extreme sports car

an airfieldsomewhere in lower saxony... these days are made for breaking records. introducing the norwegian pal-arvid blytt'spontiac trans am. believe it or not, it's got 1388 hp under the hood. for grip,the most extreme sports car worldwide, and a frightening one at that.

that's the worst experiencei've had in a car. and it was the first timei've been scared in a car. i'd never been scared in a car before,and then i thought: actually,it's not something you really want. it's pretty bad. former royal air force stationahlhorn. where the pontiac trans ammeets its first competitor. his name is georg framme,a compound bow archer from papenburg. georg says:

"the only thing faster than my arrowis a bullet." the bow itself is made of cnc milled aluminum. it has carbon limbs, and it's also got these pulleys that basically enabletwice the acceleration. it can shoot an arrowat a speed of up to 300 feet a second. that's between 560 and 595 mph. 15 minutes until the duel.

the competitorsmeet for the first time. hello, i'm paul. i'm george.- you're the man with the arrow? with the arrow, yes. and you're the man with the monster? i think i can beat your arrow. i don't think so.i'm going to beat you. we'll see. the last preparations.

they put the optimal tireson the pontiac. so george knows when to shoot,a photo sensor with an acoustic soundwill be used. we're hoping for a dry track.then we'll beat him. the drier the track, the better. the runway at the airfield is almost exactly 1.6 miles long. on a stretch of trackjust .93 miles long, pal-arvid will accelerate the pontiacto 217 mph,

then duel with the arrowfor another 230 feet. that leaves just .62 milesto bring the pontiac to a halt. it'll be close. the winner can't be identifiedwith the naked eye. but the high speed footage proves: the pontiac crossed the finish linea split second earlier. it's the moment of truthfor pal and georg. neither candidate knows who wonthe arrow vs. car competition.

a tenth of a second difference. here's the car. and here comes the arrow. nice. you saw it. the car wins. not by much, but you won. as long as i came in first. thank you. it was an exciting fight.

pal-arvid blytt'spontiac trans am. the norwegian bought the carin the year 2000. since then the tunerhas been modifying his baby into one of the fastest carsin the world. the american car normally hasjust 222 hp under the hood. the car became famous as "k.i.t.t."with david hasselhoff at the wheel. this norwegian modelis definitely film-worthy as well. the heart of the trans am: a supercharged chevy engine

with an unbelievable8,9 liter cylinder capacity. technical specs are impressive: max speed is supposedly over 249 mph. the speed demon has 1388 hp. the tuning parts alonecost a quarter of a million euros. the high speed oval in papenburg. one of the few tracks worldwide where it's even possibleto drive max speeds over 249 mph. flashback to october 2008.

in papenburgpal-avid got his pontiac up to 252.981 mph, the third fastest speed in europe. that's the numberhe wants to beat today. matthias malmedie,is no stranger to high horsepower. but more than 249 mphis new territory for him too. honestly,just looking at the car... ... it doesn't look likeit could go over 249 mph. it's supposed to looklike a normal car.

i want to feel that thing.- then come on. test driveat the papenburg testing ground. just a reminder: this isn't somehigh tech supercar worth millions, like the bugatti or the koenigsegg. to put it bluntly, the trans amhas been tinkered together. that makes thisa real test of courage. why did i say yes? why did i say:

yes, i want to drive in this car. oh crap! this vehicle is a street-legalbat out of hell. holy shit! i couldn't really tell what gear that was, but i think in 4th gear,the wheels spun. did the wheels spin in 4th? yes.

did the wheels spin in 5th? 5th gear was okay. spinning wheels at a speed of 186. actually, the car should be treatedgently before the record attempt. driver change. matthias wantsto take the reins of the black beast. so. engine's running. then i'll start driving.

matthias warms up the wheels first. nothing could be simpler in this car. that's so intense. it's just way too intense. it's hell when you sittingin the passenger seat, but here... no matter what gear you're in, when you hit the gas andthe supercharger goes full tilt, it's just terrifying.

so, 4000 and thesupercharger is going full tilt. matthias aims for max speed. but after about 20 minutesthe ride ended abruptly. so, i had a blowouton the right rear tire going 155 mph. and that was one heck of a jolt. pal,what was the problem with the tires? the problem is: the tires can't handlethat kind of punishment. we did some hardcore burnouts.

looks like it was too much for them. pal kept sayingwe have to put the good tires on. but for some reasonwe kept going around the track. i'm going to be honest here: pal can feel free to go 249in that thing. i'm not getting back in there. that thing is hell on wheelsand he's the devil in person. 30 minutes until the record attempt. enter race track employeehendrik vieth.

i'll be taking the readings. we'll be usingthe vbox by racelogic, a very exact measuring device. it works via satelliteto measure the exact speed. it logs data at 100 hzor 100 cycles a second to the second decimal place,so it's very official. just 10 minutes to go. paul is extremely focused.he's examining the engine settings, as his girlfriend looks on.

if it was up to her,they'd return to norway right away. i believe him when he tells meit's not dangerous. and i believe in his capabilities. but there are factorsoutside his control, and that scares me. i have great respect for the car... and for the goal of going 249. when you're inside...he built it all himself. so it's homemade, pretty much.

and at first glance... cables are sticking out,there are bare patches of metal, the rollover cage is rusty, some sheets of metal have justbeen hammered back into place... it's not exactly reassuring. pal seems like a nice guy. he doesn't appearto be completely nuts. he's definitely nuts,but not completely. he's looks too nice for that.

time to head tothe high-speed track. it's 7:45 pm. they're behind scheduledue to the blowout. the record attempt has begun. he accelerates to 230around the steep curve. and goes full throttlein the straightaway. the tires areonly approved to 217 mph. the manufacturer urgently warnsagainst higher speeds. pal is now going over 249 mph.

hopefully they'll hold up. just to illustrate the speed: the distance markersare 50 meters apart. one, two, three, four, five,six, seven, eight, nine, ten. that was just 500 meters. i'd guess i was slower than 251, but faster than 249. the engine is running a bit too rich. the results.

the data was sentto hendrik's laptop via satellite. just as a reminder: pal-arvid's old recordwas just over 253 mph. the fastest lap was 251 mph. is it too dark now? yes, it's too dark. we have birds here that fly very lowwhen it's dark. and that's not good for you. you're right. we don't like birds.

i have a sense of speed. everything has to be perfectif you want to go 258 or even 262 on this track. this year pal is taking his trans amto a street race in the usa. he's bankingon an average of 217 mph. let's hope the tires hold up.