Cars

2010 Dodge Viper ACR rebuildable

Dodge’s Viper has always been a crude car. Some say its the evolution of the American Muscle car, a two-seater V10-powered American built supercar. That being the case, the Viper ACR is the ultimate Viper, evolution and revolution. American Club Racing’s nearly homologization model focuses on maximizing performance for the weekend track members of road racing and auto-crossing environments, though the Viper ACR is still street legal. Horsepower from the V10 engine is increased over the regular street model to 600 All-American-HP and its 80 lbs. lighter when the “Hardcore Package” option is ticked.

Today’s eBay find is a 2009 Dodge Viper ACR with a slightly damaged front-end classified as “rebuildable.” Items needed to be replaced include both front fenders, the hood, both headlight buckets, most of the cooling system, left tail light (front end damage?) and some simple frame repairs. This green Viper ACR “lot drives” (but not for long with no cooling!) quite quickly with 600HP on tap and no headlights. For a Buy-It-Now price of $53,900 this Viper ACR from New York City and a claimed replacement value of over $100,000 this salvage-titled green monster sounds like a steal!

[wordbay]dodge (rebuildable, salvage)[/wordbay]

2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible

Everyone’s doing it these days: creating track-day cars to fill a new market. Track day cars aren’t quite full blown race cars but they’re a hard sell as a grocery-getter model either. Once touted as the “least expensive 200 MPH car,” the Bentley Continental . Bentley’s Continental line has been around for quite some time (released in 2003) and has offered no less than five variants including the original GT, the convertible GTC, the slightly upmarket GT Speed, its drop-top sibling the GTC Speed, and most recently the Supersports. As keen readers will be able to note after any model introduction comes a convertible variant so following this springs release of the Continental Supersports comes the Supersports Convertible.

Bentley’s Continental Supersports Convertible sports 621 HP and 519 LB/FT of twisties available beginning at 1650 RPM from the W12 motor. Acceleration to 60 happens in just 3.9 seconds (down from 4.3 from the GTC Speed) and to 100 MPH in 8.9 seconds. Interestingly, the Continental Supersports can deliver enough G’s (1.29) of force around a skidpad to rip your face off helped partly from the wheels weighing only a skant 22 LB’s each. MSRP for the convertible starts at $280K but all seems worth it when you consider this is the fastest 4-seat convertible money can buy.

Reviews for the Continental Supersports Convertible are quite positive. Everyone of the test drivers were impressed by how well it handled its “bulk” given the car’s 5400 LB curb weight. “Nicely weighted” steering, “superb brakes,” and comfort that could only be associated with a Bentley are the common superlatives ringing between the reviewers. Catch some of the reviews below including some of the Supersports coupe.

Supersports Convertible

• Autoblog (blog, First Drive)
• Yahoo! Cars (UK, First Drive)
• Car and Driver (Review)
• Left Lane News (Review)

Supersports Coupe

• Popular Mechanics (Test Drive)
• Telegraph.co.uk (Review)
• CNet Cartech  (blog, First Take, YouTube)
• Motor Trend (Review)
• Top Gear (UK, Road Test, YouTube segment)

2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera

The Lamborghini Gallardo has had no shortage of variants over its 8-year production life, it was introduced as the ‘affordable’ Lamborghini for the “new money” types. The Gallardo quickly proved a popular seller and 5 years after its introduction the first Superleggera was introduced as the track-day version of the popular sports car. For the 2007-08 model year, the first Gallardo Superleggera came standard with the base models E-gear automated-manual transmission, was lighter by 150 lbs and offered a 10 hp gain over the base model.

For 2011, the fine folks of Sant’Agata Bolognese have topped their (previously) top-of-the-line LP-560-4 by 10 hp “added lightness” by 158 lbs, besting the original Gallardo Superleggera. Surprisingly, according to those who reviewed it, ride quality has not been sacrificed. For the die-hard enthusiasts or those looking to track the Superleggera 570-4 can opt for the radio to be deleted. However, for comfort’s sake, air-conditioning and power windows remain standard and cannot be removed from the window-sticker.

Car and Driver (First Drive, Second Drive)
Inside Line (First Drive)
Automobile Magazine (Review)
Motor Trend (First Drive)
Popular Mechanics (Test Drive)
Road and Track (Review)

Ford realized it could profit from the love of the original GT40 and in 2003 introduced the Ford GT to showrooms. Promising the same great lines and styling of the original GT40 without the headaches the GT was powered by an SVT tuned version of Fords ubiquitous 5.4L V8 and added modern conveniences like A/C, a Macintosh Stereo, and simple soundproofing. 540 HP, 0-60 MPH in as little as 3.3 seconds and looks to die for sounds good, right? Well its been nearly 4 years since the Ford GT has been out of production but that hasn’t stopped various aftermarket tuners from delivering specialized versions of the car for those who want… more.