To say we absolutely love every Shelby Cobra to death is an understatement. This also breeds a little hatred in our hearts for those that take a hacksaw to them and start modifying stuff. However, here are some modifications to Shelby Cobras that we can stomach and some that we completely fall in love with at first sight. Magnis Jinstrand’s modified Shelby Cobra just happens to fall squarely in the latter classification…
This beautiful example of automotive genius boasts a disgustingly sexy 6.0-liter Mercedes V-12 with an equally disgusting loud-mouthed supercharger strapped to its intake. There’s no information on the power pushed out by this mean machine, but judging by the above video, we would have to estimate it to be in the 700-horsepower range.
The exposed supercharger really just does it for us. Not only does it look awesome, but it is about the only whining that I can say I want to hear while driving a car. This blower obliges by providing plenty of it in audible goodness.
We are unsure what other modifications this Cobra has on it and we are also unsure if this is actually a real AC Cobra or not. Chances are that it’s a kit car sitting on a custom chassis, especially given how well it handles. Regardless of its authenticity, it is still one sexy beast. We will update you if we happen to come up with any of the vehicle’s specs. Until then, crank your speakers up and enjoy.
For a while now, Black Eyed Peas member, Will.I.Am, has been prancing a DeLorean DMC-12 wrapped in a body kit and some rather odd looking headlights around calling it a (ahem) “Concept car” for his new “car company” dubbed “IAMAUTO.” In reality, this is literally nothing but an uglier version of the original crap box that hit the market in 1981.
Saying that any rendition of the DMC-12 could be uglier than the original may seem rather impossible, but this monstrosity takes the cake. Its sheer ugliness is not the news though. The news is that the LAPD has recently impounded this “concept” car. Though we wish we could say it was impounded for lowering property value, we cannot, but it is for an equally boneheaded reason.
Will.I.Am was caught driving this thing around L.A. without a license plate, registration, or VIN plates. We venture to say that list can also include insurance, as you typically cannot insure a car without a VIN.
So why did Mr. I.Am decide to take his “concept” on an un-plated and extremely illegal spin? According to reports, the musician said he just wanted to feel what it was like to drive his concept car on the street. Um, a few problems… First, that is no more a concept car than a 1987 Fiero with a Ferrari kit is a concept car. Secondly, you are a multi-millionaire pop star, pay to have the thing registered before driving it or take it to a track to drive it!
We’re not here to pass judgment on the guy, but please use that 3-pound hunk of water, lipids, protein, carbs, soluble organics, and inorganic salts inside of your skull (A.K.A. your brain) next time you think about taking an un-plated and unregistered car for a spin.
A silver lining in the whole situation is that Will.I.Am was, according to reports, extremely cooperative with the police. So we have to give him credit for that, at least.
Using the words “Ford Granada” and “Cool” in the same sentence, with exception to the 1991 Granada Cosworth, is sort of an oxymoron, as there was never anything cool about it. The Mark II Granada was a compact sedan that peaked out at a lackluster 160 horsepower and bottomed out at a sub-Geo-Metro 54 horsepower. That said, there are ways to make just about any car cool, so what in the world could a few guys from the U.K. do to make this econo-box even remotely cool?
The answer to that question is easy: rip out the stock engine, get to hacking up the body a little bit, and drop 1,700-horsepower worth of engine into it. Yup, somehow these fine monstercar builders got their hands on a Koenigsegg CCX 4.7-liter V-8 with twin turbochargers and dropped it into this circa-2,800-pound body.
In addition to dropping in nearly 2,000 ponies, the group of automotive mad scientists installed a 2003/4 Ford Mustang Cobra rear independent suspension, which appears to include the rear axle assembly. This beast comes to a halt using a set of big and nasty Porsche disc brakes.
Needless to say, this is freaking bad-ass and we cannot put it any other way without getting too graphic. The only bad thing is that they did not release any official performance specs on this supercar-powered granny car, except that its only limitation in horsepower is how much boost they push into it. Without any boost, the engine cranks out 550 to 600 horsepower, at 14.7 psi it crests 1,000 ponies and at 34.8 psi, it crests 2,000 horsepower.
Regardless of its final output, just the install itself is impressive. The builders also posted a video (above) of it running, for those non-believers out there.
Back in 1968 when he was on the Bullitt movie set, legendary American star, Steve McQueen took delivery of a very cool 275 GTB4. Now Ferrari has taken the car back to the factory for a complete restoration. Next to belonging to McQueen, this car has a pretty interesting evolution: the previous owner converted it to a Spider and the new owner wants it converted back to coupe form.
So the new owner took 275 GTB4 to the experts at Ferrari Classiche for the company’s authenticity certification process. The only problem they had was that the transformation from Spider to Coupe could not happen until the vehicle was restored to the exact same specifications as when it left the factory. Now, Ferrari has to restore the car’s roof and add new hand-beaten steel panels.
Considering that only 36 examples were built of the Ferrari 275 GTB4 and that, in recent auctions, most of the 275 GTB4 models went for a large sum of money, we’re thinking it’s in Ferrari’s best interest to have this model fully restored.
We will keep you posted with the development process, so stay tuned!
The window sticker is an often forgotten item when you buy a car. For the most part, we just rip them off and throw them out, and this act of removing the sticker has been commonplace for decades. Most often, the only time a window sticker is saved is when the car is a collector’s item straight off of the showroom floor. This leaves two options, don’t display a window sticker at all, or have a brand-new-looking replica made that stands out like tank tracks on a WRX.
Well, that’s no longer the case for Porsche owners, as Stuttgart Studios offers replica delivery stickers with optional aging and weathering, giving them an authentic look. By using your Porsche’s VIN, Stuttgart determines all of the codes that were on the original window sticker and creates the sticker just as it was in real life. For an extra cost of $14.95, Stuttgart will add “Motif” to your sticker, which gives it a look and feel that a decades-old window sticker should have.
Judging by the examples that Stuttgart has on its site, it very well might be worth the base $99.95 price to have a sticker made, then the additional $14.95 for the “Motif.” What’s even cooler is that they don’t have just one “Motif” that every sticker gets. They list a total of 12 “Motif” selections on the website, but imply that there are many more options.
This definitely gets TopSpeed’s “Ultimate Niche Marketing” award for 2012. How in the heck these folks came up with this idea is beyond us, but it’s definitely a great idea.
Icon has recently received a fair amount of press due to its legal issues with Mattel, but they are also still hot on the path of building awesome custom cars. On deck for Icon is a car that is a little bit out of their norm, which is building bad-ass off-road machines. It is a modernized version of the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Volante.
The project appears to be still in its concept phase, so all of the details are a little scarce and we have reached out to Icon for additional information. For now, we do know that this model will boast a strikingly similar body as the 1960s Aston Martin legend, but in true Icon fashion there will be loads of customization. First on the list of customizations will be to hack off the DB4’s annoying fixed head, and the signature Zagatto dual humps, but leaving the humps on the rear of the car, which you can see in the above image.
The next Iconization will be replacing the 3.7-liter in-line six-cylinder engine that the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato originally featured and replacing it with a modern day V-12 engine from an Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Given Icon has a shoehorn large enough to cram this 6.0-liter V-12 power plant into the DB4’s engine compartment, it will give this classic ride somewhere in the range of 510 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough to give any car nut that warm and fuzzy feeling.
To make sure that this reborn DB4 GT Zagato stays as true to original form as possible, Icon is working closely with Ercole Spada, who just so happened to be the original designer for the Zagato coupe. How’s that for dedication to your craft?
We are still awaiting confirmation of these reports and actual specs from Icon, and we’ll update you and this review as soon as we receive additional information.
So picture that you just snagged up a car for, let’s say $3,800, and it is a great car that you completely fall in love with. A year later, you find out that the car was illegally seized according to a court ruling and you have to hand the car over to the heirs of its original owner. You’d be pretty upset, right? Well, add three zeros to that price and you that exact situation unfolding in Germany.
A Dutch car collector purchased a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster from RM Auctions last year for a whopping $3.8 million in California. When the collector shipped the car back to Germany, the German government seized the car stating that it was illegally taken by an American military official around 1945 and shipped to the U.S., as the heirs of the pricy automobile are claiming that the American serviceman stole the vehicle and hid it in the U.S.
Typically, Germany has a 30-year statute of limitation on this sort of case, but a German court stated that since the car was not in Germany for 30 years, the limitation clock never started, which is an odd interpretation of statute of limitations laws. The strangest thing is that between 1945 and 1970, no one has any idea where the car was and what was being done with it, so there is technically no proof that the car was not in Germany, and we find the ruling a little off the wall.
We certainly hope that the buyer can recoup at least a majority of the $3.8 million he used to purchase the car from the seller. Also, there has to be some U.S. law on the books that puts RM Auctions on the hook for selling a car with a shady and undocumented past that just may cost the collector millions of dollars.
One thing’s for sure, if this car wasn’t worth $3.7 million, we are willing to bet that the heirs couldn’t have cared less about getting back the property… We’ll keep you updated as this story progresses.
The name Carroll Shelby spans across three makes – Ford, Chrysler, and Dodge – and is arguably the most recognized name by any true automotive buff. Unfortunately, we lost this remarkable man just weeks ago following a fight with pneumonia, but he is far from forgotten.
This past Wednesday, Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles decided that it was time to give Mr. Shelby a proper send off. Unlike many folks, a moment of silence just wouldn’t be a good fit for a man notorious for filling the streets with cars boasting awesome-sounding exhaust systems and cams that lobe so hard it feels like the earth is moving.
In lieu of the typical moment of silence, PAM chose to honor Mr. Shelby with a “Moment of Noise” at precisely 6:55 p.m. PST on May 30th. Over 1,200 cars bearing the “Shelby” name showed up at PAM to let their pistons and dual exhaust give this legend a proper send off. But it was not all about the noise, as there was a series of speakers that followed the roaring of these Shelby-designed machines in an event named “Carroll Shelby a Life Remembered,” which Jay Leno hosted.
The event was not limited to just L.A., as Shelby cars around the world fired up and paid tribute to this great man. Fortunately, the wide world web has come in handy again, as a plethora of videos of the various synchronized revving around the world have popped up online and we have them for you. There is also an awesome tribute done up by the folks at Forza Motorsport of all Mr. Shelby’s creations running side-by-side around a track.
In all, it was a spectacular showing and our hats go off to the participants and to the man that made this all possible, Mr. Carroll Shelby…
As all of automotive enthusiasts got introduced to cars we began falling in love with certain makes, models, and types of cars. For most of us, this happened at an early age. I was primarily raised around muscle cars, so it is easy to understand why I have an absolute infatuation with them. It also had to do with the fact that I learned about cars in the `80s and there weren’t many powerful cars to speak of in that era.
Chris Harris also learned about his love for cars through the 1980s, but obviously had more exposure to German cars than the average American youngster in the `80s, as his childhood favorite was the car that spawned the performance sedan market way back in the `80s. This epic, but little-known, ride is the 1986 BMW M5.
This car pumps out 286 horsepower and 251 pound-feet of torque from its 3.5-liter inline six cylinder and only 187 of them were ever imported into the U.K. with right-hand drive. While the 187 number is impressive by modern-day standards, the 286 ponies and 251 pound-feet are pretty average. Then again, the 1986 was chock-full of big V-8s that struggled to even push out 200 horsepower (see: 1986 Camaro Z/28, 1986 Mustang GT, and 1986 Corvette).
You can obviously tell that Chris loves driving this car, as he drifts it around a few turns and really gets into it. He makes it clear that the car is far from flawless, as the rear bumper trim is falling off, it has some dents, and the interior is just a little above average for its age, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Check out the above video to have a look and listen to this impressive machine. You also get a chance to gain just a little more respect for Chris Harris, as he shows that he knows exactly what BMW built this car to do.
The history of the Ferrari 275 began in 1964 when the model was initially brought onto the market. It came as a replacement for the legendary Dayton and only stayed in production for four years until 1968. Initially, the model was offered only in a two-cam version, but at the 1966 Paris Motor Show, Ferrari also unveiled the 275 GTB/4 - or the four-cam version.
The new 275 GTB/4 was designed by Pininfarina, built by Scaglietti, and was the first Ferrari not be offered with wire wheels. It immediately became a legend on the market, and even now, many people still claim it is one of the greatest Ferrari’s ever built. With that stellar history, it’s no surprise that one of the only 330 units built was sold at RM Auctions, Inc (Amelia) for an impressive $1.1 million.
Hit the jump to read more about the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Berlinetta.
