Jaguar is a British luxury and sports car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors.
Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company by Sir William Lyons in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars before developing passenger cars. The name was changed to Jaguar after World War II to avoid the unfavourable connotations of the SS initials .Following a merger with the British Motor Corporation in 1968, subsequently subsumed by Leyland, which itself was later nationalised as British Leyland, Jaguar was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Ford in 1990. Jaguar has, in recent years, manufactured cars for the Prime Minister, the most recent delivery being an XJ in May 2010.The company also holds royal warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles.
Jaguar cars today are designed in Jaguar Land Rover's engineering centres at the Whitley plant in Coventry and at their Gaydon site in Warwickshire, and are manufactured in Jaguar's Castle Bromwich assembly plant near Birmingham.
The F-Type convertible was launched at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, following its display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 2012, and is billed as a successor to the legendary E-Type. It was developed following the positive reaction to Jaguar's C-X16 concept car at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. Sales will begin in 2013 with three engine choices; two variants of the AJ126 V6 petrol engine and the AJ133 V8 petrol engine.
The Bugatti brand is one of the automotive industry's oldest marque's, and it has plans to make a public and very loud comeback with what could well be the fastest production car toeverhit the blacktop.
After what seems like years of teasing us with prototypes, mock sketches and the odd mention of a 1001 brake horsepower engine, the Bugatti Veyron is finally finished and will be sold to European markets late in 2006, and America and Asia Pacific territories after that.
While the Bugatti name is essentially Italian, Carlo Bugatti (father of Ettore Buggati) left Milan for France in 1904, and the marque has since built its cars in Molsheim, France.
Today, the Bugatti name is owned by Volkswagen, and the new Veyron supercar has also been styled by the Germans, yet despite this many of the die-hard Bugatti fans are still pleased with the car's appearance.
The Bugatti Veyron was formally announced as ready-to-go by Volkswagen in Monte Carlo recently.
The automaker also released offical images of the production car (pictured right), which is slightly different from the Veyron shown at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show.
To start with, the long bodied Bugatti - which measures a 4.5 metres from grille to 'zorst, and a massive 2.0 metres wide - gets slightly re-jigged headlights and a few extra air intake apertures, such as those located just behind the front wheels.
As it stands however, the Bugatti behemoth is one very exotic proposition, both in terms of styling and performance.
The twin intake snorkels mounted on the roof help funnel cool air to the mid-mounted engine, and while practical, they add a great deal of visual impact too.
Few vehicles scare me like the Dodge Viper. It isn’t the massive V10 shoehorned under the hood, or the dimwitted steering, or even the broiling interior of the original that’s as comfortable as a root canal.
No, it’s the fact that Dodge’s thermonuclear warhead of a supercar always has been, well, dumb. It was almost an anachronism — an absurdly large engine driving the rear wheels, with little in the way of grace, manners or poise. It was to driving as a sledgehammer is to carpentry — a tool way too big and crude to do anything more than destroy everything in its path.
The keyword there: was. The new Viper is almost everything the old Viper wasn’t. The go-fast gurus at Dodge’s Street and Racing Technology (SRT) team set out to develop a Viper that was more usable, more manageable and yes, more powerful than any that had come before without losing what SRT President and CEO Ralph Gilles calls the car’s essential “Viperness.”
Finally, somebody has made a video on the Pagani Huayra! And not just so we can hear the whistling gurgle of its 522kW, Mercedes-sourced twin turbo V12, but also so we can hear how to pronounce its name properly...
British magazine evo became the first media outlet to test the new Pagani earlier this week, taking it for a quite delicious thrash through what appears to be the Italian alps, probably around Pagani's headquarters in San Cesario sul Panaro, near Modena (the place where Ferraris and Lambos are built).
It's rather a nice video. The Huayra, which TopGear will no doubt drive in the new season, is the replacement for the now-quite-old Zonda, which was first launched way back in 1999.
We give you evo's test video of the Pagani "why-ra"
The fifth rendition in the Black Series family is here in the second half of 2013 and Mercedes-Benz Australia already has five orders. “As it stands, our 2013 allocation is already allocated to customers,” says spokesman Jerry Stamoulis.
“We are now talking to AMG and attempting to secure more to fulfil a current wait list. “Realistically the total number will not exceed 10 cars for Australia. “The final price has not been set but it's likely to be similar to the SL65 Black Series which was around $700,000.”
The new SLS Black Series, inspired by the track-only SLS GT3, showed itself at Affalterbach finished in Solar Beam metallic paint and layered with exposed carbon-fibre components, black wheels and gold brake calipers.
Compared with the standard SLS, the Black Series is lower, hunkered down on its fat wheels and aggressive with its highlights of shining carbon fibre, its dominant rear spoiler and the brightness of its moor show colour. It looked like a glowing ember in the centre of an enormous, otherwise vacant warehouse amongst AMG's factories.
AMG engineer Alexander Weber says its specifications are closer to a GT3 car than a road car. “But the Black Series has a more powerful engine,” he says. It has a 6.2-litre M159 V8 engine with 464kW (631hp) - up 44kW on the SLS - but torque has been clipped back to 635Nm, down 15Nm on the SLS.
Part of the reason for the torque drop is simply that the coupe doesn't need it because it has a lower final drive ratio and weighs 100kg less than the standard SLS. Weber says the transaxle's drive ratio is 4.44, lower than the standard SLS at 3.67. “The steering ratio is also shorter.”
The engine is redlined at 8000rpm, up from 7200rpm in the normal SLS, allowing it to hit 100km/h from rest in 3.6 seconds and onwards to 315km/h. It has launch control - with software specifically tailored for this car - that allows for a 10 per cent slip for better acceleration.
“We changed a lot in the engine,” says Weber. “It has a new intake manifold - made shorter - and new valve gear that is a lot lighter. The oil circuit is new and so are the engine bearings. “We have reduced back pressure and fitted a 100 per cent titanium exhaust system.
“There is an improved cooling system that was developed for the race track.” Much of the performance increase has come from the weight-loss program. Weber says the weight has been dropped by 100kg to 1550kg. “The torque tube for the engine drive from the front mid-mounted engine to the rear transaxle is now made of carbon fibre,” he says.
“Previously it was aluminium and now the weight has come down to 13kg from 26kg.” Carbon-fibre and carbon compounds feature prominently, including trim in the cabin. It has compound carbon brake rotors and the rear spoiler is made of carbon fibre and tested in a wind tunnel to achieve downforce up by 40 per cent on the normal SLS.
Each wheel is forged and 1kg lighter than the normal wheels. In total there is a 16kg weight loss over the normal car because of the wheels and the compound carbon brake rotors. Tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 measuring 275/35ZR19 at the front and 325/30ZR20 at the rear.
Weber says the car has hydraulic engine dampers that are specific only to the Black Series. “These solve problems with preventing weight distribution as the engine moves during driving,” he says. “It means no two parts are moving against each other and therefore don't change the weight distribution and therefore don't affect the handling.
“This makes the Black Series a quicker car on the race track.” When asked, Weber says that other AMG cars may get this system to improve handling. The SLS Black Series is 26mm wider at the rear and 13mm wider at the front compared with the standard SLS.
“You can see this in the additional bulges over the wheels and the rear indicators which are sunk into the fender, not flush like the standard car,” Weber says. “The tracks are also wider - in fact, wider than a GT3 car.” Mercedes-Benz Australia says the car will arrive in Australia from the second half of next year and that most of the buyers who have placed orders are previous AMG owners.
The SLS Black Series is the fifth of this model line-up to be produced by AMG. The company started the Black Series with the SLK55 in 2006, following it with the CLK63 in 2007, SL65 in 2008 and C63 Coupe in 2011. Mercedes-AMG chairman Ola Kallenius says the latest Black Series “is a perfect study in the 100 per cent transfer of technology and engineering from motorsport to the road”.
He says the new gull-wing is “the ultimate choice for fast laps and highly emotional driving experiences” and is the “most dynamic gull-wing model of all time”.
The Australian International Motor Show can confirm that one of the most exclusive vehicles in the world, an Aston Martin One-77 will take centre stage at this year’s Show at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The only Aston Martin One-77 in Australia and one of just 77 in the world, this vehicle is considered by many to be one of the most sought-after and expensive supercars on earth, initially costing over 1.2 million pounds.
Hand-crafted in England, the One-77 is billed by Aston Martin as its definitive sports car – a vehicle that epitomises everything Aston Martin is from technology, hand-craftsmanship of the hand rolled aluminium panels to the attention to detail. “I am very proud and excited that an Aston Martin One-77 will be on display at the 2012 Australian International Motor Show,” said Russ Tyrie, Show Director.
“The One-77 was first revealed to the world in concept form three years ago, and this year, Australians will be able to see one in all its glory after its owner has generously allowed for it to be on public display, only months after taking possession.”
A thrilling fusion of advanced technology and stunning design, the One-77 combines a carbon fibre monocoque structure and aluminium body panels with a 7.3 litre naturally aspirated V12 engine producing 559kW and 750Nm. The two door sports coupe achieves 100km/h in just 3.7 seconds and is capable of reaching speeds in excess of 350km/h.
“In the creation of the One-77, Aston Martin wanted to create a car closer to art than the automobile and it has certainly achieved that,” said Tyrie. “The One-77 is unique, it is like no other Aston Martin or supercar ever engineered and we are confident it will be a talking point of this year’s Australian International Motor Show,” said Tyrie.
