Fornasari Racing Buggy

V8 / 5.970 cc / 610 PS / 552 lb/ft (748 Nm) @ 5.100 / AWD / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 3,8 s / Vmax: 174 mph (280 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)

VIDEO: An Insane 900HP Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

Why would someone want to upgrade a 451HP Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG remains a mystery to us, but the following car is a good example of the level of performance a C63 AMG can reach with the right aftermarket parts and some very deep pockets. Two years ago, owner Keith Brantley got in touch with aftermarket specialist Modern Horsepower (MHP) and ordered a complete transformation of his C63 AMG.

Read more »

RS Academy Takes Delivery of First BAC Mono Sports Cars

If you took an interest in the BAC Mono single seater sports car, then you may want to check out RS Academy’s programme as the as the UK-based track-driving car club announced that it has just taken delivery of the very first production Mono sports cars for its members.

Read more »

Infiniti G37 Coupe S gets into Rally Guise for the Needs of the Spanish Rally Championship

To answer your first question, no, Infiniti is not going to compete in a European rally. What the company is doing is to supply a G37 Coupe S as a safety car for the Rallies Championship of Spain. The so-called ‘Infiniti Work Car Zero’ began its duties in the Rally of Villajoyosa on April 1. It is based on the G37 Coupe with power coming from an all-aluminum 3.7-liter V-6 engine that produces 320HP and 360 Nm (265.5 lb-ft) of torque at 7,000 rpm, and is linked to a six-speed manual transmission.

The Infiniti Car Zero is very close to standard specification with only a few modifications necessary for rally duty, such as the Vimesa roll bar, Bilstein dampers, Galfer brake pads, additional lights , siren, communications equipment and a GPS.

Sparco supplied the racing seats and seatbelts, the fire extinguishing system and equipment for the drivers. Finally, the car rides on high performance Michelin Pilot SuperSport tires.

Read more »

Meet the Mefistofele, Fiat's 21.7-liter Record-Breaking Car from Hell

The story of the Mefistofele started in 1908, when Fiat introduced the SB4 chain-driven Grand Prix racer. After seeing it race, Sir Ernest Eldridge from Britain bought the car with the aim of turning it into speed record breaker.

However, there was one problem: the original car's 18.0-liter engine was considered rather small by Eldridge, who decided to replace it with a massive airplane powerplant (you can read a similar story here). He opted for a liquid-cooled Fiat-built 21.7-liter inline six-cylinder unit (type A-12 Bis) that developed 320 horsepower at 1,800 rpm after various upgrades such as the fitting of four valves and four spark plugs on each cylinder.

The story goes that in order to accommodate the long and heavy engine, Eldridge lengthened the SB4's chassis using parts from a London bus. The car was chain-driven and had brakes only at the rear, which made it a handful for even the most experienced of drivers. Interestingly, experts fail to understand even today the mechanism that allowed the car to reverse, since there is no trace of it left.

Read more »

Dynojet Toyota Avensis BTTC Racer to get 2.0-liter Turbo Engine with 300HP

The latest news to come out of Toyota's BTCC camp is that Dynojet Race Team’s Avensis racer will have under its hood a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-banger adapted from one of the Japanese firm's road-going range. The engine is currently under Toyota GB-funded development at the Northamptonshire laboratories of engineering consultancy X CTech. It will feature a turbocharger as well as a number of internal revisions, which will all help boost output from around 140bhp in road specification to 300bhp or more.

X CTech said it believes the racing car powerplant will be one of the lightest and most powerful engines on the grid of the British Touring Car Championship.

“The Avensis has been designed to the ‘Next Generation Touring Car’ rules, which means we could have opted for the stock TOCA engine, however we were enormously impressed by the plans put forward by X CTech R and felt that this was the right way for us to go, not least because it means our Avensis will be 100 per cent Toyota,” said Dynojet Race Team chief Frank Wrathall Snr.

The Dynojet Race Team’s Avensis BTCC car will be raced this season by Frank Wrathall Jnr. The opening rounds of the British Touring Car Championship are scheduled for 3 April at Brands Hatch, Kent.

GM Releases First Official Pictures of the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Racecar

After teasing us with a couple of renderings in December, Cadillac today released the first official photographs of the CTS-V Coupe racecar, ahead of its North American International Auto Show debut on Monday, January 10.

Read more »

James Glickenhaus’ Ferrari P4/5 Competizione Starts Taking Shape

In 2006, American car collector James Glickenhaus took the world by surprise with his Enzo-based one-off Ferrari P4/5, built by Pininfarina. In the meantime, Mr. Glickenhaus decided to build a race version, too, dubbed P4/5 Competizione, which, initially, was scheduled to make its racing debut at this year’s 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Unfortunately, that never happened.

However, we're happy to report that the build is still underway. And there’s more: thanks to an update on a dedicated Facebook page, we can show you pictures depicting key moments of the assembly, available after the jump.

Read more »

Toyota Hilux Pickup Trucks Complete Antarctic Crossing

Roughly the same time when the Moon Regan Transantarctic Expedition used the highly specialized Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle for an epic Antarctic crossing, Toyota also sent a fleet of four Hilux pickup trucks to the South Pole, as part of an expedition carried out by the members of the Indian National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR).

Read more »

VIDEO: Aston Martin V12 Vantage Meets Gulf DBR1-2 Racer

Aston Martin has released a new video to promote the connection between its road cars and racing models, and in particular, the firm's 6.0 liter V12 engines that sits at the heart of the One-77, DBS, DB9, Rapide and V12 Vantage but also the 2010 DBR1-2 Le Mans race car. The new footage shows the 517-horsepower V12 Vantage riding along Aston Martin's DBR1-2 LMP1 race car which competed throughout 2009 and 2010 having won the Le Mans Series in 2009 while taking three podiums in 2010. Watch the video after the break.

Read more »

Racing Flashback: On Board Video of Juan Manuel Fangio Driving the Maserati 250F

In today's world of motorsports, much to the delight of fans, it's the norm to have one or more cameras fitted in the car or even in the driver's helmet. But that wasn't the case back in the 1950's, so we were quite surprised to discover such a video featuring the five-time Formula 1 World Champion and one of the greatest pilots of all time, Juan Manuel Fangio. A moment of coolness follows in the film after the break, with Fangio driving the Maserati 250F racecar at the Modena Aero-Autodrome.

Read more »

McLaren MP4-12C GT3 Endurance Racer Coming in 2012

Twelve years after the last six McLaren F1 GTR “Longtails” hit the tarmac at Le Mans, the British supercar maker and CRS Racing have begun work on an MP4-12C-based GT3 racecar. According to the plan that was revealed today, the MP4-12C GT3 will be available in limited numbers starting from 2012.

Read more »

Silverstone Puts You Behind the Wheel of a Lamborghini from as Low as US$95 [with Videos]

Suppose you are cash strapped motoring enthusiast living in Northampton, England. You live in a council flat and own a third-hand Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. You’re earning a steady if unimpressive income of £180 (US$284) a week, of which you manage to squirrel away a small amount into your savings.

From this, you deduce that your chances of getting behind a £149,000+ (US$235,450) Lamborghini Gallardo are about as good as bedding Natalie Portman. What is a poor boy to do?

Well, I have good news my (imaginary) friend! Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix, is now offering a £99 (US$156 or €133) Supercar Thrill package that lets you take the wheel of a Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ferrari or Lotus for a few hot laps around the famous circuit. There's also a limited offer on a Lamborghini Thrill package for December 19 only with a discount that brings the price down to £60 or US$95 / €80.

Read more »