To me, bar none, the greatest 911 in history if the 911R. No other 911 even comes close. The “pretender” to the throne is the Carrera RS—-so here’s a beautiful picture with a 911R in the foreground, and a Carrera RS (edit: I actually think that is an RS-R, not an RS) in the background.
photographer: Willem De Zeeuw
the best luxury sedan in the world just got quite a bit quicker.
520hp. 4.0L Turbo V8. 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. Do you know how it feels to be in a car this heavy and do 0-60 in 4.2 seconds? I still remember riding in an older S55 AMG a few years ago and feeling what a 0-60 time in the 5.5 second range and feeling like I was in hyperspeed orbit around the streets. 4.2s is a big notch faster. Looks great too, lots of presence.
When I was picking up my A3, I was waiting for some of the paperwork to get prepped—-and found myself dwelling in the showroom A8 they had, just wafting away in one of the most beautiful interiors i’ve ever sat in. It was like sitting inside of a relaxed lounge, just pass me a scotch and a cigarette and let me instruct the driver where to go.
2012/2013 Audi S8
source: Audi
Mercedes-Benz 220S Coupe:
Mercedes Benz E-Class Coupe (2011)
IEDEI’s friends at Fourtitude have spotted a possible first view of the ‘facelifted’ Audi R8, which should launch in 2012 sometime. More interestingly, they have also discussed that R8s have been testing with 2.5L 5 Cylinder Turbo engines (!!!!!). Bring it Audi!!!
I am a huge fan of small euro hatchbacks. They are fun to drive, practical, and get the job done! Since the original Beetle and Golf, VW have struggled to come up with a cheap, useable, attractive car that can be used by the masses. I have to say that my experiences with the euro VW Polo were impressive, and i think the Polo is a great car—–but still not ‘common’ enough to make a global impact. I am gonna hope that the new Up! gets the job done. Why? It is a 3-cylinder rear-engined 4-seat hatchback. Back to the glory days of VW, innit? It doesn’t look ‘charming’ like the original Beetle, but times have changed—-i stand corrected—-it is not rear-engined any more! However this Up! does come with a nice, clean, minimalist design. It remains to be seen if this car makes it over here. At a starting price of 8500 Euros, the Up! will surely make an impact IMO.
This is how you make a cool subcompact, Fiat—-not an overpriced, overstyled piece of crap! I just wish VW would have stuck to the rear-engined format.
source: Autocar
i love all these old Oscas, this is the Osca MT4 Vignale Berlinetta
Peter Schreyer heads up the Kia design team at the moment, and he is of course the person who led Audi out of the dark days and into the light with designs such as the 8N MK1 Audi TT, B5 A4, C5 A6, and many other great designs. This is Schreyer’s latest design for Kia.
This is Kia’s foray into the wide world of luxury sedans, and supposedly going to be named the “K9” which, I have to say is a completely juvenile choice in name—reminds me of a clumsy police unit on an old TV show. But the design? It looks fantastic. Sure there are cues of the ‘coupe-sedan’ trend that’s going on, and Schreyer has always added Audi bits into his Kia designs (in this case, a healthy bit of A7 swooping)—but this looks fresh and edgy, almost making me think that if Lamborghini introduced a sub-$100k sedan—it would probably look like this. I hope they build it.
Oh, and Jaguar need to pull their heads out of their asses and hire a guy like Schreyer to design stuff like this for them…i could definitely see this car with a Jaguar badge more than a Kia badge.
and look at the side-view mirrors…they are video cameras! SWEET!
source: Road & Track
an Alpine Renault A310 1800, to be specific, soldiering through the twisties! lovely!
my 2012 Audi A3 quattro...parked in Brooklyn. It’s so cool to own a 2012 car in 2011!
With each passing day, I love the A3 even more…..what a wonderful car it is in every way!
I don’t like the rear end—-what is going on with the rear end? the rest looks very 997-ish, just a bit longer and taller in the rear. Not sure what the source of these photos are, as I haven’t seen them anywhere else….but thanks to Jyoteen for sharing them!
Yes these are all expensive. Yes they are all on sale now in the US market. Yes, most of them are german. Yes, you could have probably predicted these a mile away if you know anything about me. Yes, I think they’re all badass and I want them all!
Here is my current list (in no order, really).
Aston Martin AMV8/V8 Vantage: I still think it’s the best looking sports car around, perfectly proportioned, small in size, and just beautiful from any angle. Just classic.
Audi A7: I used to think the Maserati Quattroporte was the best looking sedan in the world, until i saw an Audi A7 parked NEXT to a Quattroporte in California—-and the A7 trumped it in pretty much every way. Amazing and just drop dead gorgeous.
Porsche 911 (997): After the bulbous 993 and the weird 996, Porsche really hit their stride with the 997. Of course a brand new 991 is coming next year, which should show the 911 growing in size and stature—however i’m pretty sure the 997 will be valued for years to come, as most Porsches are after they stop production.
Audi R8: I have seen an R8 side by side with the Gallardo, and hand-over-heart-put-my-Audi-fanboy-tendencies-aside, it is a much cooler looking design than the Lambo ever was. The R8 has a much taller greenhouse, and somewhat of an awkward stance, but somehow it works very well with its bulgy curves, look-at-me sideblade, and big grinning mouth. The car looks much more sinister, grounded, and menacing in real life than it does in any photograph
AND where the shit hits the fan…
Porsche Panamera: I love the Panamera. It is a stunning design which has grown on me consistently with every passing month. I started off wondering how they could f*ck up the car so bad, and then suddenly found myself looking at it thinking “do i actually like it?” to now feeling that it is simply the most aggressive and creative interpretation of what a Porsche ‘sedan’ should be. Yes it is awkward, yes it is not nearly as chiseled and pretty as an A7, yes it is a bit over the top, yes it is weird—but it’s so uncool that it is savagely cool!
Yeah I don’t give a crap about Ferrari—it’s a vulgar company who have built the most overrated, cheesy, and overhyped cars of my lifetime. They’re like the ‘jocks’ of the automotive world…ready to strangle automotive journalists with their sweaty, annoying jockstraps.
BUT TODAY I read a statement by Luca Di Montezemelo (CEO of Ferrari) which made my heart turn all fuzzy and warm—although the statement involves Ferrari’s future plans, what warmed my heart is their resistance to join the overwhelming surge of electric cars. My favourite marques Audi and Porsche have also recently joined into the electric car frenzy with their own projects; which has caused me a certain amount of interest to see what they’ve come up with, but a certain amount of disappointment at them selling out to the frenzy.
What did Mr. Di Montezemelo say?
“You will never see a Ferrari electric because I don’t believe in electric cars, because I don’t think they represent an important step forward for pollution or C02 or the environment.”
Very cool. I’m glad someone had the balls to say it. Too bad his next line was “But we are working very, very hard on a Hybrid Ferrari”…..oh well, i didn’t expect them to completely stray off the beaten path.
source: Left Lane News
the original brochure for the Triumph Bonneville from 1959. Badass.
link with waaaay too much information for a motorcycle novice such as myself! ha!
http://1959triumphbonneville.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-quest-to-prove-or-disprove-existence.html
Quattroworld has a great feature about Don Istook and his long-time Audi racing history–including Ur quattros, S4s, and TTs–culminating recently in his delivery of the 1st North American TT-RS. Fellow Audiphiles will surely appreciate the stories about his previous race cars that he built from the ground up, as well as some of his perspectives about these cars and experiences.
“Now, what I didn’t mention was that we got the truckload of parts on Friday…and we had to race Saturday morning! Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day…but I WAS racing at Road Atlanta in the early 80’s when Jo helped out Tom Brennan, after Tom had written off one of the Porsche factory D Production 924’s. Jo secured a brand new 924 D Production tub for Tom…had it shipped to the track…and that car WAS literally built in one day…made the DP race and finished 2nd!! So, with that in mind…we got all the “stuff” put on the car and just made the grid for the start of the race.”
LINK: quattroworld
my mate Christian Keller posted these great photos from the Oldtimer GP at the Nurburgring, and you can find many other great photos HERE at his Flickr link:
my friend Xander Walker really does some great artwork, as previously seen on this blog—-so here is his most recent art print with the legendary Bertone Stratos Zero Concept. Each print is $60 and ltd. edition of 50 prints.
the beautiful Mercedes-Benz F800 Concept introduced in 2010, I have it on good accounts that this car will make it to production in late 2012 as a 2013. It will slot in under the C-class Mercedes and be going up against the A3 Sedan and the next generation (painfully ugly) 1-Series.
the ‘new’ Fiat 500 is one ugly car……super tall, oddly out of proportion, and decorated like a child’s toy. I only like the fact that it has a ‘Fiat’ badge on it; otherwise it sucks. I parked next to one earlier today, and was appalled by the comparison of size.
i don’t like the summer…in fact i think it sucks….people are annoying, nyc streets are filled with losers, and i don’t like sweating. BRING BACK the winter and bring back the good times! I can’t wait til i get the new car out onto the slopes.
here’s a video to let me daydream a bit……the big daddy version of my A3….the delicious RS3 (not sold in the US, or else it would have 100% been mine)
IEDEI 
