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]

Here's a picture of the actual Ultimate Aero TT that attempted to break the Veyron's "production car" top speed record but "only" achieved 230mph due to snow and bad roads in Nevada. Which is weird, because if you drive from Los Angeles to Vegas on Interstate 15 – which we may have done once or twice – you notice that on the California side it is a pitted, pot-holed two-lane mess but that the second you cross into bat country Nevada, gambling revenues convert the I-15 into the most perfectly paved, 4-lane mega-highway in all the desert. And it's 115 degrees. Oh, the car. Decked out in carbon-fiber-gray and black the Aero TT looks, dare I say, pretty good. A hell of a lot better than the blue and white iteration that the Postfather so wisely dubbed "dated." No, this car is a very modern pastiche of Murcielago, Zonda, S7 and Koenigseggeggeggeggeggegg with a little bit of Veyron up front for flavor. Full press release once you jump. – Jonny Lieberman

Press release:

American supercar company SSC successfully concluded the first round of high-speed testing on Thursday, March 22nd in its quest to break the world production speed record. Despite encountering some unforeseen obstacles, the Ultimate Aero TT ended the session with a 230mph pass at just 56% throttle in 6th gear.

SSC was forced to move to an alternate location after the original 12 mile high-speed testing site was hit by an unanticipated snowstorm. An inspection of an alternate site, located 30 miles north at a lower elevation, revealed that just 2 of the 9 miles set aside by the Nevada Department of Transportation were usable. Dips, cracks, and an exaggerated road crown on the 2 lane highway rendered the other 7 miles unsuitable for high speeds.

The testing session confirmed the stability that the Ultimate Aero TT demonstrated at NASA's Langely wind tunnel, which had previously shown the car stable up to speeds of 273 mph. During Thursday's session, test equipment verified that front to rear downforce percentages and drag coefficients were well within the engineering specifications set by the figures posted at Langely.

SSC made successive 220 mph passes throughout the day and culminated with a 230 mph run just before the 2pm road closure deadline. A laser speed trap positioned 440ft before the 2 mile marker confirmed the speeds. SSC test driver Rick Doria stated that the 1183 hp Ultimate Aero TT had "a lot more to go" at 230 mph and was confident that the remaining power and proper road conditions would propel the car past the Bugatti Veyron's 253 mph top speed record.

The crew spent the remainder of the afternoon scouting potential sites for the next round of testing. Though SSC hopes to run the second session within the next 2 weeks, their participation at Top Marques Monaco may delay the second test until after the event.

Updates and additional information are available on SSC's website, www.sscautos.com.

Related:
Back to the Wind Tunnel: SSC Falls Short of Speed Record; More: Thrust! SSC to Go After Production Car Speed Record; More: Future Classic Top Gear: Captain Slow Goes 407.4 Kilometers Per Hour! [Internal]

According to Wikipedia, Greece's Addiki Odos motorway "was designed under strict safety-related technical specifications, including a hard shoulder in either direction, traffic island, a high quality skid-resistant asphalt pavement, dense lighting and fencing." All of that in the name of safety. Sounds like a perfect venue for a three-camera shoot of a nightime run by a leather-suited shipping magnate and his sidekick Balki (we'd imagine), during which the speedo of the BMW M6 they were in became quite well acquainted with the number 340 (as in km/h, or 211 mph). According to the YouTube blurb, it was "Just to see how much crazy we Greeks are!" Much crazy, indeed, guys. Lay off the ouzo. [Thanks to Greg for the tip.]

Related:
Pinned: Hitting 205 in an M6 [internal]

They may have taken the Red Rocker reference we were almost bound by Jalopnik charter to make, but the boys at Bavarian Falcon found the item first, so we've got no blogethical right to it. Nonetheless, the device in question is a mod box that wrests top-speed from the BMW control nannies, sending the M5 into the upper reaches beyond the factory-issued 155mph. It's not available in the US, but in Europe it can be had for $649 — mere cents in Red Rocker bux. [Update: Damn our eyesight. It's available in the US from Turner Motorsport in Massachusetts]

Can't Drive 155 in Your M5?[Bavarian Falcon]

Related:
Hartge Breaks the Gentlemen s 155mph Agreement [internal]