Back in May, Mazda announced plans to break another world record with the largest parade of Mazda cars. Well, it’s now official, as Mazda entered the Guinness Book of World Records on June 15th with a total of 693 MX-5s joining the parade.
There were a total of 1,450 participants who contributed to the record attempt, shattering the existing record for the "largest parade of Mazda cars," which put together a total of 459 MX-5s back in 2010.
The parade was led by a third-generation racing model driven by Dutch TV presenter, Allard Kalff, and President and CEO of Mazda Motor Europe, Jeff Guyton, beside him. The official certificate was offered by Guinness World Records adjudicator, Pravin Patel.
The entire event took place at the RDW Test Centre at Lelystad and featured demonstrations by the Ribank Mazda MaX5 Cup racers and the three-rotor-engine-powered Mazda3. Participants at the event had the opportunity to test Mazda’s new i-ACTIVSENSE and the new Mazda SKYACTIV models.
At the end of the day, participants were offered a reward for the most beautiful and authentic MX-5. This award went to Pieter Staat from Meteren (NL).
Click past the jump to read more about the Mazda MX-5.
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The resurrection of Detroit Electric came as quite a surprise when it announced its intentions to reenter the market in March. What came as even more of a surprise was the quickness in which it announced its first car – the 2014 SP:01 – and the fact that it had planned to release its first model in August 2013. The latter was a little ambitious, per a report, as it appears that the release has been delayed for about a month.
According to The Detroit News, Detroit Electric has been holed up in an already-occupied facility in Plymouth Township and has been working on finalizing a deal for a Wayne County manufacturing facility. However, some Is and Ts remain undotted and uncrossed in the contract, which will push production to sometime in September instead of the originally announced August start date.
According to the report, Detroit Electric expects the new facility to be capable of putting out 2,500 units per year, but it only plans to sell 999 SP:01 units in total. So, this potential facility should be home to at least one other future model.
Click past the jump to read more about the Detroit Electric SP:01
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Niche French automaker, PGO, first introduced the Cevennes Water Snake Concept at the Shanghai Motor Show.
While it offered little in the way of details at that time, it has finally given us new details and photos of the exclusive sports roadster. And what it shows us is a car that looks more like it is ready to tackle the streets of the globe rather than sit in a design studio as a “concept.”
For what it’s worth, the company has indeed come a long way since it returned in 2005 after Al Sayer International acquired the fledgling coachbuilder. The company was actually born in the 1980s and started off by building replicas of classic European sports cars, namely Porsches.
But with the financial backing provided by Al Sayer International, PGO has evolved into having multiple models to its name, including the Cevennes Water Snake Concept.
Click past the jump to read about the PGO Cevennes Water Snake Concept
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To say that the Porsche 918 Spyder is just another supercar is pretty inaccurate. For one, it’s the most powerful vehicle Porsche has ever built. And another thing: it’s combination of power, speed, fuel economy and low emissions is nearly unrivaled, so much so that even with 918 models priced at over $800,000 a piece, it’s already nearly sold out.
Speaking of sold out, a lot of the customers that paid for the 918 Spyder appear to reside here in the U.S. That’s why Porsche has said that America will receive the biggest allotment of 918 Spyders than any other country with up to 190 models headed our way.
That probably explains why Porsche has taken to great lengths to promote the 918 Spyder in the U.S. Numerous promotional events held in the United States over the past two years, and soon enough, a lot of these actual supercars will be calling the Land of the Free their home.
Click past the jump to read about the Porsche 918 Spyder
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From the fine company that gave us the Haute Couture Mercedes SLS AMG, Inden Design is back with a slightly more subtle take on the SLS AMG’s topless brother, the SLS AMG Roadster.
Mostly made up of a new conversion kit, the German tuner managed to give the SLS AMG Roadster plenty of new components that not only adds a more unique stance to the German supercar, but also helps improve the vehicle’s performance and handling credentials.
In the end, there’s plenty to like about this Inden Design program. Though it doesn’t come with a hardcore performance upgrade, you can tell that the German tuner took to great lengths to give it the SLS AMG Roadster the modification it richly deserves.
And if for nothing else, you can take comfort knowing that when it comes to Mercedes aftermarket programs, few do it better than Inden Design.
Click past the jump to read about Inden Design’s work on the Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster
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The Lamborghini Aventador Roadster. Really, what is there to say about this supercar that hasn’t been said before? We’ve run out of superlatives to describe what we feel about this bad-boy.
But somehow, aftermarket extraordinaire, Wheelsandmore, managed to make it even better.
Are we surprised? With this tuner, not the least bit.
This has always been the M.O. for Wheelsandmore. Get a stock sports/supercar and then make it better. Far often than not, it succeeds with its programs. And on the rare times that it doesn’t, well, the projects still look pretty spectacular.
In the case of the Aventador Roadster, Wheelsandmore spared no expense, giving the Italian exotic a program fit for a king. There are wraps. There are wheels. And there are engine upgrades.
All in a day’s work, really, for one of the best aftermarket companies in the world.
Click past the jump to read more about Wheelsandmore’s program for the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster.
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A few weeks before the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Lotus announced they would "blow the top off" at the show. Back then, we all thought that we would see a Convertible version of the Evora, but we were so wrong. Lotus has decided to bring out the fastest roadster ever: the Exige S Roadster.
Based off the new Exige S, the roadster model will be powered by the same supercharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine that delivers a total of 345 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. This engine sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds and to 100 mph in 8.5 seconds. Being that this is a Roadster, safety precautions deem it necessary to lower the top speed to 233 km/h (145 mph).
The Exige S Roadster weighs just 1,166 kg (2,570 pounds) and features the same design elements as the coupe, except of course for its factory-fitted soft top roof that makes the car look even more muscular than the coupe.
Now for the bad news: the new Lotus Exige S Roadster won’t make it to the U.S. market, as it will only be offered in markets like Europe and Asia.
UPDATE 5/22/2013: Lotus has just unveiled the official pricing for the Exige S Roadster and is now available for order. See more after the jump
Hit the jump to read more about the Lotus Exige S Roadster.
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Jaguar F-Type arrives in U.S. showrooms this month and, in order to promote the sports car the company launched a global advertising and marketing campaign called "Your Turn." It will include span across TV, cinema, print, digital, mobile and tablet, as well as experiential and social media. The first commercial aired a few days ago during the season finale of ABC’s ’Once Upon A Time’.
Jaguar is also offering you the possibility to test drive the new F-Type sports roadster, so if you want to be among the winners, go on Jaguar USA’s Facebook page and let them know why you should be one of the first to win a test drive in the all-new Jaguar F-Type!
Four winners will be selected based on their submission and the test drives will be held in different regions of the country: New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. The drives will be filmed and shared across Jaguar USA’s social channels.
Click past the jump for one more video.
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When Porsche unveiled the 918 Spyder concept at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show we were all in amazement. Within that amazement was a sense of a sense of pessimism, as we were unsure exactly how this future successor to the Carrera GT would look and run in the real world. We all know that manufacturers have a habit of “overestimating” its cars at these shows, to put it nicely.
Here we are about two years later and the 918 Spyder is nearing the end of its testing phase and we have all gotten a good hard look at what we figure to be its final design. The 918 has also made many passes around the “Green Hell,” thrashing its predecessor’s time in the process. All of these laps around the famed Nürburgring and at Porsche’s test facilities have given the automaker enough details to allow it to piece together all of its specs.
Remarkably, there have also been a few leaky valves throughout the process that let us in on the 918 Spyder’s top-secret pricing.
So, is the 918 Spyder everything it has been hyped up to be?
Updated 05/16/2013: Porsche revealed today new images and details on the 918 Spyder - a supercar that combines pedigree motor racing technology with excellent everyday utility, and maximum performance with minimum consumption.
Click past the jump to read our review and find out.
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Now this is a ride we have been waiting to see for a very long time!
Chris Harris - our favorite presenters when it comes to reviewing performance cars - was invited by Porsche to test a pre-production version of the 918 Spyder. Of course, when you receive an invitation like this, you forget the fact that you are not testing the finished car, that there is no time to prepare and that you only get three laps in the driver’s seat; you just take the first plane and go for the quick spin.
So, what do you think, was Harris impressed by the upcoming 918 Spyder? We bet he was, after all the 918 Spyder is powered by a V-8 engine combined with a pair of electric engines, one powering the front axle and one on the rear.
This system delivers a total of 887 horsepower and 920 pound-feet of torque and sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds and up to a top speed of 202 mph.
One of our favorite parts was watching the Porsche rep in the passenger’s seat as Harris whipped the crap out of the Automaker’s £20 million project. It looked like he was on the verge of tears at certain points.
