Hasta La Gadget!

The Hennessey Venom GT has just scored itself the honor of being the world’s most fastest production vehicle available to the public. Hennessey Performance announced that on February 9th of this year, the Venom GT accelerated to 265.7 mph, slightly beating out the Veyron Super Sport, setting a new top speed record, and taking away Veyron’s crown. The testing was done on the United States Naval Air Station and logged by VBOX officials.

Now some of you may be confused because the Veyron Super Sport was able to achieve 267.8 mph during its tests. While it was able to, its company, Bugatti, limited its actual production vehicles to only 258 mph. Hennessey Performance CEO, John Hennessey, stated that as impressive as the Venom GT’s 265.7 mph performance was, the 2.9 mile runway they were testing on was “far too short for the Venom GT to reach it’s true top speed.”

The Venom GT is truly an impressive work of art. It has a 7.0-liter V8 engine powered by twin Precision turbochargers that can push out 1,244 horsepower and 1,155 pound-ft of torque at 19 psi of boost pressure. The Venom GT is able to go from 0-60 mph in just 3.05 seconds, and 0-100 mph in just 5.88 seconds. It had even set a new Guinness World Record by being able to achieve 0-300 km/h in 13.63 seconds, making it the quickest accelerating production vehicle in the world.

There will only be 29 Venom GTs produced. Each of these 2,743-pound vehicles will sell for $1.2 million each for the basic configuration, meaning that most of us won’t be able to afford it unfortunately. After ordering, each vehicle will take about 6 months to customize before its completed. Hennessey states that 33% of the 29 Venom GTs have already been sold.

[via Venom GT]

Hennessey Venom GT steals the top-speed title from Veyron is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tesla Motors has just revealed a new, amazing finance product that takes the best aspects of owning a car alongside the best aspects of leasing a car. With its new payment, those looking to purchase a Model S will be able to get one with virtually no down payment, as well as low monthly payments. After 36 months, they will officially own the car, which they resell back to Tesla for cash value, or obtain trade-in credit for it to be used towards their next Tesla Vehicle.

Tesla is working together with Wells Fargo and US Bank, two of the largest banks in the United States, to release the financing product. Both banks will provide you with the financing (based on credit approval) for the 10% down payment you need to make when you purchase a Model S vehicle. The financing will be more than covered by the $7,500 to $15,000 tax credit provided by the US Federal and State government.

After paying virtually no down payment on your new vehicle, you’ll end up paying $500 each month for 36 months. That seems like a high cost, however, considering all of the benefits you receive from Tesla’s Model S, it seems a lot more than it actually is. You’ll be saving a lot of money from not having to buy gasoline. You will also be offered depreciation benefits for your vehicle amongst other things.

Tesla states that after 36 months, you can sell your Model S for the “same residual value percentage as the iconic Mercedes S Class”. That’s a statement that is guaranteed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself. He wants to assure customers that they are getting both a quality car as well as quality service from Tesla. Tesla has been doing extremely well this year, despite that incident it had with the New York Times. To catch up with the latest news regarding Tesla, check out our timeline below.

Tesla reveals revolutionary financing product is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When NASA aims to hit a volcano to study its fabulous plumes of heated debris, they do it in style: with a set of Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicles. The mission NASA rolled with three Aerovironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye UAVs from the United States Marine Corps (USMC), these vehicles issued via the General Services Administration’s San Francisco office. It was NASA’s Ames Research Center, at Moffett Field, California that negotiated the transfer, and the Turrialba Volcano, near San Jose, Costa Rica, that they’ve flown over.

Each of these lovely little flyers is a 5.9-pound aircraft with twin electric engines and a 3.75-foot wingspan. They’re each able to carry a one-pound payload that NASA chooses to fill with instrumentation that’ll allow them to study the volcano. Each of these planes is able to carry this payload for up to one hour inside a volcanic plume – important to keep in mind as this mission acts as another example of how military might can be used for civilian science purposes – a definite positive!

The full study had 10 total flights between March 11th and March 14th (of this year, 2013), each of them reaching above approximately 10,500 feet above sea level along the rim of the Torrialba summit crater. Flights reached up to 12,500 feet ASL, more than 2,000 feet above the Turrialba summit – hot stuff!

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California’s own David Pieri, this project’s principal investigator and a research scientist, noted the dangers of missions such as these.

““It is very difficult to gather data from within volcanic eruption columns and plumes because updraft wind speeds are very high and high ash concentrations can quickly destroy aircraft engines. Such flight environments can be very dangerous to manned aircraft. Volcanic eruption plumes may stretch for miles from a summit vent, and detached ash clouds can drift hundreds to thousands of miles from an eruption site.” – Pieri

It’s important to note that each of these flying craft are retired military tools, and that they’re being used here to improve NASA satellite data as well as aviation safety in the end. Instrumentation aboard the craft included the following:

• USMC visible and infrared video cameras
• Sulfur dioxide and particle sensors
• Automatic atmospheric sampling bottles keyed to measure sulfur dioxide concentration

This same research center (Ames) will be working on this project with larger SIERRA unmanned aircraft as well, each of them working with what they characterize as a more sophisticated mass spectrometer so they’ll be able to measure a whole new set of gasses pluming forth from Turrialba. These larger craft weigh in at around 400 pounds (takeoff weight) and have the ability to carry a 100-pound payload.

[via NASA]

NASA taps US Marines for Dragon Eye volcano flight is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Garmin has announced today that Daimler AG has picked the company to be the navigation system partner for most future Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Garmin is one of the big front runners in the navigation system industry, and they even have mobile apps that iOS and Android users can take advantage of while on the road.

Garmin has been in the navigation business for a while, and they’ve been a go-to solution for GPS products. However, the next time you buy a new Mercedes-Benz, it could come with an infotainment system with Garmin navigation component built right in, although there’s no word on when exactly Mercedes-Benz will begin putting Garmin units in their new cars. However, it’s said that the car maker will be slowly ramping up Garmin integration over the next four years.

Garmin says that the built-in navigation for these new Mercedes-Benz models will not only display the usual navigation stuff, but drivers will also have access to other navigation information, like when your next turn is, which will show up on a second display positioned behind the steering wheel, so that drivers can easily glance at it.

The infotainment systems will come with navigation functions that can be controlled via voice while driving, creating a safe, hands-free environment. Plus, Garmin will include technology that will provide GPS information for Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS), which can assist drivers in dangerous road conditions.

Mercedes-Benz to use Garmin navigation in future models is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ford has been hit with a class action lawsuit by its customers across fourteen states due to an issue with certain models subject to spontaneous acceleration with no way to stop. The lawsuit specifically concerns Ford cars from 2002 to 2010, with claims that the manufacturer deliberately hid the issue from buyers, resulting in the sale of vehicles that aren’t worth as much as the consumers paid.

Says the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal Huntington, West Virginia court on Friday: “Ford could have and should have prevented the dangers presented by these foreseeable incidents by including [a fail-safe system or brake-override feature]. Ford affirmatively concealed from plaintiffs and the other class members the defect.”

Specific models listed in the lawsuit include the 2002 to 2005 Mercury Cougar, the 2005 to 2010 Ford Mustang, and the 2004 through 2010 Ford Explorer. There are 19 plaintiffs listed that represent owners from 14 states across the US, ranging from Florida to New York and a bunch between. They hope to have representatives from every state by the time trial starts.

For those interested, this is case Belville v. Ford Motor Co., 12-cv-06529, U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Huntington). Earlier this month, Ford recalled nearly 200,000 vehicles due to an issue that could potentially cause a sudden engine stall, which also posed a safety risk, although no crashes had been reported due to the issue.

[via Bloomberg]

Ford hit with class action lawsuit over spontaneous acceleration is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.