The TranStar Dagger GT seemed unbelievable when it was first unveiled, packing 2,000 hp, a 6-speed manual, and a 1.5-second 0-60mph time.
In general, car reviewers throw around the word “crazy” quite often and without much thought about describing certain cars. But then, every once in a while, comes a supercar that genuinely fits the definition and makes all other cars look boring and sane in comparison.
The TranStar Racing Dagger GT is that supercar. Wanting to be the benchmark in all parameters, breaking every single record, and making bold claims about its goals, the Dagger GT is truly a bonkers supercar.
About the Company
TranStar Racing LLC is an American company founded by Neil Craig Miller, with headquarters in Pompano Beach, Florida. Neil was an extremely qualified and experienced professional. He worked in various other fields, such as vehicle design, safety engineering, and regulatory approvals.
His engineering background, combined with a strong interest in entrepreneurship, proved very useful in all his endeavors. Before TranStar Racing, Mr. Miller even provided his services to various government agencies, such as the United States Department of Transportation.
Highly-Skilled Engineering
Mr. Miller founded TranStar Racing with just one main goal – to produce the most extreme, fastest, and in general, the best hypercar on the face of the Earth. Specifically, he wanted to build a car that would dethrone the Bugatti Veyron as the fastest car in the world.
For that purpose, he assembled a team with an extremely impressive background. The crew consisted of very talented minds from a wide range of fields. These included an ex-NASA aerodynamics expert, a designer who worked on the Le Mans-winning Saleen S7, and many more award-winning engineering experts.
As a result of such a talented team’s efforts, TranStar Racing launched its first supercar, the Dagger GT, in July 2010. The incredible supercar had extraordinary design features and a monster under the hood.
The Dagger GT would’ve been the fastest street-legal drag racer ever. According to the manufacturer, it could reach the quarter-mile in just 6.7 seconds while crossing the finish line going over 200 mph.
However, TranStar Racing didn’t design the hypercar, only to be fast in a straight line. Notably, it developed the Dagger GT to be the fastest car at some of the most famous race tracks worldwide.
The American marque planned to offer three different variants of the Dagger GT; a hard-core performance model, a mildly sporty street-legal variant, and an ultra-luxurious GT-X variant. Specific variants of the Dagger GT would also come with a removable hard-top roof.
Fluid and Elegant Body
Another goal of TranStar Racing was to make the best-looking supercar in the world. To that end, Ivan Luccion designed Dagger GT’s body. TranStar Racing bought the designer’s work in 2010 and used it in its first-ever supercar. Then, the company converted the sketches into 3D computer renderings and published them.
The supercar features a lengthy and elegant body with beautiful lines while still looking properly American. Moreover, the car has pronounced fenders that swept into the hood giving it a sleek look. Behind the scissor-style exotic doors is a massive air intake that cools the fire-breathing mid-engine.
Besides, the engineers designed the Dagger GT to cut through the air as swiftly as possible. The resulting drag coefficient was only 0.30, an outstanding figure for a supercar.
TranStar Racing also announced it would make all body panels from carbon fiber to keep the weight down. Other elements around the car, like the windows, are from polycarbonate material, while heat-resistant carbon fiber is used for the engine compartment.
Upon operating the vertical-opening doors, you would be greeted with a rather simplistic interior design with a sufficient amount of features. The Dagger GT has a biometric security system that includes a separate setting for valet parking, limiting the vehicle speed and other vital parameters. Furthermore, as is a standard practice among all boutique carmakers, customers could choose from virtually endless interior materials and finish options.
“Dagger-ingly” Powerful Engine
Under the hood is where the Dagger GT comes on its own. Being unapologetically American, the supercar should’ve featured a heavily-modified version of Chevrolet’s 572 big-block engine. However, Nelson Race Engines (NRE) modified the V8, the same team that worked on the SSC Tuatara engine. TranStar Racing and NRE’s collaboration resulted in a twin-turbocharged race engine producing up to 2,000 hp and 2,000 lb-ft of torque. Yes, you read that right.
This engine is a multi-fuel unit, meaning it runs not only on regular gasoline but also on methanol, hydrogen, ethanol, etc. However, you would get the most out of it on 118 octane racing gas.
Stick-Shift Inside
Transferring all that monstrous power to the wheels was not going to be easy for TranStar Racing. To that end, they teamed up with Mendeola Transaxles, a top transmission maker in the US at the time.
Mendeola custom-built a 6-speed manual gearbox from the ground up exclusively for TranStar. The transmission had to be specifically designed for the Dagger GT, as no existing unit could handle the sheer force of 2,000 lb-ft of torque. Mendeola transaxles also built a drive axle for the supercar.
Even Tesla Can’t Compete
Thanks to the staggeringly powerful engine, the TranStar Racing Dagger GT could sprint from 0-60 mph in a tarmac-shattering 1.5 seconds. With a 6-speed manual transmission! Oh, and that is faster than a modern Formula One car.
Furthermore, TranStar claimed a top speed of more than 300 mph. For context, around the same time we saw the Dagger GT (2010), the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport set the land speed record after going 267.81 mph.
The Dagger GT should’ve also been great around corners. TranStar even claimed it would break all previous records at famous racetracks like the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the Virginia International Raceway.
If you thought 2,000 hp is a bit of a handful for road use, wait till you hear this: TranStar Racing was also in the advanced stages of testing a 3,000 hp engine.
TranStar Racing did not release details about the brakes or suspension, though. However, we assume the Dagger GT would need some serious stopping power to keep the 2,000 hp in check. Even the suspension system would need to be immensely capable and hi-tech for record-breaking performances.
Ultimately, thanks to Dagger GT’s carbon-fiber chassis, the weight would’ve been below 2,000 pounds. As a result, the hypercar would’ve had by far the best power-to-weight ratio in the world.
What happened with the Dagger GT?
We are not exactly sure what happened to TranStar Racing or the Dagger GT. However, we know the company planned to produce five units in 2011, followed by an additional 10 for the 2012 model year.
Several news outlets and media also reported that three of the five production slots for the first production year (2011) had been sold not long after the car’s debut. The lowest price one could get a Dagger GT for is $450,000 before options—and that was for the GT-S or “Sport” model.
There were also reports that TranStar Racing LLC was trying to fund this project by crowdfunding. If unofficial sources are to be believed, the racing company was looking for $250,000 of funding in the first phase. The brand offered attractive returns on investments but still failed to reach its goals.
Reportedly, TranStar did not receive enough funding to build prototype versions required for testing. So the company going bankrupt due to lack of funding could also be why the ambitious Dagger GT project never materialized.
There are also reports that Neil Craig Miller, the mastermind behind this project, sadly passed away. That probably explains why the Dagger GT never saw the light of day.
Last Words
After the Dagger GT’s unveiling, many people called the idea unreasonable or something from a world of fantasy—and rightly so. The manufacturer’s claims were quite bold, to say the least.
For the sake of comparison, it took Bugatti years of hard work to make the Veyron reach such impressive speeds in the real world. Still, it’s quite unfortunate that we will never really get to see TranStar Racing even try to achieve any of its goals.
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