Speed:Sport:Life

Photos courtesy of Audi

In Washington, D.C., a stoplight on Independence Avenue is more than just a traffic control device. It’s a choke point–a security checkpoint–but normally, you don’t get asked for your papers. Normally.

This has occurred to me before, but wasn’t on my mind as I sat at the traffic light at Independence and 2nd Street Northeast in Capitol Hill. In fact, despite the presence of a D.C. metro cop in my rear-view mirror, it wasn’t anywhere on my list of concerns. The police presence in D.C. is so ubiquitous these days that I rarely give the various law enforcement and paramilitary organizations a second thought. I’ve only been working downtown for five years, but it’s long enough to become used to seeing M16-equipped officers standing on the sidewalk.

So as I eased away from the stoplight and my mirrors lit up with red and blue, my first instinct was to simply move out of the way. I slipped into the right lane and slowed to allow the officer to pass, but when I glanced in the side-view to monitor his progress, I was greeted by the glare of a mirror-mounted spotlight. Hmmm. I know how this story ends.

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Genesis Coupe photos courtesy of Hyundai. Comparison photos by the Author.

For the enthusiast buyer, the introduction of the Genesis Coupe was a watershed moment for Hyundai. The closest the company had previously come to building a true fun car was the Tiburon, a front-wheel drive compact coupe whose drivetrain options were straight out of the 1990s. The Tiburon would have been right at home in the company of the Ford Probe, Mazda MX-6, Mercury Cougar and, if you like things a bit more exotic, the Alfa Romeo GTV. However, in the world of 370Zs and 300hp V6 pony cars, Hyundai’s oddly-sculpted shark just didn’t have teeth.

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It’s a Mustang-friendly month here at Speed:Sport:Life. Shelby’s Super Snake tuning packages for the 2013 GT500 were revealed yesterday, and after looking over the specifics, we like what we see.  The biggest news in our eyes is that the Super Snake packages can be had with either the GT500′s stock 3.31 rear end or a 3.73.  Depending on the power package you select, 3.73s may put you out of reach of the stock GT500′s 200mph top speed, but if you’re the type who likes a race track, be it of the straight or winding variety, the shorter gears may be to your liking. For a street Shelby, the 200mph bragging rights may trump absolute acceleration.

If $28,995 for the 662-horsepower package and $39,995 for the go-big-or-go-home 850hp variant sound reasonable to you, remember that these prices are on top of the retail-delivered GT500 that you’ll need before you ring Shelby. That said, there aren’t many 850hp turnkey cars out there for ~$95,000, so it’s still a bit of a bargain.

The full announcement is posted below, after the gallery from Shelby American. Enjoy.

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In early August, Speed:Sport:Life teamed up with Effort Racing and MSR Houston to pit seven performance monsters against each other in the ultimate track day shoot-out. We’ll have those results for you soon, but in the meantime, we’d like to share some highlights of our weekend with a couple of American monsters. This week, we’re featuring the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500. Photos by Zerin Dube.

662 horsepower. 200mph. $54,995. Mustang. If that’s not enough for you to make up your mind about the 2013 Shelby GT500, then you’re one of few non-partisans in the ongoing battle between Ford’s refreshed Mustang and the entire known world of performance cars. Get comfortable then while I explain to you why you should appreciate the second-coolest car of 2013. Read More…