In a world that’s long had its fair share of supercars prowling around our roads and highways, there aren’t a lot that have been shrouded in mystery quite like the Aspira F620.
Of course, given the rather infinitesimal size of the company relative to its super car brethren, the UK-based niche supercar brand doesn’t have the clout that the more established brands have. So when word spreads that the company is on the cusp of releasing a new car, not a lot of people find out about it.
But fortunately, our friends over at Pistonheads know one when they see one, and they did see one - an in-the-flesh F620 taking in a couple of test runs at the Leighton Buzzard IVA centre. Rumors surrounding the F620 have long been floating around but not a lot of people have been fortunate enough to lay their eyes on one.
We did know that the F620 carried with an LS376 GM V8 engine, which, if you’re curious to know, is a ramped-up version of a 6.2-litre LS3 V8. With that much power sitting under the hood, the F620 is rumoured to have over 500 horsepower, ready to churn out a top speed of over 200 mph.
As the economic crisis hit the automobile industry, certain manufacturers were forced to scrap a few of their popular programs in an effort to save a few bucks and make their board of directors happy. One particular racing series that felt the blow from the lack of racing enthusiasm was the World Rally Championship. Many of the sports long time runners have dropped out of competition for financial reasons, leaving the field quite empty. Thanks to the world’s best automotive magazine, Car, who recently released a few snap shots of Ford’s upcoming rally racing version of the Fiesta conducting an initial shakedown run in Cumbria, we can rest assured knowing that at least one automaker is thinking of a future competing in the adrenaline filled world of international off road racing.
This particular flared and caged Ford Fiesta has been developed over the past six months by M-Sport, the company responsible for producing Ford’s current WRC Focus, with the intention of campaigning in the FIA’s S2000 category. The class has been designed for naturally aspirated production cars that make up to 270 HP, while a full fledged WRC car is allowed a turbocharger and additional aerodynamic aids. So with a little bit of boost and a few oversized wings, the S2000 Fiesta could be up to WRC specification. M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson said, “The important thing now is that we undertake a strong test and development campaign in order to provide our customers with the best possible S2000 package… I’m sure that this car will also provide a very strong base for Ford’s next generation WRC car.”
Now the only question that remains to be asked is whether or not Ford will come out with a street version of their WRC hopeful. A new Fiesta being sold with wildly flared fenders and low profile tires would certainly inspire a few other new car shoppers to consider Ford’s new compact hatch as their city car of choice, especially with a newfound high performance attitude.
The overwhelmingly positive response of the ‘Jetsons-esque’ Vision EfficientDynamics may have given BMW the shot in the arm it has long waited for.
Due to the glorious feedback generated by the concept car, BMW is not tinkering with the idea of bringing back the M1 by 2012 where it would be based on the 2+2 coupe concept of the Vision EfficientDynamics.
The rumoured M1 will also come with the same hybrid powertrain that comes with the Vision EfficientDynamics concept, a sign that BMW may be more serious than anyone ever thought about the its efforts in becoming more eco-friendly.
In the event that it does use the hybrid powertrain, the M1 will be expected to carry a 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine that comes with an electric motor. The power output expected to come out of this set-up is expected to reach as much as 350 horsepower and 600 Nm of torque.
As far as aesthetics are concerned, we’re not expecting the M1 to look remotely close to that of the Vision EfficientDynamics concept, although we are anticipating that BMW will take a few styling cues from the concept and adapt it to the M1. After all, what’s the point of basing the car to the concept if it won’t have any resemblance to it?
In any event, if this supposed reincarnation of the M1 is all BMW says it would be, then we can expect it to generate the same type of reaction the Vision EfficientDynamics concept got in Frankfurt. And that’s going to be great news for the boys of BMW.
Unfortunately as a consequence of General Motor’s recent fiscal restructuring, their High Performance Vehicle Operations team was temporarily disbanded and put to work on everyday people movers. However this new spy shot thanks to our friends at Left Lane News, it looks like the supercharged Cadillac CTS-V is back on track to go on sale sometime in 2010. We had heard rumors of a possible V powered wagon, these photos of the two door model are giving us hope that there will be much more to come.
Giving away the fact that the camouflage wearing coupe is a BMW M3 fighting high performance V-series model are the: Cadillac crested large wire grill that shines through the plastic mesh covering, power dome in the hood that covers the blown 6.2 Liter LSA V8 that is good for a total of 556 HP and 551 ft-lb of torque and a rather meaty looking center mounted dual exhaust to finish off the upscale muscle car theme of the Cadillac V-Series lineup.
However the single largest aspect of the production ready looking CTS-V coupe mule that gives it away as a V-Series, aside from the taped up emblems on the doors, is the running gear. Only one other car in the General Motors catalog wears a set of wheels like those, and especially with a beefy set of brake calipers underneath. Due to the fact that the Pontiac G8 GXP doesn’t have much of a future, despite being such a wonderful automobile, is that this CTS-V coupe is looking more and more like a production car.
There is an ever popular trend amongst future automotive designers of developing ideas based along an established automaker’s lines. Take this Honda RA-X concept for example, although it looks like the sporty offspring of an Acura NSX and a Honda Fit it didn’t come from a Japanese design studio but instead from the mind of Spanish car designer Xuacu Pérez. If you follow the link below you will see Xuacu’s previous concept, the Lotus Excite a compact English sports car with a 21st century appeal.
The Honda RA-X looks like it is setting a speed record even when it is standing still. The forward leaning passenger compartment pushes the shape forward, while the wrap around windscreen and muscular kink in the C-Pillar make the RA-X look like a helmet poking out of a racecar cutting through the air, just like a GT-R. This could be a nod towards the Japanese sports car’s RA nameplate, the same two letters that were assigned to Honda’s Formula One cars in the 1960s. The F1 inspired name could also attest to the Spanish concept’s oversized wheels being pushed to the far corners of the body and quartet of trumpets that spit spent gasses out the back of the RA300 just like the horizontal exhaust pipes that poke out from the tail of the concept, just like the wingless wonder from 1967.
Being a road car the RA-X trades the open air experience of the vintage F1 car for a closed cockpit 21st century thrill. The body itself would act as a wing, producing enough down force with all its bold curves to reach over 250 MPH, following the same low drag design philosophy that made the NSX a serious super car competitor, the RA-X’s proposed 400 HP mid engine layout. However if Xuacu wants this futuristic Honda to come to fruition, we suggest figuring out a place to add some electric motors to the concept and win over a few more green fans.
A few days ago Top Speed brought you a spy shot of a red two door Audi wearing an S5 badge and a pretty gnarly front bumper and after speaking with a few Audi of America representatives we were almost certain that it was a future RS5. Well our friends at the Audi enthusiast web site Fourtitude have discovered yet another special S5 while perusing through parking garage located directly below the Audi Forum across from the factory in Ingolstadt. Sure this car isn’t wearing a set of the signature RennSport blistered fenders, but neither was the red car from last week, and it does have a similar front bumper with oversized openings and a set of matte mirror covers to finish off the high class sorts car.
What makes the tale of this high performance S5 is that the parking garage is just one of the places where Audi executives can park their new cars, and there is one such big wig who has admitted to driving an S5 with an RS4 power plant under the hood. We found out back in November that Audi will be downsizing many of its quickest models. While the current RS6 is powered by a 5.0 Liter twin turbo V10 making 580 HP, but the RS5 will be motivated in the form of the RS4’s 4.2 Liter FSI V8 except that this time output will be bumped up to a tire shredding 450 HP.
By combining the upgraded FSI engine with Audi’s patented Quattro all wheel drive technology the German automaker is about to release a very stylish high performance vehicle into the market that will easily compete with the likes of BMW’s M3 and even an AMG powered C63 from Mercedes Benz. We are also quite positive that the new RS5 will be in U.S. showrooms sometime in the near future.
It’s been a while since we last had any news regarding the Lamborghini Estoque concept car but now, it looks like the car long thought to have been scrapped has finally resurfaced.
These spy shots of the Estoque were captured recently in Cologne, Germany, putting to rest all those rumors that Lamborghini’s new super car has been shelved.
Details as to why the car was out on the road are still a mystery, although some folks have assumed that the Estoque was being taken out for a test run. This comes as great news for those who have fallen head-over-heels for the car since it was launched at the Paris Motor Show last October.
Although the car received overwhelmingly positive reviews, the sudden collapse of the global economy sparked rumors that the car would be permanently shelved despite Lamborghini’s later attempt at quelling the rumors by saying that “no decision has been made to produce the Estoque”.
But now that it has been seen running around the streets of Cologne, it looks like the Estoque is still far from the chopping block and that Lamborghini is still working doubly hard to make the Estoque more than just a pipe dream.
One of the men who can be held personally responsible for bringing General Motors to muscle car prominence in the 1960s is Jim Wangers. An automotive design hopeful turned advertising guru, Wangers is responsible for Pontiac’s performance enthusiast marketing campaigns of that foregone era of drag racing down Woodward Avenue and cars that you can take directly from the showroom to the race track and blow the doors off of just about anything. One particular Pontiac that Wangers was responsible for was the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge, he even commissioned the rack band Paul Revere and the Raiders to take part in the car’s launch campaign and got George Barris to build the Monkees a modified GTO.
So it is only fitting that Big 3 Performance has decided to team up with the man himself in order to create an all new muscle car tribute to Jim Wangers and his Pontiac GTO. Starting from scratch, the team at Big 3 Performance have redesigned the 1969 Judge from the round up, including modern day running gear and other amenities. The body stays very close to the original, incorporating everything from the GTO’s three bar grills to the long sloping fenders to create a truly 21st century muscle car, after all why mess with perfection.
The Jim Wangers Edition GTO will be built using the highest quality materials available. The car’s interior will feature a set of heated and cooled Orthoped leather seats from the racing bucket manufacturer Recaro as well as a high tech audio visual package complete with touch screen navigation and fully powered accessories to complete the modern day muscle car experience.
Not long after its successful debut of the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes has already laid out plans of releasing a roadster version of the car that captured the attention of everyone who went to the IAA.
While the ‘supposed’ roadster won’t be due for at least another two years – or so the company says – it looks like Mercedes is further along the testing phase than any of us expected.
The video, which was taken by Auto Motor und Sport, is a clip of what looks like four heavily-covered SLS AMG roadsters taking in a few test runs in Death Valley, California.
Mercedes has announced that the roadster will be outfitted with most of the revolutionary design elements found in the SLS AMG Gullwing.
Judging from what the outline of the car, the trademark hood of the Gullwing remains the same and if you pay attention to the video closely, you’ll notice that these cars also come with the unique gullwing doors from which the SLS AMG got its nickname.
On a totally unrelated note, it seems that the convoy of masked Gullwings has found itself an unlikely road buddy in the form of an Audi R8. If only cars could think, we wonder what the R8 was thinking being caught in the same video as those SLS AMGs.
Up until now we Top Speed has only been able to bring you images of what we believe to be the upcoming Audi RS5 mid size super coupe from the test track, but now we have finally found a clear full color image of what we believe to be the new Audi RS5. While the Audi A5 will get a minor facelift for 2010, what appears to be an ordinary S5 is wearing an awful large set of air intakes in the front bumper, certainly something reserved for Audi’s factory tuned RS variants, and we are almost certain that there is an RS5 underneath that sheet metal skin.
We found out back in November that Audi will be downsizing many of its quickest models. While the current RS6 is powered by a 5.0 Liter twin turbo V10 making 580 HP, the RS5 will be motivated in the form of the RS4’s 4.2 Liter FSI V8 except that this time output will be bumped up to 450 HP.
By combining the upgraded FSI engine with Audi’s patented Quattro all wheel drive technology the German automaker is about to release a very stylish high performance vehicle into the market that will easily compete with the likes of BMW’s boy racer M3 and even an AMG powered C63 from Mercedes Benz. We are also quite sure that the new RS5 will be in U.S. showrooms sometime in the near future as well.
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