Bradley Hasemeyer and Caitlin Thompson talk about Jet packs, Velozzi turbine-powered green supercar, Ariel Atom, and the Cadillac CTS-V.
Transcript[ROCK MUSIC]
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Welcome to "TRANSLOGIC." I'm Bradley Hasemeyer. And this is Kate Thompson.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Thank you. Today on the show, we're going to be getting the lowdown on the world's fastest green car, the Velozzi, straight from the man behind it.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: And then we're gonna be visiting the world's greatest impromptu car show. There's Enzos and Lambos that are gonna be there. And then we're taking a ride in a street-legal, open-wheeled racecar. But first, it's time for the news. [MAKING BEEPING NOISES]
CAITLIN THOMPSON: For decades now, mankind has been united in asking one question. What am I getting my jetpack? Well, my friends, the answer is almost here.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yes. Yes, it is almost here. I read about this when I wasn't on chat roulette dressed as Abe Lincoln.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: What? Weird.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: It seems that there are two distinctly different companies taking two distinctly different approaches. First let's look at the Martin Jetpack Company. Now, using two fans and running on regular gasoline, the Martin should be able to reach speeds of up to 60 miles an hour at an altitude of almost 8,000 feet. Now, the folks at Martin are adamant that they're about to deliver the first production models to their customers who plunked down 86 grand to grab one.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: I want one.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Right? It even has a ballistic parachute that's gonna engage if the rotors ever stop working. So it's actually kind of safe.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Or you can use a jetpack that doesn't need rotors or thrust to propel itself. Instead, it uses H2O. Check out the Jetlev Flyer. Available this summer to those of you who want to plunk down 130 grand, the Jetlev sucks up water and shoots it back out. So can jetpack above the waves.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: We've been talking a lot about Tesla and how much we love it. Right?
CAITLIN THOMPSON: And how much we want it.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yes.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: But we may have found something that we want even a little bit more.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I think so.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: It might be.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I think that's happened.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: The Velozzi micro-turbine-powered supercar.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Look at this thing. It's stacked with 770 horses, capable of reaching speeds of upwards of 200 miles an hour, and 0 to 60 in 3 seconds. That's, like, zip up your fly-- bam, I'm at 60. The extended range electric car uses a turbine to power an on-board generator that adds up to 500 miles to the already 80-mile range of the lithium ion battery pack.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: There's already one prototype, belonging to Richard Hellman of the video game company Electronic Arts.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yes. Now, this thing is sexy. It's friendly. It's fast. And here to tell us more about it is Velozzi CEO Roberto Velozzi.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Bye, Bradley.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: See you. Hello, sir.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: How you doing?
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Thanks so much for coming out.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: Thank you very much.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I'm doing well. Don't worry about that. Now, tell us a little bit about what makes your supercar different than some of the other supercars on the market right now.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: This, a multi-fueled micro-turbine battery charger. Our vehicle, in essence, is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with a charger onboard.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Very cool. So you can use both electricity or gas?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: Correct. And it gives you a range of anywhere between 50 to 100 miles per gallon. We designed the vehicle on a computer. And then we feed the design to a CNC machine. It's like a big drill. And it just follows our design and carves the vehicle out of a block of foam.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Wow.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: And then we have a starting point to build the vehicle.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Now, when is this going to be available? When can I go in and buy one of these things?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: End of the year.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: End of this year?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: You can start sending in the deposit this year.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Now, when you get 'em ready, you're gonna invite us right?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: You got it.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: We're gonna get to come up there?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: You got it.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: And I'm gonna get to drive one?
ROBERTO VELOZZI: If you like, yeah.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yes! That's what I'm talking about. Thanks so much for your time, Roberto.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: Thank you.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Looking forward to it.
ROBERTO VELOZZI: Thank you very much.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Hey, have you ever seen an Enzo, 50 Lamborghinis, and a handful of 911s, and an unreleased Cadillac coupe that does 0 to 60 in under four seconds all the same parking lot? Well, I didn't.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I have.
It's seven o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. And we are with Cars and Coffee down in Irvine, a place where people just get up early in the morning and bring out all their wicked rides. They bring 'em here. They drink coffee. They talk. They hang out. We're gonna take a look around. Maybe I can get a ride in a supercar.
[ENGINE ACCELERATING]
We're also gonna bring you an exclusive look at the brand new Caddy CTS-V coupe. It's just nasty, in a good way. Ferrari Enzo, Shelby Cobra, Lambo, Lambo, Lambo, Lambo, brick wall, Lambo. This new R8 comes standard with a sleeping old woman in the passenger seat.
Well, we've got an Ariel Atom 2 here. It's got a 2.0 liter Ecotec, 285 horsepower, 245 pound feet of torque. I hear 0 to 60 in 2.80?
- 2.80 seconds.
[ROCK MUSIC]
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Now that I don't look like I've just had a bunch of bad plastic surgery done, we're gonna go check out the Cadillac CTS-V.
CLAY DEAN: The art and science is our philosophy for Cadillac. It's what really motivates and helps us design the product. To play in the luxury car market today, you've gotta do some things. You've gotta do some things really, really unique-- the shapes, the technology that's in it, the speed that the car has.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yeah, 0 to 60 in 3.90, 556 horsepower. That's awesome. What's going on with the magnetic suspension thing? This is really cool.
CLAY DEAN: Magnetic ride is putting electrical charges to the fluids in the shocks. So it's constantly monitoring the car. So it's a great, great ride. It's fantastic.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: I was at the New York Auto Show a couple of years ago. And I saw the concept of this. And nothing's changed. What's up with that?
CLAY DEAN: We had a sketch that the designer put together that was so great it went right to the full-size model. We built the show car. Everybody loved it. Whatever it takes, we just gotta build the car. Certain times you have special experiences. And that's one of them.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Well, that's it for Cars and Coffee. We checked out some pretty sweet rides. Oh, and a special shout-out to Caddy letting us see their brand new, ahem, CTS-V. All right, back to the studio. I'm out.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Well that's it for "TRANSLOGIC." We hope you had as much fun as we did. I'm Caitlin Thompson.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: And I'm Bradley Hasemeyer. We'll see you later.
CAITLIN THOMPSON: Bye-bye.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Have a good one.
