Gumpert Tornante, Apollo successor, due in 2012 12 Feb 2011 12:31 AM (14 years ago)
A new version of the ferociously fast Gumpert Apollo is due to be released in 2012.
By Henry Catchpole
A new version of the Gumpert Apollo, called the Tornante is due to be released in 2012. It has been designed by Milan based Touring Superleggera and will be shown at the Geneva Motorshow at the beginning of March. Although hard to see from the one released sketch, it will be a design that adds a little more comfort and refinement to the currently very motorsport orientated Gumpert Apollo.
Touring says it wanted to respect the fundamental competition-derived aerodynamics, performance and dynamic properties of the Apollo, but add an air of elegance and ergonomics to what, in standard trim is a very uncompromising design. The Tornante will, however, retain the 700bhp 4.2-litre bi-turbo V8 of the Apollo, so although the idea might be to produce a slightly more cosseting car, it should still be stunningly fast. A TT40e gearbox will have paddle shift as standard to aid ease of use and the double wishbone suspension will be adjusted for the new ‘fast touring’ ethos. What is currently described as ‘an alternative powered Tornante’ is also in the pipeline for 2012, which we assume must mean a hybrid of some description…
Source: http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/263665/new_gumpert_tornante.html
Perth Glory boss Tony Sage to sell Ferrari to raise money for club 9 Feb 2011 7:14 PM (14 years ago)
PERTH Glory owner Tony Sage will auction off his beloved Ferrari F430 Spider to raise much-needed funds for the club.
Sage will put the 2008 model, which has clocked only 4000km, under the hammer at the club’s Most Glorious Player Awards on Saturday night.
The car is expected to fetch more than $300,000.
Sage said the decision to part ways with the car was all about “love”.
“I love my Ferrari, but to be honest I love the Perth Glory more, which is why I thought it would be good to auction the car and give the entire proceeds to the club,” he said.
“It’s no secret the football club will make a significant seven-digit loss this season, but I am committed to Perth Glory and will do whatever it takes to help the club achieve sustained on-field and off-field success.”
“I definitely haven’t been to an awards night where a Ferrari has been auctioned so it exciting to see how much money we can raise for the club.
The Ferrari will be on display throughout the awards ceremony and will be auctioned without a reserve price.
But Sage will not part ways with his personalised “GLORY” number plates that currently adorn the car.
“Those plates obviously mean a lot to me, so they will not be sold with the car,” he said.
“I want to ensure that I can put them on one of my cars that can drive into the stadium when the Perth Glory are an A-League force, which I don’t think will be too far away.”
Source: Herald Sun
Tesla Roadster Sport – first RHD road-legal car delivered to Internode’s Simon Hackett 24 Jul 2010 9:54 PM (14 years ago)
This is the first road-legal customer Tesla Roadster Sport to be delivered in Australia. It’s been a long hard struggle for Simon Hackett to get this baby on the road, now that it’s here you can expect to see – but not hear – it cruising Adelaide streets and going for sporty runs through the hills.
The official press release goes out tomorrow, but expect these cars to set you back over $200k.
More pics and discussion in the Australian Tesla Roadster forums.
Tesla Roadster Sport – at Crowne Plaza in Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Square
Tesla Roadster Sport – front
Simon Hackett with his Tesla Roadster Sport at Internode
Tesla Roadster Sport – side
Tesla Roadster Sport at Internode (and Griffin’s Head Hotel)
Lotus Esprit concept set for Paris 2010 20 Jul 2010 4:48 PM (14 years ago)
Lotus Does the Time Warp
Discussion in the Lotus owners forums.
1975. Ah what a year (not so for Nixon advisors but hey you can’t please all the people). The Watergate verdicts aside, 1975 was the year we saw Jaws encourage people to stay out of the sea, Margaret Thatcher become the first female leader of the Conservative party and the future face of British football emerge as David Beckham first drew breath.
1975 also marked the birth of another British legend when the Lotus Esprit was officially launched at the Paris Motor Show in October.
Okay, the earth is still spinning around the sun, but wouldn’t you agree that those things happening in 1975 changed the world a bit? Just a little bit?
We do.
And what we also know now is that 35 years later, something breathtaking will happen once again. Once more in Paris. Once more at the Motor Show.
Perhaps a new Esprit? Perhaps not. Or perhaps even more?
Feel free to guess what we’re up to but ultimately you’re going to have to wait and see. One thing is for sure, it’ll be worth the wait.
16.45 CET 30th September 2010, Paris Motor Show. The future starts here.
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland 12 Dec 2009 3:41 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Australian Ferrari forums.
One of the most exclusive Ferrari supercars has crashed in the Netherlands near Rotterdam. The Ferrari F50 drove on the A20 highway when the driver lost control of the Italian supercar. The vehicle hit a tree next to the exit Zevenkamp.
A child was driving along with his farther in the Ferrari. The child got injured, broke both legs and was brought to hospital. The 56-year old driver had minor injuries.
As you can see on the pictures, the supercar is ready for the scrap yard.
From GTSpirit.com
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
Ferrari F50 Crash – Holland
From FerrariLife.com
JazzyO: We recently had welcomed an F-50 into our borders, here in Holland. Unfortunately the owner has not been in a position to enjoy it for long as he crashed it this morning. The owner and his 3-year old son had to be cut from the car, the driver being unhurt but his son was hurt. Fortunately it seems he will recover, let’s hope for a speedy recovery.
IPF: Apparently the story – from another Dutch source – is the driver was pulling away from a traffic light and within 80 yards of it somehow skidded and lost control of the car, reportedly not even at that high speed (yet), i.e. below 30 mph (as stated by him). Can’t judge how that account would tally with damage as extensive as this.
No clue about the driver’s capabilities either, but the fact is – as Onno states above – that this F50 had been in NL for only a few months now, i.e. the owner has only had it for that long. Then again, I believe he owned other Ferrari’s before (though likely not that potent).
Here’s the F50 before becoming one with a tree, from Autogespot.com:
Pagani Zonda Crash – Hong Kong 8 Dec 2009 3:32 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Australian Pagani Zonda forums.
By Stephen Dobie from Evo.co.uk
Yet another heartbreaking hypercar crash: this time it’s a Pagani Zonda F
F@$K! That’s what we’d wager was shouted quite loudly from this Pagani Zonda F seconds before the main photograph was taken. The circumstances behind the accident that decimated the rare hypercar are – predictably – rather sketchy, but word is the driver was tootling back from a trackday when an out of control lorry came headed his (or indeed, her) way, forcing evasive action into a row of parked cars.
The resulting mess may well tell a different story, though, the front of the car close to being unrecognisable. Note the jettisoned front wing, too, with its ornate side mirror still intact.
The incident took place in Hong Kong, and is the latest in a series of supercar slayings. Recent weeks have seen a Bugatti Veyron end up in a US salt lake and the Italian Police kill their Lamborghini Gallardo patrol car. In all cases it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry…
Italian Police crash their Lamborghini Gallardo 30 Nov 2009 2:08 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Australian Lamborghini forums.
When the Italian police unveiled their state-of-the-art Lamborghini patrol cars, they cannot have been short of volunteers itching to take the supercars in pursuit of speeding criminals.
A team of elite drivers was trained to chase down speeding motorists and deliver urgently-needed transplant organs in the futuristic vehicles, capable of reaching more than 200mph.
What they apparently were not prepared for was a distracted motorist who pulled out of a petrol station without looking.
Today, a bandaged and bruised police driver may have had a tough time explaining how he managed to write off one of the force’s prized Lamborghinis when he rammed it so hard into a line of parked cars that one of the stationary vehicles ended up on the police car’s roof.
According to the police, the crash was caused by the driver of a slow-moving Seat Ibiza who emerged without looking from a service station, clipping the Lamborghini and sending the vehicle swerving into the parked cars.
The front end of the Lamborghini was crushed in the accident, near Cremona, and the driver and a passenger were injured, although not seriously.
The Lamborghini Gallardo was one of a pair donated by the Italian manufacturer to the police to do battle on Italy’s roads, where 1 million motorists are injured annually and 4,731 died last year.
Both cars include transmitters to send images back to HQ, a defibrillator for accidents and a fridge for transporting donor organs. The two officers were returning from a convention in Cremona, where they had been addressed a student audience on road safety.
Source: Guardian.co.uk
Ferrari F70 – Enzo Replacement – First Look 25 Nov 2009 3:32 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Australian Ferrari forums.
Source: AutoExpress.
Ferrari F70 ready to blast in
Text: Jack Rix / Photos: Poblete
Sensational new Ferrari is set to blow Bugatti away with advanced chassis and powerful yet efficient twin-turbo V8…
Ferrari’s new F70 will not only be faster and more focused than the Enzo, but smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient, too.
It’s being hailed as the ultimate, most advanced road car Ferrari has ever made.
Aiming to leave exotic rivals including the Lamborghini Reventón and Bugatti Veyron trailing, the ferocious flagship will break from the norm in more ways than one. And our stunning illustrations show how such a model could look.
It will be not only quicker and more focused than the Enzo, but smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient, too. In addition, the latest rumours suggest a twin-turbo V8 will provide the power. It will be the first use of turbos in a production Ferrari since the 1987 F40, making this the spiritual successor to that definitive hypercar.
Internally codenamed the F70, the newcomer will use knowledge gathered from the FXX scheme. This invited customers to buy a pumped-up and stripped-out version of the Enzo for £1.5million, but allowed them to drive their purchases only on approved track days. Afterwards, they briefed Ferrari on possible improvements.
The philosophy behind this new downsized and lightweight hypercar is derived from 2007’s Millechilli concept. Although little more than a fibreglass model, it demonstrated Ferrari’s aim to increase the performance of future models by shedding weight, not by hiking power.
Millechilli means 1,000kg in Italian. It’s an ambitious target for the F70’s kerbweight – a full 365kg less than the Enzo – but Ferrari is ready to apply every weight-saving measure possible.
Rival McLaren is leading the way in lightweight construction, with an F1-style carbon fibre tub forming the basis of its MP4-12C supercar, so Ferrari wants to regain the initiative in this area.
An overhauled and shrunken tub, carbon fibre body panels – plus carbon-ceramic brakes and a no-frills cabin – should keep weight to a minimum. Ferrari already heads efforts to reduce CO2, having slashed output by 10 per cent in 2009. It promises further cuts from its current 387g/km average by 2012.
But reducing body mass alone won’t be enough to achieve this. To slash CO2 significantly, the engine also needs an advanced design. The Enzo’s V12 will make way for a new direct-injection twin-turbo V8 – the same layout as in the legendary F40. Output is likely to be on a par with the Enzo’s 660bhp, but that lower weight should put performance on another level. Expect a three-second 0-60mph time and top speed in excess of 230mph.
A twin-turbo V6 is also under consideration, to replace the 458 Italia and California’s V8s. Yet before either unit is signed off, engineers are keen to eliminate turbo lag. The F40 was famous for the delay between throttle inputs and the arrival of a savage wave of torque. But Ferrari claims it won’t resort to turbos again until it’s perfected the technology to give the instant response for which its naturally aspirated cars are renowned.
One option is electric or hybrid chargers. These use a small electric motor to spool the turbos up to operating speeds much faster than in a normal set-up, where exhaust gas has to be recirculated.
The result is a virtual elimination of turbo lag and a linear power delivery that will be familiar to owners of current Ferraris. Just like the Enzo, the F70 will be strictly limited to a production run of 399 examples, adhering to Ferrari’s philosophy of always building one less car than you think you can sell. But not just anyone will be able to put their name on the waiting list. Buyers will need to be personally invited by Ferrari to stump up the expected £600,000 asking price when the car goes on sale in 2012.
Lamborghini Urus 20 Nov 2009 10:13 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Australian Lamborghini forums.
Source: CarsUK.net
Lamborghini URUS
the FX70 killer
Lamborghini are planning a new halo car – the Lamborghini Urus – to be based on the Murcielago’s replacement, the Jota. Designed to take on the new Enzo – the FX70.
Lamborghini has been long on new models – for a high-end supercar maker – but short on new cars for quite some time. Sure, we’ve had evolutions of the Gallardo in to the LP560 and the Murcielago in to the LP640 and it’s siblings. And Lamborghini have been milking ‘Specials’ for all they’re worth, with cars like the Reventon Coupe and Reventon Roadster (which Cars UK exclusively revealed in March) – desirable though they may be – being just inflated version of a standard car. Let’s face it, the LP670-4 SV – which is in itself a Limited Edition Murcielago – offers more performance and drama for a third of the price of the Reventon.
But things are going to start changing at Lamborghini as the Murcielago makes way for the all-new Jota in the next year. The Jota will get a carbon fibre chassis with carbon fibre and aluminium body and be a bit longer than the Murci (as long as it’s not wider – the Murci is a pig in traffic). It will get an all-new 6.0 litre V12 with direct injection which should be good for over 700bhp.
This information has been around for a while, and although the details may not be exact we’re pretty sure they’re very close. But now a source close to Lamborghini is telling us that there will be a car above the new Jota – the Lamborghini Urus. Now you may remember that the Lamborghini Estoque was initially expected to be known as the Urus. But it wasn’t, so we’d sort of forgotton about the Urus monicker. But our sources are telling us that the Urus is very much alive and well and buried in the heart of Lambo’s development plans.
Lamborghini concept by Ugur Sahin
It would appear that Lamborghini are planning on making the Urus a Ferrari FX70 beater (the FX70 is Ferrari’s new Enzo). Based on a modified Jota chassis, the Urus will have every component re-worked to make it as light and dynamic as possible. It will feature a full carbon fibre body and have active aerodynamics. The re-worked Jota V12 is expected to get very close to 800bhp, which will give the Urus a sub 3.0 second 0-60mph – Veyron territory.
But we’ll probably not see the Urus until at least 2011, and it probably won’t hit the roads until 2012, although the Jota is likely to arrive late in 2010.
Classic Adelaide 2009 – Day Two Results 20 Nov 2009 4:28 PM (15 years ago)
Discussion in the Classic Adelaide forums.
DEFENDING CHAMPION WEEKS BACK IN THE CLASSIC ADELAIDE LEAD
DEFENDING champion Kevin Weeks and his 1974 Porsche took the outright lead at the halfway point in the Classic Adelaide rally after a simple part failure ended a potential event-winning run by Holden rival Steve Glenney today.
Weeks and co-driver Bec Crunkhorn, who had been running second to Glenney almost since yesterday’s start, assumed the lead on the sixth of eight closed-road special stages run in the Fleurieu region.
They hold a comfortable lead of almost two minutes over South Australian Porsche crew Hamish Gibson and Ben Scott, in a 1980 HDT Holden Commodore.
Roger Paterson and Paul Whatnell, in a car similar to Weeks’, are third.
Today’s second day of competition started without one of the Late Classic category’s most popular teams, Gary Tierney and David Carra, both from Melbourne, who had been running eighth when they died in a crash on a stage yesterday afternoon.
Weeks and many other competitors in the 170-car field paused for a prayer and a minute’s silence, led by a chaplain, before the 8 am start in Adelaide’s Victoria Square.
The cars raced with a black stripe on their left headlights and two wreaths were hung in the garage bay the crew’s car had occupied.
A tribute page for comments from friends and supporters has been opened on the event website, classicadelaide.com.au.
Tierney was Weeks’ closest rival in the three-round inaugural Australian Classic Tarmac Championship, which concludes in Adelaide.
Glenney’s retirement was reported to have been caused by the failure of engine drive belt in his 500-horsepower Commodore. It was not known if he would resume the competition tomorrow, but the problem has certainly ended any chance of a high-ranking result.
While Weeks starts Day Three sponsored by Malaysia Airlines in a comfortable position, the race is tighter in the Classic category for older cars and the newly-introduced Modern section, which does not count for the outright prize.
Last year’s Classic winner Cameron Wearing took an 18.4 second break in his 1967 Ford Mustang from early leader Rob Devenish (1971 Nissan 240Z), while in the Modern category Tony Quinn (Nissan GT-R) is ahead by 35.9 sec. over two-time Bathurst winner Tony Longhurst, with Asian Le Mans champion Allan Simonsen a further 4.1 sec. behind in third.
Weather conditions cooled considerably after yesterday’s 43 degree scorcher, helping drivers preserve their machinery and their tyres for the weekend.
No major incidents were reported.
Tomorrow’s seven scheduled stages take crews into the Adelaide Hills after an 8 am start in the city.
The day includes the always-popular lunch stop in the little town of Macclesfield, which closes its main street for the occasion, and ends with a display of all vehicles in the field at the Norwood Parade Street party.
Spectator times, road-closure times, stage maps, progressive results and other information are available on the rally website, classicadelaide.com.au.
RESULTS – DAY TWO (sponsored by Leader Computers)
Late Classic (1972-1990)
1. Kevin Weeks/Bec Crunkhorn (1972 Porsche 911RS)
2. Hamish Gibson/Ben Scott (1980 HDT Holden Commodore) behind leader 1 min. 51.5 sec.
3. Roger Paterson/Paul Whatnell (1974 Porsche 911RS) 2:10.9
Modern (1991-current)
1. Tony Quinn/Naomi Tillett (2009 Nissan R35 GT-R)
2. Tony Longhurst/Geoff Burgess (2006 Subaru Impreza WRX) behind leader 35.9 sec.
3. Allan Simonsen/Matt Lee (2007 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 40 sec.
Classic (1948-1971
1. Cameron Wearing/Gary McLane (1967 Ford Mustang)
2. Rob Devenish/Lyn Carr (1971 Datsun 240Z) behind leader 18.4 sec.
3. Peter Ulrich/Sari Ulrich (1963 Jensen CV8) 40.9
Historic (1900-1947)
1. John Rowe/Jock Osborne (1932 Alvis Speed 20)