The Los Angeles motorshow has been growing in stature over recent years, with the industry’s biggest brands using it as a launching pad for their latest and greatest.
It recognises the United States, and California in particular, as one of the most car crazy places on Earth. One that’s also at the forefront of environental issues and legislation.
Everything from exotic sports cars and Detroit muscle, to energy efficient hybrids have been revealed overnight.
Check out MOTOR’s image gallery of LA’s freshest metal.
Lamborghini, maker of some of the worlds’s most spectacular sports cars, celebrates 50 years as a car maker in 2013, so join MOTOR magazine for a walk through this iconic brand’s amazing history.
After famously falling out with Enzo Ferrari in the late 1950s, founder Ferruccio Lamborghini, already a successful businessman, set about challenging the Prancing Horse from his Sant’Agata Bolognese, factory (close to Ferrari’s home in Maranello) in northern Italy.
Having ridden financial ups and downs over five decades, Lamborghini, now in the hands of the Volkswagen Group, continues to produce jaw-droppingly exotic machines.
Check out MOTOR’s image gallery of Lamborghinis from 1963 to date.
Mercedes-Benz’s in-house performance god AMG is working hard on two front-wheel drive-based offerings based on the forthcoming A-class hatch and CLA four-door coupe.
The A45 AMG will arrive first in March 2013. It packs a hyper-tuned 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that’s said to match its Audi RS3 rival’s 250kW and 450Nm.
This kind of muscle would be too much for trad front-drive to handle. So AMG will shoehorn an on-demand all-wheel drive system underneath. These types of systems act primarily as front-drivers until the front tyres reach their tractive limits, then engine power is apportioned to the rear wheels as well.
Early indications point to a circa-$70k price tag for the A45 AMG, roughly on par with its nearest locally available rival, the BMW M135i.
As for the CLA — which Benz will no doubt label a four-door coupe, and suggest familial ties with the bigger CLS sedan — it will employ the same turbocharged four-cylinder engine, Haldex part-time AWD and seven-speed dual-clutch combo as the A45. But we’ll have to wait until after mainstream CLA models launch in 2014 first.
As BMW puts out a limited-edition V12 to celebrate a quarter-century of the 7-series, we take a look at some of the best V12s of the last twenty years.
This all-electric beast has a single-speed gearbox that creates torque from zero RPM. It does 0-100 in under four seconds.
Supercar specialists Shelby put together an all-electric version of their Aero in 2009. It gets to 100 in under three seconds, and tops out north of 330kmh.
This Audi concept recently broke the electric record at the legendary Nurburgring. It lapped the circuit in just a little over eight minutes. Rumour has it we’ll see an all-electric R8 in production next year.
This one-off electric custom model belongs to Ian Wright, the owner of Wrightspeed powertrains. He modified an Ariel Atom to create what was, at the time, the fastest street-legal electric vehicle. It does 0-100 in three seconds flat.
Student at Ohio State University have been building and improving on this electric car since the early 2000s. It currently holds the world land-speed record for electric vehicles, having hit 495kmh.
This tiny Croation company have made big waves with their electric supercar. The Concept One, which is currently taking pre-orders, does 0-100 in under three seconds. You can own one next year for just under a million bucks.
There have been prototypes of the Lightning GT around since 2009, and next year they’ll finally go into production, though Lightning have said they’ll only produce twenty in the first twelve months. It’s driven by twin electric motors, and does 0-100 in under five seconds.
There were only four of these two-seat prototypes built in the late 90s and early 2000s, but they were among the first to show how much low-end torque you could put in an EV. Watch this one smoke a Ferrari 355, twice.
The brainchild of researchers at Keio University, Toyko, the Eliica is an eight-wheeled speed machine specifically designed to break records. There’s a model geared especially for acceleration, and one for speed, and they’re aiming to break the 400 kmh mark. Watch as the Eliica beats a Porsche 911 Turbo to 160 kmh by almost two seconds.
Formula One WAGs past and present
Cricket stars and their cars
Tennis stars and their cars
Can you imagine Victoria’s Secret selling a new range of lingerie by showing you a cropped close-up of Miranda Kerr’s ankle (as lovely an ankle as it is)?
It’s an absurd idea, but not too silly for a car company like Jaguar, which has decided to promote its truly awesome-sounding new super sedan, the XFR-S.
This BMW M5-bashing beast seems, on paper at least, to resemble a kind of bionic James Bond, but sadly we can’t tell you how suave it looks, because the above teaser pic is the only one the company has issued.
With the M5 and Benz’s E63 bi-turbo V8s squarely in its crosshairs, the alluringly British midsizer is said to pack a modified version of the slinky XKR-S’ supercharged 5.0-litre V8 bazooka.
Bellowing out about 400kW of power and 680Nm of torque through a fat pair of boots out back, we’re guessing a low-to-mid four-second time for the 0-100km/h blast, so we’re talking about a blisteringly quick five-seater.
Indeed, it should be the fastest Jaguar sedan of all time. So stay tuned, and keep your eyes peeled for bigger, better pictures.
It’s entirely possible that the new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster revealed today will displace Miranda Kerr on bedroom walls around Australia.
Packing the same thundering 515kW V12 as its coupe sibling, the Roadster blasts from 0-100km/h in 3.0 seconds flat, and can hit a top speed of 350km/h.
