Ford SVT

If you’re driving a truck, Ford’s Raptor 6.2 to be exact, you’re more or less constricted to 411hp. So why not give it a little more oomph? Hennessey Performance, from the Lone Star state of Texas, did just that with their VelociRaptor 600. Hennessey gave the standard 6.2 liter V-8 of the Raptor forced induction. 602hp with 622lb-ft of torque was the result. But, obliging to the Hennessey tradition, beginning with the VelociRaptor 500, the company decided to bolt a twin-turbo system onto the Raptor. Introducing the VelociRaptor 800: A two door truck with 810 American stallions under the hood and 745 lb-ft of torque. Forget towing cattle, with that kind of power you can tow your pet dinosaur with ease!

To put this in perspective, an 18-wheeler, the ones you see towing giant containers of who-knows-what, has about 400 to 500hp. The VelociRaptor 800 is the equivalent to two 18 wheelers in horsepower. The VelociRaptor 800 has more horsepower than the Switzer Performance P800, a Nissan GT-R with 800hp. Of course, we can’t discuss horsepower without torque, and of course an 18 wheeler has more torque. But, the VelociRaptor 800 is equivalent to three Toyota Priuses running on both the electric motor and the gasoline engine together.

Well I'm not sure if calling them the enemy is exactly fair, the police are there to protect us, after all. But as any car enthusiast knows, encounters with the law are inevitable and rarely fun. Regardless, Ford will be offering a new police car to officers around the country and sending the standard work-horse, the Crown Victoria, to the bone yard. Ford announced today its 2012 Ford Interceptor will be available to officers in late 2011, and will be chock full of all types of new goodies and gadgets to fight bad guys.

I never thought I would say this, but the Taurus looks simply intimidating. The outgoing Crown Victoria was intimidating because you knew the trouble it brought, and if it was behind you it was because you had done wrong and were about to be told so by a man with a gun. Not this one. The headlight housings are blacked out, and in place of fog lights are LED running lights, that have a strobe function. There are also blue and red LEDS surrounding the new, projector headlights. The push-bar has integrated red and blue strobes, as do the side mirrors. If you tell this cop you didn't see him behind you, he should have legal permission to arrest you for being too stupid to operate a car.

Last week sub5zero.com was invited to Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch for a track day. When we arrived, the parking lot was filled with an amazing plethora of exotics, many of them with extensive modifications. The incredible collection of metal that had come to drive the road course had me grinning like the Cheshire Cat, and did more to wake me up than the 3 cups of McDonald's coffee I had drank earlier. But when I saw this Mustang at the end of the row, I knew something was up. No way someone brought regular Mustang GT out here.

It seemed a bit out of place at a private racing club, especially with it's rattle-can paint job and yellow mirrors. After investigating, I found out it wasn't just a 2010 GT with a $5 paint-job. Not even close. This is a 2011 Ford Mustang GT test mule. The drivers were Ford engineers, who had been given the horrifying task of putting over 100,000 track miles on the new 412hp,  5.0 Liter V-8. 

Ford's SVT Raptor is my favorite truck right now, and comfortably sits in my Top 10 Trucks of All Time lounge. It's fast, strong, durable, and able to go off of jumps without sending the tires through the hood and the driver to the grave. It is what I would want someone to build if I could design my own truck. The only thing it needed is more power. Ford answered that request by adding an extra option box to the dealer sheet, offering a 6.2 liter engine producing 411hp and 434 ft-lbs of torque.

But maybe you already bought your Raptor with the 5.4L, or maybe you had to get it because the lie "It's a small engine so it gets good gas mileage" was the only thing that got your significant other to co-sign the loan. Either way, if you want more power without opting for the 6.2, you just have to call Hennessey Performance. Named the Hennessey VelociRaptor 500 ($10 says John Henessey loves Jurassic Park) this truck will eat trails and sports cars alike.

Here it is: The final 5 Top sports cars in the price range of $40-50k for 2010. Part 1 (click here if you missed it) was a diverse mix of metals from the desert-romping Raptor, to a Caterham that can almost fit in a truck bed. They all provide great fun, or great convenience, and I wouldn't kick any of them out of my garage. For the Top 5, no concessions were made. There's no pickup trucks, hybrids, or bone-shattering go-karts here. Just the best performance cars you can get...

Every year engine technology gets better and better, approaching the day when we will see 500 horsepower cars getting current Prius gas mileage. A bold and misguided statement you say? The new 2010 Ford Shelby GT500 is a fine example of this trend as it grabs 40 horsepower and 30 ft-lb of torque over last year's model and still gets 2 mpg better fuel economy. Baby steps my friends.

Special calibration tweaks and a new cold-air intake system have increased horsepower up to 540 and pushed torque to 510 ft-lb (with redline at 6,250 rpm). The powerplant itself is a supercharged and intercooled 5.4L DOHC V8 engine. The new Mustang model now gets 14 mpg while destroying urban streets and 22 mpg on the highway. The top gears were made taller which translates to better fuel economy. The sprint from 0 to 60 mph takes only 4.3 seconds. The 6 speed manual gearbox now employs a twin-disc clutch system using larger discs which are stronger and lighter, resulting in less gear clash and rattle.