The world debut of the new Audi A8 will not be happening on any auto shows in the near future.
No; for this occasion, Audi wants to hog the spotlight all to itself and rightfully so. The flagship A8 sedan will make its world unveiling at the Audi Pavilion on November 30 - the eve of the yearly art-fest ’Design Miami’. If you don’t know where that is, it’s actually
a temporary museum structure located in Miami.
Some of you might find the decision a little curious, especially since the upcoming LA Auto Show figures to be the perfect setting for the A8 to be revealed. But the decision ultimately rested on the shoulders of the folks from Ingolstadt and they figured that the A8 would be best-served to have the stage all the itself.
As far as the venue-of-choice is concerned, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, decided that Miami’s Design District would be the ideal location because, as he said: "Our claim "Vorsprung durch Technik" also embraces design, which is one of the outstanding elements of the Audi signature. And as top design has now emerged as an acknowledged art form, we see the bridge between art and architecture as a logical step in advancing our brand."
We don’t really have any preference as to where Audi decides to unveil the new A8, although their decision to skip the auto show scene has led us to believe that they may have something up their sleeve as far as the world unveiling of the A8 is concerned.
The Japanese luxury automaker Infiniti has a bit of a restyling in the works for their midsize lineup. With a much more pronounced front end and a new set of rollers. The more aggressive lines created by the new vents in the front bumper add a lot to the Infiniti’s appearance, taking it from a rather sporty luxury car and makes it into a strong enough figure that it could command traffic to get out of the way. Hopefully these new vents are there to flow a lot more air, perhaps for a set of GT-R like intercoolers, we can only hope. This refinement is a simple alternative to a complete model redesign and perhaps we will be seeing more of this type of treatment across the entire Infiniti lineup sometime in the near future.
News of Maybach’s apparent demise may end up being premature after Mercedes’ luxury car brand recently released new photos of its flagship luxury sedan, the 2010 Zeppelin.
The all-new Zeppelin comes with a 6.0-liter V12 bi-turbo engine that produces 640 hp and over 1,000 Nm of torque. As far as the interior is concerned, the new Zeppelin comes with a number of subtle upgrades over most standard Maybachs, including chrome-finished 20” wheels, a special-edition two-tone paint finish, dark red tail lights, the ‘Zeppelin’ lettering embossed on the grille emblem, and streamlined exterior mirrors.
The new Zeppelin, which comes in two models – the 57 and the 62 – will b extremely limited, with only 100 units set for production. The 57 Zeppelin – the shorter of the two – will come with a price tag of €406,000 while the longer 62 Zeppelin will sell for €473,200.
We still don’t know the long term future of Mercedes’ luxury brand, but this does come as encouraging news for fans of the Maybach, especially when it was only a few months ago where the Maybach was this close to meeting its maker.
We have said it before and we will say it again, modern engines and computer tuning have made it so easy to get more horse power from your car that the days of changing camshafts and getting your hands dirty are a thing of the past. That is because the amount of potential that can be unlocked with a simple microchip, when tuned correctly, is the simplest and most practical method of squeezing every last drop of output out of your car’s 21st century motor. One perfect example is the Porsche Panamera, from the factory the four door sports car is available with a hearty 500 HP under the hood.
The engine computer re calibration specialists at McChip already have a program that is designed to boost the Panamera’s 4.8 Liter turbocharged V8 by another 50 HP and bring torque up as far as 624 lb-ft when equipped with Porsche’s Sportchrono package. That’s not all, because with more power comes more responsibility, like the kind you experience at 193 MPH, the chipped Panamera’s new top speed. Although the German tuners McChip are asking more for this particular unit than you would expect to pay for an ordinary car, at $2,250 this is well within the range of power hungry Porsche owners, and they won’t even have to worry about getting greasy.
In promoting the 2010 Mercedes E-Class Estate’s apparently spacious interior, Mercedes decided to build a 400-meter slot car race track through the E-Class Estate. It must have been a long day in the land of the Silver Arrows.
The track, with all of its 1275 pieces remarkably fitting in the trunk of the E-Class Estate, stretched for a total of 500 square meters with some parts of the layout passing through the interior of the car. The whole ‘project’ took about a day to make and after its completion, the engineers decided to test out their new ‘track’ by racing 1:32 scale DTM-style slot cars around it, with the unofficial lap record clocking in at 4m and 45s.
Check out the video and see what Mercedes does when there’s not a lot of things to do in the office.
The Lexus SC430 luxury convertible is entering the 2010 model year with more standard technologies. It is now on sale at a price of $67,505.
The SC’s sleek style is enhanced by a low-profile front grille surrounded by chrome. The aggressive front bumper, projector-lens headlamps and stylish rear combination LED taillamps add to its fluid design. It comes equipped with iPod/USB Connectivity, Streaming Audio, Lexus Navigation System and Mark Levinson Premium Audio System.
The 2010 Lexus SC430 features an all-aluminum construction, and is powered by a 4.3-liter engine that produces 288 hp and 317 lb-ft of torque. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in a remarkable 5.8 seconds. The engine is mated to a six-speed Sequential-Shift automatic transmission. The sequential-shifting capability enhances performance by allowing the driver to nudge the gearshift forward or backward. It works in conjunction with the Electronically Controlled Transmission with intelligence (ECT-i), which compensates for uphills, downhills and headwinds, even adapting shift-timing to the driver’s acceleration habits.
Back on August 24th Motortrend and Automobile magazine got together for a one of a kind test to put the new Ecoboost powered Lincoln MKS to the test against some of the world’s most luxurious perfromance machines. The field included a Mercedes Benz E550, Maserati Quattroporte, BMW 550i and a Jaguar XF Premium 5.0 Liter V8; all competing against the new twin turbocharged V6 Lincoln MKS sedan, in a classic 6 versus 8 competition.
Leaving all bench racing aside and concentrating on the the cold hard facts, each vehicle was raced up Loveland Pass, a treacherous, winding road with thousand foot drop offs and torturous hairpin turns in the heart of the Rocky Mountains located in Colorado. The man who was lucky enough to be selected to pilot these performance automobiles was none other than the multiple time hill climb champion Rod Millen, his ability to squeeze the most out of every vehicle combined with his ability to make use of every last inch of pavement made the New Zeland native the perfect candidate for the contest. Although the Lincoln MKS seceded to the BMW 550, it did manage to come in a close second and at the end of the day walked away with the highest top speed of any of the European machines.
In an effort to hop aboard the hybrid bandwagon, perennial luxury carmaker, Rolls Royce recently announced of their plans to produce a hybrid drivetrain for the new Ghost sedan that will effectively cut the car’s gas-guzzling capabilities by as much as 15%.
The word floating around is that since the Ghost uses the a platform that was pegged from the BMW 7-Series, the new hybrid version of the Ghost will also use the same ActiveHybrid 7-Series from BMW.
According to Autocar, the hybrid model of the Ghost will still come with the same 6.2-liter V12 engine found on the traditional model, but with the addition of an electric motor that’s integrated into the Ghost’s eight-speed auto transmission, which if form holds, will amount to the hybrid Ghost saving 15% of its fuel compared to the traditional counterpart.
If plans move along – and they are moving rather quickly, as a matter of fact – we could very well see a hybrid Rolls Royce – who would’ve thought that day would come – rolling out of production lots sooner than we thought.
After more than 3 years of speculation, the English coach builder Aston Martin has finally unveiled the Rapide - their first four door sedan in the super car maker’s lineup. Watch out Porsche Panamera owners, because deliveries of the all new super sedan from Gaydon will begin in early 2010.
The Rapide’s engine is the venerable 6.0 Liter V12 lifted directly from the Aston Martin DB9, and will make the exact same 470 HP and 443 lb-ft of torque as the coupe. The fat four door will be able to go from 0 to 60 MPH in just 5.1 seconds and reach a top speed to be estimated at 188 MPH.
The Rapide’s power plant is mated to a six speed Touchtronic 2 automatic transmission, which offers the ease of a traditional automatic via the push buttons mounted on the dash or a much sportier manual transmission mode with the wheel mounted paddle shifters.
According to the automaker: "There is a real sense of proportion with this car, akin to a tailored suit; the new double grill gives more presence on the road while the iconic signature side strake has been lengthened through to the rear doors to enhance its lateral proportions in a subtle, yet elegant way. The car’s purity makes it look right from every angle."
Announced few days ago, SpeedArt revealed today the official details on their tuning package for the Porsche Panamera. Called PS9-650, the package will be officially revealed at the Essen Motor Show.
SpeedArt will offer three customization levels for the Panamera: 550, 600 and 650 hp. The latest one will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3,5 seconds and top speed will be over 200 mph.
The aerodynamic kit will include: a front chin spoiler, hood vents, a rear diffuser, a roof spoiler, a modified rear bumper and aggressive side skirts, 22-inch three-piece ’LSC FORGED’ wheels and an aforementioned sport exhaust system.
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