Despite belonging in the same market segment, the Peugeot RCZ is not in the league of the Mazda MX-5 Miata. There’s no shame in that for the French sports coupe because very few cars can match Mazda’s little speedster in terms of popularity and overall affordability.
Having said that, there’s still a pretty significant market for the RCZ, particularly in Europe. That’s why Peugeot has decided to introduce a limited edition, 150-piece RCZ that will be available in Europe.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the RCZ Brownstone Limited Edition is its Guaranja Brown exterior paint finish. Match that to a gloss black grille, brake calipers, and a special set of 19" "Magny Cours" alloy wheels and you’ve got an exterior look that adds some spice to the RCZ’s overall design.
As for the interior, Peugeot dressed it up with an exclusive Cohiba Leather and Alcantara on the sport seats, the dash panel and door trim panels. Should you wish for add-ons, the French automaker is offering a WIP Com 3D telematic system; a Sport package that includes shorter shifter, leather sport steering wheel, and Motorsound-Generator; a comfort package that comes with front parking sensors, automatic low beam switch and a rain sensor; and a xenon package that features dynamic cornering lights and a headlamp cleaning system, all of which you can get for an extra €2500, which is around $3,300 based on current exchange rates.
We all love the BMW M lineup, and we are particularly fond of the brand new 2012 Ms, which punches 560 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque from a TwinPower Turbo 4.4-liter V-8 engine. According to our report in January, the 2012 M5 can hit a top speed of 190 mph, and a driver on the Autobahn decided to test this spec.
This 60-year-old man pushed his fresh-off-the-showroom-floor 2012 BMW M5 all the way up to an estimated 186 mph. As he approached a merging vehicle he swerved to avoid it, sending this machine into ping-pong ball, as it careened back and forth between the left and right guardrails. The M5 then flipped several times before coming to a rest in the grass to the side of the high-speed highway.
Miraculously, the driver, his 20-year-old passenger, and his dog all survived the crash, though severely injured. This clearly shows how advanced the BMW’s safety features are. Judging by the images (hat tip to Bimmerpost for the images) if this were any other car, the results would have been more tragic.
This just goes to show that just because you own a car that will do 190 mph and are on a section of the Bundesautobahn (Autobahn for short) that has an unregulated speed limit, does not mean you should push the car to its limits. By all means, stretch its legs when it’s safe, but don’t max the thing out. We should all use the tragic death of this brand-spankin’-new M5 as a lesson in how not to drive. Save that craziness for the racetrack.
Most nine-year olds are happy with their toys, video games, or iPads. But for the select few young ones that prefer something that’s reserved for somebody much older, they can take a cue from 9-year old Stavros Grillis.
Despite not yet hitting 10 years of age, Stavros Grillis is already an adept drifter. You read that right, folks. The kid has not only taken mastery of actually driving a car - let alone one with a stick shift on it - but he can also drift the wheels out of ’em.
Stavros lives on the island of Kos in Greece and as the video will show you, the kid has all sorts of ridiculous talent. It’s hard enough to learn the use of a laptop at the age of 9, but this little tyke has not only taken a car that he’s technically still not allowed to drive, but he’s also managed to be a pretty sick drifter.
And here’s the best part: Stavros has been drifting cars since he was 7.
Talk about talented beyond his years.
What is sports car manufacturer Porsche to do when it becomes bored with its own testing grounds, Weissach, and the Nürburgring just doesn’t allow its cars to reach their full potential? Buy a new testing facility, silly… Yup, Porsche lumped down an undisclosed sum of money – which is certainly more than we could imagine earning in a lifetime – to purchase Europe’s longest circular track, and everything else that comes with it.
That’s right; Porsche has officially purchased the Nardò Technical Center in Italy, which houses not only a 7-mile, four-lane oval track whose banks allow for speeds of up to 240 KM/h (149 mph), but also seven additional tracks that test various parts of vehicle, including: dynamics, multiple pavement response (cobblestone, potholes, uneven, etc.), high-speed noise, handling, off-road performance, and braking.
This really puts Porsche in a position to not only beat out its competition while saving money on testing fees, but it also allows it to better hone other brands that it is linked to, like Volkswagen, Lamborghini, and Bugatti. This also gives Porsche yet another revenue stream, as Nardò is one of the more popular testing tracks in Europe.
The thing about Porsche vehicles is that though they are much faster than your average cars, they are not about top speed, when compared to the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren. Could this mean that Porsche may start pushing the limits on its upcoming vehicles and maybe flirt with the 200 mph mark? Not likely, but it is definitely a sweet idea to consider. Likely, this track is going to be the testing home for racing models, but we may catch the occasional 911 stretching its legs a little.
Though not all auto buffs enjoy watching auto races, there is no disputing that all car buffs love race cars. This becomes even more amplified when you look at classic racecars, as this was back when racecars were really racecars. There were no restrictor plates or standardized engine manufacturing, if one maker could maximize power within the regulations of the sport, it was all good. Nowadays, racecars are, for the most part, mechanical copies of one another with a differing bodies.
So, when a classic race car hits the auction block, affluent car buffs’ ears perk up just a little bit, especially when a legend hits the block. The latest legend to be scheduled for auction through RM Auctions is the 1968 Alfa Romeo T33/2 ‘Daytona’, particularly chassis No. 75033.99. Ed McDonough, an Alfa Romeo expert, stated that chassis No. 75033.99 was a racing car of the 1960s, but the overall record keeping of chassis by Alfa Romeo was poor, so records of all of its races are a little sketchy, as are details of how many chassis were built.
McDonough estimates that 20 chassis were built and that this particular chassis was involved in one of the best showings by Autodelta/Alfa Romeo, as it was a part of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes at the 1968 500 KM race in Imola, beating Porsche by a wide margin.
The owner of the vehicle claims that the vehicle is in operating condition and is “very reliable.” It has a Dutch and U.K. road registration, and FIA, HTP, and FIVA documents.
This racing legend features a 270-horsepower, 2.0-liter V-8 engine – yes, a 2.0-liter V-8 – and a six-speed gearbox. It also features independent front and rear suspension, and has a 2,250 mm (88.58-inch) wheelbase. So, if you are in the market for a turnkey classic racer, you can snag this one up May 11 or 12, 2012 in Monaco. There is no estimated price, as of yet, but it will certainly crest the $100K mark, easily.
Hit the jump for the official press release and more pictures.
Full story
BMW just keeps on dangling the M135i three-door hatchback carrot right out of the reach of U.S. buyers and this time, it just may start a complete revolt in U.S. BMW dealers. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or BMW to all of you un-cool people, decided to whip the new M135i hatchback around the Nürburgring and some savvy little filmmaker caught it. To make things even better, this is actually a really good video with awesome sound – it seems almost like a professional deal.
The sound of this 300+ horsepower 3.0-liter TwinPower Turbo engine – “TwinPower” means one turbo with two scrolls, not two turbochargers – is music to our ears. It’s so nice that it may just take the place of all the songs on my MP3 player. Not only does this thing appear to scream when the driver puts the pedal to the proverbial “metal,” or posh carpeting in this case, but it also looks to handle like a dream.
The bad news in this whole situation is that BMW has still not decided to let U.S. buyers know if the M135i, let alone any three-door hatchback 1-series, will make its way across the pond and into showrooms at any time. There’s not even a European release date, as of yet, and we are already about to explode at the opportunity to get our grubby hands on them.
For now, all we have are the pictures from the Geneva Auto Show and the above video to keep our hopes alive. We are sure that if a large enough portion of US BMW customers start bombarding BMW with requests for this vehicle, the Bavarian car builder would eventually cave and bring this extremely hot hatch to the states.
Kick back, crank up the volume a tick, and enjoy the video of the M135i cruising the Nürburgring over and over and over again, just like we did.
Every year, the Tuning World Bodensee plays hosts to a tuning-club-scene exhibition. But more than just the aftermarket programs in attendance in Germany, the event is also notable for staging the annual Miss Tuning competition.
This year, 20 drop-dead gorgeous contestants vying for the title of Miss Tuning 2012 have been named finalists where they will move on to the official pageant event. Last year, 23-year old Mandy Lange beat out 17 other finalists to take home the crown as Miss Tuning 2011.
So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, although we think its mostly the latter that will enjoy this, we’ve compiled a photo gallery of some of the finalists that are in the running to succeed Mandy Lange as the 2012 winner of Tuning World Bodensee’s Miss Tuning pageant.
You can check out all the hotness in the photo gallery. Pick out your favorites too and let us know which of these gorgeous ladies are on the top of your list.
We all understand that the European market was the first to really get nailed with high gas prices. They were paying over $5 per gallon while the U.S. market still was just cresting the $2 per gallon mark. This forced the European market to start accepting smaller and less desirable vehicles in hopes of getting better economy, while folks in the States continued to drive Hummers and other large SUVs.
Now that gas is hitting $4 per gallon, the U.S. buyers are starting to become more receptive to smaller cars with upwards of 40 mpg capabilities and hybrids cresting the 50 mpg mark. However, we are still left out in one market, the ultra economic clean diesels. The latest one is the 2012 Chevrolet Aveo, which is known as the Sonic in the U.S.
In the U.S., the highest mpg available on the Sonic is 40 mpg and that is the optional 1.4-liter turbocharged engine, which we have our doubts if any normal driver can actually hit 40 mpg in this car. In the U.K., the Aveo has several four-cylinder engine options, including a 1.2-liter gasoline, 1.3-liter diesel, 1.3-liter Eco Diesel, and a 1.4-liter. The highway fuel economy on these engines is 68.9 mpg, 83.1 mpg, 85.6 mpg, and 62.7 mpg, respectively.
None of these engines would make the Sonic a speed demon, like the relatively quick Sonic LTZ and its 1.4-liter turbo engine, but will Chevy ever bring these engine options to the U.S. market? We understand that diesel fuel is not as readily available as regular gasoline, but they certainly give the U.S. buyer an option other than hybrid or electric, which have technologies that could end up requiring rather pricy repairs in the future.
We’re not singling out Chevy here, as Ford has its ECOnetic system getting 65+ mpg in a Ford Fiesta. Our best Fiesta gets an arguable 40 mpg on the highway. Seemingly every car company has a super-Eco diesel engine in its European lineup, but we have yet to see one in the U.S. We think the time has come for one to show up.
Of all the concepts Jeep rolled out at the 2012 Easter Safari in Moab, Utah, you’d be hard-pressed to find one any more imposing than the Mighty FC Concept.
Really, the name says it all.
Built in honor of the Jeep Forward Control that roamed our streets from 1956 to 1965, the Mighty FC Concept was built with the idea of bringing the old-school look of the Forward Control back while also taking into account maneuverability and overall utility.
In building the Mighty FC Concept, Jeep designers took a 2012 Wrangler Rubicon and reconfigured the whole set-up, including the repositioning of the cabin over and ahead of the front axle, the lengthening of the wheelbase, and the addition of a custom built drop-side cargo box. Moreover, the cab on the Mighty FC Concept makes use of a roof that Jeep took from Mopar’s JK-8 conversion kit while the addition of a custom-designed front clip makes for a more imposing look to the concept. As for the interior, Jeep dressed it up with a bold, heavy-duty Katzkin leather while the cargo area was set-up to fit a full-width, drop-side tray-style bed that measures more than eight feet in length.
More than just the old-school look of the Mighty FC, Jeep also wanted to improve the concept’s handling and drivability. For that, engineers added Mopar’s new Portal Axle set, which offers the greatest amount of ground clearance without requiring excessive suspension lift. These axles are controlled with King coil-over assemblies, and together with Teraflex control arms and track bars, a new set of 40" tires mounted on custom Hutchinson 17-inch headlock wheels, a Warn 16.5 winch, and a Corsa stainless steel exhaust system, it makes for a ride that performs as ferociously as it is intimidating to look at.
How do you write the word "Porsche," and make that word over 475 feet long? Well, obviously there is only one way; you take 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Challenge Brazil race cars and line them up accordingly beside a massive Brazilian flag. Where do you accomplish something like this? On the finishing straight at Estoril Circuit in Portugal, of course.
This is exactly what happened on March 15, 2012. 180 people from the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Brasil team and the Portuguese staff of Estoril Circuit came together before the season opening race to get the perfect shot. The entire shoot took 23 hours, and the end result was this 3 minute 30 second video which includes helicopter shots and a time-lapse of the shoot. All that was left to do was write "Porsche" with rubber by having all 48 cars do simultaneous burnouts!
Check out the video to see the whole event take place, and don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments section below.
