Saturday, 31 July 2010

Ferrari Sports Cars 612 Scaglietti a Sporty Coupé

The 612 Scaglietti is the result of an avant-garde design that continues the great Ferrari 2+2 tradition. Styled by Pininfarina, the 612 Scaglietti is named in honour of Sergio Scaglietti, the Modenese stylist and coachbuilder responsible for bodying some of the most beautiful Ferraris Sports Cars of the 1950s and 60s.
Ferrari Sports Cars 612 Scaglietti a Sporty Coupé
The 612 Scaglietti epitomises Ferrari's talent for innovation and design. This exhilaratingly nimble, beautifully balanced sporty front-engined rear-wheel drive berlinetta offers a cockpit capable of accommodating four occupants in unprecedented comfort. The 612 Scaglietti isn't just a 2+2 but a spacious two-door four-seater that's a pleasure to be aboard in any driving conditions.
While the Ferraris Sports Cars 612 Scaglietti has the heart of a sporty coupé, its luxurious dimensions and design are that of a surprisingly roomy Granturismo. Its deft Pininfarina styling is as innovative as its design, underscoring its dynamism and power. The result is an imposingly sculptural car with a long sleek bonnet, strong lines and signature scooped flanks borrowed from the famous Rossellini-Bergman 375 MM.
The 612 Scaglietti was the very first all-aluminium Ferrari 12-cylinder. It's no surprise therefore, that it is named in honour of Sergio Scaglietti, the Modenese coachbuilder who worked with Enzo Ferrari in the early years of his great adventure, masterfully sculpting some of the most famous track and road-going Ferraris ever from that very metal (which is just a third of the specific weight of steel). Both the 612 Scaglietti's chassis and bodywork are aluminium.
The 612 Scaglietti's innovative panoramic stratified glass roof extends right across the top of the cockpit from windscreen to rear window, giving all four occupants a drop-top driving sensation of spaciousness and airiness. There are three tint level settings to allow occupants adjust the amount of sunlight allowed into the car.
The 612 Scaglietti's braking system features CCM (carbon ceramic material) discs, making it highly responsive and efficient even in the most intense driving conditions. The 612 Scaglietti's brakes are also exceptionally resistant to fading and thus guarantee effective braking in high-stress driving situations. The use of CCM technology guarantees enhanced ride quality too. The 612 Scaglietti's wheels have been selected for optimal performance and weight reduction.
Ferrari's team of highly-experienced, passionate artisan cockpit trim experts ensure that every 612 Scaglietti leaves Maranello with an elegantly sophisticated and sporty cockpit honed to meet the tastes of its owner. This bespoke quality and exclusivity means that owners can choose from a range of dash panel inserts, seat trims and side panels.
The easy-to-reach main controls for the onboard infotainment system are also steering wheel-mounted. The dual zone climate control automatically adjusts cockpit temperature, humidity levels and ventilation. An 8-channel Surround Sound audio system was developed specifically for the cockpit so that the acoustics are on a par with the best Home Theatre system, in all driving conditions.
The 612 Scaglietti is powered by an imposing 5,748 cm³ 65° V12 that delivers 540 CV at 7,250 rpm, 98 CV more than the 456M's 5,474 cm³ unit. The engine has been worked upon on various levels to optimise performance and improve fluid dynamics. Specifically, it boasts more direct air intake tracts with two ducts from the radiator grille opening on the front bumper, new exhaust system geometries and volumes to reduce back-pressure, a boosted compression ratio (11.2:1), and inlet tracts and exhaust porting with improved fluid dynamic characteristics.
It is controlled by a Bosch Motronic ME7 ECU. Meticulous honing of the 612 Scaglietti's dynamic handling has resulted in prompt yet smooth responsiveness, making it easier to control in all kinds of conditions.

2009 Bugatti Sports Cars Veyron Type 35 Grand Prix Edition

In a highlight on this year’s agenda of centennial celebrations, Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. presented four Bugatti Veyron specials at Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza. These one off models are reminders of Bugatti’s glorious motor-racing history which played a central role in popularising and ultimately establishing the myth which the brand continues to enjoy to this day.
2009 Bugatti Sports Cars Veyron Type 35 Grand Prix Edition
The Bugatti brand is almost inextricably linked to the Type 35. The Type 35 Grand Prix was by far the most successful racing model. The unmistakable radiator grille and eight-spoke aluminum wheels of the Type 35 have become defining features of the Bugatti automobile. In its day, the Grand Prix was also well ahead of its time in terms of engineering ingenuity.
The front axle design of this vehicle, which, for reasons of weight minimization, is hollow, is a true masterpiece of workmanship and was deemed nothing less than revolutionary. Its springs were passed through the axle to produce a high level of stability. The Grand Prix’s brake drums were integrally fitted into its lightweight aluminum wheels. Unfastening the central wheel nut allowed the wheel to be easily removed within a matter of seconds and the brake to be exposed. This was a crucial advantage at the pit stop.
The blue racers made their first appearance on the race track at the Grand Prix held by Automobil Club de France in Lyon in 1924. In the decade that followed, they remained practically unchallenged thanks to sophisticated manufacturing efforts, their lightweight design and easy handling. During that ten-year era, they won almost 2000 races – more than any other model ever has.
Grand Prix races were highly fashionable events in those days, and Bugatti was not the only brand with considerable interest in substantiating the reputation of its products by winning races. In fact, in the 1920s, Europe was regularly host to a number of different races in different countries on a single weekend. The teams set up by different automobile manufacturers competed at popular race circuits such as Targa Florio, Le Mans, Monza and Spa as well as in Rome, Nice, Antibes and even a village in Alsace.
The main reason Bugatti won such an enormous number of races – on the back of which successes the brand was also able to forge its image – was the fact that Bugatti sold not only its normal sports and touring cars to private buyers, but its racing cars too. Thus it was that its automobiles took part in such a large number of Grand Prix events.
Tradition being what it is, the Bugatti Veyron Specials built to mark the 100th anniversary of the brand feature the racing colors of the respective countries: blue for France, red for Italy, green for England and white for Germany. Each of the four new Veyrons has a specific “predecessor” in the form of an original Grand Prix Bugatti on which it was modelled.
These four historic race cars represent the generation of legendary Bugatti Grand Prix racers which were piloted by world-famous race-car drivers and which scored countless racing victories in the 1920s and ‘30s. Each of the four Veyron Specials is named after a Bugatti race-car driver of the 1920s and 30s. Jean-Pierre Wimille has given the blue Veyron its name, Achille Varzi the red one, Malcolm Campbell the green one and Hermann zu Leiningen the white Veyron.
“We have put a lot of effort into translating colour and material, the defining characteristics of our historic role models, into the designs of the modern-day Veyrons,” explains Alasdair Stewart, Director Sales & Marketing at Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. “We have taken extreme care to match the original colours of the original race cars, exterior and interior”
On Sunday, the four historic racing Type 35s and the four modern-day Centenaire Edition Veyrons will be exhibited alongside each other in the park of Villa Erba for the first and only time.
Ahead of that presentation, Bugatti will on Saturday be prominently represented in the park of Villa d’Este by a special-display-class exhibition of models, which will serve to portray the 100-year history of the brand. Bugatti’s participation in the classic Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como will be the second highlight event to mark the carmaker’s centennial celebrations after it took part in the International Geneva Motor Show in early March.
This latest event will be followed by the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California in mid-August and the main celebratory event on 12 September in Molsheim (Alsace), which has been the home of this unparalleled automobile brand for 100 years.

2013 Porsche Sports Cars 918 RSR Race Car

13-year-old WCF member and Porschephile, porschecarreragtmay6, has created some renderings of a Porsche 918 RSR race car. Based on the 918 Spyder concept, the pictures show a hardcore coupe, wearing some classic Porsche liveries, designed to compete in the GT1 class.
2013 Porsche Sports Cars 918 RSR Race Car
Although these renderings were created back in March, shortly after the 918 Spyder's surprise unveiling in Geneva, they provide a potential glimpse of a race spec 918 in the wake of recent reports that Porsche will field the 918 Spyder at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in 2011.
The 2013 Porsche 918 RSR Race Car comes with 2 electric motors and a 500hp V8 from the “RS Spyder” LMP-2 car. The 918 RSR Race Car will drop the electric motors, but will retain the KERs and 500 hp V8. Since GT1 regulated no more than 600 hp, Porsche may remove air-restrictors from the engine to boost the output to 600hp.
As a refresher, the 918 Spyder concept featured a 368 kW (500 PS / 493 hp) V8 engine and three electric motors with a total of 160 kW (218 PS / 215 hp). Packing a combined 528 kW (718 PS / 708 hp), the Spyder sent power through a PDK dual-clutch gearbox (with an electric boost function) to an electric all-wheel drive system.
The 918 RSR model will race the same competitions as the classical 917 race car. It will drop the electric motors, but will retain the KERS and the 500hp V8. Since the GT1 regulates no more than 600hp, Porsche may remove air-restrictors from the engine to boost the output to 600hp. The "918 RSR" will be able to hit a top speed of 200mph and will make the 0 to 60 mph sprint in than 3.0 seconds.
It will feature a wider track, redesigned front and rear diffusers, as well as a fixed hard-top roof and a huge rear wing. The liveries on these images were created based off of the classic Porsche liveries and designed to compete in the GT1 class.
The Porsche 918 RSR Race Car will top in the 200mph range and will reach 62mph in less than 3.0 seconds, possibly 2.8 seconds. The weight will be around 1,240 kilos, 2,730 lbs.
The weight loss will comes from the loss of the batteries stripped interior and loss of amenities even more extensive use of carbon fiber and a reconstruction of body work.