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When you think of Portsmouth it is quite likely that images of the sea, HMS Victory and possibly a football team that has managed to escape relegation this season all spring to mind. The Mercedes McLaren SLR however, wouldn’t.
But Portsmouth is where the body of Merc’s supercharged lightweight champion was crafted in carbon-fibre at McLaren Composites before being shipped off to the parent company in Woking for final assembly.
The boys from Pompey done good and since they have now built 3500 bodies for the SLR, Mercedes have called time on the car and the carbon-fibre wizards are probably hard at work on the forthcoming P111 project. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, another Pompey lad, would have been proud of them.
In the meantime feast your eyes on the SLR because it is indeed a thing of beauty and its status as a future classic is virtually guaranteed. All the boxes are ticked as far as the performance stats for the Roadster version are concerned. 626 bhp, 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds and a max speed of 206 mph.
Mercedes claim that you can still have a natter with your mate in the passenger seat at speeds up to 124 mph with the roof down! But then who wants to talk when the glorious sound of the 5.4 litre supercharged V8 is wailing in the background.
Top Gear likened the noise to that of a Messerschmitt ME-109 fighter plane. Awesome. Carbon-ceramic brakes and trick-spoilers creating downforce help bring the beast to a halt in seconds. The brakes even self-dry in the wet! This is indeed a clever car.
It is also another rarity that will not appear too often in the classified ads but we know of two, that’s right two, black new unregistered Roadsters that have come up for sale. Please give us a call on ++44 1474 854490 for more details or click here and we will contact you.
It must be quite good fun working for Lamborghini. Not necessarily because they make nice cars but being part of the team that pick the names has got to be a real hoot.
Take the word ‘Countach’ for instance. If you live in an area called Piedmont in Northern Italy you might recognise the word as being a way to describe a beautiful woman. Specifically it translates more accurately as ‘cop a load of that!’
How about ‘Reventon’ then? This time it’s Spanish and it means explosion, burst or blow-out. Maybe one of the team was on his way to Sant’ Agata and shredded his tyre on the Autostrada. This gets him all inspired for coming up with a new name for their new project.
The Piedmontese for blow-out is probably not very glamorous and may not lend itself well to Lambo’s new baby. Luckily somebody in the team speaks fluent Spanish and remarks that his colleague probably had a ‘reventon’ on the way in. And there you have it, job done. On to the next name-creation meeting.
That’s the easy part. Making a car to live up to the name, however, is a whole new bowl of pasta. It was always going to be an extreme styling exercise. How can you go one further than the sharp-looking Gallardo or the muscular Murcielago?
Well, they did it and the Reventon would not look out of place in any sci-fi movie of the future. It is stealth-like. It is probably invisible to speed radar guns and it looks like it carries an armoury of nuclear weapons. This car wouldn’t overtake you – it would just vapourise you. If you did manage to get a glimpse of the car before you became one with the atomic particles of the universe you would be happy to know that you had indeed been very privileged.
You see Lambo only made 21 of them. 20 were sold to customers spread all over the globe and one has been put aside for the Lamborghini Museum.
So what makes this car so special? Well performance is very simlar to the Murcielago so it ain’t no couch potato. 640 bhp, 0-60 mph in a shade over 3 seconds and a top speed in excess of 200 mph tells the story. But the body is made entirely of carbon fibre and they all came in one finish, a sort of satin dark grey. The interior is finished in black leather with brown alcantara plus chunks of aluminium laced with more carbon fibre.
The LCD instrumentation includes a ‘G-Force Meter’ which measures the dynamic forces of acceleration and braking just like Lewis has in his McLaren plus there are switchable modes for those who prefer an analogue-style presentation.
A car this rare is unlikely to come up for sale very often but we know of one with delivery mileage that is now looking for a new owner. Needless to say a sale of this kind would be very discreet but any serious enquirers should get in touch with us directly on 0845 643 2047 (or ++44 1474 854490). Click here if you would like us to call you. The picture at the top is the actual car for sale.
As cars go the Triumph Stag is a bit of an enigma. By rights it should have been consigned to the dustbin at British Leyland labelled ‘Failed Projects’ by the time the first engine blew up. But here we are 40 years later talking about a car that seems to get more desirable as the decades roll by. The problematical early days are well-documented but no longer seem to matter. It is believed that up to 9000 examples out of the original 25k made are still on the road today and after MG the Stag has one of the most active owner’s clubs around.
So how could such a problem-child turn into a classic icon?
Just park one up in the street, stand back and watch. Wager a bet with your mate that nobody will be able to pass the car without even a slight sideways glance. Giovanni Michelotti created a masterpiece. He was a bosom pal of Triumph’s boss, Harry Webster, and he was responsible for most of the company’s designs during their heyday. The Stag was his best effort and today it looks stunning.
Although the engine is the bit that most negative commentators tend to focus their attention on it is also one of the best bits. It is true of course that BL should have taken more care in its development but that doesn’t mean it is anything like an old nail. Just check the coolant regularly and change the oil every 3000 miles. There are plenty of original V8’s that have never been rebuilt so don’t believe all of the scare stories. We should know – we ran one for two years without any issues. RMK 922R where are you now?
So why is it also one of the best bits? Well, stroll back to your parked-up Stag and fire it up. The kids will drop their bikes and run up to the car begging you to give it some throttle. The noise gives you goosebumps. The tight bass-line ‘woofle’ of the V8 sounds like it was built yesterday. If you were wearing a blindfold you would never guess the car you were listening to was built in the 1970’s and the aural sensory pleasure it gives will make you want to drive the car all day with the roof down while looking for tunnels.
If BL had not skimped on important design and build issues then this V8 could have been an all-time great and it is without a doubt a perfect compliment to the super-smooth looking Stag. Forget all of the Rover V8, Ford V6 and 2.5 six-cylinder conversions – they are naff. The engines are all fine of course but the Stag’s chassis, suspension and brakes are set-up for its own V8 so weight distribution is perfectly balanced. Converted Stags are cheap for good reason so buyer beware.
The basic design was so good that the car needs very few modifications to make it a perfectly useable every day car. How about this for a specification? Front disc brakes, fully independent suspension with MacPherson struts up front, power assisted brakes, power steering, electric windows, front headrests, optional aircon, a choice of Borg-Warner automatic or 4-speed manual gearbox with overdrive and alloy wheels came as standard on the Mk2.
Over the years most owners have opted to switch to electronic ignition, polyurethane bushes and larger capacity radiators with electric fans to aid cooling. Many have installed new hoods, leather interiors and walnut veneer dashboards which only add to the car’s appeal. Don’t be tempted to fit low profile tyres though because the ride will suffer and gearing will be affected adversely.
A properly cared-for Stag should be an absolute joy to drive. Although a sprited set of performance figures are on offer – 145bhp, 0-60mph in less than 9 seconds and a top speed close to 120 – the Stag is a comfortable cruiser and a four-seater convertible to boot! The hood folds away neatly and completely under a hide-away cover and the clever ‘T-bar’ support ensures that the car remains tight with little noticeable scuttle shake. As with any classic you tend to get what you pay for and well-sorted examples fetch the best prices.
Stag’s seem to have a bit of a reputation in the film industry too because ever since the car was launched it has been a firm favourite with film producers to this very day. Diamonds Are Forever, Straw Dogs, Randall and Hopkirk, Murphy’s Law, Hazell, Second Sight, Dracula AD 1972, Carry on Emmannuelle, New Tricks and more recently on Ladytron’s ‘Ghosts’ video. Not all timeless classics granted but it just goes to show the effect of the Stag’s ‘cool car’ status.
OK, so now you want to buy one we know of a stunning, restored, two owner Pimento Red example showing only 23,000 recorded miles which even comes with the original dealer pack and ‘Passport’ to Service’ book. Click here for a Slideshow of images. Give us a call on 0845 643 2047 to find out more.
It’s RS4 time again and this time we have another B5 Avant to sell on behalf of the current owner. Seriously sought-after in Avus Silver this RS4 has been carefully maintained all through its life by Audi and comes with a manufacturer’s warranty until January 2010. Stainless- steel roof-rails, SatNav Plus, 18″ RS4 alloys and electric sunroof are all part of the kit. If you can’t stretch your budget to a B7 RS4 then these B5’s will still fill your boots if it’s stormimg performance you are after for less than £20k. How does 375 bhp and 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds sound? There are not many cars with such all-round ability and practicality that even come close to the RS4. If you would like more details of this particular example just click here.
1963, that’s when the 911 was born. And in 1981 it should have died. Fortunately a gentleman by the name of Peter Schutz who happened to be the company’s new CEO at the time had the vision and foresight not to replace the 911 with the 928. So the company was probably saved because without the 911 there wasn’t much in reserve to ensure Porsche’s financial well-being for the future. Think of Porsche and one shape comes to mind. One car, one company, one huge profit and today they own VW for goodness sake. Vielen Dank Herr Schutz! One model in the range that surely would have been chopped in its prime in 1981 was the Turbo. This lairy wild child was already pumping out 300 horses by the early eighties and the red-braces brigade in the City bought them by the shed-load with their super-size bonuses. Guards Red was de rigeur of course. Into the early nineties and the Turbo was pushing the performance boundaries for street-legal road cars and the arrival of the 993 model designed by Tony Hatter had the purists swooning. Even today the 993 Turbo can command a whopping premium and residuals are about the best you will find on any car. All down to the desirability of the twin-turbo air-cooled flat-six from which Porsche could now extract over 400 bhp. For economic and environmental reasons the only way Porsche could move the game forward in 1997 was to switch to a water-cooled design of the flat-six and along came the 996 and 450 bhp for the Turbo version. Sub 4 second times for the scrabble to 60 mph were easily achieved now and the 911 Turbo was still the car to set the benchmark for all other ‘supercar’ players including Ferrari, Lambo and the new kids on the block Audi, BM and MB. Today’s 997 Turbo will slip past 190 mph according to the official figures but does it in a more refined, technically superior way than its predecessors. Some road-testers have managed to get to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds and the latest model will use less fuel getting there than the 996 version. The 911 Turbo has always been described as the most practical supercar money can buy and in 2009 it is still probably true. We know of a new one that is up for sale with a tidy saving on the list price. Click here for details.
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