*898 horsepower/772 ft. lbs of torque, with air, leather, and Bose. All in an iconic C4 at just shy of 255 m.p.h. May I introduce you to Reeves Callaway's original supercar so appropriately named the 'Sledgehammer'. Beautiful car Mr. Callaway!*
Fuck off the callaway did not do 255 mph it did no where near that the McLaren f1 did 242 mph which is faster that than that Yankee shit and the Veyron in did 253 mph in 2005 and Veyron was the first 250 mph car not that yankee shit fuck you and fuck American cars!!!😡😡😡FUCK OFF!!!! Learn your facts!!!
@@phoenixgibbs-lewis6387 _Certainly you're not speaking to me personally. That said, take less than four seconds to Google 'Callaway Sledgehammer'. What makes the car unique is it was based on the fourth generation Corvette. Yes, it's not an F1, and yes it's not a Veyron. But the performance envelope for this car is impressive, and clearly stands alone up to the year the car was built, and for almost another two decades!_
@@phoenixgibbs-lewis6387 - Hey IDIOT. You can watch the original video from 1988 on RU-vid. I would say something denigrating to you. But, it's harder to make you look stupider than you already have.
@@chrismarek7864 slower to get there. Not road legal anywhere outside USA. Is a stripped down car turned race car. No emmisions control. Loud as f. Handles like a turd. Terrible brakes. Just a roll cage fibreglass body and a workerd motor. Not even comparable
@@JDMHaze Yeah I think the F40 and Porsche 959 were considered the fastest cars at barely 200/201 mph so this was definitely fast. Even the McLaren F1 only hit 240 mph in 1991 and the Bugatti EB110 was like 220?
I remember when this car was new and Reeves Callaway mentioned the most important part on this car (or any other) is the tire because everything on the car depends on the tires working properly. That advice has never failed me and kept me from cheaping out on tires even on ordinary cars.
I agree that you should not save on tires, as long as it's about new vs. retreaded. Otherwise speaking of tires, the maker of Polly Trans Am, igored that, and went 250mph/400kph, on tires that were not allowed do so. And his problems were not the tires but fine tunining of the engine.
Learned that the hard way. I have a slightly modified 2004 mustang mach1 making 400hp to the wheels and tried cheaping out on the rear tires since good ones ran about 500$. Ended up getting 2 for 210 thinking I got a great deal until my right rear tire blew out and almost ended up in a ditch. Learned my lesson and paid extra for good tires. Just thankful I didn't total my car.
Brandon Wright, (not sure how old you are) but this was ran 5 yrs before GOOGLE was even Born. 5 yrs before the FAMOUS McLaren F1 ran 23 mph SLOWER... 18 yrs before the Veyron ran 11 mph SLOWER. 22 yrs before the 1,200hp ( 302hp more powerful) Veyron Super-sport finally beat it.
Charles, Well MOST cars that Claim being the FASTEST (Koenigseggs) aren't built enough quantity to QUALIFY EITHER. Others like Bugatti Plan out lie about their performance.
Like Ever car from the 80's the interior isn't that great. C5's were MUCH more aero dynamic and better built and are dirt cheap. Lingefelter that drove and built this engine ran 225 mph with only 650hp in a C5 corvette.
Have a C4 and can tell you it's a super nice car beautiful to drive and all it's all around a perfect car as long as you aren't to tall I'm 186 so around 6.1 or 6.2 and it's getting a Lil tight but beside that it's just the perfect car to cruise around and it don't matter if there standing Ferraris or Lambos around you people will look at the C4 at least at mine and that here in Germany
Holy SHITTTT its October 21st 2019 and that is still outlandishly powerful... torquey.... fast... quick...and downright impressive... that car will always be relevant speed wise.
I read about this car in magazine in 1988, they had it against a CTR, 959, AMG hammer and a Testarossa. Headline was "when 170 mph is slow". That Ferrari was plastered on the front cover and ended up being the slowest by far. Even back then tuners were miles ahead and the Callaway couldn't be touched. 890 bhp, unbelievable.
This car started my supercar and dream. Sure it took me over 20 years but finally I have a car that I can turn into the sledgehammer. I'm working on a 1990 ZR1 and when I'm done I want the stats of that sledgehammer that is my goal always wanted to have one and this is the best way. I will update once I start my project right now I just got the car and she needs a lot of work.
Ummm I was born in 74 but still know about the porsche 356, Jaguar E Type, Mercedes 300sl gullwing, Lambo Miura...shall I go on about cars way before I was born? Age shouldn't matter. You are a car guy or not.
Huh, never knew that was a one off car. All these years i would have guessed there was something like 50-100 of them or something. Lol you learn something new every day.
Callaway was a true magician. 900 horses out of 5.7 liters of displacement back in 1987, for a 1988 run. I think the stock Vette was complete trash for that era, but whatever components he used were absolutely astounding.
1988 .......5.7L w/ 22 psi - 898hp/ 772 lb-ft of torque. 2005....8L W-16 W/ 16 psi - 987hp/ 911 lb-ft. For $1,250,000 at the time. And was 10 mph slower.
its all about safety now days... notice that the sledge has no airbags. Cars now-a-days have so many safety features and they all add a lot of weight. Power to weight ratio is key.
@oahgfojsdljknsdlfw Yeah speed record cars often have hundreds of pounds of lead or even tungsten added to them to improve stability or fine tune CG in relation to COP.
Wow! I remember when this car was new :) And holy crap, the carbon when it started up, almost looked like a diesel lol Pat Goss, this car needs you ASAP! Just a hunch, but it might be running just a little rich lol Great to see it still running though!
I think this segment was the very first time I ever seen a Callaway. Good memories! Also, I think the Sledgehammer is the most TVR an American car has ever been.
0:53 "making power that was both streetable and reliable" and that's exactly where the bugatti etc. bows out, because that is the major differentiator between the euro hypercars and the American contenders.
A lot of European supercars are streetishable and reliable though? And how does that bow out the Bugatti or most other eurocars to a corvette with a big motor in it?
@@lambertbutlersilvers6588 It gets very few miles per gallon, changing the oil on the W16 borderline costs your soul and the souls of your spouse and kids, and the car itself is twice the weight and less aerodynamic than the C4.
22lbs of boost / 800hp, with production car reliability, in the 1980s! Those were incomprehensible numbers. A typical production turbo car had maybe 6-8 psi at the time, while a contemporary IMSA GTP turbo race car had about the same amount of power. But this was a useable, street legal engine based on a regular small block Chevy. It was like magic or something, almost impossible to believe.
Seeing the small details showing it is infact an L98 Block is funny to see , cause I have a C4 with an L98 and its just not a very fast car. Really fun to drive and super reliable but not a powerhorse by any means.
Fortunately not. This exact car was recently for sale on 'Bring A Trailer', but was a no sale. Think the bidding was in the high 900 thousand dollar range. (Previously it was sold as a collection of six different Callaway Corvettes I believe)?
I'm sorry but there's no way on this earth it cost goodyear a million dollars to make that set of tires. That's another one of those legendary tales that you hear about some of the more famous cars, but no way it's true
It was 1988... Goodyear had race tires capable.....but making 1 off tires "with tread"that could handle that speed probably took $100k to make/design... $1 million in 1988 was ALOT. You have to remember, 18 YEARS LATER.... Bugatti said it cost $30k for a set of tires (which Koenigsegg runs the same speed with regular tires) Bugatti charged $120k to replace the rims after 4 tire changes...GTFOH.
This C4 Corvette is a giant middle finger to every performance car ever made it would have even been more so hadn't gone into production because it would have taken decades to build something as fast.
Now all calloway needs to do is make a new mid engine that does 300 miles per hour twin turbo or supercharged, like magenson get them to make a bolt on supercharger that will fit straight up to the existing engine manifold, just do the internals and exhaust and cooling ,tyres are not a problem now days, still very expensive but think of it bugatti will not hold the record fastest car in the world the sledgehammer back then so think of 320 miles per hour in the new C8 supercharged and turbo beast. :) Even a 2019 C7 Callaway only has 757 HP, it would need at least 1,000 hp and the right stuff to make it stick to the ground and push the body and running gear to the limit to break the world record for over 310 miles per hour. :)
John Lingenfelter was the man who built the engine, not Callaway. The way it is always explained is that Callaway built it…Callaway Cars DID build it but Reeves asked John to build the engine.
