2014 Range Rover Blasts through Pikes Peak

The new Range Rover Sport is not only a good off-roader, it's also wicked fast as it just set a new Pike's Peak record.

While some may have been concerned that Land Rover has been giving up some of its heralded off-road mojo lately in favor of making its models more luxurious, perhaps it’s time to put some of those fears to rest - at least in the speed department. The UK-based automaker has just announced that its 2014 Range Rover Sport has just set a new record at Pikes Peak, setting a new hill climb record time for a production SUV of 12 minutes and 35.61 seconds.

Traveling at an average speed of 59.17 mph, the Range Rover Sport completed the 12.42 mile-long course faster than other standard production SUV. The Pikes Peak course itself is composed of 156 corners as it ascends beyond the treeline from 9,390 feet above sea level to 14,110 feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WhHFhVrs9BM

That altitude is so high that the air contains only 58 percent of the oxygen it does at sea level which diminishes engine performance. Additionally, driver Paul Dallenbach had to deal with the effects of what less oxygen does to one’s physical and mental performance, a major factor when considering how dangerous the Pikes Peak course is. The Range Rover Sport itself is equipped with a 5.0-liter supercharged V8 that pumps out 510 horsepower and the only modification allowed for Pikes Peak was the fitment of a roll cage and harness seatbelts to meet safety requirements. 

Camaro ZL1 is Not Environmentally Friendly Today

Trying to save the planet? Don't expect that to happen on National Donut Day as this Camaro ZL1 burns plenty of fuel.

National Donut Day is something to celebrate with plenty of smoke, burnt rubber and wasted fuel. There’s simply no other way to do so and hopping behind the wheel of a Chevy Camaro ZL1 is a good start to making all three of those things happen. Instead of hitting the drag strip, just take that ZL1 to some empty parking lot and spin it around. With its 6.2-liter V8 producing 580 horsepower and 556 lb-ft torque paired up with a six-speed manual, the ZL1 is one of the best production cars in the world today for doing donuts.

Chevy is aware of this and marked the yearly occasion by releasing this video of a Camaro ZL1 in action. Damn, it sounds absolutely wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=woYGwW2UB34

696 HP 'Draguar' is No Ordinary Jaguar

A 1974 Jaguar XJ12 is given a new lease on life as the crew at Hot Rod magazine prepare to give it a new long block V8.

The guys over at Hot Rod magazine have been working on an interesting project as of late. Some time ago they bought a 1974 Jaguar XJ12 with a Chevy small-block V8 under the hood for just $1,000. They installed a supercharger and when they took the car to a drag race, sure enough, the engine overheated. But they’re not giving up on the car that easily. Host Mike Finnegan ordered a brand-new 383 long block engine that can safely produce 650 horsepower with 91 octane fuel.

Thing is, Finnegan wouldn’t be a true hot rod enthusiast if he didn’t crank things up a notch or three, so he added 118 octane race fuel and upped the boost to 15 psi in order to make 700 hp.

To watch the video click here.

Porsche 911 Gets Some Love with Car Porn Racing

Tuners in the Philippines may not be up to date on new music, and down coconuts instead of cheeseburgers. They no doubt work their tails off and can tune a Porsche as good as any.

Tuning may arguably have its earliest origins based in Japan, but it’s rare that we come across an interesting tuning project from the Philippines. In addition, most tuning stories that come across our desk do not come with video journals attached. Rauh Welt Begriff Manilla (RWB) is trying to get on the map with their project "Victoria", upgrading a Porsche 911. This tuner, that originally started from Japan and has recently expanded to the US, states that RWB emphasizes Japanese and European tuning elements.

Their Facebook page is growing a nice following for the project as well and the video log 

features an 80’s electron soundtrack that would make Herbie Hancock proud. It also demonstrates the hard work it takes, even with a break for coconuts, to get a tuning project out the door.

Watch the video here.

These Ponies are Rare, Exotic Creatures in Germany

Germans may not love all things US (Wal-Mart left in 2006), but they sure love themselves some American Muscle

For a country that has given our citizens hot dogs, excuse me Frankfurters, and on top of that, some of the greatest mechanical engineering and design the United States has ever known, we decided to return the favor. Well at least for one event that recently went down in Germany. Owners and enthusiasts nationwide gathered to appreciate some good old American Muscle on display, replete with US and Confederate flags.

With a lineup of Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers, Vettes, and other favorites, the Europeans are likely stoked that they don't have to leave Bavaria for a taste of the States. Likewise for Americans its nice to see some respect for American ingenuity. Even though the pics look like they could be anywhere USA, It can't be hard to imagine how good the franks and beer tasted at this Deutschland tailgate extravaganza.

Rolls-Royce Makes a Pink Ghost

Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special version of its extended-wheelbase Ghost, called FAB1, with the hopes of helping to raise more than one million pounds (roughly $1.5 million) for a UK charity named Breast Cancer Care. Over the next year, the FAB1 Million Project will see this pink Ghost used to raise money by renting it out for special events and occasions with all of the proceeds going to the charity.

More than just a pretty pink paint job, though, this Ghost demonstrates some of the bespoke options you can order from Rolls-Royce, including pink carpeting, pink leather, pink center caps and even a pink umbrella tucked into the door.
ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS PROVIDES GHOST EXTENDED WHEELBASE TO FAB1 MILLION PROJECT IN SUPPORT OF BREAST CANCER CARE

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars proudly presents FAB1, a Rolls-Royce Ghost Extended Wheelbase set to support FAB1 Million and Breast Cancer Care.

Headed by Chris Evans, the FAB1 Million project is set to raise £1 million for Breast Cancer Care through making this bespoke Ghost available to hire over the next twelve months. This extraordinary car will make appearances at exclusive events as well as being available for hire for any special day, with all proceeds directly benefiting Breast Cancer Care.

In support of this exciting project and very worthy cause, the Rolls-Royce Bespoke team has prepared a very special motor car, combining numerous exclusive bespoke elements, from pink accented umbrellas, to hand-embroidered headrests featuring the Breast Cancer Care pink ribbon motif. Further enhancements include unique 'FAB1' treadplates and a Blushing Pink and Crème Light interior leather scheme. An uplit Spirit of Ecstasy adorns the silver satin bonnet.

In addition to providing a superior ride experience and ample legroom, the passenger experience of this exceptional Ghost Extended Wheelbase is enhanced with hand veneered picnic tables, 9.2 inch LCD screens and a champagne coolbox. Passengers will be able to relax with a chilled glass of champagne, indulge in a concerto, courtesy of a 10-channel amplifier and 16 speakers delivering 600 Watts of surround sound, or simply sink into sumptuous leather seats and lambswool footmats, relaxing into luxurious silence as they journey to their destination.

"When I received the call from Chris Evans to support FAB1 Million, we immediately sprang into action," said Jolyon Nash, Sales and Marketing Director. "It's taken countless hours to create such a special car but every minute spent is absolutely worth it for such a valuable cause. We wish the project every success."

The project is set to launch on Thursday 18 April with a star-studded point to point drive in FAB1 from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Hyundai Envisions an Egg Car

Engineers from the Korean automaker have created their vision of future and eco-friendly transportation. And it looks like an egg. This is what we may all possibly be driving in the next 20 to 30 years. Yes, the thought bothers us as well, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a major automaker toy around with the idea of building a car shaped like an egg. Now its Hyundai’s turn to give us nightmares regarding one of its visions of the future transportation. This new single-person prototype, called the E4U Egg Car (seriously), a prototype that weighs 176 lbs and has a maximum speed of only 15 mph.

The 4 Es stand for Egg, Evolution, Electricity and Eco-friendliness. Created by company engineers for the IDEA festival, the project is a design study on the future of mobility. The E4U is powered by four electric motors and propellers which give it the ability to hover above ground. The driver can even "talk" to the car via a wireless head set to tell it to switch the seating position from that of a car into a bike. Along with the egg car, Hyundai also debuted a multi-rotor flying car, a spare-tire electric bike, a portable transforming car, a five-jointed car, a road car/bike and a wind bike.

Expensive Failures: Bugatti EB110

Impressive as it was, the EB110 was done in by poor planning and bad timing.

You’ve really got to love the EB110, and your love for it should not be diminished by the fact that it was a flop. The fact is that there were several different factors which led to the downfall of this particular incarnation of Bugatti, but the quality of the car itself was never an issue. For the time, the car was a high-tech wonder, and produced performance figures which are still quite respectable 20 years later. But it still went under. Still, few marques in history carry with them the sort of gravitas that is associated with Bugatti.

After the company went bust following the difficulty of resuming operations after WWI and the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, there were several attempts to revive the brand. The first couple failed before even getting off the ground, and the company was absorbed by its own aircraft division, and then bigger aircraft companies during the Sixties. But in 1987, Romano Artioli attempted a full-on revival of the brand, complete with the sort of world-beating models that had made the brand what it was in the first place. The plans for the first car came in 1989, from designers Paulo Stanzani and Marcello Gandini.

You might recognize Gandini’s name from the article on the Cizeta V16T, or perhaps from his having designed the Lamborghini Miura, Countach and the original version of the Diablo. A new state-of-the-art factory was built in Campogalliano, Italy, to build the car, and if it isn’t already obvious, this was to be a much more Italian-influenced incarnation of Bugatti. But that’s fine, there are obviously plenty of amazing cars to come from Italy. And although he was a naturalized French citizen, Ettore Bugatti himself was born in Milan. The car adopted his initials EB and coupled them with the number 110 in reference to the 110th anniversary of Ettore’s birth.

Production would begin in 1991, and the completed product was a technological marvel. The body was built by Aerospatiale, a French airplane manufacturer, and was made of carbon fiber. There was a speed-sensitive raising rear wing as well as all-wheel-drive. Some have seen the scissor doors as a blatant Lamborghini rip-off, but the car was designed by the man who invented scissor doors, and could be argued to have more right to them than any post-Gandini Lambo. The engine was a 3.5-liter quad-turbo 12 which produced 553 horsepower. The later EB110 SS would push that figure to 603 horsepower while simultaneously coming in slightly lighter.

The EB110 could hit 62 mph in 4.2 seconds and a top speed of 213 mph, while the SS could do a 3.2-second 0-62 and a 216 mph top speed. We’re therefore talking about a pretty impressive car for 1991, so what went wrong? Well, there were a couple of problems. One was a recession that hit North America and Europe right at about the time the EB110 debuted. The $350,000 price tag (about $580,000 in today's money) was therefore not ideal. But the company was also sinking money into a sedan project - appropriately enough called the EB112, since it kicked off in 1993.Lastly, Artioli decided to buy up Lotus from GM to add to this expanding empire. But without EB110 sales able to keep pace with the money being spent on new development and acquisitions, Bugatti went bankrupt in 1995. In the end, just 139 units were produced, making the Veyron seem downright common by comparison. What Bugatti really needed, and ultimately got, was the backing of a huge automaker to help with development costs and keep market fluctuations from having such a devastating effect on its bottom line. The EB110 should have been a winning formula, but the timing just wasn’t right.

2013 Porsche Boxster Review - Video

The Porsche Boxster really didn’t need a wholesale redesign. Since its introduction in 1997, Porsche has tweaked, fiddled with, and upgraded the roadster nearly every year, keeping it feeling modern and fully competitive. Even in the outgoing generation’s final two model years, it remained the benchmark for its class, winning our Best-Handling Cars under $100K competition and taking home another couple of 10Best trophies. Despite the outgoing car’s inarguable excellence, the 2013 Boxster rides on a new platform.

Known internally as the 981, this Boxster generation has grown by 1.3 inches in overall length, and its wheelbase has stretched by 2.4 inches. Torsional rigidity is up by 40 percent, and the center of gravity falls by nearly a quarter of an inch. To keep mass in check, aluminum is used more extensively than before, a magnesium instrument-panel support was adopted, and the top design is lighter. According to Porsche, the regular Boxster weighs in at 2882 pounds, or 55 fewer pounds than the previous version. The Boxster S sheds more weight—77 pounds—to come in at an estimated 2970 pounds. Maybe that new platform wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

New Bones, Familiar Hearts

A couple of things Porsche didn’t radically change were the Boxster’s flat-six engines. The base versions decrease in displacement from 2.9 liters to 2.7 due to reduced bore and stroke measurements. Still, a new intake, cylinder-head revisions, and a less-restrictive exhaust freed up 10 additional hp for a total of 265 horses at 6700 rpm, but torque falls by 7 lb-ft to 207. The men from Stuttgart claim a 0-to-60-mph time of 5.5 seconds for the base Boxster; the perhaps more impressive assertion is a 15-percent improvement in fuel economy. Boxster S models, like the ones we drove in Europe, retain their 3.4-liter flat-six engine, but intake and exhaust modifications raise the power by five to 315 hp at 6700 rpm. A variable intake adds some low-end torque and smoothes the power delivery, but peak torque remains at 266 lb-ft. Flat-foot the 3.4, and power builds without any dips or surges. We’d like a bit more torque to push us a bit harder into the seat, but we can’t complain about the engine’s joyous sound at the 7800-rpm redline or the likely conservative 4.8-second 0-to-60 claim. Although the Boxster S has been tuned to maintain a respectful distance from the latest 911—the same basic 3.4-liter makes 350 hp in the base Carrera—there still is some room to create more powerful derivatives. A redesigned Cayman coupe is on the way, for example, and we’d expect something like the Boxster spyder to reappear at some time. (A four-cylinder version may still emerge, as well.)

Another obvious line in the sand between the Boxster and 911 concerns the two cars’ manual transmissions. Boxsters get last year’s six-speed manual; the new 911 has the novel seven-speed manual transmission. In addition to keeping some parts unique to the 911, cost seems to have been the main reason for carrying over the previous six-speed. We’re not going to question the decision: The transmission is brilliant, with short throws and a satisfying mechanical feel that the $3200 seven-speed dual-clutch automatic can never replicate. However, the PDK dual-clutch seven-speed is also pretty outstanding. The latest PDK fitted to the Boxster boasts reduced shift times and fuel-efficiency improvements. Downshifts occur quickly, and there is no hesitation or delay when you demand a multigear downshift. The gearbox will happily snap off a six-to-two swap, and there’s something satisfying about that, too.

Electric Power Steering: Good, but Something Has Been Lost

We’re learning to come to terms with the electric power steering. As in the new 911, the nuanced road feel, tiny vibrations, and tactility of the previous hydraulic steering system are gone, victims of a quest for refinement. Steering feel was a major differentiator between previous Porsche sports cars and their competition, and now that the unfiltered and direct conduit between road and driver has disappeared, we miss it. The electric power steering requires less work than it did before, thanks to lighter weight. It’s faithfully accurate, but at the same time it’s less involving.

It also takes less work to exploit the chassis’s impressive grip. The track of the new platform is up to 1.6 inches wider at the front and up to 0.7 inch wider at the rear. The extra width adds a measure of stability that makes it very, very easy to drive quickly. Some of the nimbleness and compact feel of the previous generation is gone, but overall cornering stability is improved, and you feel more secure approaching what likely are higher overall limits. Some of that security might be due in part to the active transmission mounts. Like the active engine mounts available in the 911, the Boxster’s magnetorheological transmission mounts (a part of the optional Sport Chrono package) can stiffen or relax. The mounts soften to keep the powertrain isolated in less aggressive driving; get frisky, and they stiffen to ensure that transmission movement doesn’t affect dynamics. Also newly available in the Boxster is PTV, or Porsche Torque Vectoring. PTV incorporates a locking mechanical rear differential that works with individual rear brakes to help the Boxster turn into a corner. Even with the stability control fully shut off, PTV’s brake-intervention function remains active to aid turn-in and handling.

More Aggressive and Exotic Looks

A new generation naturally brings new styling, and we think the latest Boxster looks great. Nearly one inch has been pared from the front overhang, and the windshield is shorter and has been moved toward the front of the car by nearly four inches. The proportions are more aggressive and exotic than before. Large air intakes in front of the rear wheels define the sides, starting as creases in the doors. The headlights mimic those of the upcoming 918 supercar. The turn signals are pinched out of the taillights, and the resulting crease spans the entire rear of the Boxster to form the rear spoiler and house the reverse light. Other than that admittedly original flourish, the design is clean and free of excessive ornamentation. Like all Porsches, the front fenders are clearly visible from the driver’s seat. In the latest Boxster, a strong crease runs along the inside edge of the fenders, which makes them appear less rounded than those of the previous model, or even the new 911.

Interior space is excellent, and an extra inch of rearward travel has been added to the seats—a boon for tallish drivers. Like the exterior, the interior is completely new yet feels familiar. The familiarity comes from the Boxster’s joining the rest of the Porsche family in adopting a tall center console that houses the shifter and a number of secondary switches. The quality of the interior’s plastic parts is impressive and makes the optional Leather package seem unnecessary. New seats, borrowed from the 911, offer terrific lateral support and hours of comfort.

Prices start at $50,450 for the base Boxster. Adding $10,000 worth of options is an easy thing to do, at which point it might be worth considering the $61,850 Boxster S. Either way, you’ll end up with a car that strikes us as a bit of a bargain, especially when compared with the $94,650 911 cabriolet. The Boxster remains the only mid-engine sports car in its class, and we’d wager that this new version will sit right up front when it meets its peers in a future comparison test.