Sports Cars

Remember the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R? Silly question, of course you do. The race car was active on tracks around the world between 2014 and 2019 and it even managed to snatch a victory in the GTE Pro class at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In all fairness, what brought us here today is Abimelec Design’s recent rendering of a widebody C8 Corvette that looks ready to pick up where the C7.R left off.

Alfa Romeo recently unveiled a higher performance version of the Giulia named the GTA. The iconic nameplate was revived to celebrate the company’s 110th anniversary in 2020. The Italian manufacturer has no plans to use the GTA badge on the Stelvio SUV, despite high demand for performance crossovers these days.

Add Lamborghini to the growing list of automakers that have stepped up to help medical frontliners in their fight against the COVID-19 virus. The Italian automaker has started production of face masks and protective shields for health workers at Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna, Italy.

Lamborghini is targeting a production rate of 1,000 face masks and 200 face shields per day. The supercar brand is the latest automaker to lend a helping hand to the medical frontliners who have had to fight a staggering number of recorded cases in Italy. As of April 1, 2020, Italy has recorded 110,574 cases of those affected by the virus. Of that figure, a total of 13,155 people have died while 16,874 have recovered from the deadly virus.

The name Papadakis Racing popped up on many tuning aficionados’ radars when the team signalled its intentions of boosting the 3.0-liter BMW-sourced straight-six engine of the new 2020 Supra to in excess of 1,000 horsepower.

Not an easy task, to say the least, but with the right expertise and lots of work, bumping up the new Supra’s power output to a level that would make its predecessor proud is actually attainable.

There once was a time when $5,000 could score you a decent sports car. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Today, finding new sports cars for under $5,000 is as difficult as you expect it to be. Finding any new car for under $5,000 is a search that will leave you empty-handed.

Fortunately, there are ways to score good deals on cars for under $5,000, including those of the sports car persuasion. You’ll have to look long and hard for these bargain finds and you have to accept that none of these cars are fresh off the line. But if you set your expectations right, you can unearth some good to great deals on fast cars under $5,000.

Remember the fake Ferraris that spread on the internet some years ago? Well, we’ve got something better. Fake McLarens, fake Lamborghinis, and pretty much all the fake supercars you can think of coming from a custom car shop in Thailand.

It was only last year that the Civic Police of Santa Catarina in Brazil dismantled a bogus workshop that built replica Ferraris and Lamborghinis that wore the two brand’s official badges. Thailand’s PS Modify, however, does’t work that way, as it sticks its own badge to the supercar-inspired body kits it churns out.

Most of today’s supercars are well out of the budget of normal folks. That’s a fact. We can argue until the cows come home, but there are reasons why exotic cars routinely command six-figure price tags.

But just because that’s the case for brand-new models, that doesn’t mean you can’t find cheap supercars. Most of of what counts as affordable supercars are typically the ones that are pre-owned. There are a lot of used supercars for sale, ranging from old Italian exotics to modern American performance machines. If for nothing else, this proves that just because brand-new supercars are out of most people’s financial reach, that doesn’t mean you can’t find sweet deals for used exotic cars for sale. We’ve compiled a list of these cheap supercars that you can buy for less than $50,000.

Carwow’s back at drag racing cars with another special episode. This time, Mat Watson takes the current BMW M4 and Mercedes-AMG C63 and pits them against the BMW E90 M3 and Mercedes-Benz W204 C63 AMG. As a bonus, the Lexus RC F Track Edition joins this German-only affair. Here’s how it all went down.

Back in January, we explained that you need to have patience and understanding in regard to C8 Corvette production and deliveries. Not long after that, a GM-UAW strike led to a delay in the start of production. Months later, the COVID-19 pandemic grabbed the world by the short and curlies, and now GM has been forced to shut down the Bowling Green factory and put production of the C8 Corvette on hold. All this, despite the heavy demand for the C8 Corvette (part of which is derived from rumors that the 20021 model year would be more expensive). In late January, we also learned that Chevy was canceling some dealer allocations,, and now order books for the 2020 Corvette are completely closed. There could be a silver lining to all of this, though, as you can now order the 2021 model year C8 Corvette and, with it, comes some fresh standard equipment.

There’s a small, Russian, Youtube channel known only as Владислав Чекунов that has managed to amass more than 8 million views from a trio of videos, now effectively known as the Need for Speed in Real Life series. That first two videos in that series were pretty good, but the newest video – which was posted just 15 hours ago – is downright awesome. It has everything from the initial menu, to the career mode selection, to the race selection. Our car of choice in this video is the BMW M3 in classic NFS styling, and for the first race, it goes up against a Toyota Supra and Porsche Cayman in the typical sprint drag race in Saint Petersburg Russia.

Once that short, 1.7-km (1.05 mile) race was complete; we continue on in a drive around the city, eventually being forced to outrun the police. Later on, we join another race, this time on Krestovsky Island. Here, we’ll meet a Volkswagen Golf GTi, a Ford Mustang GT, and a Lancer Evolution VIII. The people responsible for the videos say that no laws were broken, and the speeds do appear to be legal. With that in mind, we really need to give credit to the producers – the effects, in general, are pretty amazing.

We’ve posted the newest episode of Need for Speed in Real Life, but we’ve also added the first to episodes below that for your viewing pleasure. We promise it’s not a bad way to spend about 15 minutes!

Porsche’s lineup over the years has seen more than a fair share of iconic road cars and race cars. The German carmaker has enjoyed such a great deal of success in motorsport that its road-going models couldn’t have been anything else other than brilliant.

This statement is true today as well. Ignore the 911 and the 718 range, Porsche’s SUVs, despite frowned upon by some, are top-of-class in their segments when it comes to driving dynamics and road zest. But the cars you’re about to see are absolute automotive Gods.

So what we have here is a Nissan 350Z with a Rocket Bunny Body kit, sans a front bumper, looking, well, ugly. Now, usually, this would be something that you just dismiss after seeing – the owner probably just didn’t know how to drive and lost his front fascia trying to drift. But, instead, the owner – and what we assume is his girlfriend – decided to take the amount of dumb to astounding levels. “Let me do a backflip on the roof, she said.” And, so it was. She climbs on top, sets up like she’s a professional gymnast, and proceeds to do said backflip. It was at that very moment that it became painfully clear that this girl wasn’t a professional gymnast. A professional gymnast would have landed in the same place she started. This girl however, penetrated that poor 350Z from behind in the worst of ways. Intrigued? Well, we’ve watched it quite a few times and can’t quit laughing, so check it out for yourself:

It hasn’t even been a week since the most recent round of spy shots for the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series started circulating the net. So far, we’ve learned precious little about the car that will be the last entry to the first-gen AMG GT and serve as the flagship model outside of the bonkers Project One Hypercar. All that has changed, though, thanks to a new report from Double Apex, a South African magazine that claims the AMG GT Black Series will have more than 700 horsepower.

A year after announcing that it had become an official video game partner for Gran Turismo Sport, Mazda has unveiled its new digital ride for the game. Called the RX-Vision GT3 Concept, the GT3-class racer is as enthralling and as captivating as you expect it would be.

That’s not a surprise given that the racer pilfers some of its design cues from the obnoxiously raunchy RX-Vision Concept that Mazda unveiled at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. The low-riding, slinky racer is the creation of Ikuo Maeda, Mazda’s global design boss. The Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept isn’t available in Gran Turismo Sport, at least not until May 25, when it arrives as part of an online update. It will join the Atenza Gr.3 as the second GT3-class Mazda in the game.

Few BMW cars of old and new trigger as much fire in a gearhead’s belly as the 3.0 CSL. Developed under Jochen Neerpasch’s close supervision, the light coupé provided a splendid base for racing and BMW was quick to capitalize on that.

So was Khyzyl Saleem, with another unique interpretation of an iconic race car that rightfully earned its nickname: The Batmobile.

Audi showed the e-tron GT conceptback in 2018 at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The road-going version of this prototype is expected to debut this year in LA, but until that happens, the world needs to figure out the coronavirus outbreak and Audi has to apply the finishing touches on its new performance EV.

Remember when we told you that these days, drag races can be a battleground where budget wagons battle luxo-barges, or fully-blown sports cars are challenged by super-sedans? Well, it happened again, since someone thought that pitting the 2020 Chevy Corvette C8 against a 2019 Cadillac CTS-V is a good idea. Let’s not get silly. It’s a brilliant idea.

Drifting has its roots in Japan. Ask every petrolhead out there about drifting and he’ll tell you it’s something he attempted at least once in his life. Done right, drifting transcends the motorsport discipline status. Done right, drifting is art. Oh, and drifting has nothing to do with that neon underglow BS from The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Contrary to what some might think, speed is not what primarily drives a drift. Sure, you need some amount of power to get the wheels spinning, but to drift properly, it also takes a lot of skill, rear-wheel-drive, and a light platform (a two-ton S-Class will drift, of course, but it’s way harder to handle).

A 50:50 (or close) weight distribution ratio between the axles helps the cause, too. And we get it. The right car doesn’t come cheap. But since physics applies equally to all earthly things, you don’t have to break the bank to find a good drift car. Some used vehicles will definitely do, so let’s explore the alternatives, shall we?

The world of hot hatches is brimming with sharp-looking, go-fast pocket rockets but as of 2019, there’s one that rules them all. Enter the Mercedes-AMG A45.

Unveiled in the summer of 2019, the Mercedes-AMG A45 introduced the world’s most powerful 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. Under the hood of the top-spec S model, the M139 mill cranks out 310 kW (415 horsepower, 412 PS) and 500 Newton-meters of twist or around 369 pound-feet of torque. These guys, though, can consideraby improve on those numbers by just tweaking the car’s software.

Rumors and bits of info on the upcoming new 2021 Toyota 86 have been travelling around the internet for quite some time and have been intensively covered here on TopSpeed as well.

However, a recent leak reaffirms the fact that the 86 nameplate is making a comeback, albeit as part of a new naming scheme.

BMW recently revived the iconic 8 Series and turned it into its halo model, but the nameplate is struggling in the U.S., where more than 2,000 units are sitting on U.S. dealership lots. Dealers blame it on poor marketing support from BMW, but could this be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Who said you have to spend a bomb to purchase a fast sports car? If you go the pre-worshipped route, you can have your pick of the litter for as little as $20,000. The options you find in this price bracket are aplenty. Generally, you can get well-maintained cars when you are looking for a purchase in this segment, because it is generally the enthusiasts who buy sports cars and most of them take good care of them all along, barring a few rotten apples.

To be honest, $20,000 is a healthy budget if you are ready to compromise on the model year and the mileage. However, be careful because you can find wrecked cars with good skin as well. But, with that said, here’s a list of top 10 sickest used sports cars that cost less than $20,000.

Introduced in 2014, the Mercedes-AMG GT is no longer the company’s flagship sports car, but a full lineup of vehicles. In three years, AMG not only developed a Roadster but also launched a higher performance coupe and a beefed-up convertible too. Oh, and it also created two different race cars based on the GT. In all, the AMG GT includes seven members, which is darn impressive. But Mercedes-AMG won’t stop here. Although rumors of a Black Series model have yet to be confirmed, recent spy shots suggest that such a version is indeed underway. And we might just see it in the metal in early 2019.

With the GT R in showrooms, a Black Series model might not make much sense, but Mercedes has plenty of room to either slot it between the GT S and GT R or place it above everything else as a range-topping model. The latter scenario is more likely, so we could get an AMG GT with close to 600 horsepower and built in a very limited run. We should find out more later this year, so make sure you stick around for updates. Meanwhile, have a look at my speculative review below.

Update 3/24/2020: The Mercedes-AMG Black Series is about ready for production and we just got a fresh look. Check out the Spy Shots section below to see the latest pictures and learn what has changed!