Lamborghini Super Trofeo hits the racetrack for first test

Filed under: Motorsports, Supercars, Lamborghini

Click above for high-res image gallery of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo

Lamborghini has officially tested the Gallardo Super Trofeo on the Vallelunga Race Track near Rome, and according to the Italian exotic-maker, the car destined to populate the brand's one-make racing series is the fastest one-make car ever to lap that particular track. Lamborghini goes on to stretch the worth of this accomplishment by referring to its Super Trofeo Series as the "fastest single-brand competition". Who knows, it may very well be. Regardless, we'll get to see the first running of these bulls on May 2, 2009 at Silverstone for the inaugural race.

The Gallardo Super Trofeo is based on the LP 560-4 model and powered by that car's 5.2L direct-inject V10 tuned to produced 570 horsepower. All that power is tamed by Lamborghini's e.gear six-speed "robotized" gear box and permanent all-wheel-drive. In addition, the suspension has been track tuned by Lamborghini, the wheels are wrapped in competition Pirellis, the brakes have been upgraded, the rear wing is adjustable and the interior features a lightweight racing seat and steering wheel. It sounds like a gentleman racer's dream.

Gallery: Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo

[Source: Lamborghini]

Continue reading Lamborghini Super Trofeo hits the racetrack for first test

Lamborghini Super Trofeo hits the racetrack for first test originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 |  | 

Related posts:

• Dodge Readies Nitro Panel Van Concept
• Ferrari F430 Car Profile
• GM officials expressed their urgency for a financial aid expressing that ...
• It’s Not Just About Length, It’s How You Use It!
• Jaguar XJ 3.0 V6 Petrol Technical Specification Performance 0 to 60 mph ...

Related posts:

• The Manifolds of ‘08
• Audi A8 Car Profile
• Aston Martin DBS: The Synthesis of Raw Power
• That’s not good, especially if you’re a busy person with friends/clients/significant ...
• Four Will Enter, One Will Leave: The Final Two

eBay Find of the Day: Rolls-Royce RR4 already for sale

Filed under: Aftermarket, Auction Action, Rolls-Royce

Click above for image gallery of this RR4 Replica

That treasure trove of appalling autodom described in the most gnarled English imaginable, otherwise known as eBay Motors, serves up today's flavorful morsel of weird and wonderful. Why wait for the upcoming Rolls-Royce RR4 when you can just throw $50K at this heavily customized Chrysler 300C? It's got the ostentatious grille, the suicide doors, the RR embroidered headrests, but most importantly, a HEMI V8 underhood. HEMI, apparently now transmuted to mean "multi-displacement system," will save you fuel as you rent the car out for the dreamy rate of $750 per day as the seller suggests. At least with a Chrysler lurking underneath all that nasty, you can be assured that repair costs will be nominal compared to the real thing.

Gallery: Fake RR4

[Source: eBay Motors via TTAC]

eBay Find of the Day: Rolls-Royce RR4 already for sale originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read |  |  | 

Related posts:

• Car Industry Still Competitive—in Race to the Bottom
• Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 by Edo Competition
• Last month will go down in the record books as the first month that Detroit's ...
• Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked ...
• American history read in dealership nameplates, part 2: The junkyard crawl

Related posts:

• Tata and Chrysler's GEM plan electric delivery vehicle
• Chrysler's Aggressive Lease Plans
• Chrysler Town & Country: 25 Years Of Innovation
• Some 2007 Chryslers Already Seeing Incentives
• 2007 Chrysler Sebring: My Take

Audi R8: In-car video at Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Fasten your seat belt when you watch this great in-car video of an Audi R8 taking a hot lap around the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg! Great movie. A must see.MyFoxTampaBay producer Emily Stone went for around the track at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg-- in a $115,000 Audi. How was the ride? Fast isn't the word for it.Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Audi R8Source: My Fox

Related posts:

• Military Inspired Collection of Flat Black Exotic Cars
• It’s Not Just About Length, It’s How You Use It!
• Audi Q7 V8 4.2 FSI: Road test from Australia
• Bond's Best Rides
• Killer Deals on Automobiles

Related posts:

• Mitsuoka Galue S50 Limo Is Executive Enchantment On Wheels [Mitsuoka Galue S50 Limo]
• Swarovski Covered Mercedes-Benz SL600
• Toyota Recalls 30,000 Scion tCs
• BMW Perfomance accessories goes live with new video
• [Video] Top Gear Test Drives the VW Golf GTI W12 650

It’s Not Just About Length, It’s How You Use It!

Size has always been a big issue to me with respect to vehicles. To quote Lemmy from Motorhead: “it’s not how big your pencil is, it’s how you write your name”. And at 6’4”, I’m sick of finding that even big cars and SUVs have insufficient interior space to allow someone to sit behind me without knees or feet in my back.

Seemingly every single time I interact with an automotive media representative or car salesman I’m told how fitting in a specific vehicle will be “no problem”. Sometimes, they’ll even cite interior dimensions statistics, which most automotive journalists will tell you are inherently useless, due to the lack of standards in how they are calculated.

Much to their amazement, when I get in and adjust the seat and tell them to get in and sit behind me, it usually becomes crystal clear that their vehicle (like most cars, trucks and SUVs offered for sale around the globe) is abysmally tight on the inside.

The most egregious example is GM’s Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade ESV line. At 224 inches nose-to-tail, the Suburban/XL/ESV are gargantuan behemoths of Jabba the Hut proportions. Even the 130-inch wheelbase is sickeningly long. Still, when I dropped my butt into one two weeks ago and moved the seat back to an appropriate driving position, there wasn’t ample room to put my nearly six-year-old daughter behind me in a booster seat, much less a full-sized adult.

GM has been the gold-standard for big on the outside, small on the inside for over a decade. Due to the cost-cutting nature of the vehicles, interior design has traditionally lacked. Where this has been most apparent is in the sheer girth of the front seats, which have been thicker than the necks on the security guards protecting the stage at OzzFest.

Quite simply, if the seats are thick, that takes away knee, leg and foot room from the person sitting in the next row. I first noticed this back in 1994 with a Cadillac STS, and it has plagued nearly all of GM’s vehicles since. To be fair to GM, though, the Chrysler 300-platform sedans are also serious offenders of the big on the outside, small on the inside, huge through the seat-back problem.

The other size-related issue is that vehicles out there simply aren’t nearly as large as they need to be to fit what they claim they can. The current Toyota Camry is 189-inches long with a 109-inch wheelbase and the Honda Acord is 194/110 and each seats five. The 1977 Buick Le Sabre (the Accord/Camry of its day) in which I spent so many years riding in the back seat to middle and high school was over 200-inches long, but had a 116 inch wheelbase on its way to seating six.

Where this all becomes very interesting is that modern SUVs and crossovers try to fit three rows of seats and up to eight passengers in package no larger than a Camry or Accord! For instance, a Volvo XC90 is only 189 inches long — two inches shorter than the tight five-passenger S80 sedan. In other words, this crossover SUV is actually five-inches shorter than an Accord, yet tries to fit seven passengers via a third row. The only way it does it is at the expense of front and rear leg room.

Furthermore, would you really feel safe putting your kids in a seat in the trunk of a Camry? That’s essentially what you do when driving most crossover and small SUVs!

Unfortunately, the only cars that seem to offer a sufficient amount of second seat legroom these days are the long wheelbase executive sedans, such as the BMW 750Li, Audi A8L, Mercedes S550, Hyundai Genesis, and Toyota Avalon. The BMW, Mercedes and Audi are all around $100,000, while the Hyundai is over $40K and Toyota over $30K. On the SUV side, there’s the Ford Expedition and Nissan Armada, but at $50,000 when optioned with Accord-level equipment, they represent the same quality-price-value proposition as dinner at Red Lobster.

Space management — it’s not just for studio apartments anymore!

Related posts:

• Dodge Readies Nitro Panel Van Concept
• Ferrari F430 Car Profile
• GM officials expressed their urgency for a financial aid expressing that ...
• BMW X5 M Sport
• Jaguar XJ 3.0 V6 Petrol Technical Specification Performance 0 to 60 mph ...

Related posts:

• The Neiman Marcus BMW Catalog: Neiman Marcus Product: 2009 Limited Edition ...
• 2010 Mustang vs. 2010 BMW Z4
• REPORT: BMW M boss Segler says no M7 model is forthcoming
• BMW Hydrogen 7 goes All-Gas. Hydrogen, that is.
• BMW considering offering M3 GT4 to gentlemen racers

VW Touareg R50 Unveiled with 313 HP and 553 lb.-ft. of Torque

Volkswagen is going to unveil a new high-performance version of the Touareg SUV at the Australian International Motor Show. VW claims that the Touareg R50 will be one of the most powerful SUVs on the market.

Related posts:

• AutoblogGreen for 11.20.08
• VW microcar gets fast-track to production
• VIDEO: The opposite of hypermiling - BMW M3 vs Toyota Prius

Related posts:

• T he GreatRobot Race on PBS last night the entire enterprise has taken ...
• When looking to buy a car, know what you want, and follow some of these ...
• Best and Worst Car Ads of 2008
• Currently, gas costs an average of $3.48 per gallon.
• [Video] Top Gear Test Drives the VW Golf GTI W12 650

Bentley Brooklands: Already half sold out!

Great news for Bentley: the Bentley Brooklands is already half sold out!What Bentley says is the world's most exclusive coupe made its North American debut in New York with the news that in the four weeks since customers first viewed Brooklands, more than half of the first year's production of about 140 cars are now reserved. During its three-year production lifetime, Bentley will limit

Related posts:

• 2010 Volvo S80
• Filed under: EV/Plug-in , Mitsubishi , PSA , Peugeot The iMiEV , the ...

Related posts:

• Consumption is the Greatest Plague in the Alt.Fuel Debate
• Transformers Unleashed on the Big Screen and Gaming World
• Top Gear 13×01 Out Now
• Top Gear Season 12 Starts Tonight On BBC America
• Another Faked Jump? This Time with a Koenigsegg CCX

Will the Feds Give You $5,000 to Help Buy a New Car?

Will the government give you $5K to get rid of this?

Finally, an idea that has potential to help consumers buy cars!

We’ve heard endless stories about the government helping the automakers and the automakers offering vouchers to employees… but up until now there’s been very little help for you and me in buying a new car.

And really, nothing’s going to help automakers more than making it easier for us to buy cars.

A “Cash for Clunkers” plan has been introduced by Representative Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) and co-sponsored by Representatives Bruce Braley (D-IA), John Dingell (D-MI), and Candice Miller (R-MI). Officially known by the convenient acronym Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act, it would provide vouchers of between $3,000 and $5,000 to consumers who trade in vehicles at least eight years old for ones that get better fuel economy.

A few limitations are attached to the proposed bill, including a stipulation that the new car must be assembled in North America and achieve 27-30 mpg on the highway. Also, the car must cost less than $35,000.

I’ve been known to voice my opposition to federal bailout money for the automakers, but this is an idea I can get behind. It accomplishes three things:

1. Stimulates the economy by investing in citizens, not companies
2. Helps convince consumers to buy from companies who build cars in North America (not limited to the Big Three)
3. Has a positive impact on the environment by getting older cars off the road (traded-in cars must be scrapped under the CARS act, not resold).

According to Consumer Reports, a similar measure in Germany has resulted in a 21% increase in auto sales. That’s something automakers in the U.S. would love to see!

If your car was at least 8 years old and the government gave you $5,000 toward a new car, would you trade in your current car?

-tgriffith

Related posts:

• Pics Aplenty: 2009 C3R Retro Corvette Stingray
• Car of the Year?
• Last month will go down in the record books as the first month that Detroit's ...
• 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL [Down On The Street]
• In the recent weeks, the company has announced to the public that it will ...

Related posts:

• 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS
• 2009 Zagato Perana Z One
• Chevy V8 Engine = BBQ Grill
• Corvette ZR1 hits up Nurburgring with lap times in the low 7:40s
• GM: No Chevy Volt pricing until mid to late 2010, could sell first cars on eBay

VW microcar gets fast-track to production

Filed under: Economy, Hybrids/Alternative, Euro, Green, Volkswagen

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Volkswagen up! concept

European manufacturers seem to have been taken aback by the recent success of their microcars. Now that consumers have gotten a taste of what life is like when you're choosing between filling your tank or your stomach, industry insiders are predicting that the microcar category will only pick up steam. Daimler is sitting pretty with its smart brand, BMW is working on a city-spec Isetta revival, Toyota has responded with its diminutive iQ and VW went small with its Up! concept cars. But VeeDub's got even smaller ideas on its corporate mind, working on an smaller city car to slot below its already dinky Up! model.

Power for the city car will come from either a 1.2L four cylinder or an oil-burning three-pot. That gasoline engine is expected to feature cylinder cutoff technology so it can operate on just half of its allotment of pistons when full power isn't necessary. All of that adds up to an estimatged 117 miles per gallon. And naturally, an electric drivetrain is also in the works.

Current rumors indicate that the German automaker has given this new model priority status, working to get the car on UK roads by 2011. It all sounds good so far, minus the name: Chico. We're confident that they can think of something better.

[Source: Autocar]

VW microcar gets fast-track to production originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read |  |  | 

Related posts:

• AutoblogGreen for 11.20.08
• VW Lupo: Preview of the second generation!
• VIDEO: The opposite of hypermiling - BMW M3 vs Toyota Prius
• Awesome: Porsche Design P9521 Cellphone

Related posts:

• Italy not on board with French/German CO₂ agreement
• 2009 BMW 3-Series Spy Photos...The 3-Series Gets a Sportier Look
• Ford Focus and C-MAX get to PowerShift in the UK
• LA 2008: Kia's Soul-ful debut
• The Cost of Soy Beans Slowing BioDiesel

Reducing Roads Could Boost Nation's Number One Threat...Bears! [Roads]

A study conducted by biologists Scott Nielsen and Mark Boyce at the University of Alberta indicates if road density is not reduced in logging areas, the grizzly population may continue its decline in the Canuckian province. Apparently, roads in and out of logging areas increase the animals' risk of death though human-bear conflict, vehicle-caused collisions, poaching and displacement from feeding and habitat areas. It's estimated there are currently less than 500 grizzly bears in Alberta. You know what this means people — we can't let up. We must build more logging roads in Alberta. Come on people, remember, we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here from taking our honey and picnic baskets. [Physorg]

Related posts:

• Ventross GT­-R R35 Skyline: Limited Edition

Related posts:

• GreenGT: The Future Of Racing
• Smoking Hot: April Scott
• Crash of the Week: Hilarious Four-Wheeler Mishap
• Photos: Zagato’s Maserati GranSport
• [Video] Gold Lamborghini LP640 World Record: 219mph!!!