Car Throttle

The latest high-tech Supercar has all the numbers.  800 horsepower.  0-60 in 3.1 seconds.  A 7.0L engine, all wheel drive, and 15.1" Brembo 6-piston brakes up front.  Thing is, it's not some low-slung 2-seater styled by Pininfarina.  It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee - with a few modifications by Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE.) Called the HPE800, it's based on the new-shape Grand Cherokee SRT8.  The new SRT is a pretty badass vehicle by itself: a 6.4L V8 with 465 horsepower, 0-60 in under 5 seconds, variable dampers and huge brakes, it's a remarkably well-rounded package - except for the gas mileage.  But if you're buying an SRT-8 for gas mileage, you're probably confused. Hennessey's engineers start by boring the block from 6.4L (392ci) to 7.0L (426ci.)  Then they

A phrase I'm sure you're tired of hearing: "Hyundai's on a roll!"  Of course they are.  Sales are up.  Residuals are up.  They're making cars that people want because they're nice, not because they're 10% cheaper and 50% better warrantied.  And now that Hyundai's gone past cheap, they're going for exciting.  Sort of.

The big thing for Hyundai is the Veloster.  So big in fact, they brought six of them.  But more interesting to me than the front-drive, Accent-based Veloster is the Genesis Coupe Hurricane SC concept.

The big news is the supercharger, if you missed it.  The Magnuson blower sits to the side of Hyundai's 3.8L 24v V8, breathing 6-7psi of boost through an air-to-water intercooler on

Finally.  This was bound to happen.  Hyundai sells two cars called Genesis - the sedan and the coupe.  And while they're somewhat related, they're more different than similar under the skin.  So while the sedate (albeit good-looking, well-equipped, and well-priced) Genesis sedan and the related Equus uberlux liner enjoy the silent thunder of Hyundai's 4.6L and 5.0L 32v Tau V8, the company line is that all that quad-cam V8 goodness just doesn't fit under the hood of the smaller coupe.

This is a bummer.  The Genesis goes up against cars like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger - all of which offer gigantic V8's with north of 400bhp - and some north of 500bhp - as upper level options.  The Hyundai Genesis

Pardon the overused meme.  It's nice to see Honda focusing on their new Civic Si for SEMA, rather than - oh, I don't know, Elements outfitted for dogs.  They brought a wide array of the new 2.4L powered Si's to SEMA this year, ranging from mild (the HFP package) to wild (the 450-horsepower Fox Marketing turbocharged one I showed you earlier.)  They also brought along a supercharged V6 Accord Coupe, just because.

The Tjin Edition Civic Si Sedan (Above, left) is interesting.  Most notable are the 19" Rotiform BLQ Concave wheels, in orange on the driver's side and purple on the passenger.  Why?  Don't know.  Rotiform is quickly becoming a standard go-to wheel choice for the stance crowd, so

Kia has a sports theme going on with their SEMA cars.  Well that, and race cars.  I showed you the Rio Surf concept and the Forte Hockey concept in the first preview post, and there's also a basketball-themed Optima and a Golf-themed Soul.

Of all the sports-themed Kias, the "Slam Dunk" Blake Griffin Optima Hybrid (pictured top) is... the weirdest.  Blake Griffin has been bouncing around (pun intended) in Kia ads for a bit now, so the tie-in isn't surprising.  Most obvious on this Hybrid Optima would be the basketball-looking paint job, although it strikes me as looking a bit like snake skin.  The custom paint was done by West Coast Customs, and a set of 20" matte black wheels spruce

You gotta love Mazda.  While some of their national competitors are chasing the big bucks with boring mainstream transportation appliances, Mazda still retains a bit of their whacky engineering hot-rod charm.  Want proof?  the Mazda2 Turbo that they're showing at SEMA this year.

As I guessed yesterday, the Mazda2 Turbo is powered by the engine from the MazdaSpeed (MPS) 3 - the 2.3L DISI-Turbo.  This engine, with 263 horsepower and 280lb-ft of torque, is a monster in the 3,000+lb MS3.  While the standard Mazda2 is a fun steer, consider this: dropping in the 2.3 DISI is an increase of 163 horsepower and 182 lb-ft of torque.  That's a 2.63x increase in horsepower.  This is why I love Mazda.  The normal top-mount

Here's Part II of the SEMA Preview coverage.  Alternative title: Turbos, widebodies, big brakes and roll bars, oh my!  In the previous post I covered GM, Mopar, Mazda, and Hyundai.  Now we're moving on to Toyota.

Toyota, Lexus, and Scion have always had a strong presence at SEMA. This year will be no different, with all three divisions bringing concept cars in a futile attempt to convince us the brand is still interesting. Toyota's "big announcement" was the introduction of the F-Sport package for the new-generation Lexus GS350 sedan, which makes the car better looking (negotiable) but not any faster. The exterior gets 19" alloy wheels with 235/40/19 tires (RWD F-sports get 265/35/19 rears, AWD's are square), a more aggressive front

The yearly SEMA (Special Equipment Manufacturers Association) show happens in Las Vegas.  That's enough reason to want to go to it.  But more than the exotic locale (way better than, err, Detroit), SEMA is a hotbed of aftermarket parts.  If you're inclined to think this is a no-big-deal sort of affair, that's not the case.  The SEMA show attracts so much attention that manufacturers themselves have been getting into the SEMA game for a few years now, whether directly or through various 3rd party companies.

There are so many "new car" debuts prior to SEMA that I would literally flood your RSS feed with them.  I don't want to do that.  Plus, I can't write an entire article about a Chevy Sonic

217 mph, in a BMW 7-Series? 0-62 mph in 3.5 seconds? Forget about the M5, this is the M7 BMW never has produced. These numbers have been made possible by the aftermarket, in what truly amounts to a four-door super car. The work has been done by German company TuningWerk. There are two packages available, impressive and insane. The first is what the company calls "small scale power augmentation." That package brings power up to 530 horsepower and torque to 545 pound feet, on its way to a top speed of 192 mph. Acceleration is down by .7 from the fastest model, to 4.2 seconds. For stopping power, an upgraded HighPerformance steel braking system is fitted. The full monte takes power up to 720 horsepower

I liked the Fiat 500 Sport quite a bit.  And that was with 101bhp.  It's a fun little car, with Italian flare, enough cute to make a Mini puke, and a fun little chassis that likes the curves.  How much more fun would the 500 be with oh, say, triple the horsepower?  I'd bet a lot.  I want to drive one. This is the Fiat 500 Abarth Stradale, built by Romeo Ferraris.  It's a road-legal version of their 360-horsepower Abarth race car, complete with a carbon-fiber widebody kit that gives it a striking resemblence to everyone's favorite Sith Lord. While the Abarth race car makes a ridiculous 360bhp from 1.4L, it's toned down a bit for the road going version - with 300bhp.  Romeo