This week’s episode of The Car Show packed many of the things that were vacant from the last week’s episode. Yes, we said it, there was much more Car Show and a lot less filler crap.
Some of the mini segments did make their way into the show, including 0-60 (one of our favorites), Behind the Wheel, and of course, One for the Road. Aside from that, there were more celebrity appearances with two different interviews and a trip up the German Autobahn and down the Pacific Coast Highway in an Audi R8 V10 Spyder.
If anyone finds Adam Carolla the least bit annoying then you’ll be happy to know that he participates in Red Bull’s SoapBox Derby and falls a little short of the finish line. One nasty scrape later and he still finds a way to piss people off. All for the love of cars.
Hit the jump for more details on The Car Show: Season 1 Episode 8.
While we can feel bad about Bluebird Electric’s failed attempt at setting the land speed record for an electric car, we can at least give due props to another team that set an electric car record of their own this past weekend.
We’re not all too familiar with the "Schluckspecht" EV car, but we’re definitely sure about how EV range has been one of the biggest challenges facing electric cars these days. But if you’re one that can feel at ease about the possibility of having an EV that can travel over 1,000 miles on a single charge, the Schluckspecht EV just might prove that it’s an attainable goal after all.
The whole collaboration came as a result of partnership between Pforzheim University, the University of Offenburg, and the Fraunhofer Institut EMI, the Schluckspecht - apparently, it translates to "heavy drinker" - shattered the previous EV range record, traveling a distance of 1,103 miles (1,631.5 km), which is almost twice as far as what the previous record - 623 miles - was able to accomplish.
The Schluckspecht is powered by 14 lithium-cobalt battery packs and was driven by four drivers in a 36-hour span. The vehicle comes with a lightweight chassis that uses two in-wheel hub motors. It took over 14 years of development before the vehicle finally had its turn in the spotlight. But if you ask anybody associated with the project they’ll tell you that all those years spent building the car was all worth it in the end.
Parallel parking takes a good amount of skill, even for the most experienced of drivers. It takes an even greater amount of skill when you can do it through drifting. Add those two elements together with a world record of pulling off the world’s tightest parallel parking and you have German driver, Ronny Wechselberger.
The man known as "Ronny C-Rock" managed to pull off the remarkable feat when he successfully slid his Volkswagen Polo into a parallel space that measured just 26 cm longer than his vehicle. Pretty cool stuff. The Guinness World Records was on hand for the attempt back in April and only released the video yesterday, but unfortunately for Ronny C-Rock, his name on the record books was rather short-lived.
A few weeks ago, Chinese driver, Zhang Hua, toppled Ronny’s three-month old record when he managed to squeeze his ride into a space that was just 24 cm longer than his car. Guinness has yet to release the video of the new record, but has promised to do so later in the year.
So while we wait to see how Hua was able to break the record for tightest parallel park, we can watch Ronny C-Rock’s record event back in April and give some props to the man for his remarkable achievement, even if his run atop the record books was shorter than he would have hoped.
Hyundai has put together a special edition Genesis Coupe in order to celebrate the company’s participation at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring race this year. Don’t get too excited though, this special edition will only be made available to the German market. The new model, called the Genesis Coupe GT, will be limited to only 50 units and carries a price tag of 41,990 Euro, or about $59,800 at the current exchange rates.
This special edition sports silver and blue livery and a new set of 19" OZ wheels wrapped in Dunlop Sport Maxx GT tires. A new sports suspension also found its way to the special edition and drops the car’s ride by about 30mm. Joining the sports suspension is a brand new sports exhaust with 4 outputs integrated into the new rear bumper. Under the hood, there is a 3.8-liter V6 engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission that together deliver a total of 303 HP.
You can spin its name however you want, but the name "Galaxy Warrior" doesn’t necessarily sound like something you’d want to put in your car. Sure, it could pass as the name of the Ultimate Warrior’s long-lost cousin.
True to its name, this "Galaxy Warrior" Gallardo that’s being sold on Ebay Germany does look the part of an intergalactic machine from the world of Warrior. But here on this planet, where the Gallardo is considered one of the most beautifully-designed cars in the world, there’s no room for robotic-looking Italian supercars, even if its an attention-grabber in every lost sense of the word.
In any case, the people responsible for this ungodly sight is a company called ATS Automotive, which gave the Gallardo an aerodynamic kit that includes a new front bumper, new side skirts, a number of new air vents, a new rear bumper, an aftermarket rear wing, and new twin-pipe exhaust system, and a new set of alloy wheels.
While it does sound like a package that’s got everything you need in an aero kit, the visual result of the whole car leaves a lot to be desired.
About the only thing redeemable about this car is that it still comes with the Gallardo’s 5.2-liter V10 engine that produces an output of 560 horsepower. Other than that, and that alone, we’d leave this one alone.
Let’s say you have enough money to last you at least a few lifetimes and you’re looking to splurge it on something that not a lot of people have in this world have. Wouldn’t you opt for a high-powered, street-legal, electric sports car as your choice in burning all that money away? Well, German automaker, e-Wolf, has something that should interest you. It’s called the Alpha-1 SRF - ’SRF’ stands for Silent Radical Force - and it’s about the most awesome-looking electric sports car you’ll ever find.
Based on the chassis of Radical Sports Cars, the Alpha-1 SRF is not your ordinary electric sports car. It’s got the look of an LMP1 racer, except that its street-legal. So you pretty much get the best of both worlds with a car that resembles those LeMans racers, but is legal to drive out on the road.
The only thing that sets this thing back is the price tag, which you’ll find out after the jump. But like we said, if you’re the type to burn that much money at a moment’s notice, then you won’t have any trouble paying to take this awesome electric sports car home to your garage.
UPDATE 07/05/2011: The new Alpha-1 SRF has recently been caught testing at Nürburgring and spy photographers believe that the car is about to break the track’s record for electric cars. Hit the jump for the video.
More details on the e-Wolf Alpha-1 SRF after the jump.
There’s not much arguing the fact that the MX-5 Miata is one of Mazda’s most popular models of all time. So if there was any other car in the Japanese automaker’s lineup that has earned the right to spawn special edition models left and right, it’s their iconic sports roadster.
With that thought in mind, Mazda has once again given fans of the MX-5 Miata another special edition model for their consumption.
This one, called the Karai, comes from the automaker’s European division and has been given plenty of new digs that will most definitely give it plenty of attention from die-hard Miata fans in Europe.
You can make a case that the all these special edition Miatas have become one too many, even for its popularity. But that’s the thing with this venerable roadster; somehow, people just can’t get enough of it, no matter what their tastes and preferences are.
The Karai, which means ’sharp’ in Japanese, certainly fits the name it was given. Sharply dressed with plenty of aesthetic upgrades, the MX-5 Miata Karai is one that’s going to be a hit to European die-hards of the legendary model.
Despite its ramshackled state, we’re comforted knowing that the destruction of that 911 served a pretty good cause. This Audi R8, however, was doing nothing except being driven by a complete douchebag who thought that engaging the German police in a gun fight was a good idea.
The scene plays out in Germany where an armed man began opening fire at the police after he was about to be questioned for a domestic dispute incident in his household. After seeing the officers in their patrol cars, the idiot began opening fire on them. In the course of the pursuit, the police managed to pepper the R8 with 37 rounds of bullets, four of which found its mark into the driver.
Despite getting wounded, the driver managed to survive the whole episode where he was eventually arrested for all the trouble he caused. But where the driver escaped with his health intact, for the most part at least, the same cannot be said for the R8, which looked like it had far better days than this one.
German automaker, Rotary Super Cars, took some flak from a lot of people for the design of the Raptor GT, claiming that it looked eerily similar to the design of the Ferrari 599XX. As it turns out, RSC took those words to heart and completely rebooted their whole project, giving their car a new styling and a new name.
The latest incarnation is the Predator GT, a car that looks nothing like a Ferrari now, but has a little of a Lamborghini essence. Some people might be nitpicking about this, but we’re completely on-board with the design of this new supercar, including the aggressive details on the front and back end of the car.
Despite the styling and naming overhauls, the RSC still plans on putting the same monster powertrain under their creation, one that features a Mazda 138 MSP-based four-rotor Wanel engine that produces a nauseating output of 1,184 horsepower. This engine is mated to a sequential 8-speed RSC R-SHIFT transmission controlled by a hydraulic shift system with shift times of 25-35 milliseconds. Given that RSC is planning to build the Predator GT to weigh in at only 1,100 kg (2,425 lbs), this future supercar is poised to have a 0-62 mph time of just under three seconds, putting it in the stratosphere of some of the fastest machines on the planet, including the venerable Bugatti Veyron and the equally irrepressible Koenigsegg Agera R.
RSC originally planned to introduce the prototype of the Raptor GT late last year, but considering all the significant changes done on the whole project, it’s a safe bet that we might have to wait a little longer for the Predator GT to bare its fangs.
German tuning company, Prior Design, has gone to great lengths with their program for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe. For their latest work, the German aftermarket company has produced a complete package of upgrades for the E-Class Coupe, one that improves the luxury sports car’s overall profile, as well as its performance capabilities.
Among the aerodynamic goodies given to the E-Class Coupe by Prior Design include new bumpers on both ends of the car, revised side skirts, a new rear diffuser, a lowered suspension by about 35 mm, and a set of 20" wheels available in such colors as matte black, gloss black, gold, or silver. As an added option, Prior Design is also offering a roof spoiler for the car.
As far as the performance upgrades, both the E350 Coupe and the E550 Coupe were given ECU remaps, as well as new sport exhaust systems. These changes improved the car’s numbers by 74 horsepower, jumping the E350’s 3.5-liter DOHC V6 engine from 268 horsepower to 343 horsepower and the E550’s 5.5-liter DOHC V8 engine from 382 horsepower to 457 horsepower.
Prior Design’s whole gamut of improvements on the E-Class Coupe fits to exactly what we want to see from a tuning company: not too audacious, but enough to give it a fresh and more powerful look.
