The Expensive Cars

People who don't have billions of dollars tend to think lavishly about what they would do with that kind of money. Car writers especially get this question: "Why doesn't Bill Gates just spend $1 billion to have his very own car made for him?"

Well, we usually answer such questions very politely--or scurry off to the other end of the cocktail party as rapidly as possible--but the truth is, we think billionaires get to be that way by not squandering their dough.

Which is not to say that the super-rich can't blow $1 million on a rare collectible car or have their choice of the world's fastest, most lavish production automobiles. Many of them do. All such vehicles are easily within their means--the same way a 3 Series BMW is easily within reach of perhaps a million Americans. But just as you wouldn't go spending new-vacation-home money on a car--lest you want to find yourself divorced faster than your new speedster can hit 100 mph--Bill Gates has better, smarter things to do with his billions than developing his very own car.



Driven by Ultima Director, Richard Marlow, the British built and designed Ultima GTR road car set a new world record time of a staggering 9.4 secs for the 0-100mph-0 sprint. The GTR scorched from 0-60mph in 2.6 secs, 0-100mph in 5.3 secs and braked to zero from 100mph in a mind blowing 3.6 secs, which are all in themselves road car world record times.

The Ultima GTR used for the successful record attempt was the factory's standard production specification Ultima GTR640 demonstrator, which has recently been upgraded with a 720bhp Chevrolet V8 engine, and hence now known as the Ultima GTR720. The GTR720 was fully road legal, road tyred and equipped with a standard 5 speed G50 transmission and a standard production engine option from Ultima's official OE engine suppliers American Speed. No traction control devices or ABS braking aids were used.

SEE ALSO: Complete 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show News

FRANKFURT, GERMANY- September 16, 2009: MARUSSIA sports car was engineered on the basis of a new special chassis, created by Russian engineers. It is a fast sports car with wonderful aerodynamic characteristics, which will be certified for city driving.

The main requirement for the production is the use of the high-tech materials and components. Ideologists of the project Nikolay Fomenko and Yefim Ostrovsky believe that innovations and reliability are the key factors of the production under MARUSSIA trademark. Among the main car characteristics one can see a unique design of the vehicle exterior, which can be chosen in person; high operating performance; comfortable city driving.

Uniqueness of the concept is that of several completely different in design and color vehicle bodies can fit sole chassis. Together with the outside appearance, the interior design may be changed also to match colour and shape of the body. Finally, in spite of all changes the character and driving facilities of the car will remain unchanged. So, off-the-shelf product becomes an exclusive car, which has no analogues in the world. The competition between young Russian designers took place to find out the best version of an outside appearance of the first sport car. Functionality and multimedia options of the car boggle the imagination even of the most exacting users. The up-to-date technologies such as audio, video, Bluetooth, 4G Yota Internet access and VoIP are provided for the driver and the passengers of MARUSSIA.

World’s Leading Sports Cars

An updated replica of the classic Lotus 7 has hit the South African market, and may become available for export to Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Inspired by Lotus founder Colin Chapman's original design, twenty units of the Millennium 7 have already been completed, or are in assembly.

The car is the brainchild of aeronautical engineer Chris Carstens, who created the car to fulfill a friend's request for an uncommon sports car. The friend, Kobus van der Walt, has worked with Carstens on the project for the last six years. The duo have been advised by former Honda F1 chief mechanic Alastair Gibson.

The Murcielago comes standard with a 6-speed manual transmission, but it is also available with an e-gear auto-shifting manual transmission, akin to what F-1 racecars use, with paddles mounted on the steering column that allow for instant shifting. Murcielago also boasts an electronic traction control with an electronic adaptive suspension.

No matter what the weather or terrain, the car’s suspension will automatically adjust so the handling will be much easier for whoever’s driving the powerful beast. Not only are these features convenient, but they’ve worked to make the Murcielago safe to drive.

Lightweight carbon ceramic brakes are optional on the car. Carbon ceramic offers many advantages over the old style brakes used. For starters, they don’t wear out like conventional materials.

The environmental impact of India's Nano car

It may be the world's cheapest car, but is this the direction that India's promising engineering industry should be taking?

Tata Motors this week launched the Tata Nano, a compact, shoe-boxy sort of car, with four tiny wheels and one wing mirror.

Environmentalists are already crying murder, saying that this will just encourage more pollution and congestion in a nation that is already suffering severely from both. So I thought I would have a quick look at how things stack up.

The Tata Nano will meet European emissions standards on exhaust. If you want to see details, check out the Euro IV line in this table. Bear in mind that exhaust emissions standards regulate the particles that make up smog, not emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (which the EU does not currently regulate, although it's trying).

The numbers come out in favour of the Tata Nano. Euro IV standards are more stringent than those in place for the motorcycles and scooters, which make up a big chunk of India's motorised traffic.

The new Opel Astra GSi will be unveiled in October at the Paris Auto Show and will go on sale later this year or early in 2011. The 2011 Opel Astra GSi will feature various new design elements, including a re-styled front bumper, new wheel arches, a small rear diffuser and double exhaust pipes.

Top 7 Cars of the Millenium

Opponents of a proposed Longview coal terminal demanded Tuesday that Cowlitz County commissioners rescind a permit for its construction following allegations that Millennium Bulk Logistics may have misled officials about its plans for the facility.

A company official, however, said, "I don't think we've been disingenuous."

Publicly, Australia-based Millennium has said it plans to export 5.7 million tons of coal a year from the site of the former Reynolds aluminum smelter. However, internal company documents uncovered during an appeal of the county shoreline permit indicate Millennium failed to disclose plans to expand the facility to handle 20 million tons a year and possibly as many as 60 million tons. If executed, those plans would make the Longview facility the biggest coal export terminal on the North American West Coast.

THIS DRAG U LA WAS BUILT BY THE ORIGINAL BUILDER, THE LATE DICK DEAN, AS A TRIBUTE TO THE ORIGINAL GRANDPA MUNSTERS CAR. COMPLETED IN 2000, THIS MELENIUM EDITION TRIBUTE WAS NAMED, RE-VAMPED! THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL REPLICA WITH A FAKE BLOWER AND PIECED TOGETHER FROM JUNK YARD PARTS. THIS IS A TRUE DRAG CAR WITH A REAL BLOWN 350 ENGINE, RACE TRANSMISSION AND AN ALUMINUM REAR-END! THE WHEELIE BARS........ ARE NOT JUST FOR LOOKS! FULLY DETAILED AND READY TO GGGGGOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish for you a life of wealth, health and happiness; a life in which you give to yourself the gift of patience, the virtue of reason, the value of knowledge, and the influence of faith in your own ability to dream about and achieve what God has to offer.

If you wish to legally own some of the fastest wheels in the world you’ll have to stack up plenty of cash and get the Government to build the roads to handle them. Following is the countdown to the 7 fastest cars of the millennium:

Top 7 Cars of the Millenium

Originally a muscle car could be described as a monster V-8 stuffed into a mid-size Detroit sedan with whatever suspension mods were available. Times have changed. Now we describe as a muscle car any 4-seater with massive horsepower (which could even come from a V-6), country of origin unimportant. If you want cheap performance buy a sport compact but if your enthusiasm remains with the deep growl of a multi-cylinder engine, the cars listed here should more than satisfy your 0-60 urges.

So, for the past five or six months or so, I’d been having trouble with my ‘68 fastback Mustang missing. At first it was intermittent and I would dink around a little with the carb or the timing and the problem would fade for a week or so, but it always came back. I drove the car less and less because of it. Running on seven in that car wasn’t too bad, until the miss started to get consistent.

I checked all the plugs and they seemed okay. Not the prettiest, but none were fouled or broken. One was a tiny bit loose. For a week after all that, the car ran great again, but the misfire returned.