Cars

The Land Rover Defender and Mercedes Gelandewagen (G-Class) are the epitome of true off-road vehicles.  The Land Rover Defender has been one of my favourite SUVs ever since I was young because of its utilitarian look and a go anywhere attitude, it isn’t as luxurious as the Gelandewagen but German tuners STARTECH (subsidiary of Brabus) took care of that with the Land Rover Defender 90 Yachting Edition, which will be showcased at the Essen Motor Show in Germany.

As the name would suggest, the Defender is based on luxury yachts, which can be seen on the luxurious interior that features premium navy blue leather on the seats and the dashboard with contrasting baseball style cross stitching on the sporty Recaro bucket seats for the driver and front passenger.  The headliner is covered with blue Alcantara and the floors feature yacht-styled luxurious wood panels.  There is enough luxury in this Defender that it could easily be mistaken for a Range Rover.

British car builder Noble has finally released their production version of the Noble M600. At first glance, the M600 looks somewhat like the iconic McLaren F1 and it isn’t too far from being in the same class of exclusivity and exoticness (is that even a word?).  The new M600 comes complete with a beautiful all-carbon fiber body and a mid mounted 4.4 liter twin turbocharged V8 engine from Yamaha.  The V8 is capable of producing up to 650 horsepower at 6,800 rpm and 604 pound-feet (868 Nm) of torque at 3,800 rpm and is mated to a Graziano six-speed manual transmission.

I have been into cars for as long as I can remember, over the years I have seen car manufacturers and tuners use some of the most exotic and weirdest materials on their cars.  I, however, have never seen anyone use porcelain on their cars, that is, until today.  Bugatti has just unveiled a one-off Veyron called “L’Or Blanc”.

“L’Or Blanc” means “white gold” in French and you can see from the high-res pictures what the name implies.  The supercar, or work of art as Bugatti would describe it, was produced in collaboration with Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM), a company that specializes in porcelain.

BMW officially unveiled the sixth generation 3 Series sedan today, code named F30.  The entry level luxury car was first introduced in 1975 and has sold over 12 million units worldwide.  The 2012 BMW 3 Series F30 sedan will be available worldwide in February 2012.

The new car’s design is more in line with the 5, 6, and 7 series cars and features an aggressive front that reminds me of the Z4 roadster.  The 2012 3-Series sedan has grown in size as well, with a 3.66” increase in overall length, the wheelbase is increased by 1.97”, the front and rear tracks are wider by 1.46” and 1.85”.  The increase in length offers 0.59” more legroom and 0.31” more headroom for the rear passengers; despite the increased size, the 2012 3-Series F30 is 88 pounds lighter than its predecessor.

Toyota first unveiled the FT-86 Concept two years ago, and after a number of leaks, rumors, and concept teasers – the production version of this anticipated car has finally been revealed.  The European model is called the Toyota GT 86 while the Japanese model will named simply as Toyota 86.

The name, GT 86, is tribute to the company’s GT car heritage and especially the AE86 (Corolla GT). The GT 86 is the result of a joint project between Toyota and Subaru that will result in two more models, the Subaru BRZ which will debut in Tokyo next week in its production trim, and the Scion FR-S for the North American market.

Ever since the Acura NSX ceased production in 2005, there has been lots of speculation about the re-birth of the mid-engine Japanese supercar.  Acura/Honda has brought a few concept NSX cars to auto shows over the years but none of them made it to production models but that might change with the introduction of the all-new Acura NSX Concept, presented at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.  Acura says this car will make it to production within the next three years, we have our fingers crossed.