Orvis Airstream Trailer 1 e1322600902838

Orvis Restored 1954 Airstream Flying Cloud Travel Trailer

Orvis, one of America’s oldest mail order retailers, has teamed up with Timeless Travel Trailers to restore a vintage 1954 Airstream Flying Cloud trailer.  This meticulously restored travel trailer will be on auction until December 11, 2011 with a starting bid of $75,000 at Orvis website and is expected to fetch from $150,000 to $450,000!

This Airstream trailer was originally used as a hunting and fishing lodge in Goose Lake, Oregon, it was sent to Timeless Travel Trailers’ headquarters in Colorado to have it restored to better-than-new condition.

Top Gear The Cool 500 Cars Book

Top Gear – “The Cool 500: The Coolest Cars Ever Made” Book

I can’t remember the last time I read an entire book; as I got older, I lost patience for the long-winded descriptions authors use to describe the simplest of things.  There are however, some books I don’t mind “reading”, like Top Gear’s “The Cool 500: The Coolest Cars Ever Made”.

The book is a must have (notice, I didn’t say “must read”) for any car fan.  The book features some of the coolest cars every produced, with amazing photography that’s signature Top Gear.  The book not only includes pictures, but in-depth commentary on the cars and all the technical information that should keep one busy for a very long time, if they’re into reading that sort of things.

An Electrified Supercar – Mercedes Benz SLS AMG E-Cell

mercedes benz sls amg e cell prototype gullwing

Following in the footsteps of the Porsche 918 Spyder, Mercedes-Benz have announced their own electric supercar called the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell.  The car is based on the gasoline powered SLS AMG and looks just as beautiful as that car.  If you’re lucky enough to own the electric version, you’d be able to sleep better at night knowing you blasted around on the autobahn at 200 mph without creating too much pollution (other than the tire smoke).

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell has 526 horsepower and 649 pound feet of torque and can reach zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds and the engine can rev up to 12,000 rpm (numbers provided by Mercedes-Benz).  The car is powered by four engines, each engine powering a wheel and is placed low in the car for improved handling.  Electricity is stored in 324 cells in its lithium-polymer batteries which are placed in front of the firewall, in the center tunnel and behind the driver and passenger seats.

Shaunghaun CEO copies the BMW X5

Ultimate Chinese Knock-Offs of Cars

BYD F8 vs. Mercedes CLK
Yep, it’s true –  both of them look like a Mercedes at a quick glance. The trouble, is that the similarities stop the moment you take a closer look. Besides the front fascia and the fact that they are both convertibles, there is not much else to compare between the two cars.  The yellow car you see is the BYD F8. BYD (Build Your Dream) used to manufacture cell-phone batteries. The CLK is a rear wheel drive available in a V6 or V8 and prices range from $47,000 to $62,000. The F8 is a front wheel drive car powered by a four banger and priced at $27,000 to $29,000.

Chinese BYD F8 copies Mercedes CLK

Shaunghaun CEO vs. BMW X5

2011 Land Rover Defender 4 e1291705583487

The 2011 Land Rover Defender

About a week ago we wrote an article on the awesome and luxurious Land Rover Defender 90 Yachting Edition; that post turned out to be quite popular, which is understandable because of the awesomeness of the Defender.  Today we bring you the 2011 Land Rover Defender line-up.

The 2011 Land Rover Defender gets subtle styling updates, which will probably be only noticed by the die-hard Defender fans.  The 2011 Defender comes in 90 different variations with long and short wheelbase models.

Range-Rover-Autobiography-Ultimate-Edition

Land Rover Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate Edition

LandRoverUltimate

This week Land Rover is debuting at Geneva Motor Show the most luxurious Range Rover ever. The new flagship vehicle is the very first vehicle to include super yacht inspired teak load-space floors, machined aluminum laptop table, drinks chiller, and two Apple iPads as standard equipment. Engine options include the LR-V8 5.0 Supercharged with a 0-60 in 5.9 seconds or if you’re feeling a bit green, there’s a new LR-TDV8 4.4L diesel engine making this the first Range Rover ever to do better than 30mpg. Only 500 units will be produced.

Fox-Marketing-Lexus-CT-200h

World’s Most Powerful Lexus CT 200h Hybrid

Fox-Marketing-Lexus-CT-200h

The Lexus CT 200h is the latest hybrid car in the ever increasing world of “Green Cars”.  Normally we don’t care too much about hybrid cars but the CT 200h is actually a pretty nice car, I spent some time in it at the auto show and it had as big of a crowd around it as the Lexus LF-A.  I was actually looking at the Lexus website building up one of these cars a few hours ago; it could be my next car.

Just because the CT 200h is a hybrid car doesn’t mean car tuning companies are simply going to ignore it.  The car tuning company in question is Fox Marketing and they made the CT200’s 1.8 liter engine really come to life.  They strapped on an Eaton supercharger with a Climax Racing intake manifold making the CT’s output jump from 134 to 300 horsepower!   This thing ain’t green no more!  The batteries were also upgraded but we’re not sure what exactly they did in that department.