Jay Leno Review Of SSC Ultimate Aero

BlaRo said:
You British people ought to recognize the similarities in such an operation between the SSC and your own homegrown cottage industries.
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To be honest the whole SSC thing is a bit meh for me for similar reasons as to why I'm not all that impressed by Moslers, Certain Ferraris and Saleens. I mean, ?350,000; for what? At least Pagani fill up the Zonda with enough daftness to make Lambos look like the tedious Audis they have become.
 
I'm quite surprised, the changed the interior from some of the early shots where it was a grey horrible thing and made it looks quite neat, or at least purposeful. and I thought it was some half-cocked shed engineered 'Vette V8 with some turbos slapped on the side but clearly they've got some engineering talent working on it. Good to see that after about 10 years of American car manufactures building nothing but stuff that can go in a straight line you've got some manufactures willing to make interesting cars in small volumes just like many british sports car manufactures (e.g. Ariel, Noble, TVR, Caterham) for real drivers.

However they need a better design dept.
 
anti-net said:
I'm quite surprised, the changed the interior from some of the early shots where it was a grey horrible thing and made it looks quite neat, or at least purposeful. and I thought it was some half-cocked shed engineered 'Vette V8 with some turbos slapped on the side but clearly they've got some engineering talent working on it. Good to see that after about 10 years of American car manufactures building nothing but stuff that can go in a straight line you've got some manufactures willing to make interesting cars in small volumes just like many british sports car manufactures (e.g. Ariel, Noble, TVR, Caterham) for real drivers.

However they need a better design dept.
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Now we got something that can go faster than anything else in a straight line! :lol:

If I had $600k to spend on a car...I would probably get a Ferrari F50 or a Murcielago, NSX, FD3S, and a House. Thats just me though :)
 
starfox07 said:
Now we got something that can go faster than anything else in a straight line! :lol:

If I had $600k to spend on a car...I would probably get a Ferrari F50 or a Murcielago, NSX, FD3S, and a House. Thats just me though :)
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$600K buys all that in TX? Man I have GOT to move, here you might get a decent condo and a Civic :)
 
prizrak said:
$600K buys all that in TX? Man I have GOT to move, here you might get a decent condo and a Civic :)
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haha yeah. Texas is pretty cheap in some places.
 
starfox07 said:
haha yeah. Texas is pretty cheap in some places.
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When I see how much an apartment and gas costs in N.Y. I thank God I live in Texas. And I know Mayor Bloomberg is itching to pass the congestion charge tax one of these days. About the Aero, I kinda like the design and the powertrain but the lack of abs and tc for the price is a disappointment.
 
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RUU-CHAMA said:
When I see how much an apartment and gas costs in N.Y. I thank God I live in Texas. And I know Mayor Bloomberg is itching to pass the congestion charge tax one of these days.
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Barely gonna make a difference the tolls raised quite a bit. Crossing from Brooklyn to Staten Island is gonna cost you $10.
 
prizrak said:
Barely gonna make a difference the tolls raised quite a bit. Crossing from Brooklyn to Staten Island is gonna cost you $10.
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Do you have to also pay it both ways? Because if you had to pay that everyday in pesos I would understand (but pesos might be worth more than our dollar right now) :mad:.
 
RUU-CHAMA said:
Do you have to also pay it both ways? Because if you had to pay that everyday in pesos I would understand (but pesos might be worth more than our dollar right now) :mad:.
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No only one way but there is a catch. It's the fastest way to NJ from a good number of places in Brooklyn and some LI and to get back into NY from there it's $6. So any trip to NJ starts you off at $16 before you factor any gas in.
(It is also the easiest/fastest way out of the city/upstate/so on from alot of places).
 
TomCat said:
You sound like an emotionless robot.
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Unlike your imaginary sentient robot, I have cruelty and imagination. Therefore, I'll greatly enjoy your attempts at trying to weasel away from this inadequate comparison.

Lets say you won an award for your intelligence, would you feel proud of yourself? Yes?
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No, as intelligence isn't quantifiable or verifiable. Therefore, such an award would be meaningless. Realizing this is the difference between a rational human and a typing monkey.

You can be proud of other people, you know.
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Yes, you can drag yourself down to the level of a football fan. ;)

Lupin_IV said:
Wider track equals greater turning stability.
If that means it can't fit Europe's ancient infrastructure, so be it.
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Now, for some technical discussion. Wider track also makes the car harder to control once it lets go. Which, for a car that still has wheelspin at 220 would be very worrying indeed. Then again, you might not care for usability and just care for raw performance.

In that case. skip all the pussification with driving a supercar and get a turboed superbike instead.
 
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RUU-CHAMA said:
About the Aero, I kinda like the design and the powertrain but the lack of abs and tc for the price is a disappointment.
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Why? Have you driven it? Does it need it?

petarkb said:
No, as intelligence isn't quantifiable or verifiable. Therefore, such an award would be meaningless. Realizing this is the difference between a rational human and a typing monkey.
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So all cognitive capabilities which might be described as intelligence are unverifiable? If you believe this then I would be interested in how you came to this conclusion.
 
Meio said:
Why? Have you driven it? Does it need it?
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Considering the amount of power, RWD nature of it and the speeds it can achieve I would suspect it could use some TC and ABS. If for nothing else it would be spinning tires quite a bit on take off (as we saw).

Before everyone jumps in with "good driver doesn't need any of those" not everyone who buys a car for that price is a good driver and as long as they have an "off" button it wouldn't really be intrusive.
 
But, Leno said it's a reel driver scar, or something that sounded like that.
 
This car is impressive and seems like a relatively "real" car, but in the final analysis it's just a marketing exercise. Even SSC's owner admits as much in the video, the car was designed to do one thing: get SSC's name out there. In that sense, it's a huge success. It's frankly damned impressive for some random guy to come along and build a vaguely legitimate supercar with a provable 257MPH top speed. The fact that the car's engineering and fit/finish isn't embarrassing is merely the cherry on top.

Comparing this to the Veyron is just silly. The Veyron is designed to run at 200MPH+ all day. Its interior compares favorably to a Rolls. The Veyron is a car that's faster than an F1 car, but durable enough to be used as a daily driver. That's an amazing engineering feat and one that costs VW millions of dollars per car. It's a car that could not be built by anyone but a huge multinational with billions of dollars, huge teams of experienced engineers and a CEO who makes it a priority (no matter how much money it loses). As others have pointed out, a better comparison for the SSC is your Nobles, Ultimas, Moslers and Ascaris of the world: extremely small volume super car makers who operate on a shoestring, need to make a profit and have to scrape together whatever engineering resources they can find on the side of the road. In that context, the SSC starts to make sense, and to appear extremely impressive.
 
Meio said:
Is the engine still the one that was derived from a Chevy block?
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Golly, you make that sound like a bad thing.

Pray tell, what engine does the Ultima have? Or for that matter, any Noble?
 
BlaRo said:
Golly, you make that sound like a bad thing.

Pray tell, what engine does the Ultima have? Or for that matter, any Noble?
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I'm just suggesting that a space frame chassis with a highly modified SBC in the back would be a massive ripoff at $650,000.

When you consider an MT900S is about half that price and Mosler have managed to put together a composite monocoque; $300,000 is a lot to pay for a few extra engine mods and a simpler chassis.

If you consider that the Ultima GTR is a space frame with a heavily tweaked SBC in the back, and you can have a top-spec one on the road in the US with not too much fuss for probably about $150,000, then you must admit Half a million is an absolute fortune for a slightly nicer interior, some turbos, and the bragging rights of carbon fibre bodywork... oh and 25mph if you can find the road to use it.
 
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