The News for January 31st, 2014

Nissan Unveils Revolutionary Engine to Complement Electric ZEOD

Welcome to the Hooniverse News! This is a weekly recap of some of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or the bull. I also throw in a little opinion of mine, just because I can. This week: 

  • The mental 2014 Shelby GT500 Super Snake is on sale

  • Fiat and Chrysler united under new name and logo

  • Nissan’s new racing motor confirms existence of the supernatural

  • Cadillac really wants you to buy an ELR

  • The Coker Group opens new facility in California for the vintage car enthusiast 

2014 Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake on sale

2014supersnake

If you’re one of the ones who loves the 2014 GT500 but wishes it had more power than anyone else’s, you’re in luck. Shelby American announced that its 2014 GT500 Super Snake package has gone on sale with the first example already delivered to the new Shelby Automotive Museum in California.

Two packages are available for different kinds of Mustang owners. The base package adds a Super Snake appearance package, a cooling package, Wilwood brakes, twenty-inch wheels with new tires, suspension upgrades, short-throw shifter, and an upgraded muffler – so basically, everything a Super Snake can be minus the substantial bump in power. That base package costs $28,995 not including the 2014 GT500 which you supply.

The top package is for the kind of person that looks at a 662 horsepower Mustang and thinks “you know what? I want more.” For $39,995 plus the base GT500, this package gets you everything mentioned above plus a 3.6-liter Kenne Bell supercharger which alone boosts the Ford V8’s output up to 850 horsepower. Why? Because.

Only 500 2014 Super Snakes will ever be built, with each one being individually numbered and added to the Shelby Registry for authenticity. Since the first one has already been placed in a museum, that means only 499 examples of what could be the last solid axle Shelby Mustang remain available.

[Source: Shelby American via Autoweek]

Chrysler and Fiat now known as FCA

FCAlogo

Earlier this month, Fiat first announced that they would acquire the rest of Chrysler that they didn’t already own in a multi-billion-dollar merger that promises to shake things up. The merger became official just last week and already the two companies have a new name and logo to be united under.

The new name is simply Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and their logo was likely stolen from some federal agency in charge of something super interesting. As noted last week, all cars sold under this new corporation will still be identified by the same badges as before, so no Fiat Challengers are in the pipeline… yet.

FCA will be incorporated in the Netherlands but their “home” for tax purposes is in the UK and it will be listed in the New York Stock Exchange and in Milan’s equivalent. If I had looked through this report deep enough I could probably tell you the names of everyone who does their taxes and what their favorite color is, but I didn’t, so I won’t.

I’ll end this bit of news with a question: whether you’re a Chrysler/Fiat fan or not, do you like where this has been going?

[Source: FCA via Autoweek]

Nissan ZEOD RC to use revolutionary power plant

NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani Holding the 40kg/400-horsepower

Nissan’s entry for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans is the ZEOD RC, a gas-electric Deltawing-ish prototype which is about to make history. Some time after the big Rolex clock starts ticking at the race, this car is expected to be the first car in Le Mans history to complete an entire lap on nothing but electric power. They believe a full lap of each 1 hour stint can be done on full electric power before the internal combustion engine takes over. And that engine is nothing short of incredible.

That motor is Nissan’s new DIG-T R 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo which produces 400 horsepower and 280 lb.-ft. of torque. If a three-cylinder making that much power wasn’t crazy enough, the fact that it weighs just 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and is small enough to be held in your arms as demonstrated here is proof of the supernatural.

Again, that’s 400 horsepower from 1.5 liters, three cylinders, and 88 pounds. All this means that the motor you can carry in your arms has a better power to weight ratio than the engines used in this year’s Formula 1 field and will certainly give the Nissan Le Mans team a competitive advantage which I’m sure they’ll be appreciative of.

[Source: Nissan] 

 

 

Added incentives to buy a Cadillac ELR

2014 Cadillac ELR

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to get your hands on a Cadillac ELR, the company’s new Volt-based electric coupe, now may be that time. Cadillac has announced an extra incentive for people like that in the form of new leasing options and a free 240-volt home charging station including installation.

If you want the ELR but don’t want to spend over $70,000 to buy Cadillac’s electrified luxury coupe, you can sign up for an ultra-low mileage lease which requires $5,999 due at signing and then $699 per month for the rest of the 39 month lease. That deal isn’t terrible, I guess, but when it’s all said and done, you could have just bought a Chevrolet Volt for about the same price. But whether you buy or lease, the upgraded charging station will be delivered and installed to your home for free so you can enjoy the faster charging (under five hours for a full charge).

Cadillac doesn’t mention how long the offer is good for, but they suggested that early buyers will be the lucky ones. I guess.

[Source: Cadillac]

BLIPS

The Coker Group, “the company that keeps the collector car hobby rolling”, opened the doors to its new 100,000 square-foot distribution and wheel manufacturing center last week in City of Industry, California. Vintage car enthusiasts on the West coast will benefit from this new center as they’ll be building steel and wire wheels as well as storing any car parts they can fit in there for distribution. Over 40 jobs have moved with the company to the new facility, and those 40 employees will be doing the car god’s work for sure. So if you’re in the need for some vintage rollers and you live on the West coast, rejoice.

[Source: The Coker Group

 

 

 

 

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