Porsche has unveiled a pretty cool video presenting their stand at the 2012 Autosport International Show held in Birmingham, England. Porsche launched the 2012 Carrera Cup GB and GT3 Cup Challenge race series, as well as showed off the 918 RSR and the new 911 Carrera for the first time in the UK.
Porsche’s presence at the Autosport is pretty important considering this event is kind of a kick-off for the motorsport year - an area where Porsche has a lot to say. Our favorite, of course, is the 918 RSR - a race car that will deliver about 600 HP, while hitting a top speed of 200mph and taking off from 0-60 mph in less than 3.0 seconds. The Porsche 918 RSR will begin competing in 2013.
MINI has never been the shy type when it comes to rolling out special edition models, especially when certain situations call for it.
As an official sponsor of the 2012 London Olympic Games, you can’t come up with a more ideal situation for a special edition Cooper. Heck, they even made two of them.
Joining the Cooper Bayswater Special Edition is the Baker Street Special Edition, a unique trim of the popular Cooper line that pays homage to London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. Similar to the Bayswater model, the Baker Street comes with plenty of unique trims, highlighted by a Rooftop Grey metallic finish with special racing stripes on the hood, black mirror caps, and a new set of 16" alloy wheels. Optional paint finishes - Pepper White and Midnight Black - are also part of the package.
Inside, the Baker Street model comes dressed with unique seating surfaces with a Cross Check Rooftop Grey color for the dashboard and door trim and diamond pattern, light grey contrast stitching for the floor mats, gearshift/selector lever, handbrake gaiters, and seat tags.
The Cooper Baker Street Edition is set to be available on the MINI One, Cooper, One D, and Cooper D models with sales expected to begin in Spring 2012.
With the 2012 London Olympics drawing closer and closer, official sponsors like MINI are starting to get their publicity machines going with hopes of squeezing every last ounce of marketing potential that goes with being an Olympics sponsor.
In the case of the German automaker, the marketing initiative involves the release of two bespoke MINI Cooper models: the Baker Street Edition and the Bayswater Edition.
The Bayswater Edition comes with an exclusive Kite Blue metallic finish with optional Midnight Black and Eclipse Grey finishes available for the Cooper S and SD models. In addition, the special edition "Bayswater" Cooper also received special racing stripes on the hood and side mirrors, a black-finished roof, and a new set of 17" wheels.
As for the interior, MINI dressed up the special edition Cooper’s seats in leather with exclusive colors and two-tone stitching on the gearshift/selector lever and handbrake gaiters. The car also has "Bayswater" lettering on the seat tags and door sills, a Piano Black cockpit trim, stainless steel pedals, and MINI’s standard Chrome Line Interior package.
In addition to the Cooper S and SD models, the Bayswater Edition will also be available for the Cooper and Cooper D models with a sale date pegged for early spring of 2012.
In today’s world of ungodly-powered supercars, an old hat that has been lost in the shuffle is looking to re-enter the conversation, determined to remind everyone that while their name hasn’t been mentioned in talks of ’fastest supercar on the planet’, it was a matter of choice rather than cause.
Rumors are coming out of Woking, England that McLaren is finally in the process of developing the long-awaited successor to the iconic McLaren F1. This is the very same car that ushered in a new generation of supercars when it made its debut back in the mid 90s, setting the standard on how supercars are built these days.
While official details are still being withheld, Autocar managed to get some juicy information on what’s in store for this new supercar, including the nickname it’s been given: ’Mega Mac.’
It sounds like it doesn’t inspire a lot of fear and trepidation from its competitors, but nonetheless, we’re confident that ’Mega Mac’ won’t be the final name of the car. Somewhere along the lines, McLaren will have something more suitable for their new flagship supercar. Right now, they are internally calling the new hypercar the P12
UPDATE 11/21/2011: McLaren has confirmed that the company’s next supercar will be called the MP4-27 and it will be launched sometime next year. When talking about the company’s future plans in an official press release, Mclaren said that they were "preparing build-work on next year’s car, MP4-27 – we are nine months into the development programme and have already stored 18,918 individual components from more than 3,000 different works orders and signed off more than 5,500 technical drawings."
UPDATE 1/19/2012: British magazine, CAR,is offering new details on the McLaren successor for the F1 supercar. The magazine reports that the P12 will be share a similar carbon Monocell structure as the MP4-12C and will be powered by a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine combined with a KERS energy storage system. The price for the car will be in the €750k area (or $960,000 at the current exchange rates.
For now, immerse yourselves in the first details of the car after the jump.
It’s a new year and, of course, time for the new season of Top Gear. The 18th season of he famous British show begins on Sunday, January 29thh at 8pm on BBC2, but we’re already getting the first teaser video of the great things that are about to come.
The official trailer reveals Ray Winstone, Richard at NASCAR, James on a rather bizarre lap of Dunsfold, a flying man with wings, Jeremy in a wig blowing up a caravan, a Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series in a cloud of tire-smoke, and a new incarnation of the Stig. Then there’s the list of impressive cars that are in the show.
Everything seems about ready for the show, so there is only one question to ask: who will Jeremy Clarkson offend this time? Their Christmas show in India ended pretty badly.
