News Flash: The 2012 Audi R18 Looks Like This

2012 Audi R18 Ultra (left) and 2012 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (right)

So Peugeot's pulled out of prototype racing after losing an argument with the organisers over the amount of energy hybrid LMP cars can accumulate, and Toyota of all people have now stepped up to try to fill their shoes by making a petrol-electric hybrid. Audi has spotted this and countered with a diesel-electric hybrid, like an old train, only much faster and cooler. Its full name is the Audi R18 e-Tron quattro, which is kind of funny, because in French, the word étron directly translates as turd. Clearly they were keen to fill the void left when Peugeot decided pull out their 908 HDI FAP this year (meant to be Filtre à Particule, but abbreviated to a slang term for masturbating). At any rate, the bodywork is basically the same as last year, with all the changes being internal, as well as a new white-on-ice-blue livery for the hybrid.

This year's car is lighter than last year's race-winning car, and Audi will be fielding four R18s this year. Two of them will be the hybrid version, which releases energy through motors on the front axle above 75mph thanks to a system designed by Williams, and the other two will be black-on-silver R18 Ultra models, which are just non-hybrid versions of the same car.

You can see how it gets on against the Toyota on the second weekend of June.

2012 Audi R18 e-tron quattro

Thought you ought to know.

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Ferrari F620GT Is Actually Called 'F12berlinetta' And Looks Like THIS

2012 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

So we've seen spy paintings, a teaser shot, and then a wooden display model was leaked out a few days ago, but now Ferrari is the one showing us what their own V12 GT looks like, and telling us what it's called... which isn't a great name. You see, it's called the F12berlinetta, which is all one word, thus ranking it highly among the List Of Annoying Deliberate Grammar Errors with the Volkswagen Up! and the GTbyCITROËN. So you don't think my typing is lazy, I'm going to do what every person on Earth with a brain stem will do and space them out to make it the F12 Berlinetta. Also, if there's one company that can do a side profile, it's Ferrari. Like the equally divisive F599 GTB Fiorano before it, while the front and rear are an acquired taste, from the side this car just looks fast. More pics and official details inside.

So here's the headline statistic: what you're looking at (unless you're still reading) is the most powerful Ferrari ever made. It's also the fastest road car to lap Ferrari's Fiorano test track - a 1:23 if you're keeping score - meaning that while you get a luxurious interior, you also get a car faster than a 458 Italia, an F60 "Enzo Ferrari", a 599 GTO and indeed any other Ferrari with a number plate, making it faster than several other cars as well. This ferocious speed comes courtesy of a 6262cc (6.3-litre) 65-degree V12 engine producing, in the end, 730bhp (740PS) and 509lb/ft of torque. 80% of that torque is available from a mere 2500rpm, all the way up to the screaming 8700rpm redline. The results are as you might expect; that engine hurls the entirely aluminium Berlinetta from 0-60mph in just 3.1 seconds, 0-125mph in 8.5 seconds - the time it takes a normal car to reach 60 - and the top speed is over 210mph.

While you will hopefully make your own mind up about the styling, I have to say the 458 Italia looks better too. The F12 Berlinetta (that's Italian for Coupé) looks slightly overdone, perhaps because the mentality these days is that more is better, not only in terms of speed and gadgets but in the styling department as well. It's gained 458 headlights and the FF's smiley grille, not to mention the Pagani Huayra's front aero (with a splitter on the bottom for good measure), but the big central bonnet scoop is pure 550 Maranello, which is a good thing. The heat vent ahead of the door seems to create a huge dip in the side of the car, but it actually follows the path of the air which exits the vent. It must've looked good on paper, and it looks all right in these studio press photos, but out there in real life, it will end up looking either muscular or a bit bulge-y.

At the rear, which we can see for the first time, things are even more...... challenging. IMO they have taken inspiration from the "New Lancia Stratos" that Pininfarina (who have played a major part in the design) made for German squillionaire Michael Stoschek, particularly in the top half of the tail (image to compare). Below that, it would appear Pininfarina and the "Ferrari Styling Centre" have had two very Italian sources of inspiration. One is a Formula 1 car, hence the rear diffuser and what appears to be an LED rain light, which doesn't look right on a road car and is probably the rear fog light, while the other inspiration is a woman wearing a thong, hence the, er, thong. The four exhaust pipes are low and wide-set, adding menace, while the side windows appear to be from a 612 Scaglietti (which was replaced by the FF a year ago). It also has a slightly inset rear window, something I will say more about in the next post as it appears on a concept car designed by Pininfarina.

The front-on shot is far more menacing than the rear, although it does look a bit like a highly-evolved fire-type Pokémon. Controlling all that anger is where Ferrari's computer geniuses come in, and when I say "geniuses", I mean the system on the 599 GTO can learn the track you're on lap after lap and adjust the traction/stability control bit by bit to make your laps faster and faster. Yes, this is cheating, but it's still a very impressive thing. The F12 Berlinetta is harnessed by third-generation carbon ceramic brakes, magneto-rheological suspension that's electronically controlled, an "E-Diff", traction and stability control systems, and finally a "high-performance" ABS. If all that sounds horribly complicated, don't worry - it's all controlled, as usual, through a little "Manettino" dial on the steering wheel, with different settings that put the different systems in different modes for different driving experiences. Unfortunately, having made all that very simple, Ferrari have gone and made the steering wheel horribly complicated by putting the indicators, lights controls, engine start button, windscreen wiper controls AND the horn on it, à la 458, along with two menu control buttons for the two little screens either side of the rev counter (one of which sometimes displays how fast you're going...). Adding to the liveability and the slight GT-ness is a nice big boot and extra storage space behind the only two seats. Weirdly, they've also put a digital speedo and tachometer above the glove box for the passenger to read...

Along with the Huayra-esque front bumper, the rest of the body is designed to have "exceedingly high aerodynamic qualities", so form is following function to an extent, although that peculiar thing is surely just for styling's sake. Ironic, considering it isn't particularly stylish...
One clever bit of aerodynamic trickery is a hole in each side of the bonnet (2nd picture down, you can see one) that channels air out of the vents in the side. Well, I'm assuming that's clever, otherwise they wouldn't do it. Air channelling is an increasingly popular thing these days, with BMWs upcoming i8 sports hybrid channelling air through the entire car, starting with holes below the headlights, so I'm assuming is has a purpose and somehow smooths the airflow or reduces drag. Actually, it probably follows the same path as the bulge in the side of the car once it exits the vent. Maybe.

Other than a kerbweight 70kg lighter than the F599 (at a still-meaty 1525kg), that's all we know thus far. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but, if you have to ask......

Air flow through the front of the car

[...you can't afford it]

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Repost: Justice Has Been Served

I know Audi quattro rally cars used to go sideways, but that's taking the piss

I could re-write this, but there's no real need. Just enjoy an arsehole getting what they deserve for parking like a douche. Also, there's a SAAB in the background - that'll become important later......

Usually, when an insensitive driver double-parks on the road blocking the way to other vehicles, all it takes is a call to the police to get things sorted out. But there comes a time when frustrated drivers take matters into their own hands…

...Which is what happened in Exarcheia, a neighborhood in downtown Athens, Greece, when the owner of what looks like a fairly new Audi A3 Sportback parked in front of a couple of large metal bins partially blocking the road.

While most passenger cars were able to make it through, a city bus that was making its routine trek around town couldn't fit. The bus driver along with the other drivers that were piling up behind kept honking again and again but to no avail; the owner of the Audi was nowhere to be seen.

So they decided to teach the A3 owner a very expensive lesson he or she will never forget; they turned the car on its side. Problem solved...

Photo credits: Star

Originally written by an unnamed writer on Carscoop.blogspot.com

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Video Sunday - Super Trofeo Dorifto

Uploaded: 18/10/11

Running Time: 2:17

Views When Posted: 99,419

What you're about to watch is not a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 SuperTrofeo drifting around a small town. What you are about to see is a remote controlled Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Super Trofeo being drifted around a waxed concrete floor dressed up as a small town, like a freakin' boss. The sustained angles and perfect lines would be mightily impressive in a real car, Gallardo or not, but can you drive an R/C car like this? Me neither...

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Infiniti Emerg-E Concept Out-Poses The Acura NSX Concept

2012 Infiniti Emerg-E Concept
Source: Carscoop

Well Acura, it's game over already. After Honda's posh brand unveiled its hybrid supercar concept at the Detroit show in January, Nissan's posh brand will unveil their own hybrid supercar concept at the Geneva show, which will be about 35 times sexier and more hybrid-er, as these leaked images from Carscoop prove. It's called the Emerg-E, which is appropriate seeing as it has emerged seemingly from nowhere and brought Infiniti's unusual design language into a shape that actually works. In terms of a beauty contest, the Acura NSX Concept doesn't stand a chance...

Yes, Infiniti's design language is something of an acquired taste. The FX crossover in particular looks so unusual it is guaranteed to get you noticed every day, while the M and G look interesting in their own way, but are arguably bettered by other more obvious rivals. Clearly though, as the 600-horsepower Essence Concept showed three years ago, this design language works best in the more elegant form of a supercar, and so to turn heads and boost their image a bit - which Infiniti particularly needs to do in Europe, where they're still very obscure - they have translated the Essence into a mid-engined form, which you have to say looks even better.

The curved, elegant, flowing forms and the mercury-look paint make this car look very fluid, almost like it's actually a liquid. However, a liquid hasn't made me immediately say "holy shit" since I ate cheese sauce that hadn't cooled down yet (I swear cooked cheese is actually lava). Everything you expect to see on an Infiniti - the big, weirdly-shaped grille, the pointy rear-side windows, the strong, pronounced creases, the headlights that look strangely like eyes - is present here, and yet it doesn't just look like an over-styled oddball. I also like how the high-up side air intake on each side is just one arching curve, rather than a jagged hole like you might find on a Lamborghini. The chrome wheels symbolise the idea of flowing lines by looking windswept in the way they twist backwards from the centre to the rim.

As for power, this isn't exactly a traditional supercar. There's no V12 or Twin-Turbo V8 under there, as it's actually an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV) like a Fisker Karma or a GM Volt/Ampera (or Geoff Hammerhead-i EagleThrust, if you prefer), in that it's a completely electric car, but with an engine onboard that kicks in and provides a bit of extra poke while also charging the batteries. It never directly drives the wheels - electric motors do that - so it just hums away at a constant RPM, which is when an engine is its most efficient, and drinks a comparatively tiny amount of fuel. The only thing is, Infiniti haven't mentioned exactly what engine it is, and because it has a fancy cover, you can't tell by looking. All we can tell is that it's in the middle, which frankly anyone could've worked out when we just had patent renderings of it to look at, as that shape is so obviously mid-engined in its proportions, not to mention the central roof-mounted air scoop.

Inside it looks appropriately concept-car-ish, with veins of light on the floor, a "2020 AD" interface and dial set, very narrow, stylish seats and some narrow, swoopy bits on the doors and centre console. Because it's electric, there's no gear stick to fit in, but like the Essence Concept (and many others, it has to be said), it wraps around the driver, who, unusually, sits on the right. I quite like that. I also quite like the finer details inside and out, such as the very subtle creases along the glass roof, the crystal-like LEDs around the outer edge of the headlights (as well as the white 'eyebrows' along the top) and the splitter/skirt/diffuser around the bottom part of the body. The Nürburgring track map on the dashboard is a little clichéd, though.

Of course, this isn't the only shiny silver hybrid supercar of recent times. I've mentioned the Honda/Acura NSX already, but then there's the Jaguar C-X75, which extended the range with gas turbines (read: two little jet engines) instead of an engine, although they admit the confirmed production version will have to be more conventional and use a small internal combustion engine like the other E-REVs. The "NSX" actually loses out in the eco-credentials department, because it's a normal, mid-engined V6 with two electric motors at the front wheels, which suggests that while Nissan and Jaguar are trying to push the boundaries of hybrid cars by reaching the next stage in the process of weening cars off engines, Honda gave it a hybrid system because it felt it had to...

Here's a picture of the side of it:

Gorgeous.

I can't think of much to say here, as it does all the same things I've already mentioned, so just admire it for a bit.

All done? It really is a nice-looking car, isn't it? Coming up now are a couple of comparisons with the Acura NSX Concept, followed by all the other images from the source. Enjoy!

These aren't quite to scale, I should point out. Click to embiggen.

The NSX's clean windowline does look good, but the Emerg-E is more interesting IMO. Not to scale.

The cars are obviously at different angles here.

Both have classic mid-engined supercar proportions, but while one is fluent, one is crisp.
Which is best? Well of course, that depends on your own tastes/preferences.

I leave you with more of the Infiniti Emerg-E Concept, all from the Carscoop article linked under the top picture:

The roof creases become little cooling intakes. Cool!

Headlights with crystals and eyebrows. There's even a pupil. All Infiniti cars have "eyes"

The graceful side air intake.

Another view of the cockpit.

Some very fancy-looking dials.

The seats aren't actually that outrageous. I've seen Renault and Citroën concepts where you sit on a kind of plastic wave...

Finally, the drive selector and buttons - well, touch-sensitive pads - for the infotainment system.

More details will emerg-e at the Geneva Motor Show next week. Stay Tuned!

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Video Saturday - Niko Bellic Eat Your Heart Out

Uploaded: 6/9/10

Running Time: 6:38

Views When Posted: 9,242,062

If you've ever played Grand Theft Auto, this scene of a man on a bike weaving through traffic at preposterous speeds will seem familiar to you. The only difference is, this guy is not Niko Bellic, he's a real live human bean. He is also very brave and ever so slightly stupid, because if you've ever played GTA then you know how this idea usually ends - catching on the corner of a car and flying 50 feet to your death, or jumping up and hitting the bottom of a bridge or tunnel, before flying 50 feet to your death. At one bit in the video, for instance, it would just take one smart-arse to open the door and Black Stig's Russian Cousin be hospitalised. As such, I urge you to think of the idea of blasting through traffic at 100+ on a superbike like this: This guy did it, so you don't have to.

Enjoy the video, and always hoon responsibly.

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No, Wait, THIS Is What The Ferrari F620 Looks Like [UPDATED]

2012 Ferrari F620 GT

If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the first teaser image of Ferrari's replacement for the F599 GTB Fiorano. That teaser has just been rendered completely irrelevant, as a reader at GT Spirit has sent in an uncovered photo of it getting ready to head to Geneva for the upcoming motor show in five days. They reckon the "most powerful Ferrari ever made" could have as much as 740bhp, 30 more than I had previously thought, as well as 690lb/ft of torque and an 8700rpm redline. It will also outstrip a Lamborghini Aventador in a straight line, with 0-60 happening in three seconds dead and 0-124mph (200km/h) in just 8.3 seconds, whereas the Lambo takes 8.8 seconds. That, I suspect, should be quick enough.

I'll let you make your own mind up on the looks, but the first two words that entered my mind were "flared" and "...challenging". It almost looks like a superhero's car in a Hollywood movie, actually. Oh wait, you were meant to be deciding for yourself. Never mind.

Source: GTSpirit.com

UPDATE: OK, so I have now made my own mind up on it, kind of. Also, the picture above is of a full-size wooden model that Ferrari took to preview events for privileged customers to see it first. The car to be displayed at the Geneva Motor Show is the more traditional Rosso Corsa, rather than this matte silver number. To be honest, it looks a bit overdone. I like the large vent on the bonnet - like a reverse of the 550/575 Maranello's very '90s (and very cool) scoop - but the front fascia isn't that great. It's mostly the same as the FF, which I think looks a complete mess, so that'll have something to do with it, but that smiley grille just isn't pretty. It's too big. The roof and side windows aren't very inventive either, and what you can see of the rear end almost looks like the tail of a Dodge Viper SRT-10, which is an odd source of inspiration.

I have noticed something, though - the F620 has the same front aero design as the Pagani Huayra. Well, Pagani said it was designed like that in the name of aerodynamics (an evo writer held a Huayra's front bumper up while air was blown at it and said it got sucked downwards), and Ferrari like clever aero too, such as the whiskers on the 458 Italia that deform downwards at high speed to increase front downforce, so I assume they're both going for the same thing here. In both images of the F620, it appears that Ferrari have also put a straight splitter just underneath the front apron, which must improve the effect further in their eyes (or from what their undoubtedly extensive data tells them). They're not the most attractive front designs in the world (although I like the Huayra when it's not painted in that matte seal-beige it was originally unveiled in), but if they're more aerodynamically effective, then that's OK - both cars produce over 700 horsepower, so anything that keeps them under control without electronically neutering them is fine by me, not that it'll make any difference to me directly until they appear in Gran Turismo 5 or 6...

Anyway, it should be fast enough to offset the... "challenging" looks, because sometimes form has to follow function, and if this turns out to be a spectacularly good car, then it's worth being a little bit ugly. If it turns out to only be very good and not spectacular, I'll still be able to complain about it :-P

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Mercedes W03 Is More Than Just An Ugly Face

2012 Mercedes-AMG W03

Mercedes GP are the last front-line Formula 1 team to unveil their new 2012 challenger (leaving Marussia and HRT to cobble something together), even having to take last year's car to the Jerez test a couple of weeks ago "to get tyre data". Well, now the W03 is finally ready, and apparently it's late because the best has been saved until last. The best tech, perhaps, but not the best nose - I think that's the biggest step I've seen so far, and with Marussia (formerly Virgin Racing, but I guess they had sex or something) closely following what McLaren are doing, as they share development facilities, it could retain that title. But what else has been tucked into the new Silver Arrow?

Red Bull aero wizard Adrian Newey said at Jerez that the most likely reason Mercedes GP (now called "Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team", which is a mouthful) waited so long to unveil the new car is because they had something special on it, and it appears this could be accurate, as even at Cataluña this week they have been very secretive, putting up boards in front of the garage between runs, particularly wary of the front and rear ends. Clearly they don't want to be copied...

Two things are supposedly going on here, one at each end. At the front there is reportedly a "W-Duct" system, wherein air enters the tiny little hole in the nose cone and is distributed in a W-formation across the front wing, using tiny channels in the wing supports and four holes either side that aren't that different to the ones on the C-Class's taillights, which do the same thing. When the car goes around a corner, the air flows from one side to the other, improving balance and handling at the front end. Because there are no moving parts, it's not active aerodynamics and is therefore within the rules, which makes it very clever indeed.

At the other end, there's supposedly a legal version of the Double Diffuser that powered the Brawn GP car to victory three years ago. Instead of an actual double diffuser, air is channelled through holes in the engine cover towards the diffuser. This system apparently also involved the redirection of exhaust gases, although like all teams following the blown diffuser ban, the exhaust pipes are sitting on top of the side pods, so again, I'm not entirely sure how this works. Whether it will see them onto the podium, we won't find out until race one at Australia on the 15-16th March, which, out of principle, I will be watching on the BBC despite having a Sky HD box. So there.

Meanwhile in testing, the lap times have been all over the place, as you would expect - they're not qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix here, they're all running different test programmes. Sebastian Vettel was keen to be on top at the end of day one, but day two saw Nico Hülkenberg atop the leaderboard in his new position as a Force India driver, and yesterday, Pastor Maldonado of all people went the fastest in the Williams-Renault FW34. The Williams team were the fastest in testing a year ago, and went on to have their worst ever season, so there's really not much we can garner from the testing session until the last day of the last session, which is on the 4th March, as then I suspect at least the top three or four teams will want to look like they're the fastest after all.

Lotus are having to miss out this week's test session, as one damaged chassis has lead to them making changes on both cars, as they feel it's in their best interest to change the part that broke, based on the data it provided. However, they made an excellent impression in Jerez a fortnight ago, so when they return on 1st March, they'll be one to watch, I reckon, as will Mercedes, whose innovative new features have the potential to make the two-way battle between McLaren and Red Bull to be a thing of the past.

Live text commentary is available on Autosport Live, and will finish at 16:00. Stay tuned, folks......

Source: WorldCarFans (W-Duct) (double-diffuser) (Marussia's low nose)

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The New Ferrari F620 Looks Like This

2012 Ferrari F620

I have showed you spy paintings of the new Ferrari V12 GT before, but now here's the first photograph of it. I just wish they turned more lights on before they took it...

We now know it'll be called the F620 and that it'll have a 7-speed DCT and 700bhp (710PS), making it the most powerful Ferrari ever made...

...until the F70 arrives.

Ferrari F70 artist's rendering

The F70 will feature a 7.3-litre V12 (1000cc bigger) producing a staggering 800 horsepower, which would make it the most powerful naturally-aspirated engine in the world. On top of that, an enhanced KERS will reportedly add 120 horsepower onto that (40hp more than an F1 KERS), meaning that, sometimes, it will make 920bhp. Nine hundred and twenty horsepower. Supposedly it will also be 200kg lighter than the F60 "Enzo Ferrari".

Y'know what, I'm starting to look forward to the Geneva Motor Show.

Here's a teaser video for the F620 GT:

Uploaded: 20/2/12

Running Time: 0:35

Views When Posted: 371,494

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Lyonheart K Is The "Growler E 2011" Without A Hairy Name

What a difference a year makes

Just over a year ago, way back when SBV8 was a baby, I showed you the first renderings and details of designer Bo Zolland's Jaguar E-Type revival, called the Growler E 2011. While the name "Growler" refers to the Jaguar badge that depicts an angry cat's face, TopGear decided it was named after the colloquial term for when a lady decides to keep her lower regions... as nature intended. So now, closer to production and without the, ahem, hairy name, here we have it again, now called the "Lyonheart K". The misspelt "lion" in the name actually refers to Sir William Lyons, who founded Jaguar, but what does the K stand for? It may forever remain a mystery......

So aside from the name change, what's different? Well, you will by now have noticed the new headlights, which, if I'm honest, don't look very Jaguar-ish, but some people will prefer them to the S-Type style four-circle arrangement. By the looks of it, the dial housing has been changed from one big hood to two little cylinders, and there may well be further changes to the interior. The side heat vents have also sprouted bigger chrome flicks, which might look a little Aston Martin-ish to some. The rest is more or less as-is on the outside, but the specs have changed a little too.

It seems the operation building this car couldn't quite meet their targets of lopping 200kg out of an XKR and giving it 600 horsepower, but they are still going to make an enticing proposition - the 5.0 supercharged V8 from the current XKR, XFR and XJ Supersport now produces the same 542bhp as the rabid XKR-S, but it weighs only 1575kg, meaning they've still managed to shed 178kg off the base car.

That gives it a power-to-weight ration of 344bhp/tonne, enough to worry a Nissan GT-R and eclipse the XKR-S's 309bhp/tonne. This extra performance should be enough to get this beautiful artwork from 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds (courtesy of a 6-speed automatic) and easily into the electronic barrier of 186mph (300km/h), beating the XKR-S's 0-60 time by 0.3 seconds but with the same limited top speed. I don't like limited top speeds, but hey. I do like the Lyonheart though, and I think it looks better than the frankly overdone XKR-S (stick-on aero bits and lipstick-red brake callipers on a Jaguar? Really?). The thing is, while it may edge it in a straight line and will definitely out-dance it in the corners - assuming they get the suspension right - the price of entry is rather steep for this car, what with all the custom work that goes into it.

You may need to sit down for thi-- wait, you're at a computer. Er, you may want to continue sitting down for this, because it may be as painful as getting your growler waxed: The Lyonheart K costs €495,000, which is £418,000 or $654,780. Yeowch. Plus, of course, it doesn't even have the market of "high-end E-Type revival" to itself now.

I know it interrupts the flow of the article, but this needs to be spread across the whole page. It just does.

This, as I'm sure you know, is the Eagle Speedster. While the new XKR-S weighs 1753kg and the Lyonheart weighs 1575kg, the Eagle Speedster weighs 1008 kg. While the 'K' is based on a Jaguar's modern-day interpretation of the E-Type, this car is based on the real deal, a 1960s original. The 4.7-litre straight-six and the stunning, stop-you-in-your-tracks bodywork are hand-made from aluminium, and it has modern suspension, brakes and other fixtures, fittings and "reliability upgrades" to stop it feeling like it's 50 years old, while still making it feel like a Jaguar E-Type. It costs around half a million pounds (a number Jeremy Clarkson didn't believe existed, despite having driven an £850,000 Bugatti Veyron...), which sounds like a lot in isolation, but isn't that much more than the £420k Lyonheart, certainly not to the kind of people who can actually afford these things.

The 310bhp and 340lb/ft of torque are indeed trumped by the Lyonheart's 542bhp and 502lb/ft, but the weight difference means its 308bhp/tonne is at least on par with the £94,000 Jaguar XKR-S. 0-60 in under 5 seconds and a top speed of 160mph is enough, but not spectacular. To be honest, though, this car is not about performance figures. It's about everything else. People look at an old Alfa Romeo or Ferrari or Aston Martin and say it's sexy, or joke that it gives them a hard-on or whatever, and I don't doubt how good-looking some of those cars are, but it's been a very long time since a car actually, genuinely made me feel physically excited like this does (not "down there" though, that would still be weird). It's just... perfect. Not only is it perfect to look at, but when you hear its 4.7-litre aluminium straight-six, your heart will sing like the Eagle does. It's one of those rare cars that's genuinely spine-tingling... and I haven't even driven it! Jeremy Clarkson has though, so I'll post his review of it below so you can hear it too.

Uploaded: 8/10/11

Running Time: 8:05

Views When Posted: 168,043

So where were we? Oh yes, the Lyonheart K. Well, to be honest, I'd almost forgotten about it, and I guess that says something. Nice try Bo Zolland, really, but I'm afraid that in the last year, you have been outclassed by people who specialise in taking Jaguar E-Types and making them even more special than they already are.

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Video Sunday - Nouse of Senna eXtracted

Uploaded: 13/2/12

Running Time: 8:51

Views When Posted: 36,339

383

Nouse of Senna eXtracted is not what those magical three letters adorning Honda's supercar actually stand for - that would be New Sports eXperimental - but both versions are accurate, as the legendary F1 champion and now posthumous star of a double-BAFTA-winning film helped make this car what it is to drive, although you probably don't need me to tell you that. Anything you might want to know about how the Honda NSX is to be in is covered in this beautifully-shot film by "Hungarian Wolverine", who drives a lightly tweaked early example with Work wheels, a titanium exhaust and a racing 'wheel (not to mention pop-up headlights, which look much better than the 2001-5 "Snake Eyes") around Budapest and then at a track in Slovakia. I'm not sure whether this is his NSX or not, but if it is, then he's a lucky guy, and one I envy as much as I think he's awesome.

Y'know, sometimes I get asked "what is your favourite car?", a question I always find very hard to answer. I never have one favourite car. One or some will become top of my list for a while and then get replaced by something else, but there are recurring crushes, and at the moment I would give anything and everything to so much as drive or even just sit in one of these, let alone own one for myself. The last couple of weeks have probably been the fifth or tenth time I've felt a wave of yearning for this car. One day......

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Once You See It, You'll Shit Bricks

What you see here, in case you somehow didn't get it from the image, is a 1978 Porsche 935/78 "Moby Dick" racing car recreated as accurately as possible in Lego. Complete with Martini Racing colours. I've seen some cool stuff made out of Lego, but this is definitely up there...

A real 935/78

Malte Dorowski is the person responsible for this awesome creation, mimicking a car that was seriously fast in an era of resolutely untamed racing cars. Powered by a 3.2-litre turbocharged Flat-6 producing a massive 750 horsepower - around 50bhp more than a current F1 car - the "Moby Dick" got its nickname from the new streamlined bodywork that gave it a very, very long tail. Being white also helps. Compared to the 750kg 935/77 that went before it, the 1030kg '78 was a bit of a whale on the weighing scale, but with that kind of power and much-improved aerodynamics, it was no slouch. In a 6-hour race at Silverstone, it was 2 seconds quicker than anyone else in qualifying and won by 7 laps over 2nd place, setting a lap time only 4 seconds shy of James Hunt's winning car in the F1 British Grand Prix. At Le Mans, it frequently did 235mph down the Mulsanne straight (although early problems prevented a win). Mostly though, people remember it for the unique body style, which in LEGO form - like most cars - looks almost pixellated.

Nevertheless, it's all there - the drooping nose, the upright A-Pillars, the sloping roof, the whale tail, even the rear wing's the same shape. I've always liked the 935 racing cars. The thick extensions on the sides to acommodate massive tyres and smooth the airflow make them look like they're wearing body armour, especially when viewed from behind, where the normal 911 tail hides beneath. Because the FIA wouldn't let Porsche extend the doors outwards to match the absurdly wide bodykit, there's a big gap in the "armour" where the driver nervously inserts himself, although it is partially covered for aerodynamic reasons. Said extra bit is hinged on this Lego car to open with the door, although whether you have to close it separately, I don't know.

No description was provided with the car on MOCpages, where many more LEGO cars can be found, so coming up now is a Speedhunters-style captioned vertical gallery:

Two-part doors open to reveal complete interior.

The steering wheel was on the right, to improve the visibility and weight balance (and by extension handling) around the La Sarthe Circuit, which is run clockwise.

See? There's a 911 under there somewhere. The turbos are visible under the tail lights.

You have to give credit to Mr. Dorowski, that shape is pretty much dead-on, although the roof clearly proved difficult.
Not that I could possibly do better.

Having left a weak spot in the proverbial armour, Porsche made a large air intake to cool that ferocious rear-mounted engine.

Bucket seat? No problem. This one's probably just as comfortable as the real one...

Cleverly, the gradual curve has been created by clipping pieces like you see here onto a flexible plastic cable. The fuel tank and either suspension parts or structural bars can also be seen here.

Here it is next to a 2010 911 GT3-R Hybrid, although the upright headlights make it look like an older 911.

Many more pictures of the car can be found on the creators MOCpages page. I also really like this 2010 Peugeot 908 he made:

Oh LEGO. Is there anything you can't build?

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Video Saturday - Turn It Up Lauda

Uploaded: 17/7/08

Running Time: 2:11

Views When Posted: 42,674

Here is a glorious piece of old footage of the short-lived BMW Procar series. This is not to be confused with the Procar series using F1-powered silhouettes, as epic as that would've been with enough interest, but BMW M1s in full Group 4 GT-racer trim blasting around the Monaco Grand prix track. I would say more, but you've just clicked hurriedly on the play button, so I'll wait...

...welcome back to reading. So it wasn't a full race, but it may well be the only footage of it on YouTube, for all I know, and two minutes of M1 Procars racing around Monaco is better than none. Niki Lauda won the race, hence the pun in the title. Unfortunately, the series only ran for two years as a Formula 1 support series, from 1979-80, as after that BMW wanted to focus on Formula 1, but the M1 did survive briefly outside of the Procar series, managing 6th place in the 1979 24 Heures Du Mans. Alas, because BMW couldn't homologate the M1 in time for GT racing, it had to race in the prototype class, and when it was finally eligible in the right class, it was too late for it to be competitive. That doesn't stop it being beautiful, though.

Here's a link to some information on the other Procar series, which never evolved beyond this epic Alfa Romeo prototype.

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Kia K9 Probably Won't Fire Lasers

Recently, Kia have released/leaked sketches of its upcoming flagship saloon, dubbed 'K9' for whatever reason, and while I can't tell you anything about it - because no-one else can, seeing as these pics are all we've got - I can at least speculate over their, er, styling inspiration:

Why would you copy this?

(Thoughts on this thought and more after the jump)

Now, I've said before that Korean joint company Hyundai/Kia have had a habit of copying European car makers, but went on to say that they are now moving it on to make their own styling direction, their own 'look', so hopefully the finished car won't look like a BMW 5-Series GT at the front, which it definitely does now. The Kia "bottle-opener" grille is not a new thing, but this one looks like they joined BMW's trademark "double kidneys" together in the middle. The headlights do all the same things, the side crease and door handles do the same thing (although the Kia also has some little side holes akin to a Maserati Quattroporte), even the shut-lines for the bonnet are in the same place!

It doesn't get terribly original at the back either, where either a 5-Series (F10) or a 7-Series (F01, pictured) has provided inspiration, with a thin chrome bar bridging the angular tail lights together and housing rectangular reverse lights at each end. The lights attached to it may follow the same basic forms, but to be fair they're not straight copies by any means. The window line looks roughly similar to the "Hoffmeister Kink", but that might just be me clutching at straws now to find more likenesses and pad this paragraph out a bit more. So, what more can I say? Ah yes, lasers. I mentioned lasers in the title because of the whole K9 thing, but actually BMW are looking into a new way of seeing in the dark. First lights, then infra-red cameras, now with lasers, the idea being that they're smaller, more efficient and 70 lumen lighter (as if an X5 with those stupid irritating Xenon lights wasn't annoying enough in the dark...), with another advantage apparently being the ability for the headlights to "highlight" a pedestrian by pointing at him/her with a focused beam. Presumably, if you drive with your high-beams on and encounter a pedestrian, you will shoot a perfect cylinder of light right through their torso before you run them over. It seems only right that BMW should be the ones to pioneer such technology (production laser beam headlights are expected within 5 years). Maybe Audi's rival to this will shoot four rings into pedestrians and speed cameras. While Mercedes-Benz's lasers would be perfectly good as well, I can't imagine what AMG lasers would be like. Forget night visibility, urban laser warfare would brake out, with massively overpowered and sideways AMG lasers cutting people in half and blowing tanks to smithereens.

OK, maybe I'm getting a little carried away now. Let's move from built-in death rays back to drawings of a Kia saloon. The K9, or KH or "Opirus" depending on where you read about it, will be rear-wheel-drive and borrow the platform and 5.0 V8 from the Hyundai Equus. Soon-Nam Lee, Kia’s Director of the Overseas Marketing Group, says of the K9: "Our all-new flagship sedan integrates all of our key capabilities such as design, performance, high-tech features and infotainment into one striking model." That's something that could be said by any car company making a big luxury car, so even the marketing statements are derivative. While the Equus that lends the K9 its DNA is on sale in North America, China and South Korea, the fact that this version was caught testing in Europe suggests it will be sold globally. Best of luck to it - there probably aren't that many people out there willing to boast about owning a V8 Kia, which would explain why the Equus isn't sold in the very proud continent of Europe.

Lastly, I'm perfectly confident that the lasers Kia uses in its headlights three or so years after BMW invents it will be perfectly acceptable... and in no way secret deadly weapons.

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