OK, so this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage is basically a 24-minute advertorial for the Porsche 918 Spyder, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. In fact, it’s probably the most entertaining way to learn how the technology works and see it in action.
You won’t see the car’s full capability, but you’ll get a good appreciation of just how far Porsche have taken the automobile with this car. The Porsche 918 Spyder, of course, is Porsche’s first hybrid and it really puts the “super” into supercar.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is a rolling contradiction. It essentially has three motors, one of which is the most powerful NA V8 that Porsche have ever made. The power plants put out a combined 887hp and the car achieved a sub-7-minute time at the Nurgurgring. And yet it gets more than 70 miles to the gallon in the US scale. Amazing.
It don’t look half bad, either.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the video. You probably won’t ever be able to afford one, but maybe the tech that makes this so good will make future hybrid cars a little more interesting.
And while you’re in a video mood, here’s the preview video for the Nurburgring lap.
I was curious about an ad for just one car so I clicked on the page and it took me into another world.
I know you can get some exotic stuff at car auctions, but this is something else. As I scrolled through the list of cars for sale I was left wondering how there could be so much exotica in one place, how there could be so many cashed up people in the one place all with the same automotive interest.
Fiat 130 Coupe – Engine design by Ferrari. Body design and manufacture by Pininfarina. It’s 1970’s gentrified motoring, Italian style, and it makes a quaint starting point.
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Lancia Fulvia HF – It’s too early for RM to have descriptions up on site so it’s hard to know if this is a genuine Fanalone, but it’s got the big headlamps and being a 1969, it’ll have the aluminium doors, bonnet and boot. Even though I find the name ‘Jolly Club’ a little strange (it was a racing team), this car is uber-cool.
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Alfa Romeo 8C – Alfa’s modern design masterpiece only qualifies as ‘good’. Seriously.
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Mercedes 190 SL Roadster – Elegant. Beautiful. But in this company, it feels a little average.
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The Really Good
1969 Lamborghini Miura – You know this is going to be a cracker auction when this is just one of the two Miura’s being offered for sale.
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Fiat Abarth 695 SS – OK, I’m probably playing this one up a bit, but it’s pretty rare and I like a little car that can.
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De Tomaso Mangusta – Some interesting history (thanks Wikipedia!) on the Mangusta: there was a failed agreement between Carrol Shelby and DeTomaso and they named this one the Mangusta because it’s Italian for ‘mongoose’, an animal known for it’s ability to kill Cobras.
It’s no Cobra-killer, but it’s still quite rare and beautiful.
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Iso Revolta IR300 GT – The IR 300 GT had a beautiful body by Bertone and potent power plant options for the early 1960’s, with either 300hp or 340hp available.
‘Revolta’ – not a good word to have in your company name.
This one’s more in the bard find category but will still fetch quality money.
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Iso Grifo – Because one Iso is rarely enough. The interior on this car is amazing.
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Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 – This one’s offered with no reserve so you might just get to pick it up cheap! Well, relatively cheap. All Ferrari 250’s sell for megabucks nowadays and I’m sure this longer 2+2 version will continue that trend. A beautiful car.
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Lamborghini 400GT 2+2 – Another super-elegant Italian exotic and another model that’s seeing two examples put up for sale at Monaco. The other one’s a Spyder conversion but I like this hardtop more.
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Whoa? They’re selling one of these?
Ferrari 365 Daytona – One of THE most desirable Ferraris as far as I’m concerned and while it won’t fetch the really big money yet, it’s only a matter of time.
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Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato – Pre-Fiat Lancias are growing in esteem and the prices they’re reaching reflects this. They don’t come up often, they’re beautifully engineered and look amazing.
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Aston Martin V8 Volante – I’ve included this in the Whoa! section because of what I think is some serious investment potential. Astons are going up and the 1980’s V8s are the ones trailing the trend, but following it nonetheless. It’s also here because it’s a 400+hp British muscle car that looks the dog’s bollocks.
This is one of those real Reutter ones. It’s magnificent. And it will sell for lots of money.
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Ferrari Enzo – It’s an Enzo. Need I say more?
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OK, now you’re just being silly
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 – Eligibility for historic racing boosts price so a genuine Alfa Romeo racer with racing history is a recipe for frenzied bidding.
And aside from that, just look at it.
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Hesketh Formula One – Yes, a genuine Hesketh Formula One car, driven by a duo of eventual world champions in James Hunt and Alan Jones. Genuine pedigree, plus you get the best-ever reason to wear one of those funky Hesketh T-shirts.
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Toyota 2000GT – “The most desirable Toyota ever made” isn’t a sentence to send shivers down your spine, but the 2000GT is genuinely desirable and will no doubt put a decent hole in someone’s wallet.
It’s so nice it deserves a few extra photos.
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Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix – And you thought sticking really big fancy wheels on a car was a new thing…..
“Recent Full Restoration” and “first supercharged T35” ensure big bucks, as does the name “Bugatti”.
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1982 Renault Formula One – So you missed out on the Hesketh? How about this genuine Formula One car from Renault, a former pole-winner at Monaco with Rene Arnoux at the wheel?
And don’t worry if you miss this one, too, because there are FIVE former F1 cars available in this auction, including a Monaco-winning Brabham from the 1960’s, a Tyrell from 1980 and a 1989 Ferrari raced by Gerhard Berger and restored at Ferrari’s own workshop!
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Buying old Formula One racers is how the other half live
This auction’s going to be amazing. I guess if you’re going to have it in Monaco, it has to be amazing. I’ll be very interested to see some of the prices these vehicles fetch.
If this is your world, congratulations. I hope you’re enjoying it. Do feel free to let us in for a sneak peek every now and then, OK?
I’ve met a lot of Saab nuts in my time, but most of them were in Europe. I never really had the opportunity to plumb the depths of Saab nuttiness in the USA. More’s the pity.
If I had, I’m sure I would have come across a bloke named Bruce Turk.
If, like me, you don’t know Bruce but his name is still familiar, it might be because you watched another video on how he built his Saab 96 Rally car (left). I featured that video back in June 2013. The guys at /DRIVE made that film and have now done a feature on Bruce’s Saab collection, his cars and memorabilia.
The film is 18 minutes long and it’s essential viewing for vintage Saab fans.
The old stuff is quite often the reason people get into the newer stuff. That was certainly the case for me. Watch this video and you’ll see why. It’s called character and Bruce’s collection has it in spades, as does the man himself.
They say that the sea is only salty because of the tears cried by misunderstood sharks that just want to be hugged. They can add my tears to that tally tonight.
The co-developed car was going to be built by Mazda in Japan but in what appears to be a decision that killed the deal (as far as Alfa are concerned), Sergio Marchionne declared that an Alfa Romeo could only be built in Italy.
I can see his point and I appreciate his desire to preserve the Italian heart of Alfa Romeo. Then again, being built in Italy isn’t a guarantee for success. Alfa’s last Japanese collaboration was built in Italy and that didn’t go very well. Design and engineering are the key and the Alfa/Mazda effort could have been a cracker. I’m sure the Fiat/Abarth version will be.
What replaces this car as a potential Spider in a future Alfa range? Nobody knows at this point. I guess there’s scope with Sergio’s comments for it to be built in Japan as a Mazda/Fiat and in Italy as an Alfa. It wouldn’t make as much economic sense, but it could be done.
Hot on the heels from the sad news with Alfa is a story that the recent alliance between Alpine and Caterham is dissolving amidst reportedly heated disagreements over the direction and development of the vehicle.
From Autocar:
….reports of tensions between the two partners have been rife since it was confirmed the project would be delayed earlier this year, after Renault instigated a minor redesign of its Alpine following customer clinics on the car’s looks.
The Brits and French arguing over something?
Who’d have thought?
I really hope they can work something out. It’d be great to see the Alpine name on the road once again and with the shared pedigree of it’s joint developers, I’m sure the car would be awesome.
Did you watch the first Inside Koenigsegg video series last year? If not, click that link and get yourself educated about what it takes to build the most amazing cars in the world.
The latest iteration – the world’s first ‘megacar’ – is the Koenigsegg One:1, which as you’ll learn in the video is pronounced “one to one”. The premise is one horsepower for every kilogram of weight, making 1360hp (or one megawatt) in total. It’s an outstanding achievement and as you’ll see, they plan on going even further with the production version of the car.
This is the first video of /DRIVE’s second Inside Koenigsegg series. Christian von Koenigsegg presents a quick tour of the car as they’re preparing for it’s debut at the Geneva Motor Show.
This is another entry from the Inside Saab days, in a similar vein to my Saab 9-3 Viggen production numbers article. The data was lost when Inside Saab went down, but thankfully I’ve been able to retrieve it thanks largely to the Wayback Machine.
Sadly, the Viggen and the MCY 900 Convertible are the only two models I got the chance to dig up numbers for before Inside Saab was ditched and Saab went under. I hope NEVS still has the old production database as it’s valuable historical information.
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After the success of the Viggen ‘by the numbers’ piece I thought it’d be fun to dig up another model of interest from the database and spill it’s global distribution beans here on the website.
The Saab 900 Convertible is an icon on its own, but the icon-within-the-icon is the Saab 900 Monte Carlo Yellow version of the car. It’s the most fun-looking color in the palette, but it still takes a certain strength of character to buy and own this most attention-grabbing and distinctive color.
So how were they distributed around the world?
The #1 market by volume won’t be a surprise, but the #2 market might be. MCY convertibles were sold in quite a few markets, though many of them had small numbers only.
If you’ve got one of these iconic Saab convertibles, then yours is one of just 893 that were ever made over the life of the model. Look after it.
If you don’t have one of these iconic convertibles but would like one, now you know where most of them were sold – which is a good tip as to where you could look to buy one!
Notes:
MY(date) = Model Year
Japan had two importers for these cars. I’ve combined the numbers in the table below.
My understanding is that MCY Convertibles were sold with different engine outputs in some markets. Yours could be a LPT or a HOT engine depending on where it was sold. I haven’t delved into those numbers here.
It’s a 1982 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce. Also known as an Alfasud Sprint. It’s basically an Alfasud – it shares the exact same chassis and mechanicals – with a small Alfetta-like body thrown on top.
Regular readers would know that I have one of these on my automotive bucket list but no, I didn’t buy this car. It belongs to my mate Gavin, who’s written on this site a few times. He needed somewhere to park it for a few weeks and I was happy to oblige – so long as I got to take it for a spin once in a while.
So here’s a quick review….
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Exterior
As previously mentioned, the Sprint has a body that mimics the Alfetta, better known as the GTV of the mid-70’s to mid-80’s. Some will remember that I used to have a GTV6 so I’m fond of the shape already. To me, though, the shape looks better in these shorter proportions that what it does on its bigger brother.
This is the earlier, more elegant silver-bumper model. Gavin’s removed the bumpers from the front and the rear and replaced the rear bumper with a pair corner bumpers from another car.
The other modifications are the wheels and wheel arches. The car is now sitting on some very wide 8-spoke minilites from Performance and shod with Kuhmo Ecsta tyres. Very grippy.
The wheels and the flared arches divide opinion. I’ve come to like them, though I wish the car was lowered 30-40mm. It’d look a whole lot better.
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Interior
In October 2012, the Australian government implemented plain packaging laws for cigarettes. All cigarette companies have to sell their product in the same package – a drab greenish-brown specifically selected because a survey of thousands of people determined it to be the most unattractive colour – in the world.
The colour is Pantone 448C and as you can see, it fits in perfectly with the greenish brown interior of the Sprint.
The seats are quite possibly the most uncomfortable seats in motoring. They have something – a steel bar or maybe a brick – in the seat squab right where your butt wants to be. As a consequence you sit several inches forward from the seat back, positioned as some sort of apprentice hunchback.
The driving position is classic Italian – short legs and long arms. And the pedals are made with ballerinas in mind. Here’s a shot with my size 10 Florsheim on the accelerator to lend some perspective.
In a wonderful piece of Italian design, the small rear hatch has no exterior button to open it. The only way to open it is from a cable-release located inside the car. And in RHD markets like Australia, the cable release is on the passenger side of the car.
Brilliant.
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The Drive
The car’s sitting too high. It’s got a hatch you can’t get into very easily from an interior that matches the most unattractive colour in the Pantone palette. That interior wants to turn you into a cripple with its back-breaking seats and freaky pedal and wheel position.
On the driving side, I have to say up front that it doesn’t have much power. And the guys who designed the 1.5 litre boxer engine didn’t learn about torque until they made the 16-valve version of the engine that graced my old Alfa 33’s.
I haven’t quite figured out yet whether the friction surfaces that comprise the brakes are made from suede or cotton. It might be cotton.
But none of that matters.
The Sprint drives like a hormonal teenager with a personality disorder. The secret to getting the most from it is the tachometer, keeping the car one gear lower than you’d expect to. Keep the revs low and you’ve got a grumpy, sleepy teen that’s disinterested in everything around it.
Get it above 4,000 and you’ve got an ADHD wunderkind with an insatiable lust for life, keen to attack every corner in its path. The car comes alive in such a wonderful way that you can forgive every one of its design and execution faults. The sound from the little boxer is almost cartoonish and totally addictive. The pop and crackle on the overrun is just magical.
Put short – the Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint Veloce is more fun than a sack full of puppies.
There are a million reasons to walk away from an Alfasud Sprint. There are two compelling reasons to drive it, though, and that sparkling engine along with its magical handling will keep you coming back again, and again, and again.
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My dream of inserting a 16V engine in one of these is alive and well. Slot in some decent recaros, some decent brakes, reduce the weight a little more and maybe convert the 16V to run on carbs and you’ve got a recipe for endless weekend fun.
My mechanic did the right thing. He called me as soon as he realised the balance belt wasn’t the right one for the 968.
I did the right thing. I called a parts place in Melbourne and ordered another one, post haste, because I need the car this weekend for a drive day with some friends.
The parts guy tells me he did the right thing. He says he posted the belt via Express Post, which is Australia Post’s overnight service. Please note that Melbourne is the closest mainland city to Tasmania – one hour by air – so it’s not like the part was coming halfway around the world.
The part was ordered on Wednesday.
It’s 2pm on Friday as I write this and the parts guy tells me that the tracking code doesn’t even show up as a job on Australia Post’s computer.
WHERE’S MY DAMN PART????
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Consider this as another downward aspect of the Porsche owning experience. I know it’s not the car’s fault, but why does everything associated with it have to be so damn hard, and so damn expensive?
Porsche Australia wanted $330 for this belt. FOR A BELT!!!!
I ended up getting it for the bargain price of $150.
Plus postage, of course.
I can only hope the belt works better than the postage does.
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UPDATE: Australia Post can’t find the parcel in their system. It most likely wasn’t scanned when they picked it up. Providing it’s not completely lost, it may still arrive this afternoon, or Monday, or…..
BASTARDS!!!!!!
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UPDATE II: The guy from Australia Post tells me they don’t always scan the bar code when they pick parcels up. The priority when it’s Express Post is to get it on the plane.
What’s the bloody point of having a bar code on the parcel if no-one scans the thing?!?!?! Does it take so bloody long to scan a bar code that it’s going to cause the parcel to miss the plane???
Now they have no parcel logged in their system and I have no idea when it’s going to arrive.
Yes, I can dare to dream about actually owning one of these, one day. It won’t be for 5 years or so, but I can really, really dream about it and know that it’s a genuine possibility, free from the dangers of vomit when I walk around the front of the car.
The Alfa Romeo 4C has already garnered a great reputation for the way it drives. It’s not quite a Cayman beater, but with the way (most of) it looks and that pure Alfa charm, it doesn’t have to be.
Those looks……
OK, don’t stare for too long at the headlamps.
It’s too late? You’ve already done it? They’ve ruined it for you?
See? That’s the problem with the 4C. For every gorgeous image like this…..
…… there’s a set of headlamps that look like this:
This……
Countered by this…..
Sorry, I didn’t mean to show them up that close, and that often.
Alfa Romeo 4C enthusiasts who love the coupe’s curves but are less besotted by its polarising headlights…
That would be me. And maybe some of you….
…. will be able to option in the more conventional clusters of the convertible Spider variant.
The 4C coupe’s eyes raised eyebrows when the production version debuted with unique exposed seven-lamp headlights at last year’s Geneva motor show.
Mixed feedback prompted a design rethink, and saw the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider concept debut earlier this month with conventionally arranged headlights with clear covers.
Alfa Romeo has confirmed the 4C coupe will be available to order with the Spider’s headlights as an option to the standard black-backed fixtures. The Spider will only be available with the conventional covered lights, however.
Hallelujah!
So instead of Mr Spidery-Googly-Eyes, the Alfa Romeo 4C will come out looking something a bit more like this, but with a roof:
I’m starting my savings campaign right now. The Alfa Romeo 4C will be mine, one day (unless it gains instant classic status and the price goes bonkers).
Petrolicious makes some of my favourite online car films. You can imagine the anticipation, then, when I saw that this week’s film featured a Saab Sonett II.
And it’s not any old Saab Sonett II (if there is such a thing). It’s a two-stroke Saab Sonett II, which is among the rarest of Swedes.
Here’s the film….
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To be honest, I was a little disappointed with this. Not with the car or the owner, of course, but with Petrolicious. They set such high standards, but I can’t help but feel they fell short with this one.
The film’s too dark, for starters. There’s not enough of that glorious two stroke sound and is it just me, or was there another Sonett II sitting in Mr Roberts’ garage?!? There’s a story, right there.
For those who haven’t heard a Saab two-stroke in full flight, try this….
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Congratulations to Glenn Roberts on having his absolutely wonderful Sonett featured on Petrolicious. Your car is magnificent and your story is the envy of many a Saab fan.
I just wish Petrolicious had done a little more with it.
