Goodwood Festivites
Goodwood's Tribute to Lotus F1
By far the largest automotive event in England this year is the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed and many new supercars from the Michelin Supercar Paddock are running up the hill this weekend.
Our gallery from the event features some of the very newest cars including the Aston Martin Vanquish, Renault Alpine A110-50 and Bentley Continental GT Speed
We have also prepared a gallery of race cars from Goodwood that includes the 2013 McLaren MP4-12C GT3 as driven by Jensen Button and the recently restored 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
Record-Setting Bentley
1929 Bentley 4½ Litre ‘Blower’ Single-Seater
Today this 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre ‘Blower’ set the record for a Bentley at auction by selling for €6,255,000 (£5,041,500) at Bonham's Goodwood Festival of Speed event.
This is the same car which broke the Brooklands Outer Lap record twice and became the fastest car in Britain.
Bonhams sold the Blower from the collection of George Daniels who raced the car at the Goodwood events in 2007 and showed it at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
Louis Vuitton's Run
Delhaye 145 and Ferrari 340 America
This year Louis Vuitton Classic staged a rally called the Serenissima Run which brought out 45 of the world's best cars.
The list of Ferraris was particularly impressive including Jon Shirley's Ferrari 375 MM Coupé Scaglietti and the Mille Miglia-winning 340 America.
Our photographer Nicolas Jeannier caught up with the 5-day rally at the Col de Vars and a snowy stop at Le Refuge Napoléon in Vars for our feature gallery. More of his excellent work can be found at arthomobiles.fr.
The New Vanquish
Aston Martin Vanquish
With the launch of the new Vanquish, Aston Martin are finally releasing details on the AM310 we first saw at Villa d'Este.
The new model steals cues directly from the One-77 supercar with a much more reasonable £189,995 price tag.
Aston is squeezing 565 bhp out of their 6.0-liter V12 for the Vanquish which makes it the second fastest Aston behind the limited-edition One-77.
Bentley's Top Dog
2012 Bentley Continental GT Speed
Today Bentley announced the Continental GT Speed as fastest production car since the company was founded 93 years ago.
The new model features an uprated W12 engine that sends 616 bhp spread out over 4 wheels. Bentley are also fitting the ZF 8-Speed automatic which we presume is the same fitted to the V8 model.
The GT Speed will make its debut next month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Audi & Ferrari Dominate Le Mans
Winning #1 Audi R18 etron quattro
Unsurprisingly Audi won the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans with the #1 hybrid R18 driven by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler, Benoit Treluyer. It marks Audi's 11th overall victory at Le Mans and the first overall victory for a hybrid prototype.
Toyota stepped up to the plate with a largely untested LMP1 car and performed well until the Ferrari of Perrazini hooked and flipped the #8 Toyota. Not long afterward, the #7 Toyota driven by Kazuk Nakajima cutoff the Nissan Deltawing which eventually retired both cars.
In the GT Class, AF Corse dominated with Ferrari #51 of Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander. All the winners and top shots can be found in our feature gallery from Le Mans.
Return of the RS 4 Avant
2012 Audi RS 4 Avant
Audi are releasing details today of the 2012 RS 4 Avant which features the 450 bhp V8 engine in the iconic station wagon platform.
This model is the 3rd generation RS 4 Avant following the 2006 B7 version and the original B5 from 2000. The RS Avant series began in 1995 with the Audi RS 2 Avant.
Top '36 Ford
1936 Ford Model 68 Gläser Cabriolet
This 1936 Ford Cabriolet fetched $396,000 USD at RM Auctions' sale of the Dingman Collection today in New Hampshire.
This Ford is one of the rare Model 68s to be produced in Germany and fitted with bodywork by Gläser of Dresden.
We first saw the Gläser Cabriolet at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance where it took top honors in its class. This was the result of a $340,000 restoration by Performance Restorations for Mike Dingman.
Jewels from Villa
1953 Ferrari 250 Europa Coupé Vignale
Today we take a close look at many cars from Villa d'Este which we haven't previously featured on Supercars.net beginning with the stylish 250 Europa Coupé Vignale recently painted in 'Tabacco'.
This Europa was restored back to its original specification by the owner who did much of the work himself. It's from the final era of Vignale Ferraris until Pinin Farina took over with much cleaner designs.
The Little Jewels class at Villa had many exceptional cars. At the top of the list is the cute 500 Coupé Zagato which is much rarer than the 750 GT. Another important Abarth on display was the Cisitalia-Abarth 204 A which was the type of car that Tazio Nuvolari raced in his final victory.
We also could not avoid the striking 1963 OSCA 1600 SP coupe which is one of the last competition cars made by OSCA.
