Lamborghini Aventador Roadster Pops Up in LA

Lamborghini showcases its open-top Aventador at the LA Auto Show.

After officially popping its top a couple of weeks ago in Miami, the new Aventador Roadster has made its public debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Lamborghini has priced the convertible supercar a shade under $450k. For that you get the same mechanical bits as the coupe - a 6.5-liter V12 with 700 horsepower on tap driving all four wheels via Lambo's seven-speed sequential transmission - but with the chance to enjoy that sumptuous engine note with the roof down.

Whenever you want to go topless, however, the Aventador LP700-4 Roadster's 6kg carbon-composite two-piece roof must be removed by hand and stored in the front of the car. And judging by how awesome it looks with its top popped, this is likely to be most of the time.

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Ferrari's V8: 360/F430

Another huge seller by Ferrari standards. Ferrari made huge evolutionary leaps during this time period.

Ferrari had a few hits and misses over the years with its V8 models, but the F355 had gotten them once again going in the right direction. When they came out with its next all-new V8 model in 1999, it became a massive hit, able to be at once more usable but still faster and more agile than the models to come before it. The 360 proved that the F355 hadn't been a fluke, and that Ferrari was once again taking the V8 seriously. The 360 and the F355 before it had both been big evolutionary leaps, but this was what Ferrari should have been doing all along.

Customers were paying cutting-edge prices, and it was the least Ferrari could do to actually give them what they were paying for. The one area where the 360 hadn't changed much was the engine, but this isn't really such a bad thing. The 3.6-liter V8 in the 360 was the final evolution of the Dino V8, first developed for racing in the Sixties. Quite a few things had changed over the years, although the Tipo 131 version found in the 360 had received a bump of just 0.1 liters and 25 horsepower. Though the power gains weren't huge, the car's construction was where we see the evolutionary leap.

The car is noticeably bigger than the F355, especially when it comes to the interior, but thanks to a new aluminum space frame, it was 28 percent lighter. It was also 40 percent stiffer, and the 4.6-second 0-60 time of the F355 was shown up by the 360's 4.3 seconds. It was the 360's ability to do more with the power that made it special, and this has been the focus of Ferrari V8 models since, though they have also been powerful. The 360's styling was a major change. The F355 had been a kind of intentional step backwards, stepping away from the Eighties-ness of the 348 with a design more closely related to the 328.

The 360 threw all of this away, said Sergio Pininfarina: "The 355 was a car made by flat surfaces. With the Modena, it was one fluid shape, from beginning to end. So every place you look it is moving. It is dynamic." Gone too were the pop-up headlights, a feature all of Ferrari's V8 sports cars had had up to that point. Quite a few special editions of the 360 were made, more than Ferrari had made of any previous V8 model, and the 360 also enjoyed numerous motorsport applications. The 360 lasted only until 2005, when the improved F430 arrived on the scene.

It's difficult to call the F430 an upgraded version of the 360, since by Ferrari's claims, they had changed 70 percent of the car. But just as the F355 was a big improvement over the 348, the F430 took the 360 platform much further. The first thing you might have noticed is that the number in the name has been replaced with a much bigger number. This wasn't a simple bump in displacement. Ferrari designed a whole new V8 for the F430 for the first time since it started building production V8 engines. The 4.3-liter unit produced 483 horsepower and made much more torque available much more of the time than the previous V8 had managed to achieve.

The 0-60 time was down to 4.0 seconds, but that isn't the first thing you'd probably notice about the F430. The 360 had been incredibly agile, but it would require an expert to really get the most out of it. For less experienced drivers, it would sometimes even feel a bit twitchy. This wasn't nearly as much of a problem with the F430. The technology which went into making the car drivable, and not just fast on Ferrari's test track, was leaps and bounds ahead of the 360. F1 technology was nothing new on Ferrari's road cars, but now it was taking the form of electronics, and they really did make a huge difference.

Previously, Ferrari had had to choose between livability and performance, at least to a degree, but the new systems meant that the F430 was just at home in city traffic as it was on the track. That might not impress you on the spec sheet, but it's a huge deal to anyone who actually bought one. The 360 and the F430 were an unparalleled success for Ferrari. It sold about 17,600 units of the 360 and although it never released official numbers for the F430, it has been estimated to be around 20,000. That's a gigantic sales increase for V8 models, and it is evidence of just how great these cars were.

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Chevy Corvette GT2 on ADV.1 Wheels

Track-spec GT2 edition Vette showcases the Californian wheel specialist’s latest rims.

ADV.1 may be a relative newcomer to the alloy wheel business, but its dedicated design engineer has over ten years of experience creating some of the best looking wheels on the market. Its latest design, dubbed the ADV5 Track Function, has been masterfully showcased on a Chevy Corvette. Measuring in at 21 inches, the new wheels have been attached to a worthy host in the form of a track spec GT2 edition Vette.

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Techart Bringins New 911s to Essen

The Techart GTStreet RS will apparently be one of the fastest and most powerful cars at the show thanks to a power kit that raises output to a lethal 700 horsepower and 634 pound-feet of torque (up from 530 hp and 502 lb-ft). Performance details for the 911 Carrera S are being kept under wraps. Techart did disclose that it will wear a unique aero body kit tested in a wind tunnel, which includes a front spoiler that reduces lift on the Carrera's front axis by 5kg at 87 mph, and a rear spoiler that provides an additional 17.5kg of downforce at the same speed. We should get more details and pictures when the show kicks off on 1 December.

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Mitsubishi Celebrates 30 Years in the U.S. with 2013 Outlander Sport Limited Edition

All the talk at Mitsubishi's LA Auto Show stand is the new 2014 Outlander, but the Japanese company had another unveiling in store, that of the 2013 Outlander Sport Limited Edition, designed to commemorate the brands arrival to American shores three decades ago.

The U.S.-manufactured 2013 Outlander Sport Limited Edition receives some minor cosmetic touches such as the blackout side mirrors, center bumper, wheel arch trim and roof rails, along with bespoke to this model argent alloy wheels.

Inside, Mitsubishi added leather-seating surfaces in two-tone Dove Grey and Black colors, a standard power driver seat, leather steering wheel and handbrake lever, aluminum pedals and the necessary "Limited Edition" badging.

The company says it has also enhanced the performance of the vehicle with a new engine balancer shaft that it claims, "provides smoother and quicker acceleration".

Pricing has not yet been announced.

 

PHOTO GALLERY

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Nissan Builds One-Off Batman-inspired Juke Nismo, Offers it in a Special Competition

Halloween may be long gone, but Nissan hasn't throw…its pumpkins out yet. To celebrate the partnership with Warner Bros and the release of the third film in Christopher Nolan’s Batmantrilogy on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 3, and of course, create some buzz around its name, Nissan's UK division has built a special vehicle inspired by the Dark Knight.

Called "The Dark Knight Rises Juke Nismo", this one-off model won't go on sale but instead, it will be offered to the winner of a special competition named "Builttothrill" that runs until February 28, 2013 with the results to be announced in early March.



The darker edition of the Juke is based on the Nismo variant that will go on sale in the UK in January next year. We'll remind that the Nismo model sports an uprated 1.6-liter turbocharged four producing 197Hp (200PS) for a 0-62mph (100km/h) time of 7.8 seconds along with a bodykit, 18-inch alloys, tuned suspension and bespoke interior parts.

The Bruce Wayne-inspired model brings a matt black paint reminiscent of Batman’s Tumbler (with a little bit of imagination, that is…), red accent stripes that recall the 1966 Batmobile, a new shark fin antenna that replaces the conventional aerial, Bat badges, and gloss black 18-inch alloy wheels.

Inside, passengers are welcomed by bat logos on the door sills and reflective Bat badges on front and rear headrests.

Finally, Nissan also added an uplighter that projects Bat symbol on the headlining as well as downlighters mounted under the door mirrors that project the Bat logo onto the floor area around the doors.

 

PHOTO GALLERY

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