Zenvo ST1 - Danish Supercar

Wow this car is simply amazing. Great looking and the most ridiculously fast thing ever. I want one.

Danish boutique automaker Zenvo Automotive had exactly one goal in mind when it designed the ST1 hyper-exotic: build "a real supercar with excessive power."

By any measure, it succeeded. The startup's first car purportedly produces a mind-boggling 1,104 horsepower, easily besting the Bugatti Veyron but falling just shy of the Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero. But anything the ST1 lacks in horsepower against the Aero, it more than makes up for in sheer audacity.

Simply put, the Zenvo ST1 redefines excessive.

Everything about the car is blatantly, wonderfully over the top, from its turbocharged and supercharged 7.0-liter V-8 to the acres of carbon fiber that cover its race-spec chassis. Options include ceramic brakes (a wise investment), carbon-fiber wheels and a four-point roll cage.

Top speed is limited to 233 mph, which isn't enough to earn the ST1 a spot in the top five fastest cars but will let you cover the length of Denmark in just under an hour. Besides, it isn't top speed that makes super exotics so much fun, it's acceleration, something the ST1 has in abundance. The car reportedly will hit 62 mph in three seconds flat and get you to 124 mph in under nine.

Zenvo started work on the ST1 four years ago and says it will go into production next year. That seems about as likely as Chrysler surviving past Christmas, but the 15 people rich enough to get one won't mind waiting around.

UPDATE: Because someone asked, the ST1 produces 1,400 Newton meters of torque, which works out to about 1,032 ft-lbs, or what non-gearheads might call a heaping boatload.

Photos by Zenvo Automotive, which for some reason didn't release any pics of the engine. [Wired]

High Speed Rail in California

Saw this article on Wired about the approval of bonds for construction of a high speed rail line in California.

Before the final ballots had even been tallied, high-speed rail advocates in California were getting down to work, laying the foundation for a bullet train that will link San Francisco and Los Angeles as early as 2020.

Voters on Tuesday approved the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act, more commonly known as Proposition 1A, by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent. The law authorizes the Legislature to issue almost $10 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of an 800-mile high speed rail link between Northern and Southern California. Advocates of high-speed rail hailed the victory as a watershed for high-speed rail in America.

It begins almost immediately. Quentin Kopp, chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, told Wired.com the agency will deliver a revised business plan by the end of this week and then begin a comprehensive engineering plan. "We're going to need to do things like dig tunnels through mountains and navigate the Pacheco Pass," he explains. "This is intricate engineering, and it's a crucial part of the project."

Kopp says that the state will also spend $3 to $4 billion this fiscal year buying right-of-way land for the project.

The Authority plans a network that will stretch from Sacramento to San Francisco and on to Los Angeles and San Diego via Fresno, Bakersfield, and other cities in the Central Valley. Trains would use the same wheel-on-rail technology found in France, Spain, Korea and China and reach speeds of more than 200 mph.

Proponents say the project is essential for a state choking on jammed highways and crowded airports, and predict that a well-planned north-south rail link could draw over 115 million riders a year by 2030. Gov. Schwarzenegger, one of the initiative's biggest advocates, argued high-speed rail will not only solve California's infamous gridlock, it will give the Golden State an economic competitive advantage.

The Los Angeles Times endorsed the measure, heralding it as the dawn of a more transit-friendly environment. "We think voters should give in to the measure's gleaming promise, because it's in their long-term interest," the paper wrote. The San Francisco Chronicle also got on board, calling Prop 1A "an ambitious vision that is well-tailored to the state's transportation and environmental needs." [WIRED]