Crashing a regular Lotus Exige is bad enough, but crashing an Exige so customized it could pass as a completely different car is something else entirely. Frank Profera built the car pictured completely by hand over the past six years, even fitting it with both a supercharger and turbocharger to help it produce in excess of 700BHP.
As a result, Frank claimed on the video past the jump when Matt Farah drove his one-off masterpiece for the Drive channel that it was the fastest Lotus in the world, even trumping the incredible Hennessey Venom GT in the twisty roads of the Californian canyons.
Unfortunately however, the car was recently involved in an incident on California’s Route 101, where Frank claims he was rear-ended by a Porsche before sliding backwards into the median strip. In what can only be described as an all-out attack on the Porsche driver, Frank posted a comment on YouTube continually swearing at the driver and taking no responsibility for the incident himself.
Just like any other car crash, there will undoubtedly be conflicting views in how it occurred, and if Profera is to be believed, the Porsche driver didn’t stop and instead continued on their merry way. Thankfully no one was injured in the accident, and the damage only seems to be external, but it will take weeks if not months for the owner to fix all the custom body panels.
Follow the jump to see Profera’s car in action and the pictures.
Known computer hacking and vigilante justice group, Anonymous, has struck again. This time it is pulling directly at our horsepower sensitive strings. With the upcoming Formula 1 race in Bahrain, an area that is currently in civil unrest due to the actions of its government, Anonymous has decided to nail F1 where it hurts, Interwebz traffic.
Last year F1 was forced to cancel its Bahrain races, due to similar unrest, but this year the race was and still is scheduled to go off without a hitch. This latest attack is an attempt by anonymous to force F1 to cancel the race out of protest, and it just might give the racing group the excuse it needs to pull out.
Anonymous is also calling for all viewers and spectators of F1 to ignore all television broadcasts of the race, as well as not buying tickets to the event. The vigilante hackers also are attempting to coax the drivers to not leave the starting line when the green flag drops.
Anonymous also took down F1 fan site, F1-Races.net, and leaving just a message on its landing page regarding the Bahrain situation.
As we typed this up, the Formula1.com came back live, so it appears that the Anonymous attempt to keep the site down through the race was unsuccessful, and there is no announcement about the attack or cancellation of the race. We will keep you updated as more news, if any, comes about.
Click past the jump to read Anonymous’s press release
Many years ago, I was a lowly sales person at a Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep dealership in Florida. As a sales person, you got to test drive nearly every new car and every trim level of every new car, as they came in. It was the only way to really get a feel for each car. There were only a few vehicles that we were forbidden to touch. Those vehicles were the Dodge Viper and the Ram 1500 SRT-10, because those were considered collectibles and the extra mileage could reduce their value – plus they knew what we would do with them.
This is pretty much standard procedure at every single car dealership, including Mercedes. The Mercedes C63 AMC Coupe Black Series is much like the Viper and SRT-10 Ram were for Dodge, simply untouchable. Apparently a few technicians at Star Motors in Ottawa, Canada did not get that memo.
They took one of the 30 models of the Black Series available in Canada out on an 8:11 joyride through Ottawa. It would be one thing if they just drove it around to look cool and brought it back to the shop safely. Nope, these techs decided to see what this AMG coupe could do on multiple occasions.
At one point, the driver mentions that in manual mode, the car does not automatically up shift. The passenger didn’t believe him, so the guy proceeds to take the car up to redline in first gear and keep it there for about five seconds. This car can certainly handle that, but as all new car techs should know, these things require a break-in period before seeing that sort of stress.
Thankfully, the snoops over at MBWorld.com recognized the dealership, and alerted officials at Mercedes-Benz Canada. Mercedes is currently attempting to track down the owner of this thrashed upon vehicle to let him or her know the scoop on the car. Whether or not Mercedes will compensate the owner with anything is not known
All we can hope is that these techs got what was coming to them by the car gods!
With sister company Nissan digging into the depths of its history to revive the old Datsun nameplate, Renault felt a little out in the cold. Well, the constructeur automobile Français, err, French automaker has decided yet again to revive its long lost sports car, the Alpine A110, sort of.
Renault has announced that a 50th anniversary Alpine A110 model will make an appearance at the 2012 Paris Motor Show (Mondial de l’Automobile 2012), which opens on September 29th and runs through October 14th. Keep in mind, Renault once explored this topic before, but axed it in 2009.
The original Alpine A110 debuted in 1961 and lasted through the 1977 model year. It had a rather Porsche-like design and had a number of engines ranging from a 66-horsepower 1,108 cc engine to an impressive 140-horsepower 1,605 cc engine.
There is no word as of yet what engine this retro revival will feature, nor what it will look like. Chances are, however, it will be very similar to the original. Given the fact that Renault also owns a large portion of Nissan, this tribute car will likely bear a few Nissan components.
An actual production model is unlikely, as Renault already features a compact sports car, the Wind, and having two similar cars in an already massive lineup could be harmful. Then there’s the fact that Renault-Nissan’s marketing head said “...for an Alpine to make sense financially, it would have to sell in North America and China.” We haven’t seen a Renault in the U.S. since 1989, so it’s a real stretch for it to ever see production.
There have been rumors afloat that the Alpine would be based off of the Nissan GT-R, but that would be a far different car than the original, which defeats the purpose of a tribute car.
Ultimately, Renault left us pretty much empty handed on details, so we all just have to wait patiently until September. Unless Renault decides to play nice and give us at least a glimpse.
Way back in 2008, Pininfarina – a custom coach builder – took a look at the $400K Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Convertible and simply thought it just wasn’t good enough. So Pininfarina took this nearly half-million-dollar machine and created a one-off custom vehicle out of it. The maker then dubbed it the Hyperion, which was taken from an Ancient Greek Titan.
Much like its closest competitor, Bentley, Rolls-Royce has always been one of those car companies that you either loved or hated, mostly due to their gaudy exteriors and even more outlandish pricing. For those that love them, but just need a little something extra, there is no shortage of custom car builders that will customize them to your liking.
Despite the number of custom car builders modifying these ultra-luxury cars, none can touch the uniqueness and flashiness of the Hyperion. Pininfarina took special care to closely integrate a vintage look – taking styling cues from the 1930s and 1940s – with modern technology and feel.
This monster of a luxury car originally debuted at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It then made an appearance at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show before going off to its rightful owner, Roland Hall.
Let’s take a look at how the 2008 Pininferina Hyperion stacks up.
It’s funny to think how drifting morphed from something teenagers used to do in vacant parking lots to look cool to one of the most popular racing series in the world. Formula DRIFT, or Formula D as most know it, is just getting its ninth season ramped up after Daijiro Yoshihara dominated the series last year, taking home the overall points championship. We even got a behind the scenes peak at how he did it via the Behind the Smoke series on GT Channel.
The ninth season of Formula D started earlier this month, so as expected, Dai and the guys are back for season 2 of their Behind the Smoke series. Episode 1 (posted above) gives us an inside look on the testing process Dai and his drifting machine, a 1993 Nissan240SX, go through in getting ready for the season.
There’s tons of sideways and smoky action throughout the video, and even a little brotherly taunting between team members. Ultimately, Dai and his team must have gotten something right, as they pulled in a nice second place finish at the debut Formula D race this season, which was held at the Streets of Long Beach circuit.
There is not much that’s more adrenaline pumping than watching a nearly 3,000-pound machine careening sideways down a track only to have the driver flick it back under his control, using careful throttle control and counter-steering. So skip the coffee this morning, folks, and crank up the speakers for this one.
Also you get to see that even professional drivers forget the most basic items, as Dai breaks a cardinal rule of driving a manual transmission at the 7:35 mark. The car dies and he has no idea what happened. Watch as the guys all get a good laugh at this professional driver’s expense.
Remember when we were all kids and our parents would constantly remind us never to play with anything electric around water? For the most part, we all listened to them, right? We wonder if the same goes for playing with a really big electric toy on top of frozen water – AKA snow and ice.
According to Tesla, the rule definitely does not apply to frozen water, or the company just so happens to be chocked full of bad boys and girls that didn’t listen to their parents. The above video is proof of their frozen water and electricity shenanigans, as the all-new Tesla Model S goes sliding around in the snow and ice, and appears to be having a dang good time in the process.
The video is of the 2013 Tesla S testing in the cold weather, something that has been a thorn in the side of electric cars since their inception. Apparently, the Tesla S not only tested well in the cold weather, but for a rear-wheel-drive sports sedan, it sure did hold onto the track well. We’re interested to see what tires Tesla slapped on this electro-mobile to make it stick the way it did because they definitely aren’t summer tires.
The only time we saw it really break loose was at the 1:15 when it looks to be in a fairly controlled drift. Regardless of its snow handling, we still think the Tesla Model S and its 4.4-second peak 0 – 60 time is pretty awesome. Then again, that $105,400 sticker price will definitely put a small hole in anyone’s wallet.
So we now need to add an asterisk next to the old water and electricity lesson that our parents taught us, so it excludes water in a solid state. No, this doesn’t mean you can mess with your toaster or dry your hair while ice fishing!
Anyways, kick back and enjoy mixing electricity with snow and ice, we certainly did.
Fisker has been one of the more exciting rollercoaster rides in the automotive industry, as of late. In 2010, it was developing an extended range hybrid, then known as the Nina, and the Department of Energy was interested enough to provide the struggling company with a $529 million loan. This loan was three fold; part of it was for additional research for the Karma, part was for the Nina’s development, and the final portion was to renovate the old GM plant in Delaware.
Apparently Fisker didn’t meet the DOE’s expectations and they froze the loan in 2011, due to “unmet milestones.” Fisker then insisted that production of the Atlantic (the production name of the Nina) will commence at the Delaware plant, despite laying off 26 employees in early-February.
Well, the layoffs are still coming, as Fisker just let go of an additional 12 employees, including engineers and maintenance technicians, from its Delaware plant, which one laid off engineer called “absolutely empty.”
This is really making it look as if the Atlantic will not be produced in the Delaware plant. For that matter, it is starting to look like the Fisker brand as a whole may be in some significant trouble. The true question here is will the DOE see that Fisker’s recent progress is good enough to thaw out those loan funds and allow the company to continue its renovation of the Delaware plant and research on the Atlantic project? Or will the DOE watch Fisker squirm as it gasps for air wherever it can?
Chances are releasing the loan funds will never happen and it is looking like Fisker may fizzle out and end up amongst the heap of failed car companies, alongside Packard, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac. Only time will tell, but seeing the Atlantic – an affordable hybrid sports sedan – hit the market would be a great thing for the environment and the entire hybrid realm.
Since the Boxster hit showrooms way back in 1997, it has always had its own little group of enthusiasts. This can be said about many cars, as the Miata, Z3, Z4, and even the Sky all have their own tight-knit little group. The unfortunate thing is that tight-knit group rarely ever expands.
With the redesigned 2013 Porsche Boxster, it looks to expand on that group by offering up a much more mature and refined look, as opposed to its little-brother-wishing-he-were-the-big-brother look that it has had since its inception. Yeah, the Boxster still looks like a slightly less sexy version of the 911, but this time it carries its own instead of the 911’s coattail.
As Bryan outlined for us after its release, this “Baby 911” packs a mean wallop, with the Boxster S model pushing 315 horsepower from its 3.4-liter flat-6 engine. Power is all in what you do with it though, and the 2013 Boxster does plenty with what it has. Porsche put this on display in the 2013 Boxster’s newest promotional video.
This video not only gives you a great look at all of the nooks and crannies of the new Boxster, but it also lets you get a good listen to the S model’s 3.4-liter working hard. We are really starting to think that the 911’s little brother is beginning to become his own man. Of course, when you beat the C6 Corvette, Viper SRT-10, and Mercedes C63 AMG at the Nürburgring, you have little else to prove to show your worth in the sports car arena. Sure, those cars would likely smoke the 2013 Boxster S in a quarter-mile straight, but the world is full of curves, baby!
Kick back and enjoy the above video, then try not to immediately run down to Porsche and reserve one. Luckily, there is no Porsche dealer where I am…
The MK1 Escort was never a real rally champ, given it was an overweight econo-box driven by a tiny little four-banger. However, the MK1 Escort was a bit of a cult classic, as it was kind of like Herby the Love Bug, you never expected it to win, but it dang sure was a cute lil’ thing.
As the rally circuit became more competitive, the MK1 disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. Until now, sort of…
From here we need you to carefully follow a few steps, yeah we know, steps. First, check out the above video of the revived MK1 slinging around a rally course, but make sure to stop short of 2:45 mark, and then come back to this point. Easy enough, right?
As you watched the revived MK1 Ford fly around, did you notice anything odd? Maybe you noticed the fact that the car seemed drastically too small for the scenery? If not, we’ll let the cat out of the bag now, that’s a 1:5 scale radio-controlled model of the original MK1 Escort rally machine whipping around a 1:5 scale rally track. Oh, and the audio; that’s the guys at Headquake RC dubbing the actual sounds from the original MK1 over top of the RC car’s sounds.
Don’t believe us? Scroll to the 2:45 mark of the video and hit “Play.” Now you can hear the sounds of the RC car working hard around the track, which is impressive in its own right. We don’t know which part we are more impressed by, the realistic looks of the 1:5 replica or the filming and dubbing quality to make the illusion that you are actually watching modern footage of the MK1. Nice show, Headquake, nice show indeed.
