Lamborghini is rushing to unleash a monster lightweight, rear-drive rocket in late 2008 as a last hurrah for the Murciélago supercar.

Sources at Sant’Agata say the car, dubbed the SV, will have even more power than the 641-hp V12 Reventón and will be blindingly fast in a straight line. Sources say it will have at least 220 pounds stripped from the Murciélago LP640′s 3663-pound body, with some suggesting the savings could be close to 300 pounds.

Losing the front differential and driveshafts will save some 90 pounds alone, and dietary lessons learned from the Gallardo Superleggera will provide the rest of the needed weight reduction.

The welded-tube steel chassis is a more difficult proposition than the aluminum-bodied Gallardo, though, because most of the larger car’s body panels are already carbon fiber. Only its roof and door panels are aluminum.

Lamborghini sources note the SV program has followed the Superleggera program by dividing the focus into three areas: interior, exterior and mechanicals. The interior will become carbon-fiber central, including the inner door skins, the seat shells and the center tunnel. Leather-lined door panels will be replaced by carbon, with a pull strap for a door handle, saving five pounds per door. Lamborghini also will strip out the audio system, and if it follows Superleggera precedent, it will happily sell it back to you as an option.

The electronic system to raise and lower the spoiler will go. Lamborghini is almost certain to offer two carbon-fiber rear wings, one far wider and more outrageous than the other. All-new forged and machined alloy rims will save at least 13 pounds per corner.

E-gear will be standard, both because it saves weight and because Lamborghini is worried that life will be busy enough for SV drivers without having to negotiate the open gearshift gate.

Weight savings also will come by replacing aluminum parts with magnesium. Nonstressed components also will be lightened.

Insiders are talking about as much as 680 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque from what may be the final iteration of a 6.5-liter V12 that traces its roots to the pre-Miura era. Expect new, lighter exhaust internals to serve the dual missions of cutting weight and easing back pressure.

Traction-control software will be heavily modified to cope with power being pumped exclusively through the rear wheels. The Murciélago has no skid-control systems.

The SV will have the fastest shifting in a Lamborghini to date, with insiders suggesting shift times could drop from the current 0.4 second to 0.2.

Besides building the road cars, Lamborghini also could use the car for homologation for privateer teams already running in the FIA GT championship.

With less than three years left before the Murciélago is replaced, the SV is almost certain to be the final update of the supercar. There is no suggestion yet that Lamborghini has plans for a Gallardo SV.

Get behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Gallardo by going to DFW Elite Auto Rental.  Then try out a Ferrari, Porsche, or Viper by getting a Drive Your Dream Tour.

 

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/FREE/71128001/1065

Stewart, who is married to model and Strictly Come Dancing star Penny Lancaster, was the second owner of the 2002 Ferrari 575, powered by a whopping 5.75-litre V12 engine.

Pushing out an epic 515bhp and 435lb/ft of pulling power, the Ferrari 575 rockets from 0-62mph (100kph) in 4.2 seconds before topping out at 202mph.

And with this lightning performance come bank account emptying costs, with the £156,000 supercar averaging 13mpg, emitting 499g/km of carbon dioxide and being placed in the top insurance group.

But this wouldn’t have been an issue for the Maggie May singer, who is worth a reported £105 million.

The Ferrari 575 Maranello was launched in 2002 as a replacement for the outgoing 550 – another rock star’s favourite.

We’ve had Ferrari 550s previously owned by Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend for sale on Auto Trader. 

Rod Stewart tried his hands as a footballer and grave-digger before turning his talents to music.

The husky-voiced 62-year-old has shifted more than 250 million records over a 40-year career chalking up karaoke classics such as The First Cut is the Deepest and Do ya think I’m Sexy? 

Now you can get your hands on Rod’s bright yellow Ferrari – which has covered just 10,000 miles – for £76,995

 

Can’t buy Rod’s Ferrari?  Then go to DFW Elite Auto Rental and get one for your next special occassion.  Or get a Drive Your Dream Tour for yourself and drive away in different models of exotic cars. 
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIAL/CARS/news/37744.html

Introduced on Wednesday: Audi Cross Cabriolet quattro concept

Is it real? Audi says it’s introducing a new vehicle segment with the Cross Cabriolet quattro. Could that happen? In a word, No.

What’s the point? An open-top S.U.V.-like vehicle sounds good on paper. Too bad the paper just blew away.

What they said: The four-seater “combines the genes of a typical dynamic soft-top convertible from Audi with the all-round qualities of a fully fledged S.U.V.,” the company’s statement said. “The muscular, powerful, but also elegant lines make no secret of this vehicle’s potential.”

What they didn’t say: “Crossover.”

What makes it tick? Under the hood is Audi’s new six-cylinder 3-liter TDI diesel engine. Other technology includes an eight-speed automatic transmission, permanent all-wheel drive and ride-height adjustability.

How much, how soon? Audi’s Santa Monica, Calif., design studio was behind the experiment, so unfortunately it looks like those people will be the only ones enjoying it.

How’s it look? Sorry, we were just thinking about the R8. What was the question?

Porsche is debuting its fastest 911 production car ever. The 911 GT2 generates an astounding 530 horsepower from its 3.6-liter, twin-turbocharged, boxer, six-cylinder engine.
It’s enough to jettison the lightweight sports car from 0 to 60 mph in only 3.6 seconds. Top speed, on a racetrack, is 204 mph. Note the previous 911 GT2 “only” had 480 horses.
Other exotic details of this new model are tailpipes and muffler made of titanium, and brake discs made of a carbon fiber/ceramic compound. Price, if you have to ask, is more than $191,000.
Meantime, 2008 brings a 911 Turbo Cabriolet priced at more than $136,000. The 2+2, all-wheel-drive sports car uses the same 480-horsepower, 3.6-liter, twin-turbocharged, boxer, inline six cylinder that’s in the 911 Turbo Coupe.
But the new Cabrio includes a fabric top that can go up or down in less than 20 seconds, even if the car is traveling nearly 30 mph.
And in March, look for the first Porsche Cayenne SUV in the United States with a manual transmission. The new Cayenne GTS, offering a six-speed manual, also will feature a lowered suspension with the Active Suspension Management system used on Porsche’s sports cars, and a higher-power V-8 than what’s in other Cayennes.

Check out the Porsche models that DFW Elite Auto Rental has or join the Car Club to drive one of many high end luxury or exotic cars. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20889740/?pg=14#New_cars_2008_070914

 

AUDI The German luxury carmaker started selling its 2008 TT coupe and roadster last spring. The new models, which are slightly larger than their predecessors and feature refinements in design, ergonomics and ride, are the first major reworking of the Bauhausian-styled TTs since they were introduced in the United States in autumn 1999.
Two engines are offered: A 200-horsepower, 2-liter, turbo charged four and a 250-horse, 3.2-liter V-6.
But the most anticipated Audi this year is the exotic-looking R8. Audi’s first mid-engine sports car, the lightweight, all-wheel-drive, two-seat R8 with aluminum space-frame construction is street-ready, though it looks like it just came off a European racetrack.
It drives like a race car, too, with power coming from a 420-horsepower, 4.2-liter V-8 mated to either a six-speed manual transmission or an R tronic sequential automatic. Zero-to-60-mphtime is estimated at only 4.4 seconds.
The R8 name, by the way, comes from the legendary Audi race car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times earlier this decade.
Starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including destination charge and federal gas guzzler tax, is $115,600. Annual production is estimated at 3,000, with only about 900 likely to come to these shores.

And DFW Elite Auto Rental is soon going to have one of the limited number of Audi R8 models available in the US…so get on the list to rent it now.  You can also join the DFW Elite Car Club to drive the R8 and any of the exotic cars in their fleet.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20889740/?pg=2#New_cars_2008_070914

ASTON MARTIN Sold off by Ford in March for nearly $1 billion (and now owned by private investors including Kuwaitis) ultra-luxury carmaker Aston Martin launches the DBS for 2008. The sleek, lightweight, two-passenger coupe promises to be the quickest Aston Martin production car ever with a 0-to-60-mph time around a mere 4.3 seconds. The DBS chassis is weight-saving aluminum, and power comes from a 510-horsepower, 6-liter V-12 with quad overhead cam shafts. Top speed is 191 mph.
Only some 300 DBS cars will be built annually in Great Britain, so the DBS will be a most exclusive ride. The starting price tag is expected to be around $265,000.
Meantime, Aston’s long-running Vanquish is ending production, and Aston fans are waiting for the coming launch of the four-door Rapide.

Drive one of the Aston Martin models that DFW Elite Auto Rental has to offer or, better yet, join the DFW Elite Car Club to drive all of them!http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20889740/?pg=1#New_cars_2008_070914

Since the arrival of the Dodge Viper in 1994 as a latter-day Shelby Cobra roadster, its creators at Dodge have staked their banner atop the horsepower mountain. That original car’s monstrous 8-liter V-10 engine bellowed out a then-hard-to-conceive 400 horsepower, a power peak that towered above other cars’ output like the Matterhorn over the local sledding hill.

But pesky pretenders to the Viper’s throne won’t stay down, which prompted an upgrade to 8.3 liters and 500 horsepower in 2004 and now, for 2008, 8.4 liters and an astounding 600 horsepower.

As in every arms race, similar weapons are available to all participants, so what seems like an impenetrable Maginot Line of engine power can be quickly bypassed.

Cross-town rival General Motors already offers 500 horses in the Chevrolet Corvette and is rumored to be readying a 750-horsepower, supercharged reply to the Viper. That is the territory of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Indy Car and Formula One racers.

But for now, the Viper rules.

Press the red “start” button (like a race car; no twist of the key here) and the Viper’s V-10 bellows to life with a Harley-Davidson smoker’s cough out the side pipes.  Nothing says untamed and barely legal like a little bit of incivility.

As iconic a piece of Detroit iron as the Viper may be, the car’s pavement-pounding power is not solely the product of hard work by Michigan gearheads.  A big chunk of the credit for the Viper’s output — and the industrywide upward spiral of propulsive force — goes to the computer gurus of Silicon Valley, officials said at a recent press event held at Virginia International Raceway.

Immensely fast and powerful engine management computers that fine-tune every aspect of the engine’s operation, combined with computer design, modeling and simulation tools, allow engineers to divine improvements in virtual reality long before moving to aluminum and steel.

Underhood computers tweak the ignition timing, valve timing and fuel mixture continuously, based on data gathered from sensors that check the throttle position, engine speed, engine coolant temperature, ambient temperature and oxygen in the exhaust to ensure near-perfect combustion in every cylinder, every time.

Such perfection not only makes more power and less pollution while using less fuel, it also lets the engine run closer to its theoretical limits with less margin for error — because there is less error to account for.  Running nearer the limit also contributes to improved efficiency, which translates again to more power, less fuel and less pollution.

(EPA mileage figures have not yet been announced for the 2008 Viper, although the previous model was rated at just 13 miles per gallon for combined city and highway driving.)

All these improvements also contribute to a hefty price tag, starting at $84,000.

Even with improvements in efficiency and emissions, the Viper’s raison d’etre is being extreme.  Extremely powerful, extremely brutal, extremely uncompromising.  It must have the most, or it will become disillusioned and possibly join a commune.

The trouble is, as rivals ramp up the horsepower, they could set the bar very high for the Dodge guys to match.

“You can’t be No. 1 in everything, all the time,” concedes Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for the Viper.  So if Chevy rolls out a super-expensive, limited edition ‘Vette with more power?  “Then you have to continue to be the top of the heap in price/performance,” he said.

Four-door sedans like the BMW M5 have 500 horsepower at the ready for milk and diaper runs to Costco with the kiddies snuggled into their child seats in the back.  The Dodge Magnum station wagon boasts 425 horsepower in SRT8 trim — perfect for humiliating sports cars at the drag strip if not fetching plywood from Home Depot.

Engine power may not have obeyed the Moore’s Law of the computer world that posits a doubling in power every 18 months, but just a couple model years of age can let prestigious names like Porsche and Corvette be outgunned by the likes of a Dodge Magnum wagon.

Today’s Porsche 911 Turbo has 480 horsepower, plus an “overboost” button that permits it to crank out extra power at lower revs — here again computers are wringing every possible calorie of energy from a drop of fuel.  By comparison, a millennial 911 Turbo made “only” 415 horsepower.  The limited production 2001 Corvette Z06 model debuted with a then-impressive 385 horsepower.

As in every conflict, civilians feel the effects too.  The Honda Accord and Toyota Camry — U.S. sales leaders and the definition of a plain vanilla transportation for many people — have optional V6 engines rated at 268 horsepower.  Twenty years ago, the Corvette had 230 horsepower.  The Accord makes more power than that ‘Vette with an engine that can meet California’s stringent Partial Zero Emission Vehicle pollution standard.

This rising tide of power boosts expectations of thoroughbred supercars, for which legendary reputations are no substitute for underhood power.  That means that Ferrari and Lamborghini are raising their games, with 500-plus horsepower increasingly seen as the price of entry, and more is better.  That is why the Ferrari F599 Fiorano’s V-12 churns out 620 horsepower.

The expectation might be that in the face of uncertain fuel supplies the wave of such cars will crash ashore and then roll back.  But in fact, limited production supercars sell in very small numbers and are driven relatively little by their owners who can easily afford to fuel them even with expensive gasoline.  That is why super-high-performance cars have evaded the sights of environmentalists, in contrast to the high sales volume, high daily mileage SUV family haulers.

But even absent political considerations, the expectation is that the recent forward march of increased power simply cannot continue.  There are practical reasons to think power of our most muscular machines will soon plateau.  The first is that before computerized controls the internal combustion engine was still a fairly primitive machine, with plenty of low-hanging efficiency fruit for engineers to snatch.  That tree has been largely picked over now, so the potential for additional improvement has diminished.

But even if power could be boosted further, it gets increasingly difficult to get such power to the road without snapping axles and driveshafts under the strain.

To this day the Viper wears wheel hubs with six lug nuts, rather than the usual five.  That is because the only hubs in the corporate parts bin when the Viper team concocted the original car that had a hope of withstanding its then-mind boggling 400 horsepower were from the company’s rugged Ram pickups.

Today’s drivetrains look more like they’ve been lifted from dump trucks, and the wheels seem to come from steam rollers, so it is not practical for sports cars to add much more power. And of course, such power is a challenge for drivers to control.

“There is a point at which the power becomes more than you can hold onto,” observes Helbig.  Where is that point?  “I don’t know,” he says.  “Maybe 800.”  Hmm.  That number is just higher than the forecast Corvette’s output.  Coincidence?  Probably not.

If 800 horsepower is the Viper’s final destination until the day when Star Trek transporters convey us instantly, perhaps we won’t mind too much.  Of course the electric power guys are promising motors mounted directly to the wheel hubs that could put down even more power.  So perhaps the fuel cell era will herald a new age of still higher-performance sports cars. 

Ford fired the opening shot in that contest, claiming a land speed record in August with a 207 mph fuel cell-powered version of the company’s Fusion sedan.  Today’s production Viper tops out at 200 mph.  “What we’ve accomplished is nothing short of an industry first,” crowed Gerhard Schmidt, vice president of research and advanced engineering for Ford Motor Co.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20604041/

Driving through Ferrari’s hometown of Maranello in the 430 Scuderia, their latest model, you’re given the kind of response usually reserved for returning astronauts or touring pontiffs. School children, wily old pensionati and even local carabinieri stop, grin and cheer and encourage you to rev that hand-built V8 engine some more.

This is not surprising when the engine sounds more impressive and daunting than ever – Ferrari engineers having created an Articulation Index to give the car as throaty a roar as possible whilst ensuring you can still hold a civilized conversation in the cabin, even at high speeds.

With the most advanced engine and gearbox in a road-going Ferrari so far, the 430 Scuderia may seem like a daunting prospect to drive, but incredibly it purrs around town during rush hour as comfortably as it roars around the Fiorano test circuit (where it recently equalled the lap record set by the £425,000 Ferrari Enzo).

Mind-bogglingly fast gear changes (60 milliseconds, the same as the blink of an eye) ensure the speed just keeps on coming and if your nerve holds it will propel you to 198mph. According to the Ferrari test drivers, this car is the closest the company has yet come to replicating the F1 experience with a road-going car.

With nearly every aspect of the car open to personal specification, from paint colour through to fabric and stitching colour and even monogrammed headrests, the 430 Scuderia is an impressive marriage of bespoke craftsmanship and race-track speed, and quite possibly their best production model yet.

http://www.wallpaper.com/cars/ferrari-430-scuderia/1823

 

Want to take a Ferrari out for a spin?  Go to DFW Elite Auto Rental where you can chooose from one of their many models, or better yet, get a Drive Your Dream Tour and speed around town in a 2500 horsepower dream come true.