It’s never a bad idea to watch video of a Ferrari taking an aggressive stroll down a winding Italian road, and the creative types at were kind enough to produce exactly that. To sweeten the pot, the video features the reworked , with 490 horsepower and a significant weight savings of 70 pounds.
The enhanced 4.3-liter V8 also makes its audio debut in the post-jump video, and our ears can’t get enough of the sweet Italian music. You also get to see just how quickly and efficiently the California’s retractable hardtop stows in its boot. to watch and hear the 2013 Ferrari California in Maranello.
Automakers aren’t the only ones who produce concept cars. So do design studios, contract manufacturers, racing teams and even component suppliers. Case in point: Alessi Fiberglass. Back in 1979, the company displayed a supercar concept called the AR-1 at the . The idea, it would seem, was to show off what they could do with fiberglass. Nobody ever expected they’d build it. And they didn’t. At least, not until now.
33 years later, Alessi has resurrected the AR-1, modernized it, and brought it to market. In place of the original show car’s Buick V6 is a mid-mounted, supercharged a 6.2-liter V8 making up to 600 horsepower. Not enough? Alessi also offers a twin-turbo version with 750 horsepower on tap.
The AR-1’s steel frame is covered with, of course, fiberglass bodywork. Pricing has not been revealed, and Alessi says it will build no more than 50 examples. In addition to the attached photo gallery, you can take a closer look in the video clip .
It’s been seven months since I crammed into a supercharged with the crew and fought tooth and nail for a in the Grand Touring class of the 2011 Targa Newfoundland. That amount of time has done nothing to dull my desire to head right back into the fray as soon as possible. While I was there, the FM team spent a good deal of time hanging out with our friends over at , and the crew just finished putting the final touches on its race documentary.
The first episode shows off the sweet SRT-tweaked the MotoMan guys got to play with. With plenty of suspension adjustments, a full cage and a bare-bones interior, the big white beast was as far from the NC Miata we campaigned as you could get. Watch the clip for an introduction to a few of the other competitors, including SRT CEO Ralph Gilles, as well as an interview with driver Brandon Fitch and myself. Keep an eye out for more episodes, too.
If you found yourself in a situation where lives were in danger, would you step up and be the hero?
Junior high students in Milton, Washington were confronted with just such a scenario, and 13-year-old Jeremy Wuitschick manned up in a big way.
When his bus driver went into convulsions, he shot out of his seat, grabbed the wheel, pulled the bus over and had the presence of mind to pull the keys from the ignition. Wuitschick may have averted catastrophe with his actions. to see the hero in action.
There’s nothing unusual about vehicles in first-person shooters – Rage has its Jetter and Cuprino, Battlefield 3 has two entire classes of wheeled vehicles – but there’s usually still a person involved. But what about when your vehicle is your shooter? Then you have the PS3 game , which is essentially Death Race 2 without the felons and bad acting.
There are three classes in the arcade-style game: Scout, Heavy and Assassin. Your job is to pilot one of them in “death matches, free-for-alls, and capture-the-flag frenzies.” The goal seems simple: “battle to crush opponents, slaying everything in your path of relentless devastation, both online and off.”
And don’t forget high scores. There are a couple of gameplay and instructional vids .
Vietnamese traffic lieutenant Nguyen Manh Phan pulled over a bus driver in Hanoi for driving on the wrong side of the road. Instead of cooperating, the driver refused to show his papers and decided instead to flee the scene.
The officer, though, wasn’t keen on seeing driver Phung Hong Phuong get away so easily, so he positioned himself in front of the bus. When the bus began moving, the officer grabbed hold of the windshield wipers and hung on for dear life.
The bus driver did eventually pull over about a kilometer down the road after more officers and civilians pursued, but not before the incident was caught on tape.
Now, having personally visited the country in the last year, believe me when I tell you that traffic laws almost completely go unenforced and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road in Vietnam. In other words, this person must really have been driving dangerously to be singled out. What’s more, he had been released from prison in 2010 for his part in a fatal traffic accident.
The video, along with a news report on the incident, can be seen by .
Vietnamese traffic lieutenant Nguyen Manh Phan pulled over a bus driver in Hanoi for driving on the wrong side of the road. Instead of cooperating, the driver refused to show his papers and decided instead to flee the scene.
The officer, though, wasn’t keen on seeing driver Phung Hong Phuong get away so easily, so he positioned himself in front of the bus. When the bus began moving, the officer grabbed hold of the windshield wipers and hung on for dear life.
The bus driver did eventually pull over about a kilometer down the road after more officers and civilians pursued, but not before the incident was caught on tape.
Now, having personally visited the country in the last year, believe me when I tell you that traffic laws almost completely go unenforced and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road in Vietnam. In other words, this person must really have been driving dangerously to be singled out. What’s more, he had been released from prison in 2010 for his part in a fatal traffic accident.
The video, along with a news report on the incident, can be seen by .
So there’s good news and bad. First with the good: Subaru’s configurator has gone . As we’ve already reported, the base model including destination. Now with the bad: We hope you have fun with the configurator, Scooby fans, because that may be all you’ll have for quite some time. According to FT-86Club, demand for the has been so high that Japanese market deliveries have been delayed until January 2013.
While the report says it’s “unclear” whether this will affect the U.S.-market BRZ or its twin, with demand reportedly four times higher than parent Fuji Heavy Industries forecast, it’s a good bet that neither brand’s dealers will have a surfeit of cars.
Yes, many jokes can be made at the expense of , the UK-based manufacturer of odd-looking vacuums and fans, and its employees. But those hard-working engineers clearly know a thing or two about recombining common parts to find innovative solutions to every day problems.
As hard as they work, they also apparently play hard. Dyson recently held a car challenge for its engineers where the object was to make the fastest car possible using Dyson spare parts and motors from their handheld vacuums. It’s like drag racing for geeks and, true to Dyson form, some of the entrants don’t look like anything resembling a car. to watch Dyson’s engineers cut loose and compete for the quickest times.
The is a whole lotta car. Not only is the name a mouthful, but the 510-horsepower German rocket can be a handful too, well, in the wrong hands. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen techs or valets getting their kicks behind the wheel of a vehicle that doesn’t belong to them, but it seems some employees at one Ottawa-area dealer didn’t get the memo.
Our tipster claims that a couple rogue techs at a dealership called (formerly Carling Motors) decided to take out one of the 30 existing Black Series in Canada for a joyride. While we agree that some test drives of performance cars should be spirited to find performance-related problems, it’s pretty clear these guys just wanted some kicks behind the wheel of $115,000 Autobahn assassin.
For over eight minutes they negotiate the streets of Ottawa near the Hunt Club Road dealership, breaking all kinds of laws, risking property and injury in the process. The police would gladly impound this Black Series for some of these speeds, and MB enthusiasts would gladly slap these guys in the face for redlining the motor for so long.
Why any tech would post this on YouTube is beyond us, as they’re are only asking to be fired. The Internet has moved in for some e-justice and has been set ablaze with nasty comments on the matter. Not only did they identify the location of the dealership, they have also sent the video, the original of which was removed from YouTube but then re-uploaded by a forum member, to Mercedes-Benz Canada HQ and are hard at work trying to find the possible owner to show him what’s been done to his car pre-delivery. Check out the video by .
techs taking C63 AMG Coupe Black Series for joyride caught on video
There’s no doubting the driving talents of one Sebastian Vettel. He won his first grand prix when he was still with backmarker team Scuderia Toro Rosso, and went on to win back-to-back World Championship titles for Red Bull Racing. Heck, he’s even taken the Nations Cup at the Race of Champions with Michael Schumacher for the last five years running now. You might even call his skills the stuff of super heroes. But if it came down a bar fight, the grinning whiz kid wouldn’t exactly inspire fear. (Not like , anyway.) But his latest collaboration might stand to change that.
While in China for this coming weekend’s grand prix, the reigning World Champion met up with action star Celina Jade for a little kung fu lesson. They even shot a short film called Kung Fu Vettel: Drive of the Dragon that’s set to be released next month. And then they headed to the track so Vettel could return the favor.
The crossover is the first in a series of promotional events under the “Inspired Performers” banner, orchestrated by sponsor . What any of this has to do with luxury automobiles is beyond us, but it made for a decent photo and video op, as you can see from the gallery above and the video teaser .
Occasionally, we get the impression Jeremy Clarkson is simply screwing with the rest of the world. Either that, or he has no bodily control over over the way his lips, tongue and vocal chords move.
In the past, the “Top Gear” presenter has been notoriously belligerent toward any form of transportation that doesn’t involve the burning of hydrocarbons, bicycles included. After famously railing that bikes and cars have entered into an undeclared war in London, Clarkson has come out in support of Copenhagen’s bicycle culture, calling it “fan-bleeding-tastic.” If that’s not strange enough, he claims he would live in the city in a heartbeat.
Confused? According to Clarkson, the difference is that, while bikes are forced to co-exist with cars in London, Copenhagen cyclists simply have to contend with one another. As a result, there’s no weird high-visibility clothing required and significantly less hostility toward your fellow man.
Makes sense to us, though we have a hard time envisioning Clarkson on a bike. The last time the personality took to something with less than four wheels, .
Everyone has their ultimate vehicle wish list, and ours is littered with a smattering of models both obscure and asinine. One of the more mainstream sweethearts is the original Lotus Elan. Collin Chapman’s wonderchild remains an impressive performer even today, thanks to its feathery curb weight and the impressive performance on hand. As you may recall, EVO Magazine pitted editorial director Harry Metcalfe’s 1972 Elan Sprint against vehicles like the Toyota MR-2 and back in the early 2000s. Metcalfe still has his tiny yellow convertible and was kind enough to bring a camera along for the roadster’s first run of the spring season.
Weighing in at around 1,500 pounds and packing a surprising 126 horsepower, Metcalfe says the car is still good for sprints to 60 mph in a tick past six seconds. Unburdened by pesky life-saving hardware like crumple zones, steel reinforcements, airbags or any electronic nannies, the plucky little fiberglass creation is also a pretty smart handler even though the model is now officially 50 years old. to check out the video for yourself.
Citroën has finally given the world a closer look at the company’s next DS design study. The French automaker is set to introduce the DS line to China this year, and the Numero 9 design study is set to mark the occasion. Citroën will officially unveil the concept at this month’s Beijing Auto Show, and the manufacturer says the low-slung hatchback’s design hints toward future products, namely a premium c-segment sedan, an SUV (read: crossover) and a larger D-segment four door. All we know is, it looks damn good.
The Numero 9 shooting brake is powered by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that offers a 31-mile electric range and 295 horsepower. Not too shabby. for an artsy video of the concept as well as the full press release. Of course, you can also sink your teeth into the dizzying slew of photos in the gallery above.
In the automotive realm, there’s nothing quite like the , which, in convertible form, is known as the Grand Sport. With more than a thousand horsepower from its sixteen-cylinder engine and a top speed of well over 200 miles per hour, the Veyron Grand Sport is the fastest and most powerful open-top production road car in the world.
Well… it was the fastest, most powerful open-top production car in the world, until went and created the . This is the topless version of the Veyron that’s been fitted with the 1,200-horsepower engine from the automaker’s Super Sport model. That means it can hit the ludicrous speed of 255 miles per hour – critically beating the regular Veyron by two mph – with nothing over your head but the open sky.
Bugatti has seen fit to honor its Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse with a new video, and we invite you to watch it by . We’ve also embedded three more new videos from Bugatti for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
One might suppose that since Pagani came out with the Huayra, the Zonda would go the way of the dodo. But as the Modenese automaker has said all along, if someone wants to buy a Zonda, it’ll gladly make one for them. And so it has with the very latest one-off supercar.
Called the 760 RS, it’s the most powerful Zonda that Pagani has ever built. With 760 horsepower squeezed out of the AMG-built V12 engine underneath that bespoke carbon fiber rear hood, it’s got 90 more horsepower than the Zonda Cinque and 20 more than the track-bound, hardcore Zonda R. As such, it’s said to be good for a 217-mile-per-hour top end.
The Zonda 760 RS reportedly started out as the Zonda 750, ordered and then canceled by an undisclosed Arabian customer. Pagani turned it into the 760 RS and found a new buyer (said to be in either China or Chile), and while pictures and details have been scarce, this video footage has surfaced giving us a glimpse at the custom supercar. to check it out for yourself.
Rally driving is so reliably mesmerizing that we never lack for viewers when we post rallying footage, especially when raw engine noises accompany the raw talent. Yet we rarely come across videos that take a deeper look at who races, the private lives of privateers and the urge to ‘run what you brung’ through quiet forests with few spectators and less money. Motorsports filmmaker wants to change that.
Johnston has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Easier Said than Done, a full-length feature on what might be the dirtiest side of rallying – finding the money and staying in the game. He isn’t trying to fund the whole project itself, he says it’s going to happen anyway. What he wants is more capital to hire equipment and crew.
for the trailer and check out for a breakdown of the project.
No, that is not the world’s most awesome Michigan Wolverines beer pong table. It’s a million-dollar race car that’s powered by the sun, and in the most recent epsiode of Translogic, our sister site visits the University of Michigan Solar Car Team to learn all about it.
The Wolverines have been racing in international solar car competitions since 1989, having built 11 cars in the past 23 years. They’ve won the North American Solar Challenge six times, including the last three in a row, and will be defending their title this July. The team finished third in the last year in Australia, and is currently working on a new car design for the 2013 event.
The car itself, dubbed Quantum, is a poem to minimalism, light weight and efficiency. It can run at over 100 miles per hour, thanks to its ultra-efficient, 12-horsepower, in-hub electric motor and a low curb weight of just 320 pounds.
to watch the full episode and see the U of M team in action.
If you’ve ever tried installing an infant car seat in say, a , you understand that just because a car has LATCH anchors doesn’t mean your car seat is going to fit. Those anchors are supposed to make child restraint installation a breeze, but according to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, many automakers aren’t following the spirit of the law requiring them.
The study looked at the 98 top-selling vehicles from 2010-2011 and found just 21 that met its criteria for having “easy-to-use” LATCH hardware. Making the list were the ; ; , , and ; ; , and ; and ; ; ; ; ; and ; and ; and .
The researchers used a test fixture that adhered to guidelines developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers to develop three criteria for evaluation. The first was having anchors that were easy to see and not buried beneath rear seat cushions. The second was having the LATCH attachment points unobstructed by seatbelts, foam or other parts of the seat. The third was that adults could correctly install the seats using less than 40 pounds of force.
While the study found that the majority of models didn’t nail all three criteria, the list of vehicles that didn’t meet any of them was much shorter: ; ; ; and ; ; and .
to see a video about LATCH and read the full release from IIHS.
On the surface, drag racing seems so simple. Apply right foot liberally, keep the vehicle pointed down track and wait for a quarter mile to pass. Unfortunately, the real world is rarely so black and white. Pesky details like applied horsepower, traction and the fallibility of materials results in all manner of challenges. Just ask the driver of the in the video . Shortly after launch, the high-horsepower machine sheds its left axle. With a massive racing slick under full thrust, the resulting carnage is, well, impressive.
The video is a pleasant rarity in the drag racing universe. Not only are we afforded a look at the ensuing drama from inside the cockpit, but a solid look at just how quickly a situation can turn hairy from outside as well. for yourself.
