Naturally aspirated V12, 715hp, four seats - an SUV is not what you would think of when hearing these things. Ferrari has revealed the Purosangue; it's first SUV, and we love it.
When video games come to life! McLaren has announced plans to build (in real-life) the Solus GT, a car inspired by their "Vision GT" creation for Gran Turismo.
When faced with the choice between developing either a coupe or a wagon version of the Cadillac ATS sedan, GM’s luxury-car executive chief engineer Dave Leone recently was quoted as saying “Wagons are only popular in three places—Europe, Australia, and in journalists’ driveways.” Dave may be (totally) right, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop singing the praises of the fast longroof segment. So with that in mind, it should come as little surprise that we’re particularly smitten with VW’s reveal of the Golf R Variant today at the LA Auto Show.
Bentley has been teasing us with an open top grand touring machine based on the Mulsanne platform ever since the Arnage-based Azure bowed out a few years ago. Such a vehicle has yet to appear in showrooms, but that doesn’t mean Bentley has forgotten about the project. The highly exclusive automaker intends to make that clear with the Grand Convertible Concept on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show this year, and while it isn’t a production-ready example, it’s a good indicator that automaker has every intention of moving forward with the droptop if interest is there.
The man himself may no longer be with us, but Caroll Shelby’s legacy of working with Ford to create some serious performance machines lives on with the latest entry into the portfolio, the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang Shelby GT-350. Unlike the previous generation’s Shelby Mustang, the GT-500, the GT-350’s primary objective isn’t massive horsepower numbers and straight line acceleration. Instead, the GT-350 is designed from the ground up to be a road course terror, and this little pony has the goods to carve through corners with the best of them.
Professional rally driver Ken Block and his Hoonigan racing team have returned with the latest tire-destroying showcase of car control theatrics known to man, Gymkhana. For those unfamiliar with the series, now in its seventh official installment (there’s been a few more that apparently didn’t warrant an entirely new episode number), Gymkhana videos feature high speed stunt driving through some treacherous, often urban environments, with feats of drifting prowess that really must be seen to be believed. This time Ken takes us to the streets in and around downtown Los Angeles, and the weapon of choice is a custom built, all-wheel-drive, 845 horsepower 1965 Ford Mustang coupe. It’s absolutely glorious.
VW is bringing a pair of concepts to the Los Angeles Auto Show that both started life as fairly standard Golfs, but while one is more or less steeped in reality, the other was born and bred in the virtual world long before any consideration was made to actually building a physical example of it.
Reiter Engineering, a motorsport firm famous for its Lamborghini Gallardo and Chevrolet Camaro GT3 race cars, is prepping a race-ready version of the KTM X-Bow,…
McLaren has a name for its upcoming sports car, one which is set to go toe-to-toe with the likes of the Audi R8, Porsche 911 GT3. Aptly titled the Sport Series, the new McLaren will be an “entry level” option that’s designed to be more of a sports car than supercar, and the company has now released a solitary image of a prototype Sports Series undergoing testing.
Late last month we got word that the sportiest of all ATS Coupes would be coming to the Los Angeles Auto Show packing a pair of turbochargers, and around the same time, spy photographers captured the ATS-V completely undisguised as it was being unloaded for a photo shoot. Now official shots of the coupe have leaked online, and some specifics about the powertrain have come along for the ride as well.
While we thoroughly enjoyed our recent stint with the R8 V10 Plus, we also noted that the first generation of Audi’s supercar was starting to show some signs that it was ready for a major update. With a new second-generation R8 due out next year that will share substantial portion of its underpinnings with the Lamborghini Huracán (much the way the current car shares tech with the Gallardo), Audi saw fit to give the first generation R8 a proper send-off in the form of the R8 V10 Competition – the most powerful production car in Audi’s history.
Los Angeles creates the ideal backdrop for a curvaceous sports car like the F-Type, which is why Jaguar chose to unveil the striking F-Type Coupe at last year’s LA Auto Show. This year Jaguar will bring the F-Type back to the City of Angeles to showcase several new variants of the F-Type, one of which has now been confirmed as an all-wheel-drive version of the two seater. The British automaker states that AWD is just one of a number of performance enhancements set to debut later this month.
At this week’s SEMA show, drifting luminary Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Ford unveiled the Mustang RTR package which, along with the platform it’s applied to, is all-new for 2015. Along with the requisite visual upgrades, the top-tier Mustang GT RTR gets a big dose of additional grunt – to the tune of 725 horsepower.
While we’re certainly fans of the ATS Coupe in its standard form, and found plenty to like about the CTS Vsport, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a Caddy get the full V treatment. But if these spy shots are any indicator, it looks like the wait is just about over, as the upcoming ATS-V Coupe was spotted completely exposed during a photo shoot ahead of its LA Auto Show debut next month.
The latest buzz around the sports car water cooler is that a refreshed Porsche 911 lineup, due in autumn of 2015, will signal the end of natural aspiration in the Carrera and Carrera S 911s, with a switch to smaller displacement and turbocharging in the name of addressing ever-tightening fuel economy and emissions standards. But in case this comes as a bit of bad news to some enthusiasts, there is a silver lining here.
The Ariel Atom has been distorting faces here in the US since 2008 by way of TMI Auto Tech, the Ariel Atom’s exclusive manufacture in the States since 2008. The 3S, TMI’s newest offering, is US-only version of Atom that falls between the standard 240 horsepower Ariel Atom and the completely bananas supercharged V8 model that cranks out 500 horsepower. But lest you think the 3S might be a performance compromise, let’s take a look at some of the numbers.
Andre Oosthuizen, vice president of marketing for Porsche Cars North America, has confirmed that the oil-burning version of Porsche’s newest five-door will be making its way to the US within the next year or so. Already on sale in Europe and other markets, it’s simply a matter of some minor development and engineering in order to ready the crossover for American showrooms.
While the new M3 sedan and M4 coupe are highly capable on the racetrack and adept at handling daily driver duties, over the years, the steady increase in both physical size and price tags of those cars have caused some hemming and hawing from BMW fans who long for the simpler days of the 2002 and the E30 M3. But fear not, faithful enthusiasts – BMW has not forgotten about you. The M2 is coming, and it’s shaping up to be a very compelling option.
Perhaps best known for the Rally Fighter, a Road Warrior-esque V8-powered high speed offroader, Local Motors recently set their sights on designing a new street legal, track-focused sports car. However, instead of giving Local Motors’ own designers the task of creating the concept, they instead turned to the enthusiast community, holding a design challenge to create a light weight, modular, and affordable sports car based around platform guidelines provided by Local Motors engineers. After receiving more than 200 entries, Local Motors chose the SF-01 Street Fighter, penned by Greg Thompson. Featuring inboard suspension, tubular bodywork, the ability to accept engines ranging from an inline four cylinder to a V8, and some eye catching bodywork, it’s not hard to see how Greg’s concept became a favorite amongst the community and the Local Motors judges.
Like it or not, the automobile is about to change permanently and dramatically. That change will be built upon the transition from driver-operated to driverless cars.
Honoring the 60th anniversary of Ferrari’s North American presence, the Italian automaker has decided to celebrate the occasion by producing a very limited quantity of new open top V12 powered, front engine supercars which will be known as the F60 America. Clad in an appropriately patriotic red, white and blue color scheme, the F60 America will pay homage to another great tradition: Just ten examples are scheduled to be built, as was the case with the 1967 275 GTS4 NART Spider, which car importer Luigi Chinetti specifically requested from Enzo Ferrari for his US clients.
With every lofty claim made and delivered upon, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk inches closer to becoming a modern day Howard Hughes (sans the socially crippling OCD). Back in September, Musk proclaimed that Tesla would be producing fully autonomous vehicles by the close of the decade, an assertion that seemed lofty at best. But at last night’s unveiling of the newest product from Tesla Motors, the all-wheel-drive Model S “D”, not only did Musk unveil the quickest production sedan from 0-60 mph that money can currently buy (in the form of the top-spec P85D), he also debuted the semi-driverless operation features of the new car – features installed in every new car rolling out of the factory as of two weeks ago – by letting each P85D at the event drive itself around a road course set up at Hawthrone Municipal Airport.
Audi research and development board member Ulrich Hackenberg had some choice details to share with the UK’s Car magazine, explaining in no uncertain terms that not only will the new R8 share its platform with the Lamborghini Huracán, it will also be available with a choice of gas, hybrid and full electric powertrains.
