M3 enthusiast site

M3Post.com has snagged what are easily the best spyshots yet of Bimmer’s upcoming 4-door hot rod. They don’t come from any of the spy photo big guns, either. Instead, they’re sourced from within their own ranks, as site member Larry Blunk was clicking the shutter as the silver M3 sedan prototype lapped the Nürburgring and then spent quality time with the car as it sat parked out in the open afterwards. Appearance-wise, think of an E90 3-series sedan with the new M3 coupe’s front and rear end treatments, bulging, vented hood,side extractors, and wheels. It’s looking good so far, and we’re sure there’ll be no shortage of takers for the slightly more practical version of the M-enhanced speed merchant. We’re guessing it’ll debut on its home turf at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
sources; m3post and autoblog

Silverstone Circuit England-It was an unusual traffic jam on the Silverstone circuit that triggered more pride than road rage. And the pictures — a massive gathering of mainly red Ferraris and owners wearing baseball caps with the Prancing Horse logo — says it all. A breathtaking group of 385 Ferraris on Saturday set a new Guinness World Record for the “largest parade of Ferrari cars.”

Ferrari said the event more than tripled the previous record and calculated that the value of the assembled Ferraris would “be in excess of £60 million [$118.4 million] — a perfect number to mark the company’s anniversary year.”

Guiness World Record!-The cars in the impressive field included a 250 California Spider, a 275GTB/C, FXX, F40, F50 and Enzo. The rules were straightforward: The cars had to travel over a minimum 2-mile course, no more than two car lengths apart, and had to be counted at the beginning and end of the parade. An official from the Guinness World Record organization confirmed the count and presented Ferrari officials with a certificate.
source: edmunds

Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses, and Maseratis… Dream cars on the roads. The AIADA newsletter reported that auto makers are turning out a new breed of supremely fast sports cars that sell for upwards of $250,000 and share many characteristics of purebred racecars.

Unfortunately, a growing number are ending up wrapped around trees.

The California Highway Patrol reports that the total number of accidents involving Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses, and Maseratis rose to 141 last year, an 81% increase from 2002.

A story in the Wall Street Journal illustrates the point; in March, a 39-year-old driver caused an international stir by crashing a Bugatti Veyron — an extremely rare $1.5 million turbocharged missile with a top speed of 253 miles per hour.

On the way to an M.B.A. class near San Diego one recent morning, Nasar Aboubakare lost control of his new 550-horsepower Ford GT and wrenched it over a lane divider. “The car is like a wild animal,” he says.

To compound matters, people notice when you damage a $150,000 automobile. After Mr. Aboubakare’s accident, several passing motorists snapped pictures while one leaned out the window of his pickup truck and shouted: “What an idiot!”

source: autochannel

Toyota Motor Corp. all but danced on the grave of the Honda Accord hybrid Thursday, announcing the sale of its millionth hybrid and issuing a rosy forecast for its gas-sipping lineup in North America.

Honda Motor Co. said earlier this week it will no longer build its Accord hybrid. The midsize sedan missed the mark because it offered a mix of fuel economy and performance at a time when hybrid shoppers seem focused primarily on miles per gallon to inform their buying decisions.

Prius sales tripled from a year ago to 24,009 vehicles according last month’s numbers.Stiff sales declines suffered by the Accord stand in stark contrast to Toyota’s flagship Prius, which accounts for more than half of all hybrid sales in the U.S., according to Edmunds.com data compiled at the end of May.

Honda (HMC) , Toyota’s chief rival in the hybrid game, still offers the No. 2 best-selling hybrid on the market. Its Civic compact sedan has garnered 16.5% of the market since the technology first came to the U.S. in the form of the Honda Insight back in 1999.

Prius, with an EPA estimated 46 combined mpg, hit the U.S. in 2000, three years after it was launched in Japan. Since then, more than 400,000 have rolled off dealers’ lots.

Other Toyota hybrids include the Highlander, the Camry and the Lexus RX 400h and GS 450h. The Lexus brand will also launch the 2008 LS 600h luxury sedan later this summer.

Of the 1 million sold to date, Toyota (TM) said more than half have come from the United States — a market long known for its seemingly unquenchable thirst for big SUVs and trucks.

The head of Toyota Motor Sales: Jim Lentz, said in the company’s press release: “The cost benefit of hybrids is becoming more apparent with climbing gas prices.” Indeed, the cost premium for a hybrid engine now pays for itself in about nine months, Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong explained. Average gas prices reached an all-time high of $3.23 for a gallon of regular in late May.

Toyota also said it expects to sell 250,000 hybrids in the U.S. this year en route to its goal of selling 1 million hybrids a year by early in the next decade.

source: smartmoney

Brad Pitt arrived in a BMW Hydrogen 7 to the Warner Bros. premiere of the film “Ocean’s 13″ at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre yesterday in Hollywood, California.

The Hydrogen BMW 7 is a production-ready prototype unveiled by BMW last year. Unlike many hydrogen-powered cars, the H7 does not use fuel cells and electric motors, but instead burns hydrogen in a typical internal combustion fashion.

BMW has apparently come through on its promise of building a limited number of Hydrogen 7s for use by celebrities and government officials.

The cruising range in the hydrogen mode is more than 125 miles, with another 300 miles in the gasoline mode. If there was no gasoline storage, hydrogen mode range could be significantly greater.

Although the H7 could be produced in a few years, the lack of a hydrogen infrastructure means most people probably won’t get their hands on one for quite some time.

source: leftlane

CSM Worldwide released a new report shows that size still matters to Americans.

MSNBC reports that persistently high gasoline price have spurred automakers to make plans to introduce tiny cars into the U.S. market, beginning early next year, when Mercedes Car Group plans to begin selling Smart models.

American consumers are not sold on small, fuel efficient cars. Dave Terebessy, an automotive analyst at CSM, said American buyers are likely to avoid cars that are smaller than the subcompact vehicles already on the U.S. market such as the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris.

American consumers, he said, will forfeit a few miles per gallon rather than buy a car less than 150 inches in length, about the size of the Mini Cooper.

Fewer than 100,000 minicars will be sold annually through 2013, according to CSM, while annual sales of subcompacts like the Fit and Yaris are expected to rise from an estimated 300,000 in 2007 to over 550,000 by 2013.

source: The AIADA newsletter

Honda, Japan’s No. 2 automaker,will drop its Accord hybrid model after the 2007 model year. But Honda will continue to make gas-and-electric models of its Civic sedan. The decision wasn’t a surprise, as Accord hybrid sales have been tepid since it arrived in 2004. Toyota’s Prius hybrid is the market leader, with 729,800 sold since December 1997. Toyota offers several other hybrid models, including a hybrid Camry and hybrid Lexus. Honda dropped another hybrid, the two-seat Insight, in 2005.

Honda Accord Hybrid’s U.S. sales totaled just 439 last month, while Toyota sold 24,000 Prius hybrids. None the less, Honda is promising a new U.S. hybrid competitor in 2009.The Accord hybrid, sold only in North America, sold just 25,000 since going on sale in 2004. It sold just 6,100 last year.Most analysts blame the model’s failure on Honda’s decision to pair electric components with a V-6 engine instead of with a higher-mileage four-cylinder gasoline motor.
Honda spokesman Yoshiyuki Kuroda said the decision underlines how hybrids tend to be more popular with smaller models because mileage improvements tend to be more pronounced.
“The cancellation of the Honda Accord hybrid points out the fact that hybrid manufacturers have largely been unable to expand the public’s perception of hybrids beyond high fuel economy”, said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and its kbb.com Web site.

Amy Boylan, President of Shelby Automobiles, Inc., has released the first official details on her company’s latest Mustang iteration, the Super Snake GT500. First, you’ll need a Shelby GT 500, the base price of which is $40,930 according to Ford. Now, you’re probably going to want to option that up, and we’re betting no dealer will let you out the door without paying a significant mark up. On top of that, turning your GT500 into a Super Snake will cost at least an additional $28,000.

Sure, that price could buy you a second Mustang, but instead your Super Snake will be boasting 600 horsepower. You can order up to a 725-horsepower Super Snake as well, but the cost will be significantly more and you can kiss that factory warranty goodbye if you go all the way. In addition to the Shelby Supercharger that produces the extra ponies, you’ll also get a cold air intake, Shelby/Baer 6-piston caliper brakes, a Shelby short throw shifter, an Eibach coil-over suspension, sway bars, and a Borla cat-back exhaust. Unfortunately, the Super Snake doesn’t address the Mustang’s weight problem, instead trying to reign it in with a beefier suspension, more power and better stoppers.

No Mustang special edition would be complete without exterior adornments to let everyone know, so the Super Snake gets a new hood, carbon fiber front spliter, cf mirror covers and rocker panels, as well as a brake duct kit for the front and rear. Then there’s the badging on the rear deck lid, front grille and front fenders, combined with the fat Super Snake striping bisecting the car lengthwise. Your Super Snake will also be rolling on 20-inch Shelby Alcoa wheels wearing Pirelli P-Zeros.

So, if the fates are on your side, a Super Snake will cost you $68,930 base. You should figure on that not happening, however, and be ready to raid an extra college fund if necessary.

2008 Shelby GT500 Super Snake Package Parts

Performance

Hyundai Motor; leading car manufacturer, just announced a new Certified Pre-Owned Limited Warranty. It’s an industry first warranty for pre-owned cars that comes with 10-year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty that going back five model years with less than 60,000 miles. The enhanced pre-owned program was launched to Hyundai dealers in May 2007, with warranty being effective from date of original sale.

Here is the details of Hyundai’s enhanced Certified Pre-Owned vehicle program:

Hyundai Certified Pre-Owned Limited Warranty