Tramontana R Edition - Hot Cars

Hot Cars - The super cool, super quick Tramontana R Edition car is an evolved version of the standard open-wheel 2 seater, packing a Mercedes-sourced 5.5-liter V12 available in either naturally aspirated, 550 hp guise or a twin-turbocharged 760 hp version that dolls out an astonishing 811 lb-ft of torque. It does 0-100 kph in 3.6 seconds and gets 200 kph in a 10.15-second run. Price tag is a credit busting €385,000 but its one hell of a cool car as these pictures and video below show.








The wheelbase has been shortened by 50mm to improve handling and aerodynamics, and weight is down by 202 pounds to just 2,777 pounds. The R stretches 192 inches from nose to tail, is 82 inches wide and 51 inches tall, and weight distribution is a perfect 50:50 left to right and 42:58 front to rear.




Tramontana fitted 20-inch carbon fiber and magnesium wheels at each corner, along with high-performance summer rubber sized 245/40 in front and 335/30 in the rear. 380mm, six-piston Brembos handle stopping duties, while a custom Ohlins suspension allows the R's ride-height to be adjusted between 85 and 135 mm.






The body speaks for itself, as does the exposed carbon fiber interior, which features a chop-top steering wheel, an LCD instrument panel and the controls to the six-speed sequential gearbox.

Production will be limited to 12 units per year with a price tag of €385,000 ($495,000).

 

READ MORE...

15 Cool Hot Rod Cars

15 Cool Hot Rod Cars - Showcasing 15 cool hot rod cars from around the world. Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term 'hot rod' is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of 'hot roadster' meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Another possible origin includes modifications to or replacement of the camshaft(s), sometimes known as a "stick" or "rod". 

A camshaft designed to produce more power is sometimes call a "hot stick" or, here, a "hot rod". Roadsters were the cars of choice because they were light. The term became commonplace in the 1930s or 1940s as the name of a car that had been "hopped up" by modifying the engine in various ways to achieve higher performance.

The term can also apply to other items that are "souped up" for a particular purpose, such as "hot-rodded amplifier".

READ MORE...

Cool Hummers - Car Pictures

Cool Hummers - A collection of cool Hummer pictures.











Hummer is a brand of off-road vehicles sold by General Motors (GM). The original H1 was based on the military High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, or Humvee). However, the Hummer H2 and the Hummer H3 were based on other, smaller civilian-market vehicles.

READ MORE...

Jaguar C-X75 Pictures and Videos

Jaguar C-X75 Pictures and Videos - Showcasing cool pictures and video of the Jaguar C-X75 hybrid car. There's a chance you've seen the C-X75 before, but back then it was no more than just a cool concept. The great news is that Jaguar is turning its idea of what a plug-in hybrid should be into a production car what will both save the world (its CO2 emissions are just 99g/km) and get you down to Tesco so fast you'll arrive younger than you were when you left (0-60 in 3 seconds! Top speed of 200mph+).

Jay Leno Review of the Jaguar C-X75 

Jay Leno became the first person outside Jaguar to drive the C-X75 on a public highway, ahead of its North American Debut at the L.A. Auto Show. Leno, a long-term Jaguar enthusiast, thinks that despite being so cutting edge, it still looks like a Jaguar with certain key features like the detail on the buttress behind the driver's head that is reminiscent of the new XJ or the back end is having hints of E Type and even the D Type. Here's Leno's review if the C-X75:

 

October 2010, Jaguar sprung the C-X75 concept car on the unsuspecting public at the Paris Motor Show. The reception was phenomenal. Its sleek form ensured its image instantly made its way round the world, while journalists and have-a-go pundits speculated upon exactly how a " jet-powered" turbine car would work. Despite appeals from representatives of the motoring press, the British marque maintained the concept was a one-off and not for production. The C-X75 ticked all the right boxes for the modern supercar. It set tongues wagging across the globe, inspired curiosity and, above all, instilled a sense of desire. In fact, the strength of the response to the concept meant that on 6 May, this year, Jaguar changed its tune, announcing it would indeed produce the car. Tellingly, Jaguar showcased it at Clerkenwell Design week at the end of May - a move that emphasis how proud the company is of the C-X75. 

Built with the help from Williams F1, it uses a pair of diesel-powered gas turbines (a bit like small jet engines) to charge batteries that power four electric motors, delivering a crazy 778 horsepower. You best start saving though - Jaguar has said it'll build around 250 C-X75s and it'll hit the UK at the end of 2013 with a price tag of between £700,000 and £900,000.

READ MORE...

Hydrogen Scorpion Car - Hydrogen Cars

Hydrogen Cars - A Texas startup has finally pulled the wraps off its 40-mpg, 450-horsepower Scorpion roadster, a hand-built hydrogen-burning "eco-exotic" that is sexier than Angelina Jolie and has the performance to provide more grins than nitrous oxide.


Ronn Motor Company unveiled the Scorpion today at the big SEMA, or Speciality Equipment Market Association, automotive trade show in Las Vegas, which may be the perfect place to debut so flashy — and innovative — a car. The company hopes the Scorpion does for hydrogen what the Tesla Roadster has done for batteries.


"We want to build cool cars, just more responsibly”, company president Ronn Maxwell told Wired.com. "Our hope with the Scorpion is to implement a paradigm shift not only in how the industry looks at supercars but at cars in general."


The Scorpion gets its sting from a hydrogen delivery system the company calls H2GO. While cars like the Honda FCX Clarity and Chevrolet Equinox use hydrogen fuel cells to drive electric motors, the Scorpion uses electrolysis to convert water into gaseous hydrogen. The hydrogen is mixed with 91-octane gasoline to improve the fuel economy and reduce the emissions of the car's 3.5-liter internal combustion engine.



Maxwell, a 40-year auto industry vet and lifelong gearhead who holds several patents, is using the limited production — just 200 will be built — Scorpion to prove the technology works and legitimize the H2GO system the company will begin selling for $1,000 early next year. The way he sees it, if H2GO works on the Scorpion, it'll work on your Civic.


Maxwell didn't offer much in the way of specifics, saying the publicly traded company is still dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the venture. But he says H2GO is good for a 15 percent to 33 percent improvement in mileage, a noticeable increase in power and a significant reduction in overall emissions. The company is pursuing EPA certification of the Scorpion so people can get a better idea of what the system is capable of. Maxwell insists the 40-mpg figure is the real deal.


Photos courtesy Ronn Motor Co.

The trucking industry has been using hydrogen boosting for years. But the Scorpion is significant because it uses what the company calls real-time hydrogen delivery as part of an original factory design. And unlike BMW’s Hydrogen 7, Scorpion does not keep any 30-gallon tanks full of liquid hydrogen lying around at −253 °C (−423.4 °F).

“Our system does not require any pressurized hydrogen storage. It’s completely safe and uses water from your garden hose to create hydrogen on demand. We are simply increasing the efficiency of what’s already there”, says company COO Damon Kuhn. “Even better, the infrastructure to support this technology is here right now, not 10 years from now.”

Kuhn is referring to the biggest challenges to hydrogen's use in vehicles — the need for a fueling infrastructure, a venture that by any measure will take many years and many millions of dollars.

Ronn Motors is confident that the sexy Scorpion will top 200 mph. The chrome-moly chassis and carbon-fiber body surrounds a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 in a car that weighs just 2,200 pounds. The engine was sourced from Acura — it's the same mill found in the TL Type S, albeit turbocharged — and mated to a six-speed gearbox. The car will set you back $150,000, and if 450 ponies isn't enough, another $100 grand will get you a tweaked version with another 150 horsepower.

Tom duPont, publisher of the duPont registry, pulled the sheet off the Scorpion this morning and said, “If it was a square box with a bunch of batteries, I wouldn’t be getting pre-orders from NBA basketball players. The exotic styling and amazing performance mixed in with the environmental angle is really inspiring a lot of attention.”

READ MORE...