Driving Experiences - Driving days are great because you get to drivecool carsthat many of us will never be able to afford. To be behind the wheel of aFerarriis an experience you will never forget. Here we feature just a few of the super cars you can drive and experience for yourselves at Silverstonetrack days.
Audi R8 V10 Driving this 10cylinder, 187mph super car can now be lived out in all their glory as part of the Audi Driving Experience. Also earlier in March this year, the Audi 450PS RS 5 and 340PS TT RS coupés were added to the list of cars you can experience driving at Silverstone.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage Designed to take the game to Porsche, the V8 Vantage is the baby of the Aston range but arguably the company's finest product. Its front-engined layout allows the 4.5 litre V8 to sit far back in the chassis for perfect weight distribution: so the drive more than lives up to the promise of that beautiful shape. Oh, and the noise defies description!
Ferrari360 Modena A firm favorite fortrack days, the Ferrari has become the coolest car brand in the world for good reason, and the 360 Modena shows why. It's light, agile, offers 400bhp through the rear wheels and its paddle-shift transmission is directly related to the gearbox in its F1™ cars.
Lamborghini Gallardo A stunning example of Lamborghini’s craftsmanship – enjoy the momentous roar of the 5 litre V10 engine as you experience 3 laps around Silverstone’s legendary circuit. Reaching 0-60mph in under 4 seconds this high-performance sports car will evoke the racing hero within.
Lotus Exige S "Add speed, add Lightness" was Lotus founder Colin Chapman's philosophy, and the Exige S perfectly adheres to that mantra. No other road car can touch the nimbleness and cornering ability of the Exige. Underneath all those lumps, scoops and wings, it's pure racer: a bonded aluminium chassis, double wishbone suspension and a supercharged Toyota motor.
Nissan GT-R The Nissan GT-R doesn’t just represent the latest evolution of the manufacturer’s finest sports cars – it has redefined what the phrase “fast car” means. Blending vicious power with unparalleled electronic wizardry, it can slay cars costing two or three times the price. The acceleration through the GT-R’s superfast seamless 6 speed paddle-shift gearbox will push your head back against the seat as you power hard out of the corners.
Cool Eco Friendly Cars - Eco friendly cars are all the rage at the moment but this trned is only going to get bighger and bigger. Here are some cool concept cars that we could be driving in a decade from now, when hopefully gas-guzzlers are a thing of the past and our robotic butlers will have to plug our cars into the mains overnight.
The ApteraA car that gets 230 miles per gallon? Cool! The vision of steve fambro, who wanted to create a car that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced, the aptera (from greek for ‘flight without wings’) draws much of its design from aircraft and aerodynamics. it seats two, has three wheels, and its first operating protype achieved an amazing 230 miles per gallon.
Car Specification
Top Speed of 85mph
2 to 4 hours to charge - it’ll cost about $2 to charge it overnight
You must be 6 ft 5 or under in height so this car aint no good for most basketball players!
Room for a childs seat
Only available in white
Cost: under $30k.
the aptera typ-1 is now available for reservations (only in california for now), and will start production in late 2008.
NMG NMG stands for no more gas! These cool electric cars are smaller than smart cars and use no gasoline at all. They are really small - you can fit four of them into one parking space It only seats one but a cool car for driving to work..unless you car share!
Charge it for eight hours and you’ll get about 30 miles of driving, which is more than the average driver does in a day, plus you can drive it in the car pool lane, and park it in a motorcycle space between two cars. With gas hitting record highs every day and its consumption contributing so heavily to global warming, surely the nmg is a no-brainer?
Oil companies are supposidly holding back information about electric cars for obvious reasons...so spread this around...electric cars are cool!
HONDA PUYO This little bubble car is another futuristic concept that threatens to blow gas guzzlers out of the water - or at least off our streets.
The word ‘puyo’ is japanese onomatopoeia for the sensation of touching the vehicle’s soft body. The car itself was designed to bring together clean, safe and fun functionality in a minimalist, environmentally-friendly way.
On the outside it’s a seamless, curvy box that’s supposed to remind you of a favorite pet. It has a soft gel body and is luminescent to reflect the vehicle’s state of being, thereby promoting a more intimate relationship between car and owner
The interior is designed to be people-friendly. driving is controlled by a joystick, the control panels rise up when the vehicle starts, and the roof is transparent.
NISSAN PIVO 2 Talk about a cute cool concept car. This eco friendly electric urban car has a built-in robotic interface and rotates 360 degrees on its axis.
By getting rid of traditional mechanical linkages like shafts and hydraulic cylinders and using drive by wire electrical technology instead, it’s infinitely more flexible than most cars we’re used to.
What's cool about this car is unlike most eco cars, it fits 3 people! I can see this car going places!
THE MAGNET CAR This car overcomes the force of gravity through the strategic use of an electric engine…and magnets. Winner of the unseen technology award at the interior motives design awards 2007, the mag magnetic vehicle concept (designed by matúš procháczka) finds an unusual solution to the problem of, expending fuel to get somewhere.
Rather than finding a different fuel source, or building a smaller car, procháczka ingeniously reduces the weight of the car by using an electric engine with magnets the same polarity as the roads. the resulting upward force lightens the vehicle’s weight by 50%. another innovative touch is the desing of the seats: two outer layers, pile yarn, and a soft construction foam make it possible to adjust the final hardness and spring characteristics of the seat. this lightweight, adaptable seating not only cuts down on waste during construction and the overall weight of the vehicle while being driven, it also sounds pretty darn comfy.
Here comes the obvious disadvantage - in order for the magnetic engine to properly polarize, the roads on which it’s driven also have to be magnetized, which of course there aren't any...yet!
SOLAR RICKSHAW The new solar powered rickshaw by solarlab makes rickshaw's cool, bringing them into the 21st century.
75% of the total power needed to drive the vehicle will come from the photovoltaic solar generator on the roof, while the remaining 25% will be provided by the driver’s own pedal power.
With the addition of solar power, you don’t have have to be a superhero on steroids to drive yourself around. The modular design of the rickshaw makes it easy to convert to load-bearing vehicles required for inner city logistics, and supply chain requirements. in other words, not only can you cart yourself around, you can also add in a couple of tourists, and all their groceries too.
Launching next year, solarlab hopes to reduce CO2 emissions in london by up to 2 tons per rickshaw.
From prehistoric transportation, to the transportation of the future: making transportation eco-friendly is closer to the past then we think. then again, there’s always walking. This is a guest post courtesy of been seen, a great site that ‘approaches travel from a creative and visually artistic point of view’. Source: cool cars
Electric Cars - We lovecool carsbut we had to feature this cool superbus. Crafted with state-of-the-art materials which seats 23 passengers and has a top speed of 155mph (250kmh), the super bus was developed in Holland by an astronaut and a former Formula One aerodynamics expert. This midnight-blue, electric-powered vehicle costs £7 million and was flown to the United Arab Emirates where it will be used by a sheikh. Check out the video and the pictures below.
The hi-tech bus means he will be able to complete the 75-mile commute from Dubai to neighbouring Abu Dhabi in under 30 minutes.
Made of lightweight materials including aluminium, carbon fibre, fibreglass and polycarbonate, it is 49ft long (15 metres), 8ft wide (2.5 metres) and 5ft 5in high (1.65 metres).
Passengers will be able to enjoy comfort equal to that of a luxury limousine or private jet. The super bus has eight gullwing-style doors on each side to allow for a swift exit.
The project was backed by the Dutch government, American chemicals company Dow and the Saudi conglomerate Sabic. The first commercial interest came from the UAE where the super bus was flown in a jumbo jet. It was tested for the first time on ordinary roads around Abu Dhabi Airport, its batteries fired up by solar power.
The wealthy owner of the super bus plans to travel on normal roads and at normal speeds in the region while it picks up passengers in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai. However once it leaves the city, the vehicle is able to switch to a dedicated concrete track which runs parallel to the motorway and accelerate to a cruising speed of around 150mph. As it approaches its destination, it would once again slow to rejoin the ordinary road network. Cool eh! Source: cool cars
F1 Race Car vs Cool Mountain Road - A cool video of a Red Bull Formula 1 car racing up the highest motorable road in the world in northern India's Kashmir state. This is a world record for the world's highest run by a Formula 1 car at 18,380 feet. Spectacular car... spectacular scenery! Enjoy the video.
Cars Pictures - 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).
