Ferrari F50

The Ferrari F50 is a supercar made by Ferrari to commemorate it’s 50^th anniversary in 1995. The car is a 2 door 2 seat convertible sports car with removable hard top. It has a 4.7 liter V-12 that was developed from the engine used in the 1992 Ferrari F92 Formula One Car.

There were only 349 of these ever made, which is one less than Ferrari estimated it could sell. This was because, according to Antonio Ghini, because “Ferrari’s are something cultural, a monument. They must be hard to find, so we will produce one less car than the market.”

Following the motorsports theme, to compete in GT1 class racing, Ferrari developed a prototype based on the F50, called the F50 GT. The car had a fixed roof, large rear spoiler, new front spoiler and many other adjustments. Ferrari decided to cancel this project and instead focus on Formula One instead.

The car’s engine features 513 BHP that push the car from 0 to 60 in only 3.7 seconds and to 100 in 8.

Audi R8

Using their experience in racing over the years Audi has developed the R8. It has since become the most successful car ever to compete in the Le Mans with 5 wins, and has won a total of 62 out of the 79 races it’s entered.

Audi was the first car company to make their cars out of aluminum, and as with all the other things about Audi, this is constantly refined. The R8 features a high strength Audi Space Frame made from aluminum and magnesium developed specifically for the R8.

Another innovation used is the liquid in the struts. Instead of conventional damper oil, the shocks are filled with a special fluid whose viscosity can be controlled by an electromagnetic field.

The car also features a innovative high rev concept. As a result of this, the engine develops huge thrust over a broad speed band up to 8250 rpm’s.

Porsche 911 Turbo

Porsche’s latest turbo 911 model surpasses all expectations set upon it significantly. It’s the first non diesel with turbo ever to incorporate Variable Turbine Geometry. It is also the first to feature actively controlled all wheel drive and the first to reach 60 MPH in less than 4 seconds. All together it’s the most rewarding 911 Turbo ever built.

The turbocharger has gone through continuous evolution in the hands of Porsche engineers. Variations in Turbine size, and the addition of the intercooler, the move to twin turbos and advances in engine management systems have all wrung greater performance from the basic concept of an exhaust driven compressor.

Small turbos have an advantage at low rpm’s because they can get up to speed faster, though at higher RPM’s there is backpressure which robs the engine of power. However large turbines, while working well at high speeds, don’t get enough speed in lower rpm’s to spin fast enough to provide power, this is called turbo lag. The solution to this problem is what is called Variable Turbine Geometry, the exhaust flow is channeled into the turbines by way of electronically adjustable guide vanes. By changing the angle of these vanes, the system can replicate the advantages of a small turbo at low rpm, and a larger turbo as the tachometer climbs.

Aston Martin Vanquish S

The Aston Martin Vanquish S was designed by Ian Callum in 1995. It, unlike the other cars I've written about so far is a grand touring car. This car rose to fame after being featured in the official James Bond car in Die Another day. The Vanquish is scheduled to be discontinued in the 2007 year to be temporarily replaced by the DBS, though it's true successor is to be introduced in 2010.
The vanquish is powered by a 5.9 Liter engine that pushes with the power of 520 horses. It is controlled with a fly by wire throttle and a 6 speed paddle shift. The engine shares some components with Ford's Duratec 30 V6, being that Ford is the parent company. Many people think that the engine is simply 2 Duratec's linked together, though this is not the case.
It is correct that the V-12 shares some components with the Duratec, but it is simply not possible to simply put two V-6's together to make a V-12. The bank offset for a V-12 is equal to one rod bearing width, whereas the bank offset for a 60-degree V-6 is significantly longer than one rod bearing width, thus it is necessary to design a V-12 as a totally new engine.

Enzo

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When people hear the word “Enzo” they think of the super car built by Ferrari. What a lot of people don’t realize is that this car is actually named for the founder of the Ferrari Company, Enzo Ferrari. A car with this name had to be something very special indeed and that’s just what Ferrari has created.

The car was built in 2003 using Formula One Technology. This including such features as a carbon-fiber body, sequential shift transmission, and carbon-ceramic brake disks. There are also some technologies not allowed in F-1 such as Active Aerodynamics. This means that when a downforce of 1709 pounds is reached at 186 mph, the rear wing is actuated by a computer to maintain that downforce.

The Enzo’s V-12 is based on the architecture of the V8 found in Maserati’s Quattroporte. They used the same 104 mm bore spacing. This design will replace the former architecture in Ferrari’s other V-12’s and V-8’s.

Ferrari plans on coming out with a new version of this car every four years (though they wont always be calling it the Enzo. The latest model comes with cameras instead of mirrors, they will be viewed in the center console where the navigation system goes.

Koenigsegg CCX

The Koenigsegg CCX is the latest supercar from Koenigsegg. The CC stands for competition coupe, and the X stands for the 10^th. This car is the most powerful V-8 production car in the world.

The engine for this is a 32 valve V8 enhanced with two centrifugal superchargers. The engine produces 806 BHP running on 91 octane, on 110 octane it can produce 825 BHP and on biofuel it can produce an astonishing 900 BHP. This is a unique flex fuel car, because it actually produces more power using

The body of this car is made of pre-impregnated carbon fiber/Kevlar. This makes the vehicle very strong, but still very light weight. The car also features carbon / magnesium wheels, making it the first production car ever to have carbon fiber in its wheels.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the latest and greatest in the world of super cars. It took 4 years to develop this car that only 300 of which will ever be made, making it extremely rare and sought after by collectors. This car is the most powerful production car ever made with over 1001 BHP.

This extreme amount of power is generated by the cars innovative quad turbo charged W-16 engine. This basically means it has two V-8 engines mounted at a 90 degree angle to each other.

This tremendous engine gives the car unheard of acceleration. In just 3 seconds this car will take you from 0 to 60 and at 14 seconds it can have you past the 200 mark, but it doesn’t stop there, the cars not exhausted until it reaches 252.3 MPH. The only reason the car isn’t able to go faster is because the car is limited by the design and construction of the chassis and drive train.

The car also features a transmission called a directshift gearbox. The car can accelerate from 0 to 252.3 MPH, through all seven gears without any interruption to the acceleration.

Ford GT

When people think super cars they often think of ones that come from Europe, but there are also a few that come from the United States as well. One such car is the Ford GT. This car started production in the summer of 2004 for the 2005 year and continued until 2006 when production stopped. Only 4200 of these cars were ever produced so demand for them is very high.

This car features a supercharged V-8 that displaces 5410 cc. This provides the car with 500 BHP at 6000 RPM's. This allows the car to travel from 0-60 in 3.8

The GT features many new technologies unique to this car alone. These include super-plastic-formed aluminum body panels, roll-bonded floor panels, friction-stir welded center tunnel, and others.

The breaks on this are massive four piston aluminum Brembo calipers with cross drilled and vented rotors at all four corners.

When the car first came out people paid significantly more than its suggested retail price of 140,000 to 157,000 dollars depending on optional equipment. The first ever sold was at a charity auction where it sold for 500,000 dollars to a retired Microsoft executive. Ford Then recognized the ongoing demand for the car and raised the base sticker priced by 10,000 dollars to 149,995 in late 2005.