Snippets:
- The new Mercedes-Benz A Class is launched in Mzansi from R499,000.00.
- Renault Duster bakkie, the Oroch is planned for SA in early 2020.
- Audi reckons 2020 is when they too will launch a double cab.
- Ferrari 250 GTO breaks auction record at R690 million.
- SSC have just unveiled the Tuatara, a 482kph hypercar. So that’s nice.
We got very close to calling today’s instalment of Monday News the Pebble Beach Special Edition but in truth there’s been a ton of news from all over. Enjoy.
The Bugatti Divo is two parts aero, all parts aggro
Also, it’s a thing of scary beauty. Then there’s the fact that there is currently only one in existence but there will ultimately be 40 built, aaaand- they’re all gone. All of them, snapped up by greedy billionaires.
Look – you were never going to buy the eight-litre 1108kW, W16 flagship Frenchy were you anyway, not at five million Euros. But if you did you’d get a road missile capable of lapping Nardo a full 8 seconds quicker than the Chiron it is built upon.
The car is named after the famed racing driver Albert Divo, features a 7 speed twin-clutch box of cogs and is in fact slower than the Chiron. Let me explain – where the Chiron is limited to 261mph, the Divo must do with a mere 237mph (or 381kph). This is because the Divo is a bloody race car – complete with negative camber, tyres that are meant for race circuits. Other qualifiers include sharper steering, stiffer springs, a 35kg lighter bodyweight thanks to thinner glass, lightweight wheels, carbon-fibre everything including the wind-shield wipers. The result of all of this is well, just look at it! A chiseled, raked and vented word of art featuring larger (than Chiron) air intakes and splitters, pressure vents behind new C-shaped headlamps, resplendent in Divo Blue paintwork. Not afraid to call attention to the silly name, more Divo Blue creeps into an interior already dripping with Alcantara and science fiction.
"When I took up my position at Bugatti at the beginning of the year, I soon learnt that our customers and fans were waiting for a special vehicle which would tell a further story for the brand in addition to the Chiron," said Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
"The Bugatti team was also very eager to implement a project like this."
Yes, back-patting all round Steph, the Divo truly is a very special thing. One that can trebuchet (it’s french for catapult, sort of) from 0 to 100kph in 2.4 seconds, if that sort of thing even matters to you, you cur you!
BMW Z4 officially and resoundingly revealed
Meet the Toyota Supra. Wait, no. Let me try this again. Here ye, the BMW Z4 M40i First Edition, where the Last Edition I am assuming will be a Japanese product.
Snarky remarks aside, this is indeed the latest roadster from Munich and in the metal is a firm and immediate success. The proportions are spot on, whereas performance are going to be exactly what you’d imagine from this familiar powerplant.
The official numbers look like this; a zero to one hundred sprint in 4.5 seconds via the blown inline 6-cylinder and the 250kW that lives inside it. I also predict brilliant steering feel and nimble handling but will reserve comments until someone gives me the keys. Give me the keys.
How’s this for a Rambo Lambo? It’s the Aventador SVJ
Super. Veloce. Jota. Words have meaning, and these three Italian ones in this combination mean quite a lot to an aficionado of Automobili Lamborghini.
"The Aventador SVJ is an innovative car and represents the absolute pinnacle of our super sports car product range," said Automobili Lamborghini Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Stefano Domenicali.
"The challenge to Lamborghini designers and engineers was to improve the purest essence of the Lamborghini super sports car, drawing on every inspiration from a space ship to a jet fighter: all the most exceptional examples of super-fast, super-athletic, aerodynamic superiority. The Aventador SVJ takes another step into the future, shaping the potential for super sports car development."
We like Stefano, quite a lot in fact, and recently caught up with him in Cape Town at the launch of the new Urus, but he mentioned nothing of this incredibly fiery Aventador at the time. We forgive him, not indirectly as a result of this 566kW and 720Nm love letter to the petrolhead within us all – numbers that endow this particular naturally aspirated engine with the distinction of being the most powerful production V12 ever.
That’s 0-100kph in 2.8 seconds, to 200kph in 8.6 seconds and a top speed of 350kph with no turbo in sight. All motor, baby.
Ferrari 488 Pista Spider
This is what 530 rampant Italian kilowatts (and 770Nm) looks like when it is rendered al fresco, and revealed at the world-famous Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, California.
Yes they’ve essentially decapitated the 488 to create the 50th drop-top in the Maranello marque’s history and the results are predictably breath taking. As is the performance – 0-100kph in 2.84 seconds, 0-200kph in 8 seconds, top speed of 340kph, you get the idea?
Audi PB18 e-TRON Concept
Audi, you cheeky monkey. Where the hell did this come from? The short answer is Pebble Beach but we were expecting Mars.
It seems that the mad scientists at Audi Sport GmbH folded their LMP1 techno-gubbins into a sciency Ingolstadt suit, pressed sharp from hours in a wind tunnel and powered by electricity and nothing else.
This is the result, a futuristic supercar with incredibly smart underpinnings with real aspirations of making it to production. Boring traffic be damned.
