2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster unveiled
After the endless parade of rumors, conjecture, spy shots and even official information, Mercedes-Benz has finally dropped the full batch of details and photos of its latest flagship: the SLS AMG Roadster.
The new droptop loses the gullwing doors of its coupe counterpart, but those German engineers have gone to great lengths to ensure it loses nothing else in the process. Chopping the roof, fitting conventional doors, and stiffening the body as required results in a convertible that only weighs 88 lbs more than the coupe. The roof-available in black, red or beige-can be dropped or raised in just eleven seconds at speeds up to 31 mph.
Top speed is electronically limited in either position to 197 mph, while officially quoted acceleration times, for some reason, drop from 3.8 seconds in the gullwing coupe to 3.7 in the Roadster. Along with the convertible roof, Mercedes has also packed in a new electronically-controlled Adaptive AMG Sport Suspension, AMG Performance Media system to track and display vehicle telemetrics, and an AMG Drive Unit to control it all.
The Roadster – which beats the anticipated convertible versions of the Ferrari 458 Italia, McLaren MP4-12C, Pagani Huayra and Lamborghini Aventador to market – will be officially unveiled this fall at the Frankfurt Motor Show, around the same time that deliveries are set to begin Stateside. In the meantime, you can follow the jump for all the details and check out the extensive photo gallery for a closer look.
1991 Yamaha YZR500 vs 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1
With two decades separating the 1991 Yamaha YZR500 and the 2011 YZR-M1, it’s interesting to see how the two bikes compare…
For fans of motorcycle grand prix racing, who grew up watching those wild, fire-breathing two-stroke 500s of the 1980s and 1990s, the RGVs, NSRs and YZRs of yore are a bit special. In terms of electro-wizardry, today’s four-stroke grand prix bikes must be incredibly more sophisticated we’re sure, but those old 500s were something else – we’re still truly, deeply and madly in love with those machines.
We thought it would be interesting to compare the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 with its forerunner from twenty years ago, the 1991 Yamaha YZR500. With Wayne Rainey having won the 1990 500cc world championship (the first of his three successive world championships in the 500cc class), the 1991 YZR carried the number 1 plate. The 2011 YZR-M1 also carries the number-one plate, what with Jorge Lorenzo having won the MotoGP world championship in 2010. So at least that’s one thing that’s common between the two Yamaha GP bikes – they were/are at the very top of their game.
The 1991 Marlboro Yamaha YZR500 OWD3 weighed in at 130 kilos and its liquid-cooled two-stroke 500cc V4 produced 155 horsepower. During 1991, Wayne Rainey won six GPs on this bike, winning his second 500cc world championship in the process. Yamaha’s other rider that year, John Kocinski also won a race aboard this machine and Rainey later went on to say that the 1991 YZR500 was the best GP bike he ever rode.
For its time, the 1991 YZR500 was pretty sophisticated, with a light, stiff, ‘Deltabox’ chassis made of aluminium, and three-stage adjustable ‘computerised electronic suspension’ (CES) developed by Ohlins. In terms of sheer sophistication, however, the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 is leagues ahead of the old YZR – something that’s only to be expected given the two decades that separate the two machines.
Today, electronics have made GP bikes relatively easier to ride…
The 2011 YZR-M1 is fitted with a liquid-cooled fuel-injected (the 1991 YZR500 used carburettors…) 800cc four-stroke inline-four that produces more than 200 horsepower, which can propel the 150-kilo bike to a top speed of about 325km/h. Like the YZR500, the Yamaha YZR-M1 also gets an aluminium ‘Deltabox’ chassis with adjustable steering geometry, wheelbase and ride height. And just like its predecessor, the new bike also rides on fully adjustable Ohlins suspension and has carbon brake discs all around. However, with its high-tech electronics, safety is one area where the new YZR-M1 is in a different league compared to the YZR500. Bits like traction control and wheelie control etc are making sure that GP bikes are nowhere near as vicious as they used to be, 20 years ago.
Apart from comparing GP bikes from the two eras, it’s also interesting to compare the state of MotoGP itself – there are some similarities in the way things were back in 1991 and how they are today. Back in the early-1990s, motorcycle grand prix racing seemed to be in need of some significant stimulation and, from 1992, Yamaha even started supplying their 500cc GP engine to various privateer teams who used the Yamaha engine in chassis of their own design. engine and the number of machines was larger. With Harris Yamaha and ROC Yamaha also getting into the fray (in addition to the Yamaha Factory team), half the field seemed to be on Yamaha bikes in 1992 – Wayne Rainey, John Kocinski, Juan Garriga, Miguel Duhamel, Niall Mackenzie, Kevin Magee, Randy Mamola, Norihiko Fujiwara and a dozen other riders were all on Yamaha machines back then.
Today, in 2011, with thinning grids and reduced manufacturer involvement, MotoGP is again in dire need of some ‘stimulation.’ In an effort to boost manufacturers’ interest in MotoGP, Dorna are moving from 800cc to 1000cc machines next year, will reduce some restrictions on the number of engines that can be used in a season and will even allow some kind of production-based engines to be used in MotoGP. Most people, including us, hope and expect that these changes will work towards getting more manufacturers and more teams involved with MotoGP, which is still the greatest sport on the planet.
Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible gets stickerbombed
German company Car Film Components decided to add a little style to the outgoing Volkswagen New Beetle. It seems strange to supply radical appearance modifications to a car that’s leaving the marketplace soon, but CFC hopes its sticker package can add some much-needed love to the New Beetle’s appearance.
The foil-wrap aesthetic upgrade covers the fenders, bumpers and side skirts. Some interior bits get the treatment as well. Setting off the look of the busybody sticker package is a set of 19-inch Oxigin wheels wrapped in Kumho rubber. Buyers can also specify a coilover suspension kit.
The bad part? Customers should expect to pay around €5,000 to achieve the look. That’s a lot of coin to stickerbomb your Volkswagen. To hear more, check out the CFC press release after the jump.
Source: AutoBlog
Honda RVF1000R may be launched by end-2011
Honda made some pretty memorable V4-engine superbikes in the 1980s and 1990s and the 2012 RVF1000R could well continue that great tradition!
Back in November last year, we carried a report where Wayne Gardner said that Honda would soon be launching an all-new V4-engined Fireblade. ‘While I was in Europe, I got talking to some Honda officials who confirmed to me that they are really looking forward to the new 1000cc MotoGP category. They also said they’ll be building sportsbikes in the future with V4 engines, so they can compete in MotoGP with a similar V4 1000,’ said Wayne back then. ‘Expect your CBR Fireblade to turn into a V4 very soon. Also expect something very similar to the new V4 CBR powerplant to be utilised in Honda’s MotoGP bikes when the new regulations come into force. You can bet whatever they come up with this time around will be something special,’ he added.
Now, according to a recent report in Motorcyclist magazine, that V4-engined 1000cc superbike that Gardner spoke of – which might actually be called the RVF1000R – could be launched by the end of this year. Only, the bike isn’t likely to replace the existing inline-four CBR1000RR Fireblade. Instead, the more expensive RVF1000R could be positioned in a slot above the ’Blade, offering vastly superior engine and chassis/suspension performance compared to the CBR-RR. Here, Motorcyclist magazine also adds that Honda followed a similar strategy in the mid-1990s, when Honda had the CBR900RR in their lineup for the ‘average’ sportsbike rider, and the vastly more exotic RVF750R RC45 for those with much deeper pockets.
With MotoGP moving to 1000cc engines in 2012 and with privateer teams being allowed to use production-based engines in bespoke chassis, it does indeed make sense for Honda to build a low-volume high-performance V4-engined superbike that would slot in above the Fireblade. With such a bike, Honda would be able to cover all bases – MotoGP, World Superbikes and also, finally, something that can take on the BMW S1000RR and Aprilia RSV4 Factory on the street.
We must admit here that we’re big fans of Honda V4s like the VF1000R, VFR750R RC30 and RVF750R RC45. So, of course, we’re completely smitten with the very idea of something like an RVF1000R. We hope they build it, complete with a 200bhp V4 engine, kick-ass styling, single-sided swingarm and that red-white-and-blue paintjob…
Source: Motorcyclist
Gjøvik hosts 2011 Vespa World Days
Fearless Vespa riders perform mind-boggling acts of dare-devilry during the 2011 VWD
Gjøvik, in Norway, recently hosted the 2011 Vespa World Days, which saw attendance from more than 120 Vespa clubs from 20 countries around the world. Between 1946, when the first Vespa scooter was launched, and now, more than 17 million Vespa scooters have been sold worldwide. For more details, log on to the official Vespa World Days website here
New Cars:2011 Aston Martin Vantage S
The Geneva Motor Show is over, but the craptastic weather’s following the whiny, overly privileged herd of automotive journos stampeding south for assorted first drives. Porsche’s Cayman R drive meets up with pouring rain in Mallorca; by the time we’re in the Canary Islands for a two-parter with the new Mercedes C-Class and SLK, it’s frigid and windy.
The skies are going an even deeper shade of grey as I rebound once more off the Malaga airport, to southern Spain, for a first drive in the Aston Martin Vantage S and one in their all-new offering, the Virage.
Then it hails. And then, it snows.
On paper, I clearly shivered more energy away than I could possibly pump through my veins in the form of caffeine, but it didn’t matter once we pulled up in a fleet of black minivans to the gate at Ascari, a kind of adult Disneyland for speed addicts of the socially acceptable kind. Aston rolled open the paddock doors, and fired up the Vantage S’ impeccably accented exhaust note. And damn if I didn’t wake right up, brushing off epic jetlag to pile into a right-hand-drive roadster for my open-track laps.
The proper name is Ascari Race Resort, by the way, but in this tight-knit, well-heeled community it goes by its first name only. Drawing near its 10th anniversary, Ascari’s a privateer track with slate-floored showers, a pretty fabulous restaurant, and staggering views of the mountains near Ronda, the town that gave birth to the bullfight. This isn’t Nelson Ledges, or worse, if worse exists.
The track’s a keen exercise for even the most talented. Ascari’s a 3.5-mile-long, greatest-hits compilation of torturous esses, blurred-out straightaways that all but dead-end into 90-degree turns, and downhill grades that flip-flop between camber changes. In the lingo, it’s a “technical” track–in the way neuroendocrinology is a technical expertise.
You can look very stupid here, very easily, but the Vantage S does its best to dust off your driving skills and showcase them in a most favorable, LED-intense light. The S slots above the V8 Vantage, what with its subtle tweaks and automated-manual transmission, but below its truly track-ready cousin, the GT4, and the monster V12 Vantage.
It has a name in common, and it also does what just about every other Aston Martin does with effortlessness. It soaks up attention with precise and exquisite details. It colors its grand-touring presentation with vivid, phenomenal roadgoing poise. And to a one, it makes Spain’s aging sidewalk quarterbacks yell out: camio de Bond!
It’s totally worth rolling top-down, even with blustery wind sawing at your eardrums, to hear those words. Worth sweating out equal amounts of cured ham and rioja, yet a week later. Worth a coach trip on Irish metal to Britain’s least-sexy airport, to sleep in your clothes in a freezing room for six hours before you get on another plane bound for the busiest airport in the world.
BMW M5 Concept bound for Shanghai Motor Show
We’ve already gotten our first glimpse of the BMW M5 Concept bound for the Shanghai Motor Show, and now we can give up the full monty on BMW’s fifth iteration of its world-beating super sedan.
In keeping with BMW tradition, the M5 “Concept” is seriously close to the production model that’s set to hit Europe this Fall and come Stateside next spring, but so far, BMW is only telling half the high performance story.
Based off the current F10 5 Series chassis, the M5′s exterior has been pinched, pulled and imbued with the understated aggression that typifies BMW’s M-fettled products. Up front, a revised front fascia houses three enlarged black mesh-covered intakes to feed the turbocharged eight-cylinder’s and supply the front brakes with cool air. The lower edge of the sculpted front bumper is a pure representation of BMW’s latest M models and extends rearward to the aerodynamic rear apron with an integrated diffuser. A deceptively subtle lip spoiler extends across the trunk to provide downforce at speed, while M-specific quad exhausts shuttle spent hydrocarbons out the back. Hit the jump to continue reading, watch a video of the unveiling and check out the official press release.
2011 Seoul Motor Show: Kia Naimo Electric Car Concept
Making its world premiere at the 2011 Seoul Motor Show today is the all-new Kia Naimo, an electric crossover concept penned by the automaker’s design team in South Korea and characterized by its simple lines and muscular stance.
The simple overall design is accentuated by a number of striking key details, such as the wrap-around windscreen and asymmetric sunroof, and the front and rear dot-style LED head- and positioning-lamps.
Kia’s design team also made use of innovative technology to give the car a premium feel and to ensure the car’s exterior remained uncluttered. For example, the Naimo has no traditional wiper blade on the windscreen–instead it employs a high-intensity air jet at the base of the windscreen that performs an ‘air wiper’ function. Conventional door mirrors have also been replaced with miniature cameras installed in the A-pillars.
2011 Kia Naimo Concept
Inside, the theme is tranquility. Alluding to this are hand-crafted materials throughout, such as the oak trim, paper roof lining and transparent organic LED instrument panel.
Notably, the Naimo is also the third electric car concept to be unveiled by Kia in the past year, the previous being the Ray and Pop concept cars. Power for the compact four-seat crossover a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor with a maximum output of 110 horsepower and 206 pound-feet of torque–enough to reach a top speed of 93 mph.
A twin-pack 27 kWh battery is located under the boot floor and uses innovative Lithium Ion Polymer technology that offers numerous advantages over other battery types. Equipped with this battery, the Naimo sports a driving range of 124 miles on a single charge. Charging takes about five hours using a regular household power outlet but according to Kia, special quick charge systems can fill the batteries to 80 percent of their overall capacity in just 25 minutes.
The best part is that the Naimo is no show pony. The concept will now join Kia’s growing test fleet of hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles being extensively driven in widely varying conditions to develop future production models with zero or significantly reduced emissions.
Source: MotorAutority
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New Car 2014 Audi RS4 Avant
Every German car company has their performance tuning arm and Audi is no different. The “S” badging has come to mean something special for Audi fans and the current line of S models compete with the likes of Mercedes AMG and BMW M models. Throughout the past 5 years or so, the automotive industry, especially this high end sector, has seen a never ending horsepower and performance war. The original Audi RS6 could be considered the catalyst for the addition of a Kompressor for the Mercedes 5.4-liter powerplant and for BMW dropping a 500-hp V10 into the M5.
As that mid-size sports sedan war has begun to cool down, the entry level sedans are receiving more attention. The rumors that Mercedes will add a C63 Black Series model to the lineup may end up speeding the production of Audi’s next RS4. The original model was a muscle car in a tight suit producing 414hp from a 4.2-liter V8 that was stuffed in the small engine compartment. This, in addition to a tightened suspension, bigger brakes, and a six-speed manual, make the car very hard to compete with.
Recently, Audi has been spied testing a mule version of the RS4 Avant. Before we get too excited, let’s remember something interesting about Audi. For starters, they like to test their ultra-high performance sedans in Avant (wagon) form before expanding to the more traditional models. In the past Audi has also made models in RS4 Avant form and never brought them to the United States. That being said, this next generation RS4 should be hitting the market within the next several years. Audi has already confirmed the RS5 model will be coming to the United States and when that happens, the RS4 should not be far behind.
What to look for
The pictures do not actually show a final RS4 Avant, but rather a mule for powertrain and suspension development. Audi tends to have understated performance features that distinguish its differing levels of prestige. Functional elements will include a set of large air intakes on the sculpted front bumper, larger diameter brakes and calipers, dual exhaust, and a rear spoiler. Most likely the car will include a set of RS badges, larger and wider wheels, and the possibility of some extra carbon fiber aerodynamic pieces. One of the most unique features of these cars is their exclusivity. Only about 2,500 RS4s from the last production run are in the United States and their values have held much more steadily than a standard S4.
2007 Audi RS4
As for power, the next-gen Audi RS4 is expected to get a supercharged V-6 in place of the high-strung V-8 found in the last model, though output will likely remain at about 400 horsepower. To do battle with the likes of BMW’s M3 and Mercedes-Benz’s new C63 AMG, power could even be closer to the 450-horse mark. If the Audi RS4 comes out with less horsepower than the upcoming C63 Black Series then it might as well not come out at all. The Mercedes will surely weigh less than the current C63 and be bringing closer to 500hp to the races. We’re sure this information has not fallen upon deaf ears inside Audi’s engineering department and we look forward to hearing more details about what will be under the hood.
As Audi continues rolling more of it’s RS line into U.S. showrooms exchange rates improve and emissions regulations approach parity with Europe, meaning the RS3 is a possibility. The TT and RS5 models are due late this year and sometime after that, possibly in the 2013 calendar year as a 2014 model, the RS4 is expected to arrive. We believe that the introduction of the RS5 will be a solid indicator of the performance levels to expect from the RS4. Audi knows that competition is stiff for the RS5 and its production has taken longer than normal for a company with such history in creating performance sedans and coupes.
Source: TopSpeed
Aprilia RSV4 Factory: John Player Special Edition from Japan
This one-off JPS-edition RSV Factory looks fabulous!!
Harking back to the days of tobacco sponsorship and the glory days of F1 racing in the 1970s and ’80s, the black-and-gold John Player Special colour scheme was also seen on the rotary-engined Norton F1 in the early-1990s. And apparently we aren’t the only ones who loved that super-cool JPS paintjob – DG Company, a Piaggio shop based in Tokyo, have come up with the Aprilia RSV4 Factory that you see here, painted in those evocative JPS colours. We love it!
Here are some other way of making the Aprilia RSV4 Factory look totally hot!