The Top Marques Monaco is without question one of the most important dates on the tuning calendar, particularly because of the location it’s held at every year. Nothing speaks more to millionaires throwing their money around than Monte Carlo, and some of the best tuners use that platform to show off their latest programs.
Now that the 2012 Top Marques Monaco has come and gone, we can definitely say that the tuners in attendance gave us programs that were for the books. One in particular was Mansory, which only recently wowed us at Geneva with not one, not two, not three, but four programs for some of the finest exotics in the land.
For their Monaco offering, the Swiss tuner brought their very first program for the Ferrari 458 Italia Spyder, appropriately called "Monaco."
As you can expect, Mansory did some serious bodywork upgrades on the 458 Italia Spyder, complete with a body kit that’s made out of carbon fiber. The kit includes a restyled front apron with air inlets for the front coolers, a new bonnet, side skirts with integrated ducts, a rear skirt with an integrated diffuser, carbon blades that replace the rear window, and a rear wing. All told, the carbon fiber components shaved of 60 kg (132 lbs) from the supercar’s overall weight.
Under the hood of the Italian stallion, Mansory reprogrammed the ECU, the sports air filter, and the sport exhaust, translating to an increased output of 590 horsepower and 413 lb/ft of torque with a 0-62 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph.
UPDATE 05/16/2012: Mansory has unveiled a new set of images for their latest 458 Italia Spyder Monaco Edition. Check out the picture gallery to see the new images!
RM Auctions’ in Monano has proved yet again that classic Ferrari models will never lose their value. A 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spider was auctioned off for an staggering €5,040,000, or about $6.4 million, a record for this particular model. This was the first time in 30 years that this model was available for auction and it is one of the only two models ever built.
Next to this Ferrari, Monaco scored impressive sales of up to €33.5 million, about $43 million at the current exchange rates. The list of the most expensive models include: a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ’Tuboscocca’ and a 1966 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder each fetching an impressive €2,520,000 (about $3.2 million), a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder sold for €1,008,000 ($1.3 million), the Ferrari F1-2000 Racing Car raced by Michael Schumacher on his way to the 2000 Driver’s Championship for €806,400 ($1 million), and the highly anticipated 1953 Timossi-Ferrari ’Arno XI’ Racing Hydroplane for €868,000 ($1.1 million).
"Monaco 2012 has been a fantastic success. With in excess of 33.5 million sold, this sale rates as one of Europe’s highest grossing collector car sales of all time and most certainly the highest grossing collector car auction in Europe this year. Once again, RM has proved itself to be the preeminent force in the collector car auction scene," says Max Girardo, Managing Director, RM Europe.
You know when a car is getting some serious love from places you wouldn’t even think of? When a country that specializes in some of the fastest cars on the planet decides that they want first dibs on a special edition model of the said vehicle.
Over in Italy, Japanese automaker Toyota will launch their new GT 86 sports coupe by releasing a limited number of models bearing the "First Edition" name. Limited to only 86 units, the 86 First Edition will bear a few styling distinctions, including a Lightning Red paint finish with black adhesives running along the hoof, up the rear wing, and on the bottom of the sides. In addition, these models will also carry a numbered plate that will be engraved with the name of the owner.
Speaking of these buyers, the lucky 88 that will be getting a piece of the 86 First Edition will also be entitled to participate in the 86’s GT Academy.
The 86 First Edition won’t have any performance modifications so expect the sports coupe to carry a 2.0-liter naturally-aspirated flat-four engine that produces 200 horsepower and 151 lb/ft of torque.
The 86 First Edition has been priced at €29,000, which is around $37,000 based on current exchange rates.
Back in March 2012, the Hennessey Ford GT became the fastest car at Texas Mile with an impressive top speed of 257.7 mph. Now, the supercar has set a new world record. With Sean Kennedy behind the wheel, the Hennessey GT posted a new standing half-mile record of 219.9mph in the half mile. This impressive result was achieved at the 8,000-foot runway of Ellington Airport, the Houston Half Mile.
The Hennessey Ford GT that established this impressive record was powered by an Accufab Racing V8 engine updated with two Precision Turbochargers for an impressive output of 2000 bhp. By comparison, the most powerful Hennessey Ford GT is the GT1000, a model that has a Twin-Turbo 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 engine that produces 1,000 horsepower at 6,600 rpm. The GT1000 has a 0-60 mph time of 2.8 seconds, a quarter-mile time of 10.6 seconds at 142 mph, and an increased top speed of 245 mph.
The next generation Mini Cooper was caught testing for the first time at the end of 2011, and now our spy photographers have captured it yet again, this time cruising on public roads in Europe.
Codenamed "F56," the third generation Mini Cooper will share a chassis with the next-generation BMW 1-Series and will be offered in both FWD and AWD versions. Aside from the usual four-cylinder, turbocharged engines, BMW will also be adding a three-cylinder option.
These recent spy shots reveal that the new Cooper will grow slightly, adding a bit of width and length. The front grille, however, will be a bit shorter, while the hood and the front overhang appear to be longer than the current model. The front and rear windshields also appear to be more raked than the current Mini.
The new Mini Cooper will be unveiled in the first quarter of 2013, with the convertible following one year later.
The past few days have been chalk full of tuning programs from German tuner Wheelsandmore, and now they are adding another one in the mix. The first package was called the Lamborghini Aventador "Rabbioso", which was then followed by the Ferrari 458 Perfetto. Now, the third package is based on an even more impressive sports car: the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
As usual, the package includes a cool exterior kit, as well as two stages of engine upgrades. The first stage takes the power up to 470 HP, from the standard 450 HP, with the use of an ECU upgrade. Total price for this upgrade is 1680 euro ($2,138 at the current rates). The second stage goes even further to 485 HP. This stage includes an ECU upgrade and a handcrafted stainless steel exhaust system with remote-able valve flaps. The price for this upgrade is 6720 euro ($8,552 at the current rates).
The exterior kit starts with a new set of 21" ultralight forged wheels, but the tuner is also offering unlimited color and surface finishes as well as an upgraded carbon look design with white outliner and inlays.
Automotive manufacturers are continually trying to make their cars appealing to the masses and one popular way of doing this is by offering programs which allow customers to individualize their cars to not only make them more valuable, but to also make them perfectly suited to whatever paces the owners plan to put them through.
High end cars can be optioned with different kinds of leathers, carpets, and even stereo systems, but we’ve yet to see custom instrument panels being offered, until now. As part of the BMW 5-series’ fairly large update released recently, the German brand is offering an option where all 5-series cars can be optioned out with a 10.25-inch LCD coming standard with Black Panel technology to make it as real as possible, by adding super-deep and crisp blacks.
The action however, kicks off as the driver can choose out of four different displays, where the information on the instrument panel changes as does the color, such as those backing the speedometer and tachometer.
The familiar BMW set-up comes standard, while the three remaining options are dubbed Comfort, Eco Pro, and Sport and each have their own customized functions with the Eco Pro set up displaying how efficiently the car is being driven, similar to other instrument panels fitted to hybrid and electric cars.
In a similar vein, while in Sport mode, the speed and gear selected in the car are featured prominently to help minimize the time the driver’s eyes are looking down, by displaying them through large numeric figures.
No details have been released about how much this optional extra will set prospecting buyers back, but $1000 - $2000 wouldn’t be out of the question.
German automaker BMW is ratcheting up the promotion of their highly anticipated special edition M Performance models.
We already got wind of a teaser video BMW UK released for the M5 M Performance Edition, but now it appears that it wasn’t the only teaser video BMW had in store for us. Shortly after releasing that video, the German automaker released another teaser vid, this time of the M3 M Performance Edition.
For the M3 model that has seen its fair share of special edition models,, the M3 M Performance Edition is arguably one of the most highly-anticipated of all these limited run models. Details are still scarce surrounding the M3 M Performance Edition models, but like it’s M5 counterparts, the line will be limited to only 30 units, 10 each for the three available colors - Frozen Red, Frozen Blue, and Frozen White - that will be launched soon.
As soon as more details behind the M3 M Performance Edition come to light, we’ll be sure to keep you guys updated. In the meantime, check out the teaser video BMW UK has released of the limited run line-up.
When you have a tuning program that’s being described as ’perfect’ the same way Wheelsandmore is calling the Ferrari 458 Italia Spider "Perfetto", then there’s some serious living up to do to justify that ’perfetto’ claim.
The German tuner went to serious lengths to give the Italian supercar some serious modifications. On the outside, Wheelsandmore fitted the 458 Italia Spider with a plethora of new carbon fiber components on the rear diffuser, the fuel cap, the rear fog lamp frames, mirrors and spoiler fins. On top of that, the supercar’s interior, trunk and engine compartment were all refined, thanks to new side panels, a custom-fit trunk tray, and a final panel for the rear window trim. Even the wheel well and the entire lower floor can be refined to replace the autoclave produced high-performance carbon-fiber components with a matte finish. The addition of all these carbon fiber components resulted in a reduced weight of 30 kg. Rounding out the aesthetic upgrades are a new set of 21" 6Sporz ² forged rims wrapped in Hankook tires.
Sounds pretty ’perfetto’ to us.
For the performance upgrade, Wheelsandmore took the 458 Italia’s 4.5-liter V8 engine and added plenty of new modifications, including its newly developed Carbonairbox. Add in the installation of manifolds, the addition of a flip-controlled exhaust system, and software optimization, and you have an increased output of 647 horsepower and 468 lb/ft of torque, a drastic improvement from the standard model’s 570 horsepower and 400 lb/ft of torque numbers.
The past few days have been pretty busy for BMW. First they unveiled the 3-Series Station Wagon and after it the 1-Series three-door and the M135i. And now the US market has received a new model to its 1-Series line-up: 135is offered in both coupe and convertible version. Prices will start from $44,145 for the coupe model and $48,845 for the convertible and sales are scheduled to begin this fall.
The BMW 135is is powered by a TwinPower Turbo 3.0-liter inline-6 engine that delivers a total of 320 hp (+20 hp increase compared to the 135i) and 317 lb-ft of torque (+17 lb.ft). The engine features Valvetronic throttle-less intake technology, direct injection and a single twin-scroll turbocharger and has been combined with a standard 6-Speed manual transmission or an optional 7-Speed Double Clutch Transmission, but also with a Performance exhaust system.
The new 135is will be distinguished by exclusive 18" wheels, unique high-gloss black kidney grill, black mirror caps and special exterior badges in additional to the standard M Sport Package components. For the interior BMW will add stainless steel pedals, special interior badges and optional black leather seats with blue stitching for the standard sport seats.
