bugatti

What better way to celebrate a storied past of racing heritage than unveil a quartet of paint-and-chrome, never-gonna-see-a-track-day Bugatti Veyron Centenaires at the uber-snooty Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este?he fraternal quadruplets are decked out in the colors of some of Bugatti’s most successful racers, who drove the legendary Type 35 to well over 2,000 wins during its decade of operation. The white one matches the car driven by Hermann zu Leiningen, blue for Jean-Pierre Wimille, Malcolm Campbell in green and Achille Varzi in red. No word on whether these examples will be for sale, but considering the ready market in the United Arab Emirates, we’d be shocked if they sat in the Bugatti headquarters for long.

aston martin

Showing off the completed interior and exterior in one place for the first time, the super expensive Aston Martin One-77 won the design award for concept cars at Villa d’Este this weekend.The £1.2 million supercar is suffering from exchange rate fluctuation-itis. Back in March it would have cost you just $1.4 million freedom dollars, but now, with a stronger pound, one of the 77 7.3-liter, 700+ HP V12 Astons will set you back a whopping $1.75 million. Bet you wished you’d placed your order earlier, don’t you?

Aston Martin One-77 wins top design award at the Concorso d’Eleganza, Villa d’EsteGaydon, Warwickshire 26 April 2009. At its world debut this weekend, the Aston Martin One-77 has won the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.

Following the Geneva Auto Salon in March, where the technical illustration was first shown, the rolling chassis has since been completed by hand into the first car presented at Villa d’Este this weekend.

At its first public unveiling in the perfect setting of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, the first complete One-77 was on show. Visiting public were invited to cast their vote for the best concept and prototype. Among eight entries from around the world, the Aston Martin One-77 was voted the best in class, eclipsing the competition with more than 30% of the total votes.

Admiring crowds viewed One-77 in its entirety for the first time. The car was showcased complete with running powertrain and the never seen before, fully hand-crafted interior.

Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez said: “Embodying everything Aston Martin stands for; the One-77 has proven itself as the most desirable automotive art form at its premiere today.

“We have achieved a new level of design and craftsmanship which has been clearly recognised by the public here in the homeland of design at Villa d’Este.”

Aston Martin Design Director, Marek Reichman said: “To win this award at its first showing is a testament to the Aston Martin team and the original concept. Winning here today has proven One-77 as a benchmark in automotive design.”

toyota

Are you painfully introverted? Need a car to break out of your shell? It’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe time, and today we have a Supra that’ll turn you from shy to fly.

The Toyota Supra is an enigma among the brand’s models- it has an actual personality, and more flair than an entire Tchotchke’s franchise. A stock Supra might be enough to get you noticed by the dragons, but this ricer goes 5 steps further with a J-lo body kit and enough engine mods for a tire-shredding 635 Kiso. That heavily breathed upon 2JZ-GTE is backed up by sufficient TRD and other aftermarket parts to to keep you in acronyms for months, and the whole thing is backed up by a seller-claimed $85,000 in receipts. Some of those receipts will likely be for the paint job, which is as loud as we’d imagine that trashcan exhaust to be. This car is not for shrinking violets, or Q-ship captains, or witness protection stoolies. It’s loud and proud and could be the perfect Gran Turismo to fulfill your Need for Speed, no matter which Midnight Club you call your own.

So, is $43,995 a Nice Price for an in your face, lampshade on its head, life of the party, Supra? Or do you vote Crack Pipe for this too-much Toyota?

red gold SLR

When we saw the Red Gold SLR this morning, we had no idea its creator would become our new hero. He even keeps shots of his model girlfriend’s boobs on his gold-plated laptop. NSFW

Ueli Anlicker lives in Winznau, Switzerland where he own a museum devoted to his red and gold custom cars and motorcycles, a Thai restaurant, a disco club complete with Playstation 3, on which guests can play Formula One games, a café lounge, and his own modern art/design studio.Ueli Anlicker’s first Ferrari was a 246 Dino, but he later owned a custom 550 HP Ferrari 512 BB that he once drove to 205 MPH, nearly making it the fastest car on earth. He also once built a 180 HP Honda CBX1000 that he also drove to 205 MPH.

corvette

The 2010 Chevy Corvette is keeping up with the Nissan GT-R with a “Launch Control” system on the entire range of manual transmission Vettes. Best part? Unlike the GT-R, it won’t void your warranty.

We’ve already seen the 2010 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport revealed at the 2010 Corvette seminar at the National Corvette Museum’s C5/C6 Bash, but that’s not the only thing Corvette’s Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter revealed. He also went into detail about the new Launch Control option — meant to optimize performance on a drag strip — that will be standard on all manual transmission 2010 Corvettes. The best part is unlike the Nissan GT-R launch control, this system won’t void your warranty if you use it. We like.

Basically, put the ‘Vette into competitive mode and the system will, based on the car you have — whether base coupe or ZR1 — when you put the throttle to the floor, it won’t redline, instead, it’ll hit a predetermined RPM level and then when you dump the clutch, you’ll take off. It’ll potentially help you get, on the Z06 for instance, a 3.65 second 0-to-60 time — an extra half-a-tenth of a second off the 3.7 second official 0-to-60 time on the Z06 — every single time. We really like.

Speaking of “really like” — it sounds as though, if you check out the second video, that Corvette fan-boys and Corvette engineers both heart Jalopnik as much as we heart the 2009 Corvette ZR1.

ferrari

You don’t necessarily have to consign yourself to minivan hell when you have kids. Lamborghinis and Ferraris make for lovely ways to transport a growing family. Here’s how.On a lovely autumn day in 2006, I folded myself out of the back seat of my friend Larry’s Lamborghini Espada and had a revelation: I have just found the perfect family car.

Orosz, get your head out of the mushrooms, you might be thinking, the Espada is a 40-year-old Italian rustbucket, but see, it all makes sense. The car is Marcello Gandini’s trickiest design—the svelte coupé profile obscures two flawless, roomy back seats, either of which will accommodate my 6′2″ frame with ease. Fitting a child seat in there would be a walk in the park.

The Espada also makes a very pleasing noise, is not very expensive at around $40,000 for a driveable example and most importantly, it comes with a cubic mile of style. Based on my rudimentary knowledge of developmental neurophysiology, a child exposed to such a stylish means of transport in her formative years will develop impeccable taste. And a sense for the benefit of extreme speeds.

family ferrari

To test my theory, I went for a stroll in Knightsbridge, London’s perhaps poshest neighborhood. Specifically, the streets around the famous department store Harrods, where the local ultra-rich do their weekend shopping.The first car I ran into that fit the bill was a midnight blue Ferrari 456. This is very similar to the Espada in that there is a V12 up front, two doors on the sides and four seats on the inside. Ferrari introduced it in 1992 as the replacement for that eyesore 400 and made around 3000 of them until the 612 Scaglietti took the stage as Ferrari’s resident leviathan.

It’s a beautiful, compact car, and in spite of the fact that the good people of Knightsbridge receive ultra-high doses of supercar every single day, it still drew looks. The inside is your typical all-leather Ferrari affair—but it showed no signs of occupation by minors. Little wonder: the rear seating area is way less voluminous than that of the Espada. You would need to have kids with very short limbs to feel comfortable back there.

The Knightsbridge crowd thought the same: a couple stopped by to consider it as perhaps their next family ride, but upon seeing the interior, they promptly walked off.

Of course unless you have twins or more than one child, you won’t need a four-seater right away, and if you live in Knightsbridge, your spouse probably has her own supercar. What you need is a grand tourer. And show me a grander tourer than the Ferrari 599 GTB.

It was parked in front of the World’s Easternmost Krispy Kreme Franchise: a favorite haunt for those who have gotten hooked on this wonderful Southern suspension of fat and sugar, yours truly amongst them.

And here, in the tantalizing cloud of frying donuts, my theory was proven. In the passenger seat of the Ferrari was installed a child seat! Pardon the lack of a polarizing filter:

Unlike the Espada, the 599 is definitely not a reasonable choice. You will be charged a quarter million dollars to own this rocketship with its archways of aerodynamics. But consider: putting your child through a good college and graduate school runs up a tab very much in that neighborhood—and there’s no guarantee that she’ll have a happy and productive time.

Alternatively, you can spend that money on a 599. Her hearing will develop in a vat of high-strung V12 engine noise. Her sense of balance will be trained by the sudden instances of acceleration and deceleration produced by the 611 horses up mid-front and the humongous carbon ceramic brakes in the corners. She will smell gasoline and premium leather. All in all, the perfect way to nudge her central nervous system in the right direction.

As I was considering all this, the smell of Krispy Kremes became overpowering. I followed my zombified brain inside and introduced four glazed donuts into my body. A few minutes later, giddy with the sudden overload of sugar, I stumbled outside to see the Ferrari already gone. Inside traveled a small child, her brain happily soaking up every component of that magic which Ferraris are made of, constructing all the right synapses for a balanced adulthood.

lamborghini&hyundai

A Lamborghini Murcielago rear-ended a much slower-moving Hyundai Sante Fe on Seattle’s I-5 freeway on Monday. Nobody was hurt, but we have the latest unfortunate coupling to add to the car sex archives.Nobody was injured in the accident, but we suspect the Sante Fe was stopped in morning traffic and the Lambo owner wasn’t paying attention, perhaps distracted by in-car entertainment. In any case, the automotive coupling will likely result in a Korean-Italian crossover with a FWD V12 and lumpy bodywork. The Lamborghini claims it was a late night at the bar when the two met, there were tequila shots involved and it doesn’t remember how it got into this situation.

bugatti

Volkswagen, things with Bugatti are getting out of hand. Stop it! Inventing special editions like the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Centenaire, to be unveiled in commemorative colors, isn’t a substitute for building a new car.These colorful cars apparently commemorate the racing careers of Grand Prix drivers Jean-Pierre Wimille, Achille Varzi, Malcolm Campbell and Hermann Zu Leiningen, and mimic the livery of each respective driver’s car. These Centeniares will bow at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, likely to the sound of their owners hands clapping. We’re thinking the Veyron is beginning to seriously jump the shark with all these special editions. Something is wrong when news about one of the worlds most powerful and exclusive cars is tiresome and boring.

corvette

Absent since the C4’s demise, the Corvette Grand Sport is back for 2010, this time sporting wider Z06 bodywork, larger brakes and the option of either a Coupe or Convertible. Another commemorative sticker package? Not-so-much.

We know what you’re probably thinking and to be perfectly honest, we were thinking it too. This is not another commemorative package, nor is it a sticker package, instead the 2010 Corvette Grand Sport is a bonafide performance package that will help to distinguish the different Corvette models even more so.

Chevrolet’s plan is to rid the lineup of the Z51 package Vettes, instead replacing it with a uniquely designed new Grand Sport model. Everything that you know and love about the Z51 will be here, but now, with the help of new Z06-derived bodywork you won’t be confused with those driving lesser base-model Vettes.he 6.2-liter LS3 V8 remains, pumping out the same extremely capable 430 horsepower and 424 lb-ft or torque (436 horsepower and 428 lb-ft with the optional two-mode sport exhaust) and is easily manipulated to do your bidding through either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. The Grand Sport’s calipers are distinguished by their silver with red lettering and the rotors have been enlarged to Z06-spec, 14-inch with six-piston calipers in front and 13.4-inch with four-piston grabbers in the rear. Also equipped are revised shock/spring settings and heavier duty stabilizer bars. The 2010 Grand Sport rides on unique 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels wrapped in sticky 275/35ZR18 and 325/30ZR19 tires, front and rear.

For those that opt to equip their Grand Sport with the six-speed manual transmission, Chevrolet will throw in a dry-sump oiling system, differential cooler and a rear-mounted battery. All-in-all, these improvements should net an enthusiastic 2010 Grand Sport driver with a 0.2-second improvement over the existing Z51-model.

The Grand Sport can be equipped in either Coupe or Convertible body styles, but regardless of which you choose, you’ll be rewarded with a wider Z06-style front fascia with a Z06 lower lip spoiler, the only thing missing is the scoop on the nose. Z06-width front fenders replace the stock Vette’s with a Grand Sport badge sitting atop dual vertical gills. The rear fenders have been replaced with Z06 units with functional brake cooling ducts. You can have your Grand Sport in any available Corvette color as well as all four different available trim levels (1LT, 2LT, 3LT and 4LT). A heritage package is also available, adding a pair of dual stripes on the front fenders in either silver or red. The interior features special Grand Sport embroidery on the seat head rests.

The 2010 Corvette Grand Sport is publicly being announced at the 12th annual C5/C6 Corvette Birthday Bash at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky this weekend. Pricing is yet to be announced, but expect it to be somewhere around current Z51-package pricing. We’ll take ours in Coupe-spec painted in Le Mans Blue (Okay fine, Jet Stream Blue) with the red stripes please.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/vxdesigns.com/p=359 http://www.vxdesigns.com/2009/04/mercedes-cl65-asma-design/ http://www.vxdesigns.com/2009/04/mercedes-cl65-asma-design/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:07:16 +0000 admin http://www.vxdesigns.com/?p=356 Although BSG’s over, apparently tuner ASMA has other plans with it’s PhantASMA CL65 Wide Body. Prepare yourself, because even with the 735 HP V12, it’s a tour de force of questionable Mercedes tuning. Yes, it’s got a twin-turbo V12 good for 735 HP and 870 lb-ft of torque, yes it’ll do 0-62 MPH in 3.8 seconds and top out at 205 MPH — the hardware isn’t what we’re in a fluster about, it’s the horrifying bodywork they’ve wrapped over the mechanical marvel. Calling this wide body CL a fug monster is like saying the sun is sort of warm. What did we all do as a motoring public to deserve this kind of thing? The terrible part is the majority of the mods look fine, it’s that ghastly grille which ruins it all, ruins it hard. Someone take the sketching pencil away from ASMA.