Later today, Mercedes will drop the official details on the new S-Class sedan, but our spy photographers were busy too. They managed to catch the S-Class Coupe testing in Hamburg, Germany.
Even though the prototype caught testing was heavily camouflaged, it is easy to see the coupe version will be almost identical to the four-door model. It will get a more prominent front grille, new headlamps, and sportier and more elegant lines than last year’s model. Of course, the coupe version will look a little bit sportier, thanks to the lack of the rear doors.
Under the hood, we anticipate seeing the same lineup found in the sedan, including: a 3.0-liter V-6 turbo-diesel engine that delivers 255 horsepower; a 4.7-liter turbocharged gasoline V-8 with 449 horsepower; and a hybrid version that will combine a 3.5-liter gasoline V-6 and an electric motor for a total output of 302 horsepower.
Click past the jump to read more about the Mercedes S-Class Coupe.
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It looks like the Canadian market received lots of attention from Bimmer today. After the 335i M Performance Edition we announced earlier, BMW Canada then announced the M6 Gran Coupe Launch Edition. The model was built in cooperation with BMW Individual and marks the launch of the M6 Grand Coupe into the Canadian market.
The M6 Gran Coupe Launch Edition is finished in an exclusive Pure Metal Silver paint combined with two-tone upholstery for the interior. The seat centers, lower dashboard and door inserts are offered in Merino Silverstone, and the seat bolsters, center console, upper dashboard and carpeting are offered in black.
The front and rear seats, dashboard, and the upper door parts are wrapped in black leather with contrasting Silverstone stitching. The rest of the interior is trimmed in a deep luster of BMW Individual Piano Black. As a standard feature, the M6 Launch Edition comes with a Bang & Olufsen audio system.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard BMW M6 Gran Coupe.
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Every time we see Pininfarina make the news with a new concept it’s developing, we can’t help but get excited about what the Italian coachbuilder has in store for us.
Well, it looks like Pininfarina is preparing something; a concept, it appears, that will make its debut at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este later this month.
The concept, which has been dubbed as the one-off Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe, was designed and collaborated with BMW and comes as a notable successor to the BMW Z4 Zagato Coupe that BMW and Zagato also introduced at last year’s event.
Not much is known about the model except that it’s going to be a huge luxury sedan in more ways than one. Aesthetically, it will be feature a long wheelbase, a stretched bonnet, short overhangs and a set-back greenhouse with a smoothly sloping roofline. Thinking about these descriptions it’s easy to be reminded of the German automaker’s 8 Series line.
Actually, the connection to those 8ers from past decades doesn’t just end with its looks. The Gran Lusso Coupe is also reported to carry a monster V-12 engine that will be based on the 6.0-liter turbocharged engine that produces an output of 535 horsepower.
That’s as much as we can tell you because that’s the limited information BMW and Pininfarina have released. In the meantime, click past the jump to revisit the car the former brought to the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este last year: the Z4 Zagato Coupe
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After years of teasing and concept reveals, the Acura NSX is finally going to be a reality. This was confirmed by a press release from Honda informing us that it had selected a production facility: an all-new, 184,000-square-foot Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio. This production facility will be inside Honda’s former North American Logistics facility nearby Honda’s R&D and engineering operations.
Little is known about the production version of the NSX except the fact that is will carry a mid-mounted, direct-injected V-6 engine and Acura’s Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system. The Sport Hybrid SH-AWD uses a trio of electric motors – one mated to the engine and two driving the front wheels – to help boost the V-6 engine’s performance and overall vehicle stability. The latest concept’s engine hooked up to a dual-clutch transmission and we expect the same from the production model. Unfortunately, Honda released no information on the total output and performance of the NSX, so we are in the dark here. We do figure to see at least 400 horsepower from the 2016 NSX and a 0-to-60 mph time around 4 seconds.
The 2013 NSX Concept is likely the one that is most similar to what the NSX will actually look like, minus the crazy headlights and wheels. The red and black leather interior is very realistic for production and the body isn’t too over the top to be considered for production.
Production will begin in Ohio in 2015, making this a 2016 model year not the 2015 model year that anticipated earlier. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Click past the jump to read more about the NSX Concepts
*Image Note: All Images are of the various NSX concepts, not the production model
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One of the most hyped parts of Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary is the Grande Giro parade, a four-day grand tour that will feature over 350 Lamborghini supercars, all of which began their tour at Lombardia, Italy before it finished off at Bologna on the 10th of May. From there, another day of driving ensued before the parade of Lambos reached their destination at company headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese on the 11th.
Needless to say, the whole parade was chronicled by Lamborghini itself. That’s what happens when you celebrate your 50th birthday. You take the time to make it as special as it can be.
In addition to all the special-edition supercars that Lamborghini has unveiled as part of its celebration, including the absolutely bonkers Egoista, the Grande Giro parade has to be considered one of the finest ways to blow out the candles on Lamborghini’s 50th birthday.
Having all those Lamborghini owners sharing in the event only made the parade that much more special.
Click past the jump to watch the four-day Grande Giro parade through the eyes of Lamborghini
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The Porsche 911 is in its sixth generation (991), but for most Porsche fans the real 911 is the 996 series - especially if you consider the body hasn’t changed that much since then and that was the first 911 with a water-cooled engine.
With this in mind, German tuner OK-Chiptuning unveiled the Manta Porsche tuning kit. If you were wondering where the name comes from, the answer is rather strange: the kit was inspired by the cult classic model Opel Manta developed between 1970 and 1988.
The kit is based on a 996 Turbo model, which in standard form, delivers a total of 360 horsepower. However, for the Manta Porsche kit, the tuner managed to squeeze an amazing 650 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque from its six-cylinder engine.
In order to obtain this amazing increase, the tuner offers a K24-Turbolader, a GT2-RS air cooler, larger injection valves and a higher-flow fuel pump. There is also a Sachs-Performance-clutch and an exhaust system with continuous 70 mm (2.75 inches) tubes.
Click past the jump to read more about the Manta Porsche by OK-Chiptuning.
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Subaru BRZ is a nice sports car, but with quite a disappointing output for real car addicts out there. Luckily for us, where Subaru decided to stop at just 200 horsepower, Crawford Performance comes into focus and increases the output to more than double.
By adding a new turbo, replacing the standard exhaust system and doing some ECU upgrades the tuner obtained an output of 450 horsepower. There are no official detail on the peak torque, but it looks like it has been tripled, so we guess it is somewhere in the 450 pound-feet area. Now, this looks like a number more suitable for a sports car, no?
The guy over Drive took this car out for a test drive in an attempt to see how the updates improved the car’s performance and phenomenal dynamic features. According to them, this package managed to "add to the BRZ’s performance without taking away from it’s character."
Click past the jump to see Drive taking the Crawford-tuned BRZ to task and to read more on the base BRZ.
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The Gumball 3000 Rally is an event that brings some pretty interesting project cars out of the woodwork. This year, we’re already seeing a whole lot of them with the latest one coming from Nissan and French publishing house L’Ecurie and INTERSECTION Magazine.
The two will actually be part of the pan-European parade and for this trip, they decided to deck out a unique Nissan 370Z Nismo. In what could very well be an attempt to showcase the 370Z Nismo on the streets of Europe, the Japanese automaker and the French publication house entered the 370Z Nismo as "Car 56" for the parade as an ode to the garage number (56) the Nissan DeltaWing occupied at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
As far as aesthetics go, INTERSECTION Magazine gave it a pretty unique camouflage livery that it designed specifically for the event. That livery and all the added goodies Nismo added to the Z ensures that this special-edition model is different from the rest of the 370Zs out there.
Best watch out for this unique iteration of the Japanese sports car at the 2013 Gumball 3000 rally. It will be piloted by INTERSECTION Magazine contributors Patrice Meignan and Jeremy ‘Jey’ Taltaud.
Click past the jump to read about the Nissan 370Z Nismo
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Back in 2007, Pratt and Miller Engineering was asked by GM to develop a road-going version of the C6R racecar as a special gift to Jay Leno. Apparently, the company was impressed by the result and a total of seven units were developed in the end. Back then, the Corvette C6RS was priced at $330,000.
If you are interested in owning one of the seven C6RS models ever built, you now have the chance to win serial No. C6RS003 – a unit specially ordered and built for Pratt & Miller’s official race photographer – at auction.
If you are interested, you can bid on this car on eBay. Currently bid is a little under $110k, but we expect to see it jump up pretty quickly as the end of the auction approaches. Hurry up though, as the bidding war ends on May 19th, 2013.
Click past the jump to read more about the Chevrolet Corvette C6RS.
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Until now, Infiniti has unveiled two hybrid sports cars, but unfortunately both of them were just concepts. The first concept was the Essence, which was unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. The second one - the EMERG-E - was shown at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
Now, the company plans to unveil a halo sports car in the next three years, using hybrid technology explored by the two concepts. According to Infiniti brand boss Andy Palmer, the new sports car will be specially designed for young families with that want to be environmentally friendly and still have some fun.
When talking about the future model, Palmer described it "like the Tesla sports car option, but with more flexibility in terms of range." This leaves both the possibilities opened, including a 1.2-liter gasoline engine combined with two electric motors or a 3.7-liter V-6 mated to an electric motor.
Either way, Infiniti needs this new halo car if it wants to increase sales from the current 200,000 units a year up to 500,000 by 2020.
Click past the jump to read more about the two Infiniti concept cars.
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