As performance cars continue to become more and more powerful the point of diminishing returns comes up pretty quick when they are sending all that power to just 2 wheels. What’s the point of having 500-700 or even more horsepower if all you do is spin the tires when you try and use it. In the sports car world, the Nissan GT-R (545 HP), Porsche 911 Turbo S (530HP) and Lamborghini Aventador (700HP) are the kings, running 0-60 MPH in under 3 seconds with ease due to their AWD systems. Competitors like the Corvette ZR1 (638HP), Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 (662 HP) and Dodge Viper (640HP) are left for dead trying to play catch up while spinning their tires.

In the sports sedan world all of the best in class performers have gone with turbocharged engines that have massive amounts of torque and power. Audi is the only one that has all wheel drive as of now, but it’s best performer is the huge and very heavy Audi S8. Even with it’s large size and weight, it’s the S8′s all wheel drive and twin turbo V8 pumping put 520+ HP (we think they are way underrating it) is allowing for 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and high 11′s in the quarter mile at 118 MPH. This is enough to beat out the current Mercedes and BMW offerings, the M5 and E63.

Mercedes-Benz is finally coming around and is set to offer it’s first all wheel drive AMG sedan with the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG 4Matic. Motor Trend spent some time with an E63 test mule and experienced the AMG Launch Control system catapulting the new AMG from 0-60 MPH in 3.4 seconds. Torque is split 33/67 front/rear at all times which is great for all around driving although we would rather see an active system like the Nissan GT-R where it can vary the distribution at will.

We’re expecting this new AMG to be well into the 11′s in the 1/4 mile and into the 10′s after some tuning and boost increases. We’ve already seen the AMG built 5.5L V8 BiTurbo motor put down 620 horsepower to the wheels on RENNTech’s dyno which is well over 700 HP at the engine. Hopefully the AMG 4Matic drivetrain is up to the task to allow for 10 second sedans running with the GT-Rs at the drag strip. We haven’t heard anything about an all wheel drive M5 or M3, but we hope BMW follows along, if not, they’ll be literally left behind along with those ancient Vettes, Vipers and Shebys.

Here is a good heads up one mile drag race between a McLaren MP4-12C vs a Ford GT modified with a pulley  and tune.   The Ford GT hangs in there pretty well with the latest and greatest technology of the MP4-12C only losing ground while shifting it’s manual transmission vs the MP4-12C’s super fast dual clutch.

The Ford Mustang Cobra Jet is factory produced all out drag racing car that runs high 8′s at over 150 MPH.  At a cost of over $100k we’re thinking they should include some time at driving school.  Take a look at this unfortunate accident where the driver does a huge wheel stand and ends up hitting the wall.

We were at the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster’s unveiling today in Miami, FL where we snapped a few pictures and took some video of them installing the new Aventador Roadster’s two carbon fiber roof panels.    What used to be a complete nightmare (20+ minutes) with Lamborghini’s last V12 Roadster the Murcielago Roadster, is now a simple two minute procedure with the Aventador Roadster.

The twin carbon fiber roof panels (13.2 lbs each) are stored securely in the front trunk when in roadster mode and can be individually attached to the roadsters roof area with just a few latches in under 2 minutes.  With a weight increase of just 110 pounds over the coupe,  a 0-60 MPH time of just under 3 seconds, a  top speed of 217 MPH with the top on or off, the Avendatoar Roadster aims to be the ultimate open air exotic.

Check out the video and pictures below:

We are continuing on with our testing of the 2013 Nissan GT-R, back in March we ran some initial tests where the car ran 11.01 @ 123.18 MPH, then in April with a little better weather we were the first to run a bone stock Nissan GT-R in the 10′s running 10.87 @ 125.26 MPH.

We wanted to see what some minor modifications would do to enhance the performance of the GT-R and we started by adding an AAM Resonated Midpipe.   The AAM Resonated Midpipe is made of 6-gauge T-304 stainless steel, saves 12.4 pounds vs the stock piece and enhances the sound and exhaust flow of the car .  Installation was very easy, taking less than hour.  We dropped the stock piece by removing 4 nuts,  replaced the gaskets with the ones provided by AAM and bolted up the new one.

Next we got our hands on a Cobb AP and headed up to see Jack at HPLogic for some dyno testing.  Jack installed the Cobb AP along with a custom tune.  Since we were heading to the track after the dyno session and wanted the best ET possible, we decided to dial back the mid-range torque with the hopes to keep the GT-R from spinning on the launch.    The car put down 509 awhp and 516 ft-lbs of torque on HPLogic’s Mustang dyno.   This is around a 40 horsepower peak increase with a 90 horsepower pickup in the mid-range.

Weather was looking pretty bad with outer bands from Hurricane Sandy coming our way and a DA (Density Altitude) of 1850 feet, but we made it to track and were able to get a couple of runs in before the rain came in.  A combination of mediocre track prep and new found power/torque had us spinning at the top of 1st gear  but we were still able to put down some decent 60′ times in the low-mid 1.6x range.   We ended up with a 10.67 @ 128.89 MPH and a 10.73 @ 129.2 MPH.   With some better weather and good track prep we’re confident we’ll get this car to run in the 10.5′s.

The Racelogic VBOX recorded a 0-60 MPH time of 2.69 seconds, 0-100 MPH time of 6.3 seconds and a 60-130 time of 8.07 seconds.  When the car was stock the 60-130 time was 8.89 seconds.

Check out the video below and the full details page with pictures, timeslips, videos and more:

2013 Nissan GT-R Midpipe/Tune

Special thanks to AAM Competition for the midpipe, Cobb for the Cobb AP, Jack over at HPLogic for the tuning work and RoadTestTV for the video!

Heffner Performance in Sarasota, FL just ran the world’s first 8 second 1/4 mile pass for a Lamborghini in their newly built 2008 Lamborghini Superleggera outfitted with a custom twin turbo “Elite” package.  Running at 24.5 psi on race fuel along with a customized e-gear transmission that shifts amazingly fast (see the video below), they ran 8.72 @ 169.81 MPH with a decent amount of wheel spin off the line.   Horsepower numbers were not released but we estimate this Gallardo is running 1500+ horsepower to the wheels.   With some better track conditions and weather we expect this car to hit mid 8′s pretty soon.

Take a look at the timeslip, pictures and video below:

2008 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Heffner Twin Turbo Elite

The winner of the Racelogic PeformanceBox is BuraQ with his 2011 BMW 335is running very low 12′s at Palm Beach International Raceway.

Keep those links up as we’re announcing the details of our next giveaway soon, a GoPro HD HERO2 Motorsports Edition worth $299!

Congrats to BuraQ, take a look at his record below:

2011 BMW 335is RENNtech

Here is a great race between the all new 2013 BMW M5 powered by the 4.4L TwinPower Turbo V8 making 560HP through a 7 speed dual clutch transmission vs a stock 2009 Nissan GT-R powered by a 3.8L V6 Twin Turbo putting out 485HP through a 6 speed dual clutch transmission.

The new M5 put up a good fight matching the GT-R from a slow roll to over 160MPH, luckily for the M5 they didn’t race from a dead stop where the GT-R’s all wheel drive system would have left the BMW way behind spinning the tires.

We’ve launched a new gear ratio calculator.   Enter in your tire size, final drive ratio, redline and the ratios for each of your gears and we’ll do the rest, outputting a table showing how fast you can go at a given RPM in each gear.   You can then change the tire size and ratios to see how your car would perform with the changes.    This calculator makes it easy to see when your shifting and what changes you can make to eliminate a shift in the 1/4 mile,  increase your top speed or change your power band.

CALCULATE NOW!

We’re giving away another Racelogic VBOX PeformanceBox valued at $560 to a lucky DragTimes.com user who adds their timeslip link in their signature in any automotive discussion forum.   If you run your own website or blog you can use the link as well to enter*.  We’ve made adding the link super simple:

Step 1: Add your car to our database if you haven’t already and find your timeslip page on DragTimes.com. Scroll to the bottom where you will see the box containing the signature link code.

Step 2: Select the code and copy it to your clipboard.

Step 3: Paste the code into the signature area for your account of the automotive forums you visit and save it.

Step 4: Click the link in your signature to test*** and make sure you’re taken to your timeslip on DragTimes.com.

Each unique click on your link from you or anyone else will add another entry** for you into the drawing for the Racelogic VBOX PeformanceBox on September 21st, 2012.    The more clicks you receive the higher your chances of winning are.

The PerformanceBox is suited to:

• Straight-line performance: 0-60, 0-100, 60-130, 60-0, 0-100-0, ¼-mile etc.
• Horsepower calculation: calculate both wheel and flywheel HP.
• Lap Timing: using GPS, there is no need for an external lap timing beacon. Accurate to 1/10th of a second.
• Speed and Compass display: use it as a super-accurate speedometer, updating 10 times per second, to calibrate or verify your vehicle’s speedometer.

No matter how you use the PerformanceBox, it logs your speed, position, G-forces, and distance to its memory card ten times every second for detailed analysis in the included software.  View your performance and lap data on the PerformanceBox’s built-in display, and log all your data to the SD memory card. Saved data files can easily be stored and compared, to see the difference between cars, drivers, parts, or setups.

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* Link code may need to be modified, contact us if you need assistance, clicks from links posted to blogs as comments/spam will not be counted.
** One entry per day per unique visitor that clicks on the link.
*** Link code should work on most discussion boards, and can be modified if needed.  Contact us if you need assistance.