An Audi R8 V10 for just $469.99!

Having a Lamborghini Murciélago or an Aston Martin DB9 in the garage might be the ultimate in-your-face moment for your showy neighbors, but realistically, not all of us can afford a supercar. It's a tragic notion that the people over at Audi Canada want to remedy.

The price tag on the 2010 Audi R8 V10 may read $141,000, but you can start an ownership cycle with one for just $469.99 (plus shipping). How? Audi Canada has created a garage door wrap with a life-size print of a red Audi R8 sitting in a garage -- quite a clean one too, we might add.

The cover may officially label you as a poseur for life, and it certainly won't be able to take you anywhere nice, but we bet quite a number of people will be secretly disappointed to learn the company will only ship to Canadian residents.

-- Alison Lakin

Lakin is a staff writer at DriverSide.com.

Photo: Audi Canada

Ferrari 458: The wagers of sin, or fun with schadenfreude

I think we all understand the psychology surrounding rich guys and their exotic cars. Simply put, we hate them. If not hate, then we – i.e., non-rich, non-exotic-car driving plebes (Ask me about my Subaru Forester!) – feel intense jealousy. But our emotions are conflicted, because we don’t want to live in a world without Ferraris and Aston Martins, and so somebody has to buy them. We only resent that “they” are not “we.”

Rarely has the envy, jealously and schadenfreude taken so ugly a turn as it has with www.wreckedexotics.com’s contest betting on the date of the first crash involving the new Ferrari 458. The 458 Italia – a stunning, heartrending beauty of a sports car, the successor of the F430 – will officially debut at the Frankfurt auto show this month and will go on sale in summer 2010. Wreckedexotics.com is offering $500 to the person who comes closest to guessing the date the first 458 will get augered into an innocent tree or parking meter. It’s kind of like an office pool for the delivery date of a colleague’s baby, but this is betting the baby will be ugly.

According to wreckedexotics.com – a deeply demented website that specializes in photos of pranged mega-buck cars – the F430 has been involved in 96 documented crashes since 2004. The 360 Modena has been involved in 403 crashes since 1999 – which tells me the F430 drivers aren't trying hard enough.

By the way, put me down for April 18, 2010. April is the cruelest month, after all.

-- Dan Neil

Photo credit: Ferrari 

 

Gullwing Mercedes in Trouble in Turn 2

I appreciate that Mercedes-Benz wants as much sizzle on the corporate griddle as possible ahead of the Geneva Auto Show beginning this week. I’m not, however, so sure about its releasing high-resolution preview photos of the upcoming SLS AMG –- the so-called latter-day Gullwing –- with the prototype camouflage on it. With all the speed tape and exposed punch rivets the thing looks like it’s done 500 laps at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Nonetheless, from what we can see, the SLS looks like a significantly awesome piece of hardware. Set well back in the all-aluminum chassis will be Merc’s 6.2-liter, 563-horsepower V8 equipped with dry-sump lubrication. The engine will be connected to the seven-speed dual-clutch rear transaxle by a carbon-fiber driveshaft set inside an alloy torque tube. With peak torque of 479 pound-feet pitted against a mass of a mere 3,571 pounds -– with the help of a Race Start launched control system –- the SLS, or Gullwing, or whatever, should step off the line lightly, in an estimate 3.8 seconds.

The production-model unveiling is date-uncertain, but judging from these photos I'm guessing the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. It's also quite possible the reveal will be at Pebble Beach in August, since Gorden Wagener, M-B's new design czar, loves the California surf.

And, as the pictures make clear, the car will have gull wing doors. That fact, however, should not cloud men's minds that this is somehow an heir to the great W196-based 300SL Gullwing of the 1950s. They broke the mold after that one, don’t you know.

--Dan Neil

Photos by Mercedes-Benz via Edmunds.com

Aston Martin Rapide: Hope and glory

Aston Martin, the Gaydon, England-based sports car manufacturer -- though they'll always be in Newport Pagnell in my mind -- has released near-production images of its upcoming Rapide super sedan, and it is a stunner.

The car, based on the DB9 coupe, will probably see the light of day in Geneva in March. The four-place, four-door coupe is entering a burgeoning class of high-end four-door spaceships, including the Porsche Panamera, the Audi A7 and the (proposed) Lamborghini Estoque and BMW 8-Series. Can Mercedes be far behind? My sources tell me they are not.

-- Dan Neil

Photos: Aston Martin

Gluteus Maxximus: A study in power-to-weight ratios

The makers of something called the Maxximus G-Force, which appears to be a heavily modified version of the British-made Ultima GTR supercar, have captured three world records for street-legal cars: 0-60 mph (2.134 seconds); 0-100 mph (4.451 seconds); and the mother of all supercar metrics, the 0-100-0 mph mark of 8.861 seconds. These records were set in October at my old stomping grounds, Rockingham Raceway in North Carolina. Maxximus Industries will unveil the car to the crab-puff-eating press on Feb. 11, at L.A.'s Peninsula Hotel.

For some lust-inducing footage, go here. 

Great. Lovely. We've been down this road before (Vector, Mosler, SSC, etc.), and it's always fun when some wild colonial boy decides to stuff obscene amounts of pony into a lightweight racing chassis and hang a license plate on it.

But the back story, hinted at in the press release, is even more, well, intriguing. Apparently, philanthropist, businessman and entrepreneur David Bruce McMahan got into the Maxximus project when he met the car's designer/test driver, Marlon Kirby, while the latter was working as a chauffeur.

McMahan and Kirby got into a casual conversation while Kirby was driving McMahan from the private airport where he had just parked his jet. McMahan -- a former hot-rodder from Southern California who had moved on from cars to planes -- was so impressed with Kirby that he decided to back Kirby's dream of building a monstrous record-breaking car with an engine producing over 1,600 hp.

"That was the initial thing that impressed me," McMahan said in a phone interview. "The original P-51 Mustangs with Rolls-Royce Merlin inline 12-cylinders only produced about 1,500 hp."

What came next was four years and a blue streak of money. "Let's say I wasn't price-sensitive," McMahan says.

Driving ridiculously fast in the face of adversity

OK, so we know about the state of the not-so-big three domestic automakers; major manufacturers have pulled out of the Detroit Auto Show; Honda has canceled plans to make a second generation of Acura NSX supercar; Toyota is expecting an operating loss for the first time in 70 years; Land Rover has asked the British government for funds; Subaru has pulled out of rallying -- the sport that made the company’s reputation. There are probably many other things to add to this litany of automotive woes. But some companies don’t seem to care.

For example, Shelby Supercars (SSC), whose Ultimate Aero is already in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s fastest production car, has made changes to its all-American-made 2009 model. By using a one-piece billet aluminum engine block, power is up by 15% to a claimed 1287 horsepower.

... yes, it takes a while to sink in, doesn’t it? Very few things with four wheels have that kind of power. SSC reckons the new car is capable of 270 mph, which could mean another round of Guinness.

Meanwhile, some Brits are busy with the Mercedes-McLaren SLR Stirling Moss. This is a swan song from the operation that brought us the über-powerful SLR supercar and SLR Roadster. If the Ultimate Aero hadn’t been in the news, this car’s 650-hp supercharged V-8, zero-to-60 mph time of less than 3.5 seconds and claimed top speed of 217 mph would have seemed pretty darn cool.

Racing fans will recognize the name Stirling Moss. He’s a British racing legend who had great success with Mercedes-Benz machines back in the ’50s. He still holds the record for Italy’s daunting Mille Miglia (1,000 miles) street race -- 10 hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds. Of course, that was before the Euro, and the SLR SM costs 750,000 of those -- about $1,044,263 -- and there’s not even a roof or screen. Just 75 examples will be built and only current SLR owners will be invited to buy one. It’s a whole different world, isn’t it?

Who’s to say whether these car makers know something the rest don’t? Perhaps they just know their particular niche really well. Or maybe it’s a case of “If you’re going through hell, keep going,” as Winston Churchill once said.

-- Colin Ryan

Photos: SSC / Mercedes-McLaren

Bugatti for sale -- Craigslist's most expensive car listing?

This could be one of those “I wish I’d bought it while I had the chance” moments. Or maybe not. A 2006 Bugatti Veyron, with only 874 miles on the odometer, is up for sale. On Craigslist.

It’s on the Los Angeles CL site, but the car is located upstate in Benicia, just north of San Francisco -- which isn’t that far away in a car that can zip to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, hit 200 mph in 24 seconds and max out at 252.3 mph. It has one turbocharger for every four of its 16 cylinders, and its 8.0-liter displacement kicks out 1,000 horsepower, making it one of the most powerful production cars in the world. And the asking price? $1.3 million, probably the highest amount for a car ever put up on the whole of CL, although a Craigslist spokesperson was not available for comment.

Considering that a new Veyron goes for around $1.4 million, depreciation hasn’t hit too hard even in these troubled times. And each car is said to cost about $2 million to produce, so VW -- Bugatti’s parent company -- takes a huge loss just to make the most super of supercars.

If anyone from SoCal does end up buying it (the initials JL spring to mind), there’s always the Laguna Seca track on the way home, to give the car a really good shakedown. And isn’t there something gloriously cheapskate about advertising a $1.3-million car on a free classified ad site?

-- Colin Ryan

Bargain cars: Click here to see the cheapest cars of 2009.

Photo: Specialty Sales

Rapid transit -- the Corvette ZR1’s toughest test yet

It’s one of those great barroom questions: If there was a drag race between a Corvette ZR1, a Ferrari 599, a Porsche 911 GT2 and a Nissan R35 GT-R, which car would win? Let’s look at the specs: The ZR1 has 638 horsepower, the Ferrari 599 has 612, the GT2 churns out 530 and the GT-R develops 480.

We have a V-6 engine with twin turbochargers (the Nissan), a flat six (the Porsche), a supercharged V-8 (the ’Vette) and a V-12 (take a wild guess). Most engines are in the front (except for the Porsche, obviously) and the Nissan has an all-wheel drive system. So plenty of variation to make a prediction tricky to come up with.

Those good people at Motor Trend magazine have spared the rest of us the trouble and put all four cars together at one end of a long stretch of tarmac. Then they launched them toward the other end and videotaped the whole thing. The winner may or may not be a surprise, but it shows that its recent plaudits are well-earned.

—Colin Ryan

For recession-proof wallets: Grab a $2.5-mil Lambo on EBay

Wall Street has bounced back and there’s going to be a new man in the White House, so surely it’s time to celebrate by splashing out on a car. On EBay at the moment (until 11:21:01 Pacific time, Oct. 24) is a Lamborghini Reventón, one of only 20 made, 10 of which came to the states.

The "Buy It Now" figure of $2.5 million represents some serious appreciation, since the original price was around $1.5 million. The good news for Angelenos is that the car is garaged up north in Los Gatos, Calif., better known as Silicon Valley. So the drive back home should be fun. And the odometer still only reads 73 miles.

The Reventón is based on the all-wheel-drive Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 and has specially designed carbon fiber panels to give it a sharper look. The cabin takes the stealth fighter theme a little further with LCD screens and a G-force meter. The mid-mounted 6.5-liter V-12 develops 650 hp in the Reventón and thrusts the car to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds before hitting a top speed of 211 mph.

Go for it -- what else are you going to do with $2.5 million?

-- Colin Ryan

Photo: Lamborghini

Jim Mero: A conversation with the once (and future?) King of the 'Ring

On June 26, 2008, after five weeks of hit-and-miss weather, testing and tuning, on the fourth lap of a stint around Germany's legendary Nurburgring Nordscheife, General Motors engineer and test driver Jim Mero set a new track record for a production car in a bone-stock Chevrolet Corvette ZR1: 7:26.4. Score one for the home team.

To see the lap record run, click here.

The 'Ring lap time record has become the most coveted bragging right among performance cars, with good reason. The 13-mile, 100-corner Green Hell, in the picturesque Eiffel Mountains, is the most demanding track in the world, requiring of cars that would conquer it a complete suite of attributes: enormous top-end speed, low-speed handling and grip, drivability combined with hard-edged, flat-track cornering, excellent dynamic balance and braking.

To test there costs hundreds of thousands of dollars; to go after the lap record, a whole other level of cost and commitment. Asked about the economics of that, Mero said: "These days, there's no way GM would let us do this unless the car made a profit."