News reports suggest the first year of allocation for both the Ferrari FF and the Lamborghini Aventador have already sold out. Nice going for a couple of expensive supercars that were officially launched last week.
In the case of the Ferrari FF “sold out” translates to around 800 confirmed orders. You’d expect annual production for the Aventador to be down a little on the FF, but no claims have been made at this stage.
[Source: BusinessWeek]
It appears the funky little MINI Rocketman concept is set for production. The news follows comments from Ian Robertson, BMW’s sales and marketing chief, who said, “We are good at looking at history and interpreting a future for it.” Further reminding that most MINI concept cars do find a way down the production line at some stage.
Robertson also claimed, “The themes in the car are not just about a smaller Mini. Lightweight construction, and new types of components will go on to Minis. The BMW i-concept will be available to all members of the group.”
So, while the regular three-door MINI in hardtop and convertible form will remain MINI’s bread and butter, the future looks bright for a smaller city-car model line to further expand the range as the larger four-door Countryman has done.
[Source: Autocar]
Following last week’s announcement that Red Bull Racing has signed a two-year sponsorship deal with Infiniti here are the officially retouched images showing how the new branding will be applied to the RB7.
We’ll get a proper gander at the new look Red Bulls during the test session currently underway at Barcelona, which was introduced as a stop-gap measure following the postponement of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
There’s more pics and press material after the break.
Internet communication is coming to the auto industry. Actually, it’s already arrived, and MINI is just one of the companies at the forefront of integrating their on-board infotainment systems with the wireless world. Here’s a brief demo of the MINI Connected system which comes to us thanks to MINI USA.
Watch the clip and let us know if you think such technology is a distracting fad or a required feature.
Oh, for the record, full MINI Connected internet capability is not available in the Australian market yet. Your local MINI Garage should have more info on when, or if, that may become available.
[via MotoringFile]
You can tell it’s not been a great month for new vehicle sales when less than a handful of companies issue press releases. That’s certainly been the case with February’s sales, which fell 1.6% on 2010 numbers.
FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar is talking things up, though, claiming private buyers are out in force, “Sales to private customers increased 4.1 per cent during February to total 39,776 units—outselling business and fleet purchases. This is an encouraging indicator of the market and reflects a strong level of economic confidence.â€
Toyota, Holden and Mazda retain their positions as the top three selling marques.
Sebastien Loeb has quickly erased the poor start to his 2011 WRC campaign by winning Rally Mexico. The six-time world champ is now in second place on the standings behind Mikko Hirvonen, Rally Sweden winner, who finished second in Mexico ahead of his Ford team mate Jari Matti Latvala.
It was the maiden win for Loeb in his new Citroën DS3 WRC who reluctantly accepted his fifth Rally Mexico success after team mate Sebastien Ogier crashed out on the last day while leading the event.
“Seeing SeÌbastien and Julian on the side of the road didn’t give me much pleasure. We could have fought till the very end and it’s a pity it finished like that. We went back into the lead of the rally with more than 1m 30s in hand over Mikko. We just nursed it home,†said Loeb.
A brief post-race interview with Loeb can be seen at the Citroën WRC website.
[Pic: Citroën WRC]
UPDATE: A press release from Citroën UK has been added below.
News of this funky looking E-Type inspired Growler E broke last week. TopGear now brings word the car will be going into limited production.
To bring you up to speed, the Growler E was created as a tribute to the classic Jaguar E-Type, which was first presented 50 years ago at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show. The 21st century Growler concept has been created by Swedish designer Bo Zolland from Vizualtech, in collaboration with Swiss designer Robert Palm. The pair got creative at the behest of a nameless and apparently wealthy businessman from Sweden.
The Growler E is based on a current model Jag XKR and has had the wick on its 5.0 litre supercharged V8 turned up from 510hp to 600hp. That’s easy enough to do thanks to a bit of ECU tweaking. The clever part comes in shedding 200kg of weight from the XKR and reaching a target weight of 1550kg for the Growler E. The clever clogs from Vizualtech reckon that should be enough to get their creation to 100km/h in under four seconds.
So, back to the production plans for the car. Spokesman Robert Palm reckons they should have their first car ready in a bit over 12 months from now. Each model will be hand built and may take as long as six months to assemble.
As for pricing, well it all depends on the number built. If only a handful are made expect to pay around £850,000. If demand is high enough, though, Vizualtech may consider contracting production to Magna Steyr in Austria (they make the MINI Countryman). That being the case costs could fall by around half.
[Source: TopGear | Thanks to Adam for the tip]
UPDATE: AUSmotive contacted Robert Palm for more info and he’s replied with some good material. Check it out after the break.
Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar presents the top five cars from a database of 5000 road tests (video available after the break). On the list they have included an original 1959 Mini, a 1961 Jaguar E Type, a 1981 Golf GTI, a 1994 McLaren F1 and a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
In the first recap, featuring the Mini, it’s interesting when Sutcliffe includes a couple of lines from the 1959 test; a shame, really, he didn’t do that for the other four cars.
Overall, it seems like a reasonable enough list, if a bit skewed towards British engineering. But, Autocar is a British mag after all. So, what would cars would you put in your top five?
The highly anticipated Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 has created plenty of activity on the Tube. So here’s a few of the better clips out there, starting with an official teaser clip released just before the Geneva Motor Show.
Last week Bernie Ecclestone raised a few eyebrows when he suggested introducing artificial rain to spice up racing in Formula One. While it’s true that wet races do often mix up the natural order of the F1 grid quite nicely providing excitement along the way, it’s also good that such conditions remain unpredictable.
A view shared by Australia’s Mark Webber who replied to the BBC, “No and no” when asked if he thought fake rain was a good idea.
Mark continued, “It wouldn’t be the most sophisticated way to make the show more entertaining.
“It can be more exciting when we have some different weather conditions, that does happen. But you just try and think of Jimmy Clark, and Jackie Stewart and (Ayrton) Senna and those guys, masters in the wet.
“Jackie’s still here but the other two would be turning in their graves if they thought we’d have sprinklers and hoses lined up around the track.”
At the 2010 Paris Motor Show Lotus stole the limelight by releasing not one, but five new concept cars. For Geneva they’ve tweaked the range a little and produced this video to remind us they mean business.
Volkswagen’s R GmbH division has revealed four special Golf R models at the Geneva Motor Show. The cars feature a variety of cosmetic enhancements from the full production version, including carbon fibre accents, two-tone interiors and unique alloy wheels. The models have been displayed in four colours, Oryx White, Carbon Steel Grey, Space Grey and Aplomb Blue.
Full details from Volkswagen after the break.