By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada
While most automakers simply can’t help themselves and have already spilled the bans on their debuts for next week’s Geneva Motor Show, a few have shown some measure of restraint. Here’s a short list of automaker’s that have teased us with their unveilings. Which one are you most excited to eventually see?
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
Billed as motorsport's answer to an All-Star game, the Race of Champions is an annual racing extravaganza that pits top drivers and titlists from all corners of the globe against each other. This year is extra special since it's the ROC's 25th anniversary, and the event is making its first trip to Thailand, using the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok as a temporary track.
The ROC format is pretty simple: drivers race each other in identical cars around a mirrored track that includes a couple crossovers. Whoever beats the other to the line wins and it's best two out of three. The vehicles this year include some regulars, like the specially built ROC 'buggy' and KTM X-Bow, and newcomers like the Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo, Toyota GT86 (our Scion FR-S) and a NASCAR-esque "Euro-racecar."
There are 12 invited drivers that are joined by few more local heros who can get to the ROC by winning a pre-qualifying event... The Saturday features the Nations Cup where drivers are split off into teams based on their country/region while Sunday is simply every driver for themselves.
Some of the heavyweights included this year include Formula 1 champions like Sebastien Vettel, Micheal Schumacher, Le Mans legends like Tom Kristensen, rally stars like Sebastien Ogier, and IndyCar champ Ryan Hunter-Reay...
While live television coverage can be iffy to find, the online Drive Channel will be covering both Saturday and Sunday starting at 7 p.m. eastern time both days.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada
This past week, the Interweb was all a twitter over the supposed leaked patent drawings of a new version of the SLS AMG, Mercedes-Benz’s unofficial “supercar”. Unlike the existing two-door, two-seat hardtop or convertible, this SLS had four seats and four doors: a pair of top-hinged “gullwing” openings up front, and two “suicide” rear-hinged at the back for, ostensibly, to make it easier for rear passengers to enter and exit graciously.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos
Like most young car nutters, you more than likely had a poster of a Lamborghini super car on your bedroom wall as a youth. Depending on your vintage, either a Countach, Diablo, Murcielago, or Aventador, right next to your Farrah Fawcett, Bo Derek, Pamela Anderson, or Megan Fox wall decorations too. But if the recent news of what the next, new Lambo model will be is correct, it’s hard to think it will adorn any walls other than in the automaker's showrooms.
By Greg Kable, AutoWeek
A senior source at Lamborghini's parent company Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany, has confirmed reports suggesting that the Italian supercar maker is close to revealing a dramatically styled and luxuriously equipped SUV/crossover concept that previews its long-touted third model.
"I can't comment in detail but the speculation in the press is largely correct," an Audi manager revealed when questioned about reports outlining plans by Lamborghini to gauge public response to a successor to the famed LM002 with a new SUV concept.
Set to get its first public airing at the Beijing motor show in late April, the new SUV/crossover will extend the current Lamborghini lineup, joining the successor to today's Gallardo and the recently introduced Aventador in what will at least be a three-strong model lineup from Sant'Agata from 2016 onward. Lamborghini has not confirmed the reports.
By AutoWeek
Lamborghini is adding a rear-wheel-drive convertible version to the Gallardo range, offering 550 hp for open-air speeds.
Lamborghini revealed the Gallardo LP 550-2 Spyder at an event on Wednesday evening as part of several days of festivities surrounding the Los Angeles auto show. The V10 supercar was retuned to handle the prodigious power going to the rear wheels, and it has different damper settings and aerodynamics than its all-wheel sibling.
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
Some days it takes a while to come up with suitable posts for The Passing Lane. What to ask? How exactly to phrase things? Where to find pictures? What kind of responses do I think we'll get.
But days like today? They don't come very often.
Lamborghini has assembled a three-minute short film on its all-new Murcielago-replacing Aventador super car. Lock your office door, turn up the volume, and click play. Simple.
By Dale Jewett, AutoWeek
All the cloak-and-dagger stuff has come to an end as Lamborghini pulled back the drape on the Aventador LP700-4, the all-wheel-drive V12 sports car that replaces the Murciélago.
The Aventador follows a familiar Lamborghini script: head-turning styling combined with neck-snapping performance.
Deliveries will begin in late summer, Lamborghini says. And the price? It will cost $379,700 in the United States, including the gas-guzzler tax.
By Greg Kable, AutoWeek
Lamborghini's replacement for the Murciélago is apparently one bull that doesn't like being caged.
The buzz started earlier this week when a photo of the new V12 Lamborghini raced around the Internet, said to be from a magazine in Croatia.
Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
While Chevrolets, Chryslers, Fiats and Toyotas are fine for most folks, those looking for a little more verve at the 2011 Canadian International Auto Show would be well-served to visit the inaugural Concorso Exotica display on the 100 level of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Stuffed to the gills with six-figure supercars and ultra-luxury machines, the Concorso Exotica exhibit is sure to get the blood pumping. Great Britain – surprisingly – has the highest representation of vehicles thanks to examples of the four-door Aston Martin Rapide, Bentley Mulsanne, Lotus Evora and Rolls-Royce Ghost.
Justin Couture
Reportedly, the first word to come out of his mouth was "car," and since then it's evolved into a life-long passion. Justin is a fan of passionately engineered vehicles, but in general, loves the industry as much as the cars it produces. Justin is the Assistant Editor of MSN Autos, and manages The Passing Lane.
Mark Atkinson
Mark has a decade’s experience driving and writing about thousands of vehicles, and two decades before as an inveterate car nut and race fan. He’s also a first-time father, so you’ll need to excuse the occasional half-awake daddy rant about how his daughter’s car-seat won’t fit.
John LeBlanc
After a career in advertising and marketing, John decided to turn his jaundiced eye towards the world of cars. Since then, he's become one of Canada's most vociferous critics of the industry, delivering objective analysis of the new car scene.
