It may be a bit of stretch to call a McLaren F1 “priceless”, but finding an owner willing to part with his can be a challenge for even the most determined (and cash-rich) collector. But just such an opportunity is coming around the corner at Bonhams’ upcoming auction at the Quail Lodge in August. While every McLaren F1 is a rare bird indeed, this one is even more so.
Even more extreme than the road-going supercar on which it was based, the McLaren F1 GTR emerged as a dominant force in endurance racing in the late 1990s. The F1 GTR proved so successful, in fact, that despite being categorized in the GT classes of production-based racers, it eclipsed the purpose-built prototypes to claim overall victory at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans.
All told, McLaren only built 28 examples of the F1 GTR – of which only ten were the aerodynamically-optimized Longtail versions – and this was the very last of them. Built in 1997, chassis 028R contested the FIA GT Championship at the Nurburgring, the A1-Ring, Donington, Spa, Mugello, Sebring, Laguna Seca and Suzuka.
Decked out in Gulf and Davidoff race livery, it’ll go to the top bidder at The Quail, but we dare not venture a guess as to how much he or she will have to pay for the privilege – but the last time this car went up for sale, the asking price was nearly $4 million. Feel free to read more about the car in the press release .
“Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht,” goes the old Yiddish proverb. Man plans, God laughs. And that certainly applies to motor racing, where engineers, mechanics, strategists… entire teams spend day and night over the course of months preparing to campaign their new race car, only for it all to go horrible wrong at the last minute. And that’s what the folks at Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany, are apparently facing now.
After having their Formula One program shut down a couple of years ago by corporate headquarters, Toyota Motorsport has been hunting for a new project ever since. That new project turned out to be the TS030 Hybrid, an advanced Le Mans prototype which they’ve been gearing up to campaign in the new FIA World Endurance Championship and its headline event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only those plans were set back some – if not ground to a halt – last Wednesday when the only working example of the TS030 crashed while undergoing testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France.
In the statement , Toyota doesn’t specify exactly what happened or who was driving at the time, but you can be sure he’s feeling pretty morose right now, because the chassis was damaged so extensively that the team won’t be able to repair it in time for the Six Hours of Spa where the car was supposed to make its race debut on May 5. Toyota does, however, expect to be up and running again in time for Le Mans in June, although whether that will leave the team with enough time to build the two cars it was expecting to field there or have to revert to a single entrant remains to be seen.
If wants to test out a new vehicle at speed – and you can usually bet that at any given time Porsche will be testing a new vehicle at speed – it’s got miles and miles of Autobahn at which to do it. Not enough? There’s the Nürburgring and all of its myriad turns and changes in surface. It’s also got at its disposal. But considering the quantity (and, for fans of the company’s products, quality) of Porsche’s vehicles, even that’s not enough. So what’s a sportscar manufacturer to do? Get a track in Italy, of course. And that’s just what Porsche has done.
Announced just today, Porsche has acquired the Nardo Technical Centre from Prototipo SpA, the Italian firm owned by Gian Mario Rossignolo (who has been hard at work reviving the De Tomaso marque). Now if the name Nardo rings a bell, that’s because it’s known for its 7.8-mile banked oval capable of handling high-speed runs in excess of 200 mph. But it also has a 3.8-mile handling circuit where a variety of automakers and tuners like to test out their prototypes.
And starting next month, they’ll need to rent space from Porsche (whose 918 Spyder prototype is pictured above undergoing testing at Nardo) to do so, assuming Porsche is willing to rent out the space. Something tells us that sister brands under the umbrella like and won’t have too much trouble getting some track time, though. Sroll down for the official announcement.
Many countries have produced supercars with price tags that dip into the six figures, but that rare breed of exotic that fetches upwards of a quarter million is all but completely exclusive to Europe: , and Pagani out of Italy, from France, McLaren and higher-end models of Britain, top-of-the-line offerings from Germany, Koenigsegg of Sweden and so on. That’s what makes the so exceptional. It extends beyond the Acura NSX and the that previously defined the top end of Japanese supercars and joins its European rivals at the very top of the market. But that, we’re reading, is only the beginning.
According to a shadowy anonymous source cornered by AutoGuide, Toyota is already working on a successor to the LFA, and their mole says the car will be even more exotic, more powerful and more expensive. Just what that entails when the LFA is already limited to 500 examples, packs a 552-horsepower 4.8-liter V10 and costs $375,000 has us conjuring up images of an animé take on the . AG suggests the car could nudge the million-dollar mark with production limited to just 100 examples.
Could it be a ? It’s probably too early to tell. In fact, we’re going to go ahead and take this entire rumor with a few shakers-worth of salt and advise you to consider doing the same.
When an automaker comes out with a two-door sportscar, you know what will come next: a roadster version. But while we haven’t heard anything from , its division or its partner in crime on the prospect of a GT 86// convertible, a California coachbuilder has stepped up to the plate with a concept version of its own.
The Scion FR-S Speedster concept you see here was worked up by Cartel Customs, a company with a history of chopping the roofs off of Scions. But while the lack of roof and chopped-down windscreen are what set it apart, Cartel hasn’t stopped there. The aftermarket outfit also installed a giant 61-inch rear wing and upgraded the suspension, brakes, rolling stock, exhaust and clutch, and gave the open cockpit a hot rod-style retrofit, too.
Although this appears to be a one-off chop-job, the fact that it’s set to kick off the festivities at the Toyota-sponsored Long Beach Grand Prix CART race this weekend has us raising an eyebrow like Cartel Customs has raised the roof on this beauty you can check out in greater detail in the high-res image gallery.
Hot on the bumpers of the , the oddball officially shows its ever-so-slightly redesigned face to the world. As we’ve discussed previously, it looks a whole lot like last year’s model, but distinguishing tweaks outside include the dashes of LEDs underneath the headlights and new side mirrors.
The momentous advances have come inside and under the hood. The along with a 544-hp, twin-turbo V8 G63, both of them sitting above a naturally aspirated 5.5-liter V8 in the carryover G550 (the G500 in Europe) and a diesel V6 in the Bluetec G350. Don’t get your hopes up for that G65, though – Mercedes-Benz has confirmed to Autoblog that the V12 monster will not be coming to the United States.
Inside, the dash and console get a thorough resculpture, with bezeled dials in the cluster and discrete control pods replacing the flat planes in the previous model. Additional comfort and luxury options can be checked if one wishes for radar-based cruise control, Blind Spot Assist and Parktronic. The ESP programming has even been reworked to play nicely with trailers.
The 2013 G-Class will be available at European dealerships in June with U.S. sales to follow in August. Prices for our market haven’t been released just yet, but we do know that the European version will start at €85,311 for the G350, which we also won’t get (along with the cabriolet models). The current G550 starts at $107,000, so you should plan on adding a few grand to that to get in the 2013-model-year’s big, square door.
to read all about the new G-wagen models and have a gander at the new celebrity hotness in the high-res gallery above.
According to at least one unnamed source, is as good as done. Reuters reports that has taken a good hard look at Ducati’s books and found “no major stumbling blocks.”
Another source says Ducati’s largest shareholder, , has agreed to discuss the cyclemaker’s sale to no one but Audi.
Volkswagen’s annual shareholder meeting is April 19 and an announcement concerning Audi’s purchase of Ducati could come before then. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has reported that Audi’s bargaining exclusivity rights will expire April 15, at which point Investindustrial will then be free to shop around for a Ducati buyer.
As an American living in Italy, there are often entire month-long stretches where I drive nothing but European cars that will sadly never come out to play on American soil. Such is the case for the abundantly adored Audi A6 Allroad Quattro seen here. I was initially of the assumption that since the had already been confirmed for the U.S. that the A6 Allroad would be coming as well, but I am dismayed to report otherwise.
Such a pity, too. The business case for giving North America the whole range of Audi models that Germany offers apparently just doesn’t pan out financially – and for some of us, it’s the old predictable story of unrequited love across the chilly Atlantic.
Team Ingolstadt brought me into their home in Neckarsulm just north of hilly Stuttgart for this drive through the area’s precisely cultivated fields of hops. The aroma of beer is everywhere here, which may go some way toward explaining just why the new A6 Allroad felt so good under and around me as we freight-trained along the Swabian two-lanes.
A few years ago, we brought you on the speculative values of Pagani supercars. Whether as investments or frivolous purchases, those with the means, it seemed, were paying well above list price to get their hands on one of the rarest supercars on (or off) the market. But that was just as the world was on the brink of financial collapse. Surely with the global economy still in the drink years later, nobody’s paying those kinds of figures for something as extravagant as an exotic supercar… right?
Wrong. In fact, it seems, the value for Pagani models has only gone up. According to Evo magazine editor-in-chief (and Zonda owner) Harry Metcalfe, buyers with the means are paying as much as double the already grandiose list price to get their hands on a Zonda or Huayra. Apparently the white Huayra that Pagani displayed at the never reached the Middle Eastern buyer who ordered it a year prior and was supposed to take delivery after the show, having flipped it to another buyer who was willing to pay him an astounding 1.8 million euros for the car. That’s $2.35 million in American greenbacks, or twice the 900,000 euro ($1.18m) list price.
Think that was an isolated incident? Hardly. A Zonda F Roadster (said to be the last ever made), a 2008 Zonda F coupe and a used Zonda C12S were all, according to Metcalfe’s sources, recently sold for double their MSRPs. So if you’ve been scrimping and saving every dime to get your hands on a Pagani, better keep saving.
According to a report from Car and Driver, documents submitted to the California Air Resources Board and to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration both point to a new arrival in the line: a turbocharged hatch called the 500T Sport. The NHTSA document was a key for decoding a car’s VIN, the “500T Sport” moniker appearing in the Series classification. The CARB paperwork approved California’s certification of a boosted 1.4-liter engine for an unnamed product, along with the the Dodge Dart and , which use the same engine.
There is currently a 59-horsepower spread between the 500 and the 500 Abarth, as well as a $6,500 difference in MSRP, which is a chasm offering plenty of space to mine a middle model.
C/D figures the 500T Sport will put out something around 130 hp and debut sometime over the next year, and a fan site, Fiat500USA, has found the car we’ll get.
Because new wheels ain’t cheap, and spray paint isn’t permanent enough, Foliatec offers vinyl .
For only about $65 (plus shipping from Germany) a can, any kustom kar owner can get all fast-and-furious on their wheels, mirrors, bumpers, vinyl tops, dashboards, ex-girlfriends, etc. – pretty much anything metallic or plastic.
Foliatec says the “rubber-like coat” is fairly durable and protects whatever it covers. And when you tire of looking like a Vin-Diesel-wannabe, the street-racer “green silky matt” easily peels off to instantly return $500 to the resale value of your pocket rocket. Or choose one of the other two spray vinyl colors available: anthracite metallic and black matt. Either should last you well into your mid-20s.
As unlikely a rivalry as it might seem, Peugeot has set its sights on . The French automaker may not be going after Audi at Le Mans anymore these days, but its RCZ sports coupe is still eagerly pursuing the with the same vigor it has shown since launching two years ago. To take the fight home to Audi’s home territory, Peugeot has launched a special-edition RCZ available exclusively in Germany.
Called the Brownstone edition, the special RCZ gets a metallic brown paint job with silver racing stripe, black trim and 19-inch burnished alloys. Inside, the Brownstone is also all brown, with Cohiba leather and Alcantara trim. The special edition also bundles the Sport, Comfort and Xenon packages together into one, and is powered by a 1.6-liter 156-horsepower turbo four. Only 150 examples will be made available for German buyers for €32,650 – equivalent to about $42k at today’s exchange rates.
It’s not much of a stretch to imagine plonking down the six figures it would take to drive home in a , assuming your pocketbook were so well endowed. After all, when it comes to boulevard cruisers, it doesn’t get much more luxurious. That’s what most might do, but Roland Hall is not most people. Instead of simply dropping by the local Rolls dealer and ordering his DHC, he commissioned Pininfarina to build him something more unique.
The result was the the Hyperion – a one-off convertible penned by no less regarded a talent than Jason Castriota. The car was rumored to be up for sale off and on, but has now popped up at a showroom in Abu Dhabi where it is for sale at an undisclosed price. Previous reports put its MSRP at around $6 million, and if anyone has that kind of scrap to blow on the ultimate status symbol, they probably live nearby.
The is due for a major update, having last been redesigned for the 2006 model year. Yes, it’s gotten some tweaks since that time, but the compact crossover market is an ever-evolving place filled with tough competition from around the globe, and needs the RAV4 to maintain its hard-fought market share.
According to our spy photographers, the RAV4’s next redesign is right around the corner. Judging from these photos, it would appear that Toyota is keeping its little ‘ute to the confines of pavement – a wise decision, as vehicles of this ilk never venture very far off the beaten path. That said, the sharply angular lines of this new model’s head and taillamps bring its styling more in line with the latest Camry and Avalon sedans while still putting its occupants over the heads of shorter machinery.
Rumors suggest that the 2013 RAV4 will enter production in the fall of ‘12, powered by a range of four-cylinder engines and possibly a hybrid. We’d be a bit surprised if the automaker’s 3.5-liter V6 weren’t available, as well. See the spy shots for yourself in our high-res image gallery above.
By the early 1950s, Alfa Romeo had grown tired of dominating (and spending huge sums of money on) grand prix racing, and shut down its program. Along with it, a program to develop a small-displacement two-liter V8 was aborted. But Alfa couldn’t keep away from racing altogether for very long, and by the early 60s the factory noticed that its customers were competing in endurance sportscar races and set about fielding its own works effort.
Development of the high-revving 2.0-liter V8 picked up again, finding its way into a variety of prototypes and GTs, but this was arguably the most alluring. Shortly after its debut in 1967, the T33/2 scored an impressive 1-2-3 class finish (and 5-6-7 overall) in the 24 Hours of Daytona, giving the car its nickname. And while Alfa and its racing partner Autodelta kept notoriously sketchy historical records on their racing cars, chassis 75033.029 is believed to be one of the most successful.
The extensive history of the vehicle you see here – regarded as one of the most desirable of racing Alfas of an era that stretches from the 1960s through the 70s – includes victory at the 500 km of Imola in 1968, punctuating a series of races campaigned by the works Alfa/Autodelta team and various privateers that followed. You can read more about the Tipo 33/2 Daytona in the text after the jump ahead of its consignment to the RM Auctions event in Monaco next month, or you could let the pictures in the high-res image gallery speak for themselves.
Back in February, announced a to its entry-level model – the – for European markets, and subsequently it to the public at the . Of course, we knew it would only be a matter of time until the updated Vantage would find its way Stateside, and that time has now come.
Many of the updates are borrowed from the slightly up-market Vantage S, including some mild cosmetic changes and the optional seven-speed Sportshift II sequential transmission replacing the clunkier six-speed version that preceded it. The suspension and brakes have also been upgraded on the new model, but the 4.7-liter V8 and its 420 horsepower carry over unchanged.
So how much will a new V8 Vantage set you back with all these updates? $118,370 for the coupe, or $132,870 for the Roadster – which actually represents a slight discount over the previous coupe model and a negligible increase on the convertible. Like what you see? You’re invited to dive into the full press release and specifications , along with the high-resolution images in the gallery above.
Buyers in China have been snapping up models for 20 years now, and the Italian automaker is marking the anniversary with the introduction of a special-edition . Dipped in a new Marco Polo red and swaddled in a “dragon-horse” livery with gold imagery and black stripes, the vehicle is supposed to pay homage to Chinese culture. Buyers will also enjoy unique gold wheels and a cabin fitted with gold embroidery to match. A start button with 20 stars and a unique dash plaque are also part of the package. So far, there’s no word on how much the machine will cost.
The company plans to build just 20 examples, the first of which will be unveiled at the debut of the first “permanent” brand exhibition outside of Maranello. Ferrari will set claim to nearly 3,000 square feet at the Shanghai World Expo Park, where the exhibition will remain for three years. Examples from the Maranello Museum will be arrayed in order of topic, from green technology to product, design and racing as well as Ferrari in China. for the full press release.
These days, most models are about as likely to get your pulse up as the latest hardware from Frigidaire. But it wasn’t always so. There was a time when Toyota counted itself among the world’s sports car manufacturers with vehicles like the Supra, Celica All Trac and MR-2. Those two-doors helped forge generations of enthusiasts before the company shuttered its go-fast ambitions, a door that is only now starting to open again thanks to the new GT 86/ codeveloped with . Now, according to Automotive News, the company has unveiled a new development and manufacturing framework designed to aid in producing more exciting vehicles. According to CEO Akio Toyoda, the revamped system will allow the company to design multiple models at the same time to reduce costs.
It will also cut the number of executives tied to the design review process to streamline decisionmaking. The company says that with too many people involved, vehicles have been built by “eliminating negatives” instead of focusing on their strengths. Added cooperation between the automaker’s planning and design units may foster more innovative styling, including models with lower centers of gravity and better aerodynamics. Think .
The Toyota New Global Architecture will first be applied to front-wheel drive models.
The is the new face of the brand, and as it turns out, that spindle-grilled mug can take a serious punch. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has named the GS a Top Safety Pick after the reshaped Lexus sedan held strong in front, side and rollover crash testing.
To earn a Top Safety Pick designation, a car, truck or utility vehicle must achieve a top score of “Good” in front, side and rear impact crash tests. The IIHS test features taller cement crash barriers to simulate a collision with a larger vehicle and the front impact test is conducted at a speed of 40 miles per hour. The vehicle must also feature stability control and a roof that maintains integrity even at a weight equal to or greater than four times that of the vehicle. The IIHS reports that the GS could withstand 4.88 times its 3,715 pound weight.
The GS joins the and the as the third Lexus model to net a Top Safety Pick.
Do you miss the opportunity to buy a Volkswagen Scirocco? You’re not alone. Of all the Group products offered overseas but not in these United States, the Scirocco tops our list. (Though we understand there are plenty out there pining for a Transporter van.) Discontinued in its previous iteration in 1988, the Scirocco made its triumphant return to the market in 2008, but with the global financial crisis setting in around the sometime, Volkswagen wasn’t up to spreading itself thin enough to bring it here.
That could change with the next-generation model, however. According to Automotive News, Volkswagen is working on a next-generation Scirocco, and this one could very well make it Stateside. This according to Volkswagen of America CEO Jonathan Browning, who admitted as much while speaking with journalists at the this past week. While it’s unclear if he’s referring to a facelifted version of the current model (expected to launch next year) or an all-new model, the prospect of finding a Scirocco – any Scirocco – in U.S. showrooms is tantalizing.
While he was at it, Browning reportedly also suggested the – which was shown in “concept” form in New York – could be sold here in diesel form, which strikes us as tantalizing (if expensive). Further, Browning reiterated that the company is looking into a mid-size crossover to slot in between the and the , something we’ve heard before and fully expect to happen.
