Building a new car is hard, but there are shortcuts. Using other people’s parts is a great way to build the car of your dreams. Fifty years ago, Carroll Shelby combined the AC Ace chassis with a Ford V8 engine to create the Cobra. Now, a Spanish company called Tauro Auto Sport is doing the same, with a container of parts exclusive to General Motors.
The Taurus V8 Spider begins life as a Pontiac Solstice. You may not remember the Solstice because it was only produced for a few years before Pontiac closed its doors. In that short period, it spawned several badged clones, including the Saturn Sky, Opel GT, and Daewoo G2X.
The Solstice looked good from the start, but Taurus decided to restyle it to look less like Pontiac. The result is still pretty good, if a bit generic. Looks like Taurus dumped the Nissan 350Z bodywork and headlights on their Solstice and was done with it. However, the style is not the biggest change.
When the Solstice first hit showrooms, it had a small four-cylinder engine under its hood. Taurus decided to replace that engine with a 6.2-liter V8 from the Corvette. The base V8 Spider will be tuned to 440 horsepower, but versions up to 650 hp will also be available.
On the 2.0-liter turbocharged GXP, the production Solstice produced just 260 hp. With “only” 260 hp, the Solstice GXP managed to do 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. Taurus hasn’t said how fast its V8 Spider will rev, but considering it weighs about the same as the Solstice but has nearly 200bhp more, it should be pretty quick.
All of that power is sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission, though buyers can get an automatic as an option. Taurus has also beefed up the car’s suspension and brakes for high-performance driving.
When it goes on sale, the V8 Spider will have a starting price of €100.00 or about $125,400. That seems pretty steep; Fans of small-block Chevys could save themselves the trouble and buy a 638-hp Corveter ZR1 for that price, and save some change for tires.
This may be why Taurus only plans to build 30 V8 Spiders; each car comes with an individual license plate. Exclusivity has its own value, but if Taurus’ Frankenstein machine can’t top the ZR1, it’s hard to understand why the company charges so much. After all, it’s not like Taurus built a V8 Spider from scratch.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn