Will Fiat cap performance of 2014 SRT Viper ACR out of fear for Ferrari? [UPDATE]

Motor Trend has got word that an SRT Viper ACR the acronym for American Club Racing is headed for a reveal in 2014. However, at the same time as SRT is working to maximize the model's performance, the report says there's an internally imposed performance ceiling on at least one aspect of the super coupe that will keep it from being all the Viper it could be.

Having watched other super sports cars go super fast on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires MT cites the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 as the prime example SRT is looking to Pirelli for a set of rubber that improves on the Viper's P-Zero Corsas. Where the Viper ACR will be restrained is its power-to-weight ratio; rumor is that bosses at parent company Fiat have decreed that the Viper cannot outdo the 5.2-pounds-per-horsepower of the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. It's also rumored that Ferrari doesn't want the Viper to have more power than the 731 horsepower of the F12, even though SRT has said it would be "relatively easy" to increase output from the current 640 hp.

The last Viper ACR didn't get more oomph under the hood, so there should be plenty of ways to navigate Ferrari sensitivities. However, the last Viper club racer did offer a Hardcore Package that dropped weight by 40 pounds. If the specific power-to-weight number really is a bright line for the coupe's development, it will be interesting to see if such a package is offered again and how SRT manages it.

UPDATE: SRT boss Ralph Gilles has poo-pooed these reports, saying that the whole thing stemmed from a "joke I made at the [New York Auto Show] Viper reveal ... that apparently took a life of its own," and tweeted that "Ferrari plays in a totally different market."

NISMO confirms hotter GT-R, return to Le Mans and more performance models [w/videos]

Nissan has made three announcements, all of which intend to sharpen the global significance and sales of its NISMO performance arm. Calling it "a new era for NISMO as its global performance car and motorsports brand," Carlos Ghosn cut the ribbon on the new, larger, nicer NISMO headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. For the first time since the division was founded in 1984, all of its employees are located in one place that was dubbed "a hothouse of passion and performance." Sign us up.

There, the team will start overhauling Nissan's entire range with NISMO models. The Juke NISMO is right around the corner for the US market, the second generation of the 370Z NISMO is coming for 2014, the first GT-R NISMO is being developed, and after that will come "a range of affordable performance Nissan models from small cars to flagship sports cars" a new model every year. The expanded product line will mean that markets that haven't had access to NISMO's works will finally be able to buy them.

The last big news is that from now on NISMO will manage every one of Nissan's global motorsports programs, and its largest initiative will be prepping an entry for Le Mans in 2014. While Nissan has left the DeltaWing project, it hasn't walked away from experimental racers: the brand aims to have "a pioneering Nissan race car showcasing electric technology" ready in 15 months that shows "a new approach to innovation and excitement."

You can find out more about all the news in the three press releases and two videos below.

Will Fiat cap performance of 2014 SRT Viper ACR out of fear for Ferrari?

Motor Trend has got word that an SRT Viper ACR the acronym for American Club Racing is headed for a reveal in 2014. However, at the same time as SRT is working to maximize the model's performance, the report says there's an internally imposed performance ceiling on at least one aspect of the super coupe that will keep it from being all the Viper it could be.

Having watched other super sports cars go super fast on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires MT cites the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 as the prime example SRT is looking to Pirelli for a set of rubber that improves on the Viper's P-Zero Corsas. Where the Viper ACR will be restrained is its power-to-weight ratio; rumor is that bosses at parent company Fiat have decreed that the Viper cannot outdo the 5.2-pounds-per-horsepower of the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. It's also rumored that Ferrari doesn't want the Viper to have more power than the 731 horsepower of the F12, even though SRT has said it would be "relatively easy" to increase output from the current 640 hp.

The last Viper ACR didn't get more oomph under the hood, so there should be plenty of ways to navigate Ferrari sensitivities. However, the last Viper club racer did offer a Hardcore Package that dropped weight by 40 pounds. If the specific power-to-weight number really is a bright line for the coupe's development, it will be interesting to see if such a package is offered again and how SRT manages it.

Race Recap: 2013 Daytona 500 runs 200 laps, six of them count [spoilers]

It's been a huge month, leading up to the Super Bowl of NASCAR, the Daytona 500. This is the first year of the new Car of Tomorrow, the "Gen Six" car, and all of the drivers have been trying to figure out its intricacies. The Ford Fusion and Chevrolet NASCAR SS has joined the field and its street-legal equivalent, the SS, was introduced. A huge wreck in the Nationwide Series race the day before the Daytona 500 tore a car in half, tore a hole in the fence, sent car parts flying into the crowd and injured some 33 spectators.

And then, of course, making just her 11th Sprint Cup Series start, there was Danica Patrick on pole position. She'd lead the way for the 43 cars on the grid to start the 200 laps of the 2.5-mile oval called the Daytona International Speedway, with its five-story-high turns banked at 31 degrees and the 3,000-foot front stretch banked at 18 degrees.

Perhaps all that excitement is why James Franco, the honorary race starter there to promote Disney's new film, Oz the Great and Powerful, yelled "Drivers, and Danica, start your engines!" to begin the 65th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship...

Watch the Australian GT Championship take on Bathurst

The Australian GT Championship is one of the more entertaining race series going. Racers compete head to head in hardware plucked from our supercar dreams. Drivers campaign bruisers like the Ferrari 458 Italia, Porsche 911 GT3-R, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Audi R8 and even the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Ginetta G55. There are few other places where you can see so many excellent vehicles go fender to fender. This year, the series got started at the infamous Bathurst circuit. If you want a better picture of what the Australian GT Championship has to offer, look no further than the video below.

The first round saw Shane Van Gisbergen and Klark Quinn in their Porsche 911 GT3-R take the checkered flag followed by a four-man team in the No. 88 Ferrari 458 Italia GT4. The series heads to the Adelaide Street circuit for qualifying on February 28, with the main event going down on March 2. In the interim, feel free to check out the clip below for a better idea of what the action is all about.

Erebus Motorsport Mercedes E-Class V8 Supercar completes the field [w/videos]

Ford, Holden and Nissan introduced their V8 Supercar challengers a while back. Erebus Motorport, whose racing program got the green light not even 120 days ago, has finally shown off the Mercedes-Benz E-Class racer that will complete this year's field of entries. The first AMG race car ever to be built outside of Germany, it's an Australian-built tube-frame chassis specced to the series' Car of Tomorrow rules, fitted with body panels that channel the E63 AMG.

Supported by AMG Customer Motorsport, the 5.0-liter engine is provided by HWA in Germany, the racing arm of AMG. Regulations dictate that it have roughly 650 horsepower, a redline between 7,000 and 7,500 rpm and a torque curve that matches the parity baseline set for all cars.

Lee Holdsworth, Tim Slade and Maro Engel will drive the three team cars, each with different sponsors. Their first showing will be at the Clipsal 500 on March 3 in Adelaide, here in the US we'll get to see them in May at the Circuit of the Americas. Check out the videos below of the Erebus car starting up at its launch, and footage of all of this year's cars doing pre-season testing on track together.

Wiesmann teases Geneva-bound GT MF4-CS

German sportscar maker Wiesmann has announced it's bringing the GT MF4-CS to say "Tag" to the world at the Geneva Motor Show. The last two characters in that letterlicious name stand for "Club Sport," making this the stripped-down track-day version of the Wiesmann GT MF4-S that being the Sport version of the plain-old GT MF4.

Now that we're clear on that, let's also be clear that we know nothing more about it. Its base vehicle, the 3,014-pound GT MF4-S, uses a V8 with 420 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque and takes 4.4 seconds to get to 62 miles per hour from a standstill. It offers the choice of a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and it has a locking rear diff.

The Club Sport treatment should make things go faster in more ways than one, since Wiesmann says there will only be 25 made. We'll be on the floor in Geneva to take a look at one of them, there's a three-sentence press release below to entertain you in the meantime.