Thursday, December 22, 2011

Merry Christmas

What do you buy for that special person in your life who already has everything? Probably some nice wine and cheese I imagine. On the other hand though, you could opt for this.

Behold US-based Neiman Marcus's 2012 Ferrari FF, a four-wheel drive, 651 horsepower, V12, limited edition 1/10 prancing horses, listed here.



Some might baulk at gift-wrapping US$335,000/ £226,000 in these uncertain economic times but with matching caramel leather luggage and Ferrari's 7-year complimentary servicing, you'd be mad not to.

And on that note...Merry Christmas from Exhaust Pipe Dreams. Keep the pics and emails coming in over the holidays to exhaustpipedreams@gmail.com

Happy motoring!

I spy with my little eye PT2

I was walking to a client's office on Saturday and look what was outside St Paul's Cathedral. This Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II was tucked into a quiet side street waiting for the big moment and the bells.


So this made me curious. How much is it for a wedding car like this? The answer is...about £500 for four hours for this silver RR Silver Cloud II.

And for further entertainment, I found this episode of Automobiles Deluxe on the Silver Cloud MI really interesting. 


I spy with my little eye PT1

I was walking through Soho in London's West End recently and saw a very rare sight. This is an HSV (General Motors Holden Special Vehicles) Clubsport and is a petrol-head's favourite from Down Under. It is the Aussie answer to an M5 or E55. These cars are badged as a Vauxhall VXR8 here in the UK and retail for just under £50,000. In Australia they retail for just under AUD$70,000 which when converted is almost price matched like for like.



















Check out this from Australian Top Gear where you get a sense of these big engined muscle cars.






Wiki says: 350 VXR8s per year were scheduled for official importation into the UK, at a price of £35,105. The LS3 V8 is particularly popular among tuners in the USA, so performance parts are widely available. The most dramatic warranted upgrade is the £7,000 supercharger kit, which ups power to 395 kW (537 PS; 530 hp). Imports to the US were previously sold as Pontiac G8, with V6, L76 V8, or an LS3 V8 engine in the GXP trim. The supercharged edition Bathurst VXR8 was reviewed on Top Gear, and its power-lap time was 1 min 26.3 seconds, a similar time to the current BMW M5.

In July 2010, Autocar reported that, "VXR8 was quietly dropped from the pricelists several months ago" after stocks ran out. However, a face-lifted version based on the new HSV E3 GTS was released to the UK market in April 2011 at a price of around £49,500, almost £15,000 more than the previous VXR8, but significantly cheaper than most of its rivals, like the Mercedes E63 AMG and BMW M5. Vauxhall is currently offering the 2011 Clubsport to UK customers as a special order model.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Oh. My. God.

This is going to really upset some viewers. Check out this Super Car Sunday-drive smash from Japan over the weekend which included 8 Ferraris, 3 Mercs and a Lambo. Click here to read the story.