Where did it all start?
Well, I already had Maxximus technology up and running. Then a friend of mine was driving a new limo and asked if I wanted to drive part time, for extra cash. The next thing you know, I was doing it a couple of days a week, and that’s how I wound up meeting (G-Force sponsor) Bruce McMahan.
So how did you broach the subject with him?
I’d been working on the problem of how to create a car like this and put it together for a while. Then me and Bruce started talking about it while he was in the car with me, and it kind of snowballed from there.
How do you go about building the fastest car in the world?
You’ve got to have good engine power and a power plant to make this happen. The body and the chassis started out as that of an Ultima GTR – these had been used for the McLaren F1 project.
Why didn’t you build it from scratch?
We didn’t have the funding to create a brand new body and chassis because you’re talking hundreds and thousands of dollars more and and we were trying to keep the bill down as much as possible.
How did you change it?
We had to clean up and diffuse the air on the back. We changed the windshield design for better aerodynamics, then the chassis. We put in hundreds of hours on it and probably modelled it out some three or four times.
You drove the G-Force when it broke the record for the world’s fastest street-legal car. How was that?
We went into this without doing any testing on the road surface, and then we started going after world records! It was intense.
So, is it faster then Superman?
In a quarter of a mile, it will do over 200mph. We haven’t done a top speed run on it yet, but computer generated, it’s approaching the 300mph mark.
That doesn’t sound too safe.
The street legal criteria is that it has to be 4½ inches off the ground; there has to be headlights, turn signals and a 12-inch comfort zone all around the car. Then you have to get a Department of Transport police officer to visit and do an inspection of the vehicle.
What’s your nearest rival?
Probably the closest car to compare it to is the Bugatti Veyron, or maybe the McLaren F1. We’re all in the same category.
But the Veyron famously costs more money to build than it sells for. Can you sell this?
There isn’t a price yet. I’m building the cars, but a lot of it depends on the testing and R&D on the new car, so we can get the prices down for people.
