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All 311 articles posted since 2013, sorted into 17 categories and tagged with a combination of 366 unique keywords.

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A Greek Gift: 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400S

After spending 42 years idle in the underground carpark of the Athens Hilton, this metallic brown on tan leather ‘69 Miura was wheeled out and put on the auction block by Coys back in 2012.

It’s a car with quite a story. A gift from one Aristotle Onassis to rally-driving singer and fellow countryman, Stamatis Kokotas. The car is said to have broken down sometime in the mid ’70s, then simply parked and left at the Hilton. It wasn’t until 2003 that renovation works to the hotel ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics forced it be moved and ‘rediscovered’.

Bidding reportedly topped out at just over US$480,000 though failed to meet the seller’s reserve. Ever since, the details and whereabouts of this wonderfully original and unique car seem to have gone cold.

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Porsche 918 Spyder Coming Down The Line

11 glorious minutes of sights and natural sounds from Porsche’s Zuffenhausen production line as the last of the 918 Spyders are put together.

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NISMO Reflect on Their 2015 Le Mans Campaign

NISMO takes a look back at a ‘character building’ 2015 Le Mans efforts with their radical and oh so new GT-R LM NISMO car.

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Under the Hammer: 1972 Maserati Boomerang Coupé

Bonhams have the one-off Italdesign Maserati Boomerang coupé on the block at their upcoming Chantilly sale on 5 September 2015.

First seen as a concept car at the Turin Motor Show in 1971, the Maserati Boomerang was a typically adventurous work by the man who would later be judged ‘Car Designer of the Century’: Giorgetto Giugiaro.

By the time of its appearance at the Geneva Salon in March 1972, the Boomerang would for the next few years be displayed regularly, appearing at the Paris, London and Barcelona international motor shows and receiving unanimous praise.

There’s no mistaking the Boomerang’s wacky instruments (and stalks!) within the steering wheel party piece. Concept cars rarely show up on the open market, road-legal and registered examples even less so.

Bidding range estimate on application. If you have to ask…

UPDATE: Sold for €3,289,500 (source)

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Drawn from Memory: The Story Behind the McLaren F1 Owner's Handbook

As his first job at McLaren Automotive Mark Roberts, now Design Operations Manager, was given the task of illustrating the owner’s handbook for their forthcoming McLaren F1 supercar.

Hardly anyone’s ever seen it. It’s only a few lucky owners of the car who’s ever seen these things and I’m sure those owners would just go and put it on their bookshelf. It’s not the sort of thing they’d have onboard in their car. I like to think of it as an art book; it’s like a nice coffee table book that you can look through that happens to be very informative for the owner as well.

I knew it was going to be something special but, just like the car, we had no idea how legendary the whole program was going to be.

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Under the Hammer: 1973 Nissan Skyline H/T 2000GT-R 'Kenmeri'

RM Auctions have a mint C110 ‘Kenmeri’ Skyline on offer at their upcoming Monterey event on 13 August 2015.

To be sold with no reserve, bidding expected range between US $150,000 - $200,000.

via Silodrome

UPDATE: Sold for US$176,000 (source)

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evo takes the Porsche 991 GT3 RS on a dawn raid

Jethro Bovingdon wakes early to take a Lava Orange GT3 RS presser for a dawn B-road blast.

Best make it full screen, headphones on, volume right up.

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Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing does the Langwies-Arosa Hillclimb

Switzerland has no active race circuits. Motorsport was effectively banned after the tragic 1955 Le Mans 24hr race, with one exception: hillclimbs.

Watch as Daniel Müller gives his historic rally spec Gullwing a belting along the narrow and winding 7.8km road from Langwies to Arosa for the 2012 International Hillclimb Arosa Classic Car event.

Rare to see such a classic motor being driven on the limit.

Whatever you do, stick around for the action at the 2:20 and 4:30 marks.

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Chris Harris vs. Porsche 991 GT3 RS

4 litres, 500hp, and a lot of wing.

Yes, that rear wing. Have your seen the rear wing? Have your seen the rear wing on this car?!?!?

Chris Harris gets behind the wheel of the much anticipated next iteration of the venerable Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

I think he likes it.

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BMW Z4 GT3 gets a winning send off at Spa-Francorchamps

Marc VDS Racing Team gives the BMW Z4 GT3 the ultimate retirement present by winning the grueling 24 Hours of Spa.

BMW are set to replace the Z4 with an all new 6er based GT3 contender for the 2016 season.

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PistonHeads profile the iconic Subaru Impreza 22B STI

Dan Trent for PistonHeads takes a nostalgic look back at one very special Subaru Impreza.

The JDM production run of 400 apparently sold out in 24 hours nonetheless, 16 additional cars being built for the UK market, another five for Australia and three ‘#000’ prototypes originally owned by Colin McRae, Nicky Grist and Prodrive’s David Lapworth.

In a TV interview McRae described it as one of his favourite cars, while admitting “it gets you into bother” by virtue of its character. Mind boggles at what qualifies as ‘bother’ to a man of McRae’s talents and given what he did for the brand you’d have thought Subaru would have been happy to gift him one. But, no, he had to pay for it. “I got a good price but that really hurt, being Scottish!” he said at the time.

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Camouflaging a BMW Prototype

A short video showing a prototype BMW 5er GT being outfitted in a fully cladded disguise.

Brutally ugly.

via BimmerFile

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In the Classifieds: Bernie's personal BMW M1

evo gets the scoop on what they’re calling the “World’s most expensive BMW M1”:

An incredibly rare and immaculate example of the BMW M1 is up for sale in Germany for £603,000 – close to double the value of most M1s on the market. The iconic supercar is one of just three painted in Polaris Silver and was originally commissioned by Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

via evo, Mint Classics

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The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1,158 pictures

Photographer Camden Thrasher provides a unique perspective of Audi’s 2015 Le Mans campaign by stop animating over eleven-hundred photos with great effect.

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Koenigsegg One:1 Resets the Spa Francorchamps Lap Record

Watch the lunacy that is Koenigsegg’s One:1 hypercar thumping in a blisteringly quick and rather dirty lap of Spa.

Quick because it stopped the clocks at 2:32.14, besting the previous 2:38 road-legal production car record as well as Koenigsegg’s own previous 2:33.16 best in the same car just a month earlier.

Dirty because it looks as though this lap was set at an open track day, with lots of other slow moving objects to negotiate. And the small matter of that large stone chip right in the middle of the screen. Plus the video’s description mentions the main in-car camera was not working, hence the low-res backup footage we see here.

Re-run soon?

via Goodwood Road & Racing

*[PS]: Metric Horsepower

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The last Porsche 918 Spyder has been built

After 21 months of production, the 918th and last Porsche 918 Spyder has been built.

The 918 Spyder was systematically developed to be a performance hybrid with plug-in technology. The hybrid super sports concept car made its debut at the 2010 Geneva International Motor Show where it met with overwhelming approval. In the summer of 2010, the Supervisory Board of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG gave the green light for its production development. When the car was launched on the market in late 2013, the 918 Spyder represented a continuation of a series of super sports cars in Porsche history. As technology pioneers they were, without exception, among the ultimate sports cars of their respective decades: the 904 Carrera GTS, the 959, the 911 GT1 and the Carrera GT.

Future classic?

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ALPINA's 50th Anniversary

Legendary BMW tuner ALPINA looks back and celebrates fifty years of tuning and racing Bavaria’s finest.

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Chris Harris drives the new McLaren 675LT

An all too brief jaunt around Silverstone behind the wheel of the new McLaren 675LT, LT for ‘Longtail’.

Think of it as McLaren’s 458 Speciale to the 458 version of their 650S; only 500 made, all sold; more aero; wider track, lower suspension; upwards of 100kg weight savings (down to a dry-weight of just 1,230kg) thanks to plastic rear window, titanium exhaust, lightweight suspension components and more; faster steering ratio; trick Pirelli P Zero Trofeo tyres; plus that extra 25bhp from an engine that shares only 50% of the components from its 650S brethren.

What does he think?

Dare I say it, it just feels like a slightly baby P1.

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Porsche's 2015 Le Mans campaign by the numbers

Porsche does a data dump from their Le Mans weekend.

  • The Porsche Team made 90 pit stops, 30 per car.
  • At 26 of the 90 stops, tires and drivers were also changed.
  • The longest distance covered with one set of tires was 54 laps for all three cars. In car number 17 Mark Webber did this ultra-long run, in car number 18 it was Neel Jani and in the number 19 prototype it was Nico Hülkenberg.

One for the true anoraks.

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Porsche goes one-two at Le Mans

Porsche took its first overall victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1998, with Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber leading a one-two.

The #19 919 Hybrid moved to prominence through the night, with stints from Hulkenberg and Tandy hauling it back into contention after it lost some ground during an early safety car period.

Bamber then picked up the mantle in the early hours of the morning, and as Sunday progressed any threat from Audi behind crumbled as all three of its cars required unscheduled pitstops.

All that was left after that was for Porsche to nurse its #19 and #17 home to a one-two finish, including taking care during a light rainshower in the final 10 minutes.

Porsche’s 17th outright victory at Le Mans, and a class act.

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