The Audi R8 GT is a car backed by lots of motorsport history and engineering. The R8 got its name from the famously successful R8 LMP racecar which won at Le Mans five times, and the Le Mans quattro concept car that came from it. Its stylish LED headlights help to light up the future, both the road ahead of you and automotive lighting design as a whole. While the normal R8 V10 was radical in terms of its performance and design, the R8 GT adds a bit of extra spice to the mix. Additional aero parts were added to the front and rear of the car, and reduced the weight by 100 kilograms compared to the normal R8 V10. This adds up to make an already exotic car even more exotic when you take into account that the R8 GT had only 333 units made. Both you and I know we can’t get our hands on this car, but you can still dream about it, right?
The Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R is an underappreciated American performance devil. As its name suggests, the Cobra R was built by Ford’s Special Vehicles Team, the same team responsible for providing the Ford F-150 SVT Lightning around the time the Cobra R was being sold. The R stood for Race, so your amenities like a radio and airconditioning that added weight were deleted just for the sake of going fast. The aggressive looking body parts aren’t just for show, as the hood was made taller so vent holes could be punched out, and the front splitter and rear wing provide excellent handling capabilities in addition to the numerious tuner parts installed on the car. All of these parts provide excellent performance like no other, maybe except for the one Mustang out of the 300 units produced. You’d probably have bigger odds getting run over by a S197 Mustang than being able to see one of these in person, but I’m sure you’d still take your chances, heh.
The Audi sport quattro is a legendary rally icon. The quattro is named as such for it’s 4WD drivetrain as quattro translates to four. This revolutionary drivetrain would completely change rallying when it was first introduced, leaving older RWD cars choking on the dust of the new and rapid 4WD cars that Audi had produced. This specific model was a specialized variant of the original Audi quattro which had been based the Audi 80, but with many improvements to complement its rally car adversary. The quattro drivetrain proved to be very effective for rallying, and Audi would secure two back-to-back championship titles before Group B rally ceased as a whole, and even took a victory at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb! If its motorsport pedigree isn’t enough to convince you that this car is truly special, only around 200 units were ever produced. You would probably have a higher chance of getting your hand clipped off from a rally car than being able to see one in person, but I’m sure you could buy one with your leg and arm!
The Dodge Viper ACR is a ferocious and powerful American track star. While the normal Viper GTS is already a wild and rowdy car to handle, the ACR, short for American Club Racer, kicks things to another level, and can also kick you in the rear if you aren’t ready to drive it. To ensure that the car is as race ready as possible, the ACR has additional aero parts installed, including an aggressive front spoiler and canards, fender vents that help with cooling, and a large rear wing that measures out at 1776 millimetres wide. This American beast even lapped the Nürburgring in 6 minutes and 52 seconds, eclipsing all of the American cars before it. Will you be able to tame the snake, or will you let it bite back at you?
Let me ask you a question. What’s something that these two cars share in common? If you said white paint, you’re not wrong, but it’s not the answer I’m looking for! If you said that they both have Superleggera in their names, then that’s the answer I was looking for! You may wonder now, what even does Superleggera mean? Superleggera is just the word “super light” in Italian, and there’s a good reason that these two cars use it in their names. The car in the picture on the top, which is an Amuse Nismo 380RS Superleggera, is an even lighter version of the already lightweight 380RS. Amuse’s version of the car weighs at 1,370 kg, which is 140 kg lighter than the original car it was based off of, which isn’t an insignificant amount of weight at all, considering it takes off around 10% ofd the original car’s weight! The car in the lower picture, a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, has similar weight savings to the Amuse. While the weight reduction wasn’t as significant as the Amuse, having only shaved off 70 kg from the original Gallardo’s 1,410 kg, it’s still impressive considering that most of the weight reduction was done by using carbon fiber body panels where it was possible!
Amuse and Lamborghini know a lot about making cars light, because they both have cars almost entirely composed of carbon fiber. Amuse took a R34 Skyline GT-R, and replaced almost every single body panel with carbon fiber, making the Carbon R. In addition to removing a lot of extra items not necessary for a race car, Amuse managed to shave off a truly breath-taking 500 kg compared to a normal Skyline, which accounts to around 30% of the car’s weight being taken off! Lamborghini took what they learned from the Gallardo, and made the Sesto Elemento, a beast made from around 80% carbon fiber that tips the scale at only 1,000 kg, a seriously impressive amount of weight, or lack there of! Next time you question your car’s performance, I’d probably think about getting rid of any unnecessary passengers in your car…