Autos

This little bugger will literally blow away the competition.

Crap flushed down the toilet from 70 homes is enough to power this car for 10,000 miles and has a top speed of 114 mph. Named the “Bio Bug”, this 2.0 liter VW Beetle is developed by Mohammed Saddiq of GENeco, a sustainable energy firm based in Bristol. Vehicles powered by methane gas is nothing new but what makes the Bio Bug unique is the fact that performance is not affected. What’s even cooler is the fact that the company is working on developing an engine that will also run on food waste, which would make this the most sustainable car around. The car is also able to run on standard petroleum if methane gas happens to be out.  My only two concerns with this car are the fact that they picked a VW Beetle as the prototype and the smell of the exhaust fumes. Last night was Mexican dinner and I’d be very concerned for public safety.

The Land Rover Evoque was first introduced in the summer of 2010, I believe the interior is designed by Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) or something like that, I don’t really pay attention to celebrities and their BS lives.  The original Evoque was a small 3-door SUV, that format used to be quite popular a couple of decades ago, not sure why it isn’t popular anymore.  Now Land Rover has released official pictures of the bigger Range Rover Evoque 5-doors, ahead of the LA Auto Show.  The five-door Evoque will go on sale after the three-door model sometime next year.

The 5-door Range Rover Evoque looks just like its little brother but is three inches taller and has the typical lines of a cross-over utility vehicles rather than the masculine look of the full-sized Range Rover SUV.

The Ferrari 458 Italia is one of the most beautiful modern-day supercars and is amongst our top five dream cars here at Unfinished Man.  The car is a bit expensive for the average Joe but fear not, the good folks at Amalgam Fine Model Cars have created an affordable version of the car.  They’ve produced an incredibly detailed 1:8 scale model of the 458 Italia.

The car looks amazing and the pictures can easily be mistaken for the real car.  It took engineers at the company 3,500 hours to create the master model and then 3,500 hours are spent on each production scale model.  The doors can be opened to show the beautifully detailed interior and the car is placed on a carbon fiber base with a clear acrylic dust cover.

BMW unveiled a special edition of the already special M3 sedan at last week’s 24 Hours of Nurburgring race, dubbed the BMW M3 CRT; CRT stands for Carbon Racing Technologies.  The M3 CRT takes the technology from the GTS coupe and applies it to the M3 Sedan.  The M3 CRT is a showcase of the new carbon fiber technology BMW will be using in its future cars.

As the name would suggest, the M3 CRT sees quite a bit of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP); the front chin spoiler, rear spoiler, the hood, and the two front seats are made out of CFRP.  Other light weight items such as titanium mufflers, lightweight 19” wheels and less sound-deadening material make the M3 CRT weigh 99.2 pounds (45 kg) less than the standard M3 sedan, weighing in at 3,483 pounds (1580 kg).

The Maserati GranTurismo is one of the most beautiful GT cars currently being produced; the regular version of the car is a bit on the “softer” side, so Maserati introduced a more hardcore version last year called the MC Stradale.  However, the MC Stradale only had 10 more horsepower than the GranTurismo S, so German car tuning firm Novitec stepped up to the plate to take care of the MC Stradale with quite a few added ponies.

The Novitec Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale pumps out 646 horsepower and 460 pound-feet (624 Nm) of torque from the 4.7 liter V8 engine.  The power increase comes courtesy of an ECU tune, a supercharger, custom injectors, and larger manifolds.  0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) is reached in 3.9 seconds and 124 mph (200 km/h) is reached in 14.0 seconds.

Just three months after officially unveiling the 2012 911 Carrera, Porsche brings us the gorgeous 2012 911 Carrera Cabriolet and makes me wish I was a richer man.

I’m already a big fan of the new (991) body styling and I absolutely love the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet.  Unlike most of its competitors, the 911 Cabriolet doesn’t make use of a folding hard-top; instead it goes the traditional route.  However, Porsche used fancy materials like high-strength steel and magnesium canvas to make the roof lighter than the previous generation.  The soft-top roof also, for the first time, keeps the same sleek profile as the coupe.  The roof can be opened and closed in 13 seconds and this function can be performed while the vehicle is moving at speeds of up to 32 mph.