The Smoking Tire heads out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, where VF Engineering has provided us with an entire fleet of supercharged sports cars. Matt Farah takes a 510hp blown Porsche 911 and a 620 hp blown wide-body M3 out on the track to see what 30% more power does to two already great cars.
Video after the jump.
Here at The Smoking Tire, we love art cars. Especially BMW art cars. We love art cars so much, we even made one ourselves. Nothing is quite as official as the real thing though, and last night in Paris, artist Jeff Koons unveiled the 17th BMW Art Car, joining the ranks of Warhol, Calder, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg to be among the elite artists selected for such a high honor. Some of the world’s greatest modern artists have decorated BMW’s, and all but one have raced in the 24 Hours of LeMans, some with great success. Koons’ M3 GT2 is no exception, and with ultra-lightweight paint and a 500 hp V8 underhood, it certainly looks as fast as it goes. M3 GT2 art car gallery after the jump.
[Source: BMWBlog]
This is a question I posed to myself the other day while reading a comparison test of a VW GTI, Mazda 3 and Kia Forte sedan. The Kia got 3rd place, but was heralded for being a huge improvement over the last one. The author said, “Kia has learned how to make a car turn. Uh oh.” They loved the Mazda 3, and of course blew their biggest kisses at the GTI (which it deserved). All 3 hold 5 people, handle pretty good, are well equipped, and any of them is a good (and cheap) buy.
The cars have handling and acceleration that could have kept up with far more expensive cars of the 80s and 90s, and more gadgets than a 2000 Mercedes. A perfect example is the new V6 Mustang. It makes more power than the old V8, gets good mileage, looks good and drives great. It’s 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds would murder a 1975 Ferrari 308′s 6.5 second sprint and it cost $141,000 (adjusted for inflation). In fact, the “sporty” Toyota Sienna I ranted about last month would be neck and neck with Tom Selleck’s favorite prancing horse. It’s simply automotive evolution.
First, respect where it’s due: Tuner G-Power did build the world’s fastest sedan when they twin-supercharged the BMW M5, producing 750 horsepower and a top speed of 228 mph.
Silly fast M5′s notwithstanding, this G-Power tuned X5, called the “Typhoon,” features a supercharged 4.8L V8 producing 625 horsepower. It does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds and tops out at 186 mph. Off-road, snow, even rain capability? Not so much. And the price for the maddest X5 you can buy? $415,000. That’s not a typo. You could buy a Ferrari 430 Scuderia AND a Porsche Cayenne Turbo for that kind of money. Even worse? For all that wide-body aero madness, the Typhoon is still just a tick faster than the Cayenne Turbo at a quarter of the price. G-power gets today’s award for building the single stupidest car in the world.
[Source: G Power]
500 horsepower, 516 lb/ft of torque, and these wheels. That is all you need know about the new Alpina B7.
OK, I read TMZ. I like celeb trash sometimes, so deal with it. I especially like it when celebrities, a great percentage of which are morons, think their cars are worth more simply because they have owned them. This is common, even by normal non-celebrity standards, as every car is worth more to its current owner than it is to anyone else. Drive a $130,000 Maserati Quattroporte off the lot with a smile? To you, it’s still worth $130,000. To anyone else, it’s now worth $100,000 maximum, simply because your fat ass sat in the seat for a few miles, and signed some paperwork.
Jon Gosselin, who just realized he has to pay at least $10,000 A MONTH! in child support for his 8 kids, tried to make a quick buck by trading in his 2005 M3 (AKA, the guidomobile) for a 2008 Subaru STI plus about $4,000 in pocket for him. Not surprisingly, the dealer wasn’t buying. Maybe he could rent it out by the day to paparazzi?
[Source: TMZ]
When I was younger, I would spend my weekends hopping from dealership to dealership test-driving cars. I looked older, and dressed the part, which made my lies to salesmen more believable. As I have gotten older, I have gained increasingly more access to test vehicles, and my dealership experience has faded.
But in this series, I go back to my roots and begin to test-drive cars straight off dealership lots, because, well, I gotta get cars somehow. Besides, when you limit yourself to driving only very good sports cars, your perceptions of reality can get a little warped. That’s why, in this series, I’m going to try to stay away from sports cars.
This week, I drove three small, German SUV’s, the Mercedes GLK350, BMW X3 3.0 Xdrive, and Audi Q5 3.2. I hate this class of vehicle, especially since these vehicles offer less sport, and barely more utility than a station wagon, yet cost thousands more.
The Evidence (base price shown)
Audi Q5: $37,200
Audi A4 Avant: $34,500
Mercedes GLK350: $35,475
Mercedes C300 (sedan quoted, wagon available 2011): $33,600
BMW X3 3.0 XDrive: $39,575
BMW 328i Wagon: $35,400
Granted, the SUV’s offer more base power than their wagon counterparts, but with more mass to move, it’s easy to understand why the power is needed. Despite my hatred of the small SUV, we press on with the comparison:
Ferrari 599 on the move