Jay Leno doesn't miss a chance to interview the designers of his favourite supercars. But it's always a pleasure to listen to his simplified analysis of supercar features. This time he stops by the McLaren stand at Pebble Beach to meet Frank Stephenson, McLaren's Chief Designer and have a little chat about the McLaren MP4-12C Spyder and the Track focused MP4-12C Can-Am Edition. Video after the jump.
This week on Jay Leno's Garage, the de Macross Epique GT1. A Canadian built supercar that is meant to be inspired by racecars from the 60's and the 70's. When you look at the Epique for the first time, the first thing that comes to mind is: Ford GT. You might think that the two cars actually have something in common underneath and they do. The Epique uses the same transmission and engine from the Ford GT. The 5.4-Liter V8 has been tuned to produce 845 Hp thanks to a supercharger. A number that left Jay Leno a little bit suspicious.
The body is made from aluminum and the chassis has been purpose built from carbon fiber. The Epique weighs 1542 Kg (3400 pounds), nearly as much as the Ford GT. It also has the same wheel base. It is equipped with ABS, Traction Control and manually adjustable ride height. The are wheels purposely built by BBS.
The car you see above is the only completed prototype so far. Production is expected to start next year with 20 to 30 units and the final assembly will be done in northern Italy. The Marcoss Epique GT1 will cost $1.5 million.
"Jay visits with President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini Stephan Winkelmann for an up-close look at the world's latest hypercar, featuring a road-shredding 700hp V12 with the highest power-to-weight of its class. Believe it: 0-62 in 2.9! "
There are cars that we never, ever get tired of seing, or hearing. And the Pagani Zonda R is definitely one of those. It has a 700 Hp screaming AMG V12 and a splendid carbon fiber body that weights just 1,071 Kg. This time, Jay Leno welcomes the carbon fiber record setting beast in his garage as well as its creator Mr Horatio Pagani himself. Click after the jump to enjoy 4 minutes of symphony making V12.
The Hennessey Venom GT is a pretty unusual car. It's a 900,000 $ stretched Lotus Elise with a Ford gearbox and a turbocharged Chevrolet V8. But you have to digg a little deeper to justify that price. The engine used in this car is the turbocharged LS9 coming from the Corvette ZR1 and now it's packing out more than 1,200 hp. The gearbox is coming from the Ford GT supercar which according to John Hennessey is pretty much qualified to handle power figures surpassing the 1,000 Hp bar. But that's not all, this car is all about lightweight with just 1,071 Kg (2,361 punds). The result is a supercar that is nearly half the Bugatti Veyron SuperSport's weight but that has the same amount of power. This may lead to some serious performance figures and a mindblowing top speed. You can watch some track footage of the car as well as an interview with John Hennessey in the video below.
In this episode of Jay Leno's Garage, Jay reviews the first generation Dodge Viper GTS. A car that's 20 years old now but obviously has not aged over the years in terms of design. Personaly i am a big fan of the first generation Dodge Viper and especially the GTS variant, so allow me to be a little bit nostalgic by posting this. Viper fans, enjoy!
[source: Jay Leno's Garage]
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After the Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid, Jay Leno drives us into the heart of the McLaren mp4-12c with McLaren Automotive's managing director Anthony Sheriff. According to McLaren, this car is going to be one of the lightest, fastest, most advanced and best handling cars of its category.
It's really amazing how beautiful the car is even without the body. Maybe the car is not moving, but i still think this video is totally worth your time.
In this episode Jay Leno discusses some of the key design elements of the Porsche 918 Spyder with the Design Chief Michael Mauer. Every single detail in this car is just a work of art. A screaming Porsche V8, 738Hp and a full electric all wheel drive. If this is the future, i'd like to be there when it happens.
If you think the koenigsegg CCX wasn't powerful enough with its 806 Hp, the Trevita (CCXR) pushes the boundaries of power even further to reach a massive 1,018 Hp. This means it has a weight to power ratio of 1.26 kg/hp which helps it accelerate from 0 to 100 Km/h (62 mph) in less than 2.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 400+ Km/h (250+ mph). However Koenigsegg says in its official website that in order to reach that speed, the rear wing has to be removed. Well, i wouldn't recommend that at all knowing that the CCX with "only" 806 Hp has already been described as a very dangerous car (most of you know the story of the top Gear wing).
In addition to the power upgrade The CCXR has also been the subject of some aerodynamic enhancement which now help the car have a down force of 350 Kg at 250 Km/h. However it keeps the same weight of 1280 Kg just like the CCX which is already a very light car.
After the Bugatti Veyron, Jay Leno gets his hands this time on the rare swedish Beauty. How rare? Well, "trevita" in swedish means "Three whites", that's how rare the Trevita is. The video is very entertaining as always, enjoy!
The Bugatti Veyron is one of the last decade's greatest technical achievements. And it's always a pleasure to see it in action. This clip is from the latest "Jay Leno's Garage" episode. Don't expect to see the car going sideways but i think it's an entertaining video anyway and it's still worth 15 minutes of your time.
Some high resolution pictures of the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport:
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