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Official: ATS Sport 1000 is ready to be your trackday Italian

Filed under: Performance, Specialty, MISC, Racing

ATS Sport 1000 Street - front three-quarter view

Late last year, Italian sports car automaker Automobili Turismo e Sport, better known as ATS, announced that it was getting back in the car-making game after a 50-year hiatus, with a two-car lineup consisting of the 2500GT and the track-ready Sport 1000. Designed to take the world’s ultra-focused trackday cars like those from Radical, Ariel and BAC, the latter model goes on sale “worldwide” – including the US – by the end of this year in Race and Street versions. Starting prices of 24,990 euros and 43,500 euros have been announced for the two models, but US pricing hasn’t been announced yet (a straight conversion yields $33,000 and $58,000 ballpark figures).

Anteing up the extra money for the Street model (shown above) will get you headlights, taillights, mirrors and… an engine. This version comes with the same mill found under the gas tank of a Kawasaki Ninja 1000, good for over 200 horsepower. Weighing in at just 1,100 pounds, this should be plenty of power for the Sport 1000 Street; Race models are available without an engine, but can also be equipped with motorcycle engines from Honda, Kawasaki, MV Agusta, Suzuki or Yamaha. ATS has also given the car a fully adjustable suspension, six-speed sequential gearbox and a limited-slip differential.

The super-lightweight Sport 1000 is built in either left- or right-hand-drive configurations, and it uses a stainless steel frame and a fiberglass body. We can only imagine how much lighter (and more expensive) this car would be if it made use of aluminum and carbon fiber. Measuring about 165 inches in length and 63 inches in width, the Sport 1000 is longer and slightly narrower than a Mazda Miata, but without bumpers and a windshield, it will probably take some doing to register in the US, even as a homebuilt.

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ATS Sport 1000 is ready to be your trackday Italian originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oshkosh Light Concept Vehicle competes in Baja 1000

Filed under: Motorsports, Truck, Military, Off-Road

Oshkosh Extreme Racing Light Concept Vehicle (LCV) – Click above for high-res image gallery, follow the jump for video

Yep, that’s a diesel hybrid Light Concept Vehicle (LCV) from the Oshkosh Extreme Racing team competing in the 43rd running of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. “Light” in this case is relative, of course. Oshkosh builds a large variety of bigger machines, ranging from fire trucks to rigs capable of hauling up to 70 tons.

Now, the Oshkosh outfit didn’t win the event. In fact, only one of its two entries finished, and it was six and a half hours too late to be scored. It was, though, an opportunity to see how Oshkosh’s ProPulse hybrid system would hold up to the rigors of off-road abuse. In that department the race was a success.

According to the Oshkosh, the hybrid system uses a diesel engine to send power to a generator which, in turn, directly powers the wheels (Though not stated, we imagine there’s an electric motor involved for each set of wheels.) In place of batteries, the setup relies on ultracapacitors to store and deliver energy. The arrangement is said to reduce fuel consumption by 20 percent thanks to the elimination of components such as the torque converter, automatic transmission, transfer case and driveshafts. To get a better look at this beast, check out the gallery below or the video of it in action after the break.

Gallery: Oshkosh Extreme Racing Light Concept Vehicle

[Source: Oshkosh Corporation via Green Car Congress]

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Oshkosh Light Concept Vehicle competes in Baja 1000 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford to campaign F-150 EcoBoost in Baja 1000

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Truck, Work, Ford, Specialty, Off-Road, Racing

2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost Desert Racer – Click above for high-res image gallery

Convincing pickup truck buyers they don’t actually need a big ‘ol honkin’ V8 engine is going to be tough, regardless of how good the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 in the 2011 Ford F-150 may be. We already know that the mill puts out enough power to get just about anything done, but what about its durability? After all, the old-school V8 (never mind that modern Ford overhead cam V8s share almost nothing in common with their OHV predecessors) has been in use since, oh, just about the dawn of the American automobile industry.

With that in mind, Ford is eager to convince potential buyers that its twin-turbo V6 powerplant is fully capable of surviving the rigors of pickup duty. And to prove it, The Blue Oval has some pretty harsh plans for its latest EcoBoost engine, culminating with an entry into the famed Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race.

But before that final torture test, that same 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine will be used by a lumber company in Oregon to haul logs weighing thousands of pounds up steep hills. Then, that same engine will tow a pair of Sprint Cup Ford Fusions at full throttle for 24 hours around the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval track in Florida. Then it’s on to Baja, after which it will be torn down and shown off to the public.

Clearly, Ford believes in the durability of its EcoBoost engine, which has already gone through 1.6 million miles (both real over-the-road and simulated miles) of abusive testing. We look forward to seeing how this one particular randomly selected engine performs throughout its upcoming torture testing. Hit the jump for all the details.

Gallery: 2011 Ford F-150 Desert Racer