The story goes that David B. McMahan, a wealthy philanthropist from Indianapolis with an interesting past, was being chauffeured by a car freak named Marlon Kirby and they got to talking.
McMahan and Kirby (right)
“Building a record-breaking performance car is something I always dreamed of as a kid,” says David. Marlon: “Hey, I’m your guy. I’ve got a car tuning shop, and I used to wrestle competitively.”
Speed nuts have their own affinity. Anyhow, the Maxximus they created together is a glorified kit car that, thanks to Marlon’s ingenuity and David’s money, has claimed the title of world’s fastest street-legal car.
It is indeed an accomplishment, though you can question whether a one-off car that could in no way meet DOT crash tests or emissions standards is “street legal.”
Over the course of four years, Marlon was able to stuff a 1,600-bhp Chevy small-block V8 with twin turbos into the British Ultima, whose low volume and kit-car status enable it to be registered for street use. Add a three-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox, six-piston calipers surrounding 14.2-inch discs, and a 2,700-pound frame, and you get 0-60 mph in 2.1 seconds (the Bugatti Veyron does it in 2.8), 0-100 in 4.5 seconds, and 0-100-0 in 8.9 seconds. The latter figure is particularly amazing.
Even though lots of bloggers are calling it ugly (one said it looks like a Porsche 911 with Down’s Syndrome), the G-Force is getting great PR, it’s all over the Web (photos and website here), and you can have it for your very own if you quickly call David and fork over $3 million for the only copy. Rumor is, though, that you’ll be competing with some Middle Eastern buyers - or at least that’s what he’s telling the press.
On the other hand, consider this: Tthe Ultima GTR, on which the Maxximus is based, goes almost as fast and is a veritable bargain compared. Again with the small-block V8, the factory GTR ran 0-60 in 2.6 seconds, 0-100 in 5.3 seconds, and 0-100-0 in 9.4. The Maxximus took more than twice the horsepower to do not that much better.
The complete GTR kit is around $89,000, plus drivetrain, so you could put one together for around $200,000. I don’t know if the factory is still offering pre-builts.
Have you ever built a kit car? How fast did it go?
—jgoods
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