For education and entertainment, today we take a look at the two-seater roadster with V8 and supercharged.
Recently we talked about the Cobra. This car doesn’t seem to want to die out. Both AC and Shelby regularly build another one for you. Of course for a very solid price. But then you do have a unique car. A two-seater roadster with V8 and supercharger is not very common anymore, unfortunately.
Still, they are the coolest cars you can think of. An open sports car is already a lot of fun. With a V8 it only gets better. A supercharger increases the party atmosphere even more. A supercharger is a bit like an alcoholic beverage that doesn’t give you a hangover. The fun, but not the disadvantages. With a turbo you can call up a lot more power, but at the expense of throttle response. The supercharger is not affected by this, it always participates.
To honor the AC Cobra, we take a look at the wonderful world of the two-seater roadsters with V8 and supercharger.
AC Ace
1997 – 2000
AC Cars also tried to follow up on the Cobra itself. They did that with the Ace. Not such a crazy idea, because the original Shelby Cobra also started life as AC Ace. The Ace came on the market in 1997. There was a choice of two engines: a modern 4.6 V8 Quad Cam V8 or an old-fashioned 5.0 Supercharged V8. Strangely enough, they both had about the same power.
To make it even crazier: in 2000 you could order this car with the Lotus V8 from the Esprit. Which also produced about the same power. The car proved to be rare unpopular, so we wonder if an AC Ace came with the twin turbo V8. We do know that the engine was delivered in the Cobra (yes, really the 212).
Shelby Series 1 S/C
1999–2002
Despite the lack of a Ford engine, this is indeed the closest car to the original Cobra. That’s simply because the car was developed by Shelby. The philosophy was the same: a lightweight, modestly sized sports car with plenty of power.
It was not a great success. The engine is a remarkably modest Oldsmobile unit, one of only four liters in size, but of course with a mechanical compressor on it. In the end, 249 were built. Later a few more pieces of a facelift model (from Tom Tjaarda) were added. This version was appropriately named: Series 2.
Check out our extensive special about the Shelby Series 1 here!
Kleemann SLK S8 (R171)
2005 – 2007
The Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG of the R171 generation is a special case. A small roadster with a huge V8. Basically it is the SL55 engine, but without its compressor. But a compressor does fit on the block. That’s exactly what they did at Kleemann. Now it turned out to be remarkably simple. For example, one of the air intakes in the hood is functional.
According to Mercedes, the second was useful if a tuner was going to screw a compressor. And so it happened! You could compose your car in all kinds of stages, the S8 is the thickest with upgraded camshafts, larger supercharger and sports exhaust system. The result is a small roadster with 600 horsepower.
Check out our Mercedes SLK Special of the R171 generation here!
Cadillac XLR-V
2005 – 2008
A two-seater roadster with V8 and supercharger can also be completely different. The Cadillac XLR-V proves that. The basis is an XLR, which can best be described as a luxury Corvette with a Northstar engine. In this case with mechanical compressor on 4.4 V8 (the standard engine was 4.6 liters). The engine is good for 443 hp and 563 Nm.
The car turned out to be unsuccessful. People who wanted luxury bought a Mercedes SL and people who wanted value-for-money bought the Corvette. New it was not the best proposition, but used it is a wonderfully obscure roadster with V8 and supercharger.
Check out the driving test of the XLR-V with all of you Wouter behind the wheel here:
Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG Performance Package (R230)
2006 – 2008
The Measure. For those who think this is just a luxury battleship: no. This was kind of the tipping point that SLs became considerably more fun to drive. That was mainly the engine. That is a 5.4 liter V8 with no less than 500 hp. At least, most copies. The first series had ‘only’ 476 hp. When the E55 AMG came along, they increased the power a bit because it was faster.
But the SL is the coolest. Firstly because of the engine, but also the sound it produces. This is actually just a Spitfire with heated seats. You can easily find a BMW Z8 for a fraction of the price. These cars should actually cost 2 tons, but because Mercedes has built so many of them, you can find them for less than 40 grand.
Novitec Alfa 8C Spider Compressor
2011
We are smuggling a bit with this Alfa Romeo, but this car just has to be there. It is a two-seater with a V8 and supercharger. The latter is absolutely not standard on the regular 8C. The power increases by 150 Cavalinnos to 600 hp! The torque of 588 Nm is also not sickening, although in this case it is fairly modest.
In this case, the engine is set to maximum speed and not so much to maximum torque. That’s a good thing, because that’s when this engine sounds at its best. We are curious how many 8Cs have actually been converted into Novitec Compressore. Fortunately, Novitec has mainly been involved in the technology. Except for a lowering, larger wheels and sports exhaust, the 8C is standard. As it should.
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible (C7)
2014
It would be quite a long time before you could get a two-seat roadster with a V8 and supercharger with the Chevrolet Corvette. The first mechanically supercharged Corvette (not counting the 1990s Callaways) was the C6-generation ZR1, and it was only available as a coupe. However, the C7 more than made up for it all.
In this case, the V8 was supercharged because otherwise GM could not make the engine meet the emission requirements. The by-product was extreme power (650 hp) and bizarre sheet of torque (880 Nm). Simply, with factory warranty! Although this Chevrolet has a low-tech engine (one central camshaft!), it is not a low-tech car with magnetic dampers, electronic locking and Brembo brakes.
Jaguar F-Type R (X152)
2015 – 2017
Of course there must be a Jaguar F-Type in the overview. The F-Type R is immediately the best. This one has the big AJ-133 V8 Jaguar engine, a 5.0 V8 with supercharger. The nice thing is that the F-type is a relatively small car. In any case, this is the car you need with a V8, because the V6 is a V8 with only three cylinders per bank and therefore just as big and heavy as a V8 (read all about it here).
The F-Type still has that nice raw edge that almost feels old-school, despite the fact that it is still a fairly modern car. In fact, it’s the only two-seater V8 supercharged roadster you can buy right now can order new in the Netherlands!
Read more? These are eleven 55 AMG toppers from 55 years of AMG!
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