On September 18th, The product engineering team from Porsche have been testing the upcoming 918 Spyder on the “Nürburgring-Nordschleife”, Even though the Porsche 918 Spyder prototype is far from final form it turned in a remarkable best time of just 07:14 minutes for the 20.6 km long circuit.
Continue reading Porsche 918 Spyder – 7:14 Laptime Nürburgring
One of the rarest and most valuable Bentleys in the world, the 4¼-Litre ‘Embiricos’ special, is making an historic appearance at the marque’s home in Crewe. Fresh from taking part in the Louis Vuitton ‘Serenissima Run’ in Venice and featuring at the Le Mans Classic as part of the Bentley lineup, this magnificent car takes pride of place in the Lineage Showroom at the firm’s Pyms Lane factory until September.
Richard Charlesworth, Director of Royal and VIP Relations and Head of the Bentley Heritage Collection, commented:
“It is an honour for Bentley to exhibit this unique Bentley for the first time, thanks to the generosity of its esteemed owner. Its sleek form was extremely advanced for the time, and its DNA can still be seen in modern Bentley coupes today. We are looking forward to showing the Embiricos to our factory visitors, and to the public at the upcoming Windsor Castle Concours of Elegance.”
Continue reading FAMOUS BENTLEY 4¼-LITRE ‘EMBIRICOS’ SPECIAL MAKES STAR APPEARANCE AT CREWE FACTORY
Here are the latest spyshots from the Nordschleife industry pool at the Nurburgring in Germany.
Here is the 2013 Opel – Vauxhall junior still hiding under its camouflage.
We snapped the Adam on its first laps around the Nürburgring but as you all know it has been photographed in both other places in Germany as well as in Sweden during the winter. The Adam is based on a shorted version of the new platform that will also underpin the next generation Corsa and will be available at the dealers in spring 2013.
Production will begin at the Eisenach plant in Germany in late 2012, with sales beginning in 2013and will retail at around £9500.
Here are a set off pictures we don’t come across often it shows the current model Lamborghini Aventador testing in the extreme cold climates of Northern Sweden.
After our previous photographs of the Aventador Roadster we thought we had an opportunity in better light to snap the car.
As the car approached the intersection, at a speed that appeared faster than the posted speed limit, the driver lost control, skidded through the intersection and crashed into a large snow bank.
Then the red faced Italian test driver took offence from this rather legendary photo opportunity and approached in an aggressive manner apart from a comedy slippery advance.
The time he got to us he realised that this wasn’t the streets of Corleone and basically retreated back to the vehicle after a few mutterings.
By the time an Audi A6 allroad, equipped with a winch, came to pull the raging bull out of the snow, things had calmed down.
The driver scooped the snow out of the car, gave us a large smile and a big thumbs up, and got back to work! Not exactly the finger we were expecting to see.
Fortunately, the driver, and the car, came away from the mishap totally unharmed.
This is BMWs answer to the Mercedes CLS AMG and Audi flagship S7, the M6 Gran Coupe has been spotted in light camouflage during cold weather testing in Scandinavia. With its deep front spoiler and wider fenders it looks really aggressive and the M trademark quad exhaust pipes finish the back off beautifully.
Powered by the same high revving turbocharged V8 engine as the M5 and the just revealed M6 Coupe and Convertible, the M6 Gran Coupe has atleast 560 wild horses to play with. Rumors are even talking on a 20-40 hp power boost for the M6 Gran Coupe, making it 580-600 hp in total.
All this power will be sent to BMW M´s latest seven-speed Double Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic.
The F12 Berlinetta will be Ferrari’s most powerful and fastest ever road car. The power outputs are almost identical, as those reported by us last week at 740CV (approx 730bhp). Ferrari say the V12, which is the same one used in the four seater FF, but will rev to 8700rpm, and put out 80bhp more. Yet the F12 will return 18.9mpg, an increase of 10% over the 599. This is possible in part, thanks to the Start-Stop technology, as used in other current Ferraris.
The F12 will hit 62 in 3.1 seconds, 124 in 8.5 seconds, and lap Ferrari’s home circuit, Fiorano in 1min23seconds. Hugely impressive!
As with all new Ferraris, the F12 Berlinetta will not be available with a manual gear box. Ferrari are using their dual clutch, automatic gearbox.
As suspected the new F12 is actually a little smaller than the outgoing 599. According to our sources, customers complained that the 599 was a bit too difficult to park in their garages. The F12 Berlinetta will be 20mm narrower, 47mm shorter, 63mm lower than the 599. That’s 1942mm wide, 4618mm long and 1273mm high. This has lowered the cars overall centre of gravity.
The car is also now built from an all new 12 alloy aluminium spaceframe chassis and bodyshell, making in 70kg lighter than the 599, at 1525kg. Also, as reported by us last week. The F12 will also be 20% stiffer than its 599 predecessor.
Ferrari note that thanks to the XX programme, they, along with Pininfarina have designed the aerodynamics so that the F12 has 76% more downforce than the 599. The drag coefficient is down to 0.299.
Reduction in drag is reduced partly thanks to a newly designed “Air-Bridge” which channels from the bonnets side intakes though the wheel arches, then splits it though the car’s beautifully sculpted side vents. You can see these vents clearly in the pictures above. The car also has “Active Brake Cooling” which is a system that will open the brake vents when the Carbon Ceramic get hot enough. The system will then close them again when the brakes have cooled down, reducing the drag effect.
We can expect the interior to be a mix between the 458 and the FF. All driving major controls will be mounted on the steering wheel, as per Ferrari’s “Human Machine Interface” system.
Order books will open at the Geneva show, and prices will likely start at around £250,000. So get your cheque books ready and you could be driving the brand new Ferrari F12 Berlinetta by early 2013!
Here are the very first photos of the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster spied in northern Sweden under some very difficult lighting conditions.
This car has the same spec engine wise as the current Aventador, V12, 700 horsepower, 690 Nm, 2.9 seconds to 100 km/h and a top speed at 350 km/h.
On the photos we can clearly see the camouflage that is trying to hide the fact that the roof can be lifted off, and it looks like the roof could be made of carbon fiber instead of the soft top fabric found on the Murcielago Roadster.
Not much more specs can be discussed as this is very early days.
Back in 2011 when the Viper ACR gained the production car lap record with a time of 7:12.13, the track version the ACR-X was doing some hot laps.
At the time we was spending some time with the guys from the Viper Club of America and showing them around some of the many good photo spots on the Nordschleife, they hinted at the time the ACR-X achieved but thought id hold on until the video surfaced.
Well here it is the SRT ACR-X Managed to lap the ring in an impressive 7:03.05
The ACR-X is powered by a 8.4-liter V10, with revised headwork and free flowing exhaust it gains around 40hp more than the standard model.