Fastest driver/car combo ever?
Posted by Nick Trott at 12:30PM on Wednesday 18 July, 2007 0 Comments
Here's one for you: who/what is the fastest driver/car combo ever? Senna in a 1,200bhp Lotus? Toivonen in a 600bhp Lancia Delta S4? Schumacher in a 950bhp Ferrari F1 car?
Nah, my nomination goes to Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima and his 1,000bhp Suzuki XL7 (read news story). Here's why...
If you ever wanted to see a proper 'no-rules' racing car, then Monster's new XL7 is it. Faster than a Group B rally car and with as much power as a Veyron, the Suzuki XL7 Hill Climb Special is arguably the fastest all-surface car on the planet.
You've probably driven (if you've got a PS2 and Gran Turismo, that is) the last car Monster drove at Pikes Peak: the incredible Suzuki Escudo. But this thing is even more insane.
The chassis is a steel space frame clothed in carbon Kevlar bodywork. The engine is a four-valve V6 with two turbos and a dry sump, and the transmission is four-wheel drive with a six-speed sequential 'box.
The wings? I think they're by Boeing.
The car weighs 1,100kg, giving a power-to-weight ratio of around 924bhp per tonne. Using a drag racing website that calculates performance figures based on weight and power, I've figured out that the XL7 should do 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds and 0-100mph in 4.42.
Fast enough for you?
And the man? Forty-seven-year-old 'Monster' Tajima is arguably the most famous hill climber in the world. He has won nine All Japan Dirt Trial (Rally Sprint) Championships, the Pikes Peak hill climb twice and five Asia Pacific rallies in the 2WD class.
And after eight wins in New Zealand's legendary 'Race to the Sky' hill climb, the mountain is now known as 'Tajima's mountain'.
And while he's not carving a path to heaven in monstrous four-wheel-drive hill climbers, Tajima is busy being Team Principle of Suzuki's fledgling WRC effort.
Legend.
This year, he goes for the outright Pikes Peak record. I'm not going to bet against him.
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