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
Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary is gearing up to be quite a celebration for the Italian automaker. Numerous plans have already been unveiled, including a number of special edition Lamborghinis, including the Lamborghini Aventador LP720-4 50.
From this special-edition model that’ll undoubtedly get the attention it deserves from buyers, another highlight celebration for Lamborghini is the Grande Giro.
After much hype and buzz, Lamborghini officially kicked off the Grande Giro and boy, did it do so in grand style.
Painstaking preparations were made to ensure that all the Lambo exotics participating in the long-distance run were in tip-top shape. From the classic Miuras to the modern-day Aventadors, there are no shortages of Raging Bulls participating in the event. And the video above gives us a close look at all the preparations and the start of Grande Giro.
Now that’s how you celebrate your 50th anniversary. Bravo, Lamborghini!
Click past the jump to read more about Lamborghini’s Grande Giro run as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
The BMW Art Cars project has built a lasting link between contemporary art and BMW motorsport. There are no sponsor stickers on these cars – just the beauty and timelessness of art.
In addition to creating some gorgeous show pieces for the BMW museum, the Art Car project is more important now than anyone first envisioned when signing off on the initial Calder work in 1975. Each of the cars represents the artist’s point of view at the time, expressed in the same medium: a BMW.
The artists selected over the years have broad backgrounds, nationalities and portfolios that could almost never be compared directly outside of the Art Cars collection, because in their daily craft they all choose wildly different mediums to express themselves. Whether the work of a sculptor, painter, graphic designer, conceptualist or visionary, the end products are cars that are truly magnificent to behold.
For 2013, BMW Portland is sponsoring a new contest that is open to anyone. The winning artist’s work will adorn a 2013 BMW 650i, and the details are available here. The deadline for submissions is May 15th, 2013, so start your creative engines and submit a winner!
click past the jump for a timeline of the BMW Art Cars project and image galleries of the 18 stunning BMW Art Cars so far.
Ok, we get it now. Apparently, 1963 was a pretty big year for the auto industry, the kind of eventful 12 months that eventually deserved 50th anniversary celebrations.
Well that time has come and fittingly enough, we’ve been besieged with so many of these anniversary news that it’s becoming hard to keep track of all of them.
The latest to hop on the growing trend is Porsche. While they’re not really celebrating their 50th year in existence (they already did that in 1981), they are celebrating the golden anniversary of their most iconic model, the Porsche 911.
Obviously, a car of the 911’s stature deserves the best kind of happy birthday events and it appears that Porsche isn’t about to let its baby down. The German automaker recently announced a string of special events dedicated to the 911, beginning with the ‘Retro Classics’ automobile show in Stuttgart. It’s going to be at this exhibit where Porsche will exhibit four of the most iconic 911 models in history, including the pre-series Type 754 T7, considered as the core of the first ever 911 that was designed by founder Ferdinand Porsche.
From there, the 1967 model 911 will embark on a year-long world tour that will take it to five continents, and appear in motorsports events and exhibits in California, China, Paris, Australia and the UK.
Another exhibit, called the "50 Years of the Porsche 911", will be open from June 4 to September 29 2013. Concluding the anniversary extravaganza is the publishing of a new “911×911″ anniversary book that chronicles the entire history of Porsche’s most legendary model.
With so many automakers celebrating some kind of anniversary this year, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the other automotive and motorsports anniversaries that are scheduled to take place this year.
For their part, Volkswagen wanted to make sure that Formula Vee gets its proper recognition as a series that’s turning 50 years old this year. So before the start of the 24 Hours of Daytona over the weekend, Volkswagen led the way in celebrating 50 years of Formula Vee with a parade of the finest cars from the series.
Formula Vee traces its roots back to August 1963 at the Daytona International Speedway. Back then, the inexpensive racecars only made use of 1.2-liter engines that produced less than 40 horsepower with chassis taken from the Volkswagen Beetle. The success of Formula Vee in the US made its throughout Europe and on July 4, 1965, Formula Vee officially held its first race in Europe in front of 50,000 fans at the Norisring circuit in Nuremberg.
Since then, the series gave birth to Formula Super Vee, as well as the already established Formula Vee 130.
The 50th anniversary of Formula Vee was attended by some of racing’s biggest names, a lot of whom also trace their roots in the series. Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk was there, as were U.S. star Michael Andretti, Daytona champion Didier Theys, Le Mans winner Hurley Haywood, former DTM greats Hans-Joachim Stuck, Leopold Prinz von Bayern, Klaus Niedzwiedz and Dieter Quester, and rally icon Markku Alén.
"That was a highly emotional experience, celebrating the beginnings of Volkswagen Motorsport against such an impressive backdrop and together with such great names from the world of racing,’ Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito said.
"The revival here in Daytona, where it all began with the first Formula Vee race, has reunited many of these legends and that is something of which we are very proud. Vee are family – just like Volkswagen, Formula Vee is one big family."
2013 is a big year for the auto industry when it comes to anniversaries. Aston Martin, for one, will be celebrating its centenary this year. Ford, on the other hand, will be blowing the candles on the 150th birthday of its founder Henry Ford. And then there’s Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A, which will turn 50 years old this year.
The Italian automaker has already lined up a list of events to commemorate its 50th anniversary, starting with the debut of its one-off celebratory car that has been hyped since the middle of last year. In addition to the supercar itself, the Italian automaker will also be holding a 750-mile rally through Italy on May 7th, and will feature some of the finest and most powerful Lamborghinis in the world.
So what better way to kick off what is expected to be a busy year than to release a video looking back on the 50-year history of the Raging Bull. From humble beginnings all the way to the evolution of its modern-day supercars, the video will undoubtedly give us a look at how one of Italy’s finest supercar makers was born and a look ahead to what is poised to be an exceptional anniversary year.
Long before the Nissan GT-R wreaked havoc on the roads and earned its nickname, Godzilla, its predecessor was considered one of the most important cars in Nissan’s history. It was one that paved the way for a generation of drivers to, in their own words, "chooses the path of racing.”
Ever since the Skyline and the GT-R names were split, which led to the complete disappearance of the former in favor of the latter, not a lot of people have given the Nissan Skyline its due credit as one of the fiercest cars in the 1960’s.
In this video, we take a stroll down memory lane to reacquaint ourselves with how the legend of the Skyline was born all the way back to the 1964 Suzuka Grand Prix. This is where the earliest models of the Skyline, then a relative unknown model built by Prince Motor Company, took the fight to the most supreme machine of them all, the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS.
No, the Skyline didn’t win that particular race, but what it did was serve notice to just about everyone that this was a car that meant serious business.
We’re not gonna spoil you any more info from the mini-documentary because no amount of words will do justice to seeing the video for yourself.
While modern-day Buick struggles to compete with the likes of Lexus and Acura, there was once a car with a Buick logo that muscle-car enthusiasts dream of driving. Funny as it sounds now, in its era this car used to give the Corvettes and other high-end sports cars a run for their money. This car is none other than the Buick Grand National.
With a turbocharged V-6 under the hood that helped gain quicker accelerations and a standard black paint job that made the design of the Grand National more intimidating, this car is definitely considered as one of the true muscle cars, during its heyday. To make matters worse, this car peaked in an era where econo-boxes reigned supreme and performance was an afterthought.
The Grand National, in today’s standards, is like the 2013 Shelby GT500 with both cars being a working man’s supercar. So, now you’ll get the big picture how the Buick Grand National was in the 1980s...
With rumors circling that GM is trying to revive the Grand National name for a high-performance Buick, we just hope that the rumor of will come true and spark excitement like it used to back in the 80s.
Click past the jump to read our historical review of the iconic Grand National
A few days ago, BMW announced the M3 DTM Champion Edition — a special M3 built as a tribute to 40th anniversary of BMW’s M subsidiary. Today, the company has unveiled a sweet video marking the most important moments in the company’s history.
“A company is like a human being. As long as it goes in for sports, it is fit, well-trained, full of enthusiasm and performance." These were the words of Robert A. Lutz, BMW AG Board Member Sales, back in 1972 when the new company was officially being announced. They were the words christening the youngest subsidiary of BMW AG at the time, BMW Motorsport GmbH. Today, the company is called BMW M GmbH. Fortunately, it is just as fit, well-trained, and full of enthusiasm and performance as it was 40 years ago.
For true Ferrari enthusiasts that are planning to visit Italy during the Winter holidays, Ferrari has a treat in store for you.
Ferrari has opened an exhibition to pay tribute to the late Sergio Pininfarina and the not-to-be-forgotten Pinin Farina, by showcasing every model that has been designed by the man himself and his team. The idea behind the exhibition is to show the public the exemplary creations that came out from the Pininfarina drawing board. The exhibition includes 11 models that are divided between the front-engined berlinettas, such as the 1964 275 GTB4 and the Spider version of the legendary Daytona, the mid-rear-engined models, notably the milestone BB, and the contemporary creative evolution which encompasses, amongst others, the Testarossa and the 599 SA Aperta, the latter a homage by Ferrari to Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina. The highlight of the exhibition is the famous Modulo concept which previously was an unseen exhibit from the Pininfarina family’s private and company collections.
This exhibition was opened on October 27th and it will remain open until January 7th, 2013. So, anybody who is going to Europe, or Italy in that matter, can visit that museum before January 7th and behold the Italian passion that emanates from every single Pininfarina-designed Ferrari on display.
