Roadster cars are convertible compact sport cars, more or less luxurious but with a bold look and providing lots of feedback to the driver. they are the fun fast cars by excellence
Audi only built 666 units (strange number, no?) for their Audi R8 GT Coupe and Spyder versions, so the chance of seeing one on the street is pretty rare. The chance of seeing a parade of them is even slimmer, if not impossible.
Then again, if you went to the Nurburgring 24 Hours race where Audi pushed its way to incredible results, you would have seen this aforementioned parade before the race even took place. Talk about some positive energy fueling the racers!
As a reminder, both versions are powered by the same 5.2 liter V10 engine that delivers a total of 560 HP and 398 lbs-ft of torque. The R8 GT Spyder will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, while the R8 GT Coupe makes the sprint in 3.6 seconds. Top speeds are 196.97 mph and 198.8 mph, respectively.
Collaborative efforts aren’t anything new in the car world. Companies have been borrowing bits and pieces from each other for years, but lately it seems as though full blown projects are being split between companies to develop almost identical vehicles. Take Subaru and Toyota, for example. They joined forces to develop the new GT 86/BRZ sports car that carry identical parts with different maker flares. Now Fiat and Mazda are jumping on board the team builder wagon to produce a new small roadster based on Mazda’s next-generation MX-5 rear-wheel-drive architecture.
The two companies will have to develop two differentiated, distinctly styled roadsters and each variant will be powered by specific proprietary engines unique to each brand. Both models will be built at Mazda’s Hiroshima, Japan, plant with production for Alfa Romeo envisaged starting in 2015.
"Establishing technology and product development alliances is one of Mazda’s corporate objectives and this announcement with Fiat is an important first step in that direction. It is especially exciting to be collaborating with such a prestigious marque as Alfa Romeo on a new roadster based on the next-generation MX-5, which is such an iconic vehicle for Mazda and recognized as the best-selling roadster of all time." said Takashi Yamanouchi, Mazda’s Representative Director and Chairman of the Board, President and CEO.
"This agreement clearly demonstrates our commitment to Alfa Romeo and the determination to grow it into a truly global brand. By partnering with Mazda, we will be co-operating with the recognized leader in compact rear-drive vehicle architectures in order to deliver an exciting and stylish roadster in the Alfa Romeo tradition. We are appreciative of this collaboration with Mazda and look forward to maintaining a fruitful and continuous relationship." said Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.
Unlike the One Lap of America race, which recently ended, the Houston Half Mile Shootout is a brand new race for 2012. This year it was run in conjunction with the 4th annual Aeros & Autos event at Ellington Airport in Houston, TX.
This race is much like the Texas Mile, as it is purely a top speed-style of race, where your goal is to reach the highest speed within the half-mile-long track. Simple enough, right? Well, driving in excess of 200 mph is never simple, but rules sure are.
This inaugural run includes cars and motorcycles, both street legal and off-road only, which makes for some really intense speeds, but also some utter disappointment. The biggest disappointment that we see is Mario Williams, an NFL Linebacker, running his Aventador down the half-mile track and only hitting 167 mph in the above video. C’mon, man, open her up a little. That’s just getting that $400,000 supercar warmed up.
On top of that, event organizer John Hennessey shows that he is not a football guy, as he calls Mario Williams an “All Pro defensive player from the Houston Texans,” but Williams signed with the Buffalo Bills in March, oops. We have to give Hennessey a pass though, as the video was taken on March 5th and Williams was still a free agent at the time, but he certainly was not a Texan at the time.
Fortunately that was just a warm-up lap, as we saw much more speed as the event went on.
Click past the jump to read more about the event, cool cars and highlights.
The sleek and sexy Hennessey Venom GT became a successful model in a very short time and Hennessey is hoping to repeat that success with an open top version of the same sports car. The new Hennessey Venom GT Spyder will be offered with a removable top and will only be produced in a limited run of five units, two of which have already been spoken for. Deliveries will begin in Summer 2012 and prices will start from $1.1 million, about $150,000 more than the Coupe’s top version.
The Venom GT Spyder will be powered by the same Chevrolet sourced V8 engine found in the Coupe with an output of 1,200 HP at 6,500 rpm and 1,155 lb-ft of torque at 4,200 rpm. Because of the added weight from the removable roof, performance numbers should be a tad bit slower than the Coupe, which sprints from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and to 200 mph in 15.9 seconds, on its way up to a top speed of 275 mph. The engine will more than likely send its power to the rear wheels via a Ricardo 6-speed gearbox and handling will be facilitated by a KW variant three-adjustable coilover suspension.
As far as its design goes, the Venom GT Spyder will start off with the Lotus Elise base and will follow along the same extreme design lines as its Coupe sibling. We imagine it will also feature the same active aero system with adjustable rear wing that will deploy under varying conditions on both the road and racetrack.
"With the hardtop in place, the Venom GT offers a very visceral, raw, driving experience," said Hennessey CEO, Don Goldman. "With the hardtop removed, the wind and the growl of the twin turbo V8 will offer our clients an even greater driving sensation."
The 1,200 HP will make the Venom GT Spyder the most powerful convertible in the world. Will it also be the fastest? We believe it will, but Hennessey will have to keep that 275 mph top speed intact.
UPDATE 05/22/2012: Following the delivery of the first Venom GT Spyder to Steven Tyler, Hennessey has dropped two new images of their latest supercar, as well as a video featuring the chassis dyno testing. Enjoy!
RK Motors Charlotte has become pretty notorious for its Pro Touring models, which are ultra-high-performance versions of classic muscle and sports cars. Not only are they extremely powerful, but RKM also has the restored to a condition that is better than the factory could have ever imagined. Just recently, RKM launched an all-new Pro Touring model in the form of the 1955 Ford Thunderbird Pro Touring.
After the Corvette was a smash hit, Ford decided two years was a long enough wait to build its direct competitor to the Corvette, the Thunderbird. The T-bird and Corvette, however, went to completely different directions over the year. As expected, both vehicles became progressively larger through the `60s and `70s, but the T-bird grew to proportions that no one expected by the time it hit the 1967 model year.
After 1997, Ford decided to axe this growing monster, but released it again in the 2002 model year with styling cues taken from its first generation model. The first generation was arguably the most beautiful for the T-bird and RKM’s model promises to not take away from its classical styling, but rather add to it with modern modifications.
Did RKM hold true to its promise not to completely hack up this first rendition of the T-bird, or did it make this beautiful car just a shell of its former self?
Click past the jump to read our full review and find out.
In 1963, Chevrolet released an all-new Corvette to replace the C1 generation. This Corvette featured a high beltline and the body featured more chiseled lines. The C2 Generation `Vette was nicknamed the “Sting Ray” by its designers, Bill Mitchell and Larry Shinoda, and that eventually became adopted as part of the name and the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray was born.
The 1967 model year was the final one for the Sting Ray, but it was also its peak year, as its top level L88 427 cubic-inch power plant produced upwards of 500 horsepower, even though Chevy claimed it only produced 430 horsepower. The lower engines, the L68 427 and L71 427, were no chumps either, pumping out 400 horsepower and 435 horsepower, respectively.
Classic car specialists, RK Motors Charlotte, decided that the stock Sting Ray was just not enough and decided to heavily modify this classic muscle car. The resulting vehicle is the sexy and ultra-desirable 1967 Corvette Sting Rat Pro Touring, a one-off special edition designed by the folks at RKM.
Typically, we are totally against the hacking up of a classic muscle sports car like the Sting Ray, but RKM has a habit of improving these cars without ruining the original look and feel of them.
Click past the jump to read our full review and see if RKM hit a homerun, or struck out, with this Pro Touring Sting Ray.
The Top Marques Monaco is without question one of the most important dates on the tuning calendar, particularly because of the location it’s held at every year. Nothing speaks more to millionaires throwing their money around than Monte Carlo, and some of the best tuners use that platform to show off their latest programs.
Now that the 2012 Top Marques Monaco has come and gone, we can definitely say that the tuners in attendance gave us programs that were for the books. One in particular was Mansory, which only recently wowed us at Geneva with not one, not two, not three, but four programs for some of the finest exotics in the land.
For their Monaco offering, the Swiss tuner brought their very first program for the Ferrari 458 Italia Spyder, appropriately called "Monaco."
As you can expect, Mansory did some serious bodywork upgrades on the 458 Italia Spyder, complete with a body kit that’s made out of carbon fiber. The kit includes a restyled front apron with air inlets for the front coolers, a new bonnet, side skirts with integrated ducts, a rear skirt with an integrated diffuser, carbon blades that replace the rear window, and a rear wing. All told, the carbon fiber components shaved of 60 kg (132 lbs) from the supercar’s overall weight.
Under the hood of the Italian stallion, Mansory reprogrammed the ECU, the sports air filter, and the sport exhaust, translating to an increased output of 590 horsepower and 413 lb/ft of torque with a 0-62 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph.
UPDATE 05/16/2012: Mansory has unveiled a new set of images for their latest 458 Italia Spyder Monaco Edition. Check out the picture gallery to see the new images!
It seems like it was just last week that we were reporting that Porsche was officially announcing the Pajun. Oh, that’s because it was just last week, but now Porsche is reneging on its upcoming plans to add in an entry-level performance sedan. In an interview with Stuttgarter Zeitung, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller made it quite clear that the Pajun is not a certainty, yet.
Per Automotive News, Mueller stated that the Pajun is in no way a done deal and might arrive in five to six years. The words “might arrive” are dripping with uncertainty and leave all of us pretty much standing around wondering what’s going on. Being car folks, we understand that Porsche needs to be very careful with its fan base, so we get it that they are a little secretive at this time.
Many enthusiasts did not take to well to the Panamera’s release a few years ago and they certainly had their voices heard. Placing a vehicle below it may cause a complete uproar in the Porsche world, so it is best for Mueller to be as indecisive as possible with this potential launch.
One car that was undeniably axed in the same interview was a smaller entry-level roadster. This sub-Boxster, or baby Boxster as many were calling it, was completely eliminated, as Mueller stated "We would do no good to the brand if we were to lose traditional Porsche customers" when he was asked by Stuttgarter Zeitung about the baby Boxster project.
So for all of you fresh grads dreaming of a smaller and cheaper version of the Boxster as a graduation present, you can forget about it. For those that were hoping for a sports sedan under the Panamera, we’ll just have to take the old wait-and-see approach.
Porsche has just dropped a series of new official details and images on their upcoming 918 Sypder, and while we were reading the press release, our spy photographers sent us a new set of spy shots of the upcoming supercar. We’re guessing these photos were taken in the same place the "official" spy shots were taken, but our images show the car from a few more angles.
The future 918 Spyder is set to be unveiled at the end of September 2013 as planned, with the first customers receiving their vehicles before 2013 is out. It will combine a 4.6 liter V8 of combustion engine and two independent electric motors – one on the front axle and one in the drive line, acting on the rear wheels - for a total output of more than 770 HP according to Porsche. However, if rumors are true, then this Porsche will be dishing out somewhere in the 800 HP area (570 HP from the V8 engine, 120 HP from the rear electric motor, and 110 HP from the front one). The hybrid supercar will also have an impressive fuel economy of 3 liter per 100 kilometers and Porsche says it will come with "spectacular solutions such as a full carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) monocoque with unit carrier, fully adaptive aerodynamics, adaptive rear-axle steering, and the upward-venting “top pipes” exhaust system. "
All of that gets us truly hyped about this hybrid monster, but the Porsche 918 Spyder will be priced in the $850K area and only 918 units will be built, so don’t expect to see it on every street corner.
For the 2013 model year, Aston Martin is producing an all new DBS, which means the current lineup is, of course, on its way out the door. Recently, an insider sat down with Car and Driver, and discussed what the British automaker’s plans are with the current DBS.
According to the source, the final 100 models of the DBS will be dubbed the DBS Ultimate Edition and will feature a nice array of extra goodies. The source didn’t offer too much about what the Ultimate Edition will include, but said to look to the differences between the 2010 DBS and the 2010 DBS Carbon Black for a good idea of what’s to come with this model.
This would first off mean that there are likely not going to be any mechanical modifications. Then again, 12-cylinder monster pumping out 510 ponies, there is really no need for any mechanical changes. For the most part, the changes will be extra features and a few mild visual changes.
The vast majority of the additions to the 2010 DBS Carbon Black Special Edition was making everything black on the inside and outside, except for a few splashes of silver on the inside. The rims were a polished alloy with its inserts painted, you guessed it, black! You also had the option of alloy or carbon black doorsill plates – woo hoo a choice other than black. The 2010 Carbon Black Special edition also added in an upgraded 1,000-watt stereo system.
To wrap this all up, we can anticipate a new paint job for the Ultimate Edition, something not already a part of the DBS line. A set of upgraded rims to mimic the paintjob should be expected. Plus, we should anticipate an upgraded stereo system from the already impressive 1,000 watt system on the existing DBS.
This is all we know at this point, we will keep you up to date as more info comes out.
UPDATE 05/08/12: Itching to see what the Aston Martin DBS Ultimate Edition looks like? Fret no longer because the British automaker recently dropped the covers off of their final DBS models with some catalog photos online! Check it out in all its sleek and spankin’ sexiness.
UPDATE 05/14/12:Aston Martin has announced prices for the new special edition DBS Ultimate: $287,576 for the coupe and $302,576 for the roadster version.
