Salon Privé, which returned to Syon Park from the 5th to 7th September, is very firmly established as the UK’s most prestigious Super Car Show and the Chubb Insurance Concours d’Elégance is a calendar highlight amongst enthusiasts, collectors and buyers of modern and classic super cars.
It is, however, far more than just a car show having also become a permanent fixture on the London social scene.
by Stuff.co.nz
A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO made for race driver Stirling Moss has become the world’s most expensive car after selling in a private transaction for $US35 million.
The distinctive apple-green Ferrari, one of 39 GTOs produced from 1962 to 1964, is listed among May’s high-end sales at anamera.com, a website for classic car dealers. Two specialist traders have independently confirmed the transaction and price to Bloomberg News.
The car was sold within the past two weeks by the Dutch-born businessman Eric Heerema, owner of the Nyetimber vineyard in Sussex, southern England. The buyer is US-based classic car collector Craig McCaw, the dealers said.
Heerema was not available for comment when Nyetimber was contacted by Bloomberg News. McCaw was also unavailable for comment when his company Eagle River Investments was telephoned.
“The market is very active at the moment,” said James Cottingham, acquisition consultant for Ferrari dealer DK Engineering, based in Hertfordshire, UK.
“A lot of new buyers are expanding their collections and the baby-boomer generation of collectors has reached an age when they’re not using their cars as much as they used to. They want to sell.”
McCaw, who is based in the Seattle area, was the co-founder of McCaw Cellular, which was acquired by AT&T for $US11.5 billion (NZ$15.1b) in 1993.
BIG TICKETS
There has been a flurry of big-ticket Ferrari sales through private transactions during the last two months. The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa in which the US driver Phil Hill won the 1958 Le Mans 24-Hour race was sold by the French collector Pierre Bardinon for about $US25m (NZ$32.8m), according to anamera.com.
A Ferrari 250 GTO bought by UK television and radio host Chris Evans for about $US18m (NZ$23.6m) in 2010 has been sold for a million-dollar price “in the high 20s,” dealers said.
“I’ve heard of eight Ferraris selling for a total of $US135m (NZ$177m) during the last eight weeks,” John Collins of the UK, Ascot-based dealership Talacrest Ltd. said in an interview.
“It’s difficult to find cars at the moment,” said Collins, who was directly involved in five of these high-end sales. “The Arabs have started buying because of Formula One and the Chinese have now entered the market.”
The green GTO had been acquired by Heerema a decade ago for about $US8.5m (NZ$11.1m) from the Japanese collector Yoshiho Matsuda, who was also the previous owner of Evans’s Ferrari, dealers said.
TALACREST PURCHASE
Matsuda acquired the ex-Moss racer in 1999 from Talacrest, who bought the car for $US3.5m in 1996.
“I kept on looking at it in my showroom, thinking I paid too much,” said Collins.
The 250 GTO, created in 1962 to compete at the Le Mans 24- Hour and other Grand-Touring car races, is regarded by collectors as the most desirable of all classic Ferraris. Motor Trend Classic magazine placed the 250 GTO first on a list of the “Greatest Ferraris of all time” in 2010.
Heerema’s example, with a chassis numbered 3505, was made by the Ferrari factory in 1962 for the UK racer Moss, whose name is scrawled on the back of the right-hand driver’s seat.
The car was painted in the pale-green livery of Moss’s UDT- Laystall race team. Moss suffered a career-ending crash at the Goodwood circuit in Sussex on April 23, 1962, in a race just prior to taking the wheel of his new Ferrari.
LE MANS
The car was raced by his fellow UK driver Innes Ireland at the 1962 Le Mans, where it retired.
The record had been held by a 1936 Type 57SC Bugatti Atlantic, bought by the California-based collector Peter Mullin in another private transaction in 2010 for an undisclosed price between $US30m and $US34m.
Mullin, when interviewed by Bloomberg News in February, wouldn’t divulge the precise sum he paid for the Bugatti.
In January, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO numbered 5095 was sold by the UK-based businessman Jon Hunt, former chief executive of the Foxtons real-estate group, for about $US32m, dealers with knowledge of the matter said.
Prices for classic Ferraris increased 4.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, according to data compiled by the London- based Historic Automobile Group International (HAGI).
Ferrari SpA remains the top brand for both established collectors and wealthy individuals looking to diversify their investments. New buyers appreciate the security of a big carmaker that still exists and private sales appeal to some rather than the spotlight of public auctions.
By macan-porsche.com
No more renderings, no more speculative reports (for now), this is the real Porsche Macan, a brand new SUV from the German automaker, which is supposed to have sporty valences and a coupe-ish body style.
Porsche is moving ahead at blistering speed with development of the Macan, and in typical German fashion they look set to bring the goods to market on schedule.
The platform for the Macan is basically borrowed from the Audi Q5 and upcoming Q6, a fact that is clearly demonstrated by the very Audi-like wheels on this test vehicle. The differences will obviously come in the luxury department, and in the fact that the Macan will come with the sporty feel the Q5 obviously lacks.
But since we’ve got the fist spy photos of the car, let’s talk about the design of the SUV. The headlights, taillights and that fake chrome strip towards the rear of the doors are actually stickers meant to fool you into thinking it’s actually a Cayenne.
However, the differences aren’t actually that big when you look at a picture of Porsche’s best selling SUV. The Macan has a bigger center grille, no creases on the bonnet, a sloped back and longer overhangs. But you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re the same vehicle if you’re not an aficionado.
The overall impression we got is that the Macan and Cayenne will be differentiated by the price, with the former offering more mainstream powetrains borrowed from Audi than tuned to Porsche levels, culminating with a 375 PS V6 for the Macan Turbo. This would make the top Macan some 80 hp more powerful than the Cayenne base model. Think of it as the Cayman sitting underneath the 911 in the range.
The Macan will also reportedly be powered by the first Porsche four-cylinder engine since the 968 was phased out in 1995.
Sports SUV to end all? No, more like a market stop-gap!
bonus video: AutoweekUSA
By ferrari-news.com
Here is a nice video by Motor Trend, where they will chase speeds of over 200 miles per hour (322 km/h) with several astonishing supercars – Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, Bentley Continental Supersport and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
Which will manage to hit 200 MPH in just three-miles long runway? Check out the video!
by thecoolist.com
In 2011, the industry of luxury and performance-class automobiles continued its current trend of “faster and smarter”. Hybrid and electric technologies continue to work their way up to the six-figure circuit, while the internal combustion mainstays continue to shatter the 200 mph super car barrier. From the stunning Lamborghini Aventador to the speedy BAC Mono, these ten cars represent the greatest high-end automotive advancements of 2011. Readers, start your engines…
With the Reventon in its rear view, the new Lamborghini Aventador has taken the lead as the flagship super car of this famed Italian manufacturer. With a 691hp V12 engine under its hood, it’ll accelerate from a standing start to 60mph in just 2.8 seconds. If you keep your foot on the pedal, you’ll eventually top out at 217 mph, a speed only a handful of production cars can come close to. It is the best news from Lamborghini in 2011, an exciting car with a dangerous design sensibility and a powertrain to match.
It’s not every year that the boutique Italian car manufacturer Pagani releases a new super car. In fact, it doesn’t even happen every decade. The Pagani Huayra is the latest flagship from the masterminds behind the Pagani Zonda, the current record holder for production cars on the Nürburgring. The Huayra takes the torch from the Zonda, hoping to continue to break records by carving up the concrete. The Pagani Huayra features a twin-turbo 700 hp engine that feels like overkill for a vehicle with a slight 3,000 pound curb weight. On the road, this Pagani will top out at 230 mph, faster even than that lovely Aventador above.
There’s fast– and then there’s smart. The new BMW I3 and I8 Electric Vehicles might just be the top news item in luxury driving for the 2011 calendar year. The BMW I3 is an all-electric city commuter with a 140-mile range per charge. It seats four plus plenty of cargo space, and can recharge to 80% power in under an hour with a fast charging option. The BMW I8 is the sportier of the two, an electric hybrid that can run on electric power only for short trips, but can burst past 60 mph in 4.6 seconds when sipping from the fuel line. The latter is also the production version of the very popular BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept, a vehicle covered here on TheCoolist a few years back. (more…)
By Andrew Nusca at Smart Planet
Electric automaker Tesla Motors unveiled its third model last night in San Francisco, a long-awaited sport-utility vehicle that marks the company’s latest step toward mainstream America.
Using the same electric powertrain as the Model S full-size sedan introduced last year, the Model X is most definitely more “sport” than “utility,” with low ground clearance, a rakish profile, gullwing doors (Tesla calls them “falcon wings”) and a 0 to 60 m.p.h. time of less than five seconds.
Eat your heart out, Porsche Cayenne.
But it’s that electric powertrain that’s responsible for its most qualities: with the all-at-once-torque capabilities that electric motors offer, the vehicle may perform surprisingly well in inclement weather. (It comes with dual motor all wheel drive.)
Sixty and 85 KwH battery options will be offered.
My CNET colleague Martin LaMonica elaborates:
The key to Tesla’s cool design is the powertrain, built around a flat battery pack that extends from the front to rear wheels under the car. This provides a low center of gravity for good handling, but also allows for substantially more interior space than a vehicle with a transmission running under it.
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