Rolls-Royce Ghost Review

Rolls-Royce Ghost

The Ghost name was first attached, literally, to a Rolls-Royce in 1907. Needing a PR stunt for its new 40/50hp model, Rolls painted a car silver, screwed on a plaque proclaiming it ‘The Silver Ghost’ and set off to prove its reliability. To do this, it was driven, non-stop, for 15,000 miles, including 27 trips between London and Glasgow. However, Rolls did not formally recognise the Ghost name until 1925. The Silver Ghost was sold but bought back by Rolls in 1948, only to be then not included in the sale of the Rolls name to BMW.

So now, somewhat ironically, the world’s most famous Rolls is actually owned by Bentley. The introduction of a more affordable Rolls-Royce is nothing new. Indeed, it has been going on almost since the birth of the company 107 years ago. But while the Ghost clearly makes sense on the balance sheets of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and its BMW parent, a careful balancing act has been required to make it both authentic and profitable.

Rolls-Royce Ghost Interior

Unlike its Phantom big sister, which employs a unique aluminium spaceframe, the Ghost’s steel monocoque is related to that of the BMW 7-series. In itself, this need be no deal-breaker, and much comfort will have been derived from seeing the success of the VW Phaeton-based Bentley Continental series, but Rolls still has to tread carefully: many of its customers will also own big BMWs (a problem Bentley will not have faced with the Phaeton) and the challenge has been to engineer the Ghost to at least appear a bespoke product, one for which it can charge close to double what BMW asks for a flagship 7-series also powered by a twin-turbo V12.

We happen to think it looks every inch a gorgeous, forward-thinking Rolls, both in standard and long wheelbase form. But can it be as good as it looks?

Rolls-Royce Ghost Specifications :

• Turbocharged
• Engine: 6.6L V twelve-cylinder DOHC with variable valve timing and four valves per cylinder
• Premium unleaded fuel
• Fuel economy: EPA (08):, 13 MPG city, 20 MPG highway, 15 MPG combined and 327 mi. range
• Gasoline direct fuel injection
• 21.8gallon fuel tank
• Power (SAE): 563 hp @ 5,250 rpm; 575 ft lb of torque @ 1,500 rpm

Source: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/rolls-royce/ghost

Lexus LFA Review

Lexus LFA

The Lexus LFA started life in 2001 as no more than a study but, via the enthusiasm of its engineers and Toyota’s commitment to R&D, it gained its own momentum. At first it was going to be aluminium, but Lexus opted for carbonfibre-reinforced plastic instead. Then mules ran at the Nürburgring for well over five years, and prototypes competed in the 24-hour race there in 2008 and 2009. Three concepts were shown, including a roadster in 2008.

The production LFA made its debut at the Tokyo motor show last year. Lexus immediately set new standards for refinement when it launched its luxury LS saloon in 1989 and with the LFA it’s trying to rewrite the rulebook for supercars. When Lexus (backed, of course, by Toyota) decides that it’s going to do something new, it doesn’t do things by half: the LFA is a limited-run, carbonfibre special, making the breadth of Lexus’s range quite extraordinary.

Lexus LFA Interior

Lexus says it aimed for a weight distribution of 48 per cent front and 52 per cent rear. To this end, a 4.8-litre V10 is set as far back in the frontal engine bay as possible, with a torque tube to a rear transaxle housing the single-clutch robotised manual gearbox.

Within its skin, though, lies the real delight. Its body is carbonfibre composite (left naked beneath the bonnet and bootlid), as is the vast majority of the monocoque chassis beneath. The passenger cell is carbonfibre, as is most of the rear of the car, while 35 per cent of the body-in-white is aluminium, including the engine frame and, sensibly, the impact structures to the front and rear, offering sacrificial protection to the carbonfibre tub.

Lexus LFA Specifications :

Drivetrain
Brakes (F)    Disc, Carbon Ceramic Material, cross-drilled and ventilated
Brakes (R)    Disc, Carbon Ceramic Material, cross-drilled and ventilated
Engine
Compression Ratio    12.0:1
Bore X Stroke    3.46 x 3.11 (88 x 79)
Cylinders    10-cylinders, 72° V-type
Engine & Transmission
Displacement cu in (cc):    4805
Performance
Acceleration 0-60 mph s:    3.6
Max Torque:     354 lb-ft/480 Nm/48.9 kgf-m@6,800rpm

Source: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/lexus/lfa

Lamborghini Aventador Review

Lamborghini Aventador

If you’re going to drive a new Lamborghini Aventador, especially when clad in £2940 worth of optional Arancia Argos paint, you should slap a couple of accident black spot roundels on its flanks.

As a thing to drive, the Aventador is as safe as anyone could reasonably expect a 690bhp supercar with sub-3.0sec 0-62mph capability to be, but as a device to distract other drivers from the road ahead, its powers may be unprecedented. You might never crash yourself, but you’re going to see plenty.

But is this not exactly what owners seek from such a car? Is an Aventador, like its forefathers the Murcielago, Diablo and Countach, not an attention-seeking device first and a thoroughbred driving machine second?

Maybe, but that doesn’t mean its existence is not to be celebrated. Among mainstream production cars – which excludes esoteric models such as Paganis and Koenigseggs built in single or double-digit numbers – the Aventador now stands alone.

Lamborghini Aventador Interior

Although the Aventador is laden with state-of-the-art technology, at its heart it remains a supercar of the old school, a massively wide, impossibly low machine powered by a outrageously powerful and classic normally aspirated V12 – words that would have applied no less accurately to the Countach at its first public showing more than 40 years ago.

For now, the Aventador is available only as a £247,668 coupé, although the Roadster has just been announced with a two-piece carbonfibre targa top weighing just 6kg that can be removed and stored in the Aventador’s nose. Sales start in the summer for a price approaching £300,000.

Lamborghini Aventador Specifications :


Source: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/lamborghini/aventador

Ferrari 599 GTO Review

Ferrari 599 GTO

The days of the Ferrari 599 GTO being the fastest and most powerful road car Ferrari has ever built are numbered. The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta will see to that. But it'd be a shock if the F12 can unseat the GTO as being the most iconic and able hypercar the marque has built in its recent history.

The 599 GTO is, after all, a GTO and only the third Ferrari to do so. Those were the 250 GTO and the 288 GTO. The 599 GTO is in good company.

However, those cars were built for the racetrack. Cynics might argue the 599 GTO is purely superficial - the third digit in GTO stands for 'Omologato', or homologated.

That's the glass half empty state of events. Ferrari sees the 599 GTO as a road legal version of the 599 XX track car, rather than a hotted-up version of the standard car.

No surprise then that the GTO carries much of the XX's kit. The 6.0-litre V12 has 'diamond-like carbon coating' on the tappets and there's plenty of 'super polishing' too. These modifications, among others, increase efficiency by 12 per cent. There's a six-into-one exhaust manifold and a re-engineered intake for more noise and, incredibly, still conforming to Euro 5 and LEV2 homologation standards.

Ferrari 599 GTO Machine

The headline power and torque figures make impressive enough reading on their own; the GTO’s 5999cc V12 produces a whopping 671bhp at 8250rpm and 457lb ft at 6500rpm, up from 612bhp and 448lb ft in the GTB. Combine this with a full 100kg weight reduction and you begin to realise how potent a machine the 1605kg GTO really is.

For all that, the GTO’s price is closer to the regular 599’s than the XX’s and it can be looked after by a Ferrari dealer rather than the factory. There’ll only be 599 of them and they're all sold.

Climbing into the cabin is no more intimidating then any other 599, but there is much more of a racecar feel. The interior garnish is more purposeful than extravagent, carpets have bene replaced by rubber mats, naked carbonfibre and Alcantara. The snug seats have four-point harnesses. The rev counter reads to 10,000rpm.

Fire it up and you'll find a conventional handbrake, two drilled pedals and large gearshift paddles. The engine growls with menace. The noise made by the GTO’s 6.0-litre V12 is so complex, and so rich, you could sit there and listen to it at idle all day long. But it sounds even better on the move, under load, screaming up its vast rev range through second, then third, then fourth – almost as quickly as you can read this sentence.

This is a car that can lap Ferrari's Fiorano test track faster than an Enzo. It can summon uncomfortable levels of accerlation. Ferrari claims 3.35sec on the 0-62mph run. What it also evident is the GTO pulls as hard in fifth as a 911 does in third.

The ride is firmer than usual. It, like the standard car, as magnetic dampers so it is more deft of foot than a Lamborghini Aventador, if falling short of the McLaren MP4-12C. Changing the GTB to GTO has brought a degree of shimmy over poor surfaces, leaving the lightly-weighted steering tugging. It tramlines on these roads too, especially under braking.

Ferrari 599 GTO Interior

To a certain extent, that's expected. The car is developed to conquer the world's racetracks. The bodyshell is exceptionally stiff and in some ways the GTO feels like a much bigger BMW M3 GTS. Both feel like they’ve got race-car levels of body stiffness, pointy front ends and have a propensity to oversteer at will.

It's not hard to break traction. Any moisture underfoot and you'll be working hard to straighten it when exiting corners. It's fun to use at road speeds too. The light, direct steering has real feel and the gearbox shifts are strobelight quick. There's reassuring brake feel through the carbon ceramics and if you're struggling to overtake in this, you may has well give up.

This power. This grip. This performance is best enjoyed on track, of course. There's a tiny amount of understeer, but the tiniest lift, whiff of trail braking or early prod of the throttle and it'll power through. Will it oversteer? Yes, for Italy. But when it does it is progressive.

The 599 GTO is one of the absolute finest track cars ever made. That it delivers some tactile qualities on the road – plus it’s very habitable – make it a supreme all-rounder.

Ferrari has priced the 599 GTO into a whole new league over the the 599 GTB. But then it is a completely different car. Yes, £300,000 is an awful lot of money, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the £1.2m XX. A car, which don't forget, can't be used on the road.

But here’s the rub. Even if you have the cash in the bank, you can't just hand it over in exchange for a GTO. Not unless you’ve had more than the odd Ferrari and have been invited to buy one. Or you've dug very deep indeed for a cherished one on the used market.

This is a genuine landmark car for Ferrari, and deserves the success it has already achieved. It’s also a bona fide addition to the GTO family, make no mistake.

Ferrari 599 GTO Specifications:
Base Price         : $400,000 (estimated)
Engine            : 6.0-liter V-12
Horsepower     : 661 hp @ 8,250 rpm
Torque            : 457 lbs.-ft. @ 6,500 rpm
Transmission   : 6-speed sequential
0–60 mph       : 3.3 seconds
Top Speed      : 208 mph
Weight           : 3,295 lbs.
Length           : 185 inches
Tires             : Front: 285/30ZR-20, Rear: 315/35ZR-20



Source: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ferrari/599-gto