Five laps of Laguna Seca isn't much, but it's enough to tell you a few things about the ME Four-Twelve. Yes, it works. But it's very much a work-in-progress. The transmission calibration is all wrong, especially on downshifts, which seem to take an eternity to complete. The suspension tuning needs work to fix the understeer into corners and the roll oversteer on the way out. And there's no way it has 850 horsepower.
Back in the pits, the Chrysler guys come clean and admit the mighty V-12's torque output has been dialed back from the 848 pound-feet achieved on the dyno to a mere 553 or so to make sure the one-of-a-kind Riccardo double-clutch transmission stays in one piece for our hot-lap session. And the understeer has been deliberately tuned into the chassis to keep a lid on corner speeds around the unforgiving 2.2-mile roller-coaster ride that is Laguna Seca. And at 3200 pounds, the car is probably still 200 to 300 pounds overweight. But Knott stands by the Enzo-busting numbers he says the car has reached during testing: "We have achieved our objectives," he says confidently. "We can walk the talk."
Chrysler has proven it probably could engineer and build a car to take on the European supercar superstars. So what? "We have a very clear and good definition of the technical specifications of the car," says Dieter Zetsche. "With that, we can do a calculation for [the cost of] building 10, 100, and 1000 cars and figure out the price points." If the numbers add up. If he can be convinced enough people are prepared to pay what's rumored to be somewhere between $250,000 and $750,000 for a 248-mph Chrysler, Zetsche says he will give the car the green light: "There's no doubt."
There are plenty of folks in Detroit who reckon building a costly Ferrari-beater doesn't make a lot of sense for a company that really needs more hot new mainstream cars to show the 300C is no fluke. But Zetsche says the ME Four-Twelve could prove an important point: "Even though Chrysler doesn't have much of a race history, it was an engineering-led brand," he says. "That's where we want to go back to, and there's no better way to prove the capability of our engineers than going to the edge. I'm convinced that, if we can make the car work, it'll be good for the brand."
So here's the bottom line: If you want to see a mainstream U.S. automaker roll out one of the fastest, most spectacular cars ever built in America, start sending those cards and letters and e-mails to Chrysler HQ in Auburn Hills. Dieter Zetsche's waiting to hear from you.