tuning house Top Fuel. You know a build is serious when a light 1,250 kilogram car is stripped and rebuilt with a carbon fiber body to bring the weight down to 1,000 kilos. Since this was intended to be a time attack car, an aero body kit was a necessity, and the resulting widebody and radically winged S2000 doesn’t disappoint.

Underneath the swoopy body resides the original F20C powerplant, but with revised internals such as chromemoly conrods and forged pistons. Displacement was increased to 2150 cc and 1000 cc/min fuel injectors feed the engine so that the huge HKS GT3540 turbo can produce the 680 horsepower the engine is now capable of. From the triple plate clutch, a sequential HKS transmission gives 5 forward speeds.

Of course handling is just as important as power in time attack cars and the chassis was spot welded and reinforced to give a rigid base for the modified suspension arms and adjustable race dampers the reside at the corners of the car. Tires are 10.5 X 18 in size and Brembo calipers reside behind it. The best test of how a car works is to compare it with its class rivals and this S2000 certainly didn’t disappoint. When the time came to show what it was capable of, this Top Fuel S2000 promptly set the record for the fastest FR car at the Tsukuba Circuit. Performance calculations reveal that 0-60 should be over in 2.7 seconds and the quarter-mile in 10.7 seconds. For a car whose specialty is to lap a track in the fastest possible time, these acceleration figures are very quick indeed.

Source article can be found here.

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LS1 V8s Give Miatas Big, Reliable Horsepower

The thought of a Miata taking on a Ferrari in a drag race is laughable, if only a V8-powered Mazda Miata can be called laughable. This type of conversion is quite popular nowadays, with the availability of the Chevy LS1 V8 motor and with knowledge on this particular swap circulating freely on the Internet.

While it’s natural to think that swapping an LS1 engine will make for a nose-heavy car, it’s been found that the original cast-iron Mazda engine is actually a bit heavier, and using the all-aluminum V8 LS1 still gives a 50/50 weight distribution, which plays a significant part in why the Miata handles so well.

At the rear wheels, a stock Chevy LS1 will give around 330 rear-wheel horsepower. The Miata only weighs 2,100 pounds or 940 kilos, so with an LS1, the power to weight ratio will come out to 356 bhp per ton. This is comparable to the power-to-weight ratios for a Corvette Z06 and a Ferrari F430. Performance calculations predict a 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds with a quarter-mile time of under 12 seconds. Swaps like these follow the classic formula of a big engine in a small car, and the combination of a modern chassis and engine gives a high performance package for relatively little money.

According to an LS1 Miata owner, “I built this car to drive on big tracks like Sebring, Road Atlanta, Homestead etc. and I smoke Turbo Porsche's, Ferraris, and Vette's at every event. That’s why I chose this chassis, it handles better than most cars out there, and now it has the power to match.”

LS1 Miata vs. Ferrari F430

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Rolls Silver Shadow Has BDS Blower Sticking Out Of Its Hood

Some have called it a waste of a good Rolls and some have lauded it as one of the ultimate expressions of hotrodding, but what is clear is that this supercharged Hemi-powered Rolls Royce does not leave those who see it without an opinion.

Owned by a Florida lawyer, this Rolls reportedly has $500,000 invested in it, and judging from the quality and scope of the work done to this car, it’s a believable figure. This Rolls would look just like a stocker, if you look at the body alone, because it was left as is. The obvious giveaway is the BDS 6-71 blower poking through the hood and if you remove the hood, you will get to see the monstrous Hemi engine, which, with additional nitrous injection has an output of 1,350 horsepower.

As the owner has intimated, the Rolls unibody needed a complete frame with a 4-link, 9 inch rear end. Axles from Strange Engineering are used in the diff to ensure that the power gets to the wheels after it exits the 2- speed Powerglide transmission. Performance calculations by the crew who built this monster Rolls believe that it can do the quarter mile in 9 seconds.

But before you think that this is just a Rolls-shelled drag car, check out the interior and the trunk, where you will see entire sheets of Connolly leather used not just in the seats and dash but also for covering the entire trunk, including the nitrous bottles, fuel cell and battery boxes. Even if you think that putting that kind of money on a bastadrdized Rolls-Royce is a waste of money, just be glad that there are people with the vision and the cash to come up with incredible builds such as these.

Hemi Rolls-Royce starting up

Hemi Rolls walkaround

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