Denmark may not rank among the countries – like Italy, Germany or England – you’d list as the foremost producer of exotic supercars, but Zenvo is out to change that with the ST1. The Danish sportscar is coming to America courtesy of , and not unlike the new Beetle with its (albeit at the other end of the spectrum), the ST1 is getting its own special edition exclusively for the North American market.
Only three examples of the ST1 50S – one each in red, white and blue – will be produced, each with a price tag of (wait for it) $1.8 million. That’s a whopping $575k more than the existing ST1, so what do you get for all that extra cash? Well, aside from exclusivity, the twin-charged, in-house 7.0-liter V8 has been tuned up to a whopping 1250 horsepower and 1106 lb-ft of torque – 146 and 52 more, respectively, than the “standard” car – coupled to the seven-speed paddle-shifter that’s offered as optional on the standard car over the six-speed manual.
A dedication plaque and monogrammed seats are also part of the package, and it comes with a special watch from Aspen, itself worth $49k. Deduct that from the purchase price and you’re still paying $526k more for this special edition of an already seven-figure supercar. Follow the jump for the press release and check out the blue example (which is really just a recolored picture of the silver car above), along with the Aspen watch, in the included image gallery.
Polestar Volvo C30 WTCC at Zolder – Click above for high-res image
Last year, ’s factory-backed Polestar Racing team clinched the title in the Swedish Touring Car Championship. Based on that success, the Swedish outfit to bump up its efforts to challenge for the World Touring Car Championship, all the while fighting to defend its national title back home where the Swedish series has merged with the Danish one to form the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.
This week saw the debuts of both the World and Scandinavian series, the former kicking off at Belgium’s Zolder circuit and the latter at the Jyllands-Ringen in nearby Denmark. Volvo Polestar made a strong showing in both with its competition-spec .
At Zolder, Polestar/Volvo landed 13th place in the first race and 7th in the second, scoring its first points in front of 27,000 spectators and a television audience of 45 million. Meanwhile, in Denmark, the team finished on the podium in 2nd and 3rd in the first race but 8th and 13th for the second when the starting grid was reversed, putting the team second in the standings so far.
Polestar continues working on a new turbocharged engine that it figures will account for the difference between its position at Zolder and the leader’s. The WTCC heads to Monza in three weeks for the next round, as the STCC heads back to Sweden in one week. for the official press releases.
Leaked pages from the 2011 Dodge Challenger brochure – Click above for high-res image gallery
Specific outputs have been put to engines in the lineup, and the increases are substantial at the bottom and the top of the range: the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 will turn out 305 horsepower and 268 pound-feet, the 5.7-liter Hemi will crank 379 hp and 410 lb-ft., while the 6.4-liter Hemi tops the charts with 475 hp and 460 lb-ft.
That’s a 50-hp and 18 lb-ft. rise for the 3.6-liter V6 over the current 3.5-liter, which ought to make Dodge’s muscle car much more competitive with base models of the and . Moving up, there is a 50-hp bump in ponies alongside a 40-lb-ft. increase in torque for the top-shelf 6.4-liter that should help the SRT8 compete with . The man in the middle, the 5.7-liter, makes do with an increase of seven horsepower and ten pound-feet.
Much more intriguing than that is the tale that Ralph Gilles, ’s CEO, said that the SRT8 would do the 0-to-60 run in less than four seconds. The current Challenger has been tested by various outlets to run anywhere from 4.8 to 5.5 seconds. Dodge doesn’t officially list its own time, but the on the Challenger site displays a 4.90-second time.
If Gilles did actually say the 2011 would get it done in “the 3-second zone,” then there’s a year’s haul of Deadly Catch in Denmark because 50 additional horsepower won’t cut an entire second. A weighs about 60 pounds more than the Challenger SRT8 but has 81 more ponies that help it break the four-second barrier. The truth is in there somewhere – the question is, where is it, and how fast will it be? Thanks for the tip, challenger64hemi!
2010 Saab 9-5 – Click above for high-res image gallery
The hasn’t even lost its new-car smell yet and already tuners are coming out of the woodwork to churn out power upgrades for the car’s three available engines. If you happen to find yourself in Europe and holding the keys to a brand-spanking new , Hirsch is claiming that it can pull up to 335 horsepower from the Aero’s 2.8-liter turbo V6 engine. That’s around 35 more ponies than what shells out from the factory – not huge numbers, but still a useful increase.
According to enthusiast website , Hirsch can bump the output from the not-for-North-America 2.0-liter turbo-diesel from 160 horsepower to 190, and the 220 horsepower four-cylinder engine can be massaged to 260 ponies with a little effort. It isn’t immediately clear how much the Hirsch upgrades cost, or what goes into pulling the ponies from the existing engines. We’re guessing the program is little more than an ECU reflash, possibly with a less restrictive exhaust or air intake to boot, but we could be wrong. Either way, we wouldn’t be surprised to see similar efforts pop up in our neck of the woods soon.
Gallery:
Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Tesla Roadster 2.5 – Click above for high-res image gallery
In conjunction with the opening of its two newest stores in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Newport Beach, California, has unveiled the fourth major production iteration of its only current product, the . Dubbed the Roadster 2.5, in proper Southern California fashion, the revised electric sports car gets a nose job and fanny lift.
Up front, the latest Roadster gets a reshaped grille similar to the one found on the Model S that reflects Tesla’s design language going forward. At the back, a new rear bumper now incorporates a diffuser element, although it’s not known if it actually generates any downforce. Inside, the seats have again been reworked to improve comfort, and the finish of surfaces has been improved to better reflect the car’s price tag. A seven-inch touchscreen display with a backup camera is available as an option, and it should viewed as a welcome addition for Roadster drivers to protect that new rear end.
There don’t appear to be any powertrain changes to the 2.5 and no information about pricing has been revealed. Some of the upgrades will apparently be available to current owners that want to retrofit their cars, however. Want to learn more? Pour over our high-res gallery below and then head past the jump for the official press release.
2011 Ford Focus RS500 – Click above for high-res image gallery
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? We knew the new would move fast, but not quite this fast. Powered by a 2.5-liter five-cylinder that produces 345 horsepower and 339 pound-feet of torque, ’s hottest hatch one-ups even the already bonkers with its piddly 305 horsepower and 325 lb-ft. Considering that the RS is capable of a 0-62 mile per hour sprint of under six seconds and a top speed of 163 mph, the RS500 should clock in around 5.6 seconds.
What we didn’t expect was the fact that the RS500 would sell so quickly. With their matte black paint, 19-inch wheels and all that performance on tap, we certainly expected them to be a hot commodity, but if Autocar is to be believed, the whole run of 500 units has already sold out – some 12 hours after the reveal. Sales will be spread out over 20 European markets, with the UK getting 101 units, Germany getting 55 cars, France receiving 50 and Belgium scoring 50 units, with Denmark, the Czech Republic and Greece getting five units each, while Ireland receives three.
The best part of the story is the fact that all 500 units are already spoken for, even before prices have been announced. Ford is said to be sorting through the letters of intent from customers to figure out dealer allocations. And don’t forget, the order books don’t formally open until May. With the regular RS trading above sticker on the used car market, we’re guessing there will be more than a few flippers in the initial owner group.
