Supercar GTA Concept

The Spanish company GTA Motor has declared that developed super car GTA Concept will be presented public in the end of April. Though it is a question about concept car, Spaniards plan to finish the project to mass production. The serial car name somehow differently. How? About this becomes known in the end of April. For now working prototype GTA Concept passes road tests for one of the European high-speed lines. Its chassis is made of easy materials: carbon, kevlar, the titan. A pull-rod source – established in base it (is longitudinal) motor V10 developing 780 h.p. of the maximum capacity (max. twisting moment – 929 Nanometers). Dynamic indicators impress. To 100 km/h Spanish of superpenalties is dispersed less, than for 3 seconds. Its maximum speed reaches 350 km/h. To stop the dispersed car, it have supplied with brakes with ceramic ventilated disks. The data about price GTA Concept (it is natural, its serial version) while is not present. It is known only that the circulation is limited by 99th copies. For the majority of us (from you, from them), in any case, this car remains inaccessible. Dream, a fairy tale, by simply car …

Mercedes-Benz Shows F-CELL Car Concept

Please don't adjust your monitors; you haven't stumbled onto the 'net, circa 1911. In fact, these images are of Mercedes-Benz's latest concept car powered by fuel cells - just about as modern as you can get.


The car's fuel cell produces 1.2kW of emission free power, taking the F-Cell to a 15.5mph top speed. At that speed hitting the range of 220 miles could prove an arduous task at best. Or at least it would be were the driver not sitting in carbon fibre bucket seats with hand-stitched leather covers while controlling the F-CELL using a drive-by-wire joystick and no doubt admiring the fibreglass bodywork. All of which instead sounds rather pleasant; to me at least.


The F-CELL, as it is called, was designed by a group of trainees and its styling harks back to the original 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car - most notably evidenced by the large spoked wheels. The car will never see the light of day as a real product as its purpose was to simply encourage future Mercedes-Benz engineers to think about alternative drive systems. Nonetheless, it's an interesting glimpse at where the company could be going, given these trainees are going to be shaping how the company works in the coming years.

More importantly: I wonder who gets to keep the prototype..?

2010 Chevrolet Camaro

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Auto enthusiasts have been pawing the turf like corralled mustangs waiting for the revived Chevrolet Camaro, unveiled as a concept car at the 2006 Detroit auto show and finally in showrooms this week.

A day driving most versions on back roads and through the 25-mph villages around here was generally rewarding, suggesting the wait was worthwhile.

And a cheery note: The low-end versions, about $25,000, arguably were the best of the bunch.

The Camaro is not as obsessively retro as the Dodge Challenger out last year or the current Ford Mustang. But using the popular 1969 Camaro as a touchstone, Chevy left no doubt it's a modern take on Camaro's heritage.
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The Detroit coupes were known as "pony cars" in recognition that the Mustang was launched first, on April 17, 1964. As their makers crammed in ever-more-powerful engines, they also were called "muscle cars." Of the three now, Camaro probably best blends old (styling cues, interior trim) and new (edgy looks, high-tech base engine, modern suspension).

It's unlikely Mustangers or Challenger folk will acknowledge Camaro as champ, but an open-minded shopper probably would consider Camaro most satisfying to drive, whether hard and fast or in the school drop-off line.

Chevy insists the Camaro is so modern it also will compete with Asian sports coupes such as Mazda RX-8, Nissan 370Z and Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Showroom models went into production at Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, on March 16 and are trickling into dealerships now. Chevy says dealers have orders for 14,000.

A main reason the lower-price models are so satisfying: The base engine is a sweetheart, not a wannabe. It's the 3.6-liter V-6 Cadillac uses and has the latest technology, such as variable valve timing and direct fuel injection. The result is 304 eager horses that will satisfy most drivers.

Mustang's base V-6 is just 210 hp; Challenger's 250 hp.

Couple Camaro's V-6 to the standard Aisin AY6 six-speed manual with its forgiving clutch and you have a no-apologies, fun sports coupe that's rated at 29 miles per gallon highway and delivered mid-20s in vigorous testing.

The starter Camaro LS is about $23,000, but it has steel wheels you probably don't want. Stepping up to the 1LT for alloy wheels still leaves you a few hundred bucks shy of $25,000. That's the hot setup: 1LT V-6, manual, alloy wheels. Way more than you expect for the money.

Chevy put stiff suspensions on all versions, for control in tight corners, emergency swerves and the like. But the result is lots of slam and slap over patched or otherwise unfriendly road surfaces. But — another reason to save your money — the 18-inch-diameter wheels on the low-end LS and LT are shod with softer-riding tires that wipe out the harshness. Those tires still are serious 245-55s, not some skinny fuel-savers. If you opt for the 19-, 20- or 21-inch wheels and tires, prepare for a rough ride.

All V-8s are designated SS (Chevy's "super sport" logo). While it's hard to argue with the Corvette-based 6.2-liter V-8's credentials, it's not so with its real-world behavior.

Perhaps it accelerated so smoothly that it felt less than rocket-like from a standstill. The engine shone in the middle speed ranges, though. Nail the throttle to pass and, yowzah. Throaty, old-days exhaust sound, too.

Still, Challenger's Hemi V-8, while less powerful, is much nicer to drive than the robust Camaro V-8. And the transmissions married to Camaro's V-8 had their own shortcomings. The Tremec 6060 six-speed manual had a bit much of the "mechanical" feel enthusiasts love; more like you were wrestling the lever instead of shifting it. And the clutch engagement was sudden, leading to jerky shifts. The V-8's five-speed automatic upshifted fine. But nail the pedal while rumbling along and it felt like a manual with a slipping clutch. Lots of engine revs but little acceleration until, slam, everything hooked up. The automatics in the V-6 test cars had no such pause, and they engaged promptly on hard downshifts.

Chevy spent extra to give Camaro independent rear suspension. The car doesn't skitter sideways over railroad tracks like a solid-axle car such as Mustang might. Steering's better; ride and handling both are enhanced.

Gripes:

• Rear seat. Scarce room and awkward access. No tip/slide mechanism on either front seat, so one must separately tilt, then slide, a front seat. Cumbersome when you're getting in, impossible when you want out.

• Steering wheel. The rim cross-section is a flat-oval shape that doesn't fit everybody's palm.

You have to pull the automatic's shift lever on the console into the "M" mode and only then can you tap buttons on the back side of the steering wheel spokes to shift up or down. A better system would let you use the manual-shift buttons directly.

The M mode is useful by itself, however. It keeps the transmission in lower gears a little longer for much snappier response, though at the expense of fuel economy.

Camaro drives quite fetchingly, all considered. But it's hard to overlook the harsh ride, ridiculous back seat and transmission annoyances.

About the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro

• When? At dealers any day now.

• Where? Made in Canada.

• Why? Who knows, maybe people will start buying fun cars again.

• How? Modify the heck out of parent company General Motors' Australian Holden Commodore/American Pontiac G8 chassis so the production Camaro has the same long-hood, short-trunk look of the 2006 Detroit auto show Camaro concept car.

• How much? Here's the good part: V-6 base model starts at $22,995 with shipping and has most of what you need. V-8 model (the SS) starts at $30,995.

• How many? 14,000 presold orders, but Chevy won't forecast an annual number.

• How powerful? Quite. Base engine is 3.6-liter V-6 similar to GM's Cadillac CTS engine and rated 304 horsepower at 6,400 rpm, 273 pounds-feet of torque at 5,200 rpm. SS models have 6.2-liter V-8 rated 426 hp at 5,900 rpm, 400 lbs.-ft. at 5,900 rpm with manual transmission, 420 hp at 4,600 rpm, 410 lbs.-ft. at 4,300 rpm with automatic.

• How big? Hefty outside, tight inside, like most sports coupes. Bigger than Ford Mustang, smaller than Dodge Challenger, it is 190.4 inches long, 75.5 in. wide, 54.2 in. tall, on a 112.3-in. wheelbase. Weighs 3,769 to 3,902 lbs. depending on model and equipment.

Trunk holds modest 11.3 cubic feet. Turning diameter: 37.7 ft.

• How thirsty? V-6 rated 18 miles per gallon in town, 29 on the highway with automatic, 17/29 with manual. V-8 rated 16/25 automatic, 16/24 manual.

Mileage registered by trip computers in test cars, driven briskly, mainly on rural, two-lane roads: V-6s, 22.5 to 24.8 mpg; little difference between manual and automatic. V-8, 16.9 with both automatic and manual.

Regular specified for V-6. Premium recommended for V-8 (regular OK). Tank holds 19 gallons.

• Overall: Appealing, yet aggravating, blend of old and new.

Harvard Design Students Take BMW Concept for a Test Run

For the reopening of the BMW Museum in Munich this past June, the upscale auto manufacturer’s designers dusted off GINA Light Visionary Model, a concept they had begun toying with in 1999.

Although the last iteration of the idea was completed in 2001, the vision is no less futuristic today. GINA’s signature element is its namesake skin, a polyurethane-covered Lycra that replaces sheet metal by stretching over the aluminum frame. “The fascinating thing is that it produces a formal vocabulary of folding, which is something we don’t know in cars,” BMW’s director of group design Christopher Bangle says of the new way of cladding the chassis.
A new Toshiko Mori-designed visitor center is opening on March 18 at the Darwin D. Martin House complex in Buffalo, New York.
Image courtesy RMJM

In 1999, BMW began developing a concept car with a skin made of polyurethane-covered Lycra. Last fall, 13 students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design participated in an upper-level studio in which they imagined deploying that skin, called GINA, at an architectural scale. The program was conceived as a “loose prescription for the American suburb.” It was sponsored by RMJM as part of a $1.5 million gift to Harvard GSD.


The BMW-patented textile promises to revolutionize the performance of the auto as much as its aesthetics. GINA Light Visionary Model includes controls that manipulate the skin for various driving conditions, such as widening the nostril-like grille to send extra air to the engine. Moreover, thanks to its light weight and flexiblity, producing vehicles with GINA promises to be less expensive and more energy-efficient. “We do have to make [affordable] cars that people can use and enjoy every day,” Bangle says, noting that GINA represents a philosophy of manufacturing as much as the impressive material on which that proposition is based.

Indeed, although the roadster may not hit the road until Judy Jetson passes her driving test, BMW already has applied “GINA thinking” in its plant: Instead of stamp-phasing, today robots stretch sheet metal over the Z4, a sporty model already on the market.

There may be even wider applications. In mid-December, 13 students at Harvard Graduate School of Design concluded an upper-level studio in which they imagined deploying GINA at an architectural scale. The class was overseen by Frank Barkow, cofounder of Barkow Leibinger, who had first learned about the technology and approach while preparing his Berlin-based studio’s winning design for a BMW design center (that building project is on hold currently). Bangle made four appearances during the semester. It was sponsored by the global architecture firm RMJM as part of a $1.5 million gift to Harvard GSD.

Bangle says he and Barkow originally conceived the class as a loose prescription for the American suburb: “In Broadacre City the car, this emerging technology, enabled the suburb. Since then automobile features, such as load-carrying capacity, have been defined by the suburb. It would be interesting to make this link again.” Students like Joseph Ringenberg addressed that angle. Ringenberg explains that his project envisioned installing GINA-clad buildings atop the concrete slabs of subdivisions struck down by the economic recession.“It’s a really weird condition,” he says, “but these empty slabs are the face of the American suburb right now.”

lamborghini Insecta

Hyundai BLUU - WILL

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Hyundai BLUE-WILL hybrid Concept
Plug-in hybrid concept uses similar technology to Chevy Volt
Hyundai blue-will
Auto Express Car Reviews
25th March 2009

When it comes to the environment, if there’s a WILL there’s a way! Hyundai is readying an advanced hybrid concept for the Seoul Motor Show, which opens on 2 April, known as the BLUE-WILL.

And it’s not just the eye-catching bodywork that’s designed to wow the Korean crowds, the plug-in petrol-electric powertrain should, in theory, provide ultra low CO2 emissions and fuel economy of well over 100mpg.

It uses a 1.6-litre direct-injection petrol engine, that’s only switched-on to top up power levels in the lithium Ion Polymer batteries when they’re running low. The wheels are driven by a 134bhp motor hooked up to the power packs stored under the rear seats.

The car’s eco-credentials are boosted even further by headlight covers made from recycled bottles, as well as interior components and an engine cover made from biodegradable plastics. Solar panels on the roof also help to improve efficiency by generating additional power for the batteries.

There are no plans to put the car into production just yet, but the technology, which mimics the systems found in the Chevrolet Volt and Vauxhall Ampera, will find its way into Hyundai production cars within the next few years.

Hyundai EQUUS

Note: All figures and features in this release are based on Korean domestic model specifications.

EQUUS, Hyundai Motor Company's new flagship sedan has arrived in showrooms across Korea.

Representing the pinnacle of Hyundai engineering and design sophistication, the all-new EQUUS will serve as an effective import fighter in the Korean luxury sedan market taking on the best from Germany and Japan.

As the replacement for the first-generation EQUUS which has been retired after ten years in the marketplace, the new successor was developed under the VI project codename over a period of three years and represents a total investment of 500 billion won (approximately AUD$513 million or US$337 million*).

Hyundai plans to sell 13,000 units in the Korean market this year, increasing that number to 19,000 units in 2010. The new flagship sedan will also make its way to overseas markets such as China and the Middle East starting in the second half of this year, competing with other world-class vehicles.

Available in four trim levels, EQUUS will be priced at 63.7 million won (approximately AUD$65,500*) for the entry level VS380 model and will top out at 105 million won (approximately AUD$108,000*) for the VS460 Prestige. Later this year, the range will be extended to include a long wheelbase edition which will be powered by a 5L V8 'Tau' engine.

POWERTRAINS
EQUUS comes with a choice of two sophisticated engines: The 'Lambda' 3.8 V6 and the award-winning 'Tau' 4.6 V8. To maximise power while minimising emissions and fuel consumption, both engines feature all-aluminium construction, continuously variable valve timing, variable air induction systems and are mated to six-speed transmissions. The 'Lambda' V6, good for 213 kW and a peak torque rating of 358 Nm, delivers an impressive fuel economy rating of 10.8 litres / 100 km. The 'Tau' 4.6 V8, named by Detroit-based Ward's Autos as one of 2009's 'Best Ten Engines', delivers 269 kW and 439 Nm of torque with a fuel economy rating of 11.4 litres / 100 km.

SUSPENSION
Front and rear, EQUUS rides on 5-link suspension featuring lightweight aluminium control arms. Such a multi-link setup for both the front and the rear is uncommon in the industry but through a careful optimisation of the wheel geometry and bushing characteristics, stability and ride quality were optimised. To improve shock control over the wheels, Hyundai worked in partnership with ZF-SACHS to develop Amplitude Selective Dampers (ASD) which features an innovative relief valve, a design EQUUS shares with only one other car in the world, its luxury stable-mate Genesis. The air suspension is electronically governed to minimise body roll, nose-diving and other undesirable characteristics.

EQUUS also comes equipped with an Electric Parking Brake which is automatically released once the vehicle is put into drive gear and an Electro-Hydraulic Power Steering System which reduces fuel consumption.

SAFETY
EQUUS elevates driving safety to a whole new level with the introduction of Vehicle Stability Management which integrates the Lane Departure Warning System, Pre-Safety System, Third Generation Smart Cruise Control (SCC) and other sub-systems to provide unparalleled active and passive safety. Using smart optics, the Lane Departure Warning System issues an audible warning if the car deviates from the driving lane without signalling. SCC uses radar waves to automatically regulate the brakes and throttle and maintain a safe distance from the car ahead. If a collision danger is detected, the Pre-Safety System automatically applies the brakes, triggers a flashing warning light on the TFT-LCD which is followed by an audible alert and a vibration in the seatbelt harness. If a collision is unavoidable, full braking force is automatically applied and front seat belts are reeled in within a split second in order to maximise protection.

Another new safety improvement is the addition of a Knee Air Bag for the driver. With two front, four side and two side curtain airbags, this brings the total airbag count to nine.

Video cameras in the rear and front eliminate blind spots during parking and backing up manoeuvres, reducing the risk of accidents while the new Parking Guidance System provides a computer graphic overlay on the display screen to assist the driver. High Intensity Discharge Head Lamps with Adaptive Front Lighting System varies the angle of the light beam according to the steering direction for safer driving.

COMFORT and CONVENIENCE
Whether driving or being driven, EQUUS opens up a new realm in motoring luxury. Heating, for example, is to be found in unexpected places-steering wheel, seat cushions and backrests- providing a welcome touch on a chilly day. On hot summer days, the seat cooling system and glove box drink chiller will be appreciated in hot, sticky weather while the massage system in the rear seats relaxes and refreshes while en-route.

EQUUS is also equipped with an advanced Driver Information System whose menus are accessible through touch-screen menus or jog wheel which has adjacent buttons for menu short cuts. DIS displays navigational maps, personal cell phone directories (downloadable via Bluetooth®) and serves as the central control of the 17-speaker Lexicon Sound System. Logic7.1 is able to transform the EQUUS cabin into a veritable concert hall with surround-sound wizardry.

A 3.5-inch display nestled between the speedometer and the tachometer provides a rich variety of information displayed in colourful graphics using the latest Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) technology. From the tyre pressure to the AV system and lane departure warning system, fifteen different vehicle functions can be monitored using this high-resolution colour screen.

ASTON MARTIN DBS

I took my daughter to college in the Aston Martin DBS. It seemed like the sort of thing James Bond would do if only he could keep his girlfriends alive long enough for them to get pregnant. I hadn't considered the strange world of inverse teenage cool. She was very reluctant to be seen emerging from such wheeled ostentation.

It might not be much more than a gussied up DB9, but the DBS assaults the senses with its bodywork slashes and vents and that "Boom, Boom, Shake the Room" start-up procedure when the exhausts announce the Aston like a town crier every time you push the key.

Although it isn't actually a key, it's a matchbox-sized sapphire blob, which Aston calls an Emotional Control Unit. It's one of many things that could be considered quite embarrassing about this car were you not battling with agents of a foreign power. Trouble is, when you're in the lower sixth and there are a bunch of upper sixth boys standing outside the gates, it's excruciating. Ah, the blackboard jungle, I thought, swinging the long snout into the college gates. Scarlett squeaked and sank down in the seat.

Eyes followed us in and, as I turned the radio to Secret Agent FM, the twin Bang & Olufsen tweeters lifted up like mini missile pods at the edges of the dashboard. For all the criticism we have levelled at Aston Martin dashboards in the past there is a pleasing simplicity to the DBS fascia.

The big buttons with clear labels are matched by an intuitive radio/CD, with simple tuning and volume dials, ditto the heating and ventilation. There's also attention to detail, such as the dashboard down-lighting, which at dusk sends soft shadows over the grey hues. There is not, however, a lot of space. The storage space around the driver is tiny and the boot is only just big enough for a couple of airline cases.

You can now specify proper rear seats, but as there's no leg room, you are better off with the rear parcel shelf that is perfect for shopping, or a Walther PPK. The front seats are supportive, but uncomfortable for long journeys, and the fascia has some naff touches like the upmarket Biro slot at the bottom of the dashboard and the hidden fog lamp and parking sensor cancel buttons. The DBS is now one year old and, according to our correspondent Mike Rutherford, it is being discounted by as much as £23,875 off its list price of £165,500. These are straitened times indeed. Aston Martin has had to lay off more than 600 full-time and contract staff recently and part-owner, the Kuwaiti Investment Dar, is considering selling up to 20 per cent of the company. Cars like the DBS seem to be a requiem to our years of consumption, at least until the world once more peeps over the parapet of financial despondency. A couple of months ago the DBS was fitted with an option of the ZF automatic gearbox from the cheaper DB9. Purists must have swooned. A wussy automatic? In James Bond's car?

Refer back to our first drive of the manual DBS last October, however, and it's clear that the Graziano six-speed transaxle is not the last word in multiplying engine torque. The heavy cable gearshift has little feedback and is hard to use. There is virtually no flywheel effect and great care is needed when manoeuvring to avoid stalling or burning the clutch. Also the gear lever is mounted too far down the centre console for comfortable changes.

This ZF automatic transmission (which is also mounted in the rear axle) is a very long way from being a sort of slush-box American auto that slurs through ratios with all the precision of a drunk collapsing onto a pile of cardboard boxes. It should be no surprise that it works brilliantly in the DBS, because it does in all its other applications. When you've got a six-litre V12 engine, six speeds are more than enough and the ZF's change quality is tight, with the merest hint of torque converter slip. Put your foot down and the change down is almost instant, but the torque converter takes up just enough of the mechanical vehemence to insulate the experience with the thinnest gloving leather.

Pressing the drive button on the dashboard engages a full automatic mode, which is disengaged by pulling on one of the leather-trimmed, magnesium-alloy, steering-wheel paddles, whereupon the transmission is effectively a manual, with downshifts accompanied by a burst of revs to synchronise the gears. There is also a sport mode, with a more aggressive gear-change strategy, throttle responses and down-shift throttle blips.

The DBS has three speeds: swift, wow, and OhMiGod! The last option is just a twist of the ankle away and even on a dry road the traction control immediately lights up, struggling to contain the violence of 510bhp and 420lb ft hitting the road. In sport mode it's the tyres that light up and late one night, with the roads gleaming wickedly with frost, I drove the three miles from the nearest village to my house with the traction control lamp a constant companion and the front wheels rarely pointed in the direction of travel – it's that sort of car. Even on the way to Scarlett's college I was constantly reminded of the gossamer level of traction when the engine hits peak torque.

"It's pretty fast," I boasted, mashing the throttle to prove my point. The ZF changed down with barely a hesitation, the V12's revs flew up the counter and the rear tyres fishtailed up the road as playful as a dolphin with a hatchet.

"So it is," said Scarlett, staring at my sweat-beaded forehead.

Notwithstanding its considerable 6ft 3in width, the DBS feels almost dart-like. In fact, getting it out of London on a wet Friday night was as tricky as carrying a harpoon on a rush-hour Tube train. The Aston likes to travel fast and straight and not mix it on grotty roads with hoi polloi in electric wheelbarrows and on bicycles. For the most part, the steering has an exceptional feel and linearity, but on slippery roads it becomes disconcertingly light, with little indication of how much grip you are left with. In a front-engined car that's not good.

It's a noisy car too, the tyres give off a distracting roar, which the car's aluminium frame transmits faithfully into the cabin. Body control is sharp, but not over-harsh; as Bond might say, stirred not shaken. For a car capable of 200mph it's pretty good, although the enormous tyres flap into London's pot holes and the front spoiler catches the fattest sleeping policeman.

In practice, then, at all but the absolute extremes of the track, the auto adds an extra degree of refinement, allows more civilised manoeuvring and leaves the gear-change hand free for close-quarter gun play. Also, provided you are relatively easy on the throttle, it lets the engine lug down below 1,500rpm, which keeps things civilised, or would do if it weren't for the tyre roar and wind-in-the-pipes engine note. Apart from that our only major criticism is that the pedal box is too small for a pair of size 12s encased in a decent pair of Trickers.

"Did they like it?" I asked Scarlett that evening.

"I suppose so," she said. "One of the boys asked whether that was your everyday car and I said, 'No, you normally drive a DB5 with machine guns and an ejector seat..."

And they say secret agents are cool…

TECH SPEC

Engine/transmission: 60-degree, all-aluminium alloy 5,935cc, petrol V12, with chain-driven DOHC per bank and four valves per cylinder; 510bhp at 6,500rpm and 420lb ft of torque at 5,750rpm. Six-speed ZF automatic gearbox in transaxle, rear-wheel drive.

Performance: 191mph, 0-62mph in 4.3sec, EU Urban fuel consumption 11.7mpg (Combined 18.2mpg), CO2 emissions 367g/km

Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder

It's 100 years since Tenerife's Mount Teide last blew its lid and, looking at the weird streams of solidified lava clinging to its sides, I'm reminded that when it comes to extreme power, Mother Nature still writes the rulebook.

The vistas unfolding through the windscreen are jaw-dropping in their majesty yet squeezing the throttle of Lamborghini's latest offering – the snappily monikered Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder – I'm also reminded that when it comes to extreme power on four wheels, the boys from Sant' Agata reign supreme.

The Gallardo has been around since 2003 and, unlike the ubiquitous V8 Vantages, 911s and Continental GTs, it still has tremendous impact. No flab, no unnecessary bodywork addenda, just razor sharp styling that shows serious intent. Yet the Gallardo is also useable and easy to drive hard. You can see out of it, its doors open in the conventional fashion and it's built with Germanic precision and Italian verve – a winning combination.

The current version of the coupé was launched last summer and brought with it a raft of improvements to a car that had not much wrong with it in the first place. A bit of a refresh to the front and rear end styling, less pollution, more efficiency, more power and a massive price hike.

Thankfully the ingredients that made the car so special in the first place were left alone and as I drop into third and stamp on the gas, I'm glad there's no roof on this one. The deep-chested roar that accompanies the savage acceleration is the polar opposite of a Ferrari V8's high-pitched wail. This is angry, masculine noise and totally addictive.

Far from being simply a Santa Monica boulevard cruiser, the Spyder remains a serious performance car, giving away very little to its tin-topped brother. It takes four seconds to reach 62mph rather than 3.7 and has an irrelevant 1mph top speed deficiency at 201mph.

You need to be fairly short in stature to not get your head bashed when raising or lowering the electronic canvas roof and when it's up the lines look a little awkward. Still, if the weather turns inclement and you want the full sonic treatment, the small glass window (that acts as a wind deflector when the hood is down) can be lowered. Nice touch.

It's exquisitely engineered thanks to Audi's parental guidance but the parts-bin switchgear looks gaudy and out of place in the snug cabin. My test car came equipped with Lamborghini's six-speed 'e.gear' paddle-shift transmission and it really is superb, the only downside being that the paddles don't rotate with the steering wheel.

In 'Corsa' (track) mode the shift times have been shaved by 40 per cent and the traction control is less obtrusive, too. The hilariously named 'Thrust' mode facilitates maximum acceleration but will no doubt severely reduce the clutch's lifespan so is best left for bar room bragging rights.

Even on rough surfaces it feels every bit the equal of the brilliant coupé and apart from Audi's R8 I cannot think of another supercar that flatters and excites in such measures. It's incredibly easy to drive hard but it never seems remote from its driver unlike, say, a Porsche 911 Turbo.

Lamborghini says it aims to sell just 200 cars in the UK during 2009 and, on the strength of this, it should be quite achievable. "Always different. Always Lamborghini," shouts the huge poster outside our hotel. It's good to know that in this life some things remain constant.

TECH SPEC

Price/availability: £136,450. On sale now.

Engine/transmission: 5,204cc V10 petrol with DOHC and four valves per cylinder; 552bhp at 8,000rpm, 399lb ft of torque at 6,500rpm. Six-speed manual or sequential 'e.gear' transmission, permanent four-wheel drive.

Performance: top speed 201mph, 0-62mph in 4.0sec, EU Urban fuel consumption 13.5mpg (Combined 18.8mpg), CO2 emissions 351g/km.

Ferrari F450

Feast your eyes on Ferrari's all-new F430 replacement! Spied being rolled onto the back of a truck in Italy, these are the first pictures of the Prancing Horse's new entry-level model – the F450.

As you can see, the new model looks very different to the current car with a pair of sweeping side air vents, which have been enlarged to cool the improved engine and brakes.

In a bid to compete with the Lamborghini Gallardo, the new car will get a larger 4.5-litre V8 engine – hence the name – putting out around 500bhp thanks to modified mechanicals including a higher rev limit.

It will also get a new gearbox too, in the shape of the California’s seven-speed double clutch unit. This is likely to modified to suit the mid-engined car’s sportier demeanour.

The F450 may even be the first car to incorporate KERS. Used on Formula One racers, the kinetic energy recovery system turns energy saved from braking into extra power.

Expect the F450 to make its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September with UK sales starting in 2010.