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Filed under: Convertibles , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Ferrari , First Drive Click above for hi-res gallery of the Ferrari California The best Ferrari is the next Ferrari. Whether you consider that to be a statement of fact or an opinion largely depends on how you define the term. It's an opinion like a Supreme Court justice's ruling is called an "opinion". Or better yet, like billions worldwide would view the Bible as God's "opinion". Coming from the mouth of the legendary Enzo Ferrari himself - famously expressed in response to a journalist's query - for the congregations of the faithful around the world, it's the gospel truth. The Commendatore's statement was - as it remains to this day - backed up by a spirit of progress, by the constant pursuit of technical perfection that continues to drive his company into the 21st century and which makes each new Ferrari better than the last. Follow Enzo's declaration to its natural end and you'll...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Euro , Special/Limited Editions Click above for high-res shots of the Fuoss 01 Europeans track junkies have one more option vying for their hard-earned cash. Using the same philosophy as vehicles from Lotus, Caterham and KTM, the Fuoss 01 relies on its light weight for acceptable performance. But with only a 40-hp, 400cc Suzuki motorcycle engine motivating the 660-pound one-seater, V-Max is a very limited 90 mph. Regardless, the Fuoss should be an entertaining track tool, particularly with its five-speed sequential transmission cribbed from Suzuki keeping the motor on boil. The driver sits as low as possible and with no heavy roof overhead, mass is centralized down low. Only ten examples are planned for its first year of production in 2009, so if you want one of the €29,000 machines, you'd better act fast. Gallery: Fuoss 01 track car [Source: World Car Fans ] Fuoss 01 track car coming in 2009 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:31:00...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Lamborghini Click above for a gallery of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo racer Ferrari does it. Porsche does it. And now, Lamborghini is going to do it, too. "It" is a single-make race series, and Lambo's will showcase a competition-spec Gallardo LP560-4 dubbed the Super Trofeo. Each race will feature 30 of the cars, piloted by deep-pocketed private owners, dealer teams, and a single, Lambo-sponsored "celebrity driver" who'll change from race-to-race. The Super Trofeo racer weighs in at 1300 kg/1866 lb and is spec'd out with all the requisite safety equipment; race-specific chassis adjustments, ABS brakes and wheels; Pirelli slicks; new instrumentation; and aero tweaks. The powered-up 5.2L direct-injected V10 sends 570 horses to all four wheels via the automaker's e.gear six-speed sequential gearbox. If you have the itch, head to your Lamborghini dealer with €200,000 -- that's the buy-in...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Nissan Click above to view hi-res gallery of the Nissan GT-R Academy With a 7:29 lap time, Nissan contends its GT-R is the King of the 'Ring. What better place, then, to introduce the new supercar to its European owners than the track infamously known as the Green Hell? In conjunction with the Silverstone International racing school, Nissan is taking some 1,300 European GT-R customers to the Nurburgring over the course of 19 days to take ownership of their vehicles with some performance driving tutelage. The program at the 'Ring follows a similar one held for 500 British customers at Silverstone, the former host of the British Grand Prix. According to Nissan and Silverstone International, about half of the participants had taken some sort of advanced driving course before, but the overwhelming majority of them said the GT-R Academy was the best they'd experienced. We're still waiting for Nissan NA to offer something...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars UK-based CAR magazine teased over the weekend that super secret photos of a mystery car would be published on its website today, and that car has turned out to be the McLaren P11 . While P11 is just a code name, the actual car and its real name are still around 18 months away. CAR's photos show a styling buck of the new McLaren, which is said to be a volume supercar to compete with the likes of the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari F430. Recent job listings for McLaren suggest that its body will be made of lightweight composites and the engine will likely be sourced from the company's most visible partner, Mercedes-Benz. Expect a version of Merc's 6.2L V8, possibly turbocharged, to produce upwards of 500 bhp behind the P11's seats. Ex-Fiat designer design chief Frank Stephenson is leading the styling charge for the P11, or will be any day now, and as you can see, it mixes a little Ferrari with some Lotus and throws in a dash of McLaren...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Etc. , Euro , Supercars , Nissan , Porsche Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Nissan GT-R The GT-R/911 schoolyard scuffuffle continues, with Nissan looking at Porsche's test and basically saying "yer doin it wrong" to the German automaker. Chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno has graciously offered remedial driving classes to the driver for Porsche's lapping session where a GT-R was reportedly 25 seconds off Nissan's torrid time of 7 minutes, 29 seconds. Porsche had concluded that special tires must have been quietly fitted in a quest for 'Ring primacy. Porsche has yet to say anything other than "Ve don't sink zee car can do it in schtock form." Not so , says Nissan. While a claim to the fastest production car on the Nürburgring might help prospective customers froth up some money, and owners are unlikely to try verifying the claim, Nissan is not interested in wasting time on one-offs, according to Mizuno. "For...
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Filed under: Time Warp , Sports/GTs , Euro , Porsche , Renault , Special/Limited Editions Click above for high-res gallery of the Alpine A310 We see rear-engine, 6-cylinder sports cars from Europe every day. They always have a Porsche badge on them and usually "911" in their name. Whether in Carrera , S , Targa , 4, 4S , GT3 , Turbo , GT3 RS or GT2 trim, they are great cars but so common that they barely stand out anymore. The occasional 356 is always a pleasant surprise, but especially in Southern California, those too are almost every-day sights. So when we saw this particular rear-engined European sports car, we were quite thrilled. It's a 1980 Alpine A310! And not just any A310, this one had a full on Fleishmann Group IV body kit plus a massive rear spoiler that must make this puppy stick like glue as it approaches its 130+ mph top speed. While several thousand A310s were built between 1971 and 1984, none were officially imported into the States. Seeing one "in the...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Convertibles , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Ferrari What recession? Ferrari just confirmed that the Ferrari California is officially sold out through 2010. The 179,000 Euro supercoupe/cab is scheduled to be produced in batches of about 2,000 per year and has been a runaway success for the Maranello manufacturer. Company President Luca di Montezemolo was recently quoted as saying, "In 2008 there was the success of the Scuderia. 2009 will be characterized by the California. It has been an incredible success. We have already sold all of the 2008 and 2009 production. You have to now wait until 2011 for one." Rather than act as a replacement for anything in the current lineup, the California was intended to be an eight-cylinder car that would compliment the F430 and be a vehicle with a lot of flexibility according to Ferrari. While some say it isn't the most beautiful Ferrari they've ever seen, the performance should be pretty spectacular...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Alfa Romeo , Special/Limited Editions Click above for a high-res gallery of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione And with these words, the Alfisti shall rejoice: Alfa Romeo is finally back in the United States. While a full scale return by the Italian maker won't happen until 2009 or 2010, you can officially buy the Alfa 8C Competizione starting this month through one of the designated Maserati dealers tabbed to carry this rolling piece of automotive hotness. Check that, you can arrange delivery. Seems all of the 8Cs earmarked for the U.S. are already spoken for. So at least in theory, Alfa has returned. The 8C Spider open air version won't show up until 2010, but we really like the coupe enough not to be too distressed about the wait. When the full operation ramps up, we are expecting that someone strolling into an Alfa Romeo dealership will be able to purchase not only the 8C Competizione and 8C Spider, but hopefully the hotter...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Euro , Lotus Click above for high-res gallery of 2009 Lotus Exige Cup 260 Lotus released its Exige Cup 260 for the 2008 model year to terrorize much larger and pricier cars on race tracks 'round the world. For 2009, the British automaker has spiced things up by 'adding lightness' in the marque's grand tradition. Weight drops by over 80 pounds this year to just under a ton thanks to copious use of carbon fiber. Coupled with a 257-horsepower 1.8-liter Toyota-sourced mill force fed through an intercooler by an Eaton M62 supercharger, the '09 Exige Cup 260 should hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. Electronic goodies such as launch control combined with variable traction control, plus 40 kilograms of downforce at 100 mph, do their best to keep the car planted on the track. Race-ready bits like forged wheels wearing Yokohama A048 LTS tires, Eibach springs over one-way adjustable Bilstein dampers and cross-drilled and ventilated discs...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Chevrolet , UK Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 The car that Top Gear liked to drive , if not exactly to look at, has a price they definitely won't want to pay. At an on-the-road price of £109,000, the ZR1 costs nearly £48,000 pounds more than a Z06 in the UK. As if that weren't problematic enough, that price puts the left-hand-drive-only ZR1 £8,000 past the 911 Turbo and a colossal £55,000 beyond the GT-R Premium Edition . True, that's still the base GT-R, but Nissan has a whole lot of room to play with when it prices the V-Spec. True as well, the price of the ZR1 also includes a driver training course and a 3-year / 60,000-mile warranty, which should count for something. Perhaps not £55,000, though. Luckily for Chevrolet UK, it will only have to sell two of them this year, and single digits in the years to come. You can read the full press release after...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Etc. , Euro , Marketing/Advertising , Maserati Head to Maserati's website and you're greeted with a tantalizingly coy poll, asking users to guess what event will take place on October 2nd, the first day of the Paris Motor Show . The overwhelming popular opinion is that a new car will be debuted, possibly the smaller Maser that's supposed to take aim at Porsche. A test mule was spied a while back, though that car didn't have the folding hardtop the new mini-Maserati, based on a hacked-down GranTurismo, is whispered to be carrying. We'll all just have to wait, each day feeling longer than the next. What else could it be, other than a car? The idea of generating such buzz over a new website, logo, or advertising campaign (all three are choices) is ludicrous, but the rest, including a new production facility could seem plausible. Even more intriguing, it could be all of the above. We want a smaller Maserati, and we're going to hold our breath...
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Filed under: Tuners , Convertibles , Sports/GTs , Euro , Mercedes-Benz Click above for a hi-res gallery of the new Lorinser SL kit With the arrival of the new Mercedes-Benz SL, it's time for all the usual suspects to update their body and tuning packages accordingly. Observers familiar with Lorinser's stuff know what to expect here, and in typical fashion, there's enough mesh grillework to allow for every conceivable cooling need, real or imagined. A large vertical vent replaces the "gills" that are standard on the current SL's front fender. There's also an opening in the side skirts ahead of the rear wheel, and a wide grille spanning the area between the exhausts, too. The whole affair sits on a lowered suspension, and big Lorinser alloys fill up the wheel wells. Power upgrades aren't ready yet, so for the time being, the kit's an all-show, same-go proposition. Image-conscious buyers will want to keep their original tri-star grille emblem handy, as...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Chevrolet , UK Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 Let's not beat around any shrubbery with this: Top Gear magazine has reviewed the Corvette ZR1 , and the quotes you need to know are, "The dynamics are better than an Aston DBS...," and "...[M]ake no mistake. What we have here is one of the truly great supercars." Of course, there are caveats: it looks like a Corvette, the interior doesn't match those of its supercar rivals and the steering could use more feel. The latter quip is why you get other critiques like "...you don't get the precision of a 599." To have a UK magazine critique a Corvette against a 599 is probably the opposite of the insult it might appear to be on the surface. But don't take our word for it, follow the link and read for yourself how the ZR1 has "the performance and the chassis to match an SLR 722." It's not a bad way to start the...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Etc. , Euro , Videos , Supercars , Chevrolet Click above to watch video after the jump We recently brought you video of the Corvette ZR1 being manhandled around General Motors' Milford Proving Grounds by our own Sam Abuelsamid. House rules that day made the car a 4-on-the-floor, since invitees weren't allowed to explore any gear beyond fourth. Car junkies over in Europe, however, recently got a chance to ride in the first pre-production ZR1 on The Continent while it was shaken down and then flogged on the Autobahn before heading to Nardo. If you believe the speedometer, the yellow scorcher runs to 315 kph (195.73 mph) before it ran out of clear highway, not out of speed. Looks like we'll have to change the phrase from "blue" to "Fast as yellow blazes..." Follow the jump to check out the full video. Thanks for the tip, Thomas! Gallery: First Drive: 2009 Corvette ZR1 [Source: Autoblog Netherlands (no relation)] Continue reading...
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