The GranTurismo S – The Sportiest Version of Maserati’s Coupé
The Maserati GranTurismo S, the sportiest version of Maserati’s coupé, was developed for those looking for a distinctive performance car. The new and powerful 4.7 litre V8 engine is capable of generating 323 kw (440bhp), bestowing the GranTurismo S with a distinctive personality, aggression and power; all the necessary traits to deliver a refined drive in complete safety.

Read more at Maserati.com

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Rinspeed’s Zero-Emission World Debut at the Geneva Motor Show – a Green “Fish” with Q-Factor

Thirty years after the movie thriller ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ hit the silver screen “sQuba” is the first car that can actually ‘fly’ under water.

“Dive it again, James!” If the situation gets too hot for the secret agent he’ll go underground – or under water. So demonstrated impressively by Roger Moore in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977 when he dove below the waves in a sleek vehicle that moments before seemed to be an ordinary car. The only problem: The scene never really took place; it was an animation.

With the “sQuba,” the world’s first real submersible car, the movie fake now becomes reality for visitors of the Geneva Motor Show (March 6th – 16th, 2008). Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht (52) is known for his extraordinary automotive creations. The acknowledged James Bond enthusiast and Swiss automobile visionary kept revisiting this scene in his mind over and over: “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true.”

And it is this submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters that sets the “sQuba” apart from military vehicles. While the latter can go under water, they are limited to driving slowly over the submerged ground. Rinderknecht: “It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be maneuverable under water. The real challenge however was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water.”

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Acura’s Advanced Sports Car Concept bears all the necessary design elements of a proper sports car: sharp, aggressive edges, a low and wide silhouette, a slightly phallic side profile, and of course, a rear window that stands somewhere between hardly usable and nonexistent. As a whole, the ASCC looks clean and modern but also recalls some late ’80s sports cars, specifically the Mark III Toyota Supra. The slim headlights and full-width taillight are meant to mimic those of the iconic Acura NSX. Inside, an all-black cockpit does the same.

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Honda Motor Europe Ltd. exhibited the World Premiere V4 Concept Model at Intermot Cologne. The V4 Concept Model proposes a new, sensual design direction based on Honda’s trademark 4-cylinder V- engine.

This year Honda celebrates its 60th anniversary as a company and next year the 50th anniversary of its participation in road racing, as well as the 30th anniversary of racing with an innovative 4-cylinder V-engine with oval pistons. Considering these milestones, Honda chose “The New Beginning” as its exhibition theme leading into 2009 and exhibited the V4 Concept Model which signifies the beginning of a new era.

For Intermot, Honda collected and exhibited successive V4 race machines as well as mass-market motorcycle products which were developed by feeding back the technologies cultivated through participation in challenging race competition, enabling visitors to review the lineage of 30 years of V4 engine technologies and see how Honda will take motorcycling somewhere it has not been before. The exhibition also offers an easy-to-understand introduction to various challenges Honda has undertaken in order to create joy for its customers, by utilizing its technologies that have been continuously advanced through Honda’s 60-year history and by its participation in motorsports. Read the rest here…

Get up to date on this project here.

Audi is presenting a revolution in the top class at the Detroit Auto Show 2008 – the first 12-cylinder diesel engine in a high-performance roadgoing sports car. The V12 TDI with a displacement of six liters powers a concept car based on the Audi R8. This unit generates a huge 500 bhp and 737.56 lb-ft of torque. Audi is writing a new chapter in diesel technology with this power unit. Equipped with the expertise that Audi has built up through its motor sport activities, the R8 V12 TDI in matt “Grace Silver” embodies superb road handling, pioneering technology and fascinating design.

The V12 TDI is closely related to the engine in the Audi R10, the two-time Le Mans winner – so it catapults the Audi R8 into supercar terrain concerning performance too. It sprints from zero to 60 mph in just 4.2 seconds and its top speed is well over 186.41 mph. The peak torque, reached at only 1,750 rpm, paves the way for effortless acceleration that is unrivaled even at this level.

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“The D-JET is intended to provide the most desirable and attainable jet to a broad range of pilot and non-pilot air travelers, combining the executive cabin class seating comfort of much more expensive business jets with the lowest possible acquisition and operating cost,” said Peter Maurer, President of Diamond Aircraft. “We are excited that a company with Chartright’s experience and capability has selected the D-JET for its growing fleet, as this will enable more people to experience the time-savings and other benefits of personal jet travel.”

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The SSC Ultimate Aero

After seven years of painstaking development, SSC is proud to introduce the Ultimate Aero — A car without equal.

The SSC Ultimate Aero sets the benchmark for supercars today. Achieving tremendous power via its twin turbo V-8 engine, it produces 1,183 horsepower and 1094 ft.-lbs. of torque making the Ultimate Aero the world’s most powerful production car. Combining this proprietary power plant with a lightweight, aerodynamic body and the best handling systems available SSC delivers a vehicle that not only eclipses all other cars but stands OFFICIALLY as the “World’s Fastest Production Car”.

Simply put, there is no other production car that can match the performance of the Ultimate Aero.

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Nikolay Fomenko, FIA N-GT Champion, has just launched Russia’s first sports car company, named Marussia (is that a contraction of “Mother Russia”?), and in the process has unveiled its first pre-production hybrid concept vehicle. One nice mother. The vehicle shown is still in the early stages of development, with many important decisions still yet to be made, but at least the exterior design is headed in the right direction.

Fomenko envisions a purely electric vehicle in the future but for now hybrid is the way. A Renault or Nissan derived 180kW 3.5-litre six cylinder engine is slated to appear in the engine bay, but at this stage there are no details on the electric component of the drive-train.

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SPECIFICATIONS

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