Most fascinating racing car of 2014: Hoonicorn RTR

The Hoonicorn (to "hoon”, in Block’s circles, is to drive in a spirited, potentially reckless manner) was the centrepiece of Gymkhana Seven, Block’s latest in a series of web-released videos that has garnered more than 100m views on YouTube. As depicted in the video above, Block treats pieces of Los Angeles’ streetscape as obstacles in a makeshift race course. Gymkhana (pronounced jim-KAH-nah) is a sanctioned motorsport with roots in Japan that requires drivers to manoeuvre their cars around obstacles in controlled skids, against the clock – a skill at which Block is most adept.

Beginning with structural elements of a ‘65 Mustang, the Hoonigan team – in collaboration with RTR, a racing-car tuner – dropped a 6.7-litre V8 engine behind the front axle line. Producing a scarcely believable 845 horsepower, the engine is largely exposed, with delicate little throttle bodies that dance for the camera like precision-fabricated crickets' legs. Under power, the all-wheel drive Hoonicorn becomes a war horse, smoking all four of its custom Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo R tires as Block, working his trademark hand brake, spins the mutant ‘Stang within inches of concrete pilings and police patrol cars.

My Little Pony, the Hoonicorn is not.

Dozens of cameras were mounted to the car for the Gymkhana Seven shoot, a fact appreciable in the dizzying number of perspectives on view. Those cameras, however, could never capture the germination of the idea; the bout of lunacy that would compel otherwise sensible adults to build such a machine. It is one thing to dream it; quite another to hoon it.

A quick week spent with the 2015 Nissan GT-R gave me 600 good reasons to daydream about the Renaultsport RS01 trophy racer. This image, released in October, depicts the mid-engine racer at speed during its public debut on Spain’s Jerez racing circuit, piloted by four-time Formula 1 champion Alain Prost. The car features a lightweight carbon composite chassis fabricated in Italy by Dallara and the GT-R’s hand-built, twin-turbo 3.8-litre V6 engine. Renault states only that it makes "around 500 horsepower”, but Godzilla’s 545hp – or the GT-R Nismo’s 600hp – seems likely. In its top specification, the Nissan will blast from zero to 60mph in less than three seconds and push on to a redline-limited top speed of 191mph. The RS01, with the same engine and a racecar chassis, weighs 1,400 pounds less. Any questions? – Matthew Phenix

(BBC)