Import

The Swedes Have All The Fun

March 3, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Take a new VW Scirocco, build it to 627 horsepower, add VW’s 4Motion AWD drivetrain and go find a frozen lake. Bonus points if you use studded snow tires, but that really won’t matter since you’re still going to have a hard time getting all that horsepower translated into forward motion. There’s disturbingly little information available on the car (other than the 627 horsepower from a 2.0 liter, turbocharged inline four), but the driver is Tommy Kristoffersson. Kristoffersson began his career driving for Audi in Rallycross competition, but formed his own Touring Car team in 1998. He ran the Touring Car series from 1998 until 2009, finishing as high as 4th overall in 1998 and again in 2001. As amusing as the video is, it would have been even better if there was a “moose slalom” involved. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Ice Racing, Tuners, Volkswagen, VW Scirocco

Alfa Romeo 4C: A (Nearly) Affordable Italian Sports Car

March 2, 2011 By Kurt Ernst 1 Comment

Image: Alfa Romeo

Take a good look at the car in these renderings: it’s called the Alfa Romeo 4C, and it will see production. Better yet, it will be produced for global sales, which means it will makes it’s way to the United States, probably in 2013. Like all good Italian sports cars, the 4C will be mid-engine, rear drive; in the interest of fuel economy, power will come from a 1.75 liter, direct injection, turbocharged four cylinder engine good for “over” 200 horsepower and mated to a dual, dry clutch gearbox. If the horsepower seems less than noteworthy, consider this: thanks to the extensive use of carbon fiber and aluminum, the car’s weight will be “less than” 1,870 pounds. That’s over 200 pounds lighter than a first generation Mazda Miata. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo 4C, Geneva Motor Show

The Pagani Huayra, Up Close And Personal

March 1, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Pagani named their replacement for the Zonda supercar after Huayra Tata, the Andean god of wind. To most of us, the Huayra will be just as ethereal, and equally unlikely to be encountered in person. I can’t come close to pronouncing the new car’s name without sounding like I’m coughing up a hairball, but that doesn’t diminish it’s appeal in the least. In fact, Pagani could have named this car the “Snuffaluffagus”, and it would still give me serious wood. Enjoy over seven minutes of pure Pagani porn, set to a soundtrack of Ravel’s “Bolero”, below. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Pagani, Pagani Huayra, Supercars

VW’s Bulli Concept: A Microbus It Ain’t

February 28, 2011 By Kurt Ernst 1 Comment

VW's Bulli Concept. Image: Volkswagen

Say what you want about the old VW Microbus, but they built character. Dangerously slow, prone to snap oversteer in all but dry conditions and about as unsafe as you could get without using the driver as a bumper, VW sold the same basic design from 1950 to 1979. The formula was simple: the engine (and most of the weight) went in the rear, the steering wheel, driver and passenger went up front and everything else went in the middle. They were good on gas, mainly because the air-cooled four only made up to 70 horsepower. They were lightweight, and as far as I remember power steering wasn’t even an option (which made tight corners an aerobic exercise). Utterly terrifying to drive in snow, they were equally bad in crosswinds, which generally required about ninety degrees of steering input to keep the van pointed in a straight line. Despite this, I actually miss them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Bulli, Concept Cars, Microbus, Volkswagen, VW

Lamborghini’s Aventador, Naked

February 23, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Call me a freak, but partially clad women do more for me than naked ones. I mean, we’ll get to the naked part soon enough, but in the mean time there’s something to be said for unwrapping the present, if you know what I mean. Cars, on the other hand, are best viewed completely naked, so you can see what’s going on under the skin. Take this pure-car-porn image of Lamborghini’s upcoming Aventador, for example: if this doesn’t quicken you pulse, you may not have one. There’s so much carbon fibery goodness and race bred engineering going on that my eyes don’t know where to look next. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Aventador, lamborghini, Naked Cars, Supercars

2011 KTM 990 SMT Priced

February 22, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Image: KTM

I’ve had a thing for the Katoom 990 SMT ever since the bike was launched on the other side of the pond. Back then, I had the kind of job that made $14k supermotard bike attainable, and I even had a BMW K1200RS in the garage. Then the U.S. economy collapsed, I changed careers and KTM decided to import the 990 SMT into the States. No one ever said that life was fair, and in the words of Mick Jagger, “you can’t always get what you want”. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: KTM, KTM 990 SMT, Motorcycles, Supermotards

It’s Only Money: You Know You Want A Lancia Stratos

February 14, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Let’s say you had a Ferrari 430 sitting in the garage, and your 2010 performance bonus was particularly lucrative. You could spend that $405,000 on a Ferrari 458 Italia and a clean used Ferrari California, but both cars are so… common. Besides, the 458 has a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting on hot days, and the California uses faux rear-exit exhausts. You could buy a clean Lamborghini Murcielago, but everyone knows they’re just blue collar Ferraris from that tractor company. If you want something distinctive and you’re tired of seeing a Ferrari 430 in every other driveway, why not hit up Pininfarina and have them build you a new Lancia Stratos. German multi-gazillionaire Michael Stoschek already did the heavy lifting, and Stoschek and Pininfarina estimate that the tooling will be good for roughly fifty copies. They’re willing to build you your very own Stratos, if you’ve got the coin. The price? Your $405,000 bonus check, plus your donor Ferrari 430. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Cars, Ferrari, Lancia, Lancia Stratos

VW Golf24 Heads To Nürburgring

February 11, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

I’ll give you the bad news up front: you can’t buy what may be the coolest VW ever built. It’s got a turbocharged 2.5 liter, inline five engine good for 434 horsepower and 398 ft lb of torque, a six speed sequential gearbox, all wheel drive and a stance that’s chock full of attitude. Those are some meaty fender flares, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Renault R5 Turbo 2 of the 1980s. Want some good news? This isn’t just a design study, and VW will be racing the car in the upcoming 24 Hours of Nürburgring event, held from June 23 to June 26. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: AWD, Cars, Golf24, Nordschleife, Nurburgring, VW

Road Trip! 1,200 Miles In A Lamborghini Countach

February 8, 2011 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Harry Metcalfe is the managing director editor of Britain’s Evo magazine, which means he makes more money than most auto journalists. He also gets to take cool road trips, like the one in the video below; I don’t know about you, but I’d jump at the chance to drive a Lamborghini Countach from the French Riviera, across the Alps, through the Euro Tunnel and to the Cotswalds in the U.K. Unfortunately, I don’t get offers like that and I don’t make the kind of money needed to buy, feed or maintain a Lamborghini Countach. Currently, I barely make the kind of income needed to feed and maintain a Mazda Miata. Feel free to drool while watching the video below. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Cars, Lamborghini Countach, Road Trip

More Grunt For The Next Civic Si?

February 4, 2011 By Kurt Ernst 1 Comment

Honda's Latest Civic Si Concept. Image: Honda America Motors

The Civic Si is a great car, but like all of Honda’s current performance cars it relies heavily on hotter intake cam timing to make serious power. The Si, for example, really doesn’t come alive until the tach hits about 6,000 RPM. From there to the car’s 8,000 RPM redline, the motor pulls hard enough to make you wonder if there’s a low pressure turbo under the hood, but it’s just VTEC. Top end power is fine for the racetrack, but in the real world low end torque is much more beneficial. Tuners have been modding Honda K20 engines to make more low end torque for years, but not everyone wants to go the tuner route. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Import Tagged With: Cars, Civic Si, Honda

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