[via Edmunds Straight Line]
Thanks for the tip, Eric!

If you'd like to compare its on-board video of the record lap to the ZR1's video, check it out over at Motor Trend. Looks like Jim Mero may have to head back to Germany and set that faster lap he was talking about after all. [Motor Trend]

[GM Next]

Just 20 GT9s will be made, so you'd better hurry if you're prepared to settle for second place. Based on a lengthened and chopped 911 GT3 body, the GT9 moves its twin-turbo 4.2-liter flat-six amidships. That engine now makes 987bhp and 711 lb/ft of torque. The entire car weighs in at just 1,326kg. Keepin all this in a straight line is only the driver's nerve and conservative use of the right foot, there's no traction or stability control. [via MotorAuthority]

Hurray! Another day, another record high price. Oh wait, this is one of those bad records, isn't it? Well, it is still an all time high. How high? How does $3.196 (which is a fancy way of saying $3.20) for a gallon of 87 unleaded strike you? Well friends, that's what it costs nationally as of yesterday, May 21 [Update: American Public Media's Marketplace reported that the price is actually $3.22 per gallon – see here]. We've covered the whys of these highs before, but basically demand is very high and there aren't enough refineries operating in the US. Sticking with that last point, many refineries are not in action due to planned closures. I remember talking with a friend of mine who works for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power during the Enron/rolling blackouts debacle. I asked him why so many power generators were taken off line for "maintenance" right at the start of summer. "To drive up prices — especially since all the repairs have historically been done during the winter." But we're not calling the oil companies greedy. We know this whole "summer driving season" thing is new for 2007. – Jonny Lieberman

Gas prices climb to another record high [via msnbc.com]

Related:
Big Story Of The Day: Gas Prices [Internal]

Related:
Barrett-Jackson: We Get A View Live From Stage, You See Shelby Give Away First-Born GT; Jalopnik Question of the Day: What Would You Buy for $5.5 Million [internal]

If nothing else, Ultima's approach to supercars — strapping a 720-hp Chevrolet V8 to a frame weighing as much as a sparrow's breakfast — is at least good for breaking speed records. The company's new GTR750 recently added the standing quarter-mile to the list of things it does faster than any other road-legal car. One of the models recently clocked 9.9 seconds at — hold on to your pea soup — 143 mph, clad in road tires. It was at the Santa Pod Raceway at Northamptonshire, Blighty where the FIA approved the speed trial, but it's in Italy where someone who overpaid for a supercar that runs every second Tuesday is weeping.

Part 7: Ultima Storms the Standing Quarter-Mile [Ultima Sports, Ltd.]

Related:
Once More with Feeling: Latest Ultima Supercar Breaks Speed Record [internal]