News
Whats happening in the world of sports cars.
American Idiot
The Americans arn't best known for making lightweight superacrs, but even they couldn't resist jumping on the bandwagon that includes cars such as the Ferrari Scueria, Lambo Superlaggera and Porsche 911 GT3 RS. So this new car will have to be good to fight off this competition. It is called the Dodge Viper ACR, a spinoff of the Viper (STR10 in UK), with the ACR standing for American Club Racer. Although it only weighs 18kg less than the normal Viper, power has increased to 600bhp, no news on preformance yet.
The Eagles
Lotus has confirmed it will be will launching a new model at the 2008 British Motorshow . It has been named "Project Eagle" continuing the Lotus tradition of giving cars names begining with "E". Detailes are scarse, although it will sit between the Elise/Exige and forthcoming Esprit, so should cost between £45,000 and £50,000. Power will come from a Toyota sourced 3.0 litre V6
Exclusivity Garented
This is the Diatto Ottovu. It is a concept car desigend by Zagato. It is powerd by V8 from a Mustang (Ottovy is Italian for V8) It is made of aliminium and like all of Zagato's cars there is not a straight line in sight. I think the headlights look too small, and the front could even be desgribed as ugly. But the back looks great, a bit like an Aston DB7. There is no news of preformance, yet, but they will be extreamly exclusive with only 99 being built.
Motorway Pileup
This is Peugeot's TT riveling 308 RC Z. It will be shown at the Frankfurt Motorshow in September. It will have a modified version of the 207 GTi's 1.6 litre engine which will produce 218bhp, which should see a top speed of 146mph and 0-60 in 7 seconds. Inside is almost identical to a normal 308's. Exterior looks are wierd. The front is like a normal 308 but too chunky, the roof looks odd, and the rear looks like a Nissan 350Z's. In short, It looks dreadful.
Scuderia Ferrari
Ferrari have shown thier new, faster, F430 Scuderia. This car has been expected, but everyone thought it would be called the Challenge Stradale.
The car is massivly improved over the Berlinetta, it now has 510bhp (up 8% from 483bhp) and it weighs less, at 1,250kg ( down 4%), and there are a few electronic tweaks as well. Ferrari are most prowed about the gearshift, which changes gear in just 60 milliseconds, as fast as a 1999 F1 car. There is also a new traction control system and the driver can now tweak suspension settings, while driving. However, there are douts about the looks, the stripes look tacky and the wheels look like they belong to an Impreza. Ferrari fans will love it, but serious trackdayers are going for the Lambo Superleggra.
SunRed at night...
Next year Spanish race team, SunRed, are going to compeat in GT1. GT1 rules say that each compeating car must also be available for the public to buy as a road car. Because of this SunRed are puting just 10 cars on sale. Prices have not been confirmed, but it is known that the car will have a 500bhp engine, willl be 5 meters long, 3 inches taller than a Ford GT40 and will do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. It will do over 180mph and will be on sale next year. It also looks a lot like a Maserati MC12.
When Ferrari turned 40, it launched the F40, which was a revolutionary supercar, being the first production car to top 200 mph. 10 years later the F50 came, which was a true McLaren F1 rival. For thier 60th birthday they are launching this revised 612. Its full name is the Ferrari 612 Sessanta, which is Italian for 60. It has a glass roof, a starter button on the steering wheel, a Bose in car entertainment system and a limited production of 60.
This is the Palumbo M80. It is the latest in a recent long line of new car from manufactures that no-ones ever heard of who are trying to make an " enviromently friendly supercar." However at the moment no-one agrees about which is the best way of powering them. The M80 uses a Hybrid system which uses petrol on motorways, or on the racetrack according to Palumbo, and an electric motor for city driving. The name comes from, M, for mid-engined, and 80, for 80 inches wide. 0-60 comes in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of over 150mph.
Last month I wrote about the Ronart Lightning. At the time it was confirmed that the Lightning would would entre production next year and there were rumours of plans for a more powerful version. This has now been confirmed but there's a suprise. It will be electric! It will have four electric engines in each wheel. This will give a total power output of 700bhp. This with its 250 mile range and 10 minuit charge time is sure to make it popular. The catch is that it will cost £100,000 more than the normal Lightning at £150,000.
PGO is a French sportscar manufacturer. They have recently launched two new cars, the Speedster II and Cevennes. Both cars are based on the classic Porsche Speedster and are mid-engined. Neither has much power, the 2 litre Puegeot engine only produces 138 bhp, but due to the fact that it only weighs 930 kg it will still get to 60 in 6.8 seconds and go on to 134 mph. Both cars have lots of equipment and 17 inch wheels. The cars are on sale now and will be shown during next weeks Canary Wharf Motorexpo.
