Autos

June 23, 2011. Mark your calenders. The prelude to the 24 hours of Nürburgring will be an event you do not want to miss. The Nürburgring race track is where legends are forged on a 15 and half mile stretch of winding roads and notorious fatal corners such as the infamous Berwerk…the Mine.

So if you just happen to be Jim Glickenhaus, eccentric millionaire and former Hollywood producer/director/screenwriter gone investment banker with a penchant for rare and exclusive automobiles, then the only answer is to commission your own prancing horse Ferrari super race car. There’s a premiere of a video series by Kinetc Fin that will take you behind the scenes of the Ferrari P4/5 Competizione from it’s creation to the battle of Nürburgring.

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class (Gelandewagen) is one of the most macho and capable off-road vehicles on the planet. I love the styling of it, and it is on my top three all-time favourite SUVs list (the other two are the Toyota Land Cruiser and Land Rover Defender).

The well-known German tuning company Brabus has now unveiled their version of the macho SUV called the Brabus 800 Widestar;  according to the tuner, it is the world’s most powerful SUV.  The 800 Widestar produces 800 horsepower and 1,047 pound-feet of torque from the bi-turbo V12 engine, helping the 800 Widestar sprint to 62 mph in only 4.0 seconds- that’s pretty damn quick for an SUV that’s shaped like a brick and is almost as heavy as a tank.  The G-Wagon can reach an electronically limited top speed of 149 mph (240 km/h); without the limiter, the top speed is said to be 168 mph (270 km/h).

The stealthy Batmobile has received a major facelift by Gordon Murray who is McLaren F1’s designer. The new design of the Batmobile is very Formula 1 inspired and premiered in London for the Batman Live show.

As can be seen, the newly designed vehicle is based on the aerodynamics of the Formula One race cars with the large rear spoiler, wheel arches, and extras like the LED wheels. But this car is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and is 100 percent emission free unlike the actual F1 race cars. The car features a newly developed type of carbon fiber by Gordon Murray just for this vehicle. The car also has a system in place which allows the car to levitate 40mm above the road.

The Maserati Kubang Concept is nice but is it “Maserati nice”? I still haven’t decided. The Italian company is years and years behind the competition when it comes to the Sport Luxury SUV segment. As some fans may remember, Maserati did showcase the Kubang Concept back in 2003 at the Detroit Auto Show. What they’ve been doing for the last eight years…nobody knows.

So what we have here is Maserati’s take on what a premium sport utility vehicle should look and feel like. The company says that the Kubang will be 100% Maserati in terms of style, handling, engine, suspension, brakes, and performance.  According to Meserati, the new generation of proprietary engines is currently being designed by Paolo Martinelli, who has 30 years of experience with Ferrari and Scuderia, and the engines will be built in Maranello by Ferrari. The engine is expected to be mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

There was an automotive saying back in the muscle car glory days during the sixties and seventies: “What wins at the drag strip on Sunday, sells in the showroom on Monday”. And- at least with the younger car buyers- it seemed there was some truth to this adage, as demonstrated by ever increasing muscle car sales at the dealerships. What events could have caught the imagination of an entire car buying generation? In my opinion, Jungle Jim Liberman was an influential drag racer of his time, and one that brought the cool factor of muscle cars to the masses.