Sports and Exotic Cars

Ferrari Club of America and Miller Motorcars offered an early morning preview of the Sunday foreign car Concours d’Elegance. We had access a couple of hours before it was opened to the public. This Concours uses French judging, which is different from point judging. It has been said that point judging is technical while French judging is a beauty contest. French rules leave room for the judges to make allowances for provenance, rarity, special features.

Pertolicious published this video on May 31, 2016.  It describes an Aston Martin DB 111 prototype and its rather amazing provenance. The owner says: “Some day, down in the future, whoever ends up with this car when it leaves my garage—they may choose to restore it,” says Dave Adams. “…but I hope if and when that happens, they do it with the correct lens so it’s not over-restored.”

Petrolicious: “I pack it up and drive to the track on the highway with modern cars around me, which is a little scary sometimes,” Bradley Price says, “but I love the feeling of freedom that it gives me when you get to the track, you just unpack the car and you’re ready to go!”

Chris Harris tests the three top supercars, La Ferrari, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1 at the wonderful Portimao circuit. Each of them from the respective factories. Lap times, sliding around, smiling and then a track-battle with the legends Tiff Needell and Marino Franchitti. The very best of days.

EVO’s Jethro Bovingdon drives the Aston Martin DB10. One of ten built for the new James Bond film – Spectre. What clues does this car offer up about Aston Martin’s future? Did you realize that the DB10 is based on the V8 Vantage?

The Mille Miglia is probably every car buffs dream. Today it is driven in three days and drivers are exhausted when thy have completed the rally. But remember that Stirling Moss drove this course in one day and with an average speed of 97.96 MPH. That was on public roads, with people standing and children playing at the side of the road.

Alex from British XCAR drove this gruelling road rally, the Mille Miglia. Find out how he got on.

Autocar, UK: Bugatti originally created the Vision Gran Turismo for the PlayStation game of the same name. But at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2015 in revealed a physical version of the car. The real-life concept hints at Bugatti’s future design language and gives us a tantalizing glimpse of the Veyron’s eventual replacement.

The Monte Carlo Rally has been around for a long time (since 1911), and it has always been a very competitive rally. The regulations of the rally must have been very thoughtfully designed, since cars of very different size and scope could compete head on. In 1960 through 1963 a 750 cc Saab 96 and a Mercees Benz 220SE (2200 cc) took turns winning. The Saab was a two stroke engine and front wheel drive; the Mercedes was a four door, rear wheel drive sedan with a regular gasoline engine. The Saab was driven by Erik “on the roof” Carlsson and the Mercedes was piloted by Walter Schlock and Eugene Bohringer.

These cars and this time period was eventually replaced with other winning brands, such as Renault Dauphine, Citroen ID19 and Panhard PL17. These were followed by a period of Mini Coopers, Lancias and Porsches.

And all of this happened before Audi Quattro changed the sport, and all competitors became four wheel drive.

The four videos below show the difference between rallying in 1963-64 and 2015. The difference is pretty spectacular. Judge for yourself.

And here is a view from inside the car … 2015 again.

The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organizes the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and southeast France. Previously, competitors would set off from all four corners of Europe and ‘rally’, in other words, meet, in Monaco to celebrate the end of a unique event.

Auto Week/Vimeo: New Zealander Rod Tempero builds Ferrari replicars the old-fashioned way, and we don’t mean bolting fenders on a Craigslist Fiero. His cars are made of hand-hammered metal stretched over handmade wooden bucks and shaped with an English wheel with no computers to guide the process.

When you think about it, Rod Tempero and his team of incredibly skilled craftsmen, who also replicate classic sports cars from other legendary marques, haven’t just replicated the look and feel of a vintage Ferrari; with all the form-building, English-wheeling and precision welding that goes into each and every car, they’ve re-created the essence of old-time Maranello as well.

This story is not absolutely new, but non the less quite impressive. He actually beat the old record by a minute and a half!

After months of anticipation, Sébastien Loeb has shattered the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record with a breath-taking time of 8m13.878s in the 208 T16 Pikes Peak. The Frenchman negotiated the 20 kilometres and 156 corners of the mountain at an average speed of 145kph (90mph)