Inspired by the success turbo-charging had on the Formula 1 competitions, Ferrari decided to adopt it on road-cars and in 1982 they revealed the 208 GTB Turbo, a model created specially for the Italian market. It remained into production until 1985 with 437 units produced.
Ferrari also needed a car with small displacement in order to avoid huge taxes at the moment. As a result the 328 was built in order to redress the power difference between the 2 litre and 3 litre engines, without increasing the tax burden on the client.
As usual the man behind the car’s look was Pininfarina who adopted a very small body with a deep front spoiler with a row of five horizontal cooling slots just below the radiator grille and the front lid featured a row of satin black finished louvres to increase airflow through the radiator, due to the higher temperatures created by the turbocharging of the engine.
On the lower body sides just in front of each rear wheel arch there was a NACA duct, and a spoiler was fitted to the rear of the roof between the buttresses that ran into the rear wings. The tail of the car featured a badge proclaiming “Turbo” and the twin paired exhaust pipes were within shrouds. Pirelli P 7 tyres on 16” rims were available as an option to the standard metric Michelin TRX tyres.
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The sport compact segment is about to get a new member very soon. The Malaysian classic coach builder Bufori is is set to release a new member of its family. The CS, which stands for "Compact Sports", is a purist and powerful sports coupe in every sense of the word. The new car will be powered by a 2.0 Liter turbocharged four cylinder engine and will be made up of a lightweight composite body. The artisans from Kuala Lumpur offer their typical level of classic luxury craftsmanship, with a superb attention to quality and fine details. The Bufori CS is expected to be launched in Malaysia at the beginning of 2010 with more details to be revealed towards the end of the year.
The design of the Bufori CS is modern, boasting elegant flowing lines and a set of subtly pronounced fenders. Other motorists will admire the four circular LED tail lights that give the CS an additional sporty attitude as you zoom by them on the highway. The Bufori CS’s body is made of Carbon Fiber & Kevlar for its light weight and incredible strength wrapped around a tubular space frame chassis. The suspension features unequal upper and lower control arms and fully adjustable coil over shocks to let the owner dial in the ride however they see fit. All we have to say is that this looks like an upscale Hyundai Genesis Coupe from a neighboring South East Asian country, things could get interesting.
TechArt has presented a new tuning program for the new Porsche 911 Carrera 4S. The tuner modified both the car’s dynamics and performances. Thanks to a new "Racing" flap-controlled exhaust system and new engine electronics the Carrera 4S delivers with 35 hp more, to a total of 420 hp.
The aerodynamic kit includes a front spoiler, side skirts, a roof spoiler and three versions of rear wings, back pressure air vents, an adjustable spoiler lip, decorative trims for the exterior mirrors – made from carbon fiber painted in the requested color and 19 or 20 inch five-spoke wheels.
On the interior the tuner added leather, a three-spoke airbag sports steering wheels, aluminum pedals and trim strips.
Press release after the jump.
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After months of "to be or not to be" it’s finally official: the Lotus Esprit will indeed have a successor. Lotus seven year product plan key reveal that the new Esprit will be revealed in 2012, but will carry a different name.
The company is aiming at a power-to-weight ratio of between 275bhp and 325bhp per tonne, meaning that the future Esprit will can easily compete with most of the German sports cars.
According to a Lotus insider the next Esprit will be "the ultimate expression of the brand." It will be a third model tier with the four-cylinder Elise/ Exige and Europa as the first tier and the Evora V6 as the second tier.
Also the same insider reveal that the Evora’s Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) can be adapted to create almost any type of vehicle, from a sports car to an SUV.
The Danish automobile manufacturer Zenvo revealed new details on their first supercar: the ST1 (S stands for Supercharger, T for Turbo and 1 for model number one). The design of the Zenvo ST1 is made from free flowing accelerating lines creating the shapes of the wheel arches, the roof lines, side line and the lower side air intake.
The sharp lines are connected by muscular organic surfacing creating dramatic reflections. The front is designed around the hexagonal trademark Zenvo grille flanked by the large front air intakes used for brake cooling and housing the front light. The theme of the front is repeated in the rear which is designed around the big diffuser necessary for high speed stability and down force. As on the front the center volume is flanked by large air exits extracting hot engine air as well as housing the exhausts and rear lights. The rear spoiler, mandatory for a car capable of extreme high speeds, is partly integrated. It has a unique aerodynamic design following the raked shape of the rear end.
The ST1 is powered by a turbocharged and supercharged (yes you can do both, crazy Danes) 7.0-liter V8 that delivers 1,104 hp and 1055 lbs ft. of torque. The sprint from 0 to 60 mph is made in about three seconds and a top speed goes up to 233 mph.
Press release after the jump.
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The German automaker Mercedes Benz has announced that the new SLS AMG super car will be taking domestic orders for the new Gullwing starting next Monday, on the 16th of November starting at 149,000 Euros, or 177,310 Euros including the continent’s Value Added Tax.
The SLS AMG is made up of an aluminum space frame body complete with gullwing doors, an AMG 6.2 Liter V8 mounted in the front midship position developing a maximum output of 571 HP and 480 lb-ft of torque in part thanks to the power plants dry sump lubrication system that sucks the pistons back down to Bottom Dead Center and can accelerate the SLS from 0 to 60 MPH in just 3.8 seconds. The super car is shifted via one of Mercedes Benz’s seven speed double clutch transmissions mounted at the rear of the vehicle in a transaxle configuration for ideal weight distribution of 47/53, front/rear. The SLS sits on an AMG tuned lightweight aluminum double wishbone sport suspension to reduce the unsprung mass and keeps the car’s center of gravity as low to the road surface as possible. The car’s curb weight has been kept to 1620 kilograms based on the Deutsches Institut für Normung, or German Institute of Standards. This combination of carefully chosen parts and fine tuning results in a superlative driving experience that can be enjoyed by everyone from a performance driving novice to a track day super star, thanks to this uncompromising sports car concept.
Full list of specifications and prices after the jump.
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In 1982 at the Paris Salon Ferrari replaced the 308 GTBi with the 308 GTB Quattrovalvole. The car remained into production until 1985, with 748 examples produced, in both right and left hand drive versions. Alsoo, all US market examples were fitted with catalytic convertors.
The Quattrovalvole part of the model name referred to the four valves per cylinder heads on the engine, which provided increased power over the preceding model.
The Ferrari 308 GTB Quattrovalvole was very similar to the outgoing one, but could be recognised by the addition of a slim louvre panel in the front lid to aid radiator exhaust air exit, paired electrically operated door mirrors with a small enamel Ferrari badge on the shell, a revised radiator grille with rectangular driving lights at the extremities, and rectangular (instead of round) side repeater lights.
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We still have some time before the new McLaren MP4-12C super car goes on sale in the Spring of 2011. Until then the race car fabricators are keeping quite busy with preparation for the Italian exotic competitor, and just to let the world know that they haven’t forgotten about us with all their diligent labor, the automaker has released a video that shows all the work that is going into producing the MP4-12C super car.
The vehicle’s challenging and comprehensive development program has taken the new McLaren to some of the world’s most famous race circuits as well as the most inhospitable of driving environments. McLaren has utilized every method in their arsenal to produce the best budget super car possible; combining simulation programs, Formula 1 techniques, personnel processes and thousands of miles of real world on road exercises showing that the McLaren Automotive testing team has taken giant strides through 2009 and will continue on into the future until they have perfected the MP4-12C.
In 1985 Ferrari replaced the 308 Series with the 328 series, in both coupe and spider version. The 328 GTB continued in production for four years, until replaced by the 348 tb model in the Autumn of 1989, with 1344 units produced.
The new 328 GTB was a revised and updated version of the 308 GTB, which had survived for almost a decade without any radical change to the overall shape, albeit with various changes to the 3 litre engine. The 328 model presented a softening of the wedge profile of its predecessor, with a redesigned nose that had a more rounded shape, which was complimented by similar treatment to the tail valance panel.
The revised nose and tail sections featured body colour bumpers integral with the valance panels, which reflected the work done concurrently to present the Mondial 3.2 models, with which they also shared a similar radiator grille and front light assembly layout.
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To most auto enthusiasts, the Nurburgring’s Nordschleife track is known as the Green Hell. Why you may be asking, because even if the stretch of pavement is only 21 kilometers long, the number of accidents that take place at the ’Ring are beyond your imagination, it is said that everyday the track is open for public use that at least one sports car owner walks away with a heap of scrap metal.
The latest victim of the Nordschleife is a BMW M3, and from the looks of things, the German sports coupe is a total loss. Believe it or not the M3 was being driven by an experienced pilot, but even for a knowledgeable Ringmeister negotiating all 100 corners of the Green Hell can be a bit tricky. The other problem with high speed lapping sessions around the Nurburgring is that you have lots of traffic to contend with. As a result, the M3 driver entered into a blind curve where he hit a Mini Cooper that was keeping a slower pace and ended both racing enthusiasts day. After the impact the BMW M3 caught fire and as you can see it is completely destroyed, not to mention that the Mini didn’t fare to well either.
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