Blog

Trend Alert

The Cullinan is a big deal, and not because it weighs nearly 6,000 pounds. Although Rolls-Royce‘s first SUV starts rolling into driveways this holiday season, you don’t have to wait for one to appear under a freakishly large Christmas tree to learn more about it. As we discovered when we drove the 2019 Cullinan, the Rolls-Royce is more of a stately super-luxury cruiser than a quick and posh back-road carver. Great. But how much do you really know about the 563-hp, 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Cullinan? Keep reading for six cool facts about the new SUV.

Rolls-Royce says it’s starting to hear interest from a few customers who want an alternative to high-quality leather. Such an option may become available on the Cullinan down the line, but not until the right, no-compromises leather alternative is found, one representative told us. We’ve begun to see premium fabrics on lower-priced luxury cars, from a base-model Volvo V60 wagon whose interior wowed MotorTrend editors, to the non-leather seating options on the Range Rover Velar and electric Jaguar I-Pace, which combines a wool blend with a suede-like material.

Options

For the type of experience the Rolls-Royce Cullinan offers, $330,350 (including destination and gas guzzler fees) is an appropriate price. But no one drives home in a base-model Rolls-Royce. Sales to early adopters of the new model are in the $380,000-to-$390,000 range, Rolls-Royce says.

Lounging

For a traditional Rolls-Royce experience, order the Cullinan with the so-called Individual seating—a four-passenger layout with two separate rear seats. Between the reclining seats sits a drinks cabinet with a refrigerator and champagne flutes, as well as Rolls-Royce whisky glasses and decanter. If this is your family road trip car, maybe go for the five-seat Lounge option. Although you can order the Cullinan any way you wish, Rolls-Royce expects about 80 percent of American customers to pick the five-seat Lounge option, but just 50 percent for Chinese buyers.

Wheels

Twenty-two-inch wheels make the most of the Cullinan’s imposing presence (yes, like that Cadillac). Those wheels are standard in the U.S.—Rolls-Royce will make the 21s a no-cost option. Winter tires are available on the 21-inch wheels, and all Cullinan tires are specially designed to reduce road noise. And maybe it works, because the Cullinan provides a smooth and quiet ride, just as you’d expect from a Rolls-Royce.

By: Zach Gayle, December 29, 2018

For more cars, visit: https://www.motortrend.com/news/2019-rolls-royce-cullinan-6-cool-facts/

Source: https://www.motortrend.com/

The Mercedes-AMG G63 is a class of its own. A lunchbox by form, it packs unbelievable numbers that you’ll usually find in sleek supercars. Its biturbocharged 4.0-litre V8 mill can churn out 577 bhp and 627 pound-feet of torque, enough to launch you to the dark side of the moon and back. Okay, maybe not.

With these performance figures, many have tried to challenge the German SUV on the drag strip. While its anti-aerodynamic shape would mean great disadvantage in a straight-line race, the AMG G63 was able to rise to the top, even beating a Range Rover SVR and an Audi SQ7.

Now, what can make the AMG G63 better? Well, tune it, add some body kits, and drive it like hell – like this one right here: the Mercedes-AMG G63 “Onyx Edition.”

This mental build is of course not an official Mercedes variant, but it still is an interesting aftermarket creation made by Onyx Concept – a London-based tuner.

Armed with complete body kits such as aero front bumpers and side sill enhancements, as well as carbon fibre side vents, rear diffuser, ducktail spoiler, and rear wing. It also has bespoke exhaust; two of them are found at the sides. The bonnet is vented as well plus the wheels have been upgraded to 22-inch diamond finished Amethyst wheels. Although, we must admit, the brakes look a bit small for those enormous wheels. Nevertheless, the huge wheels match the widebody kit of the G-Wagen, which kind of surprised us since we never thought that this SUV could rock a wider stance.

Of course, the most important part of this tuned G63 is its increased power rating, which went up to 720 bhp. Watch this crazy build in action on the video below. Oh, by the way, the build costs £200,000.

For full VIDEO, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpOzl1Yb5w8

By: Jacob Oliva, January 28, 2019

For more cars, visit: https://uk.motor1.com/news/302883/mercedes-amg-g63-widebody-720bhp/

Source: https://uk.motor1.com/

Evo is essentially the midcycle reset for the entire Huracan model line. The three letters means evoluzione and reflect the evolution of the new base model. Gone is the Huracan LP610-4 coupe (and that naming convention); every future Huracan variant will be based on the Evo. And what a place to begin, as Evo upgrades the base coupe with the Performante’s 630-horsepower V-10 and next-generation electromechanicals culled from across Lamborghini, including torque vectoring, rear-wheel steering, and something called inertial platform. Everything else is about the same. The Evo’s chassis components, stiffness, and even overall weight are the same as the coupe, Lamborghini chief technical officer Maurizio Reggiani claims. From a hardware perspective, the Evo’s V-10 has 99 percent parts commonality with the Performante’s, but Reggiani says the software has many key differences; notably, the Evo redlines 500 rpm lower at “only” 8,000 rpm.

The design is evolutionary, as well; 20-inch Y-spoked wheels wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber are the most obvious tip-off from afar. Only the nose and tail of the stealth-fighter-influenced Huracan have been Evo-tweaked with a front chin spoiler and a small integrated wing in the rear decklid. Repositioning the exhaust pipes to the middle of the rear fascia, with their twin cannonlike tips protruding around the license plate, doesn’t just look a lot more racy (and indeed were inspired by MotoGP bikes and Lamborghini’s GT3 race car). It also provides real estate for a taller, more substantial rear diffuser. There is no large rear wing or ALA active aerodynamics system, but Reggiani claims a sixfold improvement in aerodynamic efficiency and seven times more downforce over the Huracan coupe.

Evo is the same weight as its predecessor, which means it’s about 88 pounds heavier than the Performante. But here’s where it gets interesting: Reggiani claims the Evo is a whopping 3.0 seconds faster than the base Huracan coupe over Lamborghini’s 5-mile test course at the Nardo Ring, where it also just clips the Performante.

How? Lamborghini Dynamic Vehicle Integration (LDVI), a fully integrated vehicle dynamics control system with a single CPU that governs five main subsystems: torque vectoring all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, traction control, adaptive magnetorheological dampers, and that inertial platform (called LPI—Lamborghini Piattaforma Inerziale). LPI 2.0 is an updated set of accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors placed near the vehicle’s center of gravity to monitor the real-time attitude of the car, including acceleration in the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions, as well as roll, pitch, and yaw. LPI and the other systems inform the LDVI controller (by relaying such inputs as steering wheel, brake, and throttle position, as well as engaged gear, drive mode, and torque split). Lamborghini claims external conditions can be determined via feedback from the active suspension and a grip estimation function of the all-wheel-drive system. Reggiani says LDVI processes all of this information in real time and uses “feed-forward logic” to make new, dedicated settings for all subsystems in 20 milliseconds. (In comparison, a human eye blink takes between 100 and 150 milliseconds.) “It doesn’t just react; the car predicts the best driving setup for the moment,” says Reggiani, who also confirmed that LDVI is a Lamborghini exclusive; platform-mate Audi R8 won’t get it.

To find out whether any of this was remotely discernible or true, we took a total of 12 hot laps in three lead-follow sessions (chasing a Lamborghini test driver) at the glorious Bahrain International Circuit, the Middle East’s premier F1 track, which debuted in 2004. Last fall, we named the Huracan Performante our Best Driver’s Car, so prior to this outing, I pinged my fellow editor-judges for thoughts on how the best could be made better. Brakes were a consistent theme.

“I’d prefer more feel from the brake pedal—it’s just hard and dead,” road test editor Chris Walton said. Guest judge and Automobile‘s own Jethro Bovingdon agreed: “They go very hard and dead under extreme use. The ABS was also triggering a lot of you touched any curb.” There were also some requests for increased nimbleness and a more neutral attitude (less under- and oversteer, through corners).

First, the bad news. No one on Team MotorTrend is going to like the brakes. Despite six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers grabbing cross-drilled and ventilated carbon-ceramic discs, the feel is surprisingly soft at first stab, without the linearity of the very best sports cars. Judging braking points at high speeds is tricky, often requiring an exploratory dab to find the engagement point, and then harder and harder effort to bring about predictable deceleration. A full damn-the-torpedoes stomp at the end of one of BIC’s long straights sends the Evo (and my jowls) diving forward, but as the car slows, the lightened rear end wags noticeably. Not scary, but not reassuring, either. When I mentioned that perhaps more wing (a la Performante) might help settle the rear, Reggiani nodded knowingly and said, “Yes, yes, but we need to leave something for later, right?”

By: Edward Loh, January 25, 2019

For more cars, visit: https://www.motortrend.com/cars/lamborghini/huracan/2020/2020-lamborghini-huracan-evo-first-drive-review/

Source: https://www.motortrend.com/

The obsessive attention to detail that’s going into the upcoming Aston Martin Valkyrie is something we haven’t seen in a car since the McLaren F1. Much of that attention is focused on weight savings. So much so that the Valkyrie’s mastermind, Adrian Newey, apparently balked when he saw a prototype for its V12 engine with a lacquered carbon-fiber intake manifold. He demanded that the manifold come unlacquered as standard, which saves just 80 grams.

You probably wouldn’t sweat 80 grams, and nor would I, but that’s what makes Adrian Newey different than us. That’s why he’s designed 10 F1 constructor’s championship-winning cars and I’m sitting here blogging about him.

In the spirit of obsessive weight-savings, the Valkyrie has a lightweight paint option, which is detailed in a Top Gear video all about configuring the hypercar. Aston interior design manager Libby Meigh told Top Gear that three “ultra-light” paints would be offered on the Valkyrie and they save around 700 grams over regular paint. That’s just 1.54 pounds.

Now, I realize that this basically amounts to the difference between having fries with your burger instead of a salad, but, you have to admire how it fits with the spirit of the car. After all, if you compromise on the weight of the paint, you might as well compromise on everything. If I were speccing-out my Valkyrie, I’d have to go with the lightweight paint—it’s the sort of decision you’d hope Adrian Newey would admire.

Aston Martin hasn’t announced a final weight figure for the Valkrie yet, but we’ve heard it should be under 2300 lbs. That’s less weight than a new Miata, with around six times as much horsepower. It makes the otherwise-lithe, 3030-pound McLaren Senna seem porky by comparison.

That’s the sort of result you get when you sweat the small stuff. Including the paint.

By: Chris Perkins, January 23, 2019

For the full TopGear video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAY8P-WcZAA

For more cars, visit: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/a26007571/aston-martin-valkyrie-lightweight-paint/

Source: https://www.roadandtrack.com/

We have the Porsche Panamera to thank for the existence of the AMG GT 4dr. Despite a plethora of fast, expensive machinery at the top of the Mercedes range (E63S, S63 saloon and coupe, CLS53, AMG GT S etc), Mercedes was losing customers who were unable to upgrade to the car they really wanted. Which was, apparently, a very fast, coupe-ish, four-door, sports-focussed, very expensive family car. Niche, eh? You could argue that was the role performed by the old CLS63, but that was deemed too cheap, too GT-ish to tackle the Panamera.

So now we have a four-door AMG GT. Although underneath it actually has much more in common with the E63 and new CLS. Yep, the name is disingenuous, given that this new car uses the MRA platform that underpins the C-Class, E-Class, CLS and various other Mercedes’, and therefore isn’t a four-door version of the GT at all. But it has been modified, gaining extra strengthening for the body.

Up steps the 4.0-litre twin turbo V8, available, like the E63, in S (631bhp) or non-S (577bhp) outputs. The fourteen grand price difference between the two (£121k plays £135k) is also accounted for by the S having dynamic engine mounts, an electric locking rear diff, and the ability to disconnect the front driveshafts and indulge yourself in Drift Mode. In Europe there are also GT 53 and 43 versions, which use the new 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder in 423 or 357bhp forms. Neither of those is likely to make it to the UK.

In due course there will be a hybrid. Or maybe two. Mercedes mentions the fact that 40 per cent of Panameras are hybrids, e-power available in conjunction with both V6 and V8 motors. Stands to reason Merc might want a slice of the same action, so a 631bhp-plus-e-boost could be on the cards.

Like the Panamera, it’s long (over five metres), heavy (2,100kg and upwards), and luxurious. The driving environment has overtones of both AMG GT and S-Class, four seats are standard, a fifth optional and there’s a big boot, the space smuggled in under a swooping, almost endlessly elongated coupe silhouette. It’s a handsome beast, with greater street presence than its key rival. It features active aero: a 20-fin Air Panel grille enlivens the front end, at the rear there’s a multi-stage rear spoiler that flips up to increase stability under braking.

Prices might start at £121,350, but that’s just a stepping off point – let’s face it you’re going to be fitting 21in forged rims and matt magno paint, aren’t you?

By: Various Top Gear Journalists

For more cars, visit: https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/mercedes-benz/amg-gt-4-door

Source: https://www.topgear.com/