Autoblog

How to sell an exclusive, expensive sports car: release mocked up digital images, create the track version first, and use it to develop the streeter. FortuneSport, brainchild of Teritius Fortune, is working with the Elan Motorsports Technologies arm of the Panoz Group to build the carbon fiber vehicles with exotic spec sheets. Available first will be the non-street version, the Rt.R. After ponying up an initial deposit, WorldCarFans says $200,000, a trip to Atlanta for pampering in luxury accomodations while the vehicle is fitted expressly to your specs makes each vehicle essentially a custom. The important details: 6-liter V8, sub-2000 pound weight (1650 lbs for the Rt.R, 1980 lbs for the Rt.S), 350 hp in street trim, 510 for the track, and 0-62 mph in four seconds flat for the Rt.S. The Rt.R should be significantly faster. Sounds especially good for $85,000, though we'll have to wait until at least 2010, and possibly even longer.

Once the Rt.Rs are in owners hands, track day support at non-pro events will be offered, as well as at FortuneSport events coordinated with Skip Barber. One bit that's a bit confusing to follow is that FortuneSport says the deposits are refundable once the program runs its course in three to five years. How FortuneSport will use some of the initial deposits to build the racers, which will then serve as prototypes for the Rt.S street version, and then turn around and hand back all the money, isn't totally clear. Hmmm. Not that this affects us, seeing as how our piggy banks are a little light to afford the lightweight, high powered vehicle, anyway.

[Source: World Car Fans]

Linux is pretty good at harnessing processor speed, and Chastain Motorsports is hoping to snare some of that effect to propel their Panoz/Honda to victory. The distinctive Penguin logo, "Tux," has been affixed to the nose of the 200+ MPH car in anticipation of meeting a donation goal. The famously open-source OS is applying that philosophy to sponsorship. The Tux 500 is an effort to raise $350,000 in exchange for those high-speed chilled fowl on the race car. There are perks for large donation amounts, but there is no shame in collecting lots of $1 gifts, either. It is an interesting concept, and we will be looking for the distinctive blue car when the checkered flag drops at the Indy 500. As long as the effort secures $25,000, the decals will stay on the car. Currently, donations total $7,600, and the organizers are confident that they'll at least make it to that $25K figure.

[Source: Wired]

American motor racing has been steadily moving towards "Spec", that is, each team racing the same car with the same engine and other components. The Indy Racing League runs Dallara chassis powered by Honda engines. (Although NASCAR technically uses a few different cars with different engines from different suppliers, they all look pretty much the same.) Now the latest spec racing cars for the Champ Car series – IRL's rival formerly known as CART – have just been delivered.

The new Panoz DP01 has been received by ten Champ Car teams, the first ten before the entire field makes the switch from the previous Lola-built cars. The new chassis will use the same turbocharged Cosworth V8 engines, the now independent engine supplier owning majority rights to the series and having involuntarily withdrawn from supplying engines in Formula One. They all run on spec Bridgestone tires, just as Formula One makes the switch next season.

Constructed primarily of carbon fiber, the new cars weigh an impressive hundred pounds less than their predecessor Lola counterparts. The chassis were delivered unpainted and all-but-identical to the teams who'll be adding their own team and sponsors' livery. We're looking forward to seeing the new cars in action.

[Source: Edmunds Inside Line]

A new American auto manufacturer has just popped up on our radar promising a product that is all-American, completely retro, and thoroughly modern at the same time. Fashioned after a 1950s era Chevy pickup, Southern Motor Company's first model will be called the Southern 358 and be built in the good ole U.S. of A. It features a stamped steel body over a tubular ladder frame running a Mustang V8 (huh?), all engineered with help from Panoz Auto Development. Maybe the Ford mill seems out of place in a Chevy look-alike, but hot rodders go where the reliable horsepower is and there are tons of Deuces out there sporting Chevy small blocks underhood, so turnabout should be fair play.

Looks damn good. And Southern Motor Company wants you to know that the $55,000 preorder price can be easily explained as quite reasonable. You see, they chose American parts suppliers wherever possible, even if they weren't the most cost-effective. It's more about quality than profit. While the handsome retro good looks might make most people take notice, Southern has made this a new car that will meet all your expectations and all legal requirements as well. What they call "a modern, classic American street rod," it will feature driver and passenger airbags, and comply with all federal crash and emissions standards. It's even backed by a three-year, 36,000-mile new-vehicle limited warranty.

[Source: Southern Motor Company via Straightline]