Driving a go-karts is some of the most fun you can have while looking like a 10 year old. You’re totally exposed and open, and low to the ground, so even the fairly modest speed that a 125cc engine gives you feels supersonic. So I can only image what it’s like to swap out the regular kart motor with a 1300cc Suzuki Hayabusa powerplant. Powerslides and burnouts and, of course, freaky speed. Here’s the builder’s blog.
Check out videos of the go-kart in action after the jump.
Also after the jump, a Smart Fortwo with a Hayabusa engine video. Normally Smart cars have a 3 cylinder engine with less than 1000ccs. Mating it with the 1300cc ‘Busa high quality engine is pure genius. Check it:
Kavinsky is a zombie in need of revenge, killed when he crashed his Ferrari Testarossa in 1986. His records are the story of his first steps in the world of the living dead.
Surrendering to the endless bombardment of pre-Paris reveals, for the next few days leading up to the 2008 Paris Auto Show, RideLust will be exclusively covering all the leaks and teaser shots of the major impending Paris reveals. To kick things off, we’re starting with the 2009 Fiat 500 Abarth Essesse, Fiat’s sporty revision of the compact Fiat 500 Abarth that launched earlier this year.
Skoda, the Czechoslovakian fourth tentacle of the Volkswagen family of manufacturers, has spent nearly two decades methodically chipping away at any notions of shaky reliability. Skoda’s efforts have apparently paid off with not only a growing following in the West and particularly in Britain, but widespread critical praise with the automotive press. All of this progress has resulted in the development and production of a sporty new version of the Octavia sedan; the vRS.
MAKE Magazine has a quick story and pictures of an amazing home build. Some maker named Proximacentuari, who’s a college guy judging from the pics and some things he said in the comments, put together his very own version of the Ariel Atom. He calls it the Z59. Apparently it took him 15 months and at least 800 hours of work. Amazing stuff, but there are still no numbers on how much the project cost.
Let’s break down the side by side, then we’ll see the pics. The Ariel Atom goes from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds; the Z59 in 4.5 seconds. The Ariel Atom has a supercharged Honda 2.0L 4 Cylinder i-VTEC engine from a Civic; the Z59 has a 2.0L 4 cylinder engine from an Acura RSX. The Ariel Atom gets 33 mpg; the Z59 gets 35+ mpg. They’re remarkably similar, except that one was produced after extensive testing in wind tunnels and race tracks and crash testing, and the other was built in 15 months by a guy in college in his spare time.
Despite a wash of rumors that Dodge will be bidding adieu to the Viper performance line, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli appeared on CNBC this morning to introduce the Dodge EV, an all-electric Viper look-alike. Part of Chrysler’s ENVI electric program, the Dodge EV utilizes a powertrain identical to that of the all-electric performance car, the Tesla Roadster, operating entirely on plug-in power. Achieving a reported range of 150-200 miles off a single, 4-hour 110/120 charge [standard current found in the average a home], the Dodge EV ditches Chrysler’s famed HEMI in favor of a lithium ion battery pack, while still managing to accelerate from 0-60 in under 5 seconds [or so they claim, we'll reserve final judgement until the real world test].
Although not scheduled to make its first official appearance until next week at the Paris auto show, the first “baby” Ferrari California was sold at an auction recently for nearly double its projected retail value. Hosted by California Governantor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the auction was held to benefit the After School All Stars program, an initiative which dispenses funds to underprivileged school children. Held in both Maranello, Italy and Santa Monica, California, the charity event successfully hauled in a significant chunk of change for California’s disenfranchised demographic, ultimately awarding the coveted pre-production baby Ferrari to the highest bidder for an estimated $520,000.
Recently, Peugeot unveiled their new green Le Mans contender, the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Hybrid Racer. Although heralded as a major achievement in the racing industry and praised for its environmental progressiveness, I am not enthused. If an automobile doesn’t translate into a real world application, like the Peugeot 908 hybrid racer largely fails to do, then I’m just not interested. To be perfectly honest, I think dropping that kind of cash to engineer a top performance race car that stores any unused kinetic energy is a waste. When was the last time a Formula 1 racer interrupted his crew chief by saying, “Well yes Hank, 0-60mph in under 3 seconds is very impressive, but what kind of gas mileage does it get?”
Everybody who grew up playing the original Nintendo Entertainment System knows the Konami Code: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. It’s seared into my memory from years of Contra. Well most of us are now grown, and we’ve moved on to bigger, more expensive toys, like the Nissan GT-R. And the GT-R has a cool secret code of it’s own.
I’m beyond excited about the GT-R. It’s an ultimate performance machine on par, and better in some cases, with cars more than 5 times it’s price. I mean, $75,000 (plus almost $10k in dealer markups sometimes) for a history making supercar is a bloody steal. I didn’t think it could get any better, then I found out about the launch control system.
Many are anticipating that the future Z9 will be one of the most beautiful cars in BMW’s storied history. If the speculation as to it’s performance and price turn out to be true, it will be right up there near the top of those two lists as well.
