The ATL Automobiles & Automakers Thread.

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Dodge Viper GTS-R
Manufacturer: Chrysler Corporation, Dodge Division (race cars were assembled either by Societe ORECA or Street and Racing Technology)
Model Type: GT1-class Racing Car
Model Year: 1996-2004
Origin: Detroit, Michigan, United States of America

Engine: Chrysler 356-T6 'Viper' 7990cc V10
Power: 670 hp @ 6100 rpm (1996-97), 700 hp @ 6250 rpm (1998-2000), 715 hp @ 6400 rpm (2001-2004)
Torque: 660 ft-lbs @ 4000 rpm (1996-97), 667 ft-lbs @ 4100 rpm (1998-2000), 670 ft-lbs @ 4100 rpm (2001-2004)
Drivetrain: Front-engined, Rear-wheel-drive
Transmission: BorgWarner T56 six-speed manual (1996-97), New Process Gear SA971 seven-speed semi-automatic (1998-2001), New Process Gear SA1024 seven-speed semi-automatic (2002-2004)
Weight: 1,200 kg (2,648 lbs) minimum

0-100 km/h: 3.5 seconds
Top Speed: 220 mph est. (1996-97), 240 mph est. (1998-2004)
MSRP: $950,000 (1996-97), $1,100,000 (1998-2004)
Number Produced: 108 (including all models of the Dodge Viper GTS-R)

One of the most recognizable machines of the GT1 era of sports car racing, the spectacular Dodge Viper GTS-R began as a car that people respected but few ever expected to be one of the greatest cars of the era, only for constant development by Chrysler, it's Street and Rave Technology (SRT) division and Hughes de Chaunac's famed ORECA outfit to turn it not only into a winner, but one of the most capable cars of the era, the brute force American countermeasure to the thoroughbred McLaren F1 GTR and Ferrari F50 GT1 that became a champion on both sides of the Atlantic and came away a winner in sports car races all across the world.

Introduced to the world with the second-generation Dodge Viper at the 1995 Pebble Beach Councours d'Elegance, the Viper GTS-R entered both the 1996 BPR Global GT Series and the 1996 IMSA GT Championship, being reasonably successful in America (though it lost the GT1 title to the Porsche 911 GT2 of Champion Racing, the Vector M12 GT of American Spirit Racing and the McLaren F1 GTR of PacWest Racing, despite winning two races. In Europe things were less capable, as the McLaren and Ferrari competitors outclassed the Viper, even though it's pace was undeniable.

1997 brought better success in IMSA as Canaska Southwind and Challenger Motorsports won the IMSA championship in convincing fashion, despite the challenge of Risi Competitzione and their new Ferrari F50s. In Europe the ORECA team replaced DAMS with the cars, and while the Viper was competitive it was hardly the title contender Chrysler wanted - but for 1998, the Viper swapped out it's aging BorgWarner manual transmission for a New Process Gear-built seven-speed semiautomatic, which also was introduced with the 1998 Viper GTS-R road car. Also new (and on the road car) was powerful ceramic brakes developed by SRT and StopTech, which improved the car's braking. Improvements to suspension and aerodynamics also helped improve the car for the 1998 season.

1998 was a slugout in the BPR and IMSA, and while the Ferraris of BMS Scuderia Italia came out on top, the Vipers of Team ORECA, Stephenson Racing and Chamberlain Engineering held their own against the Ferraris and the McLarens, winning four races (including, importantly for Chrysler, the BPR race at the new Race City in Detroit) and finishing third in the championship. IMSA was a second title in a row, this time for PacWest, who had swapped out their McLaren F1s for the Vipers and benefited from it.

While McLaren's long-tailed, semi-automatic gearbox-equipped F1 GTRs and the screaming Ferrari F50 GT1s remained capable, and the fine-handling four-wheel-drive Nissan Skyline GT-R proved a capable competitor, the first year of the FIA GT Championship saw the Team ORECA Vipers come good at last, even as the Michael Shank Racing McLaren F1 GTRs shockingly bested both the Vipers and the new-and-fast Corvette C5-R in IMSA. The Vipers' fantastic result at Le Mans - first and second in class, sixth ans seventh overall - was somewhat overshadowed by the awesome victory by Panoz in the world's biggest sportscar race, the first overall victory by an American car at Le Mans since 1969.

2000 saw a repeat title for Team ORECA and Chamberlain Engineering did provide excellent support, but Porsche's new Carrera GTR was a serious contender the whole season as was the Nissan Skyline GT-R, and while the Ferrari F50s and McLaren F1s were aging, they were still very fast and capable. Michael Shank Racing's McLaren F1s and the Corvette C5-Rs once again stopped Team ORECA's hope for a double GT1 title, but few could complain about four championships in four years. 2001 saw that streak stopped, as the Ferrari 550 Maranellos of Risi Competitzione and the Corvettes claimed the IMSA title while the FIA GT Championship was won by the Porsche Carrera GTR, the title being won by Porsche as a result of Team Prodrive blitzing the field at the final two rounds at Kyalami and Adelaide.

For 2002 Chamberlain, ATS and Zakspeed took over the FIA GT Championship duties to allow ORECA to focus on the IMSA title, setting up a wild showdown between Team ORECA and their Dodge Viper GTS-Rs and Corvette Racing and their Chevrolet Corvette C5-Rs. It was a battle that ORECA won in 2002, though only just and the battle went all the way to the IMSA finale at the Nassau Speedweeks in the Bahamas, and the Ferrari 550s of Risi Competitzione and Team Racing Point frequently interjected themselves into the battle. The following year the Corvettes came away with the title after a similar season-long battle. In Europe Team Prodrive's Ferraris beat out Porsche Motorsport for the 2002 FIA GT Championship, with Zakspeed just falling short on stopping Prodrive and BMS Scuderia Italia from a repeat in 2003.

Chrysler stopped supporting the Viper GTS-R after the 2004 season, but by that point over 100 such cars had been built, and they would be common sights in GT racing all over the world for years to come, as their relative simplicity, durability and speed meant they were ideal cars for ambitious privateers. Owing to this they saw service all over the world. Zakspeed won the Nurburgring 24 Hours three times in a row in 2001, 2002 and 2003 with their Viper, while Callista Meccanica won the 24 Hours of Bathurst in Australia in 2004 in an upset win over the highly-favoured Gerry Rogers Motorsports and their factory-backed Holden Monaro 427C racers. First-generation Viper GTS-Rs could be seen in national GT Championships all the way through the 2000s, and their legacy was such that Chrysler would end up racing the Viper again a number of years later.

A 1998 Dodge Viper GTS-R homologation special

A ORECA-run 2000 Dodge Viper GTS-R

Zakspeed's Dodge Viper GTS-R on the way to victory in the 2003 24 Hours of the Nurburgring

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Nissan Skyline GT-R R-Spec II
Manufacturer: Nissan Motor Company, NISMO division
Model Type: GT1-class Racing Car
Model Year: 1999-2003
Origin: Musashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan

Engine: Nissan Nismo RBX-GT1B 2770cc twin-turbocharged Inline-6
Power: 600 hp @ 6600 rpm (1999), 620 hp @ 7000 rpm (2000-2003)
Torque: 531 ft-lbs @ 4300 rpm (1999), 545 ft-lbs @ 4600 rpm (2000-2003)
Drivetrain: Front-engined, All-wheel-drive
Transmission: OS Giken DRS02 seven-speed sequential manual (1999-2001), Getrag 820R eight-speed sequential manual (2002-2003)
Weight: 1,250 kg (2,759 lbs) minimum

0-100 km/h: 3.3 seconds
Top Speed: 215 mph est. (1999), 225mph est. (2000-2003)
MSRP: $1,025,000 (1999-2003)
Number Produced: 28 (including all models of the Skyline GT-R GT500)

The Nissan Skyline GT-R was born from a desire to turn a humble four-seat family sedan into a machine that could breathe fire, and through each successive generation going back to the early 1970s the Skyline's racing pedigree had gained ever-more silverware and an ever-greater reputation as Japan's answer to anything Europe or America could throw at it. After blowing away the competition in Group A touring cars in the early 1990s (even as the competition in that field got ever tougher from late 1980s until the mid-1990s), Nissan began racing the Skyline in the original All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship in 1993, and by the time of the introduction of the true GT1 rules in 1995-96, Nissan had built a car that was a capable competitor. The decision of the JGTC to make its cars and rules similar to the BPR Global GT Series in 1996 saw McLaren F1s blitz the field that year, but the following year the Skyline GT-R and it's arch-rival, the Toyota Supra, built to compete for crowns all across the world. Against the screaming McLaren F1 and Ferrari F50 and the roaring Dodge Viper the Japanese-built road rockets, both sporting heavily-boosted turbocharged six-cylinder engines, relied more on handling prowess to make up for being less than ideal shapes. Both Nissan and Toyota were unwilling to admit defeat for their machines, however, and as the competition between them (and Honda) in Japan proved ever-more intense, both companies developed ever-speedier versions of their GT1 contenders, and for Nissan, the introduction of the R34-generation Skyline in 1999 presented a perfect opportunity, and Nissan was only too happy to take it.

The allowance of four-wheel-drive cars in the GT1 category, confirmed by the FIA in 1999, allowed Nissan to take advantage of the Skyline's ethos of immense grip and sophistication, and the GT500 variant was built with this in mind, sporting four-wheel-drive with electronically-controlled differentials and included a race version of the Super HICAS four-wheel-steering setup of the GT-R, which when combined with Nissan's engineers focusing on the car's downforce rather than reduce the drag of the boxy Skyline shape, resulted in a car that initially struggled for straight-line speed against much of its opposition but easily out-handled it. Anti-lock braking and traction control, both allowed in the championship for 1999, were also present on the car, and the result was a car that was very easy to drive fast and easy for drivers to get the most out of, and the car's handling prowess and borderline-ridiculous all-condition traction made sure the car was competitive. The latest evolution of the Nismo-built inline-six engine proved initially somewhat unreliable, but the company ironed out the problems quite quickly, though not quickly enough to win any races in Europe in 1999. Introduced to IMSA in 2000 and capable of competing, the car underwent regular evolution over time, with a new eight-speed gearbox arriving in 2002 along with improved aerodynamics, a combination that saw Nissan win its first FIA GT Championship races in 2002, winning two dry-weather races at Laguna Seca and Phillip Island, as well as an abysmally-wet race held at Silverstone where the four-wheel-drive Nissans of Nismo Europe and Team Impul lapped the entire field.

Later variants of the car gained much-improved aerodynamics, chassis revisions, more-powerful versions of the RBX engine and many detail improvements, and as both the Skyline and rival Toyota Supra had matured into cars capable of winning, the fact that Nissan chose to focus only on racing in Japan after 2003 surprised more than a few. In the end, it turned out the financial alliance with Renault and American Motors ended up being the reasoning, even as privateer Skylines continued to race in IMSA for a number of years to come. The legend of the Skyline GT-R wasn't finished, though, something that would become apparent a number of years later, but not before Toyota made Nissan was more than a little embarassed later on....

The Nismo Europe Skyline GT-R R-Spec II at Twin Ring Motegi in the All-Japan GT Championship in 2000

A 2003-spec Skyline on display at the Nissan Festival at Fuji Speedway in 2016, this being the car that won the 2002 FIA GT races at Laguna Seca and Silverstone

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Ferrari F50 GT1
Manufacturer: Scuderia Ferrari
Model Type: GT1-class Racing Car
Model Year: 1996-2002
Origin: Maranello, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Engine: Ferrari Tipo F130B 4698cc V12
Power: 660 hp @ 9500 rpm (1996-98), 700 hp @ 10300 rpm (1999-2002)
Torque: 370 ft-lbs @ 7000 rpm (1996-98), 392 ft-lbs @ 4600 rpm (1999-2002)
Drivetrain: Mid-engined, Rear-wheel-drive
Transmission: Ferrari XTrac FP654 six-speed sequential manual (1996-98), Ferrari XTrac FP701 seven-speed sequential manual (1999-2002)
Weight: 1,150 kg (2,538 lbs) minimum

0-100 km/h: 3.4 seconds
Top Speed: 225 mph est. (1997-98), 240 mph est. (1999-2002)
MSRP: $1,450,000 (1996-2002)
Number Produced: 44 (including all models of the F50 GT1)

When Ferrari passed from the control of Enzo Ferrari into his chosen successors - Luca di Montezmolo, Piero Ferrari, Mauro Forghieri, Gilles Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Matteo Venturelli and Giampiero Moretti - after his death in 1988, it was clear that many of Enzo Ferrari's successors had very different designs on where they wished to take the company, but all remained committed to the prancing horse being a symbol of motorsport excellence, if not in Formula One (though Ferrari was plenty competitive there in the late 1980s and early 1990s) than in new endeavours. This began with Bobby Rahal's transforming his Truesports Indycar team, bequeathed to him by his late boss Jim Trueman after Trueman passed away from cancer in June 1986, into the Scuderia's first attempt at racing in Indycars. The Indycar team by the early 1990s was a resounding success, including a famous 1-2-3 in the 1993 Indianapolis 500, and as Ferrari had by then both begun development of many of its incredible road cars of the 1990s, when Moretti and Villeneuve had eyes on sports car racing efforts the company was enthusiastically ready to go for it, even though it was a form of racing Ferrari had been almost entirely away from for two decades at that point.

The Ferrari F40, the last car the great man had involvement in, proved a competitive car in the new Grand Touring car regulations that began to emerge in the early 1990s as the famed Group C era crumbled, but even as that happened Moretti successfully lobbied IMSA to allow the use of the new Tipo 130B engine to be used in the back of the new 333SP prototype for the new-for-1994 IMSA World Sports Car (WSC) category, giving Ferrari a need for a new successor to the F40 to use said engine. While the 333SP would go on to be one of the most successful cars in modern sports car racing history - and win Ferrari their first Le Mans win in over 30 years in 1997 - the result of the new flagship formula was the F50, a worthy successor to the great F40 and widely considered to be one of the greatest cars in the world at its introduction in 1995. The F40 had proven a capable car in the BPR Global GT Series, and with Ferrari's interest in sports car racing high and wealthy customers and teams lining up for a shot at driving a product of the Scuderia, it wasn't long before the F50 spawned a racing version.

And what a race car it was. The F50 GT1 had been painstakingly developed through 1995 and 1996 with the singular goal of knocking the McLaren F1 off of its commanding perch, and the failed attempt by Porsche to create the 911 GT1 did absolutely nothing to slow the development of the car. Powered by the same V12 as the 333SP, the screaming V12 was classic Ferrari, capable of revving to over 11,000 rpm and producing a wail that seemingly only an Italian V12 with an open exhaust can produce. The sleek bodywork of the F50 resulted in a very slippery car that nevertheless produced excellent downforce, and the car came from the start with ceramic brakes - allowed to do so because the F50 road car also had them. Tests showed the F50 GT1 was every bit as fast as the mighty 333SP, and when the car debuted at the 1996 BPR race at Spa-Francorchamps, much was expected of it. Fast from the word go but initially unreliable, the car was a sensation and was clearly the rival the McLaren F1 GTR was longing for, and in 1997 the car was very much the tough competitor the world expected it to be. GTC Racing only won the 1997 BPR series by three points over Ferrari racers BMC Scuderia Italia, and Risi Competitzione were the strongest challengers in IMSA to Canaska Southwind Racing and their roaring Dodge Vipers, the American heavyweights proving an increasingly-tough challenge. Even in Japan, Hitotsuyama Racing and the Ferrari Club of Japan proved competitive against the intense competition of the Japanese manufacturer squads. The following year, BMS Scuderia Italia avenged their loss in 1997 in dramatic fashion, though they spent all season locked in combat with Team ORECA's Dodge Vipers and the McLarens from GTC Racing and Dave Price Racing. It was a similar story in 1999, though by now ORECA had the Vipers well sorted and Risi and Doran/Moretti struggled to keep pace in IMSA both with the American beasts and with Michael Shank Racing, who stunningly upset the American factory teams for the 1999 IMSA GT Championship.

While the F50 GT1 didn't prove nearly as successful as its rivals at McLaren and Chrysler in terms of silverware, Ferrari simply wasn't complaining, as their desires for the sports car operations to create a whole new collection of racers for Ferrari had indeed borne fruit, as the F50 GT1 and 333SP had by now grown to include the Ferrari Challenge one-make series that by 2000 was very popular on both sides of the Atlantic ocean, and the Ferrari F355s the Challenge used were the beginning of a ladder that could lead an enterprising driver or team just about anywhere they wanted to go.

For 1999 the F50 GT1 gained chassis improvements, the addition of traction control and anti-lock brakes, a new seven-speed gearbox and additional power out of the V12, all meant to help contain the ascendancy of the Viper GTS-R and the Corvette C5-R, as well as the Skyline GT-R. It proved good for the car's competitiveness, and the intense racing of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 FIA GT Championships showed just how good the racers, of many different designs, really were - the brute-force Viper and Corvette proving to have the handling and finesse to take on Europe's best, the Skyline proving the handling champ thanks to four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering but having plenty of power and the McLaren and Ferrari throughbreds showing their abilities as well. Porsche's return with the Carrera GTR in 2000 wasn't a roaring success at first, but nobody who knows sports car racing ever counts out the Porsche factory and the fat-bodied, V10-powered Carrera GTR proved too much for any comer in 2001, resulting in a FIA GT title. Ferrari wasn't done yet, though, and Risi Competitzione played the spoiler to both Chevrolet and Chrysler in the 2001 IMSA GT Championship, the last truly big hurrah before the aging F50 GT1 was replaced by the front-engined 550 Maranello, which first appeared in the hands of British specialists Prodrive in the last two races of the 2001 FIA season and left a big first impression with dominant wins in Australia and South Africa.

2002 was the last season for the F50 GT1, as Ferrari's racers all over the world were quick to switch to the 550 Maranello GTC, but it is a measure of the capability of both the McLaren and Ferrari that both had over five years of competition and were just as good at the end as at the beginning, and Ferrari's first factory-developed GT racer in two decades proved every bit as good as could be imagined....

A Risi Competitzione Ferrari F50 GT1 being tested at Virginia International Raceway in the United States, March 1997

A F50 GT1 being shown off at a exotic car day on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, California, in 2016

 

[TheMann]

I should point out, that these are the cars that raced in the "Golden Era of GT1" in the 1990s and 2000s, and I'll probably get to most of these:

- Aston Martin DBR9 (2005-2011)
- BMW M3 GTR (2002-2006)
- Bugatti EB110 SSR (1994-1996)
- Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 GT (1995-1997)
- Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (1999-2004)
- Chevrolet Corvette C6-R (2005-2010)
- Chrysler Viper GTS-R (1996-2004)
- Ferrari F40 GTE (1994-1996)
- Ferrari F50 GT1 (1996-2001)
- Ferrari 550 Maranello GTC (2001-2004)
- Ferrari 575 GTC (2005-2007)
- Ferrari 599 GT1 (2008-2011)
- Ford GT Mark V (2006-2010)
- Honda NSX-R / NSX-R GT500 / NSX-RS (1996-2007)
- Honda S3500 GT (2008-2011)
- Jaguar XJ220 GTE (1994-1997)
- Koenigsegg CCGT / CCGTR (2007-2011)
- Lamborghini Diablo Jota / Diablo GT-1 / Diablo RSR (1995-2003)
- Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT (2004-2011)
- Lexus LFA GTE (2005-2010)
- Lister Storm GTS / Storm GTR (1996-2004)
- Lotus Esprit GT1 (1996-1998)
- Marcos Mantara LM600 (1996-2006)
- Maserati MC12 GT1 (2005-2010)
- McLaren F1 GTR / F1 GTR Long-Tail (1995-2002)
- Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R Le Mans (1995-1998)
- Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R R-Spec II (1999-2003)
- Nissan GT-R GT1 (2008-2011)
- Pagani Zonda GR / Zonda GT1 / Zonda Tricolore (2001-2010)
- Porsche 911 GT2 (1994-1997)
- Porsche Carrera GTR (2000-2004)
- Porsche 911 GT2 RSR (2006-2011)
- Saleen S7-R (2001-2011)
- Toyota Supra LMGT / Supra GT500 / Supra GT-R (1994-2004)
- TVR Cerbera Speed 12 (1998-2005)
- Vector M12 GT / M12 GTR (1994-2000)

 

[phx1138]

Timeline: None (WIP...but scant chance it'll see the light of day )
Model Name/Manufacturer: Lincoln Maltese (& badge-engineered {down-market} Zephyr Grimaldi); based on two-seat Triumph Taconite.
Model Type: four-seat two door convertible (hardtop coupé optional)
Model Year: 1959
Nation of Origin: U.S.
Production run: 1959-2000
Number built: 57,562 (plus 68,341 Zephyr) in 1959
Engine: standard 325hp 271ci hemi; available 280hp 292ci V12
Drivetrain: Front engine, rear drive
Transmission: standard 5sp auto
Weight: around 3800pd
Description: prestige tourer?
OTL Equivalent: roughly, '62 T-bird (Taconite is the '57)


Timeline: None (WIP...but scant chance it'll see the light of day )
Model Name/Manufacturer: Lincoln Maltese Falcon
Model Type: four-seat two door convertible
Model Year: 1960
Nation of Origin: U.S.
Production run: 1960-70
Number built: 500/yr
Engine: standard 420hp turbo 292ci V12
Drivetrain: Front engine, rear drive
Transmission: standard 5sp manual
Weight: around 3000pd
Description: prestige tourer?; four-wheel disk brakes, all-independent suspension, black anodized aluminum body with black leather interior
OTL Equivalent: roughly, '62 T-bird (with the GN Regal treatment)

 

[The Uchronian]

Timeline: None (WIP...but scant chance it'll see the light of day )
Model Name/Manufacturer: Lincoln Maltese (& badge-engineered {down-market} Zephyr Grimaldi); based on two-seat Triumph Taconite.
Model Type: four-seat two door convertible (hardtop coupé optional)
Model Year: 1959
Nation of Origin: U.S.
Production run: 1959-2000
Number built: 57,562 (plus 68,341 Zephyr) in 1959
Engine: standard 325hp 271ci hemi; available 280hp 292ci V12
Drivetrain: Front engine, rear drive
Transmission: standard 5sp auto
Weight: around 3800pd
Description: prestige tourer?
OTL Equivalent: roughly, '62 T-bird (Taconite is the '57)


Timeline: None (WIP...but scant chance it'll see the light of day )
Model Name/Manufacturer: Lincoln Maltese Falcon
Model Type: four-seat two door convertible
Model Year: 1960
Nation of Origin: U.S.
Production run: 1960-70
Number built: 500/yr
Engine: standard 420hp turbo 292ci V12
Drivetrain: Front engine, rear drive
Transmission: standard 5sp manual
Weight: around 3000pd
Description: prestige tourer?; four-wheel disk brakes, all-independent suspension, black anodized aluminum body with black leather interior
OTL Equivalent: roughly, '62 T-bird (with the GN Regal treatment)

Hey, phx1138, thanks for stopping by!

 

[TheMann]

I know this is something of a thread necro, but I don't think starting a new one is needed here, sooooo....

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: GMC Motorhome
Manufacturer: GMC Van, Truck and Bus Division, General Motors Corporation
Model Type: Motorhome
Model Year: 1984-1994
Origin: Lansing, Michigan, USA

Length: 288" (standard length), 342" (extended length)
Width: 96"
Height: 104"
Weight: 12,210 lb (gas engine, 24' length) to 13,655 lb (diesel engines, 28.5' length)
Passenger Capacity: 6
Sleeping Capacity: 6
Engine:
- 2x Buick LG3M 3788cc V6 (1984-1987)
- 2x Buick LN3M 3788cc V6 (1988-1990)
- 2x Buick L67SI 3788cc supercharged V6 (1991-1994)
- 2x Oldsmobile LT7TM 4302cc turbocharged diesel V6 (1984-1990)
- 2x Oldsmobile LV2M 3625cc turbocharged diesel V6 (1991-1994)
Power: 300 hp (LG3M), 330 hp (LN3M), 410 hp (L67SI), 296 hp (LT7TM), 370 hp (LV2M)
Torque: 400 lb-ft (LG3M), 410 lb-ft (LN3M), 530 lb-ft (L67SI), 570 lb-ft (LT7TM), 626 lb-ft (LV2M)
Drivetrain: Rear-engined, Rear-wheel-drive with separate transmission for each engine
Transmission:
- 2x GM Turbo-Hydramatic 4T60-HD four-speed automatic (1984-1990, gas engines)
- 2x GM Turbo-Hydramatic 5T80-HD (1991-1994, gas engines)
- 2x GM Turbo-Hydramatic 5T70-D (1984-1994, diesel engines)
Towing Ability: 6000 lbs (gas), 9000 lbs (diesel)
Fuel Capacity: 52 gallons (2x 26-gallon tanks)
Water Capacity: 50 gallons
Amenities (standard): air conditioning, refrigerator and freezer, electric range, microwave, shower with electric hot water heater and tank, front projector television with surround sound and headphone jacks, bedroom television, GPS navigation system (from 1991), heavy-duty batteries, external power ports, powered hydraulic jack, rear view camera
Amenities (optional): Auxillary electric vehicles (GMC Skooters), external generator, trailer brake control system, front drink refrigerator, heated seats and steering wheel, collision avoidance radar
MSRP: $38,799 (base price, 1984) to $92,275 (all options, 1994)

Motorhomes are, in the classic North American idiom, a way to travel and explore in ways that cannot easily be done by flying or taking the train and are less well suited for doing in one's ordinary private car. Built to have the comforts of home in a mobile vehicle, they are very much for certain kinds of people willing to make the investment in such a vehicle.

While such vehicles had existed since the dawn of the automobile, by the 1960s the rapid growth of companies like Winnebago and Travco made clear that there was a market for such vehicles even from major manufacturers, and the first GMC Motorhome, designed to be a flagship civilian vehicle for GM's truck division, rewrote many of the rules of such vehicles. Equipped with a car engine and drivetrain and front wheel drive for a low center of gravity, better interior room and better aerodynamics, which had a marked positive effect on the vehicle's stability at highway speeds and on its fuel efficiency. GM would build nearly 18,000 motorhomes between 1971 and 1978, the first-generation models having a very proud and loyal following to this day.

GM, however, was forced to cancel the Motorhome primarily because of the downsizing of their vehicles in the late 1970s ending the production of the bigger V8 engines and TH425 transmissions that the Motorhome used. Despite this, such was the popularity of the GMC Motorhome - and GM's desire for market share anywhere they could get it - that GMC's engineers got the green light to build a replacement for the original Motorhome in February 1979, and development began.

What was born when GM introduced at the 1983 Detroit Auto Show shocked many, getting easily as much attention as the C4 Corvette had the year before. A similar size to the original, that was about where the similarities ended. Equipped with twin V6 engines at the rear of the vehicle - the drivetrains mounted on sliding platforms for accessing parts of the engine that otherwise would be difficult to service - the motorhome was built around a stainless steel spaceframe that aluminum and polymer bodywork panels were bolted to. The dispensing of a traditional frame lowered the center of gravity further for better handling and safety, while the motorhome had a three axle arrangement for its wheels, with four wheels at the front (that all steered) and two at the rear which propelled the vehicle. Massive disc brakes with ABS stopped the vehicle, which was equipped to carry and sleep six in superb comfort.

But GMC went further than that even. Expecting that many owners would tow cars, trailers or boats with their motorhomes, the vehicle could be equipped for this, and the interior included all of the amenities one could need, including a stove, fridge and freezer, shower, sink, water heater, air conditioning, projector television and comfortable bed, along with driver aids to help when piloting the twenty-four foot long, eight foot wide monster down the road. Air suspension meant a comfortable ride, and rear view cameras and optional collision avoidance radar made driving such a giant vehicle that much easier. But even more than that was the "Skooter" electric three-wheeled runabouts that could be ordered with the motorhome, that folded up and were stored in compartments underneath the vehicle.

Most never believed GMC had the nerve to male such a creation, but those naysayers proved wrong - the first ones were indeed delivered to their proud new owners in the spring of 1984. GM scored a real hit with it, as over 50,000 units were built between 1984 and 1994, and a third generation of the vehicle was assured, which was introduced in 1995 and proving as revolutionary as the two vehicles that came before it.

 

[The Uchronian]

Oh, hey there, @TheMann! I just figured I'd pop in and say, thanks for reviving the thread.

OK, so here's a quickie: what if Chevrolet had revived the ZL-1 Corvette for that car's 5th generation?

Model Name: Chevrolet Corvette ZL-1
Manufacturer: Chevrolet
Model Type: 2-door sports coupe
Model Year: January 5, 1999-December 16, 2002
Origin: Bowling Green, Ky., U.S.A.
Engine: 5.7 liter LS4 V8, DOHC 32-valve, all-aluminum construction.
Power: 496 hp @ 6,400 rpm (Jan. 1999-Apr. 2001) 516 hp @ 6,600 rpm (Apr. 2001-2002)
Transmission: Borg-Warner T-56 6-speed manual
0-60 mph: 3.9 seconds
Top Speed: ~200 mph
MSRP: $66,482 (Jan. 1999-Apr. 2001), $68,756 (Apr. 2001-2002)
Number Produced: 4,975

Description: After the ZR-1 Corvette was discontinued at the conclusion of the 1995 model year, many Corvette fans though Chevy would never ever go for another truly highly-advanced 'Vette like it. But sometime right before the C5 was to be introduced, somebody at Chevrolet had an idea-why not try it one more time, but also bringing back an old high-performance option to boot? There were multiple options considered over the followingn months, but eventually, the folks at Chevy settled on an old favorite: ZL-1, the name of the legendary 427-powered Corvette from 1969. Though never a formally designated trim it was still renowned for it's extreme high performance, even for the early-model C3s which had a number of such models-like the ZL-1, this Corvette, too, would sport an all-aluminum engine, but, in a direct homage to the ZR-1 of the last generation, it would also have DOHC heads in place of the normal pushrod ones, with the design being finalized in early 1998, and given the LS-4 moniker; Callaway Engineering, the famous Corvette tuners from Connecticut, would help with certain of the LS-4's technical details, much as Lotus and Mercury Marine had with the LT-5 that was made for the ZR-1(A supercharged version of the LS-4 would itself be available in Callaway's C-12 super sports car, derived from the Corvette).

During that time, they also came up with a trim with an up-rated version of the regular LS-1 motor, making 405 hp, to be named the Z06-after a racing package that was introduced in 1963 for the C2-that would slot in between the base model and the ZL-1, and both models were introduced on Jan. 5, 1999, with the ZL-1 receiving a major update in the middle of the 2001 model year. Only a bit under 5,000 models were sold before the ZL-1 was canned in October 2002(About 150 remaining ZL-1 'Vettes were assembled between October 25 and December 16), but the ZL-1, much like its legendary C3-era counterpart, and the ZR-1 that inspired it, received high praise from many of the automotive publications to this day, and eventually lead to both Chevy and the other General Motors automakers being willing to experiment more and more with OHC engine layouts as opposed to the classical pushrod ones which had dominated for so long.

OOC: The Z06 actually didn't begin production until 2001 IOTL, and the ZL-1 name was never revived, though the famous ZR-1 trim eventually was during the C7's production run, specifically for the 2019 model year.

 

[TheMann]

^ I like it, though I feel somewhat obliged to point out that the LS series of engines was introduced with the C5 Corvette in 1997 and the LS is a masterpiece of design, so making a four-cam 32-valve engine on it (which would involve completely redesigning the valvetrain, cylinder heads, the top of the block and the cooling system) seems a lot more work than simply either making a bigger version of it (like the 7-liter LS7 used in the OTL C6 Corvette Z06) or using a supercharger (like the aforementioned ZR-1). In addition, I know from experience that C5 Corvettes have a fairly low hoodline, so a four-cam version with taller cylinder heads will probably require a new hood with a dome to fit the engine.

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Chevrolet Savannah
Manufacturer: Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation
Model Type: Passenger / Cargo Van
Model Year: 1976-1983
Origin: St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Length: 181.5"
Width: 79.75"
Height: 74"
Weight: 3,224 - 3,470 lbs
Passenger Capacity: 7
Engine:
- Chevrolet LF6 3046cc Flat-6
- Chevrolet LR6S 3046cc supercharged Flat-6
Power: 135 hp (LF6), 188 hp (LR6S)
Torque: 162 ft-lbs (LF6), 224 ft-lbs (LR6S)
Drivetrain: Rear-engined, Rear-wheel-drive
Transmission:
- GM Turbo-Hydramatic 4R60-HD four-speed automatic
Towing Ability: 4000 lbs

As the 1970s dawned, the energy crisis had long receded into the past-that-everyone-wanted-to-forget, but new challenges had emerged from the 1960s. The removal of Tetraethyllead from gasoline resulted in a dramatic drop in compression ratios at the same time as air pollution concerns forced new cars to use a variety of emissions control devices which were, perhaps not surprisingly, not good for power and efficiency in engines. The new engines and many revised ones from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors and Westland-Reynard during this time period (along with the widespread adoption of first multiple-carburetor setups and then fuel injection in addition to transistorized ignition and forced induction) counteracted this to a degree, but cars of the 1970s, despite them bearing many of the fruits of Detroit's leap into the technological advancement game in the 1960s, were simply weaker in performance than their fire-breathing counterparts of just a few years earlier. The shift in performance led to many younger drivers wanting different things out of their vehicles, and the proliferation of new design ideas, from open-roofed four-wheel-drive off-roaders to car based pickup trucks, hot hatchbacks to customized vans, only added to the growing sense that vehicles could be a part of the identity of many people beyond the long-established hot rod, lowrider and kustom scenes.

Keeping up with the times led to automakers throwing out all kinds of new ideas in the 1970s, but none more than General Motors. From the Chevy K5 Blazer and El Camino to the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega, the Buick Turbo V6 and Oldsmobile Turbo series of diesel engines to the GMC Motorhome, the world's largest automaker was quick to make clear that they were the equal of anyone in the world when it came to not only the ideas themselves but also how they were executed, and the idea that good ideas deserved to be given a chance even if their initial issues were real, the Oldsmobile diesel engines being a classic case of this. And in the middle of this was the Chevy Corvair, the compact classic that had evolved into a sporting legend.

The Corvair had evolved over its lifetime from GM's compact "import fighter" to becoming an example of a small sporty sedan done remarkably well, over time giving away the bottom of the new car market to the Chevy II and Nova but gaining a new identity in the process. When the Vega took over from the Nova in the apring of 1969, the Corvair's second generation was scheduled for its end, such was the sportiness of the Vega - at least, that's what GM thought. Backlash from Corvair owners, however, quickly changed that as the public announcements saw a raft of 1969 and 1970 orders for the car, basically forcing GM into advancing the third-generation car which, thankfully, had been planned out before the Vega's launch. GM publicly confirmed this in May 1970, and the third-generation car arrived in spring 1972.

GM learned more many lessons from the whole affair, and their research into the car taught them a few more - namely, that drivers of the sporty rear-engined cars were the sort who otherwise tended towards European vehicles - indeed, GM would discover that one 1969 Corvair Monza owner in La Jolla, California, saw his Corvair share his garage with a BMW 2800 CS and a Citroën DS 23 - and they tended to both be more sporty drivers and more inclined towards taking more fastidious care of their vehicles, as well as proudly driving what was in the minds of many of the marketing guys in Detroit a vehicle that was somewhat low on the proverbial totem pole. This realization meant that while the third-generation car came only as a coupe or sedan (a station wagon was proposed but cooling difficulties proved insurmountable for it), the fourth-generation would from the start include a wagon, as well as a van and a compact pickup truck. The fourth-generation cars were unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in February 1976 - and the Savannah was one of these.

While the car could now boast a full lineup with hatchback and sedan and with an all-new drivetrain, the Savannah was something else entirely. Taking the Corvair platform meant the van was, at 77 inches wide, wider than a Cadillac Sedan De Ville - a decision made to improve the Corvair's handling which also meant lots of room inside the van. At 181 inches long, it was a similar size to the Monza subcompact, ensuring ease of parking and driving in traffic. Much of its styling was connected to the then-new GM buses - indeed they share headlight assemblies - but it was very much a fresh and unique look, and the van was as spacious as it got, much nicer to drive than any of the body-on-frame full-size vans (and with rather fuel consumption, too) and came equipped with (either as standard or as options) a whole bunch of unique features, including rotating captain's chairs, removable center consoles, separate audio system for rear passengers, sunroofs, drinks cooler and roof racks specifically meant for surfboards.

Unsurprisingly considering the times, buyers ate them up in numbers. GM would make some 445,000 Savannah's between 1976 and 1984, being the first of what became known as the minivan. While the rear-engined Savannah would be replaced by the front-engined all-wheel-drive Lumina APV in 1985, the Lumina would itself set a number of new design paths in motion, and the Savannah today is fondly remembered by many for being where the story of the car-based van that Chrysler and American Motors would so ably market in the 1980s began....

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Campagna Vision K/4
Manufacturer: Campagna Automotive Corporation
Model Type: Sports Car
Model Year: 2007-2017
Origin: Boucherville, Quebec, Canada

Length: 4375mm (172.25")
Width: 1785mm (70.25")
Height: 1230mm (48.5")
Wheelbase: 2875mm (113.25")
Weight: 2,622 - 2,790 lbs
Passenger Capacity: 2
Engine:
- General Motors LLT-VC 3564cc V6
- General Motors LF3-VC 3564cc turbocharged V6 (2013-2017)
Power: 329 hp (LLT-VC), 446 hp (LF3-VC)
Torque: 288 ft-lbs (LLT-VC), 450 ft-lbs (LF3-VC)
Transmission:
- Sadev SLR84-06 eight-speed manual transmission (2007-2016)
- Sadev SLR86-13 eight-speed semiautomatic transmission (2013-2016)
Drivetrain: Mid-engined, Rear-wheel-drive
Suspension:
- Front: Five-link Multilink from suspension with inboard coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers, rack and pinion steering, outboard brakes
- Rear: MacKenzie-frame type double-wishbone suspension with coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers, inboard and outboard brakes
Chassis: Bonded extruded aluminum-alloy tub and outriggers, hydroformed stainless-steel internal roll cage and outriggers
Body: Carbonfiber-reinforced plastic, optional full carbonfiber bodywork, scissor-style doors

The years starting in the 1980s in North America began the history saw a collection of auto makers founded by those who had a dream to make their own cars in their own image. Most of these started in the world of sports cars and began with a unique idea, from the razor-sharp lines and no-costs-spared construction of Gerald Weigert's Vector W8 and the stainless-steel bodywork and gull-wing doors of John DeLorean's DMC-12 to the modern roadster style-bodywork and remarkable driving purity of Dan Panoz's Panoz AIV. It didn't stop there, of course, as Carroll Shelby's car for the 1990s, the svelte, lightweight Shelby Series 1, and Ford tuner Steve Saleen's creation of his own in the race-car-for-the-open-road Saleen S7 only added to the market, and led to a few more chasing their dreams. One of these was the Campagna firm, set up by Montreal car nuts Andre Morissette, David Neault, Alain Marchessault, Robert MacKenzie and Stephane Levenstein (the "Fab Five of Campagna", as they would come to be known) in 1995 originally to sell three-wheeled vehicles built with motorcycle engines, coming out with the Campagna T-Rex in 1996. The T-Rex proved a roaring success for the company (so much so it expanded its facilities twice in the 1990s and early 2000s), and Marchessault and Levenstein's design for a small mid-engined sports car, shown off at the 2001 Montreal International Auto Show, was quickly contracted by Honda to become the Honda Beat, which debuted in Canada in 2004, the success of the program giving the Campagna firm the finances to make real their own plan of a reasonably-affordable sports car, designed with the latest of technology but accessible to a middle-class buyer, somebody who in the words of Neault, "Would work a night job or make a change or two in their life to get into a stylish sports car, a car they can use every day and yet is able to make one absolutely love getting behind the wheel."

The resulting car, styled by Amelia Forgues, was exactly what its creators had in mind. Built around a chassis tub made from extruded aluminum alloy components and a roll cell made from welded pieces of hydroformed stainless steel and clothed in polyurethane bodywork reinforced with a carbonfiber inner structure, the Vision K/4 was the stylish machine its creators really wanted it to be. While the company's money had been made through working with Honda Canada, Honda was unable to provide engines that met the company's needs at the price they wanted, resulting in the car being powered with modified General Motor High Feature engines, though versions for Campagna were built by GM Powertrain's St. Catharines, Ontario, facility to suit the needs of the company, including stainless-steel timing chains, aluminum chain guides, dry-sump oiling and higher-flow water pumps for performance applications (which also served to act as what GM needed to do to make the once trouble-prone High Feature engine more durable), while Sadev gearboxes and smaller flywheels meant the engine very much didn't sound or perform like those in other GM vehicles. The French-built gearboxes proved almost indestructible as well, and the eight-gear gearboxes also allowed shorter ratios in the lower gears, which also improved performance. MacKenzie's rear suspension design was to become a feature that set Campagna vehicles apart and was clearly inspired by Jaguar's famous independent rear suspension design of the past, though MacKenzie's design was a few steps beyond the Jaguar idea and was designed to make the rear suspension mounts part of the vehicle frame, improving chassis rigidity. The bodywork was made from just ten pieces to reduce weight and cost and improve body rigidity, and the extruded aluminum frame with the steel roll cage proved incredibly stiff and durable, and the construction of the car was meant to be a sporty car first, which while early versions weren't particularly quiet on the inside, later cars improved this considerably, and the company's growth in the motorcycle and three-wheeler field had resulted in a staff that were very good at making cars, and so the assembly quality of the vehicles was excellent, and the price, while not cheap at roughly $58,000 to start, was rather cheaper than many rivals with similar performance, and when the car launched in 2006 it's creators were hoping for a hit.

They got rather more than that.

The car's launch at the 2006 Montreal International Auto Show was the star of the show, and by the end of the show the company had nearly 5000 orders, complete with deposits, and customer cars began to be delivered in November 2006. Not publicity shy in the slightest, the company made a point of offering a factory model to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Premier of Quebec (the latter accepted) as well as many others, and the car competed in the 2007 Canada GT Challenge Cup's GT2 category as well as the similar category in the IMSA American Sports Car Championship, winning its class in the former and scoring three race wins and runner-up in the championship in the latter. The prospect of a sports car made in Quebec that could go toe-to-toe with any rival anywhere at the price meant the car's strongest market was indeed in La Belle Provence, where the car became a highly-sought-after status symbol, the company using it and the T-Rex and its rivals as a sign of what the company sought to do in the world of cars, a "machine for the fun of it, able to be a faithful friend, the greatest of teases and the best of style statements all at the same time." The company literally struggled to keep up with demand for the first five years of the company's existence, expanding the Boucherville facility to keep up with demand and eventually moving the T-Rex production to Hudson, Quebec in order to make room for Vision K/4 production. The company's engineers made many upgrades to the car over its life and offered these upgrades to existing owners for nominal fees, and even allowed customers from abroad to pick up their vehicles in Quebec and drive in Canada for three weeks (entirely legally, the delivery including a temporary licensing of the car and insurance for it) if customers wished to do a Canadian holiday at the same time as pick up their new car. (This proved a popular option for customers from Europe and Japan.) General Motors, surprised at the success, had Campagna work with them on the Cadillac XLR-V project and proposed in 2011 a higher-performance version of the Vision K/4 with their incoming LF3 turbocharged engine, which became the Vision K/4R when it was introduced in late 2012.

If the company had any issues with making its name they died with the Vision K/4, as the car's success led to the tiny (but quite affordable, at less than $30,000) Alpha V/2 small sports car and the second generation Vision, the Vision K/6, which hit the road in 2017, with the exotic Futurea R/8 hybrid-electric supercar, which debuted the following year.

A mildly-customized Vision K/4, at a show in California in 2015.

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Campagna Futurea R/8
Manufacturer: Campagna Automotive Corporation
Model Type: Hybrid Super Car
Model Year: 2018-2025
Origin: Boucherville, Quebec, Canada

Length: 4750mm (187.01")
Width: 1994mm (78.50")
Height: 1185mm (46.65")
Wheelbase: 3070mm (120.87")
Weight: 3,725 lbs
Passenger Capacity: 3
Engine:
- General Motors Blackwing-X turbocharged 4192cc V8 (2018-2021)
- General Motors Blackwing-XV turbocharged 4591cc V8 (2022-2025)
Hybrid System:
- Magna-Ferranti Beaulieu 01-AXP hybrid system (Two Western Electric AEP-02A 80 kW electric motors, One Western Electric AEP-05 115 kW electric motor, Two Rivian 06-SEP lithium-ion battery packs, Ferranti Beaulieu MV02 electronic control, Magna ADV24 torque-vectoring system)
Power:
- 725 hp @ 7300 rpm (gasoline engine) (2018-2021)
- 880 hp @ 7500 rpm (gasoline engine) (2022-2025)
- 368 hp (electric motors)
- 1,021 hp (combined maximum output of both sources simultaneously) (2018-2021)
- 1,176 hp (combined maximum output of both sources simultaneously) (2022-2025)
Torque: 887 ft-lbs (combined max output)
Transmission:
- Sadev SLR100-50 eight-speed semiautomatic gearbox (rear gearbox, connected to Blackwing-X engine and AEP-05 motor)
- Vektris Engineering 22PTS four-speed power transmission gearbox (x2, connected to AEP-02A electric motors)
Drivetrain: Mid-engined, All-wheel-drive
Suspension:
- Front: Six-link Multilink from suspension with inboard coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers, rack and pinion steering, outboard brakes
- Rear: MacKenzie-frame type double-wishbone suspension with coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers, inboard and outboard brakes, rack and pinion steering gear
Chassis: Carbonfiber monocoque tub, integral 4142 chromoly-steel roll cage, carbonfiber monocoque upper structure
Body: Eleven-piece dry carbonfiber bodywork, dihedral doors
Price: $682,000 (base, before options)
Number Built: 1,600 (limited to this number)

What does one do when one has firmly established themselves as one of the world's new up-and-coming makers of sporting automobiles and your catalogue includes a best-selling mid-engined sports car, a fast-selling smaller sports car model, a high-performance track car, a collection of three-wheeled machines, you're on the way to making a series of motorcycles and your company has become one of the hottest things in your native country? If you're Campagna in the 2010s, you decide to go for the brass ring and gun for the hybrid-hypercar market, developing a machine that takes everything good about your company and building one of the fastest cars the world has ever seen to those philosophies. It was the culmination of what the "Fab Five" of Campagna had in mind for their company, which by this point was making nearly 15,000 vehicles a year and was selling them worldwide. If the "Holy Trinity" of the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder had laid the groundwork for the hybrid-electric hypercar, the Campagna Futurea R/8 and the cars that rivalled it - the American Vector R30 and Saleen S12H, the Swedish Koenigsegg Regera, the Japanese Yamaha XRS20, the British Aston Martin Valkyrie and the German Mercedes-AMG One - would take the cars to the next level, offering performance numbers almost unimaginable in road-legal automobiles and a style all their own, daring those of sufficient wealth and driving skill to pick their chariot and get ready for the ride of their lives.

For Campagna, this meant a design from a clean sheet of paper and the firm's first carbonfiber tub design, developed and built for them by fellow Canadian engineering firm Multimatic Motorsports, while the firm made its own carbonfiber pieces, including the upper structure, bodywork and the carbonfiber MacKenzie frame that holds the rear suspension in the vehicle. The wide chassis of the car and the need to mount the electric motors up front meant a wide tub, which Campagna took advantage of by using dihedral doors and a three-abreast seating arrangement, with the driver in the middle of the vehicle. The center-seat driving position was the only thing unique about the chassis - it was also unique in having a four wheel steering system developed by Campagna that allowed the rear wheels to steer at low speeds to improve maneuverability (and indeed the Futurea had the turning circle of a small hatchback as a result) but it's "Speedy" mode steered in the same direction as the front wheels to improve straight-line stability at higher speeds but would quickly switch back to turning the other way when cornering at higher speeds, giving better cornering at higher speeds. The system's feel was something that took getting used to, but drivers who drove it at speed would often marvel at how the Futurea R/8 seemed to avoid both oversteer and understeer during fast driving.

Deciding early on to go for hybrid technology meant agreements with electronics manufacturer Ferranti Beaulieu, batteries from electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian and electric motors from Western Electric, with Magna and Vektris Engineering taking on the task of making the whole system work properly. The 800-volt electrical architecture of the hybrid system meant massive power output for the hybrid system, the vehicle capable of 0-60 times of under 4 seconds on pure battery power alone, and the battery packs gave some 36 kWh of battery power, giving the Futurea R/8 an all-electric range of nearly 150 km, with the vehicle's regenerative braking ability adding to its range. The battery packs were mounted on either side of the engine, centering the weight of the vehicle. The front electric motors each drove a front wheel through a four-speed gearbox the size of a melon, giving incredible power and traction, and the system's torque-vectoring ability allowed the car to reduce or increase power at both ends of the car to improve handling, adding to the four-wheel-steering system.

General Motors' new-for-2016 Blackwing V8 engine was the basis for the car's powerplant, but like the other units GM had built for Campagna, these were built to the exact specification Campagna decided. The company had no problems with GM using the Futurea R/8 to advertise the capability of the highly-advanced Blackwing engine and Campagna similarly made sure its new car had "Powered by Blackwing" decals on their flanks to show what lurked under the hood. The Campagna-spec Blackwing engine added dry-sump oiling, new pistons, water-cooled turbochargers, new intercoolers, titanium connecting rods, a flat-plane crankshaft (made for the engines by Vektris Engineering) and equal-length exhaust headers (for better turbocharger efficiency), and the engine was designed to be able to rev to some 8200 rpm but also have the reliability demanded by Campagna. GM's efforts paid off, and indeed many of the improvements developed for the Futurea R/8 would see use on a number of other GM cars built with the engine. The Hot-V design of the engine led to one of the Futurea R/8's signature design elements in the exhaust outlets being on the rear decklid, which still allowed for catalytic converters to be mounted well away from the engine's intakes for lowering intake air temperature reasons. The Blackwing-XV variant, introduced in 2022, upped the ante on the engine further through a number of additions - it's bore grew from 86mm to 90mm and new cylinder heads were added using helical camshafts and a gear-driven valvetrain as well as additional turbo boost, giving an additional 155 hp from the gasoline engine (and yet, the Blackwing-XV variant actually had better fuel consumption than earlier engines).

The resulting product was every bit the world-beater it had been created to be, and when it debuted at the 2017 Cobble Beach Concours D'Elegance car show, it surprised no-one that the resulting machine was a sensation. The company originally planned to only make 1,000 examples of the car, but such was the demand for the machine that the company ended up making some 1600 examples of the car, which even then ended up seeing people being willing to pay a premium for the car over and above the factory's price. Aware of the issues the car's performance could cause, the company insisted on all owners doing a driver training course in their car at the Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant racing circuit, this being included in the price, or a customer could have a car delivered abroad to a racing circuit where instructors would teach the new owner about their machine. Once again, few were surprised that the car's list of buyers in its native Canada included many of its most famous and well-known - musicians Aubrey "Drake" Graham, Robyn "Rihanna" Fenty, Joel Thomas "Deadmau5" Zimmermann and Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye all bought one, as did NHL hockey stars Sidney Crosby and Johnathan Toews, NBA basketball star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, actresses Nina Dobrev, Pom Klementieff and Emily VanCamp, actors Ryan Gosling and Jason Priestly, supermodels Ashley Callingbull and Andi Muise, Indycar racer Paul Tracy, Eaton family scion Alexis Grace Eaton and Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte. Perhaps surprisingly (considering the size of the market), nearly half of the 1600 cars sold stayed in North America, with some 193 of the 1600 cars sold stayed in Canada and the United States and Mexico accounting for 618 of the cars sold. The cars quickly became collectors items, but the company was more than happy to provide whatever services the cars needed many years after their sale.

 

[ennobee]

Hurray, we ain't dead yet!

 

[TheMann]

Hurray, we ain't dead yet!

I'm trying to keep it alive 🙂

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Isdera Silver Arrow 112i
Manufacturer: Isdera GmbH
Model Type: Super Car
Model Year: 1992-2003
Origin: Leonberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Length: 4623mm (182.0")
Width: 1867mm (73.5")
Height: 1031mm (40.6")
Wheelbase: 2600mm (102.4")
Weight: 3,255 - 3,374 lbs
Passenger Capacity: 2
Engine:
- Mercedes-Benz M120 5987cc V12 (1992-2000)
- Mercedes-Benz AMG M120A 7055cc V12 (1996-1999)
- Mercedes-Benz AMG M297 7291cc V12 (1997-2003)
Power: 424 hp (M120), 500 hp (M120A), 525 hp (M297)
Torque: 428 ft-lbs (M120), 531 ft-lbs (M120A), 553 ft-lbs (M297)
Transmission: Getrag 650SP six-speed manual
Drivetrain: Mid-engined, Rear-wheel-drive
Suspension:
- Front: Double-wishbone front suspension with inboard coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers, rack and pinion steering, electromechanically-adjusted anti-roll bar
- Rear: Four-link Multilink type rear suspension with coil-over springs and remote-reservoir shock absorbers and Weissach axle link, electromechanically-adjusted anti-roll bar
Brakes: Ventilated two-piece disc brakes, 332mm front and 310mm rear, four piston-calipers with ABS, cockpit-adjustable brake balance
Chassis: Tubular space frame with bonded aluminum-alloy reinforcement panels
Body: Carbonfiber-reinforced plastic, hydraulically-actuated rear air brake, gullwing-style doors

When one thinks of German automotive engineers the most common viewpoint is perfectionist, almost-obsessive men who nevertheless through excellent skill and financial resources produce excellent, if somewhat over-engineered, automobiles. While the existence of Porsche meant that the engineers who had sports cars at heart were overwhelmingly focused in one place (to the benefit of the Weissach-based sports car maker, whose history of excellence is extremely long) by the 1980s the company wasn't alone with its love of speed, and one group of these had long coalesced around Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz' ground-breaking C111 series of concept cars (and the 500-car limited run of production models the company built) had been a catalyst that had gotten everyone's attention, and while the concept's exotic Wankel rotary engine and later turbocharged diesel engines ended up replaced in the road-going versions by the mighty 6.3-liter M100 V8 from the 300 SEL 6.3, the company's die had been cast, and while the awesome big-engined Mercedes sedans of the 1970s and 1980s that resulted and the ever-improving performance of the Mercedes-Benz SL grand tourer had created much interest, Mercedes' unwillingness to create a C111 successor (for then....that came later) led to one of the true fanatics of the bunch, talented engineer Eberhard Schultz, to found his own company, Isdera, in 1981 with the aim of producing the supercars Mercedes-Benz wouldn't.

To be fair, Mercedes' engineers had little objection to companies making faster versions of their cars on their own, provided they were quality items - and this certainly wasn't a problem for Isdera, whose cars were well-put-together even by Mercedes-Benz standards - and as such Mercedes-Benz had a good relationship with Schultz and his company and the firm had no problem accessing Mercedes' parts bin, and its project for the 1980s, the Imperator 108i, proved a modest success (93 cars were built between 1984 and 1991), the rapid growth of supercars in the 1980s - Porsche's technologically-advanced 959, the thinly-veiled race car that was the Ferrari F40, the latest versions of the Lamborghini Countach (and then the Lamborghini Diablo, developed with Chrysler's finances), the ground-breaking Vector W8 with its beastly 655-horsepower turbocharged V8 and the quad-turbocharged four-wheel-drive Bugatti EB110 meant that the ranks of the "Untouchables" (as Road and Track would proclaim in 1994, which in itself inspired the name of the second game of the Need For Speed series of video games, introduced in 1996) grew, the interest in them across the world grew. As more nations of the world became suitable markets for such cars during the last two decades of the 20th Century and the number of competitors grew, the competition got ever more intense, and Schultz' small firm, with financial help from European, South African and Japanese investors, set about developing an all-new car for the 1990s in the late 1980s.

The Silver Arrow 112i was the result. The name - which Schultz had gotten permission from Mercedes-Benz to use - was a clear homage to the world-beating racing cars of Mercedes-Benz's past, and with a name like that, sleek bodywork and Mercedes-Benz's newest V12 engine under its long tail, much was expected of the Silver Arrow, and it had no problems delivering. The six-liter V12 gave both excellent power and first-class driving dynamics, and the performance of the Silver Arrow - with a 0 to 60 time of just 4.1 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph - combined with beautiful looks to make sure the car got attention. While the Porsche 968 headlights initially caught some flak from Porsche's design department, Isdera made their own units and the car's looks and performance meant few cared about that, nor was the slight issues with chassis rigidity in early cars (it wasn't unsafe by any means, but perhaps not up to the car's abilities - cars made after mid-1993 fixed that issue) and even at a price of US $320,000 in 1993 there was no shortage of buyers, and Isdera's reputation for quality construction and the cars' remarkable reliability meant that many owners used their cars to the fullest, and with it came ever greater interest in the machine, which swelled interest in the car further. By mid-1995 the company was producing four cars a week and selling them all other the world, and while 1990s competitors in some cars eclipsed the Isdera - the McLaren F1, Vector M12 and Ferrari F50 being the kings of that mountain - the car's proven reputation for performance, comfort, reliability and style meant it was a supercar icon throughout the 1990s.

 

[TheMann]

Timeline: Streets of Detroit / Transport America Redux / The Land of Milk and Honey

Model Name: Mercedes-Benz C112
Manufacturer: Mercedes-Benz, Carrozzeria Coggiola
Model Type: Super Car
Model Year: 1992-1998
Origin: Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Length: 4616mm (182")
Width: 1976mm (78")
Height: 1200mm (47")
Wheelbase: 2700mm (106.3")
Weight: 3,550 - 3,664 lbs
Passenger Capacity: 2
Engine:
- Mercedes-Benz M119TR 4973cc twin-turbocharged V8
Power: 522 hp @ 5400 rpm
Torque: 484 ft-lbs @ 3800 rpm
Transmission: Getrag 701SP-X seven-speed manual
Drivetrain: Mid-engined, Four-wheel-drive
Suspension:
- Front: Double-wishbone type front suspension, computer-controlled active suspension with hydraulic servomechanisms on the shock absorbers in a coil-over system, electronically-adjusted anti-roll bars, rack-and-pinion steering
- Rear: Four-link Multilink type rear suspension, computer-controlled active suspension with hydraulic servomechanisms on the shock absorbers in a coil-over system, hydraulically-adjusted anti-roll bars, electrically-actuated rack-and-pinion rear steering
Brakes: Ventilated two-piece disc brakes, 332mm front and 310mm rear, four piston-calipers with ABS, cockpit-adjustable brake balance
Chassis: Bonded-aluminum monocoque chassis with an integrated chromoly-steel roll cage
Body: riveted aluminum and kevlar bodywork, hydraulically-actuated rear air brake, gullwing-style doors

Mercedes-Benz had long been a company dominated by its engineers, and while that formula had been successful in created many of the best cars ever made over the 1970s and 1980s, the company had been forced into an unpleasant reality in the late 1980s, as the return to form of traditional luxury car rivals such as BMW, Jaguar (now owned by Ford), Packard, Maserati (bought by Chrysler in 1991) and Cadillac and the arrival of the Japanese Lexus, Infiniti and Acura brands meant that a buyer of fine cars had more choices than ever before, and all of these had various plans to go about matters - Lexus and Packard sought the perfection angle, while Jaguar, Maserati and BMW sought out the enthusiastic driver and Cadillac did a combination of both. Combined with the age of many of Mercedes-Benz's platforms by the late 1980s, it became clear that the company needed to rethink much of what it did - but its engineering corps, bent on proving they were up for the challenge presented by the revivals and newcomers (Lexus and Packard in particular were the targets of the Mercedes engineers) and the marketing staff had a challenge on their hands to make sure their cars were not only the equal or superior of their rivals, but were seen to be that way.

The former change resulted in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury sedan and SL grand touring car, both introduced within months of each other in 1989, and the new C-class compart car replacing the aging 190E in 1991 and the new E-class mid-sized sedan in 1994, but the latter's effect was perhaps more dramatic as Mercedes-Benz dove full-on into the world of racing for the first time since the 1950s in 1985, beginning with the building of the 190 2.3-16 Cosworth for touring car racing and the partnership with Swiss race team Sauber for their C8 Group C Le Mans prototype. While the C8 was fairly successful it wasn't the world-beater Mercedes had hoped for, but its successor in the C9 absolutely was, winning the 24 Hours Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship in 1989, as the 190 Cosworth proved a capable, competitive racer in the World Touring Car Championship and fought a pitched rivalry with BMW's equally-awesome M3 in the smaller classes of touring car races around the world, Mercedes claiming class wins or outright championships in Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Japan and Italy during 1989, 1990 and 1991 and creating legendary races which in many cases are still talked about to this day. Having succeeded at both fronts, and being all too aware of the supercar wars of the 1980s and 1990s, Mercedes' engineers decided to gun for the brass ring, proposing a supercar that would not only be a flagship for the company but also show off many of its new technologies for the future.

The C112, first shown off at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1990, was a sensation, as was the video of touring car ace (and soon to be Formula One legend) Michael Schumacher's taking it for a spin around the Nurburgring which became a TV and video sensation. The C112 was an absolute tech showcase, with a bonded-aluminum chassis with a highly-advanced active suspension system known as Active Body Control, the first use of the second generation of Mercedes' 4Matic four-wheel-drive system (the second generation system proving much more reliable than the highly-complex first generation system) and a four-wheel-steering known as 4Steer that was hugely beneficial both for the car's maneuverability but also its stability at high speeds, clothed in a body made from aluminum and kevlar panels that covered up the same engine as the C11 Le Mans racer, a 5.0-liter V8 with twin-turbochargers that made a remarkable 512 horsepower in road-going trim (though some test mules for the car would use the whole-hog engine from the C11, producing as much as 850 horsepower) along with promised Mercedes reliability, quality and comfort - and to top it all off, the car used showy gull-wing doors with a beautifully-engineered assistance system.

The company got better than 1100 deposits for the car from the show stand and over the following three months as the car toured auto shows and events around the world, and was even used as a pace car before the start of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim in 1990, the press being sufficient that Mercedes-Benz management gave the project the green light, the first production examples being delivered in November 1991. Filling the nearly 2000 orders the car had before they began to be arriving for customers took the company over a year, but there were few complaints, particularly as Mercedes' engineers had done very well indeed.

The C112 proved a revelation, and even at a price tag of $230,000 - over double that of an all-options-specified S-Class sedan - the car was a popular item with well-heeled Mercedes-Benz owners. The C112 was exceptionally-civilized even compared to other luxury cars, to say nothing of other exotic supercars, with excellent ride comfort, being quiet inside (Mercedes' engineers commented that it was possible to carry on a normal conversation with a passenger in a C112 traveling at 165 mph) and having very good climate control, an excellent stereo system and many creature comforts - this was a Mercedes-Benz after all. The turbocharged V8 gave immense torque and proved absolutely bulletproof in service, and while early cars had issues with the ABC active suspension, these were quickly sorted out (and older cars retrofitted with newer components to fix these issues) and the aluminum-and-Kevlar construction meant durability was a strong suit. The use of double-pane glass (soon to be used by all Mercedes-Benz models) meant quieter interiors and no fogging over of glass, and the seats were leather-trimmed carbonfiber units that were almost infinitely adjustable to allow virtually any driver to fit comfortably. An Autobahn-burner with few rivals, over 10,000 examples of the car were built between 1991 and 1998. But what perhaps showed the most for the C112 was the longevity of many of the cars built - an estimated 8,000 of them are still on the road today, one car in Germany having covered over 400,000 miles.