Before the fantastic Renault Alpine A110-50 put on its futuristic body, it underwent testing! As we know, the A110-50 is based on the Megane Trophy, and has been adapted and tweaked into the A110-50. It’s pretty wicked to watch the skeleton going around the track…courtesy of the excellent Type 01
I was bumbling along in my rental Civic (yes i am still driving rental cars while the A3 gets fixed), and spotted these 2! Nice combination to see together being transported on trailers for what seems to be a track day exercise—not too common of a sighting in Queens, NYC.
Porsche 911 Targa and Porsche 911 GT3
In celebration of upcoming Le Mans 2012—-here are two fantastic illustrations by Peter Hutton
The Le Mans-conquering Bentley Speed 6 and Bentley Speed 8.
Really starting to dig these after seeing a couple of great examples at the Carlisle Import Show a few weeks ago.
Fiat 124 Sport
src: carsFromItaly
Thanks for all the great comments, emails, and feedback around my shaving ‘megapost’ i made previously. The Proraso italian shaving cream i’ve been using is quite good, however being as Knize make some of the world’s finest clothing, accessories, and fragrances—I was obliged to try out their shaving soap in a beautiful Knize-etched wooden shaving bowl.
The soap is great, lathers up quite nicely after about 40-50 spins of my brush, and goes on with plenty of smoothness. The smell, as with all Knize items, is simply fantastic. It’s pretty difficult to find Knize accessories in the US, however this soap along with other Knize items are currently available at Colonial Drug in Cambridge, MA. This, by the way, is a great shop with tons of other great Knize items in stock. The shave soap and the bowl are $45 and in stock.
There will be a day when I make it to the only standing Knize shop in Vienna; but for now, I will take what i can get and scavenge around for these little pieces of gentlemen glory.
This is a place i’d really love to go to. The Audi Mobile Museum of Ingolstadt. There are many photos and videos of this fantastic place online, but I love the photography done by Yan Alexandre for Blenheim Gang
After checking out photos of the BMW Zagato Coupe concept yesterday, I found myself trying to think of the last Zagato-bodied car that i actually really liked. Immediately the first car that really came to mind was the limited production Lancia Hyena.
It’s important to consider that this was not only a fantastic looking car, but carried the performance to embarass a Lancia Delta Integrale. Bold words then…..so why is that true? The Hyena is based off the Delta Integrale, shares the same 250hp engine, but weighed 450+ pounds less (it weighed just 2550 pounds)! So stunning to look at, and with a 0-60 time in the low 5 seconds; stunning to drive!
Completely underrated too….i would love to have one of these in my garage. They were supposed to make more than 100 cars—however production stopped after 26 cars. Stay tuned for a more in depth feature to come in the following weeks—-on a car i’m becoming more and more fascinated with.
Beautiful painting by Meier, of the superb Panhard-Levassor CD #53 car which raced in the 1962 Le Mans. It also came in 1st place for the “Performance Index” (calculated by Performance: Energy ratio).
src: routeNational
Well this is an odd looking car isn’t it. The standard, current generation Z4 is not a bad looking car, however it has always seemed too long and a bit awkward. So how do you reckon making an already awkward car even more awkward can happen? Oh yes that would be the job of Zagato.
Zagato have always made strange looking cars, no question about it. Sometimes their madness pays off (Alfa Junior Z, Lancia Hyena, Lancia Fulvia Sport, Alfa Giuletta SZ), although it seems lately that everything they make sort of looks like a parody of the ‘old-school’ Zagato designs.
So Zagato have now rebodied a Z4 into what is know known as a BMW Zagato Coupe. I think it looks pretty subpar, if i’m honest…and I find the BMW-Zagato connection to be a little strange. That being said….it IS interesting—-although I think the previous generation Z4 Coupe would rather accomplish all of this in a far more attractive manner.
In the old days, these sorts of awkward body styles really did work—mainly because the bumpers were not ‘integrated’ as they are now, and the wheels weren’t absurdly large and bulky like they are today.
the BMW Zagato Coupe is debut’ing at this year’s Villa D’Esta.
the sketches actually looked pretty promising…
here’s a video discussing the idea and design of the car:
src: BMW
Steeped in pre-war 1930s Russia, the origins of Ural Motorcycles is centered around them having sidecars and built with utilitarian, military-strength toughness! These days, the company still exists and has an enthusiastic following. This great video by Gear Patrol captures the essence of being into a specific make/type of machine, and driving it with pleasure. In this case, it is driving a Russian-built (built in Siberia) motorcycle through the mountains of Washington! It also really makes me miss the winter…
src: gearPatrol
The Audi R18‘s digital rear view mirror. The R18 has no rear visibility aside from the side-mounted mirrors. This is a very cool, tech solution is an active matrix OLED display with excellent image and screen quality. On top of that, there are NIGHT and DAY settings, to avoid headlights glaring at night and to avoid sun glare in the day.
src: Fourtitude
This car has already become a chameleon, donning at least 4 different types of wheels from all the photos i’ve seen so far. Well here are some great shots of it around the Monaco circuit today!
(click to get hi-resolution pics!)
src: Renault
I will be posting lots of photos and videos (hopefully) from today’s Alpine A110-50 concept debut. As someone who is very excited and enthusiastic about the past and future of the Alpine marque—today should be a fascinating day!
Carlos Tavares, Chief Operating Officer at Renault….i dig the Alpine threads, man!
src: renault
In light of today’s excitement with the ‘neu’ Alpine photos leaking, I’ve found myself considering what cars have carried the torch while Alpine has been away. The list is quite short, and what i’ve come to realise is that the Lotus Elise/Exige is basically the only car I can think of which truly carried the functionality and purposeful design in the manner in which Alpine did.
In summary…do want! especially in yellow. I drove one several years ago, and found it to be extraordinary to drive. There wasn’t much practicality, and as i’ve been told by a couple people who have owned them—the fiberglass body makes it quite tough to repair. But as a 2nd or 3rd car, I can’t think of another modern 21st century car that would be as enjoyable and as fascinating.
src: carAdvice
In all its glory. I only have one word i can say right now: WANT
I am severely biased towards anything Alpine….but honestly lately i’ve REALLY been getting into ‘futuristic’ cars meeting ‘vintage’ in their philosophy…..and THIS is just brilliant. Magical, even. Renault read my mind.
big thanks to my friend Jon for tipping me about these photos! Unfortunately they are low-resolution; however i’m sure there will be plenty of high-res pics after tomorrow. Tomorrow there should be a lot more information about the technical specs, such as exact engine (400hp V6?)—but what we can confirm is that it is mid-engined.
src: autosblog.com.ar (via carstyling.ru)
between the Donkervoort D8 GTO and the unbelievably cool Bac Mono—-i can’t decide which one would be the ‘ultimate’ weapon! The Mono is just sinister futuristic goodness.
src: autocar
So while i stand by my statement that the previous A110-50/Zar photo was indeed a photoshop, it appears the design itself is pretty much how the ‘new’ Alpine concept is going to look! (big thank you to Neo Luxembourg for these tips!)
this photo was published by Renault themselves!
And then there’s this photo of a bloke working on a clay model, which looks basically exactly like the photoshopped picture! This was published on Figaro and the photo is on Worldscoop HERE:
additionally, Renault have released a 30 second video clip ‘teaser’….which I am not able to embed on this site, however you can watch it here!
http://d.yimg.com/nl/autos/site/player.html#vid=29371440&lang=fr-FR
I saw this film at an official Audi screening several weeks ago and it was fantastic. The 2011 Le Mans will go down in history as one of THE best Le Mans races—-extremely exciting to watch and unnerving after unexpected incidents. You don’t have to be an Audi fan to enjoy this—you just have to love racing. A must watch, in my humblest opinion.
Truth in 24 (original) is also still available for FREE download on iTunes, however Audi have just released Truth in 24 II—-which chronicles the last year’s heroic R18 win. The perfect price for a fantastic documentary. Go check it out!
iTunes link for Truth in 24 II
(note that the link above is for the US iTunes; please check your country’s iTunes to make sure if it is available)
The Donkervoort D8 GTO is easily one of my absolute favourite cars in production right now…..just amazing to look at, and transcends the idea of the Lotus Seven straight into the 21st century. The GT4 version won the GT4 class of the 24 hours of Dubai, so it is developing a racing pedigree all of its own.
To me, in my current state of mind—-mixing modern and vintage. This may be the perfect interior. The stuff daydreams are made of…
src: senseTheCar
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