Throw away your jacks, spares and puncture repair kits.
The future is here.
It’s called the ‘airless’ tyre and if you fit it to your car – which you’ll be able to by the start of next year – you’ll never get a puncture again. Ever.
Originally designed for the US military by off-road specialists Polaris, these ‘airless’ tyres will be put on the market in early 2014.
Sounds great doesn’t it? But we can already hear the question in your mind: what do they ride like?
Runflat tyres are notoriously rough on the road, so it’d be easy to assume this ‘airless’ rubber would be even worse.
Not so, says Polaris.
The company claims its new rubber is actually smoother over rough terrain and is quieter than its air-filled rivals.
Apparently they don’t ‘hum and drum’ like a conventional tyre.
Polaris also claims the new rubber has been put through ‘military grade testing’.
They have withstood gunshots and been driven on for hundreds of hours and thousands of kilometres.
Remember this moment, you’re experiencing history. The world of supercars is the same no more.
Change has come to the supercar market, with the Geneva Motor Show ushering in a new era of supercar exotica – the hybrid.
Gone are the days of simply using a massive engine to produce insane power. Instead, the supercars of tomorrow will have an engine on one side and an electrical plug on the other.
Ferrari and McLaren are the first to usher in this new era, with their new LaFerrari and P1 models.
Don’t fret though. This move to hybrid technology is a good thing. Not only does it keep the greens happy by making supercars kinder to the environment, but hybrid tech is used to enhance performance, not diminish it.
That means electric motors can offer instant power and work alongside conventional powerplants to perfect the driving experience.
Don’t believe us? Check the gallery to see the cars ushering in the new era.
Got a few million to spare? Fancy yourself a McLaren P1 or LaFerrari? Forget it.
Close to 1000 mutli-millionaires have been knocked back by both brands, as demand more than doubles the supply of the new generation of supercar.
Ferrari has taken more than 1000 orders for its LaFerrari, while McLaren says more than 800 buyers have registered interest in the P1.
Yet Ferrari and McLaren will build just 499 and 375 examples of their new cars respectively.
And with demand at such stratospheric levels, it seems money is no longer enough to buy you the latest Ferrari or McLaren.
Both brands insist owners must be ‘special’, with Ferrari revealing only existing Ferrari collectors will take delivery of a LaFerrari. McLaren is similarly fussy.
Potential owners of the P1 will have to submit their interest to McLaren, which then ‘assesses’ their current relationship with the company.
So it seems you can’t simply ‘choose’ a LaFerari or P1. You must be chosen.
Lucky buyers are expected to pay in excess of $2 million for both cars, with that price tipped to skyrocket in the future thanks to the cars’ ‘limited edition’ status.
The P1 and LaFerrari usher in a new era of supercar, with both cars utilising hybrid technology.
Electric motors are used in conjunction with traditional powerplants to boost performance.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know the 2013 Australian Grand Prix kicks off today.
But while that means drivers will be racing their new, ultra-fast F1 cars for the first time this season, it got us wondering – what do Formula One drivers use on the road?
F1 cars are hard, brutal and unforgiving, so you’d be forgiven for thinking F1 drivers would want something soft and comfortable for their daily commute. But you’d be wrong.
It seems an F1 driver’s need for speed isn’t just restricted to the track, with almost every driver opting for a face-bending supercar.
An interestingly, Australia’s Mark Webber has one of the biggest and most exotic garages of them all.
Click through to see who drives what.
Sick of the dreary family caravan?
Buy this.
It’s called the Volkner Mobil Performance and is the ultimate in the luxury, mobile home.
Oh, and it comes with a mobile garage for your Ferrari.
The 40 foot long ‘bus’ comes with a fitted kitchen, dishwasher, full-sized shower and adjustable leather seats.
There’s also room for a high-performance sportscar to be stored between the axles in the Volkner’s vast undercarriage.
This, we assume, is the ‘Performance’ part of the Volkner’s name.
Sadly, it’s only available in Europe, but at $1.74 million, that could be a good thing.
Think the McLaren MP4-12C was built only for the track?
Think again.
To celebrate the model’s launch in North America, McLaren has raced its supercar against a snowboarder in Colorado.
Overall record holder at the Pikes Peak hill climb Rhys Millen piloted the MP4-12C, while X-Games racer Chanelle Sladics rode the board.
The pair raced down a mountain at Loveland Pass.
Sneakily McLaren fitted the MP4-12C with a ‘Winter’ powertrain, which adjusts the car’s electronic support and gearshift strategy.
American’s are a funny lot.
They like things big, brash and absolutely love their muscle cars.
So it’s no surprise these three virtues are celebrated in style at the New York Motor show.
To catch all the weird and wonderful action from behind the scenes, our photographers have been busy snapping away.
Enjoy.
In Australia small cars dominate the marketplace, so it was inevitable that AMG would bring its addictive brand of madness to play.
In a sign of these environmentally conscious times Mercedes-Benz spent most of its allotted presentation time revealing an electric B-class, and then hurriedly and almost apologetically trotted out its new baby bitumen burner, the 265kW CLA45 AMG sedan.
Perhaps the Three-Pointed Star was keen to be portrayed as a company with a conscience. But the moment the presentation ended the CLA was swamped by eager scribes and snappers, while the B-class sat forlornly and almost forgotten under the disinterested gaze of a few hardy souls — who were probably waiting for the rush to subside before drooling over Benz’s new sub-5-second WRX.
At this same motorshow in the mouldy basement known as Hall One, Subaru took the wraps off the new WRX — the latest generation of the world’s most famous all-wheel drive sports car. Comparisons between the all-wheel drive CLA45 AMG and the WRX may seem unfair — on price alone the CLA will equal two Subarus — but both occupy steps on the all-paw stairway to heaven.
In America the swoopy CLA sedan — which Benz insists is a four-door coupe — carries a $47,000 price tag, roughly $8,000 less than the BMW 1M Coupe which appears to be its nearest rival. That’d give it a $90k price in Australia, which seems little low given the CLA250 will be around $72k. Still, it’s a fair bet to come in under six figures. The CLA45 AMG springs from Benz’s burgeoning A-class platform which will also spawn a GLA SUV and a shooting brake (wagon). Benz is also considering a two-door coupe and convertible.
The CLA45 AMG employs the same mechanicals as the A45 AMG hatch revealed in Detroit just two months ago. The world’s most powerful production 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine cranks out 265kW and 450Nm and drives all four wheels through a seven-speed double-clutch automatic transmission. The all-wheel drive system is an on-demand setup which brings the rear wheels into play only when the fronts slip, so there will be no long, lurid black lines from this AMG. At best 50 percent of the engine’s might can be sent to the back tyres.
Benz says the CLA45 AMG will do 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds on its way to a 250km/h governed top speed.
The CLA45 AMG arrives in Australia in September, at the same time as lesser CLA models.
Images of the hotly anticipated Toyota 86 convertible have been released ahead of its Geneva Motor Show debut.
The concept car, called the FT-86 Open, sticks to the hugely successful formula found in the hardtop version of the Toyota 86.
That means rear-wheel-drive, sharp handling and a keen pricing point.
The FT-86 Open sports an electrically operated soft top and features a new ‘Milan-based’ designer interior.
Porsche’s club racer for the road, the 991-series 911 GT3, has arrived.
As usual it’s based on the 911 Carrera S but with modifications to unleash greater performance. For starters the 3.8-litre flat six engine has been tweaked to rev to 9000rpm, and now produces 350kW peak power.
Controversially, GT3 buyers will not have the option of a manual transmission. Only the 7-speed twin-clutch auto is available, its ratios shortened to improve acceleration. Porsche claims 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds, and a top speed of 315km/h.
