Autos

When the McLaren F1 first hit the roads it was immediatley praised as one of the most iconic road cars of all time. For almost two decades the  million dollar 3-seater set the stage for comparing any newly produced exotic super car. With it’s gold foiled 550 hp engine, it still holds the top speed of 243 mph for a naturally aspirated car.

Now McLaren Automotive is back with McLaren MP4-12C. Boasting 592bhp, 443lb ft and 1434kg, the MP4-12C hints at zero surprises for who it has on it’s crosshairs; the 562bhp, 398lb ft, 1485kg Ferrari 458 Italia. Check out some great videos after the jump.

Another day, another special edition car, this time it’s the Porsche Cayman S Black Edition and it’s limited to only 500 units worldwide.

The Cayman S Black Edition is not as special as one would think; it only sees a 10 horsepower increase to 330 HP at 7,400 rpm and the torque numbers remain the same at 273 pound-feet at 4,750 rpm, extracted from the massaged 3.4 liter 6-cylinder boxer engine.  The car also gets a black paint job with a black interior and black wheels, hence the name.

The latest Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe is a very nice looking car but if you want to get attention, you should opt for the C63 AMG and if you really want to stand out from the crowd, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series Coupe is the car for you!

Mercedes first started giving theirs cars the Black Series treatment in 2005/2006; the upgrades were mostly aesthetic and made the cars look more like the race cars from DTM (a German racing series).  The 2012 C63 AMG Black Series Coupe sees not only aesthetic upgrades but it also adds some other goodies as well.  The car was officially launched at this weekend’s Formula 1 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

The Nissan 370Z is one of our favorite affordable cars; it looks pretty good and offers excellent performance (for the price).  The Japanese manufacturer has now released a new racing version of the car called the Nissan 370Z Nismo RC, the RC doesn’t stand for Radio Control.

The Nissan 370Z Nismo RC is a bare-bones version of the 370Z Nismo and includes deletion of the passenger seat, carpets, AC, sound system, and other “luxury” items.  The car loses 360 pounds, now weighing 2,954 pounds.  Power from the 3.6 liter V6 engine has been slightly increased to 355 horsepower and 276 pound-feet of torque.

The Land Rover Defender and the Mercedes G-Class (also known as G-Wagon or Geländewagen) are at the top of our list of tough off-road vehicles that we would love to have in our garage.  A few months ago Bulgarian tuning firm, Vilner, worked their magic on the Defender and today they present us a tuned version of the Mercedes G-Wagon.

The Defender, in stock form, is a very bare-bones vehicle in terms of creature comforts, so the transformation on that vehicle was massive.  The Mercedes G-Class, on the other hand, comes with a very luxurious interior but Vilner took its interior to the next level.

In October 2013, Lamborghini will be celebrating its 50^th anniversary and I’m certain we can expect something special being unveiled around that time. While suckers like us wait around wondering what the company will come up with, people like Mark Hostler are already visualizing the possible designs should Lamborghini decide to release something.

Mark Hostler is a transportation design student at Staffordshire University and the car you see here is the Lamborghini Ferruccio Concept designed by him. The hard-edged and extremely aggressive concept Lamborghini is supposed to blend the shapes and design details of various Lamborghini’s over the past 50 years.