Archive for the ‘General’ Category

When Ferruccio met Enzo…

Posted: January 31, 2013 by The Car Spy in Ferrari, General, Lamborghini
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Lamborghini is celebrating 50 years of making some sensational cars this year and so the story goes Ferruccio Lamborghini, who made tractors, told Enzo Ferrari his clutches were rubbish. Enzo got miffed, punched Ferry on the nose and sent him back to ploughing his potatoes. Mr Lambo decided that the only way to get even with the man who was building the most charismatic cars in the world was to build the most charismatic cars in the world….and the rest is history as they say.

It is arguable of course as to whether Ferruccio ever got close to realising his ambitions since The Raging Bull had always been the pub that everybody spoke about while drinking in The Prancing Horse.

A new act arrived in town, however, in 2003 and started putting bums on seats for the tractor maker. The pole dancer’s name was Gallardo.

Nobody could say that Ferruccio had ever made an ugly car. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Miura is a regular favourite in those ‘most beautiful car in the world’ polls. The issue seemed to be though that the only way Sant Agata felt it could beat Maranello was in the ‘mad design’ category.

Take the Countach, which apparently means ‘Eureka’ or “I found it!” – as pronouned by Archimides when he discovered the theory of water displacement. Lamborghini should have sent a team on University Challenge!

If you ever wanted people to point and stare at you, you either walked around stark naked with a spinning bow-tie or you drove a Countach. These days it will be an Aventador or a Sesto Elemento.

However, the Gallardo is ’sensible’ – for Lamborghini that is. It is also beautiful and it is one of our favourite cars ever. It is screwed together very well (courtesy of Audi) and it drives like a supercar should. That is why the tractor boys have never built so many of a particular model to come out of Sant Agata. The good news is that sometime early next year the second generation Gallardo is to be launched and word is that it will blow the competition away – we really hope that we won’t be disappointed.

Will it be better than an equivalent Ferrari? Who knows? Ferruccio and Enzo are probably trading blows at the pearly gates right now!

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

The New Porsche Cayenne S Diesel

Posted: September 12, 2012 by The Car Spy in General, New Models, Porsche
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It is 10 years now since Porsche launched the Cayenne and although it has never been regarded as the prettiest SUV on the market it has maintained a hardcore following who appreciate the trademark Porsche build quality and powerful engine derivatives.

The diesel version has been with us for a while now and has proven to be a favourite choice for those looking to get into Cayenne ownership. The engine is torquey and frugal and you can spec the car up to look like a million dollars.

In order to keep up with the flurry of new SUV’s appearing on the market over the coming year or so , including the new Range Rover, Porsche have breathed a bit of fire into the diesel version and have launched the Cayenne S Diesel.

The S Diesel is fitted with a 4.2 litre V8 twin-turbo power unit that produces 382 hp but more importantly a tree-stump-pulling 850 Nm of torque which gives it more grunt than any other Cayenne in the range. Performance figures from Porsche indicate that the car will take 5.7 seconds to reach 62 mph on to a maximum speed of 157 mph. The fuel consumption is claimed to average 34 mpg so it looks like you get close to having the best of everything in this version of the Cayenne. It is also supposed to make a nice noise too but we will reserve judgement until we have driven the car for ourselves before we comment.

What else extra do you get over a ‘standard’ diesel? An auto start/stop function (sorry, hate those things), Porsche Traction Management, Porsche Vectoring Plus, 100 litre fuel tank (giving a range of 745 miles), Silver brake calipers, Black front intake grilles and nice ‘Diesel’ badges on the front wings to remind you what engine is under the bonnet. Think I would go for a de-badged option personally.

Prices in the UK will start at £58243 and standard equipment will include a Leather interior, Dual-zone climate control, Front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, Audio system with 7″ touch-screen, 8-way powered front seats and 18″ alloy wheels.

As usual Porsche will be offering a complimentary driving course at the Porsche Experience Centre in Silverstone which is well worth a visit.

For more information on the new Cayenne S Diesel or any other Porsche model give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

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Salon Privé Syon Park 2012

Posted: September 6, 2012 by The Car Spy in Classic Cars, Events, General, Motor Shows, New Cars
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When a car show is sponsored by the likes of Audemars Piguet, Pommery, Vertu and Boodles you just know that the event is unlikely to be held in the local field for boot-fairs.

Syon Park is the family home of the family of the Duke of Northumberland and has been for the past 400 years. It is also very elegant and the perfect setting for the annual Salon Privé event in London. So the stage was set for 2012 and the sun was shining on the beautiful people and some rather excellent motor cars.

So what was there? The Salon Privé and Concours d’Elégance was the venue chosen for the debut of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster, Rimac Concept_One electric hyper car, Renovatio T500 from Croatian super car maker Tushek, Bentley GT Speed, Carozerria Touring Supleggerra’s 2012 Disco Volante and Overfinch’s Range Rover Sport-inspired Limited Edition GTS-X. So there was plenty of new metal to gawp at.

If you are into your Classics then it was difficult to know where to look because there were some excellent old-timers at Syon House and plenty of them. How about 13 F40’s in celebration of 25 years since the car was born. A 1908 RR Silver Ghost, 1936 Jaguar SS Tourer, an Ogle SX 1000 (remember those?), a couple of Ferrari 250, 275 and 330’s including the ex-James Coburn/Chris Evans California Spyder, JK’s one-off Vignale 330 GT and no less than nine examples of various Bugattis dating from 1912. The Concours d’Elegance is being judged this Friday and it will be hard to pick the winners from such a high standard of entrants.

Our favourites at the Salon Privé this year? The 8C-based Carrozzeria Disco Volante, Rimac Concept_One, The ROFGO Gulf Collection including the GT40, the AM DBR9 (Chassis No 007), Maserati MC12 in black, Alvis ‘Super’ Cabriolet and the iconic green Miura S.

We took over 100 images of cars at the event so take a look at the slideshow below…..roll on Salon Privé 2013!

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The New Porsche 911 Carrera 4 and 4S

Posted: August 27, 2012 by The Car Spy in General, New Models, Porsche
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It seems so long ago now that the 991 911 went on sale – it’s not actually, it is less than a year but just seems much longer – it is easy to overlook the fact that the four-wheel drive version on the latest incarnation of the 911 has been missing for a while now. After the usual frenzy of ‘leaked’ and ‘exclusive’ images on the Internet Porsche has finally officially released details of the Carrera 4 and 4S in both Coupe and Cabriolet versions.

Porsche claim that the AWD chassis gives the best of all worlds with better traction, roadholding and chassis dynamics and there is no reason to doubt that of course. Historically the choice between whether to go for a C2 or C4 has been based on personal preferences. Do you like a bit of wiggle in the tail or are you more concerned with achieving grip whatever the driving conditions? Some might say that the former is preferred because of the additional driver involvement but there is a market especially these days for four-driven wheels as opposed to just two. Porsche gives you that choice with the 911.

The C4 and 4S have the traditional wider rear wheel arches and in the 991 they are 22mm wider than the C2. The rear tyres are 10mm wider too. Take a look at the rear of the car and you will see that some tweaking has taken place with the appearance of a ‘signature red light band’ according to the company. Not sure what this adds in terms of appeal but hey ho.

Much of the specification of the C4 variants match the C2 so engines and respective performance figures remain unchanged i.e. more than adequate and likely to satisfy the most demanding of drivers.

Inside the new car there is an ‘all-wheel-drive indicator’ in the instrument cluster which lets you know how much torque is being sliced and diced between the front and rear axles. Useful? Probably not since the eyes are more likely to be swapping between focusing on revs, speed and the road ahead (and behind) – anything else is an unnecessary distraction.

Porsche is also introducing Adaptive Cruise Control across all models in the range and when combined with the PDK transmission customers will get the ACC plus Porsche Active Safe (PAS) which helps to prevent front-end collisions.

A new sliding glass sunroof has been added to the options list and if customers order the Sport Chrono Pack with the manual gearbox they can expect a tad more responsiveness because in Sport Plus mode the system automatically double-declutched during down-shifts. Nice.

The new Carrera 4 and 4S models will be shown for the fist time at the forthcoming Paris Motor Show and will go on sale in the UK December this year. Prices will start at £77924 for the Coupe and the Cabriolet from £86583.

For further details of the new 911 Carrera 4 and 4S or any other Porsche model give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

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The New Bentley Continental GT Speed

Posted: August 22, 2012 by The Car Spy in Bentley, General, New Models
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Bentley seem to be on a roll these days. There has probaly never been a wider choice of cars from their Continental, Mulsanne and Flying Spur ranges and travelling at plus or minus 200 mph seems to be the order of the day for the cars from Crewe.

It seems appropriate therefore that the company should be adding the moniker ‘Speed’ to the fastest car they have ever produced. Enter the new Bentley Continental GT Speed.

With 616 bhp on tap the car has a top speed of 205 mph (330 kph) and can gallop to 100 mph from standstill in a mightily impressive 9 seconds. In the time it has taken Usain Bolt to complete 100 metres the Bentley is a  1/4 mile away from the start-line. OK Usain is not a machine but it just puts into perpective how quickly the GT Speed can cover long distances.

Of course there are several ‘supercars’ that are more than capable of beating the Bentley in a straight line these days but there are not many that can do it with the panache and drama-free way the Crewe car does. If the car could speak it would be telling its driver to sit back and relax while it effortlessly hauls in the horizon.

The uprated twin-turbo W12 is now mated to an 8-speed ZF transmission and a big dollop of torque – 800 Nm – so that the thrust is instantly accessible and makes overtaking a blink-of-an-eye manoeuvre. To help cope with the extra power the chassis has been tweaked with uprated springs, dampers, anti-roll bars and steering. The exhaust has also been tuned to create the appropriate deep, sporty note under hard acceleration – if it is as nice as the V8’s noise then it will be a very interesting car in tunnels too.

If you are buying a ‘Speed’ GT instead of a non-Speed alternative then you might expect some cosmetic differences too. These will include 21″ ten-spoke alloy wheels, dark tint matrix radiator shell and lower bumper grilles and ‘rifled’ exhaust tailpipes.

The interiors come with the Mulliner Driving Specification featuring perforated, quilted leather and bright metal detailing plus the inevitable bits of carbon fibre. In other words they will look a tad luxurious and expensive.

To help calm your nerves after parting with your tidy sum to buy a GT Speed you will be uplifted by the thought that the new car offers up to a 12% improvement in fuel economy and CO2 emissions over the previous W12 powerplant. Confirmed pricing for the GT Speed will be announced in due course.

In the meantime if you would further details of the new Bentley Continental GT Speed give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

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