Half of the world is enjoying the incredible weather of the winter and for these folks, BMW, in cooperation with K2 LTD, has created a series of limited edition skis to hit the slopes. There will only be 500 units built, but the bad news is that they can’t be purchased; BMW will only offer them as a prize for the BMW xDrive Cup.
These limited edition skis were inspired by BMW M automobiles and are similarly suited for maximum performance, uncompromising driving pleasure, and powerful looks that uniquely combine speed and strength. They are 174cm long and measure 132/90/115 (tip/middle/tail).
The skis combine the benefits of a traditional camber with those of a rocker. They have been built using the revolutionary K2 Baseline technology that gives the user power, edge grip, and control on account of its camber. Thanks to this technology, the K2 Ski is ideal for any terrain, all snow conditions, and every subsurface.
We’re kind of glad Christmas has come and gone because if our kids would have seen this latest contraption, we would have had to empty our wallets to purchase one. Slot Mods has recently announced the limited edition RCR 917 slot car which looks like a kid’s toy, but can probably be enjoyed by adults as well.
This special slot car was inspired by the RCR 917 that Vic Elford and Gerald Larrousse drove to victory at the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring. It offers rolling aluminum 3-piece original-style center lock wheels, race-worn tires, working headlights and taillights, and a beautiful 1/32 scale wooden slot car raceway on the inside. This raceway features handcrafted, period-correct signs, banners, aluminum Armco railing, trees, and structures.
If the RCR 917 isn’t enough to tickle your fancy, Slot Mods is also offering the RCR GT40, RCR P4, and RCR T70.
"This is slot racing at it’s best!…combining the fun of slot car racing with the great tracks and history of the sport." said Derek Hill – Race Drive & son of legendary Phil Hill.
Even if we squeezed out every penny from our bank accounts, a lot of us still wouldn’t come close to buying a Ferrari. But suppose there was a way to "own" a Prancing Horse without having to dig deep in your pockets. Would you be interested in such a venture?
Jointli.com has come up with a new way of staking claim to a Ferrari with the idea of "shared ownership." What this means is that instead of leasing a Ferrari outright, you can actually reduce your costs by sharing a Ferrari with other customers.
How does it work? According to Jointli.com, a used 2009 Ferrari F430 will cost you around $175,000. Add all the utilities and maintenance you need to spend on and you’re looking at a cost of ownership of $380 per day.
Compare that to when you’re splitting costs with three other owners with the premise that each owner gets to spend a week with the F430 and that cost drastically cuts down to about $95 per day. Now, for every party to recoup their investment, shared ownership of the F430 will only last one year, at which point, the car is theoretically sold for $165,000 , which will then be divided by four.
So if you really look at it, shared ownership of a Ferrari is the most economical way to say that you have an Italian supercar at your disposal, even if you could only say that for seven days a month. The caveat is finding three other owners that not only wouldn’t mind sharing the supercar with you, but also take care of it the same way you would.
There’s certainly a lot of risk with this arrangement. But if it means paying only $8 an hour to "co-own" a Ferrari F430, it’s a risk a lot of people wouldn’t mind making.
€3.5 million, or $4.83 million, will buy you a lot of things, including 12 Lamborghini Aventador supercars. Why anyone would need that many Aventadors is beyond us, but what is even more mind-boggling is why someone would spend that much money on a 1:8 scale model of the new Lamborghini supercar. Yes, one is for sale and it’s priced at $4.83 million.
This unbelievable scale model was presented by former Mercedes-Benz engineer and German model maker, Robert Gulpen, at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Made from some of the most precious materials used for construction, the scale model Aventador comes wrapped in 1/1000mm thin threads of solid gold with carbon fiber forming the entire body of the car, and solid gold and platinum rims and interior to finish it off. On top of that, the material used on the windows is bulletproof glass and the Lamborghini logo adorned in the back is made from gold, platinum, and other precious gems.
All told, the whole project required €2 million ($2.8 million), which is insane just to read. The other half of that cost most likely comes as a result of 500 hours of build time.
The car is set to be auctioned off soon, possibly at Sotherby’s or Chrystie’s in New York or Dubai. Expect the model to fetch a starting bid of €3.5 million - $4.83 million - with part of the final purchase price going to charity.
Whether somebody’s insane enough to actually pay 12 times the price of an actual Lamborghini Aventador is besides the point. Paying $5 million for just about anything, let alone a scale model, is crazy enough.
UPDATE 12/02/2011: Robert Guelpen has decided to further increase the value of his Aventador by gilding it with gold. The car will be sold in December 2011 and will more than likely enter the Guinness Book of Records. The car features approximately 700 diamonds studded on each of the two seats inside, the chassis is made in solid gold, the wheel rims are platinum, and other elements are made of carbon fiber.
UPDATE 12/12/12: What was initially priced at €3.5 million ($4.8 million) at an auction in December in New York, Robert Guelpen’s Aventador scale model has been re-evaluated by Sotheby’s and now carries an estimated price of €10.5 million ($13.6 million!). That’s 65 times more expensive than an ACTUAL Aventador. Wow.
Hit the jump for a video showing off the Aventador scale model.
The Traxxas X0-1 can hit 0-60 mph in 2.3 seconds and 0-100 mph in 4.92 seconds without even breaking a sweat. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a high-powered supercar, right?
The only caveat is that it’s not an actual supercar; it’s a remote-controlled race car from RC manufacturer, Traxxas. The little ball of lightning is so ridiculously insane that it even has a built-in speed monitor and RPM monitoring. Of course, all of the out-of-this-world characteristics of the X0-1 comes with a pretty hefty price - literally.
Set to go on sale on December 30, 2011 - makes for an awesome belated Christmas present! - the Traxxas X0-1 will come with an eye-popping price tag of $1,100.
Dreamy eyes and itchy hands looking to own the X-01 will have some extra convincing to do to prove to Santa Claus that they’ve been good boys and girls this year.
For our money, it’s going to be extremely difficult to part with over a thousand dollars for a remote-controlled car. But if we still had disposable income to play with, we’d be the first in line at the toy store to fetch a piece of this speed demon.
It’s a little hard to imagine that Ferrari has been a presence in China for 20 years now. But the Prancing Horse has, in fact, been around the country for two decades and as we expected, Ferrari isn’t wasting the opportunity to release something to mark the occasion.
The Italian automaker has tied-up with Swiss luxury watch builder Hublot to present a limited edition timepiece called the Big Bang Chrono Tourbillon Ferrari.
The 20-piece watch was designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ferrari’s presence in China. It carries a number of unique styling cues that certainly fit into a luxury watch. The leather straps were made from horn back crocodile leather and adorned with PVD Titanium buckles. More to that, the watch also comes with HUB 6300 movement with clutch tourbillon escapement has while also boasting of a single push-piece chrono movement with a flying toubillon, a 44mm dial, and a carbon fiber case.
“Ferrari is indeed one of the leading luxury brands on the Chinese market, and Hublot is very proud to become the exclusive strategic partner of Ferrari," said Ricardo Guadalupe, managing director of Hublot.
"The win-win agreement is a symbolic of a new beginning for our two brands, and will undoubtedly be a partnership filled with thrill and passion.”
We’re short of a month away from Christmas so we know that all of you are probably up to your necks with buying gifts for your loved ones. Never fear, we won’t ask for anything apart from your continued patronage.
But what we will do is provide some assistance on some cool gift ideas you can get for your family and friends, specifically that one dude that can’t seem to stop talking about cars.
Hennessey Performance Engineering, they of the Venom GT acclaim, has released their 2012 Performance Calendar. We can’t deny the coincidence of the release with the holiday season fast approaching so we’re just going to tell you that it’s a great present to give any gearhead that’s worth his automotive salt.
The calendar will feature some of the finest works that Hennessey has every created, not to mention its usefulness in telling you what the date is and what kind of activities or meetings you have in store for those days.
And for the affordable price of just $12.95, you can avail of this must-buy calendar. Whether you want one for yourself, or you’re thinking about giving it as a Christmas present, there are a few things in this world worth spending $13 on and this calendar is definitely one of them.
The number of licensing agreements between watchmakers and automakers have grown rapidly in the past few years, so much so that the market is already inundated with plenty of choices.
That’s why this new collection from Officine Autodromo is very different. Not only is it a stand-alone company that specializes on auto-inspired timepieces, but it also has a new collection that offers plenty of choices for the auto-obsessed customer.
As the work of industrial designer Bradley Price, the Officine Autodromo launch collection will feature three models that are sure to pique the interest of customers. The first one is called the "Veloce," which means ’speed’ in Italian. Then there’s the "Brescia," which is actually a Northern Italian town that, incidentally, also serves as the start/finish line of the Mille Miglia rally. Finally, there’s the "Valelunga," which, if you know your auto racing, is the name of the race track just outside of Rome.
As you may have noticed by now, the three watches carry plenty of Italian racing heritage. More than just their names, the watches also feature retro-inspired Italian race car themes, as well as a 42-milimeter case that can be had in either brushed stainless steel or its PVD-coated counterpart, a Swiss-made Ronda quartz movement, and perforated black leather wrist straps mounted directly into the round case.
The price for any one of these Officine Autodromo watches is $425. They’re by no means cheap, but if you’re interested in something that not a lot of people have in their collection, these watches are as good a purchase as you can have.
We seriously don’t know how anybody could find any semblance of positive vibes on this item, let alone look at it without even wincing at the thought of the history behind the compacted piece of metal encased inside.
Nonetheless, this piece of work comes from the mind of celebrated designer, Charly Molinelli of Molinelli Designs, and in his twisted and rather eccentric mind, this passes along as a work of art. But from our end, the Crashed Ferrari Coffee Table is just extremely hard to look at.
It’s strange, we’ll give him that, especially when the highlight of the whole piece is a compressed cube of what was once a Ferrari that was fitted inside the glass-top table. Some people who share in Molinelli’s way of thinking may enjoy the sheer absurdity of this work and unbelievably, some people have already voiced their interest in the product.
We’re pretty sure that the Crashed Ferrari Coffee Table will come with a price befitting the esteem of the brand inside it - if it were in pristine shape.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. And if given a choice, we’re going to stay away from this product because the mere sight of it has us considering suicidio.
Smartphones have become so prevalent these days that it’s becoming tougher to have yours stand out from the others. In order to do that, a lot of people have gone to accessorizing their phones as a way of adding a touch of personality.
And since we love just about everything related to cars - especially the exotic variety - we’re going to give due space to an iPhone case that we’d love to dress up our iPhones with.
Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the Vapor R8 Pro iPhone case from Element Case.
Made from a CNC Aluminum Frame with a combination of a satin black anodized finish and a gloss powder coat finish, the Audi R8-inspired R8 Pro is the kind of iPhone case that deserves to be protecting our beloved smartphone.
Going into detail on the characteristics of this case, you’ll come upon a contrasting black and white color scheme that includes a high gloss white powder coat on one side and rich satin black anodized finish on the other side. The R8 Pro also has an all-gloss black powder coat version, as well as an aircraft grade carbon fiber protective back plate that carries its own unique R8 Pro graphics and is finished with a satin clear coat. Finally, the case also comes with a plush Ultrasuede back plate that ensures the safety and well-being of your iPhone whenever and wherever you bring it.
Just when you thought iPhone cases were more about accessorizing than anything else, the R8 Pro has come along to remind you that style and security come in equal footing, especially for a gadget as delicate as a smartphone.
Here’s the catch, though: You’re going to need to shell out $160 to own one.
