New Sport Aston Martin SUV Lagonda

Ulrich Bez has led Aston Martin for ten years now and is already two years ago brought his ideas to expand car sales with a new, different model. Lagonda brand would be revived and it was made official at the 100th anniversary declared in autumn 2008.

At the next Geneva Salon, Spring 2009, we got to see what Ulrich Bez Aston Martin and imagined, and it was not a new sedan that most believed – without a convertible! The concept car called a certain habituation, and although it did have character had Lagonda concept hard to convince everyone on the same obvious way that Aston Martin’s models usually do.

 Aston Martin SUV Lagonda

 Aston Martin SUV Lagonda

It was during a meeting in Rotterdam last week, as Ulrich Bez said that there are still 22 pieces One-77 for sale and that, in future, a four-wheel Lagonda. Much more than that wanted Ulrich Bez not tell but we may well presume that we need new ideas to convince David Richards on Lagonda project survival.

Business-wise, it would probably be on the right of Aston Martin to broaden its range with a four-wheel model. Porsche’s success with the Cayenne has not escaped anyone’s attention and the most important luxury car markets, there is no doubt to sedan model. Cooperation with Toyota mini-car around Cygnet also show that Aston is ready to take the unconventional approach.

 Aston Martin SUV Lagonda

 Aston Martin SUV Lagonda

After her divorce from Ford has been rumored that Aston Martin is looking for a new partner for future powertrains (V12: s built by Ford in Cologne). Mercedes is said to be the company that immediately comes to mind and you could also collaborate on a suvmodell, similar to the Aston chosen to partner with Toyota on Cygnet.

Aircraft-inspired street bike features an in-helmet HUD

 

The Ostoure is a street bike that takes its inspiration from the designs of Persepolis as well as the designs of aircraft. Its coolest feature? Connectivity to a display inside of the riders helmet.
The HUD indicator, embedded in the helmet, features speakers and a screen that displays vital information about the bike, such as speed and fuel levels. It's pretty awesome.
It also features handlebar setup that's more fighter jet than street bike, with the handles placed vertically. I'm sure it'd be somewhat of an adjustment for people used to traditional bike setups, but could be well worth the tradeoff for improved aerodynamics.

 

Suzuki Spin Modification

New Sport Porsche Carrera GT

Porsche Carrera GT

Porsche has since its inception by Ferdinand Porsche been a maker of high performance sports cars. Most notably the iconic 911 model which has continually evolved throughout the years to become a benchmark against which many other sports cars are measured. The 911 in all its iterations has been Porsche's bread and butter, along with the Boxster and Cayman in more recent years. Every decade or so however, Porsche brings something special out of it's factories. A supercar!

Porsche's first two supercars were produced to satisfy FIA homologation standards. This required that 200 road legal cars had to be made and sold to the public in order for the car to qualify for racing in FIA sanctioned races. The first car was the 959 which was introduced in 1986. Looking like a heavily modified 964, the 959 however was so much more. It sported a 2.8L twin-sequential-turbocharged flat-six engine that put out 444 HP. This was put to the ground with an innovative 4-wheel drive system. A first for Porsche, which worked so well, a similar system was later adapted for use on the 993 turbo, and has been a staple of Porsche's 911 turbo models ever since. In its day, the 959 was actually the fastest production car in the world, with a top speed of 200 mph and a 0-62 time of 3.7 sec. Impressive even today. The 959 continued in production through 1989.

The second Porsche supercar was the 911 GT1, which was based on a heavily modified 993 platform. Like the 959, it was produced and made available to the public for homologation purposes so that it could be raced by Porsche at Le Mans. The 911 GT1 was produced from 1996-1999. It has a water cooled twin-turbo flat-six engine that produced 700 bhp. With a 2400lb curb weight, the 911 GT1 was extremely fast. It had a 0-62 time of 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 235 mph.

In 1999, Porsche was looking to produce a new Le Mans racecar. It was originally slated to have a flat-six engine as their previous racers had. Later though, a 5.5L V10 engine was designed, however this delayed the project until 2000. The engine was then increased in displacement to 5.7L. Shortly afterward, the Le Mans project was canceled. At the same time, some of the Porsche management had been wanting to produce a new supercar for the public. Something that would bring Porsche a great deal of attention from the world. A new supercar was green lighted by management, with no restrictions that it share parts with any of their regular production cars. This freedom to build whatever they wanted opened the design team up to build a clean sheet car. Since the Le Mans project had been canceled, the newly designed V10 engine was waiting to be used in some way. It turned out to be just what the design team was looking for. With some tweaking to make it more driver friendly, Porsche now had a 5.7 Liter V10 that output 612 HP at 8400 rpm. This engine needed a car to propel still. A new carbon fiber composite chassis was designed, which was coupled with aluminum subframes. Carbon composite body panels were also crafted.

Instead of using an automated manual transmission with paddle shifting as was becoming popular in the supercar world, a six speed manual was decided upon to provide a more involved driving experience. However, it was desired by the design team to keep the engine mounted as low as possible in the middle of the car to lower the center of gravity, and thus better the handling of the car. To do so, the engineers designed the smallest clutch that's been used in production car, a 6 inch diameter twin plate carbon fiber clutch. The small size of the clutch gave it very low inertia, which let the engine rev very quickly. Some have said the clutch is tricky to get a hang of when first driving the car. It has been said however that the way to drive it is to first let the clutch out, then once rolling apply the throttle. Stalling should be a non-issue then. The Carrera GT for a while held the record time for a production car on the Nurburgring of 7:28, set by Porsche driver Walter Rorhl. The Carrera GT had a 0-62 speed of 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 205 mph. It sold for a base sticker price of $440,000.

New Sport Abarth Roadster

Abarth Roadster 2012
News of Abarth preparing their own roadster started back in 2008 and, although we have caught some rumors here and there, nothing much has panned out leaving us to believe that Abarth will be clutched under the wing of other European brands forever. That, apparently, was an incorrect assumption.

Hoping to leave behind the disappoint that was the Smart Roadster, Abarth’s new Roadster model will feature an all new design, a transverse, mid-engined layout similar to that of the Lotus Elise. There are previous suggest reports suggesting the future Abarth model will share the chassis with the KTM X-Bow, but that is still under discussion. The car’s exterior design will be inspired by Abarth models of the 1960s.

Under the hood there will be the recently launched turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir, available with outputs as high as 170bhp. The engine will be mated to a new six-speed, dual-clutch gearbox, but a seven-speed version is also a possibility for the future.

Expect the new Abarth Roadster to debut in 2012, priced at around £25,000 (aprox. $40,000 at the current exchange rates). Abarth expects to produce a total of 5,000 units to sell worldwide.

New Sport Bugatti

Bugatti must be really confident in the buying power of the rich folks of India considering that the company has introduced the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport in the country despite the ridiculous 110% import tax tacked to items like foreign exotic cars.

Add the car’s cost to the tax it comes with and to be able to purchase a Veyron in the country would mean that you would have to pay a staggering $3.6 million. Apparently, Bugatti is undeterred by the mammoth tax cars like the Veyron will be given, opting to focus more on the huge potential of the spending power of wealthy locals, which, according to analysts, could reach $14.7 billion as fast as 2015.

Satya Bagla, head of Exclusive Motors Pvt., the company that carries high-end brands Bugatti, Bentley, and Lamborghini, said that the Indian market, specifically the wealthy, are beginning to open up their bank accounts. “People have more spending power and are getting more aware of owning beautiful things,” she said.

New Sport Citroën Metropolis

In an interview with the trade journal Automotive News China confirms Gregoire Olivier, board member of the PSA Peugeot Citroen with a special responsibility to model and strategy, the concept Metropolis series is produced. Metropolis, which likely will be renamed to DS9, is one of the more premium models such as PSA Peugeot Citroen is planning for the Chinese market.

Even if the luxury car market is still not large compared to the U.S. and Europe, it has a growth rate that allows the development curve points to very high numbers at the end of the decade. The car makers want to sell many “luxury” must therefore be present in China and have models that are tailored for the Chinese taste. While PSA Peugeot Citroen is well aware of this and you will not let the German colleagues to be alone on this lucrative market.

 

 Citroën Metropolis 

 Citroën Metropolis

The cooperation between PSA and Changan Automobile Group will result in a group of premium models in which the Metropolis, or DS9, is one of the cars:
“The same design components to be used for a top model from Citroen to be developed in China,” said Gregoire Olivier to Automotive News China. However, he mentioned nothing about when this model would be ready and if it also is relevant for the European market.

Metropolis is the first concept car developed by the PSA’s own design studio in Shanghai and it was at the inauguration of the World Expo in the spring as it was unveiled. Citroën has not revealed all the details but the powertrain will consist of a two-liter gasoline V6 that provides 275 hp and 375 Nm, which indicates that Citroën makes use of turbocharging.

The transmission is a seven-speed dual clutch transmission. V6 driving the front wheels, while an electric motor at 40 kW/55 hp (quick “boost” effect 95 horses) drives the rear wheels. The system allows engines to work separately or together. Metropolis can run a few mil in city traffic completely emission free.