The Silver State Challenge takes place on a 90 mile stretch of  Nevada highway 318 with a very simple concept;  pick a target MPH and drive it, for the length of the course.

This is the same race that a sleepy looking 69 Camaro showed up to in the late 1980’s and proceeded to blow the doors off every exotic car on the grounds.  That victory, and many more afterwards got the car “Big Red” a leading role in the last version of the Fast and the Furious.

These video’s were shot by Randal from the side of the course somewhere around the middle.  Turn up your speakers.

145 MPH 1963 Ford Galaxie

150 MPH 2007 Corvette

170 MPH 1965 Corvair

180 MPH 1937 F1 Truck

180 MPH 1966 Chevelle

Unlimited 1971 Camaro

Holley, the over 100 year old company famous for their performance carburetors and other components have filed for bankruptcy now twice in just two years.

Holley had filed in 2008 and emerged not long after swapping their equity for 95 million in second lien debt.

The Company, which owns such others as Nitrous Oxide Systems, Flowtech, Weiand and Hooker, said that sales flopped a brutal 40% after emerging from their first chapter 11 filing.

Company Co-CEO and CFO Thomas Tomlinson said that the second filing came after debt holders threatened to foreclose on Holleys assets after Holley rejected a forbearance proposal by debt-holders including Wells Fargo, as the administrative agent, and Regiment Capital Special Situations Fund IV LP, which Tomlinson said would have taken $2.5 million out of the business.

Word out of  Auburn Hills is that Fiat has signed off on the hot 200C for production and it will be code named GTD.

The conundrum is if the car should be built as a rear wheel drive or front wheel drive.    Apparently, if it goes RWD it will be built on the same LY platform as the Dodge Challenger and will be produced in Brampton Ontario Canada along with the 300C, Charger and Challenger.

If it goes front wheel drive, it will most likely be built using an existing Fiat or Alfa platform.

The other tip was that the Fiat folks weren’t too happy with the next generation 2011 300C and have issued front and rear fascia changes to happen before the car debuts next year along with the “bolder” 2011 Dodge Charger.

If the 200C were to go FWD it would be a premium offering against C-segment competitors, which is a tough but forgettable group.  If it were to go RWD, it could easily provide the same equipment, more power and ultimately more value over a C-Class Mercedes, 3-Series BMW and A-series Audi.

Its no secret that Chrysler wants to head up market after being pushed down and throttled by Daimler in order to protect Mercedes sales.

My vote? Go RWD Sergio and take Chrysler to where it belongs.

Bloomberg reports that the US economy is set to emerge from the worst recession since the 1930’s as soon as this quarter.  Pending the extra 2 billion to fund Cash for Clunkers is voted in.

Mike Digiovanni, sales analyst for General Motors Co., said “If the cash-for-clunkers program is extended by the additional $2 billion that passes the Senate, it could boost third-quarter GDP by 0.5 percentage points,”

Many other analysts have stated that if CFC gets the extra 2 billion in funding, you will see sales levels as high as they were before the recession, and that not only helps the car companies but the multiple layers of suppliers too.

I guess we will have to see if Clunkers makes it past this Friday.

Today GM debuted their new unified GT racer, the ZR1 based C6R GT2.

Testing will be done at the remaining six races this year in order to get the bugs worked out for next year.  For this year, the cars will use LS7 based 6.0L’s but next year they will have to work with only 5.5L of displacement and run on E85R racing ethanol fuel.

“The global movement toward a single GT class will allow us to compete head-to-head with more marketplace competitors while increasing both the production content of the Corvette C6.R race cars and the relevance of racing to our customers. This is a step that positions Corvette for the future of production-based sports car racing worldwide, and a move that is perfectly aligned with GM’s marketing and business objectives in racing,” said Mark Kent, GM Racing manager.

The first race for the new car will be the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio this coming Saturday, August 8. It will be televised on ABC at 2:30pm Sunday, August 9.