We caught a glimpse of the 2013 Bentley Continental GT Speed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but the details were still a little scattered. Bentley has been planning an official debut of its new flagship performance coupe at the Moscow Motor Show on the 29th of August, but it chose to release the information on this upcoming model a little early.
We just got our hands on the full press release from Bentley and we are rather impressed with what this ultra-luxury car builder has done with this coupe, on the surface. What really matters is what’s down deep inside the cracks and crevices of this super coupe.
With this new information in hand, we are prepared to give you a full look at the upcoming sports coupe a full week before it ever hits the international auto shows. We’ll also pit it against like models – though there are few cars like the GT Speed – and let you know which looks better on paper.
Click past the jump to read our full review on the 2013 Continental GT Speed.
So what happens when an Aston Martin Zagato, a 2000s Thunderbird, and an Austin Healy all get tipsy on high octane fuel and have one wild night? You get the newest retro sports car by custom car builder Fornasari, the Gigi.
To say this thing is awkward looking is an understatement, but then again nearly all of Fornasari’s cars are awkward looking. The Gigi has the signature double hump roof of a Aston Martin Zagato, the taillights and rear fenders of a 2000s Ford Thunderbird, and the front clip from an Austin Healey 3000. Well, it doesn’t literally have these parts, but it sure looks like it. All awkwardness aside, this car is supposedly going to be a real screamer.
Fornasari claims this car will come fitted with a 6.2-liter V-8 engine that will produce more than 500 horsepower. This will propel this Frankenstein car to 60 mph in roughly 3.5 seconds, per Fornasari, and will have a top speed of 200 mph. If you feel you can bypass the goofy, err, "retro" looks, you can snag one of these things up for just shy of $290,000.
Besides the aforementioned details, there is not much more on these cars and no delivery dates are set. The only other tidbit of information we managed to dig up is that a convertible option is in the works. We’ve attached a few concept pictures in the gallery below, so you can see exactly what we are talking about.
In 1984, the late Ayrton Senna made his debut in F1 racing by taking second place in a rain-shortened Monaco Grand Prix while driving a Toleman TG184-2 open-wheel racer. You can see this exact car overtaking second place at the 2:33 mark in the above video. Ten years later, in the 1994 racing season, Senna’s life ended abruptly during a freak accident at the San Marino Grand Prix. The legend of this three-time F1 World Champion lives on, as Silverstone Auctions has announced that the Toleman TG184 that Senna made his debut in is coming to auction on May 16, 2012.
Despite the age of this race car, its 1.5-liter engine is still a highly technical piece of machinery that produces horsepower in the range of the 2.4-liter V-8 engines used in today’s F1 series. Though this vehicle is not one that is setup for road driving, it is something that would be neat for a collector to have in his garage. However, it is not without its flaws and uncertainties.
Hit the jump for more details on Ayrton Senna’s F1 race car.
Mach7 Motorsports waltzed into the 2011 Detroit Auto Show with a killer new machine that was poised to further represent America in the supercar war of the worlds. Turns out, that was just a prototype and they’re back in Detroit again to reveal their polished Falcon F7. The new Falcon F7 supercar will go on sale at a starting price of $195,000, with some versions heading up to $250,000. Mach7 Motorsports hopes to produce fifteen cars in the first year, twenty- five plus cars in the second year, and then consistently produce one hundred or more cars in each of the following years.
The Falcon F7 will feature an all carbon-fiber body, an aluminum/carbon fiber monocoque chassis, a billet suspension, an extreme power to weight ratio, and hand-crafted interiors. It is powered by a 7.0 liter V8 engine that delivers a total of 620 HP at 6600 rpm and 585 lb-ft of torque at 5400 rpm. With the extra power, the Falcon F7 will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3-3.6 seconds and will hit a top speed somewhere between 190 to 200 mph.
UPDATE 01/30/12: The Falcon F7 is one of the most intriguing super cars to come out of American soil in recent history. Check out this newly-released video of the supercar undergoing its first track testing session. It’s a good watch!
Hit the jump to read more the 2012 Mach7 Motorsports Falcon F7.
As the English philosopher Francis Bacon once said, "Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety." Most car manufacturers, after efforts like the 2012 Bentley Continental GT, would have been happier to call it a day. However, Bentley looked at this automotive Adonis and decided "everything can be improved." This style of constant tweaking has resulted in multiple versions of the GT Continental. The first of these "tweaks" for the 2012 Bentley Continental GT is the new GT Speed.
This Adonis in an Armani suit will be given a shot in the arm. The previous GT Speed had 9% more power and 15% more torque than the base GT Continental. If this same increase applies to the new GT Speed, the W-12 will be pump out around 621 horses and 590 ft/lbs of torque. This would install the GT Speed as a next door neighbor to the top of the line Continental Supersports.
The Cadillac Escalade serves many purposes for the brand. For starters, it is their largest offering in the SUV segment and has become a best seller. Ever since it was first introduced as a meagerly disguised GMC Yukon the car has been a hit. It effectively saved the Cadillac brand in association with their razor edge styling that is now seen on all the models in the lineup. A favorite choice of celebrities, musicians, and athletes alike, the Escalade has become a status symbol and was immediately accepted by the “in crowd.”
As time has gone on the Escalade lineup has come to include three models with a pickup and extended wheelbase version being added. As the SUV market has been hit hard by the recession, the Escalade too suffered, but has remained alive. Its closest competition in nearly every aspect, the Lincoln Navigator, has struggled much more than the Cadillac and will cease production sooner rather than later.
Cadillac has been able to keep this vehicle moving forward, but some VIP clients still expect more. When a Range Rover is too small and a large scale van is not classy enough, Becker Automotive Design is there to take your Escalade to the next level. After this company gets done with their conversion, the Escalade has been transformed into a Gulfstream 5 for the road.
Hit the jump for more details on the Becker Escalade Conversion.
Back in the 1990’s and earlier, Lamborghini was not known for it’s Audi partnership and derived models such as the Gallardo. In fact, it was not known for luxury of any sort, and it certainly was not known caring what any environmentalist thought.
Lamborghini produced aggressively styled, lightweight machines with massive V12 engines putting power to the road. Creature comforts were an afterthought and driving them was not even an easy task. They were not cars that you bought simply to show you had the money to buy one – it was more akin to buying a Harley-Davidson motorcycle – you had to be macho enough to drive these beasts.
The Diablo model which was the successor to the venerable Countach had been introduced nearly a decade before Audi gained control and was in need of some serious updates. What Audi helped them produce was one of the fastest and most competent Diablo models to ever come from St. Agata Bolognese, Italy.
Hit the jump for more details on the 2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0.
Mercedes has a model for everyone and every niche – small cars, big cars, SUVs, vans, buses, supercars and the Unimog. The Unimog truly defies a complete explanation. No single consumer can comprehend the myriad of capabilities that these machines possess.
The standard U500 Unimog would have been the ultimate vehicle in the movie Dante’s Peak. If you’ve never seen it, the Unimog would have been racing up a mountainside road covered in volcanic ash, saving the family from lava rushing to destroy their house, fording a river on the way back down while using its winch to save a puny National Guard Hummvee – all in a day’s work.
So why would Brabus want to create a version of this car? Brabus has been making the fastest and most prestigious Mercedes vehicles for years and if they are willing to take the Smart car and give it a makeover then the Unimog should also have its moment of glory.
Hit the jump for more details on the Brabus Unimog.
