1,000 hp Saleen S7 Twin Turbo Competition

[zach custus]

The S7 Competition has returned as the new S7 Twin Turbo Competition.

The 750 hp S7 TT has 5.5 psi of boost and DOES not have intercoolers.

http://www.fast-autos.net/vehicles/S...o_Competition/

pictures

http://www.fast-autos.net/archive/2675/

Comparisons will be drawn with the Veyron, but remember...

The Veyron's engine weighs 881.85 pounds (400 kilos) according to a press release.

http://seriouswheels.com/top-2006-Bu...W16-Engine.htm

According to the May, 2006 issue of Motor Trend, Bill Tally, Saleen engineering vice president, says the S7 Twin Turbo's engine weighs 440 pounds.

Gordon Murray on the Veyron from the January, 2006 Road & Track:

Designing a rear mid-engine supercar is never a simple task and a car with 1001 hp [metric horsepower] multiplies the normal design and development problems by a large factor. The Veyron's design team must be applauded because the starting point was so wrong. Arbitrary targets of 1000 hp and 250 mph and 0-60-mph in under 3 seconds were set at the very beginning of the program. But worse still, a styling model was shown and accepted! This is a bad starting point for any car, but for a high-performance car, it's a disaster.

The Veyron team has done wonders to get where it has today. I can identify with them to a certain degree because with our SLR program, we were also given a "show car" as a starting point — the exception was that we had well researched targets for market positioning, a performance envelope and, most important, an agreed definition of what the car was trying to be. I've probably been a little spoiled in my 40 years of car design where — the SLR apart — every project was absolutely focused with targets and vehicle character totally clear before a model or prototype was even begun. (Nothing in the automotive industry has its function and targets more clearly defined than a Formula 1 car.)

During the McLaren F1 road car program, styling was not started until all the major technical targets were set and all the engineering problems were solved, along with packaging and basic aerodynamic shape.

The chassis/body structure is hybrid like the last Bugatti (EB110) with carbon fiber used for the primary structure and aluminum alloy for the body and front crash structure. In this respect, the all-carbon McLaren F1 and the RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) carbon Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren are, in fact, more advanced. Carbon-ceramic brakes are used as with the Porsche GT and the SLR

[jcsaleen]

The S7 Twin Turbo competition will be the fastest most definetly if the performance numbers hold true.