Fast-Autos supercar news

Fast-Autos News

Aston Martin Reveals V8 Vantage Roadster

Aston Martin has introduced the roadster version of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. This is almost the same as the coupe except that it has a reinforced aluminum frame to compensate the the lack of the roof. As is obligatory these days, the hood is operated electrically.

You get the same performance as the coupe, but not the stunning looks. Just depends where you live which car you should buy. At the same time, the new sequential six-speed gearbox, operated by paddles, has been introduced on all V8 Vantages - as an option alongside the manual six-speeder.

BMW goes metal top

Meanwhile, BMW is now offering a metal-roof convertible on the 3 Series. It is quite neat, but again lacks the style of the coupe. Great for tjhose warm, sunny days, though, like the Aston.

Mitsubishi's new direction

Mitsubishi really means to capitalise on the success of the Evo models and really go sporty with the new Lancer range. Previously, the full range has been sold only in Japan, although a few markets do get the rather gutless coupe. Now all that changes. There is a full range of Lancers coming for world markets, and they are all look very sporty - at least the images revealed so far do.

The car has an aggressive fromt end, and the coupe looks pretty smooth. Can't wait for the Evo 10!

Hotter Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Mercedes-Benz is unveiling a special edition of the Mercedes-Benz
SLR McLaren, one of the hottest and fastest front-engined exotic cars in existence. Well, it was until the Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano hit the road. No doubt the guys at McLaren knew the Fiorano was coming and wanted an answer.

The new model will rely mainly on upgrading to sell, but the engine pumps out an extra 25 bhp or so. Of course, that also puts it a bit further away from the heavyweight Mercs with plenty of power, like the SL65 AMG. Which McLaren wants.

Jaguar XJR Portfolio - 400 bhp

Jaguar is building a special edition version of the suave all-aluminum XJ. This is the XJR Portfolio, which gets the 400 bhp supercharged V-8 from the S Type R. The result is masses of performance with subtle differences to the body, such as a mesh grill.

The V-8 is coupled to a ZF six-speed automatic, and to increase traction, 20-inch wheels are used. Speed is limited to 155 mph, but the XJR Portfolio can accelerate to 60 mph in just 5.0 seconds - pretty quick for a big luxurious car and a bit quicker than the S Type R owing to the low weight.

New Renault hot hatch

Renault has introduced its latest hot hatch - the Clio Renault Sport with a 197 bhp naturally aspirated 2.0 liter engine. As the Clio is smaller than most cars with this much power, performance is pretty good - it will reach 60 mph in less than seven seconds.

However, the real strength of the car - like its predecessor - is handling. The car is rated as one of the top three hatches in Europe, and now has a different type of strut suspension to improve things further.

In the normal strut suspension, the damper is in the strut, which has to be inclined at quite an angle and has quite a lot of offset - meaning that the car has a lot of torque steer as the power of the engine tries to turn the wheels about the strut.

To overcome this, the wheel pivots on a pair of ball joints in a housing to which the damper/strut is attached. The wheel then pivots on an axis very near the wheel centerline, so offset is reduced. The damper/strut is attached to the hub carrier in the normal way, but does not influence the steering. Sounds good, but only if you MUST have struts to suit production methods. You can do better with unequal length wishbones!

Seat Leon goes to 240 bhp

Seat, the Spanish VW car marque which competes with some success in the rally world, has also introduced its new Leon Cupra. It is powered by the latest VW Group turbocharged direct injection engine which develops 240 bhp at 5,700-6,300 rpm.

Mmmm… the VW Golf and new Audi TT have to make do with 200 bhp, but the derring-do Spaniards at Seat went all out for the most powerful version they could get. In a car like the Leon - same underbody as the Golf - 240 bhp is probably getting near the limit for front-wheel drive. Mind you the new Audi S3 gets 260 bhp.

With that amount of power, the Leon Cupra is good for 153 mph, and can reach 60 mph in 6.2 seconds.

Connaught almost ready for production

Connaught, the small British firm developing both a V-10 2.0 liter sports coupe and a hybrid electric version, says that the first model should go into production next January - six months later than planned.

This will be the Syracuse, which I mentioned in News in February. It is a front-mid engined rear-drive 2+2 coupe which is fairly tall. Powered by Connaught's V-10 engine of only 2.0 liters capacity, supercharged to give a claimed output of 300 bhp, which should make the car pretty fast.

Mazda Miata/MX-5 gets an opening roof

Called the Hardtop, the new version of the Miata/MX-5 gets a folding roof - but this is not steel, but a high-performance plastic. As the little Mazda sports car is quite small, the engineers went to great lengths to design a lightweight hardtop that took up little luggage space.

The hardtop is made in three pieces - the almost flat roof, the rear window, and a slim third section. The whole roof folds down into the space behind the rear seats leaving almost all the trunk for luggage.

The complete roof with all the automatic opening gear weighs 80 lb (37 kg) which is not too bad. However, to make it small, the shape had to be kept simple and rather ordinary. But a welcome addition to the range. I've been driving the 2.0 liter soft top version recently, and it still has the fun factor - more on that soon.