An auto show or motor show is a public gathering of automobile manufacturers which includes demonstrations of current automobile models, new debuts, and concept cars.
The days before the 17th season of Top Gear are slowly ticking away and BBC is lessening our pain with yet another trailer for the highly anticipated car show. The second trailer is loaded with more images for the upcoming season and also confirms the season opener date: Sunday, June 26th.
Any auto show will have its fair share of vehicles; of that much we can be certain. After all, there’s no point in having these shows without the vehicles to come with it. But another important part of any auto show, especially to us men, is the presence of lovely young ladies that add a certain element of pizazz to the proceedings.
The last auto show that took place was the Wörthersee 2011 in Germany a few weeks ago. As you can expect, there were a steady stream of vehicles that were shown off at the event, including but not limited to the 2011 Volkswagen Golf GTI Reifnitz, the 2011 Volkswagen Golf GTI Cabriolet Concept, and the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Concept.
In addition to these hot new rides, Wörthersee 2011 also had some of the most beautiful and downright sexy ladies any auto show has ever had. And in true fashion of giving all of you what you want, we have a photo gallery of the beautiful ladies at Wörthersee 2011 strutting their assets for us to enjoy.
Any time multiple Ferraris can be found together in the same place is exciting; when there is a reported $100,000,000 worth of Ferraris, its downright spectacular! This weekend a collection of vintage and late model Ferraris will be showcased on the famed Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, CA. The Ferrari Club of North America is putting on the event and it will be open to the public for your viewing pleasure. In attendance last year were nearly 100 vintage Ferrari models covering the entirety of Colorado Boulevard for several blocks.
Ferrari has always been known to create the most innovative and spectacular sports cars the world has ever seen. For the most part, only the super rich can afford the rarer and prized models, but this weekend will give the average Joe a chance to see them all. In attendance last year was a Pebble Beach Councours winner - 250 Series I Cabriolet - and other best in show cars such as the Agnelli 400 SA which came from the Museum in Maranello.
More details on the Ferrari Concours Event after the jump.
As General Motors attempts to come out of its government owned era, it has the massive task of reinvigorating the American buyer. As with most large purchases, the American consumer is also rather uneducated. As we can see by the downfall of the housing market, all too often consumers over extend themselves and make poor decisions. Admittedly, the decline of the real estate market and the downfall of the big three automakers are due to completely separate reasons, but some similarities can be found.
One of the biggest struggles that General Motors will face in the coming years is making people believe that their product is superior to the competition. As emissions laws tighten and consumers become more environmentally conscious the problem for an automaker like GM is extrapolated. GM is a company built around its truck sales and the most environmentally unfriendly thing on the road this side of a Hummer is a heavy duty pickup truck.
However, General Motors has surprised us by coming out of bankruptcy so quickly and with so much vigor. Its new models are impressive and cross every segment that the company operates in. Many may think that this is the same old GM singing a new tune that will fade away soon, but the company has organized several events to educate the consumer and let them know that these changes are here to stay.
This past weekend we attended the Main Street in Motion event in Newport Beach, CA. Several years ago we were at a similar event in Las Vegas, Nevada, but this time things were a little different. General Motors brought their typical heavy hitter models like the Corvette, Camaro, Sierra, and Tahoe. They also included some of the newer, cleaner, and less known models like the Volt, Cruze, Acadia, and Tahoe Hybrid. Those who attended were able to test drive every model and see how each model handled when compared to the competition.
Hit the jump to read more about the Main Street in Motion event.
We never thought we would see anything as cool as the 1400 HP Camaro Dragster revealed in 2010 by Canadian automotive research and development firm, ECT Enterprises. This Camaro actually belonged to the owner of ECT and was built because the owner had a vision that no one else seemed to grasp. One year later and that vision seems to have spread to another model in Chevrolet’s lineup: the Corvette.
Unheralded Canadian tuner, Elite Tuners of Canada, spent the last four months building and developing an enormously powerful Chevrolet Corvette C6 that it finally unveiled at the 2011 Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, Canada,
The new Corvette Top Tuner 5, as it’s being called, is a specially developed race-inspired Chevrolet Corvette that features a new LSX 376 Crate Motor from GM Performance and Pro Charger F1R, producing a staggering total output of 920 horsepower and 700 lb/ft of torque.
More details on the Chevrolet Corvette Top Tuner 5 after the jump.
Top Gear USA received some good news recently after History decided to pick up the option for a second season of the US version of the hit British auto show, Top Gear.
This comes as a huge sigh of relief for the people behind the show as they seemed to have taken the pressure of producing a show amidst the enormous shadow of its British counterpart incredibly well. History, which is the new name for the History Channel, has ordered ten new episodes for season two with production set to begin sometime in the spring. No word yet on whether changes will be made for the second season, although the three hosts – Adam Ferrara, Rutledge Wood, and Tanner Foust – are all expected to be back.
The channel that carries Top Gear USA also announced that for the first season, Top Gear USA attracted a total audience of 60 million viewers for the entire season, with the show attracting a fairly young demographic, which History announced as being the youngest viewers of any series the network has ever shown.
Hit the jump to see what Top Gear UK thinks of the U.S. version’s success so far.
Bugatti is making headlines with their very first appearance at the Qatar Motor Show, but they did not display their latest Super Sport supercar for all to see. Instead, France’s legendary automotive marque opted to reveal the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, the world’s fastest, most powerful, and most exclusive open-top car.
Like with the coupe version, the Grand Sport edition is powered by a 8 liter W16 engine that develops an impressive 1,001 hp at 6,000 rpm. This glorious engine will sprint the car from 0 to 60 mph in an incredible 2.7 seconds. Top speed goes up to 252 mph, but jumps down to 217mph with the top down.
"When I had the chance to test-drive the new Grand Sport for the first time, I was filled with excitement,” said Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Bugatti’s official pilot, "as soon as I shifted into second gear, I immediately knew this was a completely different car. Even with the roof on, the driving experience was more intense – I could feel it in my fingertips and at the base of my spine. The car was more precise with less understeer, almost as if you had taken some filters away from the suspension and the steering."
Bugatti made a fine choice for the maiden Qatar visit, but we hope next time they come packing a much newer model.
The blokes over at Top Gear are starting to make a habit of being spotted in obscure settings all over the world. Guess they’re really taking advantage of all those frequent flyer miles, eh?
A little over a month ago during their taping of the show’s Christmas Special, the whole crew of Top Gear was spotted in Israel sporting their own versions of custom drop-top roadsters on their way to meeting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. We all know how that turned out.
This time around, the troika of Clarkson, Hammond, and May have been spotted in Albania. That’s right. Albania.We can only assume that the three chaps were taping an episode of the show in the country, after word leaked courtesy of Albarent, a local rental agency that was responsible for their transportation. According to Albarent, as soon as the hosts and the crew arrived at Tirana Airport, the rental agency went ahead and picked them before driving them to Saranda on the “Albanian Riviera” with a rental fleet including a Mercedes S350 VIP-LOUNGE, Hyundai H-1 VIP-LOUNGE 11+1 Minibus, and an IRISBUS IVECO Tourist Class 19+1 Minibus. Wow, that’s quite a motley crew.
Unfortunately, details as to what happened on their Albanian adventure have been kept under wraps. For us to find out, we’re going to have to tune in to the show, which quite frankly, we’ve never had a problem doing.
We have to say, we feel a little jipped with Top Gear USA’s final episode of their first season. With the increasing attention and interest we have shown in the show, a recap episode is not what we were expecting for their last hoorah of season one. It was rather disappointing to say the least.
Dressing it up as a "best of" episode, the three Top Gear USA boys shared all of the antics from season one with their top choices for best super cars, favorite old beaters, favorites races, favorite road trips, and something called "Making Mom Proud." Hate to say it, but Top Gear USA did not make us proud with episode 10 of season one. Not proud at all.
The good thing about this episode is that we did get to take another look at some of our favorite Top Gear USA moments as well. It’s not exactly an ideal season finisher, but we guess it got the job done.
Hit the jump to see Tanner, Ruttledge, and Adam’s picks for the best of Top Gear USA, Season One.
Six of the type 99T chassis were manufactured by Team Lotus for the 1987 season for drivers Senna and teammate Satoru Nakajima. This particular car, however, was exclusively driven by Senna and earned him the top tier of the podium at both the Monaco and Detroit Grands Prix. He raced the car in 11 GPs taking a total of six podiums that season.
The 1.5 liter Honda turbo V6 engine produces a mind-boggling 1,000 horsepower. Acceleration (0-62mph) takes an astonishing 2.5 seconds with a top speed of 205mph. During race time, engines would be replaced at a maximum of 311 miles. Super soft qualifying tires lasted 12.5 miles and harder race tires lasted up to 199 miles. You didn’t actually drive this – more like clung on for dear life. It’s these cars and drivers from the turbo era that made F1 racing so exciting – much of which is gone nowadays.
Ayrton Senna will be forever remembered for his skill both behind the wheel and in the garage, and his sheer tenacity on the circuit. Take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and visit this mad machine at Top Gear Live being held at Earls Court from November 4th-7th and the NEC in Birmingham between November 11th-14th.
