Autos

Mercedes-Benz had several vehicles to show off at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show and one of them is the Viano Vision Diamond offering luxurious appointments for business travelers or casual city driving with all the comforts one would ever want or need. This chauffeur vehicle is hard to miss with its two tone paint job, chrome, and gold all over the van.  Even the five-spoke wheels have the black and white theme.

The Viano Vision Diamond is handsome on the outside but we all know it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And Mercedes-Benz makes it count. For starters, passengers in the rear can play around with an innovative multimedia system which allows passengers to choose between a business setting or a more comforting ambiance for a more relaxing feel.

The highly collectible and extremely limited production Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato is one of the most beautiful classic sports cars in the world, if you really want one; it’s going to cost you a 7-figure sum because only 25 examples were built.  The car was a collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato and initially 19 cars were built in 1963 with 4 more built in 1991 and a couple more in the year 2000.  The most recent auction for the DB4 Zagato ended up costing the owner $1.9 million.

Mercedes-Benz has finally revealed the new ‘CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake’ after an on-line teaser video showing minor details of the vehicle. Like its sedan counterpart, the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake features a 5.5-liter V8 bi-turbo engine which produces 518 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque while achieving the 0-100km/h in 4.4 seconds.

If this amount of power is insufficient, Mercedes also offers a performance package available on the ‘Edition 1’ model helping boost power to 550 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque which helps increase the 0-100km/h dash by 0.1 seconds to 4.3 seconds. Both variants have an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h (155mph).

A Kahn Design has released a tuning package for the sporty Range Rover Evoque called the Dark Tungsten RS250 Evoque, not related to the Dark Knight.  The tune consists of an exterior styling package and interior upgrades that feature lots of leather and Alcantara.

The exterior upgrades include a new front bumper that’s a lot cleaner than the stock bumper with two large air-inlets and mesh grill inserts in the upper and lower parts of the hood and bumper.  The front bumper comes with a lower

Here’s the “all-new” 2013 Audi A3 Sportback (Wagon), it’s not really new, just an evolution of the previous design.  There are subtle changes like new headlights and taillights and the car does grow a tiny bit in size.  The car will be officially unveiled at the 2012 Paris Auto Show.

The car doesn’t look too bad, the new sharper headlights give the A3 a bit of an aggressive look and the S-Line package makes the car look even sportier with aggressive bumpers, side skirts, a spoiler, and larger wheels.

They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but the boys over at Legacy Classic Trucks would have to disagree as they breathe new life into the Power Wagons from the 1940’s. I also disagree because at my current place of work, we have  a 73 year old part-time employee who just purchased an iPod touch and is getting along with it just fine. It’s actually pretty entertaining to watch as we teach him how to use some of the features on the device. Anyways, back to Legacy Classic Trucks …

The company is based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and they specialize in the restoration and customization of the Dodge Power Wagon. Legacy Classic Trucks can provide basic restorations, body on frame restorations, and complete restorations where every nut, bolt, and wire is replaced.

The Jaguar XFR is a pretty potent sports sedan with lots of horsepower and pretty good looks, but the good folks at Jaguar didn’t stop there, they just introduced an even more powerful version of the sedan, the Jaguar XFR-S.

Like the XKR-S coupe, the XFR-S is powered by a supercharged 5.0 liter V8 engine producing 542 horsepower and 502 pound-feet (680 Nm) of torque, that’s 40 HP and 41 lb-ft more than the XFR.  Power is sent to the rear wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission.  According to Jaguar, the XFR-S sprints to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds with an electronically limited top speed of 186 mph; compared to 4.7 seconds 0-60 and 155 mph top speed of the XFR.  This monster of a car is the fastest and most powerful production Jaguar sedan ever.