Supercar

Aston Martin has unveiled its new Virage coupé set to be launched at the Geneva Motor Show. The British luxury sports car manufacturer said that the new car, which combines performance with luxury, comfort and refinement, sits between the more basic DB9 and the sporty DBS in the line-up. The model, powered by a 6.0 litre V12 engine in 490bhp trim, features rear-wheel drive through a carbon fibre prop shaft and a six-speed Touchtronic II automatic gearbox. It offers Carbon Ceramic Matrix (CCM) brakes as standard, and comes equipped with features including an improved Adaptive Damping System (ADS) to provide efficient road holding in different conditions. The ADS system chooses from five different stiffness settings within normal mode, and from a further five stiffer settings within sport mode. The sport mode allows drivers to select a sharper throttle response and […]

The new Aston Martin Rapide is a lovely car, to be sure, and driving one around town creates precisely the same effect on the populace as would a young Paul McCartney striding through Waterloo Station in 1964. Never mind the panties. Investment bankers throw their tighty-whiteys at this car. But what does it prove? It proves that if you care absolutely nothing about outward visibility—the Rapide has the sightlines of a Normandy pillbox—and that you don’t care that the front roof pillars (the A pillars) are thicker than a Clydesdale’s fetlock; and that in order to get in the car rear passengers will be obliged to remove their heads and feet; and that once there they will have their noses grinding against the entertainment system’s headrest-mounted screens; and that the car’s sun visors are three fingers wide and virtually useless; […]

The maverick but multi-award winning British car designer and engineer who left his eponymously named company in Leicestershire after a new owner took over is to build a new supercar prototype in South Africa. Lee Noble, whose work in recent years is said to have defined the British low volume sports car market has set up a new company, Fenix Automotive, and today (19 November) announced the launch of “one of the most dramatic supercars of the century” next year. With production cars like the Noble M12 and M400 to his credit, Noble says he is now delivering a lightweight, ultra-powerful mid-engined V8 supercar to market by the end of 2010. The as yet unnamed car, which will cost from under £75,000, “will trounce all previous Lee Noble-built Nobles for performance with a 0-100mph time of under seven seconds”, and […]

Ever since the halcyon days of Jaguar’s formative years the British car maker has had a happy knack of delivering some eye catching icons. As those early days of the 1940s and 1950s bore witness to the company’s founding father Sir William Lyons’ aim to produce cars boasting ‘grace, space and pace’ so the legendary big cats have continued to attract attention. The latest is the Jaguar XKR which has unreservedly set its sights on supercar status, proving in many people’s eyes, to be perhaps the best looking mainstream Jaguar model to date. There is very much a luxurious character to the XK and XKR body style, whether in hard-top coupe guise or the cloth cocooned convertible which is driven here. This is truly a sophisticated grand tourer with the power to move the sports car experience on to a […]

Niche sportscar manufacturer Lotus has scooped a ‘best driver’s car’ accolade for its Evora model. The award, from Autocar magazine, followed assessment on road and track around the South Downs and the Goodwood race circuit. Lotus beat off competition from Aston Martin, Nissan, Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and Jaguar. The mid-engined 2+2 Lotus Evora combines a super stiff extruded and bonded aluminium chassis with vehicle dynamics knowledge employed to tune its race-car derived double wishbone suspension. Roger Becker, vehicle engineering director for Lotus, said: “The dynamic ability and driving experience of the Evora were the foundation of the engineering process and we are delighted that Autocar has recognised this by giving the Evora this accolade. The Evora offers the great Lotus driving experience in a very comfortable, practical, refined and efficient package, and with only 205 g/km of CO2 it shows […]

The Telegraph is reporting that more than 100 people have applied to buy the One-77, the most expensive road car in the world, even though only 77 will be made. The 200mph car was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show this week, and Aston Martin said that the growing financial gloom had not hit sales. “The interest is incredible,” chief designer Marek Reichmann told The Sun newspaper. Aston Martin has been reluctant to release details about the One-77, but it is known to have a 7.0 litre V12 engine, carbon fibre chassis, and aluminium body. “One-77 fuses advanced technology with stunning Aston Martin design to create possibly the world’s most desirable automotive art form,” the Warwickshire-based carmaker said. It will “deliver exhilarating performance for a strictly limited number of discerning customers”, the according to the firm.

It scorches from 0-60mph in less than four seconds, its batteries can be charged in ten minutes and you can imagine James Bond sitting behind the wheel. But will the über-stylish electric Lightning car ever make money? Earlier this year, entrepreneur Iain Sanderson unveiled the Lightning Car at the British International Motor Show. The 48-year-old Sanderson is a marketer, not a motorhead. He made his bucks through marketing agency Dynamo, which he set up in 1990 and sold a decade later for £20m. Rather than opting for retirement, Sanderson set up London-based Contact Group, which has six different marketing agencies under its wing and pulls in sales of £12m. So what on earth made this millionaire marketing guru develop a battery-powered sports car? Two years ago, Sanderson bumped into his old friend Arthur Wolstenholme, long-time maker of the Ronart series […]

The prototype MG X-Power SV-S WRC (William Riley Convertible) you see here is the very first and only example of the supercar. The drop top is the British maker’s second new model since the marque was bought by former racing driver William Riley from the ashes of the MG Rover collapse. Hand built at MG X-Power’s production and development centre in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, first cars will be completed by January before production is moved to a new facility in the West Midlands early next year. Customer deliveries are expected to begin in summer 2009. The SV-S is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged V8, while the Kevlar bodywork means the convertible gains only 12kg in weight compared to the coupé. A manual cloth hood dispenses with the need for heavy mechanical moving parts, too. Every car will also come with […]

The 1,000bhp club has a new member – and it’s British! With 1,500bhp, the Keating TKR delivers even more power than the Bugatti Veyron supercar. The mid-engined two-seater is designed solely for track use. But don’t panic, as there is a roadgoing model, too. The latter is called the SKR, and looks the same as its more powerful stablemate. It’s available with a choice of four engines, offering outputs ranging from 404bhp to 656bhp. The fastest street-legal car does 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds and can hit 205mph. All models use the same General Motors-derived 6.0 and 7.0-litre V8s, and engineers have used superchargers and twin-turbos to boost power. The Keating’s sleek lines, tall rear spoiler and air vents look as if they are straight from the race track. And with a bespoke steel spaceframe chassis and fibreglass bodywork, it’s light, […]

The legendary Ford GT super car has been given a makeover and incredible power boost by a British company to form the Avro 720 Mirage limited edition. Brooklands based Avro Motor Cars has teamed up with Ford engine experts Roush to produce just 10 Avro 720 Mirage – with a top speed in excess of 220mph. To achieve this staggering performance Roush has taken out the standard supercharger and fitted the Avro 720 Mirage with a larger, polished version.

“You are looking at the MC1; a British designed and built supercar that could be on sale by 2011,” says Autocar magazine’s website, referring to a photo of a car which uses a 600bhp, mid-mounted V10 engine. The car has been designed by Motorcity, a German-based design studio owned by British designer David Hilton, which produced cars such as the most recent Ford Mustang and Ford S-Max. It’s claimed that working prototypes of the MCI are already undergoing tests. Motorcity has reportedly teamed up with C2P Automotive, a Milton Keynes-based engineering company, which has agreed to manufacture the car, but Autocar admits that little else is yet known about the MC1.