RE: Melling's Hellcat has surfaced

[hollowpockets]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's a hell of a slur.

Mr Melling, if you're reading this thread (and are able to lift yourself out of your chair unaided) I suggest you belly-flop this twerp, Giant Haystacks style.

[FourWheelDrift]

It's changed a little since May 2006

FourWheelDrift said:

scared but happy said:

Sorry if its been posted but I could not see it on this thread.
Here is the Sky News video of the Hellcat

Few pics from the video.

[Haza]

Yes its ugly but no worse than the veyron

[simonb9]

It does look pretty bloody awful though doesn't it ??..........

[Brink]

Aerodynamics only look good for above 150mph. Above that it'll flip or fall to bits.

[TT Tim]

Lutz said:

So let's see: someone takes a viper engine, slaps on a quad turbos....

Yea, shame he designed the engine as well isn't it? I think your comments are somewhat flawed.

We should be praising Al Melling, not, as is the UK way, damning him!

I hope this beast gets built, I also hope it kicks the Russains arse if he ever builds the Typhoon!

Tim

[Avocet]

andyps said:

I take it you have seen the complete list - it is somewhat longer than TVR engines.

Al Melling has advised and designed engines for a large number of the Worlds motor manufacturers, unfortunately he can't tell anyone much about it as he has confidentiality agreements with just about everyone of them. From what I understand his clients cover the globe, so speaking totally theoretically with no knowledge of specific customers, could you image Honda or Toyota, for example, saying "of course, our new engine was designed and developed by a bloke from Rochdale" in their PR material? As this would undermine their own credentials they get Al to do the work, and he is happy to take no credit for it, but knows his reputation will enable him to continue in business for may more years to come.

Whilst I am a little short of £200k to be placing an order, if I was in a different situation I would be very interested. Well done Mr Melling

Yep, seen (or heard) the list - just never "seen" the engines!

Actually, that's not strictly true. I've seen a couple - that was enough!

[Joe T]

I think it will be quite aerodynamic if the front view is anything to go by, I also think thats why the screen is styled the way it is, strikes me it leans more towards the engineering principles and less towards style.

Before we became crap at most things thats what put Brit cars on the map, "looks a bit dodgy but seems very quick".

At least we are still trying...........

[wheeljack]

Look guys, I know some of you go misty-eyed at the racing engine connection and he's a very clever engine concept designer. BUT trust me the engine design and development business is indefinitely larger and more complicated than one chap (even one of his immense stature!) in the northwest who starts off with a Glacier-Vandervell bearing catalogue!

Google a search for AVL, Ricardo, FEV, Cosworth/Mahle, IAV, Gamma Technologies, Perkins Technology, etc. They're the well known 3rd party engine R&D houses, together employing 1000's. Then you have all the OEM (road or race) engine R&D depts that are several magnitudes larger than the 3rd party houses. The web of knowledge flying around in each of these companies when you start to superficially scratch the surface is simply astonishing!

And for the love of god, don't give him credit for the Honda F20C/K-Series engine!

I do however wish the very best of luck with this!

I know one of his "proteges" and lets put it this way he wasn't beyond a bit of self promotion

[zooooom]

wheeljack said:

Look guys, I know some of you go misty-eyed at the racing engine connection and he's a very clever engine concept designer. BUT trust me the engine design and development business is indefinitely larger and more complicated than one chap (even one of his immense stature!) in the northwest who starts off with a Glacier-Vandervell bearing catalogue!

Google a search for AVL, Ricardo, FEV, Cosworth/Mahle, IAV, Gamma Technologies, Perkins Technology, etc. They're the well known 3rd party engine R&D houses, together employing 1000's. Then you have all the OEM (road or race) engine R&D depts that are several magnitudes larger than the 3rd party houses. The web of knowledge flying around in each of these companies when you start to superficially scratch the surface is simply astonishing!

And for the love of god, don't give him credit for the Honda F20C/K-Series engine!

I do however wish the very best of luck with this!

I know one of his "proteges" and lets put it this way he wasn't beyond a bit of self promotion

Oh come on Phil its not every day we can excited about a protencial world beating british sports car.
Dont spoil it for the rest of us who still believe in whats left of our great british sport car heritage.

Edited by zooooom on Tuesday 30th January 19:36

[FourWheelDrift]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's a hell of a slur.

Mr Melling, if you're reading this thread (and are able to lift yourself out of your chair unaided) I suggest you belly-flop this twerp, Giant Haystacks style.

Just as soon as he's found a source of the necessary "1.21 gigawatts" of electricity needed to send Marty back to 1985.

[wheeljack]

zooooom said:

Oh come on Phil its not every day we can excited about a protencial world beating british sports car.
Dont spoil it for the rest of us who still believe in whats left of our great british sport car heritage.

Don't worry chap, this country still punches way beyond it's weight in the automotive R&D arena but (perhaps unfortunately) it is a lot more subtle.

Edited by wheeljack on Tuesday 30th January 19:59

[Beefmeister]

Well this is another shot of it:



Sorry, but i still think it looks like a 12yr old Max Power reader's idea of a supercar...

All he needed to do was go to Coventry Uni and get an design student to pen something nice looking....

Edited by Beefmeister on Tuesday 30th January 20:08

[mrandy]

Why do they make these cars look so dam ugly,looks like a child designed it

[Beefmeister]

I know i keep going on about it, but damn that Henessey Viper is quick. Actual performance test figures by Motor Trend:

# 0-60 mph: 3.2 sec. (1st Place Overall)
# 0-150 mph: 10.0 sec. (1st Place Overall)
# 1/4 mile: 10.5 sec. @ 153 mph (1st Place Overall)
# Standing Mile: 217.9 mph (1st Place Overall)
# 60-0 mph Braking: 103.6 ft. (1st Place Overall)
# 100-0 mph Braking: 288 ft. (1st Place Overall)
# Chassis Dyno: 977 Rear Wheel HP (1st Place Overall)

And apparently the track was dusty so they had to short shift. Even then it still does those figures - and 977 RWHP!!!

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Oh, and you can get the same kit for the Ram SRT-10 pickup too - if i won the lottery i'd have to do that. Just imagine how absurd a pickup with no weight over the rear wheels and 1100bhp and 1000lb/ft would be!!!

Chortle.

Edited by Beefmeister on Tuesday 30th January 20:45

[deevlash]

Are those the old impreza lights?

[cyberface]

I want one of the engines to stick in the back of my VX220.

Hic. Now where's that glass gone?

Original thoughts were that the car was never to be, but the engine was being developed to be sold to some manufacturer... until the detail about the engine being cut from billet came out, which is never going to be anything other than miniscule-volume prototype stuff - no production run is going to happen like that, surely?

[graeme73s]

Well good luck to Al but I would not show off pics of a car that I had just fallen on the back of and flattened it.
Like the cannon idea in the front, hope its got a head up display unit for speed cameras. I'd definately have one of those, just imagine, see a camera half a mile away, focus and push the button. Brilliant idea Al.

[havoc]

zooooom said:

havoc said:

Where's my bow and congratulations?

Oh yeee of little faith.
And you driving around in a car with one of his engine in.
You soon will be eating humble pie me thinks.

I can only assume you mean the S2000's F20C (can't see Melling being bothered about an oil burner). I would be very surprised that Honda needed AM's involvement with VTEC...they've been tinkering with it for getting on for 2 decades, and it's always worked very well, thankyou very much.

So is there any proof for that assertion...just googled and found sweet-FA!

Ah...

wheeljack said:

...
And for the love of god, don't give him credit for the Honda F20C/K-Series engine!

Thanks Phil...couldn't see Honda needing him, let alone UNDERSTANDING his accent!

I'll wait for the less-powerful but infinitely-more-reliable V10 in the next Honda supercar!!!

Road_Terrorist said:

Wait a minute how does a V10 with FOUR turbos work? 10 divided by four doesn't go evenly.

...

I suppose they could route all headers through a single point with two common outlets, but again this seems needlessly complex, unless it is a fancy sequential twin turbo each side, which would make a bit more sense.

Otherwise I guess they could be running twin turbos in series rather than parallel, but I can't see how this would possibly benefit a road car?

I did have the same thoughts, and I'm assuming it's sequential twin turbos per bank, with a little one spooling up before the F***ING HUGE one that creates all that power!!!



Oh...and it's horrifically FUGLY! Even Subaru haven't managed THAT big a balls-up of a design...yet.

[rev-erend]

Guess he must have a few orders.. good luck to him.

Not many genuinely British cars around