Porsche 924 Shooting Brake

Yes this is a Porsche 924 station wagon or three-door.
Actually they call it a "shooting brake".
And if like me you have no idea what a shooting break is, The New York Times described a shooting-brake as "a sleek wagon with two doors and sports-car panache, its image entangled with European aristocracy, fox hunts and baying hounds,".
Got that?

Actually it kinda reminds me of the Corvette Nomad I had on my Muscle Car blog.
This baby was modified by German coachbuilder Gunter Artz and had a 2.0-litre slant four with 170bhp and 181lb ft of torque.

Mercedes-Benz SLK32 AMG

The Mercedes-Benz SLK32 AMG was one of the fastest Mercedes ever built.
The SLK32 AMG was powered by a 3.2 liter 354 hp V6 engine.
All of the SLK's engines were hand-built by AMG engineers.
The 3.2 liter engine was equipped with an intercooled Lysholm-type "twin-screw" supercharger.
That allowed the V6 to propel the SLK32 from 0 to 60 in around 4.5 seconds and gave it a quarter mile time of 13 seconds at 105 mph.
Even thought it was only offered with automatic transmission, the SLK was competition for the BMW M Roadster and Porsche Boxster S.
The base price of the SLK was around $56,115.

Bentley Continental GT Supersports

The Bentley Continental GT Supersports is the first Bentley that can run on gasoline and ethanol. And the performance is staggering.
This luxury car has a 6.0L W12 twin-turbocharged engine rated at 621 horsepower and it puts out 590 foot pounds of torque.

The GT can pull 0 to 60 in just 3.7 seconds, 0 to 100 in 8.9 seconds and has a top speed of 204 mph.
The power comes at a price in more ways than one.
MPG in the city is 11.5 and highway is 24.4.
I don't know if that's cruising at 200 mph plus or not.

So Go Green!
Save the Earth!
Turn 0 to 60 times in 3.7 seconds and cruise at 200 plus mph!
And you only have to pay $267,000 (base price) to do it!

Ferrari Testarossa F512 M

The Ferrari Testarossa F512 M is a 12-cylinder mid-engine sports car manufactured by Ferrari.
The F512 M was powered by a 4.9 litre (302 cubic inches) Ferrari Colombo Flat-12 engine.
BTW, the name Testarossa means "red head" in Italian and the car was named that because the cam covers were painted red.
Of course it has a double meaning because Ferrari regularly uses terms related to a female's body when describing the style of their automobiles.
You have to love the Italians!

Anyway, the Flat-12 engine puts out 440 horsepower and 406 foot pounds of torque.
That allows the F512 M go from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, 0-100 in 10.2 seconds and cover the quarter mile in 12.7 seconds at 112 mph.
The maximum speed of the F512 M is 196 mph.
In 1995, the F512 M retailed for $220,000.

Aston Martin V12 Vanquish

I did a write up on the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish back in 2007 in relation to the James Bond movie "Die Another Day"
But here is the real world Vanquish.

In 1998, a GT concept car, the Project Vantage, debuted at the North American International Auto Show.
The Vanquish was based on that car.
But the Vanquish S is the real barnstormer.
The Vanquish is powered by a a 5.9 liter 48-valve 60° V12 engine, which puts out 514 horsepower and 425 ft·lbs of torque.
That gave the Vanquish a 0 to 60 time of about 4 seconds and a top speed in the 190-204 mph range.
The base price was around $250,000.

And if that's not enough, Top Speed is reporting the new 2010 Vanquish S may be putting out 550 mph.

Ferrari 360 Spider

Launched in 2000, the Ferrari 360 Spider is powered by a mid-mounted 3.6 liter V8 with 400 horsepower, shown off under a glass hood.
This engine allows the Spider to pull a 12.8 second quarter mile at 110.8 miles per hour.
And it gives the Spider a 0 to 60 time of about 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 185 mph.
The Ferrari's fuel economy is 10 mpg city, 16 mpg highway.

I actually found a place where you can rent one online.
How cool is that?

And if renting isn't your style, you can pick one up starting at around $221,720.00.

Porsche Turbo X50

The Porsche Turbo X50 is a $17,000 option available for the Porsche 996.
The Porsche 996 was a water-cooled version of the famous air-cooled Porsche 911 sports car.
The X50 package boosted the 996 turbo up to 450 horsepower and 457 pounds of torque.
That allowed the X50 to cover the quarter mile in 11.86 seconds at 119.91 mph, and gave it a 0–60 mph time of about 3.6 seconds.
There were also a few modeling changes in the 996, like wider rear wings and different front lights and bumpers from the Porsche Carrera.
The 996 also had large vents on the front bumper, that were used on the Carrera 4S and Cayenne Turbo.

PS:
We're getting rid of our 1988 Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas.
Dont have the time to do restoration on it.
If you wanna take a look, her's the link.....
http://greensboro.craigslist.org/cto/1036831907.html

Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG

Comfort, style and speed.
The Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG is powered by a 6.0 litre V12 BiTurbo engine that puts out 612 horsepower and 737 foot pounds of torque.
That allows this beauty to go from 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds.
This also gives the CL65 an 11.8 second quarter mile time at 120.9 mph.
It's estimated top speed is 186 mph.
The downside of this car is that the CL65 AMG is made to order in very small numbers.
And for the mundane stuff, the MPG is 11 in the city, and 17 on the highway.
The base price is around $203,700.

2005 Maserati MC12

This land rocket is powered by an Enzo Ferrari-derived V12 engine (the MC12 is also designed and built on the Enzo Ferrari chassis).
The six-liter (366 cu in) delivers 624 horsepower and 481 pounds of torque.
This gives the MC12 a 0-62 time of 3.8 seconds and a quarter mile time of 11.8 seconds at 123.9 mph.
The top speed of the Maserati MC12 is 205 mph.
So what's bad about the MC12?
No trunk, no rear window, no spare tire and no radio.
No trunk, no rear window, no spare tire and no radio? It sounds like the 65 Rambler I used to have.
Anyway, only 50 of these bad boys were made.
And they all pre-sold for around $774193 dollars.

The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

Another VERY quick car, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is powered by a 6.0 L (5999 cc, hence the 599 in the name) V12 engine that produces a maximum of 612 horsepower and 448 pounds of torque.
This gives the Ferrari an 11.3 second quarter mile time at 126.4 mph.
Ferrari say's the cars top speed is in excess of 205 mph.
And they list a 0-160 time of 19 seconds.
Mileage?
11 mpg in the city, 15 mpg on the highway.
I wonder if thats at 205 mph?
And on the Tech side, the 599 GTB is the first Ferrari to come with an iPod connection as standard.

SSC Ultimate Aero TT, Faster Than the Bugatti Veyron?

The SSC Ultimate Aero TT may be the only rival to the Bugatti Veyron.
In road tests, the SSC turned in a 254.88 mph top speed compared to the 253 mph of the Veyron.
But the Ultimate Aero accelerates from 0-60 mph in 2.78 seconds which is slower than the Veyron's 0-60 in 2.46 seconds.
The engine in the Ultimate Aero model is a supercharged 387.2 cu in (6.35 L) V8 engine rated at 1,183 bhp , with 1,094 ft·lb of torque.
Amazingly, the first production 2007 Ultimate Aero TT car was sold not in a show room, but on eBay for $431,100.
Yes eBay.
And I forgot to mention that the SSC Ultimate Aero TT is built by Shelby SuperCars.
And that NASA (yes NASA) put the car in a wind tunnel testing facility and proved that the SSC Aero could be aerodynamically stable enough to reach speeds up to 273 miles per hour.
And to be as Green as anyone else, this supercar will soon be available in an electrical version.
Of course this SSC will be the fastest electric car on the market, powered by a 500 horsepower electric motor. Yes I said a 500 horsepower ELECTRIC motor.

The Lamborghini Countach, part 7

In 1975, Walter Wolf, a wealthy Canadian businessman and owner of the Wolf F1 Racing team in the 1970s, purchased an LP400; however, he was not satisfied with the LP400's engine and asked Dallara, the chief engineer of Lamborghini at that time and the founder of the Italian F1 racing team Scuderia Italia in the early 1990s, to create a special high-power version of Countach. It was the "code NO 1120148" Walter Wolf special with the original "5" engine from the Countach prototype which produced 447 hp / 7900 rpm and reached a supposed maximum speed of 315 km/h (195.7 mph). This model also featured the upgraded wheels, Pirelli P7 tires, large fender flares, and front and rear spoilers of the LP400S model. It was painted in red, with black fender flares, and was designated "LP500S" like the standard Countach model from the 1980s, and was the stepping stone that led to this later production model. This first Walter Wolf car is currently located in Japan. Two other Wolf Countaches were produced, one painted blue, NO 1120202 (currently in Germany) and one navy blue, NO 1121210. (This machine was owned by Mr. Wolf for a long time, but was eventually sold.)

In 1984 Rod Ladret of Ladret Design Studio located in Alberta Canada began producing and marketing a replica of the Countach. The form for the kit was sculpted from plaster and then a fiberglass mold was made of the form. The kits and cars Ladret design Studio built included a tube frame chassis with an American V8 power plant. Ladret Design Studio built 141 of these replicas and the industrial clients who purchased his fiberglass forms have built several thousand over the past two decades. As of 2007 there are still several companies building kits based on Ladret's forms built in 1984. In 1993 Ladret ceased manufacturing the Countach replica and moved on to other projects.

From around 1985 until the late 1990s several companies replicated the Countach to various degrees of success. In 1985, Gary Thompson and Pete Jackson hired a real Countach from an up-market Manchester car hire company and took a glass fiber mold of it. This mold resulted in a number of UK-based manufacturers producing their own Countach replicas. A few were able to produce remarkably good replicas, including Paul Lawrenson of Prova Cars, Sienna Cars, Phil Cheetham of Mirage replicas, and Brightwheel replicas. Ultimately, none of these companies survived.



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The Lamborghini Countach, part 6

Named to honor the company's 25 year anniversary in 1988, the 25th Anniversary Countach was mechanically very similar to the 5000QV but sported much changed styling. The rear 'air boxes' were restyled and enlarged, while the vents behind them were changed so that they ran front to back instead of side to side. In addition, a new air dam and side skirting, both with air intakes, were fitted, and the taillights were restyled to be narrower, with body-colored panels replacing the upper and lower parts of the previous large taillights. The styling changes were unpopular with many, particularly since the intakes had strakes in them that appeared to mimic those on the Ferrari Testarossa, but they improved the engine's cooling, a problem the Countach had always struggled with. It also featured 345/35R15 tires; the widest tires available on a production car at the time. The Anniversary was produced through 1990 when it was replaced by the Lamborghini Diablo.


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The Lamborghini Countach, part 5

In 1985 the Countach's engine was improved again, bored and stroked to 5.2 liters and given four valves per cylinder (quattrovalvole in Italian). The carburetors were moved from the sides to the top of the engine for better breathing - unfortunately this created a hump on the engine deck, reducing the already poor rear visibility to almost nothing. Some body panels were also replaced by Kevlar. In later versions of the engine, the carburetors were replaced with fuel-injection.

For the first time, a US specification model was produced by the factory, with styling changes to allow bumpers to meet US federal standards (large, bulky bumpers were used that, to many people, ruined the smooth lines of the car). Although this change was the most notable on the exterior, the most prominent change under the hood was the use of Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, rather than the six Weber carburetors used in the Euro-spec model.



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The Lamborghini Countach, part 4

In 1978, a new LP400S model was introduced. Though the engine was slightly upgraded from the LP400 model, the most radical changes were in the exterior, where the tires were replaced with much wider Pirelli P7 units, and fiberglass wheel arch extensions were added, giving the car the fundamental look it kept until the end of its production run. An optional V-shaped spoiler was available over the rear deck, which, while improving high-speed stability, reduced the top speed by at least 10 MPH. Most owners ordered the wing. Dynamically, the LP400S was a better car, the wider tires making it more stable in cornering. Aesthetically, some prefer the slick lines of the original while others prefer the more aggressive lines of the later vehicles, beginning with the LP400S. The standard emblems ("Lamborghini" and "Countach") were kept at the rear, but an angular "S" emblem was added after the "Countach" on the right side.

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The Lamborghini Countach, part 3

The rear wheels of the Countach were driven by a traditional Lamborghini V12 engine mounted longitudinally with a mid-engined configuration. For better weight distribution, the engine is pointed 'backwards'; the output shaft is at the front, and the gearbox is in front of the engine, the driveshaft running back through the engine's sump to a differential at the rear. Although originally planned as a 5 liter powerplant, the first production cars used the Lamborghini Miura's 4 liter engine. Later advances increased the displacement to 5 liters and then (in the "Quattrovalvole" model) 5.2 L with four valves per cylinder.

All Lamborghini Countaches were equipped with six Weber carburetors until the arrival of the 5000QV model, at which time the car became available in America, and used Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection. The European models, however, continued to use the carburetors until the arrival of the Lamborghini Diablo, which replaced the legendary Countach.

The Countach used a skin of aircraft-grade aluminum over a tubular space frame, as in a racing car. This is expensive to build but is immensely strong and very light (in spite of its size, the car weighs approximately 1500 kg (3300 lb)). The underbody tray was fiberglass.

A single prototype was built, the LP500 (the 500 standing for the 5 L displacement of the engine which was intended to be used). Painted bright sunflower yellow, the car was a stunner at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971. Sporting Gandini's original design concepts, the car's design needed extensive modification for production. In particular, the small air intake ducts on the car's rear shoulders proved insufficient to cool the engine, and large 'air box' scoops were added in that position. Large NACA ducts were added on the sides to give additional air. The experimental car was also constructed of aluminum honeycomb sheeting among other things, which was dropped for production.

The car did not survive; it was sacrificed in a crash test to gain European type approval, even though its construction method was utterly unlike production vehicles.

The first 4.0-liter production Countach was delivered to an Australian in 1974. The first recorded person to own the LP400 was D. Milne, who was a member of the Australian Defence Force Transport Corps.[citation needed] Externally, little had altered from the final form of the prototype except at the rear, where conventional lights replaced the futuristic light clusters of the prototype. The styling had become rather more aggressive than Gandini's original conception, with the required large air scoops and vents to keep the car from overheating, but the overall shape was still very sleek. The original LP400 rode on the quite narrow tires of the time, but their narrowness and the slick styling meant that this version had the lowest drag coefficient of any Countach model and possibly the highest top speed. Many people like the looks of this clean, fresh original model the most of all the Countach variants, and indeed it is simple, with smooth lines and few decorations. Even the emblems at the rear simply read "lamborghini" and "Countach", with no engine displacement or valve arrangement clutter as is found on more modern cars.

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The Lamborghini Countach, part 2

The Countach was styled by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio, the same designer and studio that designed the Miura. Gandini was then a young, inexperienced designer—not very experienced in the practical, ergonomic aspects of automobile design, but at the same time unhindered by them. He produced a quite striking design. The Countach shape was wide and low (42.1 inches), but not very long. Its angular and wedge-shaped body was made almost entirely of flat, trapezoidal panels. There were curves, notably the smoothly coke-bottle wing line, but the overall appearance was sharp.

The doors, a Countach trademark, were of a 'scissors' fashion—hinged at the front with horizontal hinges, so that the doors lifted up and tilted forwards. This was partly for style, but just as much because the width of the car made conventional doors impossible to use in an even slightly confined space. Care needed to be taken, though, in opening the doors with a low roof overhead. (With the car's poor rear visibility and wide sills, this led to drivers adopting a method of reversing the car for parking by opening the door, sitting on the sill and reversing while looking over the back of the car from outside.)

Aerodynamics, however, were still unfortunately unable to match the sleek looks of the car.

The pure style of the prototype was progressively enhanced or cluttered (depending on one's point of view) by the evolution of the car to improve its performance, handling, tractability, and ability to meet mandated requirements. This began with the first production model, which included several vents which were found to be necessary to cool the engine adequately. These included the iconic NACA duct on the door and rear fender of each side of the car. The car design changes ended with a large engine vent directly behind the driver, reducing the rearview. Later additions, including fender flares, spoilers, carburetor covers, and bumpers, progressively changed the aesthetic values of the car.

The Countach's styling and visual impression caused it to become an icon of great design to almost everyone except automotive engineers. The superior performance characteristics of later Lamborghini models (such as the Diablo, or the Murciélago) appealed to performance car drivers and engineers, but they never had the originality or outrageousness that gave the Countach its distinction. The different impressions left by the various Lamborghini models have generated numerous debates and disagreements over what constitutes 'classic' or 'great' automotive design (elegant looks and style, vs. technical and engineering superiority).

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The Lamborghini Countach, part 1

The Lamborghini Countach was a supercar produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. It popularized, but did not pioneer, the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance cars since. It also popularized the "cabin-forward" design concept that pushes the passenger compartment forward in order to accommodate a larger engine.

The word countach is an exclamation of astonishment in the local Piedmontese language - generally used by men on seeing an extremely beautiful woman. While the term is considered untranslatable, it can be considered the verbal equivalent of a Wolf Whistle.

The name stuck when Nuccio Bertone first saw "Project 112" in his studio. The prototype was introduced to the world at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. Most previous Lamborghini car names were associated with bulls and bullfighting.

In 2004, Sports Car International named this car number three on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s, and it was listed as number ten on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

Despite the fact that the car has been discontinued for 17 years, it still enjoys a massive fan following this day.


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The Lamborghini Urraco

The Lamborghini Urraco was a sports car manufactured by Italian automaker Lamborghini in the 1970s. It was introduced at the Turin auto show in 1970 but wasn't available to buyers until 1973.

The car was a 2+2 coupé with body designed by Marcello Gandini, at the time working for Carrozzeria Bertone. Rather than being another supercar, like the Lamborghini Miura, the Urraco was more affordable, an alternative to the pricier Ferrari Dino and Maserati Merak.

When production ended in 1979, 791 Urracos had been built. Twenty-one of these were labelled Urraco P111 for the American market. In order to comply with American regulations, these cars had larger front bumpers and less horsepower. The other Urraco versions were the Urraco P200, Urraco P250 and Urraco P300 with 2 litre, 2.5 litre, and 3 litre V-8 respectively.

Both the Lamborghini Silhouette, with its detachable roof panel, and its successor Lamborghini Jalpa, with a 3.5 litre V-8 engine, were based upon the Urraco.

A black Urraco was featured in a December 2005 episode of the BBC television show Top Gear. The supercar was purchased by James May (used) for less than £10,000, and was in mechanically awful condition. Eventually succumbing to complete electrical failure, the car was then believed to have been sold on to a dealer in London for £5,000.


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The Lamborghini Jarama

Lamborghini Jarama is a sports coupé which was built by Lamborghini between 1970 and 1976. It was designed by Bertone designer Marcello Gandini. It was named after the Jarama racing circuit near Madrid, Spain (which is in turn named after the Jarama river).

In 1970, Lamborghini had to redesign the Islero to meet new United States safety and emissions regulations. The new car was built on a shortened version of the same platform as the Espada. Two different models were made, the original GT (1970-1973) model having 350 bhp V12, and the GTS (1973-1976) with its output upped to 365 bhp. Also, with the GTS there were a few minor body modifications and power assisted steering, removable roof panels, and an automatic transmission became available as options. A total of 327 Jaramas were built.

Ferruccio Lamborghini's personal Jarama GTS is on display at the official Lamborghini museum.

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