Tuesday 1 November 2011

Aston Martin V12 Zagato

                                            The V12 Zagato was unveiled on May 21 2011 at Villa D'este on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. Introduced as a modern interpretation of Aston Martin and Italian design house Zagato collaboration in the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4 GT Zagato.
                                            Like the Aston Martin V12 Vantage on which it is based, the V12 Zagato is powered by a 6.0 L V12 engine with 510 bhp, and 570 Nm of torque through a six speed manual gearbox.The car will reach 62 mph(100 km/h) in 4.2 seconds and flat out it will reach 190 mph(305 km/h). 
                                          At its world premiere, it won the Concorso D'eleganza design award for concept cars. only 150 examples will be made.The V12 Zagato will be available in five unique Zagato print schemes.
                                       The concept features a new handcrafted aluminium body with the front quite similar to the vantage and a heavily modified middle, roof and a rear section. Another extra is the endurance racing fuel tank carrying up to 120 litres.

In June 2011 Zagato concept cars 3,700 miles in the 64th annual Nurburgring 24 hour race. The cars were nicknamed Zig (the green car) and Zag (the red cars) and finished 5th and 6th in the SP8 class.


Audi Quattro concept

                                         31 years ago the original Quattro was born. It redefined what a car could do over real world roads. It proved that four wheel drive was the thing needed for rallying. This show-car however has the Quattro's blood with Audi's modern technology. It was presented at the 2010 Paris Motor Show to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Audi's Quattro.
                               It's based on the RS5 chassis and the body is made up of aluminium using Audi's Space Frame Technology. The hood and the rear hatch and a few other parts made of carbon-fibre. These help to cut down weight to just 1,300 kg. This weight gives the car a very good power-to-weight ratio.
                                       Instead of the RS5's V8 and DSG gearbox, it has a much lighter five-cylinder turbocharged engine and a six speed manual gearbox and anew generation of Audi's Quattro permanent four wheel drive system. It's the engine form the TT-RS but is turned length-wise and tuned to give out 408 bhp and can send the car to 60 mp/h from a standstill in just 3.9 second.
               The design of the car says hello to the original without being retro. The Quattro's designer was Wolfgang Egger. A fact: when he was in Alfa Romeo, he designed the 8C Competizione show-car, which eventually became a production car.


                                       Audi managed to shed a lot of weight from this car. The seats are Sparco specials, with light-weight carbon shells. The navigation system and the 'infotainment system'has been shifted to the gauge cluster behind the steering wheel.