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We heard yesterday from a group of Ford Taurus SHO fans who were questioned in a focus group by Ford employees working on the next Taurus program, so we know that the Blue Oval is at least considering a high performance version of the next Taurus. Combine that with a grainy cell phone pic we posted of what could be a design study for the next Taurus and you’ve got fertile elements for our friends over at BringBacktheSHO.com who specialize in letting their imaginations run wild. Ryan Pasch who runs the website actually attended the focus group in question earlier this week, so these renderings based off of that grainy camera phone pic may be more accurate than we realize. Pasch calls the car in his renders the BringBacktheSHO Concept V2, and judging from the pics in our gallery below, we’re as ready for the SHO’s triumphant return as he his.

[Source: BringBacktheSHO]

Not long ago Edo unveiled its 996 Turbo conversion kit. A couple of months later, and they’ve realized that that was so … 996. Now it’s time for their 997 Turbo package, called simply, “Shark.” Horsepower goes from 480 to 550, and torque gets twisted up to 460 lb-ft to 583. Top speed is claimed to be around 210 mph. Outside, the package is rather understated, but of course we’re talking about a car that looks half aftermarket when it leaves the factory. An altered front valance and front lip, a revised rear spoiler, and quad pipes are about it. If you don’t include “edo competition” written on the sides, that is. We don’t know how much the upgrade costs, but if you’re spending what we’re sure is “that kind of money,” you could always get 20 more hp and 8 more lb-ft with Rinspeed’s white Turbo number.
[Source: Edo Competition]

It was rumored yesterday, and it’s real today. Come September 13, Japanese enthusiasts will be able to order up the hottest Civic Type R yet. The already-impressive R gets the full once-over from Mugen, and the result is the Honda Civic Mugen RR. Designed to be perhaps the ultimate front-engined/front-wheel-drive performance car, the Mugen RR sheds an additional 10kg (22 lbs) off the standard Civic Type R’s weight, coming in at 2733 lbs. In addition to the weight loss, the freer-breathing Mugen RR picks up 15 horsepower over the regular Type R. It’s rated at 240 horses at 8,000 rpm and 160 lb-ft at 7,000 rpm.

Complementing the added power and and decreased weight are a new bodykit, upgraded brakes all around, a retuned suspension, new wheels and tires, and logo-emblazoned Recaro sport buckets. Availability is limited to 300 cars, all in the Milan Red finish shown, and the pricing in Japan has been set at ¥4,777,500 ($38,750 USD).

Mugen’s official website has a video of the car lapping Japan’s Tsukuba circuit in 1:06:68, which is worth a look if you’re interested in seeing it in action.

[Source: MUGEN via Carview]

Being an avid Super High Output fan, any news of a Taurus SHO return gets my imagination going. Should it be FWD, AWD, or RWD? V8-powered or have a twin-turbo V6 underhood? Should it be light and handle well or compensate for its mass with awesome amounts of power? I ask these questions to myself, but last Monday a group of 11 Chicago area SHO fanatics were asked those same questions by members of the Taurus program from Ford.

As told by Don Mallinson on V8Sho.com, the story goes that this band of brothers participated in a focus group and had their brains picked for an evening about what makes a SHO a SHO, and if the much missed name were to be resurrected, what should the car be like today? Mallinson is clear that he and the focus group participants did not see a prototype, sketches of a prototype, or anything else that would confirm development is well on its way. The experience was pretty much a one-way street of questions, but these 11 people may have influenced Ford’s decision to bring back the SHO and, if so, in what way. Such an awesome responsibility, I probably couldn’t handle it.

[Source: V8SHO.com via Jalopnik]

Seems like you can’t revive a modern day muscle car these days without having a classic movie tie-in. The Ford Mustang has got Steve McQueen’s classic Bullitt, and the Dodge Challenger has got Vanishing Point. In fact, we’ve already seen one Vanishing Point-inspired Challenger meet its maker on Turn 2 at Road America. Inside Line recently had its first turn behind the wheel of a 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and also decided to pay its respects to Kowalski’s opus. They took the brand new Challenger on a little road trip following the fateful path of Kowalski in the movie from Denver, Colorado to San Francisco, California. Just for kicks, they brought along a vintage 1970 Dodge Challenger that’s a near perfect copy of the one used in Vanishing Point.

The classic iron was, however, packing a slightly modified motor putting out 607 horsepower, but details, details… The article is definitely worth a read if only to vicariously absorb what it feels like to go 170 mph in a new Challenger, and the Inside Line team was also kind enough to supply us with a few of their spare high-res images for an Autoblog exclusive gallery below.[Source: Inside Line]

With the debut of the Ferrari 149 GT California (or something like that) just around the corner, new shots of the Ferrari mule have surfaced at Autogespot, revealing a few more details about the entry-level Fezza. Unlike some spy pics we’ve seen that obscure everything from the B-pillar back, these newest images show a steeply raked rear windscreen that terminates into an artificially elongated trunk, rumored to house a folding hard top. The front clip is sporting a large radiator intake and the hood stretches back in true Ferrari style. As reported before, Project F149 is rumored to be powered by a 4.7-liter V8 producing 480 to 500 hp. More details are expected soon. We’re standing by.

[Source: Autogespot via Jalopnik]

Somewhere,

a father in Melbourne weeps. There were 16 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradales imported to Australia and New Zealand. There are now 15. A proud dad gave his son the keys to his so-rare-it’s-almost-extinct Ferrari, and his son got a little too frisky with the audacious redhead. She didn’t appreciate his advances, he lost control of the situation, and that little redhead introduced him to a pole… at a high rate of speed by the looks of it.And as if that didn’t beat all, the kid had to call home. While news crews watched. And filmed. Only to have newspapers and blogs spread the story around the world. No word on what his father said, but it probably rhymed with “Why I oughta @#%$*&%!”

Police say the driver was speeding, which means he must not have seen these commercials. But now, at least, he has a theme song, so sing along: “To you other kids all across the land, take it from me, parents just don’t understand…” Thanks for the tip, Patrick!

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]

After previous incarnations of the Nissan GT-R ran away with successive JGTC titles, Japan’s GT Association decided to inflict “success ballast” on race winners in an attempt to level the playing field (i.e give Toyota and Honda a chance).

As the current GT-R race car is built to 2009 Super GT specifications, the GT-A handed it a weight penalty of 50kgs added right from the start of the season. After winning Round 1 in Suzuka car number 23 had to carry an additional 50kgs at Round 2 in Sugo, which it promptly won anyway. Then thanks to also setting numerous fastest laps and other speeding offenses it was deemed that Benoit Treluyer and Satoshi Motoyama’s ride would have to port an massive 200ks (440lbs) of ballast at this weekend’s race at Fuji Speedway.

That presents a couple of problems. Firstly, where the heck do you safely stow 200kgs of lead? And would the car meet GT-A regulations even if Nissan found a way to do it? The ruling body’s compromise was to give the car a 115kg penalty and fit a stifling restrictor to the GT-R’s air intake. That knocked 30kph off the GT-R’s maximum velocity at the end of Fuji’s 1.5km straight, and in the words of Benoit, “Gives us no chance at all.”

Follow through the jump to find out if he was right, and to find out how Lightning McQueen faired in GT300 after qualifying on pole yesterday.Three laps after the rolling start it was clear that Benoit’s prediction was spot on. While Honda NSXs and Lexus SC430s battled for the lead, car number 23 was already slipping back towards the GT300 field rather than chasing down the leaders. Takashi Kogure had squeezed his Takata NSX on to pole, and managed to keep the lead until he spun on lap 22, gifting the lead to the Zent Cerumo Lexus SC430, first driven by Yuji Tachikawa, then by Richard Lyons after the second pit stop, then by Yuji again all the way to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, tactics worthy of Ron Dennis and Ross Brawn leap frogged Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer’s SC430 from fifth to second over the 110 lap race.

1 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Y.Tachikawa/R.Lyons 110 3:02′28.036
2 36 ETRONAS TOM’S SC430 J.Wakisaka/A.Lotterer 110 0′13.882
3 18 TAKATA DOME NSX R.Michigami/T.Kogure 110 0′15.893

GT300

It takes a lot to drown out the sound of 30 Super GT cars wailing down a mile long straight at full chat, but several thousand Japanese school kids managed just that when rookie Lightning McQueen took the lead in the closing stages of the race after arch rival Chick Hicks the Cusco Subaru Impreza got called in to the pits, not once but twice for racing infractions. Recent returnee from Europe’s GP2 championship Kohei Hirate had put in a masterful flying lap on super soft tires to seal pole position for McQueen on Saturday, but the team then gambled that the comparatively frugal 3.5-liter MR-S could manage all 500 kms with just one fuel stop and on two sets of hard rubber. Despite starting heavy, McQueen never dropped out of the top five, but the two drivers, who aren’t much older than McQueen’s fan base, didn’t have it easy fighting first Porsches, then the Impreza and the Leopalace Z all the way to the flag.

1 95 Lightning McQueen apr MR-S K.Hirate/K.Kunimoto 101 3:02′34.661
2 46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z K.Hoshino/H.Yasuda 101 0′26.739
3 2 Privee KENZO Asset Shiden K.Takahashi/H.Katoh 101 0′44.019

Full Results

A darker, evil-er Bugatti Veyron has been born to run alongside the Pur Sang: the Sang Noir. Word is the newest variant has been created to be a tip of the hat — that would be “chapeau!” in French — to the Bugatti Atlantique 57S. It gets a slightly different front grille with matching side mirrors, black headlight surrounds, exclusive wheels, and an interior dressed in what looks like electric orange. All in all, the car appears to share nothing with the Atlantique other than the name Bugatti and choice of exterior color. But it’s not like that would keep you from buying it, would it?

[Source: 4WheelsBlog via AutoSpies]

When Ford announced the GT500KR’s based price of $79,995, many of you thought that it was pretty steep for a Mustang. Even though it’s a limited edition Shelby with 540 horsepower, $80,000 can buy a lot of really nice cars. What’s even more insane is that we know people will not only buy the KR, but they will pay tens of thousands of dollars over MSRP just to have one. The only question was how much dealers would try and gouge. That question has been answered. Lone Star Ford in Houston, TX has put up a red GT500KR on eBay Motors with a “Buy It Now” price of…$154,991.00. That’s nearly double the MSRP. Who knows if anyone will actually buy it at that price, but going off what happened with the standard GT500, then it’s quite possible. While we enjoyed our first drive in the GT500KR (check out Part 1 and Part 2), we can think of quite a few cars we’d rather have for $150,000.

[Source: eBay Motors]

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