Dubai Motor Show joins 1,000+ hp club

Dubai: With the SSC Ultimate Aero on display at the Dubai Motor Show this week, Dubai joins the exclusive 1,000+ horsepower club (hp). The Ultimate Aero is currently the third most powerful car in the world, given the 1,287 hp it produces with its twin turbo V8 engine block, 15 per cent more than the previous version of this car.

The car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.78 seconds (in first gear, of course) and is capable of a top speed of 439 km/h. It is one of the highlights of the motor show, which will feature 13 car world debuts, and this is one of them.

"The 2010 Ultimate Aero is the culmination of our dedication and heavy investment into the development of a new breed of supercar, and we are very proud to introduce our 2010 model to the Middle East," says Jerod Shelby, President and CEO of Shelby SuperCars. The car has been customised and road-tested to suit the harsh weather conditions in the GCC, he added.

However, in terms of engine performance the sky seems to be the limit for custom-built supercars. If 1,287 hp is not enough, there is even more power available.

The current record holder among high-performance supercars is undoubtedly the Keating TKR, a car developed by British tuning company Keating Supercars. Based on a stock Corvette V8 by General Motors, the modified twin-turbocharged 7-litre engine develops 1,825 hp and has even an option to be tuned up to 2,000 hp, the company's founder and CEO, Tony Keating, says.

Guinness record

At a recent run at a salt lake in California, the TKR hit a top speed of 418 km/h, 11 km/h more than the official Guinness record held by the Bugatti Veyron. But the run must be repeated to make the record official according to Guinness rules.

"The Keating TKR realises our ambition to take on the world's finest supercars and win," says Keating.

Second to the Keating TKR comes a modified Italian beast with no less than 1,500 hp. US tuning company Underground Racing has pushed the stock V10 of a Lamborghini Gallardo to its limits and increased the output to a massive 1,500 hp, which can only be achieved with the highest turbo air pressure at 30 psi and special racing fuel above 100 octane to increase performance as high as mechanically possible.

Chasing the Ultimate Aero is the Arash AF-10, a supercar by British car manufacturer Arash currently being tuned up from its 500 hp basic version to 1,250 hp. Using twin superchargers, the car is supposed to run more than 400 km/h and will have a price tag of £1.6 million (Dh9.59 million). "It's an ultra-exclusive driver's car", says the company's founder Arash Farboud, "but certainly not the kind of car you want to go on holiday in with your wife."

Another two tuning companies take part in the 1,000+ race. Hennessey Performance Engineering, a Texas-based tuning company which specialises in transforming normal street cars into power-blasting road monsters, recently presented its version of the stock Dodge Viper called Hennessey Venom 1000 with a 1,000 hp twin-turbo V10 engine and a 1,200 hp option.

‘Snake-skin green'

"It's the first and only snake-skin green Venom 1000 twin turbo and it's available for immediate delivery," says the company's founder John Hennessey.

The art of boosting already powerful cars up to an enormous output is a speciality of Florida-based Heffner Performance. The current range includes Lamborghini Murcielago Twin Turbo V12 with 1,150 hp. "This car is an absolute blast to drive and sounds like nothing we have ever heard," says company founder Jason Heffner.

The ultimate supercars