How odd would it be for rally fans to see a Nissan, let alone an Infiniti, getting its tires dirty in the world of rallying? The Japanese automaker isn’t exactly a name synonymous with rally racing, so you might need to excuse us for being a little apprehensive when word broke out that an Infiniti G37 S Coupe would be part of the Spanish Rally Championship.
Turns out, though, the G37 S Coupe will not be doing any rally racing of its own. Instead, it has been tapped as the official rally-spec safety car of the SRC. Color us surprised with this bit of news.
To cope with the rigors of the rally world, the G37 S Coupe’s chassis and suspension were strengthened. Among the new additions to the car’s make-up include new Bilstein dampers, upgraded brake pads, its very own light bar and siren, a roll cage, a new set of Sparco race seats and harnesses, a fire suppression system, and high-performance Michelin tires.
Other important features added to the rally safety car include a GPS navigation system and a plethora of communications equipment developed to assist the car in case of an emergency.
In terms of powertrain, the G37 S Coupe safety car will have the same output coming out of the standard 3,696cc 24-valve V6 engine – 320 horsepower – and will be mated to the standard six-speed manual transmission.
Infiniti may not be all that known in the world of rally racing, but if the company ever needed to get its feet wet in the often dusty and muddy world of rallying, this could be the first step in doing so.
Jaguar is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of its most iconic models, the E-Type, this year. So to commemorate this occasion, the British automaker has released a new Spain-exclusive, limited-run Jaguar XK “Spring Edition”, complete with a myriad of aesthetic upgrades on both the exterior and interior of the car.
While we completely dig all the styling improvements that were made for the Spring Edition XK, we’re a little bothered because the car is only being sold in Spain, which means that unless we can have one imported to the US, then we’re going to have trouble getting this unique Jaguar XK model.
Having said that, the Jaguar XK is still one fine piece of machinery, regardless if it comes with special trims or not. We admit to having once lost some affinity for the Big Car in the past, but with their slew of newer and more recent models, including the XK Coupe and Convertible, our approval rating for this British automaker is steadily rising back to its former stature as one of Europe’s finest.
Details on the Jaguar XK Spring Edition after the jump.
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A couple of weeks ago, the Ascari race track in Marbella, Spain played host to Pagani and a number of the Italian marquee’s exclusive customers for a nice track-day that included the official presentation of the Pagani Zonda R to the invited guests.
If that and the fact that these guys could run around the track for the whole day wasn’t enough, a couple of special edition Zondas were also in attendance: two Zonda supercars that bear the names ‘Cinque’ and ‘HH’. The man behind the Zonda HH, American David Heinemeier Hansson was also in attendance at the event to personally receive his one-off supercar from Pagani and test it out on the track.
With all these mouth-watering Zondas in one location, it’s hard to find a better place on the planet than the Ascari race track when Pagani held its track day there about two weeks ago. We don’t have any Zondas in our near future so it’s unlikely that we’re going to get invited to any track meets any time soon so we’ll just have to settle for photos.
Hey, look! There’s a bonfire happening in the middle of the streets of London!
Oh, wait. That’s not a bonfire. What that is, unfortunately, is a Ferrari 360 Modena that’s on fire. Hey, at least it’s not a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Tasteless jokes aside, the story on how that 360 Modena caught fire is a doozy. Turns out, it belonged to somebody who decided to rent out his supercar through a rental agency for $1,500 to an Arab prince who ended up crashing it to oblivion. And all of that happened before the car started catching fire.
Two things that we’re dying to know: One, how in the world did the owner feel when he found out his Ferrari was totaled beyond repair and all he got out of it was $1,500. You can’t even buy a dinged-up Pinto with that money. Second, how can an Arab prince rent out a Ferrari when he probably has like a hundred of them tucked in his garage?
Although we don’t know what came out of this mess, the only redeeming part about this is that the Arab prince can probably afford to replace the 360 Modena with another Ferrari, or maybe something even better. If we were the owner of the car, we’d be thinking somewhere along the lines of maybe a Pagani Zonda.
The volcanic ash that put a stranglehold on the airline industry in Europe caught a lot of vacationers and travellers off-guard. However, while some chose to just sit and wait out the whole situation, others decided that sitting and waiting for the ash cloud to clear wasn’t something worth waiting for.
A family of vacationers in Barcelona, Spain were one of thousands that were stranded because of this perilous situation. Determined to make it back to the UK as soon as possible, they decided to hail a cab from the UK to come pick them up in Barcelona. True story!
The cab’s owner, Garry Smith, took his son and hopped in their Hyundai i800 van and made the 2,500-mile trip that lasted the better part of two days. "We got the call at 9:30am on Tuesday and were on the road within an hour to collect four people," Smith recalls. "I took my son Ben so we could share the driving and booked the Eurotunnel crossing on route. When the passengers heard what car we were in they asked if we could take six people which, because of the car, we were happy to do."
The whole voyage ended up costing the vacationing family a staggering £4,600.50 - $7,050! - in cab charges, but Smith, in an act befitting of sainthood - ok, not really - decided to only charge the stranded folks £1,850 - US$2,830 - for the whole trip. According to Smith, he decided to reduce the price because, in his own words, "it wouldn’t really be fair to charge them the meter rate."
Incredible.
