To help promote the release of the Golf VII GTI at the Geneva Motor Show Volkswagen has released this Frank Sinatra inspired video. The clip closes with the line, “Often copied. Never equalled.” Volkswagen knows the GTI has big boots to fill, we can’t wait to find out how they’ve gone honouring the GTI legend.
[Thanks to Paul for the tip]
So, it’s the real deal then, this strictly limited Lamborghini Veneno.
The Veneno has a mammoth 552kW (750hp) snorting from its 6.5 litre V12. Coupled to an all-wheel drive system and 7-speed ISR transmission it’s enough to propel it to 100km/h in 2.8 seconds and to a v-max of 355km/h. As expected it carries a hefty €3 million (AU$3.8m) price tag and only three models will be made, all of which have already sold.
Following Lamborghini tradition the name Veneno honours a legendary fighting bull. Back in 1914 Veneno was the fastest and most aggressive bull around, they say. Just don’t ask José Sánchez RidgrÃguez, who was fatally wounded by Veneno back in the day.
The show car on display in Geneva has bits of raw carbon fibre peeking out from many angles, which give away its production technique. However, the three production models, to be built during the year, will be painted in unique colours; one white, one red and one green, in homage to the Italian flag.
Of the extreme exterior design Lamborghini says everything you see has a function, this results in “exceptional dynamics, optimum downforce with minimal drag and perfect cooling of the high-performance engine.”
Hmm, it kind of misses the mark, don’t you think?
Andreas Preuninger, Head of GT Cars at Porsche, knows a thing or two about the new 911 GT3. He’s just been interviewed about the car by Jethro Bovingdon from Evo magazine. In his introduction Bovingdon says, “If you’re a Porsche geek you will love this.”
He was right.
It just looks perfect.
From every angle the new 991 Porsche 911 GT3 has a purposeful stance that just looks right. Simply by looking at the new GT3 it begs you to drive it.
On to the official stats for the latest 911 GT3. It has a tidy 350kW (475hp) at 8250rpm and 440Nm of torque at 6250rpm on tap from its new DFI 3.8 litre flat-six cylinder engine. That’s 15hp more than the new 911 GT3 Cup, which uses the old Mezger engine. The new GT3 sees off 100km/h in 3.5 seconds and 200km/h will be gone in under 12 seconds. It has a top speed of 315km/h.
The rear axle is 44mm wider than the 991 Carrera S. The conrods are titanium and forged pistons, just a couple of the measures that allow the 3.8 litre to rev to 9000rpm. The new 20″ wheels are made from forged alloy. The unladen weight of the GT3 is 1430kg.
As predicted there’s an active rear-wheel steering system. At speeds below 50km/h the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the front wheels, but above 80km/h the rear wheel steer in parallel to the fronts. The result, Porsche says, is a more agile and dynamic GT3.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the PDK-only transmission. The GT3 specific 7-speed box, we’re told by Andreas Preuninger (more on that here), is lightning fast—changes take less than 100 milliseconds—and more involving than a manual. There was much debate at Porsche over the merits of PDK versus manual transmission and the move to PDK wasn’t taken lightly.
For those keeping score the 2013 911 GT3 can lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 30 seconds.
There’s more pics below with a couple of videos along the way as well. Also available is Porsche’s full Geneva Motor Show Press kit which has lost more detail on everyone’s favourite 911. Today is a very good day!
UPDATE: We can confirm the 991 911 GT3 will go on sale in Australia towards the end of this year. Pricing to be announced closer to launch.
This almost comical looking creation is, we are to believe, the latest batshit crazy hypercar to come from Lamborghini. It’s called the Veneno, Spanish for poison or venom, and just three are expected to be made. Which may be why Lamborghini thinks they can get away with asking $4.6 million for each one.
The Veneno takes the carbon fibre tub from the Aventador and turns the extreme scale well beyond 11. The 6.5 litre V12 packs a 740hp punch and power is sent to the road through all four wheels. The 0–100km/h sprint is blown away in less than three seconds on the way to a top speed in excess of 350km/h. Remember when 300km/h use to cut the mustard!
Apparently the Veneno has been created as part of Lambo’s 50th birthday bash and we assume this is the model CEO Stephen Winkelmann was talking about late last year.
The leaked images show Lamborghini’s in-house prototype which won’t be sold. The other three will be painted in the colours of the Italian flag. Isn’t that nice.
We’ll be finding out on the next few days if this is the real deal because it’s said to be making its debut at Geneva. Party time!
[via Jalopnik]
The new MINI John Cooper Works GP has arrived in Australia and it might be about to kick a few goals down under. That’s certainly the case if this video from Evo magazine is anything to go by. Perhaps for local relevance the cars they tested the GP2 against are not very worthy, but as an outright measure of capability this surely has to stack up.
Against the MINI we see two former greats tackle two new hot hatches. From Ford we have the awesome looking Focus RS 500, while Renault provides the track-day special Megane R26.R. Two excellent cars that serve to provide a handy benchmark. To see if they can beat the old timers the MINI was joined by the limited-edition Audi A1 quattro.
Okay, we’ve probably already given away the result but it won’t make the clip any less enjoyable. And you can have the GP2 in your garage for around $60K. Not bad, huh?
[Thanks to Wayne for the tip]
Spare a thought for driver Leigh Gotch and co-driver John McCarthy who spectacularly crashed out of Rally Canberra on the weekend. The incident happened at the notorious Mineshaft jump where discretion is usually the better part of valour. It’s fair to say Gotch made a meal of the jump, even though the in-car footage (see video after the break) looks relatively tame.
Gotch explained he wanted to take a conservative approach to the jump but an equipment failure complicated things, “I was trying to judge my speed, I wanted to take it at about 60, but our speedo wasn’t working, so I just had to guess what 60 felt like,” he said.
“Later on when I looked at the race GPS it showed we were doing 75. That is what the problem was, we just took it too fast.â€
Thankfully Gotch and McCarthy escaped unharmed but their Subaru Impreza WRC STi was unable to continue. The rally was won by Honda driver Eli Evans.
It’s well known that lap times achieved in Formula 1 pre-season testing can only be relied on as a loose guide to genuine pace, but it’s still interesting to look back and see who did what.
For example, defending champions Red Bull Racing only managed to see one of its drivers top the time sheets once and that was on a day affected by inclement weather so is perhaps an even more unreliable sample. Ferrari managed to top the charts twice, once each for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. While Lotus, Mercedes AMG and McLaren shared the spoils, each topping the charts on three occasions.
The table below gives you an easy reference to the fastest times seen during the off-season. Times marked with an asterisk indicate a day that was affected by wet weather. The fastest times achieved on those days may have been set on dry tyres, but in general conditions were not ideal.
| Location | Driver | Team | Lap time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerez (Day 1) | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:18.861 |
| Jerez (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:18.218 |
| Jerez (Day 3) | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:17.879 |
| Jerez (Day 4) | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:18.148 |
| Barcelona I (Day 1) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:22.616 |
| Barcelona I (Day 2) | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1:21.848 |
| Barcelona I (Day 3) | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:21.875 |
| Barcelona I (Day 4) | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1:23.282* |
| Barcelona II (Day 1) | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:22.693* |
| Barcelona II (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:22.716* |
| Barcelona II (Day 3) | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.558 |
| Barcelona II (Day 4) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.130 |
Ferrari has officially confirmed it will be bringing a “special series car” to the Geneva Motor Show. That means the F150, aka Enzo replacement, will finally be unveiled. This, despite reports saying all 499 models have already been sold.
Over the last couple of days Ferrari has released teaser images of its new toy (one above, two more after the break). You can keep an eye out for further updates on their website and Facebook page.
Details are due to be released tomorrow, which will likely mean late in the evening or early Wednesday morning. We shall update you as soon as we can.
Mercedes AMG has well and truly put their poor start to 2013 pre-season testing behind them with Nico Rosberg claiming top honours in Barcelona overnight.
Rosberg’s time of 1:20.130 betters that of teammate Lewis Hamilton (1:20.558) from yesterday and is the fastest seen in all eight days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Just over three tenths behind Rosberg was Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:20.494) with Jenson Button (McLaren, 1:21.444) third quickest.
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 1:22.514) proved to be a little harder to interpret, managing only the eighth fastest time of the day. Trackside reports say Red Bull ran much of the day with unmarked tyres, making it hard to read Vettel’s pace.
Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, 1:23.628) was well off the pace, registering the second slowest time, with Charles Pic (Caterham) and Jules Bianchi (Marussia) ahead of him. We’re not too sure if that is a genuine sign of concerns for the STR8 or if it was merely a matter of the team concentrating on their own agenda. A little bit of both, perhaps?
“We had some shorter runs to do in the morning, during which we tried most of the tyre compounds, while getting through all the items on our job sheet,” Ricciardo said. “In the afternoon we managed a few long runs, which was good, as we hadn’t done many at this test, because of the bad weather. I think we learned a bit there. I’m now looking forward to Australia and hope that we’ll be able to produce some good speed at my home race.â€
Speaking with more positivity was Nico Rosberg who said after testing, “I’m pleased with our pre-season testing programme. We have achieved a lot of mileage and I can feel that the balance of the car is good.
“I have the general feeling that we are in a better position than in the second half of last year but this is testing not racing, of course. The conditions in the first race will be completely different to here as it will be much hotter in Melbourne and Sepang so we need to wait and see.”
With pre-season testing out of the way there’s just one more F1-free weekend to endure before the car roar into life in Melbourne.
Sunshine at last in Barcelona for the penultimate day of pre-season testing and Lewis Hamilton made merry for Mercedes AMG by setting the fastest time yet.
Hamilton sent his F1 W04 around the track in 1:20.558, that’s more than a second faster than we’ve seen all winter at Barcelona, beating the previous best by Sergio Perez (McLaren, 1:21.848). Second quickest overnight was Felipe Massa (Ferrari, 1:21.266) suggesting the F138 is not the same dog the F2012 turned out to be. Third on the lap charts was a resurgent Adrian Sutil (Force India, 1:21.627). So the top three, then, all went quicker than Perez’s old benchmark.
Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:22.658) had his last day in the RB9 before heading to Melbourne and could only manage the seventh fastest time. Webber only registered 59 laps for the day and was a late starter due to the team adding new parts to his car.
“We had a few small issues with the car today which delayed us a couple of times and while it wasn’t ideal I think we still learned plenty,” said Webber. “In terms of the overall feeling at the end of my spell of testing, I think we’ve done well and we have made a step forward.
“Looking at the first race, I think it’s going to be a tight grand prix. There are a lot of quick cars out there and hopefully we have one of them.â€
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was a little more circumspect than you might have expected. “There’s still a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we want to be but the team is doing a great job. Whilst we’ve been focusing on our own performance, we definitely haven’t seen the full potential of our competitors yet, so it’s difficult to predict where we might be.”
Kimi Raikkonen was due to test for Lotus but must have had a huge night on the turps as he was a now show, meaning Romain Grosjean and test driver Davide Valsecchi shared time in the car.
There’s now just one more day of testing remaining before the teams hit the track in Australia in two weeks. Who’s getting excited?!
Jules Bianchi’s disappointment at missing out on the last seat at Force India hasn’t lasted long with confirmation he will drive full-time for Marussia in 2013.
Marussia had, in theory, already locked away its two drivers for the year with young Briton Max Chilton to be joined by 23-year-old Brazilian Luis Razia. However, it’s being reported that Razia’s financial backers missed a payment forcing Marussia to cancel his contract.
Ferrari, who has supported Bianchi throughout his junior career, was keen to see the 23-year-old Frenchman secure a drive in 2013 and Bianchi’s management leapt into action when a chance at Marussia became available. Naturally, he’s pretty happy about the news, even though he doesn’t have much time to familiarise himself with the team before heading to Australia.
“Racing in Formula 1 this season has been my goal over the winter and after evaluating a number of options I am very excited to have this opportunity to demonstrate that I am ready for this next step in my racing career,” Bianchi said.
“I am also very grateful to the Ferrari Driver Academy that has always supported me and has given me the possibility to mature as a racing driver enabling me to be fully prepared for this new exciting challenge. The next two weeks of preparation for the season will be incredibly busy but I am ready to get started tomorrow with my first day in the MR02.â€