James May, one of the three stars from Top Gear, had the chance to drive the amazing Bugatti Veyron SuperSport recently. Nicknamed "Captain Slow," May is anything but slow as he took the SuperSport on the Volkswagen Group’s private Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany where he managed to hit an incredible top speed of 417km/h or the equivalent of 259mph.
So how does the world’s second fastest man celebrate?! Check out his great victory dance!
The Bugatti Veyron SuperSport is powered by a 16-cylinder engine that delivers a total of 1200 HP and a peak torque of 1106 lbs-ft. The car can sprint from 0 to 60 mph is just 2.5 seconds and goes to an impressive top speed of 267 mph. However, this impressive supercar comes with a huge price: $2.4 million. So you can imagine that not many people will be able to drive one, let alone own it.
The Queen of England may not have the power that she once had, but she certainly remains a powerful figure in the hearts of all British folks. On June 2, 2012 the Queen celebrated her 60th year on the throne, which brought about a celebration dubbed the Diamond Jubilee – “Diamond” indicates 60 years, for those wondering.
In the festivities, the Queen was spotted riding around in a rather luxurious automobile that one of our readers keenly pointed out is either a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, and he turned to us for help identifying the car and telling him a little about it. Figuring he is not the only person interested in the topic, we felt that a full-on review was in order.
As it turns out, after a good amount of research, we have found out that the queen traveled around in the Jubilee in a 2002 Bentley State Limousine. This is no typical Bentley limo either, as it is fit for a… Well, Queen, of course!
Click past the jump to read our full review of the Queen’s ride.
At this point, nearly a month after his death, we all assumed that Carroll Shelby was peacefully laid to rest in a plot of land or cremated, so his ashes may stay with his family or spread as he saw fit. According to a report by TMZ, neither of these scenarios are true, as his family is now fighting over who has control over his deceased body.
On one side we have Shelby’s children that are claiming that their father signed paperwork leaving the eldest son in control of the deceased former racecar driver’s body. It looks as if Shelby’s long estranged wife, Cleo, is fighting the children stating that being his wife, she has full rights to his remains. She is fighting this despite the fact that Carroll was in the midst of annulling their 14-year-long marriage citing her lying about numerous personal things, such as her assets and even her real name.
She is also arguing that there is no way that Mr. Shelby could have signed any papers giving his son control, as he did not have the “physical capacity or eyesight” to read, understand, and sign off on the papers.
Until this is all sorted out, Mr. Shelby’s body is stuck at the medical examiner’s office in a freezer, which is not the place for this automotive hero. He needs to be laid to rest in the place that he made clear he wanted to be prior to his death. If his estranged wife truly does care, she would allow him that right.
There is a silver lining to this whole thing and that’s that the annulment Shelby filed for in April is still pending and a judge does have the right to approve an annulment even after death. So in the end this could all be resolved with one tap of a gavel from a judge and Mr. Shelby can rest peacefully.
It’s time for TopSpeed: Celebrity Edition! Per a report from TMZ, oft-troubled actress, Lindsay Lohan, learned that an 18-wheeler always wins against a Porsche 911. While driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, Lohan managed to plant the front end of her rented – yes, RENTED – Porsche 911 into the backside of an 18-wheeler.
Don’t worry, your favorite teen star gone awry is A-okay, as she went to the hospital for tests and was released shortly afterward. According to reports, she heading to the set of the TV show she is surprisingly starring in, “Liz & Dick,” when she smashed the Porsche into small bits of $100K plastic, metal, and rubber, and she is now on the set and in good health.
According to reports, Lohan is claiming that the accident was not her fault and that the 18-wheeler cut her off. Looking at the accident scene, we really don’t see how an 18-wheeler could possibly cut someone off and not leave enough time for the driver to respond. Unless, of course, she was driving really, really, REALLY fast. But, we’re not here to judge, we are simply stating what we can see from the images. We are certain that this is not the last we will hear about this accident.
We are all glad to hear she is in good shape, so we can all continue on our normal path of ignoring any piece of work that she happens to be in…
We’re all aware of who Bill Gates is as he’s remained one of the richest people in the world for the better part of two decades. But just like any other successful businessmen, Gates started off with relatively humble beginnings studying at Harvard University in the early 1970’s, before founding the company which has made him so wealthy, Microsoft, in 1975.
Just four years after founding the company, Bill gates purchased an awesome Porsche 911 Turbo and registered it in Seattle, Washington. That same Porsche was then sold in the ’90’s, but has recently resurfaced and will be put up for auction with Gates’ signed registration details. The auction will be in Vienna, Austria in the coming days and we expect this particular 911 Turbo to fetch a handy amount.
The current owner selling the car is said to have repainted the 911 to the bright blue seen in the above picture. He then got Porsche Classic to kick-start additional life into the sports car by uprating its standard 3.3-liter flat-six engine which when stock, produced 300HP. That was a mighty impressive feat for a car in that era.
The 911 Turbo is expected to sell for between $55,500 and $71,000 when it’s put under the hammer on the June 6,2012. Even though it’s unclear how the Porsche made its way to Austria from the U.S., it is clear that it has lived a very privileged life and hopefully it goes to a suitable home.
The Gumball 3000 is back for its 13th rendition in 2012 and it guarantees to be just as wild and crazy as it has always been. The 2012 Gumball 3000, for those that do not know, is a roughly 3,000-mile rally that begins in New York, heads into Canada, and eventually ends up in Los Angeles, all while hitting five check points between New York and L.A.
At each checkpoint, the entire group gets together and throws one massive party with the key party coming at the very end in L.A. Though the Gumball 3000 is touted as a race, it is more of a leisurely drive that features a wide array of celebrities and all types of awesome cars, from the downright powerful and sexy to the economical and environmentally friendly.
This year’s Gumball 3000 is set to kickoff on Friday at noon and is in no way lacking celebrity appearances and tons of flashy rides.
Click past the jump to read more about the Gumball 3000, as well as the cars and celebrities making appearances.
The Hennessey Venom GT has already promised to be one of the craziest, fastest, and most incredible supercars to have ever of come out of such a small production facility in the U.S. for decades. And it’s only been in production for a few months.
Yet, Hennessey has yet to deliver upon any of its promised performance capabilities, but that hasn’t stopped the firm from already developing its first variant of the car, with the Venom GT Spyder, and with deliveries of the exotic car set to begin soon, the tuning firm recently took the car to the dyno and fortunately, The Smoking Tire was there to capture it all.
The particular unit in question is actually the black car recently ordered by Aerosmith rocker, Steven Tyler and is undergoing its final stages of development before being delivered in the following weeks.
As we’re sure you know, the Venom GT is a true, rear-wheel drive, V8 monster and managed to pump out 839 horsepower and 745lb-ft at the rear wheels running on pump gas and only medium boost. It’s currently unclear which performance package Tyler selected for the car as it’s available either in 725HP, 1000HP, or 1200HP options, but based off the results we’d estimate Tyler selected the 1200 horsepower variant, as race gas and full boost could definitely add an extra 300-odd horsepower.
On top of the incredible exhaust note produced by the car, the following video also shows the Venom GT Spyder shooting some incredibly-impressive flames from its rear, demonstrating that it really is a performance car.
Now that Maybach is out of the picture, Daimler’s presence in one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals - the 2012 Cannes Film Festival - now hinges on Mercedes-Benz.
The German automaker is responding in golden fashion by bringing in a fleet of its vehicles covered in...gold. If the glitz of all these golden Mercs serving us certifiable shuttle vehicles, Mercedes is also dressing up one car, a 2013 Mercedes SL65 AMG, in gold where it was displayed in all its shining and shimmering glory at the Cinema Against AIDS Gala being organized by the amfAR foundation at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 24.
In addition to having their gold-covered fleet vehicles, Mercedes will also be hosting a plethora of events during the event, one of which is a test drive session of all its latest models. This session will be open to the public and will take place along the French Riviera. And lastly, Merc’s performance division, AMG, will be sponsoring a handful of events, particularly the "Le Club by Albane" at the J.W. Marriott hotel and the “IWC Filmmakers Dinner” at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 21st.
So if any celebrity is looking for a ride to Cannes, it probably won’t be too difficult to spot any one of these golden Mercedes vehicles. Then again, you can skip all that and pull off a Kanye West and just drive to the event in a Mercedes SLR Stirling Moss.
Few sportsmen are known across the world as much as Tony Hawk. He is one of the true pioneers of skateboarding, even being the very first man to pull off a 900 degree spin during competition in 1999. With all this fame comes an equally impressive bank account, and where else could that money take you but to the most expensive car Lexus ever produced?
Well in his latest stunt, Hawk splashed a bit of cash by renting a bright-yellow Lexus LFA before jumping it on his skateboard with the help of a small skate-ramp, showing that even though he’s retired from competition, he still has skills which would put all novice skaters to shame.
The interesting thing about this story is that the video was not shot for advertising purposes on behalf of Lexus to help drum up sales for its $375,000 supercar, and it seems it was just shot for recreational purposes. As mentioned, the particular LFA in question was a rental car, although we’re not sure why Hawk wouldn’t just splash the cash and purchase one as he unquestionably has the money to do so.
Additionally, Hawk is also an avid Lexus-lover, currently owning a SC 430 and LS600h.
As a reminder, the Lexus LFA features a 4.8-liter V10 engine pumping out a Lamborghini Gallardo-rivalling 552 horsepower at a screaming 8,700rpm and 354 lb-ft of torque at 6,800 rpm. Not only does the LFA has one of the most distinct and pleasant exhaust notes out there, it’s actually quite the performance car with the Nurburgring edition lapping the Nordschleife last year in 7:14.64.
The Ghia L6.4 was just about as exclusive as you could get in the 1960s, as it was designed and built only for actors and other high rollers in Hollywood. The final of the 26 Ghia L6.4s ever built was built for one of the largest stars of that era, Dean Martin. Martin was not the only Rat Pack member to own a L6.4, as Frank Sinatra also owned one, as did other Rat Pack members.
Recently, one of the 26 Ghia L6.4s built, the one owned by Dean Martin, was put up for auction on eBay as Hyman Ltd. got its hands on Martin’s old L6.4. For a car of its age, the modern features are plentiful, but it still wasn’t enough for Dean Martin, as he shipped the car off to George Barris, “Hollywood’s King of the Kustomizers,” to have even more customizations performed on this already rare vehicle. This customization turned Martin’s L6.4 into a one-of-a-kind vehicle.
Click past the jump to read the full review on this vehicle and see how it has held up throughout the years.
