by Zack K

The Ferrari 458 Spider configurator has confused me. I clicked the link, and immediately changed it from the dark Rosso mugello to the traditional Rossa Corsa, because if I’m going to buy a Ferrari I want it to be “Ferrari red.” But since this is the internet where you can find a picture that caters to your fantasy about having a threesome with a Halo truck and a furry I decided to click through the other colors, just to see how they looked. I started with the usual blue, black and white but then kept going: Grigio ingrid (like sand), Blue Abu Dhabi, even one resembling British Racing Green-which felt somewhat sacrilegious- looked good enough to drive daily. I questioned my taste, “What the hell is wrong with me? I don’t want a teal car!”

See, I have always said my first Ferrari would be red. Call me typical, predictable, boring, unoriginal, monotone, a sheep, tacky, douchey, lame, boring, trashy or any other insulting word built upon the countless red Ferraris you’ve seen over the years; I don’t care. Partly to blame is something similar to frequency and inception. Like you, I’ve grown up seeing mostly red Ferraris and that repetition has planted the idea in my mind that a Ferrari should be red. That’s probably 20% of it. The other 80% is that I really really like the way their cars look in Rossa Corsa. It’s bright without looking soft, bold without the wannabe toughness that comes with black or matte (All “tough” guys are hedge fund managers and send back bottles of corked Pinot. Bring it!!). Red is a color that screams as loud as the car does and announces to the slower cars ahead of you that moving to the right is in their interest of self-preservation. It exudes the spirit of a Ferrari and suits it perfectly, like a soul-less medieval dungeon master wearing coarsely cut black leather from head to toe.

Yet here I am looking at every different color and thinking (with a few exceptions) they all look fantastic. Was it the color? The quality CGI? The usual exotic car lust that makes us sell our children and do away with eating? Nope. The 458 Spider just looks that good. When Vicky Henderson spent 5 tearfully happy minutes flying around Italy in one, I knew it was a great car to drive, especially without a roof to get in the way of its sonorous wail, but that was more about the driving than the shape. But taking a step back, it looks incredible. I think it looks even better than the coupe, something I can’t remember saying about any car, ever. Ferrari has done such a good job, it looks good in any color. Head over to the configurator and build one yourself. My first Ferrari will still be Rossa Corsa red, but if it’s not a 458 Spider, when I buy one of those I’m going to be as decisive a hypochondriac picking a toilet in a truck stop.

Last week a Ferrari 599 GTB spontaneously caught on fire. It didn’t quite melt itself (video after jump) like a dead vampire in From Dusk Til Dawn but it did catch on fucking fire. I’m sorry but WTF?  What year is it again? 2011? And cars are still catching on fire? And not just any cars, these are some of the best  and most expensive cars on the planet. A $7,000 Versa doesn’t catch on fire. The “smart” car doesn’t.  Even my  shitty ’95 Miata managed to drive 300 miles spitting oil out its CAS seal without turning me into Kosher rotisserie. So why are Ferraris and Lamborghinis bursting into flames? Make the jump for a buffet videos featuring exotics on fire. Maybe we can find a commonality?

One man got lucky, kinda. The Ferrari FF he was driving that caught fire wasn’t his yet; he was test-driving it. That should save some insurance trouble. Wish I could have seen the salesman’s reaction. “Oh, mi scuzzi senor. Thank god you had no hair to begin with. Si, it happens now and again. A Ferrari is like a beautiful, passionate woman who has severe bi-polar disorder. Some a day she just begs for more and a some day she hit you in the face with a rolling pin. Haha, yes you understand yes? What say we have espresso and talk about the 599? It’s molto reliable senor.” That guy went over to the Aston Martin dealer.

Or I hope he did. If he went to the Pepsi of Italian cars (Ferrari being Coke), he’d end up in a Lamborghini. Safe bet right? Audi owns them, so now there’s Germans in the factory making sure there’s no blots left over and nap time is no longer than two hours. Except for this little Gallardo fire in Norway.

I just don’t understand how a car ends up this way. With the insane amount of testing and development that goes into them, how can this situation not arise before production? How can having your car catch fucking on fire be part of normal wear and tear for Italian exotics? It’s fire! It’s no a CEL or door buzzer that’s stuck or bad NAV, it’s the hot red stuff that comes out of volcanoes. And even after Ferrari recalled the 458s, replaced those that burned and stopped using the adhesive arsonist that was causing the fires, one still burst into flames in Brazil. Perhaps it’s the price of driving a car that has been built to the limit of human ability. If this happens with 458s and Gallardos, what would happen if there was a “glitch” with a Veyron? It’ll probably explode and throw the Earth off-axis.

But, thanks to the handiness of YouTube and some calls to the FBI, I think I figured out the problem. See, the cars were being driven. Some were even being used to park, commute or get McDonald’s. Completely irresponsible.

I still want a Ferrari.

-Zack K

The Koenigsegg Agera R is very very very fast. No, you don’t understand. It’s really fast. In the video it goes from 0, to 300KMH (186MPH), and back to 0 in… 21.9 seconds. Now, being the internet readers you are, like me you probably have no frame of reference of how fast that really is. For comparison, we have the times of some cars  going from 0 to 300KMH. Make the jump to read and watch this ridiculous thing that I love so much.  

Koenigsegg CCX: 21.9
SLR 722: 29.6
Murci LP 640: 31.5
911 GT2: 36.2
Alpina B6 S: 41.5
Z06: 44.6

No back to 0, no slowing down, nothing. Just from a stop to 300km/h. As you can see, the old Koenigsegg- you know the one, with the twin-supercharged V-8 making 806HP?- That car went to 300kmh in 21.9 seconds, well ahead of the also incredible GT2, Murci and SLR. A Bugatti Veyron, the benchmark of high-priced space ships, takes 19.8 seconds to hit 300kmH, and 23.8s to reach 320km/H. In the real world, all of those cars are crazy crazy fast. All they are doing is accelerating to 186MPH.

THAT is how  incredible this car is. Somehow, in defiance of physics and the Easter bunny, the new Agera R was able to reach 186MPH, and go back to a complete stop, in the same amount of time it takes it’s sibling to reach 186. Want to know how long it takes the R to go from 0-300 KMH? 14.5 seconds. That’s how long it takes a new Honda Accord V6 to reach 98MPH. A car that boring normal people call “quick.”  A Corvette ZR1, which is the fastest car I’ve ever driven, takes 15.9 seconds to reach 150MPH, and around 33 seconds to reach 186 (300kmH). I thought that car was insane but I have had to edit the definition of insanity in my brain. Compared to the Agera, the ZR1 is Catholic nun on Valium. Wait,what?! What the hell is going on?!

I cannot wrap my head around the abilities of the Agera R. This is like saying to Hussein Bolt,

“Ok Mr. Bolt, you are going to run this 100 yard dash, k? Start here, cross that line, that’s it. What am I going to do? Oh, well in the same amount of time it takes your corpulent snail ass to run that little 100 yards, I’m going to run to that line, stop on it, have a sandwich, maybe hit up YouPorn, and then run back to this starting line. Ready?”

That is insanely fast. How? Why? WTF is in that car? Oh, that’s right, it’s has a 5.0 Liter V-8 with two turbos, so it makes 940HP. Oh wait, I forgot, you can put E-85 bio ethanol in it, and it makes 1,115HP. And yet it’s still RWD! What the **** gets the power to the ground? Are the tires made of the toes of millions of geckos? Because I’m ok with that.  If Sarah McLaughlin complains direct her calls to me. I have an excellent collection of Panda bear erotica I’d like to discuss with her. Oh, and if you watch the video, you can see two other things: 1. If you watch the driver turn around, it’s clear the steering radius of this car is very tight. So drive-ability won’t be an issue. 2. The test driver isn’t wearing a helmet, fire suit and 2 HANS devices while doing multiple 200MPH runs. Dear police stations, high speed travel is safe. See video below.

I just can’t get over the physical abilities of cars right now. People referred to the muscle car era as the golden age of cars, never to be seen again. Wrong. This is the golden age. Companies realize people want a cars that can go, stop and turn with the quickness and they are in an arms race the US Army should be jealous of. This is the best cars have ever been, and I shake my head and stare in awe when I think of where they will go from here. Now, whose grandma can I give oral treats to for $2 Million?

One thing that often lacks in video reviews or driving videos is driver emotion. Cruise youtube and you’ll see a lot of people talking about cars the way your professor taught you about economics: Factual, direct, maybe some trite joke about cost of beer versus volume to keep everyone awake. Or it’s regular people driving really fast, with the same Terminator face we all wear when we’re trying to not die at the hands of several hundred horsepower.

But something is missing. It’s the feeling cars give us. Simply sitting down in my ERA Cobra makes me smile, laugh and make engine sounds. (But if you watch this, you’ll understand I’m not normal).  To be fair, not every car gives your brain a blowjob. I’m not going to laugh like a maniac while driving a new Passat (probably more tears of shame). But I will in a Caterham. That kind of childish emotional display is part of what makes Top Gear UK so great. It’s the difference between watching Steven Hawking and Chris Tucker commenting on Sophia Vergara’s tits.

That’s why I love this video of Fifth Gear’s Vicky Henderson reviewing the new 2012 Ferrari 458 Spider. I’ve never seen her have so much fun in a car, and that visible emotion tells me this car must be unbelievable.

-Zack K

Let’s cut the fluff shall we? Best Motoring is cancelled, and for their last race, their lineup was awesome: Lexus LF-A vs. Porsche GT2 RS vs. Corvette ZR-1 vs. Nissan GTR vs. Ferrari F430 GT3. There’s street cars, super-cars and might-as-well-be-a race-cars. The price is all over the board, as are the cylinders and countries of origin. Each of our favorite countries is represented in a cool, if not the best, way. Thanks Best Motoring, for all your hard *cough* work over the years. You’ve put together some of the coolest and most expensive super-cars in wheel to wheel races.

Make the jump to see who won.

The Smoking Tire finds the best driving road in California and the best car we’ve ever driven to tackle it: VF Engineering’s all new Supercharged Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. With 760HP and 600 lb/ft of torque going through all 4 wheels, this car redefines fast. Video after the jump.

The Smoking Tire’s Tom Morningstar was fortunate enough to attend the coolest race ever that no one’s heard of: The 24 Hours of Dubai. Held at the Dubai Autodrome, surrounded by unfinished buildings and general nothingness, the endurance race features privateer racing teams fielding such cool race cars as the Audi R8 LMS, SLS AMG GT3, Porsche 911 Cup, Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and more. Check out the video to see Tom doing what he does best: getting great shots of cars.

(Sorry about the link before, we had to take the video down to fix the music credits and it disappeared)

The Aston Martin DBS. Not only was this car a no-brainer for our Dream Garage, but it is at the very tip top of my “Things to Buy When I marry a 90 year-old Billionaire” list. (That and a bucket of roofies, for myself).

While our garage would probably need to be the size of a Boeing hanger to hold all our dreams, I would want this one parked just inside the door. I’d park in my bedroom if I could, so that every morning it would be the first thing I see. I would be in a better mood each morning, something my friends would greatly appreciate.

I could go on an on about how god-damn good looking the DBS is, but unless you’re blind or find yourself strangely attracted to cinder blocks, you can see what I’m talking about. While some people have whined that it’s just a DB9 with a body kit, I see that as a compliment. The DB9 is incredibly beautiful; one of the best looking things to ever be hammered out of metal. I would replace our Statue of Liberty with a giant DB9 if I could. But it’s a little too smooth and sublime to be called perfect. I want my dream car to be a bit flashy. Not Countach flashy but enough to tell you it’s something special. Think of it like the singer, Pink; she’s not quite as pretty as professional adopter and actress Angelina Jolie, but I’ll make a good bet who punches harder.

Like Nick Lachey I could easily marry this car for it’s looks, but unlike the large schools of busty blonds that swim in this city the DBS has layers of brilliance underneath its svelte body. The 6.0L V-12 makes 510hp at 6,500 RPM, which means you have to rev it out to make the most of it. If you have a 4 cylinder engine that’s a problem, but when you have a 12-cylinder chorus that makes a sound addictive enough to get you on Intervention, it is a blessing. I was watching TG’s DBS video online today, and when they started the car my eyes instinctively closed. It’s like I was savoring a steak. Few things can elicit that reaction from me.  The world stops, and all my focus is directed at that crazy howl.

In this age of better, faster, lighter some might say it’s 3,737 pound weight is too heavy, or  4.3 seconds to 60mph is slow, or 191 mph is a weak top speed. Compared to what? To the internet racers and number-coveting douches out there I say “fine.” I will let you chase the newest, fastest, lightest, digitally-controlled car, because you are missing out. The DBS might not shift as fast as a 458 or accelerate fast enough to flatten the back of your head like a GT2. But if you think it’s slow, then you probably need to spend more time outside.

It can compete on a track with an R8 or Zonda C12, but unlike the the Zonda it’s just as good on a 2000 mile road trip,  thanks to its GT DNA from the great DB9. And as much as I love the R8, the DBS has more soul. It even says so when you start it. Dual clutches are great, but there is nothing like the connection you get driving a fast, RWD car using an old fashioned manual transmission.

Some journalists have said the DBS lacks an identity of it’s own, as if it somehow cheated us by being based on another car. I understand their point, but it’s based on a DB9, not a Hyundai Santa Fe. People complain the buttons are hard to use or the SAT/NAV is worse than salmonella and that may be true but they’re missing the big picture. As an all around car, the DBS is phenomenal. It’s competent on a track, a pleasure on the highway, comfortable around town, turns heads like a person on fire and just in case you’re blind it’s exhaust will tell you how great it is. It is a super-car through and through. It has all the things I want in a car, and it has them in spades.

- Zack K

The Smoking Tire heads out to a closed road in the middle of nowhere to test Jaguars newest special edition GT Sports Car, the XKR 175 Edition, built in a limited run of 175 units to commemorate Jaguar’s 75th anniversary. The result of a wonderful car, crazy weather, and a safely closed road is, quite simply, one of the best videos we’ve ever made. Hit the jump to see for yourself.

** Our sincerest apologies about the posting error that didn’t include the actual video. Our bad. Fixed now.

It should come as no surprise that the next car I voted into our Dream Garage is the Alfa Romeo 8C Competezione. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to work on a shoot featuring a black 8C. When it was unloading from the transport truck I stared it with all the wonder of a 14 year old boy looking at his neighbor’s house, realizing his neighbor is Jordan, and her shower has a bay window. Then I got invited to go for a ride, and I haven’t stopped thinking about that day since.

Rather than start off by hurling acceleration statistics and engine-bore diameters at you I wanted to start with the first sense a car touches; sight. It’s why magazines have pictures, and why that television thing really caught on. There’s no cliche called “Love at first smell.” or “Love at first 3rd date discussion about the latest episode of House.” only “Love at first site.

Cars have been compared to women for decades. The most beautiful coupes have that hourglass figure that grabs our optical senses somewhere deep down in our DNA. While everyone could have a different list of the 10 most beautiful women ever, it would be odd to find someone that wouldn’t have the 8C in their Rolodex of beautiful cars. It’s a rare event to put a bunch of car nerds and journalists in a room and hear silence, but this car often does just that.  It doesn’t matter what angle you view it from; panoramic, wide, fisheye, close-up or electron microscope; it just looks incredible. The shape speaks for itself, it’s a classic long-hood/short deck coupe. It’s round,  but Alfa added a little edge to the ends, making sure the performance of this coupe isn’t looked over.

Looking closer we see Alfa has put just as much work into the details as they did the overall shape. The headlights for example, are the best fusion of modern projectors within a classic shape that I can think of, and integral to creating the best front end on the road today. The taillights are round, simple, classic Italian. What Alfa did was create a beautiful shape, and didn’t compromise a thing when they added all those “mandatory” items-like headlights.

The inside is the same; simple yet striking. I especially like the aluminum in the center stack and passenger “oh shit” handle, carved from single pieces of aluminum. The cockpit is simple sports car. There’s no pop-NAV, massager seats or built-in electric razors. Carbon fiber is everywhere, with the raw weave showing through on the doors, dash board and center console. The only thing I didn’t like was the stereo, because it looked like it was pulled from a parts bin marked “1992 stuff.” Besides, the exhaust makes any stereo obsolete. From the beautiful 3-spoke wheel to the carbon doors to the clean center console with the very piece of the interior made me smile. It only has what you absolutely need, and all those things are done with the touch of an artist. It reiterates what the exterior already said.

Unlike some of the more popular models today, the 8C has a very nice brain between its ears. It’s a high-compression Ferrari-built 4.7 Liter V8 that needs to be whipped all the way to 7,000RPM to make all of its 450hp. Being a high-strung engine also means torque wakes up late, requiring you to wait until 4750RPM for all 354lb ft. But that’s ok, because it’s just another excuse (like you need one) to hear every note of the fossil-fueled choir from the quad exhaust tips. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a 6-speed paddle-shifted transaxle, which also gives the car perfect 50/50 weight distribution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8br0BHXqjt4&feature=player_embedded#!

It may have a Ferrari powerplant, but challenging an F430 to a race around Laguna for pink slips will result in you calling a cab. It’s paddle shifted ‘box takes 0.2 seconds to shift, compared to a ‘Scud’s 0.06 seconds between ratios. Alfa says it will hit 60mph in 4.2 seconds-a time that has proven hard to replicate and most other Italian brands have bested years ago. But the 8C is still a capable sports car, with fairly quick turn in and good grip. Power over-steer is a simple right-foot-request away. Push it hard enough and the body does roll, contradictory to what you’d expect from such a hard ride. I don’t care. Whining it’s not the fastest car in the world is like dating Natalie Portman and complaining she only went to Harvard for her undergraduate education; think big picture. In ‘Sport Mode’ with the baffles open, the engine barking and popping and nothing but carbon fiber as far as the eye can see, the car is enchanting. It’s not trying to win races, set ‘Ring records or hover across the Atlantic. It’s trying to be a small, beautiful, Italian sports car and for that test it gets an “A.”

This car was built to re-introduce Alfa Romeo to the world and in some cases (America) prepare for the arrival of other Alfas. The word that came to my mind when I thought about it was “compromise” in the sense that this car has none. They designed a perfect shape, and then they built it. The interior has everything you expect in a small GT car, and nothing more. It’s not a drag-out race car, or a comfortable do-everything cruiser. It is what it is. And if you don’t like it, fine, there’s the door, have a nice day. Alfa only built 500 but the very day they unveiled the production model at the 2006 Paris Auto Salon 1200 people put down their name to order one.

This car doesn’t have every button and gizmo known to man, because that’s not what it’s for. If you bought one of these and said, “It’s pretty good, but I wish it had more USB jacks and laser-guided steering.” go slam your head in a door (Not the 8c’s door, because they’re too light to do real damage). Because you’re missing the point. It is, and will remain, one of the most beautiful cars of all time. It’s fast enough, decent on a track, and sounds like the offspring of a Corvette and Lamborghini. I rejoice in the simplicity of it’s bare interior, rather than complain about it. It’s beautiful, exclusive, fun and has more soul that 100 Mitusbishi Evos combined.

In the past Alfas were known for being unreliable, uncomfortable and just plain hard to live with. Yet people loved them, driving them til the wheels fell off, bolting them back on and driving them some more. That was before my time, but I think I finally understand why.

-Zack K

German newspaper Stern.de is reporting that the body of missing German tuner Uwe Gemballa has been found in South Africa, wrapped in cellophane, and apparently the victim of foul play. This extremely sad news comes over 6 months after his initial disappearance was reported.

Gemballa’s mysterious disappearance in South Africa was a debated topic for months in the auto-blogosphere, and professionals and amateurs alike debated back and forth about whether Uwe was alive, well, and in hiding, or kidnapped and murdered. Subsequent news reports told of his ailing tuner business, Gemballa GMBH, and some suspected that Uwe had arranged his own disappearance in order to use his own ransom to keep the company alive. Though the business closed briefly, it has now been re-opened under the guidance of new CEO Andreas Schwartz, who raised millions to keep the doors open and the horsepower flowing.

As sad as it is to learn of Uwe Gemballa’s death, at least his family, friends, and fans will at last have some closure as to what happened to him.

RIP Uwe Gemballa, your outlandish designs, will certainly be missed.

[Source: TeamSpeed]

Here’s a test: Name the first thing that comes to mind when you read the following: Ferrari (red). Lamborghini (V12). Porsche (bank vault). Lotus (featherweight). Have a conversation or read any car review about Lotus and inevitably, talk turns to weight. Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s primary design philosophy was to simplify, then “add lightness,” which will improve all areas of performance, not just acceleration. The cars that wear the famed green and yellow badge have always reflected that fundamental idea.

Enter, the Paris Motor Show. Lotus, owned by Malaysian automaker Proton, revealed five new concepts at the “Mondial de L’automobile”. Each of them promptly takes your original notions of what a Lotus should be, and burns them before your eyes. A quick glance at the stats reads like a Lamborghini handbook: 5.0 liter V8’s, 600+ horsepower, $190,000+ pricetags, real interiors, and (gasp!) curb weights heavier than a house fly. We’ll avoid the “turning over in his grave” cliché, but listen hard enough and you might hear old Colin’s muffled groans.

All five of these concept cars share the same distinct design language, they just speak different dialects. Here is a quick breakdown of each.

Lotus Elite: This grand tourer is most definitely a departure from the original Lotus philosophy, but at least it is a gorgeous one. It packs a modified version of the V8 found in the Lexus IS-F, good for 611 hp and make the run to 60 mph in under four seconds. The car also features a retractable hardtop, an energy regenerating KERS system, and room enough for four passengers. Befitting the name, the Elite comes with an estimated $180,000 pricetag.

Lotus Eterne: Cars like the Porsche Panamera and Maserati Quattroporte have seen a great deal of success as of late, and the Eterne is Lotus’ entrance into the luxury four-door sports car arena. The Eterne features a 5.0-liter V8 that makes a massive 620 hp, and has the optional KERS system. You can have your Eterne in rear-wheel or all-wheel drive flavors and either way, you’ll be making the sprint to 60 mph in around four-seconds on your way to the 196 mph top speed. Production is rumored to begin in 2015.

Lotus Elan: The sharp angles and aggressive front intakes are a large departure from the last generation Elan, the early ‘90s M100, but the new Elan carries hints of the old car; the crease that runs through the doors out to the sloping rear deck echos the previous Elan’s short, low stance. Unlike the M100, the new Elan is motivated by a 4.0-liter, 450 hp supercharged V6 and will shatter 60 mph in about three-and-a-half. High-tech is now the rage and the Elan has a host of its own tech including a digital race track readout. The price for the 2013 Elan will be a shade under $120 large.

Lotus Elise: Look at the stats and admire the fantastic looks of the concept Elise, and it makes one wonder just how badass the next-gen Exige could be. Unlike the other concepts shown, the Elise sticks closest to the simplistic/lightweight idea that Lotus was born from. A turbocharged 2.0-liter Toyota four-cylinder will move the Elise’s roughly 2,400-pounds which should make things exciting. The Elise may not be as fast, heavy, or expensive as the others, but it may best exemplify the up market mindset Lotus has for its future.

Lotus Esprit: Designed to compete with Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini (anyone else see hints of Murcielago just aft of the C-pillar?), the Esprit may be the best looking of all the concepts, and the most interesting. It’ll have the IS-F sourced 5.0-liter V8 in supercharged form, making 620 hp, with an estimated top speed of 205 mph. Sixty mph will be dealt with in 3.5 seconds. The Esprit has always been Lotus’ weapon to compete in the supercar battle, and this concept hints at how close it can come in performance to its rivals, and how far the market has come since the previous Esprit.

There are obviously big changes going on at Lotus, and depending on your perspective they can be fantastic, or blasphemous. Either way, this author thinks the future is looking pretty exciting.

-Doran Del Pra

[Photos: Drew Phillips, Autoblog]

Sometimes, when we film The Smoking Tire, we drive really, really fast while shooting on-board footage. Here’s a compilation of some of our favorite shots. It doesn’t matter who was driving, as long as it’s not Matt or Tom, which, obviously, it never was. Video after the jump.

The Smoking Tire takes Ferrari’s newest supercar to an appropriately exotic location for a thorough road test. Somewhere home to celebrities, billionaires, and guidos. Somewhere like New Jersey. Host Matt Farah wrings the 458 Italia out on New Jersey’s beautiful roads to find out if it is truly the best Ferrari yet.

*If we had realized this past Sunday’s episode of Top Gear would have been the end of the season, we would have rushed this video out, just to beat Top Gear to it. If you think I’m ripping off Clarkson, remember we filmed this a month ago, before anyone had seen Top Gear. Video after the jump.

Supercar Sunday, that “other” Southern California car meet, features a new marque every last Sunday of the month. This month’s marque was pre-1973 Muscle Cars, just about the most boring marque you can imagine. I mean really, if you’ve seen one 1968 Camaro, haven’t you seen them all? So I didn’t take shots of any muscle cars not worth shooting. I did, however, manage to capture a few gems. There was a trio of Tesla’s, a trio of Lotus Se7ens, a pair of 1st-gen BMW M6′s, a few nice Ferrari’s, and even a Maserati Birdcage. But the real diamond is the car shown above, Ray Scherr’s  concours-winning 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Roadster. This car wasn’t even at the car show, I spotted it on the top of Mullholland Highway’s “Snake” section. He was out driving it! Rumor has it, Ray turned down $15 million for this car a couple years back, and I’m glad to see him out enjoying it.

Supercar Sunday mega-gallery after the jump.

Who’s that sexy man? And that clean car! I can remember 7 days ago when all the Bullrun cars were nice and clean with our fresh stickers on them. It doesn’t look that way now, but here’s the Black Magic Celebrity Photo Gallery on Facebook so we can all reminisce about what our cars should look like….

Photos Here

Team Black Magic wakes up in the firey heat of Scottsdale to discover someone played a prank on their car…. We visit the Taser factory to watch Flag Girl Karen get shocked, we have a little run-in with the cops, and we have the most unique Bullrun finish of the year.

The 2010 Bullrun departs the beautiful resort town of Telluride, Colorado for Scottsdale, Arizona. On the way, we stop at Monument Valley for a little of that southwest Americana….

The Bullrunners depart Chicago, in a mess of lost, for Omaha, Nebraska. There’s never a shortage of surprises on the Bullrun, and today doesn’t upset. We get lost and angry, drive the tires off our car, and finally figure out a good strategy.

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.

The question that Matt mentioned- “What is your favorite car?” – is, for me, an all-too-common source of headaches. As soon as you tell someone you love cars, read about cars, or write about cars, you can safely bet your own genitals the next sentence from their mouth is that question.

And it’s something I honestly cannot answer, because “Favorite” is singular, and if you love cars you don’t just love one car, or one kind, or one brand. There’s too many variables to consider, and every car – even those in the same category- is different. It’s like asking, “What’s your favorite memory?” Try to compare and rank losing your virginity to an amazing day in Italy, or that afternoon building a deck with you dad. Like memories, cars vary in their feel and purpose.

Thank god the TST dream garage is like the human brain, lot’s of storage space. Because what I would park next to the brilliant technological beauty that is the MacLaren F1 LM is the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C.

The story of the cobra is long, but the goal was to build enough street cars to receive homologation from the FIA. Carroll built 53, the FIA needed 100. The dream was over. So where’d the cars go? 21 were sold to race teams for competition, and the remaining 34 had windshields bolted on, paint applied and rolled out for public sale, dubbed the Semi-competition (S/C).

Talk about profiting from the misfortune of others (Like credit card companies, but without the black heart and eye herpes). The public was presented with a 2400lb car that had the now-famous Ford 427 cu. in. side-oiler. It had 485 rib-jarring horsepower, and the car weighed 500 lbs less than it’s rival, the Corvette. No matter what trim Cobra you got in, it was probably the fastest car in your metro area and even 45 years later it hasn’t fallen that far down the ladder.

60 went past in ~4.5 seconds and it would shake the 1/4 mile marker in 12 flat. But the real test of this car’s brutal power was in the 0-100-0 test. A 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C went from dead stopped to 100mph and back to 0 in only 13.2 seconds; a record that stood for 26 years until the Caterham Seven JPE came along in 1991.

Impressive as they are, it’s about more than the numbers. The shape is classic curvaceous goodness. The fenders are huge, book-ending giant side-pipes, creating a shape that is both beautiful and powerful. It balances beauty and brawn better than any car I can think of. The interior is classic British sports car. Plain round gauges, a wooden wheel, and low bucket seats.

I have never driven a 427 S/C, but I have had the joy of driving a fine replica on numerous occasions. It should be the definition for “internal combustion engine” because that’s basically all it is. Manual steering and brakes, no roof, and a body so thin and light it may as well be made out fog. The car shakes, darts, jumps, guzzles gas and exhales clouds so rich with minerals and gasoline you could probably run another car on the fumes. The steering is heavy, the long-handle shifter is weird, deadly snap over-steer(click for video) is ever-present and the weight distribution is akin to Dolly Parton.

But you just won’t care. From the moment I see the car and feel the keys in my hand, I start smiling, and I don’t stop until days after the ringing in my ears has subsided. It’s the only convertible I happily stare at, is visceral as anything, has racing heritage, it’s faster than hell, and it’s an icon. I’ve never had more fun behind the wheel of anything else.

Zack K
Full specs here.Cobra Acceleration

Competition Cobras

The most common question I get (aside from requests to drive certain cars) is, “What is your favorite car of all time?” Well, obvious as it may be, it’s the McLaren F1 LM.

If there was ever a car that brings a sense of occasion to the driver, it’s definitely the McLaren F1 LM.  Just look at the numbers: Total production of 5 cars. 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. Top speed is drag limited at 225 mph, lower than the “normal” F1, but the acceleration and handling is better in the LM due to its 165 lb weight reduction. The BMW V12 makes 680 horsepower in LM trim (that’s 110hp per liter). This was all in 1995.

Nothing says “this car is for drivers,” like a seat in the middle. The starting sequence is would be familiar to a fighter pilot.  It’s also wonderful that everything cocoons around you so that you really are master of all you survey.  The cherry on top of this already wonder sundae is that it’s so hunkered down and race focused that you absolutely need headphones and microphones to protect your ears from the beautifully loud V12 and straight-cut gearbox, just so you could talk with your passenger.  If we’re honest though, she’s (I wouldn’t prefer a guy passenger with me in my dream) going to have to be pretty special to be in your dream car.  Plus it’s literally made of gold; how freaking awesome is that? Being a dream car though, I’m glad I’ll wake up before the costs come into play (even touch up paint is over $100).  The F1 really is the definition and yardstick as to what will go into a dream garage.  Now we just need a dream track to ourselves and all will be right with the world.

We love the Blastolene Brothers’ sense of adventure and madness, it all translates very well into how they build hot rods. That is to say, their hot rods are better and more original than everyone else’s hot rods, a point we reinforced by awarding “Piss’d Off Pete,” their last creation Best In Show at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas.

But what happens when you team up the Blastolene Brothers with an equally mad artist with the dream of building the most batshit tricycle in history? You get the Rocket II, a Blown-Hemi powered, center-hub steered, thousand horsepower bit of insane that’s somehow legal on US roads. Tim “Frogman” Cotterill stops by Jay Leno’s garage with a toy so crazy, Jay won’t even ride it.

Video after the jump.

[Source: Jay Leno's Garage]

Many people ask us about our favorite cars, and so we’ve decided to put together a “Dream Garage.” It will be a recurring feature here on The Smoking Tire, as we continue to add our favorite cars to this never expanding list. Today, we start the list with a matching pair of vintage Mercedes racing cars, and if we’re talking about vintage Benzo’s, you only need to know two letters: SL.

The Mercedes SL’s of the 1950′s and early 1960′s are some of the most influential sports cars in history, and as good as they look on the road, they look even better in race trim. At the San Clemente, CA car show yesterday, there was plenty of the requisite 60′s muscle cars, so many so that I thought the whole show would be a wash of American boredom. Until I came upon a row of seven Mercedes SL’s, including 3 Gullwings. Now we’re getting somewhere. The matching pair in question includes a white 300SL Gullwing sporting the number 71 and several windshield tech stickers from the Monterey Historics and Rallye Monte Carlo. Good stuff indeed. Two cars down, I found a red 190SL roadster, similarly prepped and tech’ed for competition, except featuring my favorite red/black color combination and a menacing blacked grill. Bonus points for the “picnic basket” interior in both cars.

Welcome, matching Benzes, to The Smoking Tire Dream Garage.

Suggestions for more dream cars?

If you were going to chose a donor car to build into a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, what would you chose? Obviously, you’d want something mid-engined, probably a convertible at the very least.  I’d say a Porsche Boxster, since 1st generation models can be had cheap, and at least it has a leather interior and some semblance of performance. Not everyone thinks like me, including this guy. Well, would you believe that underneath this – “e” for effort – bodywork lies a 128,000 mile Dodge Stratus? I didn’t believe it either, but it’s true.

In the seller’s own words:

The Smoking Tire hits the Malibu Canyons with two hugely different, yet equally amazing cars: The 2006 Ford GT and the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Modern horsepower meets vintage finesse in this beautiful drive in two of the best sports cars of all time.

Ford’s on a real roll with their 2011 Mustangs. The 412 HP Mustang GT is being compared to the M3, a car that costs nearly twice as much. Their V6 is the first car in history to come back from rental-car-dom. The new 2011 Shelby GT500 has been on a diet, dropping 120 pounds from the nose by switching to an aluminum engine block, and adding a few extra ponies as well, bringing the count to 550 hp.

As we’ve shown on The Smoking Tire, Ford is about more than straight-line performance; Mustangs need to go around corners. As this video shows, the new 2011 GT500 does that pretty well too. The Shelby’s weight trimmings and tweaks have helped shave 9 seconds per lap off what the 2010 GT500 ran at Virginia International’s “Grand Course” last year, surprising even Ford’s own people, who only expected a 3 second improvement.

The GT500′s 2:58.5 second lap time would place it 7th overall (according to Car and Driver, see chart below), behind such cars as the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Viper ACR, but ahead of the BMW M3, Cadillac CTS-V, Audi R8, and, ahem, the Ford GT.

Here’s the best part: The Smoking Tire is going to be doing a 5,000-mile road test of the new GT500 in the 2010 Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas this July. And you have a chance to win a trip to New York to come party with us for the kickoff party (and yes, test drive the car.) Go to Black Magic Shine to find out how.

Hit the jump to see the video and lap time spreadsheet.

[Source: YouTube via Jalopnik]

Despite the energy crisis and a recession, supercars seem to be getting better at an exponential rate. The future of the automobile is uncertain, making the future of the super-automobile even more shaky. Companies are fighting for a shrinking pie, one that got even smaller with the economic shit-storm of 2009.  But like the raging bull that graces the front of a Lamborghini, no one is going down easy. Each passing year is like another prick from the matador, only infuriating the bull and making it fight harder.

In 2010 the fight shows no signs of waning. There are handfuls of incredibly fast, beautiful and powerful cars coming our way. They are all so good, yet so different, the only answer I can think of to, “Which would you buy?” is “All of them!” And that got me thinking, what would I-or you-buy?

Today I’ve put together a list of 6 of the newest and best supercars of 2010. They all cost $200-250,000, are street legal, go like stink and are true supercars. I want you to read the list. Now close your eyes, and imagine someone just placed $250,000 on the table in front of you, and you have to use that money to buy one of these cars. (You can imagine they have a gun if it helps.)

You can only choose one, and it has to be from the list. I don’t want you to say “I’d buy 2 ZR1′s.” or “I’d buy a Hyundai Accent and invest the rest in moderate-return IRA’s and use that to purchase petroleum opt…” Yes you could build a GTR that’s faster, or a used 996 turbo and build it up to 1000hp. That’s not the point. What would you pick from this list of cars coming to us  in 2010, if you had the cash. Yeah, you better imagine I have a gun…

1. Audi R8 GT

First on the casting couch is Audi’s upcoming R8 GT. Think of this as an R8 “superleggera.” It makes 35 more horsepower than the R8 V10 but thanks to CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) body panels it also weighs 220lbs less the standard V10.  Thanks to the standard AWD it rockets to 60mph in only 3.5 seconds and tops out at 200mph.

There are a ton of track-oriented options available like a full roll cage, kill switch, cup tires and 6 piston ceramic brakes. Sadly no amount of money will get you a 6-speed manual, as this car is only offered with the R-Tronic transmission. Audi has taken the car that set a new standard for daily-driven supercars and simply turned the “super” knob up a little bit. It’s $256,000 of brilliant engineering that has only perfected it’s racing skill set.

2. Aston Martin V-12 Vantage

Originally Aston Martin had no intention of sending the V12 Vantage to the U.S. Odd, considering we are their biggest market. However enough customers sent enough gift baskets and now it’s headed here. It would have been a travesty to keep it from us. The V12 Vantage was described by Aston’s CEO as their “most agile car with their most powerful engine ever.” It won it’s class at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring while being piloted by the CEO and a team of engineers. People say Astons are filled with passion and soul, and I think that race is a clue as to why.

It has the classic long hood of a true sports car. The 510hp/420 tq. V-12 uses a 6-speed manual transmission to send power to the rear wheels only. Those 2 factors make this the “purist” car in the lineup. 0-60 happens in a brisk 4.1 seconds and the fun doesn’t stop until 190mph. The interior is beautiful without going soft.

The price is $250,000, or for another $13k in bragging rights  you can get the Carbon Black Limited Edition. It may not lap a track as fast as some of the others, and at 3700 lbs it’s also the heaviest, but it is stunning inside and out and you can’t argue with a V12 and a 6 speed.

3. Porsche GT2 RS

If people think the new Cayennes aren’t “Porsche enough” this car should balance that out. The standard GT2 is a 530hp, temperamental beast. It’s essentially the RWD purity of the GT3RS with the engine of a turbo, and the result was terrifying. If that car was scary, this one will simply cause drivers to go into catatonic shock. 620hp. 3,020lbs. 0-60 in 3.4 and the 747-like thrust doesn’t stop until 205mph. It’s simply the most powerful and fastest Porsche ever made, faster even than the Carrera GT.

Upgrades from the regular GT2 include a carbon fiber hood, wing, front splitter and intakes. It has a revised PSM (Porsche Stability Management) system, suspension and brakes. Special tires were made just for this car to handle the combination of grip and acceleration. This car calls back to the “glory” days of Porsche when they had lots of power, no amenities and could rip your head off if you looked at them wrong. It may not burble comfortably around town like a Turbo, but it’s time of 7:18 beat an Enzo around the ‘Ring. It’s like a Carrera GT without the sex appeal and-at $245,000-half the price. (Check out the video.)

4. Ferrari 458 Italia

Although I didn’t love the headlights when it first came out, I will now admit this is the best-looking car in this lineup. It’s angular yet supple, combing the sexy with the sinister. It’s 4.5 liter V8 makes 560hp at a sonorous 9,000RPM, yet somehow manages to make 80% of it’s 400 tq. at only 3,250RPM. Simply incredible. Of course it’s also the nerd of the group, with Ferrari’s E-Diff and F1 Traction Control. All this comes together in the form of 3.35 seconds to 60 and a 202mph top speed.

The interior is very modern-looking combination of creature comforts and racing tools. You can flip through the various settings with the manettino switch on the wheel, changing everything from how soft the shocks are to how hard the 7-speed DCT transmission shifts. You can also listen to music while directed by the SAT NAV.

The 458 is supercar technology at it’s highest, from the biggest name in the business. At $230,000 it seems like a bargain, but you’ll have to hire body guards to watch it 24/7 so you can sleep at night, and don’t forget about those maintenance costs.

5. Mercedes SLS AMG  Gullwing

The SLS was one of the most talked about and followed cars of recent years. Spy shots and speculation were blanketed on magazines and rumors about specs were more prevalent than HPV. Now it’s here, and what a car it is. The boys from Jalopnik put it bes; they expected a luxury car with some track ability, but got a track car that was also luxurious.

The outside, of course, is a call back to the original SL. The nose is longer than Mrs. Streisand’s but makes the overall shape downright gorgeous. I think it’s 2nd in the looks department only to the 458.  I was actually surprised it was priced at $200,000.

That money gets you 571hp and 480 tq. sent through a 7 speed trans-axle and shoved into a 3,571lb box. Its 0-60 time of 3.8s puts it in 5th place, but the top speed of 197 is on par with everyone else. It’s not as razor-sharp as the GT2, but is still fast on uneven roads, something the GT2 RS stumbles on. The soundtrack from the side pipes circles perfection. Gorgeous inside and out, and with doors that will elicit stares from any bystander, this car can turn heads and break necks.

6. Lamborghini LP560-4

Fittingly, the final contestant is a raging bull itself; the LP560-4. It won countless magazine showdowns when it hit the roads, combining beauty, brawn and brains into one incredible package. And because it’s a Lamborghini, it comes with a VIP card of mystique that goes back decades. Because it gets a lot of it’s parts from Audi (trades, rather) it also means the stuff all works. So you can go from 0 to 62 in 3.7 seconds all day long, instead of twice. Like the others, top speed is 200mph.

The body has the angular, aggressive face we’ve come to expect from Lamborghini, and it looks incredible. It’s low and short, and the AWD adds confidence to its agility, a deadly combo. It also comes with a 6 speed, so you can’t call it a video game. At $200,000 it may seem like the best choice; Italian looks and appeal, Audi reliability and serious performance. But it won’t be cheap for long. The options list is longer than the health care bill, and if you pick the wrong (or right?) paint color you’re looking at another $25,000. Just ordering the E-Gear tacks on $10,000. Still, an R8 V10 in an Italian body is difficult to walk past.

So there you have it, 6 of the best cars you can buy for about $250,000. Post below which one you would want, and tell us why. And don’t forget about the gun.

-Zack K

Many of you have commented on our recent Lotus comparison test that you would rather have the Lotus Esprit V8 than the Elise, but you’d have to change out the Renault-sourced gearbox so you could launch the car hard without turning your car into a transmission bomb. As I noted in the video, the Esprit’s 3.5L twin-turbo V8 is easily capable of making 500 horsepower, but needed to be de-tuned to just 350 to keep the transmission from exploding. Well, 500 horsepower in one of these bad boys sounds like a damn good idea to me, so we’ve discovered all the necessary upgrades you’d have to do to the Renault UN-1 transmission to keep it together doing hard launches.

Derek Bell Performance (yes, that Derek Bell) makes an upgrade that strengthens the internals of the transmission to the point where the engine’s output can be safely upgraded, the car can be launched, and the first and second gear ratios are changed to prevent the car from “running out of gear” in first during hard acceleration. I’m not sure how old this article is, but it seems that Holloway Performance here in the US has licensed the technology from Bell Performance to manufacture the upgrades here in the US.

The bad news is, it ain’t cheap. The upgrade can be anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 for parts alone, depending on the dollar to Euro exchange rate. The good news is, you can upgrade the existing UN-1 gearbox without having to swap it out entirely, keeping the originality of your Lotus Esprit intact, while improving reliability. Full article after the jump

Thanks, Kamal and Alexia for the tip!

Yesterday I was blessed and got to see an Alfa 8C Competezione. This is a rare treat because 1. They only made 500 of them, and only 84 ended up in the U.S. 2. It is in my list of Top 10 Cars of all time. I just love it. The design is almost perfect. It has all the traditional coupe traits; a long hood, swooping tail, and sexy fenders. I could sit and look at that car for hours. The interior is equally brilliant. But what really ties the whole car together for me is the sound.

The sound of this car is like a symphony of all the best exhaust notes ever. Growing up around hot rods I think a V8 engine is the best instrument from which a wonderful exhaust note can emanate. V10s sound cool, but they lack the rib-shaking bass that makes me smile. V12 engines sound incredible, but my eyebrows raise at the sound of a V12 because I know whatever is making that sound is expensive and fast. It’s more about what is screaming down the road than the scream itself.

Alfa 8c

But as good as V8s are, they aren’t all special. A Chevy 350 with headers sounds good, but it’s hardly rare. The V8 in the 8C has something else though, underneath the V8 rumble and roar there’s subtle tones that tell your ear, “Wait, that’s not a Corvette…” At times it sounds like a Vette, which is perfectly fine because a Corvette with exhaust sounds straight up nasty. There’s a raw, hollow metal sound that roars out. But the 8c has a sound that tells you it’s something special, a sound suitable for a car with such a limited run. It crackles on downshifts like a Howitzer, it has a lumpy idle, and sounds a few octaves above a Corvette, without losing the intensity. To me, it is a perfect sound and just adds to the allure of the car.

But this is just my opinion. So rather than say, “You’re an idiot. No it isn’t.” Post your favorite exhaust note, and tell us why. Everyone has different tastes in music, so the same is going to be true for cars. Tell me what you think, while I go watch the 8C Top Gear episode for the 11th time.

- Zack K

It was a dark day when we learned that Ferrari, one of the most beloved, respected, praised and famous automakers ever has announced it is phasing out manual transmissions. I knew Ferrari’s F1 style transmissions had been outselling traditional manuals for years, but I never thought they would stop offering them. I have to say it makes me pretty sad.

As much as I love the incredible capability and advantages the dual-clutch style transmissions provide, I still get a huge amount of satisfaction and joy shifting on my own. If you’re taking your car on the track, fine, a DC transmission is a great asset. But if you drive it along the ocean only on sunny days, or maybe to wine country for a weekend, order the manual. Otherwise you’ll spend 80% of the time with the car in auto, and then you’ve basically bought an automatic Ferrari, which is punishable by death. There’s something different about using a real, simple, old-fashioned stick shift that makes any automotive experience better. You’re more connected. I’ve driven some pretty beat cars over the years, but I’d rather drive a $500 car with a manual than a $4000 car that has an automatic.

So I want to know, what do you prefer in a sports car, or any car for that matter? Post comments below.

This is, simply, one of the greatest cars I’ve ever seen. It’s gorgeous, it’s fast, it’s powerful, it’s efficient and it’s technologically advanced. This is the Porsche 918 Spyder Concept, which made it’s appearance at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. You may have read about it already, you may be seeing it for the first time, but hopefully we are seeing the future of automobiles. Click to read more, watch the video, and voice your opinion.

It’s the future because it is an amazing combination of performance and responsibility. It makes 718hp. It goes 198mph. It will go from 0-60 in under 4 seconds. It gets 78mpg.

What?! Whowhatwherehowwhywhen? I said the same thing when I read about this car, I couldn’t believe my eyes. How can it be so fast, yet achieve an mpg that makes a Prius look like a 1973 Ford F-250 with a fuel leak? It’s a hybrid. The mid-mounted 500hp V8 makes 500hp, and two electric motors in the front make 218hp. At the Geneva Motor Show Porsche showed off it’s new GT3 R HYBRID race car. It too has electric motors in the front, but the power can only be used in small bursts of speed, like that being developed for  F1 cars.

The 918 would have 4 driver selectable modes: E-Drive, Hybrid, Sport Hybrid and Race Hybrid. As you move up the ladder you get more power, better throttle response and, of course, fewer MPG. In E-Drive the car is an electric vehicle, with a small range of 16 miles. In Race mode both engines are at max output, and there’s even an E-Boost button for extra passing power. It’s like the green version of NOS. Awesome.

The technology alone is so exciting it could give Al Gore a personality, but then there’s the looks: it’s beautiful. This car places second only to the exquisite Carrera GT, and it’s a close 2nd. When you look at it you know it’s a Porsche, but it has flavors of SLR and Ferrari in it as well. Perhaps Porsche drove to Italy one night and kidnapped a struggling artist. Whatever they did, it works. It’s modern, but with classic sports car soul. It doesn’t look like a car from the Jetsons, even though the technology could have the “Spacely” name on it. Inside and out, from any view, it’s just a gorgeous car. People have complained about the plastic looking wheels, but that’s a waste of O2. I promise you, when the car comes out, it will be wearing normal shoes.

With a car like this, you don’t need much else. Maybe a wagon or tiny, fuel-efficient SUV for carrying kids or taking road trips, but that’s it. I can lay awake dreaming of a garage with as many cars as Baskin Robbins has ice cream flavors. I would have a car for every job, every mood, every craving. Be it a quiet commuter to save gas and get around, or a huge V8 to shake the ground and snap my neck back, the list was always huge. But the 918 covers so many categories, it leaves little room for anything else. Track car, luxury car, sports car, gorgeous to look at, 200MPH super car, responsible hybrid, loud V8, RWD, brand recognition, “romantic evening” magnet; it has it all.

When you add it all up, this is one of the best concepts ever made. It looks great, without going the fun-house way so many concepts do (Mazda). It’s a supercar, which we always love, but it’s also looking to the future. Instead of another 11MPG, 1000hp Mach 2 supercar from a company ran by 4 billionaires that is no more practical than using a loaded gun for dentistry, this is a car that is fitting for where our world is heading. This shows the world super-cars and hybrid efficiency are not mutually exclusive.  We can have our cake at eat it too. Up until now hybrids have been as exciting as grey wallpaper, and less alluring to look at. The  918 is like a window of hope, a spec of light when you thought you were buried in a cave. I hope this inspires other automakers, because if it does, the future looks bright.

Zack K

918 Promo Video

Tell us what you think below.

For car that’s supposedly coming to an end in production, Pagani sure likes putting out new, special-edition Zondas every 6 months. The Zonda Cinque and Cinque roadster were supposed to be the final edition of the Zonda, closing the book on one of the greatest and most stunning hyper-cars ever built. They were a combination of the Zonda F and Zonda R, with a clutch-less sequential gearchange, intending to be a road-going track car. Right. Because the normal Zonda was just too soft and cuddly for racetracks.

The send off was to make way for Pagani’s next project, currently referred to as the  Pagani Project C9. The C9 is being called, by Mr. Pagani himself, a brand new car, from conception to the 3770 new parts it will be built with. It will have 700hp and and a rib-squashing 737 ft lbs of torque.

So the Zonda Cinque and Cinque roadster(shown below) were supposed to be the firework grand finale before the Zonda was laid to rest.

Well then call the Tricolore the encore, because Pagani just can’t let this phenomenal name go to bed. For the Geneva auto show Pagani created the Pagani Zonda Cinque Tricolore Special Edition. After you read that sentence, be sure to replenish your electrolytes.

The Tricolore’s design pays homage to the Italian air force acrobatic team, called Fecce Tricolore. Think of them as a more outgoing Blue Angels. (Do not, for any reason, let them near your girlfriend.)

To differentiate it from the “normal” Cinque, the Tricolore is made of a carbon-titanium weave, the same material as the upcoming C9. Now that’s how you make a test mule. The body is finished with a clear-blue lacquer that looks like something from a dream after watching Avatar, followed by 8 hours of F1 racing, and leaves you with your jaw on the pavement. Of course, tri-colored stripes run from the nose to the back of the hood, done in the colors of the Italian flag. The price for this “final” edition is a ridiculous, yet perfectly acceptable, $1.77 million. I say that’s totally reasonable for one of the best looking cars ever, as long as there’s a stripe-delete option. You gotta love the way Italians say goodbye.

The Aston Martin One-77: What’s not to like? Despite its million-dollar plus price tag, if I could afford one, they would already have my deposit. But if I were sitting on, say, $23,000,000, I could probably find something more creative to do with it than buy myself and 9 of my family members the same exact supercar. But in the Middle East, where creativity is frowned upon and only excess exceeds, someone with too much money and too little taste has done just that. Ten One-77′s for $23,000,000. We hear that at first, Aston Martin was reluctant to sell that many cars to a single person, especially given the car’s limited production run. Unsurprisingly, paying about a 75% premium on the cars’ actual values greased the wheels a bit.

Source [Luxury4Play.com]

They say, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We’ve all heard that line, and if you’re like me, it’s an infuriating thing to hear. It’s always said to you after something horrible happens. Perhaps an earthquake knocked down your garage…onto your new car…with Megan Fox inside.

This week we had a Nissan 370z Convertible to review. What better environment is there for a convertible sports car than a road trip? So we drove it to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, in Pahrump, NV. We had planned to pit a Ford GT against a Nissan GTR and use a radar gun to see which could reach the highest speed down the back straight.

The radar gun never came.

Had life given us lemons? For a moment we thought our episode was lost. But then a very nice man from Lamborghini of Las Vegas said 7 very exciting words to Matt, “Would you like to drive the Balboni?” No, life had not given us lemons. In this case, life felt bad about the lemons, so it took them and made us lemon sorbet, which it fed to us while giving us a back-rub.

The momentarily-dark day turned into one of the best  yet. The key players? A Lamborghini LP-560-2 Balboni Edition, a 1000hp Ford GT TT by Heffner Performance and a VF Engineering-Supercharged Audi R8. Check back Tuesday to see the incredible footage, and find out who was the fastest. For now, enjoy the behind-the-scenes pictures.

The R8. I haven’t known too many cars that induce drooling and heart palpitations, from so many people, as this car. It’s not just the gear-heads and auto-knowledge ninjas either. I know business women that love them, young kids that have chased them, and retirees that give an informed nod when I mention it. I will skip listing the numerous awards, accolades, press and 849568 posts online-that simply say, “I want one”-we all love it. It is an incredibly brilliant piece of automotive engineering.

The only real complaint anyone had about the car was that it was under-powered. The 4.2 liter V-8 is a great engine, but it was holding the R8 back (a point supported by the introduction of the R8 V10). A number of companies (ABT, MTM, PES Tuning) have years of experience supercharging this motor in the RS4, so naturally supercharger kits came about quickly, with online promotional videos quickly following. The videos were epic (Watch Matt in the PES R8). What was a tame, polished scalpel was now a powerful but precise katana sword. The MTM R8 made 560hp, and had a sound track that shook your ribcage and stirred the soul. What was “the perfect super-car” to the masses had now been perfected for the purists.

But for Jason Heffner, there was another way to skin this cat that hadn’t been explored: turbos.

Yes turbos. Those happy little swirls of metal that give slow cars a pair of balls and fast cars a pair of balls made of Pluto and the moon. Jason Heffner, of Heffner Performance, has been building turbo-charged exotics for over a decade. We showed you their TT LP-640, and they’ve been having equal success with the new Lamborghini LP-560, with a few breaking the 1000hp barrier.

Well if you know how to build a daily driven TT Lamborghini-the equivalent of giving a real bull some HGH and cocaine right before you hop on- you can probably help the R8 with it’s horsepower deficiency. Using the stock motor, Jason fabricated a custom exhaust system that accepted a pair of Performance Turbocharging turbos. The quality of the work is surgical, the design elegant. The custom-made after-cooler looks  clean, simple and beautiful; you would think Audi had built it themselves.

So what are the results from the world’s first twin-turbo Audi R8? At 6 psi, on pump gas, it made 536AWHP (Click to view Dyno chart) Heffner’s R8 basically makes the same power at the wheels as the ABT and MTM cars do at the crank. That is not to say the other cars aren’t incredible, they are. With instant power and torque, they let the R8 to keep it’s V8 “feel”. The Heffner turbo system simply takes this docile supercar and turns it into an absolute weapon. Lag appears to be minimal, and the sound is as good as ever. The sound of the blow-off valve surrounded by a thunderous bombardment of V8 is truly awesome. And if that doesn’t fix your addiction for power, you can pour in some 100 octane juice and transform your car into a 600AWHP, sub-11 second missile.

Whether you prefer turbos or superchargers is a matter of personal preference and the goals you have for the car. But no matter which route you take, adding some extra air to you R8 is a very good thing. What made the R8 the “perfect supercar” was it’s ability to handle any task you wished, whether it was lapping Laguna Seca or getting coffee, with a poise and control not often seen in exotic cars. What the Heffner package does is erase the only complaint ever written in the R8′s work file. It also makes it almost pointless to own anything else. This isn’t merely a daily driver supercar, it’s a daily driver hypercar. With this much power, in this car, there’s no reason to own much else.

-Zack K

Watch the on-road testing here.

The dyno run.

The Smoking Tire heads out to Willow Springs International Raceway to test a friend’s Mitsubishi Evo X, tuned by Road Race Engineering. Is the Evo quick enough to keep up with a Porsche 996 Cup Car? We’ll see…

I go to Cars and Coffee in Irvine, CA, pretty much every Saturday morning, and come home to share photos with you all…. This Saturday was particularly awesome, with some of the best machinery I’ve ever seen in one parking lot. There was a $10 million Ferrari 250GTO, a Porsche 550 Spyder, Porsche Carrera6, Ferrari F50, an Iso Grifo, Toyota 2000GT, and an Intermeccanica Indra, one of only two examples of the “hybrid” Italian/American car ever brought to the US. Additionally, check out the bad-ass chopped Lincoln with the tiniest back window ever, and the white-on-cocaine-white Nissan GTR. The 80′s would be proud of you.

Cars and Coffee Mega-Gallery After the Jump!

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]

We were having some technical issues, so we’re a little late uploading these pics, but better late than never! This past Sunday’s Supercar Sunday was a big hit, just like the first one before it. Some of the highlights included a trifecta of turbocharged Vipers, an Ultima GTR, a Lamborghini Gallardo Valentino Balboni, a beautiful Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, and a Porsche 911 that would easily qualify in the top 5 for ugliest Porsche’s of all time. Mega-gallery after the jump!

The Smoking Tire viewer (and sometimes correspondent) Vinny Russo sent this in from Scottsdale, AZ, where he is enjoying Barrett-Jackson this past week. If you’ve never heard of Local Motors’ Rally Fighter, it’s an interesting bit of kit. Meant to drive anywhere, it’s powered by the twin turbo six from the BMW 335D spinning a 6-speed transmission, with an adjustable height suspension and  and clearly very unique styling (the car pictured is a finished look).

But that’s not the most interesting part. Local Motors is the first auto manufacturer in history to design cars by open committee. People can submit designs, and all design, powertrain, and construction decisions are made online with an open voting process. Furthermore, if you choose to have a car built, they will set up shop wherever you are, and the local community can help building the car. Neat concept, strange looking car.

Source: [Local Motors]

SLS Barrel Roll in a Tunnel

I found this video today, and I will say right now, I believe it is 100% fake. The comments below it on youtube indicate there’s some controversy, so feel free to post your opinion below. I just think there’s a very noticeable difference between this tunnel barrel roll, and the one Jeremy Clarkson did. And if this had really been done, it would have gotten a little more press than a video posting on youtube, because this would be some sort of record. Either way, it looks cool and the car is sick. So put your brain back in “Avatar mode” and enjoy.

At first glance it looks like a 348. And that’s exactly what Ferrari wants you to think: to ward off spy photographers and Nikon-armed ne’er do wells, lurking here underneath the body of one of the more lackluster Ferraris in existence lies the prototype for one of the greatest.

Back in 2000, two years before the Enzo was announced at the Paris Motor Show, three engineering mules M1, M2, and M3 were developed with the intention of transferring high-tech F1 wizardry to the street. It had been something Ferrari had dabbled with in earnest, most notably in the F50, which had an F1-drived engine and suspension bits. And while the engine was the race-honed V12 that would later go in the production car, the all-aluminum F140 good for 660 horsepower, the daddy of the Enzo was actually a mishmash of parts from the Ferrari brain trust: the drivetrain, brakes, and suspension were lifted from the 355 Challenge. The radiator came from a 550. The interior and switchgear was pure 348, while the dashboard was modified to fit the 360′s. And the fenders and hood were custom-made composites: no black canvas Boy Scout tenting here or Razzle Dazzle camouflage here.

Thanks, in part, to that unusual body. Passers by might notice it for a run-of-the mill 348, complemented by generic-looking gold wheels. The elongated rear end might seem a little strange, however. And then, those sneaky car spotters will get close to notice the details: hey, those exhaust pipes are mounted funny. And what’s that giant aluminum thing in the back window?

To be honest, I never was a fan of the Enzo’s styling—it seemed like too many ideas at once, and F1 styling never translates well to the road. (Just look at Mercedes’ attempts, which, as Top Gear pointed out, could be mistaken for something quite rude.) But for some reason, the 348 mule just looks right: somehow, the 80s styling of the 348 translates well to Caminoesque proportions. It’s certainly one of the most well-finished, meticulously detailed and cleverly-disguised prototypes ever built. Owning a (hopefully) priceless piece of Ferrari history doesn’t hurt, either.

The M3 prototype was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2005. We’re not sure which one of the three this one is, but like the M3 it will probably sell for around the same Jay-Leno-attainable price of $236,300, and we’d only be shocked if it didn’t.

And if you play it right, you can trick those gullible journalists into the next Enzo successor. It’s not exactly hard to do.

Ferrari Enzo Prototype for sale: Anamera

- Blake Rong

Supercar Sunday is the “other” weekend car show in Los Angeles, and this morning was the first Supercar Sunday to occur at the new location in Woodland Hills, CA. Over 150 cars showed up this morning, minus mine of course, as I (incorrectly) decided to take my motorcycle. It was freezing cold on the 6AM ride up, 35 miles north of my house, and raining on the way home, but that didn’t seem to stop LA’s exotic car owners. There were at least 5 each of the following, including variants: Ferrari 430, Ferrari 360, Lamborghini Gallardo, Lamborghini Murcielago, Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, Porsche 911. So I left most of those out of the photos, but I did snap a few real gems. Famed collector Bruce Meyer brought an amazing, silver 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. There were 2 Ariel Atoms, 2 Porsche Carrera GT’s,  an AMG SL65 Black Series, a Lamborghini Murcielago SV, a Mercedes CLK DTM, a Ferrari 275 GTB LWB, 2 Ferrari 430 Scuderia Spider 16m’s, a flawless “Starsky and Hutch” Ford Torino, and a street-legal, home-built, Hyabusa-powered, passenger seat-equipped, Formula Race Car.

Photos of all my favorites after the jump.

For those of you who don’t know, Cars and Coffee in Irvine, CA, happens every Saturday from 6 to 9:30 AM. If you’re a car geek, this event is fucking Disneyland. It’s not like any other show, because you can go every single week, never missing a Saturday, and every time you will see something new, something different, something extremely creative, and something you’ve never seen before in your life. This week was particularly good. Some highlights include the Jaguar D-Type, BMW Alpina 3.5 BSL, Renault Clio V6, Ultima Can-Am, and a Delorean that looks particularly good with its bodyside moldings removed. Also note the horrific yellow Diablo with the ricer wing!

Cars and Coffee Mega Gallery after the jump!

Everyone knows that a Veyron is expensive. This isn’t news. What is news is just how expensive. None of us really feel sorry for Veyron owners, despite the fact that a regular service costs more than the price of the average car sold in the US. On the other hand, one Veyron owner has done the math himself, and has decided it’s just cheaper to trailer his Veyron to his favorite roads, and fly there in his private jet, than to simply drive the $1.6 Million dollar car under its own power. Astonishing? You bet, but check out the whole article from Autocar.

**Update** After doing a bit of research, it’s clear to me that he must have a jet-charter membership and doesn’t actually own his own jet, because to simply purchase a decent jet is $3-$5 million, which, if you subtract the cost of a Veyron, leaves $1.4 million left over for maintenance. If this guy truly has that many miles on his Veyron, I will literally kiss his feet, but I doubt it.

[Source: Autocar]

It must be my lucky day, because the odds of seeing not one but two fake Ferrari’s in a single day are significantly smaller than the odds of seeing two real ones, especially in LA, where not a day goes by that I don’t see dozens of exotics. The real ones aren’t even worth photographing anymore.

Here, we have two opposite ends of the spectrum. In this corner, a Firebird dressed up to look like a 308 has gone horribly wrong (and the Machiavelli window decal doesn’t help). It’s daily driven because I’ve seen this one parked in a few different spots around town, and considering the shitbox-ness of the exterior, the interior is in surprisingly good shape.

And in the far corner, a Datsun 280Z with a 250GTO body on it! The latter is executed very well, at first glance it appears to even be the real thing. But the proportions are a bit off and the interior is a bit, well, Datsun. The odds of a small-bore V12 under the hood are somewhere between slim and none, but with the right carbs, exhaust, and tuning, you could conceivably make the Datsun’s Six sound pretty good too.  It may not be the real thing, but someone put a lot of thought and effort into it, and it’s even got a roll cage!

Mark Wahlberg’s Porsche decided to piss oil all over the ground last night outside Madeo restaurant while he ran inside for takeout. I say that’s what you get for driving a base 996 Carrera with an awful body kit.

Thanks, Chris for the tip!

**Update: Our buddy Matt, head of Porsche service at an unnamed dealership, tells us that this is a main seal failure, and the car almost certainly needs a new engine, which costs around $12,500**

[Source: TMZ]

Welcome to Ze Germans Know More Than Us, where we translate German car news before it makes the trip across the pond! Today’s news comes from German Blog Autobild:

Chevy Volt & Ford Fiesta… What do these two cars have in common? They’re both small, economical and American. Gone are the glory days of colossal, rumbling, and seemingly invincible SUVs and trucks. Yeah America still makes pickups and the Hummer is still barely in production. But what if you literally want a tank for the road? What if the Mercedes G-Wagen is just too… pedestrian.

Well, partly in thanks to the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia has the truck (tank?) for you: The Kombat T98. This thing’s name not only harks back to the era when Russian transportation primarily came on tank tracks, but literally makes a Hummer H2 look like a Tonka truck.

Since 2005 the Combat Armoring Group based in St. Petersburg has been building the T98 and it’s variants for Russia and the rest of the world, in addition of course to the military. This January marks the debut of a European destined version assembled in Tallinn, Estonia.

Hand built by 25 employees, only 20 of these behemoths are built per year. The walls and desks of the production facility are decorated not with car art or scale models, but with bullet riddled armored plates, and for good reason. The T98 can stand it’s ground against most anything you can throw at it, even the heavy 12.7 MM NATO machine gun round. All this of course is made possible through using high strength German steel, leading Combat Motoring Group to even openly boast that the T98 is “stronger than the famous Hummer”. Aside from achieving an official armor classification of B6 (able to withstand 7.62 x 51MM ammunition), protection from RPG and land mines is also possible.

Now, the T98 isn’t all about protection, it boasts some nice creature comforts as well. Inside, leather and heated seats are standard

The five ton, 18.37 foot long T98 is powered by a 6.6L GM/Isuzu diesel engine producing 365HP leading to a top speed of 99 MPH. Surprisingly, the T98 still manages 11.7 MPG, mostly thanks to the diesel efficiency. The fastest Tank-Offroad vehicle in the world comes at a price though: $203,447.86 to be exact (140,000 Euros).

[Source: Autobild]

When we drove the PES Tuning Supercharged Audi R8 back in June, many people wondered why they didn’t simply strap a twin-turbo set up on the thing and be done with it. At the time, PES representatives told us that they wanted a more even power delivery throughout the entire powerband, and that turbocharging would make the engine feel “laggy.” I can’t necessarily counter that argument, but with 536 Wheel Horsepower on tap, Heffner Performance’s attempt at a TT setup for the R8 seems to be a total success. Got a 100-octane pump in your neighborhood? That figure jumps all the way up to 600 Wheel Horsepower, or a low-10 second quarter mile time. Yay forced induction!

[Source: WorldCarFans]

I’ve heard of some crazy sleepers in my day, but this one takes the cake. An average man from a sleepy village in England decided one day he wanted to go 200mph. Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s and Gumperts were out of his price range, so he simply did what so many Americans do in their garages every weekend: he built his 200 mph car himself. His starting point? The Rover SD1. His engine? A 27-liter Merlin Tank engine producing 1600 lb/ft of torque at a matching 1600 rpm.

Now, I can totally understand the Blastolene concept of building a crazy hot rod around a crazy tank/airplane/warship/helicopter/tractor engine, but this is truly the ultimate sleeper. A Rover, with more than double the Torques of a Bentley Brooklands,  and with nearly 4 times the displacement of a Corvette Z06, is simply batshit. Half the engine fits in the engine bay, the other half rides shotgun. We at The Smoking Tire salute you, sir.

[Source: PPCMag.com]

Thanks, Damien for the tip!

Great day of shooting today with our old buddy Doug from Switchcars.com. You’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to see the episode, but for now here’s a few behind-the-scenes photos. Enjoy!

Improve your Corvette’s performance with a Corvette throttle body from CorvetteGuys.

A few weeks back, we brought you our coverage of the Optima Batteries Ultimate Streetcar Invitational. Well, SPEED TV was there too, and since they don’t move quite as fast as us, their coverage will be airing on January 30th and 31st, obviously on Speed TV. Have a look at the trailer.

Welcome to Ze Germans Know More Than Us, where we take advantage of Dan’s fluency in German to bring you their news before anyone else this side of the pond. On today’s edition, we ponder: Why are the Germans are so good at making horsepower at the expense of styling?

English Translation:

Leave it to the Germans to turn an already fast hyperexotic like the Enzo and give us something truly frightening. Appropriately named the MIG-U1 (since this car will likely feel most at home on deserted runways), the super Enzo makes 700 hp, improving on the stock Enzo’s 660 hp with help of a tuned ECU and pneumatically adjustable exhaust system. The completely redesigned body is completely made of carbon fiber, including front and rear spoilers delivering an added 77 lbs. and 187 lbs. of downforce, respectively, and helps the MIG-U1 afterburn its way to 221 mph.  With only 25 cars to be made, this is one street fighter we won’t likely see cruising through town, and if we do, we’ll be sure to move out of the way of this MIG.

(What I want to know is: How are they going to find 25 Enzo owners willing to do this to their rides? – MF)

MIG-U1 Gallery After the Jump

[Source: Autobild]

I greatly respect Jeremy Clarkson for many reasons. He basically does the best possible version of what I could be doing, and makes a ton of money doing it, but more importantly, he has found a way to drive sports cars for a living, and keep it going for nearly thirty years, all the while expressing his true opinions virtually uncensored. I, for one, can tell you how difficult that actually is, because I’ve just barely scrapped my way through the first 10 percent of that, and some people seem to think I’m successful.

But the bottom line is, there’s a reason that Pearl Jam sounds kind of like The Who, there’s a reason that Beyonce’s hair looks like Diana Ross’s and there’s a reason the The Smoking Tire and Garage419 are often compared to Top Gear. It’s a matter of influence, and clearly, we like what we’ve been watching.

I was astonished to learn, on a recent trip to Wikipedia, exactly how many videos Clarkson has actually produced, independent from Top Gear. “Duel” marks Clarkson’s twenty-first sports car film. I have only seen three, “Thriller,” “Supercar Showdown,” and now “Duel.”

As the name implies, “Duel” attempts to solve some of the burning questions that swirl in the minds of gearheads the world over. It starts off well, with Clarkson and The Stig attempting to find out what the best car is for drifting, but quickly degenerates from there into over-the-top silliness that turns Jeremy into almost a caricature of himself. Of course, there are some hilarious moments, and as you could expect, plenty of vehicular destruction.

A welcome appearance from Tiff and Vicki from Fifth Gear was nearly ruined by the fact that Tiff is such a terrible actor, you could tell the whole gag was scripted, even though he’s quite good at doing car reviews on his own show, but the Stig attempting to flirt with Vicki made up for it.

But here’s the biggest problem wth “Duel.” Every, single car featured in the DVD has already somehow been used for an episode of Top Gear. So, while “Duel” is most certainly funny and a very entertaining hour, is it worth actually going to a store and buying?

Let’s just say I downloaded the torrent.

Jay Leno: Lucky guy. He got to take a trip over to the Dunsfold Aerodrome in England, better known as the Top Gear test track, and brought back with him some very impressive footage of the pre-production supercar in action. This video is interesing enough on its own merits, but, speaking as someone who has watched more than his share of Top Gear in my life, I can say this car is insanely fast, even without a lap timer. The speed at which the P11 negotiates the Hammerhead is absolutely incredible (and I just re-watched the Gumpert Apollo sequence to be sure), and in the rain the test driver nearly loses it going around Gambon, but recovers just in time.

Not many people know this, but before I started doing Garage419, my first show, I worked at Gotham Dream Cars. Believe it or not, Rob from Super Speeders was my boss while I worked there, and we became friends and said eventually we’d work together. Now we have, on Super Speeders 5: Out of Control. Yes, it’s a DVD that you have to buy. But the trailer here is hilarious and if you use the promo code TST09, you can get free shipping on the DVD.

When I first decided I would try to be a “blogger,” the first thing I told myself and Zack, Dan, and Blake, our writers, was that I didn’t want any posts copied or recycled from Jalopnik or Autoblog. That lasted about 3 days, until they wrote about something that meshed with what I think is cool, so here goes:

Jalopnik is reporting that Houston-based DMC, which bought several lifetimes full of parts from Delorean when they went under, has created a right-hand drive version of its “Series II” Delorean cars for a foreign customer. For those who haven’t seen the Series II DeLorean, it’s literally a brand new 1981 DeLorean created entirely from NOS factory parts, except with an upgraded engine producing 197 hp instead of the original DMC’s 130 using new cams, heads, and exhaust. Even though the DMC-12 was originally produced in Ireland, it was designed specifically for the American market, and thus, never came in right-hand drive. The photos look very good, even better than the factory example parked next to it (25 years of aging leather may have something to do with that), and reportedly all that has to be changed is the dash, some carpeting and the A/C system. Seems simple enough, huh? What do you think? Would you shell out $60,000 for a “brand new” Series II DeLorean? How about $25,000 for an original ’81?

WorldCarFans is reporting that German Tuner 9ff has released the first photos and specs of their GT9-R Supercar, a car designed for one specific task: go faster than any other production car. According to 9ff, the GT9-R can reach sixty in 2.9 seconds en route to a 257 mph top speed, 1mph faster than the record-holding SSC Ultimate Aero TT ,hough still not as fast as the Keating TKR, which posted a “pending record” of 260 mph on the Salt Flats.

Only 20 units of the GT9-R will be available, with an endless list of customizeable options to ensure that no two cars are built alike. I don’t know exactly how much boost the 4.0L Flat-six makes, but I’m guessing it’s somewhere between 25 and 30 lbs.  If the GT9-R’s 1120-horsepower is a little too much for you to comprehend, 987 hp and 750 hp versions are also available, but I’d call you a pussy if you bought one.

Welcome to Ze Germans Know More Than Us, where we take advantage of the fact that Dan, our intern, speaks fluent German and can translate German news! This time, Autobild.de brings us the results of the latest Continental Tires/Autobild Tuner Challenge at the Nardo High-Speed Ring.

English Summary:

Once a year Auto Bild Sportscars and Continental Tires join forces to bring us one of the greatest automotive events known to enthusiasts. The High Performance Event at Nardo 2009. 18 cars from 13 different tuners in an all out balls-to-the-wall contest of speed. Together, 11,135 horsepower compete to smash all records. [Anyone do that math? That's an AVERAGE of 618 hp - Ed.]

Now, running 155 mph is something most high performance vehicles can easily do nowadays. However after 155, multiple factors come into play in the quest for speed. Not only engine power, wind resistance and vehicle weight come into play, but also little things like asphalt friction. To somewhat level the playing field, all cars were fitted with Continental tires. In the end, the biggest adversary of speed is Resistance. Did they have the power to fight it? Without further delay, this year’s list of cars and tuners after the jump:

We’re not surprised when a Twin-Turbo Corvette goes 213 mph, or when a 700 horsepower Audi RS6 can hit 208. Hell, the Americans can do that! And then, just when we got bored of high-speed testing, German psycho-tuner Brabus shows up with a v12-powered GLK (the stock form of which we tested, and hated, but there are few problems 700+ horsepower engine won’t solve), and proceeds to run 211 mph, securing themselves the record for the world’s fastest ugly SUV. In all honesty, I may have added the ugly part myself. Then, someone shows up with a VW Eurovan and runs 193 mph! Turns out it’s got a a Porsche 997 Turbo drivetrain swap. Nice.

ABT Audi RS6 – 700 hp – 335 km/h – 208 mph
ABT Audi R8 – 560 hp – 314 km/h – 196 mph
AC Schnitzer ACS3 3.5d – 310 hp – 700 Nm – 516 lb. ft. – 289 km/h – 179 mph
AC Schnitzer ACS4 3.0 – 380 hp – 303 km/h – 188 mph
Lorinser C LV8 313 km/h – 194 mph
Steinmetz OPC 395 hp – 287 km/h – 178 mph
Manhart M3 5.0 V10 – 550 hp – 317 km/h – 196 mph
9ff TR 1000 Fastest car at Nardo 2009 – 376 km/h – 233 mph
9ff Panamera PT 55 – 308 km/h – 191 mph
9ff Speed9 – 650 hp – 288 kmh/h – 178 mph
Hohenester A4 HS 50 G (Twin Turbo V6) – 650 hp – 353 km/h – 219 mph
Brabus GLK V12 – 750 hp – 337km/h – 211 mph
Techart Cayenne Turbo S 680 hp – 321 km/h – 199 mph
GeigerCars Corvette (Twin turbo) – 790 hp – 343 km/h – 213 mph
edo competion Gallardo – 600 hp – 339.8 km/h – 211 mph
edo competion Panamera – 305 km/h – 191 mph
MKB SL 65 Black Series – 751 hp – 1250 Nm – 921 lb. ft. – 330 km/h – 205 mph
TH2 RS (essentially VW Eurovan with a Turbo 911 engine in it)- 780 hp – 311 km/h – 193 mph

The Brabus GLK’s Special high speed wheel covers may be carbon fiber and add 20mph

on the top end, but they can’t fix ugly.

On an episode of last season’s Top Gear, the trio went on a search for the biggest car bore: the sort of man who can tell the difference between the K-series and G-series Porsche 911E based on year of production and factory camber adjustments. At the classic car rally they dug up a few worthy of the title, but eventually concluded that it was none other than James May himself. (Watch the video on Top Gear’s site here.)

Well, now they may have found their match.

“It had to be a car from January 1993 to August 1993, because after that they changed the name from 600SL to SL600, and I preferred the script of the old lettering, which wasn’t italic, but underlined.”

Carsten Günther: airplane pilot, Mercedes aficionado, and the last person to be stuck in a zombie apocalypse with. Talking to Mercedes Enthusiast Magazine in January 2006 about the Mercedes SL73 AMG he fastidiously hunted down, and the SL600 (not 600SL, he’ll be quick to tell you) he owned before that.

Article scanned from German Car Zone, via Jalopnik.

- Blake Rong

When you think of the perfect Lotus Elise, what do you see? I see exactly what rolled out of the factory, it’s incredible, just with more power. In fact, whenever I see a car I like, I almost always say, “If you just did _____ it would be incredible.” Its why guys put V8s in WRXes or think Ford GTs need double the stock hp. Automakers give us what they think is best for us, like the cautious parent giving their kid a bicycle over a dirt-bike. Silly parents. We’re just going to build a rickety ramp and prop it up on the roof…

I think Frank Profera was that kid.  He bought a Lotus, and even put a turbo on it. But it wasn’t enough. He loved the kidney-removal handling, and it was quick, but he wanted more. Frank let his imagination run; Why not add a super-charger? So he did. The car transformed into a 500hp, wide-bodied, 2150lb (with driver!) piece of  insanity. 0-60 is no doubt in the low 3s, and the top speed is more than 180mph, but this car is greater than the sum of its parts. The quality of the work is impeccable, and its set-up perfectly. This car takes the equation 10+10 and gets 100. The pictures from Lateral G Photography give great close up of the attention to detail. The color is questionable, but the performance more than makes up for it. Its awesome (Biblical-flood awesome, not Keanu Reeves awesome).  At no time does the car kick, slide, or stutter. Like dangling a Long-Island ice tea in front of Lindsay Lohan, it does exactly what you want. The power-to-weight ratio will make a Veyron consider Viagra. And you may not love the looks, but you can bet there’s a crowd around it every time it stops. Simply put, it’s the Lotus Elise of dreams.

-Zack Klapman

svronin’s YouTube Channel with 56 more videos like this:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=svronin#p/u

Pics by Lateral G Photography

In the summer of 2008, I took a tour of Jay Leno’s Garage, and interviewed the man himself for over 3 hours about his collection, what he loves about cars, and life. You can find the entire set of interviews over at Fast Lane Daily, though you may have to search a bit, but what you won’t find is my own personal mega-gallery of shots taken inside the garage. I never intended on publishing these photos, but since Jalopnik ran quite a few photos of the inside of the garage yesterday, what’s the harm?

Unedited Leno Mega-Gallery Awesomeness after the jump.

Not only are the cars and bikes absolutely unbelievable, every single one is registered and insured, and in essentially perfect working order. There are steam engines, one of which was owned by Thomas Edison, and a giant steam generator outside to run them all. The large wall paintings, done by NBC’s set designers, correspond to the cars stored underneath them, and the wall space behind every car has memorabilia from each car. He has thousands of model cars, small engines, and a full restoration shop, where he could pretty much build anything from scratch. And he has some fireproof cloth, which he asked my friend to put on while he hit him with the blowtorch. Enjoy!

The Smoking Tire heads out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch once again, this time to check out the world’s first “Destination Dealership,” Switchcars.com. Switchcars’ owner, Doug Tabbutt gives us a tour of his collection and handpicks a few choice favorites to share with us on the road and track.

I hate auto shows. I know how sacrelige that is to say, but they bore me. I’d just rather be driving. So, when it comes to LA Auto Show time, I just gotta make a shady quasi-homosexual appearance on FLD! But watch the whole thing, because in this episode of FLD, D-rock’s energy is just insane….

It’s been too long since I made an appearance on Fast Lane Daily, so when they came out for the LA Auto Show it was only right that I deliver them a Pizza…. on a $16,000 Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200QV!

The Smoking Tire heads out to Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show, where all the major aftermarket and custom manufacturers show up with their latest goods. Host Matt Farah shows off the Best Truck, Best Sports Car, Best Motorcycle, Best Low Rider, Best in Show, and of course, the Worst in Show.

The Smoking Tire demonstrates how to properly wash and detail your car without accidentally ruining your paint. Part 2/2

“There is no charge for awesomeness.”
- Kung Fu Panda

Well, maybe 550,000 Euros.

Lamborghini is not a company known for convertibles, ironically enough. For a line of cars designed to be the most outrageous, attention-grabbing Freudian extensions known to man, there’s not been a single car designed from the onset to show off your Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and let your hair extensions blow freely in the humid Miami sun. After all, what’s more attention-grabbing than driving a car that exposes you to gawkers, the elements and pigeon droppings alike? If attention is what you crave (and it’s surely what Lamborghini owners crave) surely a convertible would only add to the insanity.

But unlike Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari and even Koenigsegg, Lamborghini’s open-air dream machines been half-assed on a scale known only to the builders of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Lamborghini’s entire engineering process consists of taking a Sawzall to the center of their latest and greatest and leaving owners a Boy Scout pup tent and some matchsticks to cover up the gaping hole. Oh sure, the marketing materials can go on about “rigidity” and “balance,” but when the owner’s manual tells you that the awkward-fitting canvas top is only meant for “emergencies,” “not to be driven over 100mph,” and “may be susceptible to spontaneous combustion,” you know the fine people at Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. just plain don’t frega un cazzo.

This special Lamborghini Countach follows the Lamborghini convertible strategy to a tee—well, aside from a few differences, such as the fact that it’s an aftermarket conversion and Lamborghini had nothing to do with it. The principle is still there: how do you make one of the most outrageous cars in the world even more outrageous? Take the roof off, and give it to Sir Rod Stewart.

In fact, the radness of the car featured here can only be counted scientifically lest we risk blowing people’s minds. What we know is this:

1. The Countach is, arguably, the most legendary of Lamborghinis, already the raddest of cars.
2. Open-topped cars are awesome by nature. (See: early Ford Broncos, any Trans Am, etc.)
3. It was owned by “The Rod,” who was such a rock titan the Queen had him knighted.

This trifecta of unholy earth-shattering celebrity-touched coolness can be yours, mere mortal, for a 550,000 Euro asking price from French dealer Autodrome Paris. For those of us keeping score in the Colonies, that’s $825,242.02 dollars, give or take a few McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers. What do you get for all that lettuce?

You get a fine example from Mardikian Engineering, founded by Californian entrepreneur Al Mardikian. During the Dark Ages of strangled emissions controls, Mardikian made a tidy profit restoring European exotica to their rightful power outputs, uprating Porsche 911 Turbos and Ferrari 308s past their European counterparts while balancing the nefarious government emissions regulations. His other side projects at his laboratory included turbocharging Rolls-Royce Camargues, providing the Corvette-based Ferrari Daytona replicas for Miami Vice, inspiring Tom Cruise’s character in the film Rain Man, and going to prison for tax evasion. If the 80s were embodied in one person, it would have been the love child of Mardikian and Burt Reynolds.

Mardikian’s masterwork was this 1977 Countach LP400 Spider. It featured a removable roof that presumably came with a list of personal-injury attorneys to call in case of installation mishaps. The regular Countach’s miserable mail-slot side windows also became detachable, leaving only a “roadster” window extending halfway up the sides. Mardikian’s brochure cover featured it with the infamous LP400S wing and larger gold wheels, which have subsequently been removed in the never-ending quest for good taste. The result is a startlingly sleek barchetta that bridges the gap between Gandini’s original futuristic design and the cheesy fender-flared excesses of the Cannonball Run days.

How do you make an outrageous car even more outrageous? What a difference lopping off the roof section makes: it transforms a special car, already given to excess, to even more of it. Is it any wonder that a rock star like Rod Stewart would own something like this, flying about the South of France in leather Spandex and leopardskin shirt open to his navel, grinning wildly and speeding too fast while Britt Ekland clutches his leg for dear life?

And now, for a meager, negotiable* sum, you can live the dream.

*Negotiable only for your soul.

“The Mythical Rod Stewart’s” Lamborghini Countach LP400 Spider

- Blake Rong

Stopped by Lamborghini of Beverly hills only to find the three newest animals in the Lamborghini fleet waiting for me. Thought I’d share with you…. I particularly like the LP-650-4 Roadster, with it’s astronomical price tag and its yellow paddle shifters!

The Smoking TIre meets up with Samuel Hubinette at El Toro Marine Air Base for an autocross lesson. The problem is, the Corvette was in the shop so we had to use a Semi Truck.

Here’s our second viewer-submitted video. This one comes from Lukas Siewior, a viewer from New York, and features 40+ Lamborghini’s tearing up the highway. Beware: There is techno music.

Our good friend Craig Lieberman started making videos right around the same time as we started making the old show. His first hit, Bikini Driving School, featured very little driving, and no school at all, but lots and lots of bikinis, which is hardly a bad thing. Now he’s back, making the kind of porn we care about, car porn. And here’s what happens when you strap twenty-something cameras to a bunch of beautiful Spykers, including the new C8 Aileron!

(prospective contributors take note, this is the kind of video we want to run on The Smoking Tire!

The Smoking Tire takes to the track in the baddest R8 yet, Project Raptor by Performance Outfitters and PES Tuning. Host Matt Farah puts the Raptor through its paces at New Jersey Motorsports Park to find out if a supercharger makes for a faster car than a couple of extra cylinders.