From 1987: Ultimate Top Speed Shootout Is a Gathering of Eagles
From the Archive: Gunning for 200 mph and beyond with the fastest street cars in America, among them an AMG Hammer, a Ferrari Testarossa, Callaway Corvettes, and more.
From the December 1987 issue of Car and Driver.
It was hard to believe it was actually happening. At ten o’clock on a summer’s eve, in a garage in the middle of nowhere, the cars began to arrive. One by one, the fastest street machines in America rolled out of the pitch-black Ohio night and through the double-high garage doors, as if drawn by the bright lights inside. The Eagles were gathering.
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If you re into Corvettes, you ve likely heard of Callaway Cars. The Connecticut-based tuner specializes in turning normal Corvettes into high-powered speed machines capable of trouncing more expensive, more exotic supercars with ease. Its most famous creation, the C4-based Sledgehammer, solidified Callaway as one of the all-time great Corvette tuners of the world, setting a record-breaking top speed of 254.76 mph in a 1988 test. Now, you can own it. Related Story
The Sledgehammer was just listed for sale on Bring a Trailer on behalf of its current owner, none other than Callaway founder Reeves Callaway. The car was ordered new by Callaway in 88 and immediately shipped to his headquarters in Old Lyme, Connecticut for the conversion. It got a new AeroBody designed by Paul Deutschman to reduce drag, and a hand-built 5.7-liter twin-turbo V-8 making 898 horsepower and 772 lb-ft of torque paired to a six-speed manual to ensure a high top speed.