Motor Mania

After more than a decade one of the most iconic American supercars is back, this time it has more then double the power. The new Saleen S7 Le Mans Edition kept pretty much the same look and it uses a similar engine: a twin-turbo 7.0 liter V8 which now has 1300 hp. This car is a great example to show how technologies have enhanced trough time, the old model was launched in the year 2000 and it produced "only" 550 hp, 17 years later a similar platform is able to reach huge numbers in terms of power.


 It seems like the rest of the car didn't evolve much, it has a  6-speed synchromesh gearbox, it uses a steel space-frame chassis and body panels made of a composite material, no carbon fiber or anything fancy. My guess is that all the budget was invested on the engine "forgetting" about the rest, tell us in the comments what do you think. In any case this is true a race car but without the disadvantage of a fully stripped interior in fact even if it comes with a roll cage it still maintains air conditioning. It also has a rear view camera, something that should always be present on cars that long. Only seven of those cars will be produced and each one will be sold for one million dollars.

After its first appearance a while back at Goodwood Festival of Speed the new Spyder variant of the 570s is finally available. Convertibles like this one may look very good but usually the performance is affected by the chassis, this because that the roof is an important element for the structural rigidity so if you take it off you have to compensate making the bottom more stiffer and consequently heavier. It was not the case with this car because also in the Coupé version the strength was concentrated in the bottom to lower the center of mass, this is what allowed to have an added weight of just 101 pounds (46 kg). The engine and transmission are the same in both versions: 3.8 liter twin-turbo V8 producing 562 hp, 443 lb-ft (570 Nm) of torque and a seven-speed gearbox. The 570s Spyder can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in 3.2 seconds and has a top speed of 204 mph (328 km/h). The roof unfolding takes just 15 seconds and it can be done at speeds up to 25 mph. The starting price will be 211,300$  (186,557 euro) which is 20,200$ more than the Coupé enough money to buy a new Ford Focus.




Pictures by McLaren

Let's make a leap into the future to the year 2019 when BMW is planning the release of a very special hypercar. We still know very little about this vehicle, it will come in two versions a hybrid and a fully electric which will be called E10. The hybrid will have a 3.0 liter engine and a total power output of 591 hp (600 PS) costing around 200,000 euro (about 230,000$) this according to the German magazine Auto Bild. This car has enough power to be an interesting competitor for a lot of cars especially the Audi R8.



pictures by Auto Bild

The four-time WRC champion finally had his chance to try a F1 car for the first time. In 2016 he and the Moto GP legend Valentino Rossi were invited by Mercedes F1 team to test their race-car but apparently only Rossi ended up doing the test. Finally nearly one year later he had the occasion to get in a Red Bull Racing F1 car, the same team he runs for in the WRC, realizing another of his dreams as he states in a tweet  the day before the test "Reached Already so many dreams, met the love of my life, became daddy, WRC world champ…Tomorrow another dream will come true!".

As i said in a previous post Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are doing everything to gain the respect they deserve and loose their old reputation of "cheap car manufacturers". The i30 N is the first performance car of the N line, a hot hatch which has the experience of the brand in the WRC infused in it to make it a tough competitor for cars like the Golf GTI. This model has been developed also focusing on the excitement of the person behind the wheel for example with an exhaust sound generator which makes cool back-fire sounds.
The car looks very intimidating, it has a wide front grill, red accents in the front splitter and rear diffuse and it has the same paint used in the i20 competing in the WRC.
The engine is a 2.0 liter turbocharged inline 4 spitting out 271 hp and 353 Nm (260 lb-ft) of torque, the power is sent to the front wheels through a six speed transmission.
For the wheels you can choose between 18 or 19 inch and combined with the electronic limited slip differential and suspension contribute to a great grip in every situation. The i30 N can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62mph) in 6.4 seconds, the exact same as a Golf GTI, and the top speed is 250 km/h (155 mph). This vehicle has been heavily tested in the Nürburgring it has done infact more than 10 thousand km in the German track where Hyundai has a testing facility. The car will be available towards the end of 2017 the price is still unknown but it will be probably very close to the competitors maybe a bit lower.

The new X Class is classy but it's not afraid to get dirty, after the concept presented in 2016 we heard a lot of talking about it until finally on the 5th of July Mercedes Benz released a teaser on You Tube. This is just an anticipation, the official debut of the pick-up will be on the 18 of July. The look is astonishing, i am very curious to see if also the production model will have the same "grill-tailgate".

Even if this is an actual track car, with a roll cage behind the racing seats, the interior is still very rich it has not been striped of its elegance and essential parts to reduce the weight. There is a beautiful contrast between the roof covered in red leather and the bottom of the cockpit which is black. The GT2 RS will cost 285,220 euro in Europe while in the US it will have a starting price of 293,200 dollars.

At the Goodwood Festival of Speed  Aston Martin presented the new Vulcan AMR Pro. This is not a new model but it's an upgrade kit for the 24 lucky people who own one (the production was limited).
The engine is the same, as in the standard model launched back in 2015 at Geneva Motor Show, a 7 liter V12 with 804 hp but with shorter gears.
The main changes are in the aerodynamics in fact it now has a bigger wing and canards on the front bumper all contributing to a great increase in down force.
The price still has not been announced but it will not be cheap, if you spent 2.3 million dollars on this car you might as well spend some more to make it better.