Welcome to the Hooniverse News! As always, this is a weekly recap of some of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or bull. I just throw in a little opinion of mine because I can. This week:

• McLaren previews the madness that is the P1 GTR

• Vaughn Gittin Jr. is ready to rock with his 2015 RTR Mustang

• C7 Corvette Z06 is performance that now has a price

• Mullin restores a Bugatti that isn’t a Veyron

McLaren P1 GTR

Several hours after the last Hooniverse News went live, McLaren revealed the one car I wanted to cover the most from last week’s Pebble Beach festivities. The car in question is the McLaren P1 GTR, a working design concept which takes the already insane P1 road car and turns it up to eleven one thousand. This is to the P1 what the legendary F1 GTR was to the also legendary F1, and it’s just as significant of a car. Or at least it’s going to be once they start building it next year. Designed, built, and to be maintained by McLaren Special Operations (MSO), the P1 GTR design concept you see here is a preview of what will soon be seen terrorizing racetracks around the world. Don’t be thrown off by the “design concept” in its title – this will be nearly identical to the final product. When it finally does launch, the P1 GTR Driver Programme will kick off as well. This program is an ultra-exclusive ownership experience which comes with the car and gives participants access to specialized driver training, “human performance”, and access to a super fancy P1 GTR simulator to prepare participants for getting the most out of their cars. The cars are maintained by MSO as is the entire program. Sounds like Ferrari’s FXX program. No word on how much that all costs yet, but if you really have to ask… As far as the actual car goes, the P1 GTR is a carwhich happily ignores all the requirements for legal road use. MSO has taken a car designed to be impossibly fast on the road and effectively cut its leash just to see what it can do on the track. Any unnecessary weight has been stripped from the car in true racing fashion. Even the electric motor which accompanies the gas V8 has gone on a diet. The way it looks is enough to convey its “I don’t give a damn about the NHTSA” attitude. Featuring “shrink-wrapped” bodywork around the carbon monocoque chassis, a larger front splitter, air blades, a snorkel air intake, and a larger twin-element wing. The height of that wing is fixed but it’s fitted with a hydraulic Drag-Reduction System (DRS) and works with active aerodynamic flaps located just ahead of the front wheels. But what’s extra down force worth if you’re not going any faster, right? Don’t worry, MSO took care of that too. The P1’s 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 has been retuned – again, without traffic laws in mind – to offer up a bit more power than the standard 903 horsepower (total system horsepower). That engine, when combined with the electric motor, gives the P1 GTR 986 horsepower to play with. Yep, it’s a racecar. If that wasn’t enough to prove it, note that it also features an on-board air jacking system. So it’s totally a racecar. To sum up the P1 GTR, it’s a lighter, more aerodynamic, and more powerful racing version of a car that’s already light, aerodynamic, and powerful. Because racecar. [Source: McLaren]

2015 Mustang RTR teased

The all-new 2015 Ford Mustang isn’t even in production yet but the modifications are already well underway. Pro-drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. is already preparing his own modified version of the new Mustang. His RTR line of Mustangs (RTR = “Ready to Rock”) is already well established in the Mustang community since he started offering track-focused performance and appearance packages in 2010, which is why he took to the AmericanMuscle Car Show last Saturday to reveal his newest creation… in drawings at least. The 2015 RTR Mustang will build off of all the new dynamic improvements the 2015 Mustang has to offer with two Spec packages each with different levels of performance. The RTR will be available with either the new 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder (300 horsepower stock) or the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 (435 horsepower stock), but no word yet on what kind of power boost, if any, is available. Two of the known performance enhancements are a new set of dampers and sway bars, both of which are adjustable. To go along with the added performance is some added style in the form of a signature chin spoiler, hood stripes, rear diffuser, rear decklid panel, spoiler, and signature RTR wheels. Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s 2015 RTR Mustang will be ready to rock next January when the order books are opened at select Ford dealers and individual RTR parts hit AmericanMuscle’s catalog. [Source: AmericanMuscle]

2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 pricing

Interested in buying a new 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06? I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t want to own the most powerful Corvette ever produced, unless of course $78,995 is a bit out of someone’s price range. That’s the entry fee for the monster that is the new Z06, but for that you do get quite a bit. The C7 Z06 comes with a new supercharged 6.2-liter V8 producing 650 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque. A seven-speed manual is standard but an eight-speed automatic is available for the first time. Magnetic Ride Control dampers, Performance Traction Management, Launch Control, and an electronic limited-slip differential are all standard as well and work to make this Z06, like others before it, a great performance car for the money. Additional extras include two performance packs. The two optional aero kits are the Carbon Fiber Ground Effects ($2,995), which adds extra and bigger carbon fiber bits, and the Z07 Performance Package ($7,995), which adds even larger carbon fiber bits that produce more downforce than any other car in GM history in addition to Brembo carbon ceramic matrix brakes and Michelin Pilot Super Cup tires. Buyers that opt for navigation will also get the Performance Data Recorder included. That base price of $78,995 gets you the traditional hardtop variant of the Z06, but for those that want to feel the wind rush through what’s left of their hair at 180 mph, Chevrolet is offering a Z06 convertible for the first time at $83,995. [Source: Chevrolet]

1931 Bugatti Type 50 S restored by Mullin

We’re fans of the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, CA, an institution devoted to preserving and displaying fine automobiles from the machine age (1918-1941). I’ve featured a few of their cars before and the one they’ve told us about this week is a 1931 Bugatti Type 50 S which was just restored to running condition. What they call an extremely rare example, it’s not only one of a few surviving and driving examples, but it’s also the only one with Million-Guiet coachwork, which featured innovative aluminum construction and clean aesthetics for the time. Underneath the expensive coachwork is some powerful hardware. A supercharged inline-eight engine with dual-overhead cams, hemispherical combustion chambers, and 90-degree inclined valves made the Type 50 S so quick that it was raced from 1931-1935. The restored Type 50 S you see here has the matching body, chassis, and drivetrain that it had the day it rolled out of the factory. A “sensitive” restoration was performed over six months in an effort to preserve as much as possible, which they did. Careful attention was paid to the interior which required one-off galuchat upholstery and several hundred man hours. This stunningly original Bugatti made its first public appearance at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance but will be on display at the Mullin Automotive Museum now through December 31, 2014 as part of the “Art of  Bugatti” exhibition. [Source: Mullin Automotive Museum]