How Not To Wash Your Bugatti Veyron
Sunday, November 15th, 2009The driver blames this little million dollar mishap on a “low-flying pelican”. I kid you not.
[Via Geekologie]
Archive for the ‘cars’ Category
Ferrari 458 Italia
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Ferrari 458 Italia (Front)
Ferrari, when they get it right, really know how to bring the wow factor. This is their new “entry level” car, the 458 Italia. It will cost £160,000 in the UK, but for that you get Enzo rivaling performance – 203 mph and 562 bhp at 9000 rpm. Full details from the Ferrari 458 Italia website. For full size images just click on pictures in this post.
Ferrari 458 Italia (Rear)
Ferrari 458 Italia (Side)
Ferrari 458 Italia (Top)
Computer Game Cars
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Citroen GT (2009)
The importance of the computer games industry is pretty clear to everyone these days. In 2008 the industry was worth $21 billion in the US alone. In the same year, Grand Theft Auto 4 grossed $500 million in its first week.
So, it’s no surprise to see real world companies queuing up to be a part of the Next Big Thing. In the car world, the computer game of choice for the last decade has been Gran Turismo. The latest edition of Gran Turismo, GT5 Prologue, was released mainly as a tech demo for the PS3, with a more complete version of the game due later this year, or at the start of next year, although it seems to be delayed more with each passing month.
Citroen designed the car in the picture above especially for GT5 Prologue, a nice way to build a halo car without having to spend any money on actual manufacturing or engineering. So, imaging the surprise when they went and built a show car for the 2008 Paris Auto Show, and then went on to announce that they’re going to build six of them for around $2 million each.
Then, to top it off, they went a drove it around London along some of the streets used in the game itself. Here’s the video: Citroen GT on the Streets of London (HD)
Watch out for similar activity from other car manufacturers in the future. One day you’ll be test driving and choosing the colour of your new Ford Focus on the PlayStation before you ever set foot in the showroom.
1955 Ghia Streamline
Oh, and thanks to the wonderful Horse Latitudes blog, without which I wouldn’t have come across Autopia. The picture of the Ghia Streamline above is what caught my eye at first.
[Sources: Autopia / Wired, MCV]
What Does A $12.1 Million Ferrari Look Like?
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa - Front
1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa - Rear
[Images: Darin Schnabel / RM Auctions, Story: Wired]
Last year when Chris Evans bought a Ferrari 250 GT California for £5 Million I thought two things:
- He’s mad!
- He’s even richer than I thought!
Turns out he may be onto something. A couple of weeks ago another very rare Ferrari, in this case a 1957 Testa Rossa, sold for $12.1 Million, and in this article in the Telegraph he explains why a Ferrari 250 GTO is worth £15 Million. Rare things that can’t be reproduced or created from scratch are where it’s at in the recession it seems. If only we’d started buying blue diamonds and rare Ferraris a few months ago! 
This story does bring to mind the BBC documentary about modern art dealers propping up the price of various artists’ works in order to protect their own investment. The difference here I guess though is scarcity. There are tens of thousands of Warhol pieces out there, and thousands of Hirst pieces too, but only a few hundred really rare vintage Ferraris.
Gullwing America 300 SL Panamericana
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
2009 300 SL Panamericana Front
2009 300 SL Panamericana Front Three Quarter
2009 300 SL Panamericana Profile
2009 300 SL Panamericana Rear Three Quarter
A company called Gullwing America run by Arturo Alonso is about to embark on the long overdue re-imagining of one of the world’s most beautiful cars, the 1954 Mercedes Benz 300 SL (Gullwing – W198).
From the pictures above, you can see they’ve pretty much left the looks alone, which is no bad thing. The internals are said to be all modern and largely Merecedes sourced.
There are loads more articles and pictures on the web about it. The ones above come from World Car Fans, while I first read about it on The Cool Hunter (thanks to JB The DeeJay of Records You’ll Want To Own).