Someone at MINI has woken up and cottoned on to these special editions, since there appears to be a new one or two every week. In a way it makes sense, because from a supply chain point-of-view, the company knows exactly how many cars of exactly the same specification need to be produced. And customers lap these special editions up quicker than they realise that have the ability to customize their own car.  Clever, very clever. 

The new MINI Convertible Highgate – named after the exclusive London suburb of Highgate – adds a touch of class through a number of unique interior and exterior design features, colours and materials. Still built in Oxford, England, the MINI Convertible Highgate gets a unique and fresh new colour, Iced Chocolate metallic:  a metallic brown with some blue flakes that reveal themselves in direct sunlight. Not convinced? The bonnet gets itself  brown and blue-pinstripe stripes – a theme that is carried through on the inside which chocolate-brown leather complete with blue piping.  The convertible soft top is a dark tan colour with a slight metallic sheen.

On top of the Highgate spec, you can add infotainment features like MINI Connected, which places your iPhone at the centre of the car’s entertainment and convenience features, complete with a MINI app.

We suspect two modelswill be offered should it come to South Africa: MINI Cooper (90 kW/122 hp) and MINI Cooper S (135 kW/184 hp), both of which have six-speed manual transmissions. That said, local availability has not been confirmed. Past experience tells us that it is sure to arrive on our shores, though.

Sometimes working for Ferrari has its perks and sometimes it doesn’t. As one of its Formula One drivers you might expect you get to drive a road going version of the race car, a Ferrari FF, or at least something special like the Abarth 500 Tributo Ferrari 695.  Most time that is the case, but then the drivers sometimes have to pander to FIAT’s other brands, like Jeep…

Alonso: "Hey Filipe, can you see over the steering wheel, how much do you weigh these days, do you think we'll be able to clear the snow in this?"

Scuderia Ferrari Formula One drivers, Filipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are getting used to the ‘posing with a red car in the snow gig.’ Their most recent assignment  involved some really really brash, really American, and ostentatious Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s with Rosso Corsa (Ferrari-red to us simpletons) exteriors, red leather interiors, black stripes and black wheels, to give the models some racing-cred (we suspect). Or not.

Look we're as muscular as our Jeeps

These custom Jeeps have been built as a tribute to the Ferrari ambassadors, however if that’s the case the only tribute being paid is for something fat and chunky. Despite this the Grand Cherokee SRT8 has a big heart: a 6.4l HEMI V8 delivering 344kW (468 hp)  and 624 Nm. The SRT8 achieves benchmark performance of 0-100 km/h in 5 seconds and has a top speed of 257 km/h, while massive disc brakes haul it from 100-0 km/h in only 35 m. Jeep also claims this is the best handling model it has ever built – though it’s coming off a pretty low base, if we’re honest.

Despite claiming these vehicles are a tribute to the drivers, they’re really to commemorate the imminent introduction of the SRT8 into Europe, in May this year.

Additional features include:

• Instrument cluster with yellow dials to give the cabin the fake look of the GT cars produced in Maranello
• 7-slot Jeep grill in matte black with red inserts
• Race-inspired, offset black driver’s stripe with a white accent for the  front and rear bumpers, hood, the entire surface of the roof (over those matt black sunroofs, no less) and the rear spoiler.
• Carbon fiber mirror caps
• Gloss black rear light bar with red accents on the Jeep logo
• Italian flag  painted on the underside of the rear spoiler: a tribute to the Ferrari F150º Formula One car
• 20-inch black alloy wheels

Nevertheless, these features sound pretty interesting.

Filipe and Alonso having some real fun in a four-wheel-drive.

It’s good that Jeep is going this far to give its brand some racing heritage and tie into the partnership with the Fiat Group, but we’re rather disappointed with the heads at the Fiat and Ferrari for letting such a thing happen and building some pocket rockets in the past; cars like the Michael Schumacher Fiat Seicento and Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari offered far more petrolhead appeal. They brought handling and fun to the party, and the idea that Ferrari’s F1 team had a hand in developing the cars that were available in (relatively) affordable packages, so what on earth made them think a red SUV sends the same message?

"Look it's red inside, just like Lewis' MP4-12C, what does Seb drive, a Renault?"

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Perhaps you are lucky enough to own a Ferrari and perhaps you thought that the F430′s 4.3 V8 still lacked some poke? If you were in Europe or the USA, it would be easy power upgrade-deasy, just pop on over to an exhaust shop, find  a reputable tuner, hand over a huge wad of cash and you’d be going places a little quicker than you previously did.

Apart from it being black, it looks like a regular Ferrari F430.

South Africa on the other hand is a somewhat different kettle of fish. When it comes to supercars, agents hold tight reigns on the sale and service of these machines and so it makes finding something special like this all the more impressive. It’s good to know that at some point in the past couple of years, there was a South African brave enough to explore the realms of euro-tuned supercars and to him we salute. *salute*

The Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 gives the standard 4.3l V8 typically producing 360kW (483hp) @8500rpm and 465Nm (343lb-ft) of torque @5250rom a nice little bump up to 707hp or 520kW  @ 8350rpm and 712Nm @6300rpm with the help of twin-superchargers. That’s no fucking joke. Seriously. This particular one has ticked almost the entire Novitec catalogue off, wheels, brakes, interior, carbon bits everywhere… If 520Kw was too much the previous owner could have cocked about and just put in the 656hp SuperSport upgrade or gone with an exhaust like most Ferrari owners. Nah, notafuck, this guy went the whole hog; all in; the whole enchilada; all chips on black; and he did it so you don’t have to. It’s for sale at a dealership in Fourways, Johannesburg, RSC Auto for around the same price as what you would pay for a regular F430 of the same vintage ZAR2 100 000. You won’t find many trick Ferraris like this, this side of the UAE. We suspect that an upgrade like this cost no less than R1 000 000 and so to us, this car sounds like the bargain of the decade (and a little bit more special than that boring old red Ferrari you see at show meets)

Click on these words for a link to the original advert.

Just in case you were wondering how fast a Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 is, it’s quite a lot quicker than a Ferrari Enzo

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There was a time where Americans had to wait until Big Game Day to see what the country’s most creative marketers had been working on to air in the singularly most expensive advertisement slots on prime-time TV. But with that ‘internet thing’ you can’t keep anything under wraps anymore. A full couple of days ahead of the big day most of the adverts are available online so there isn’t really any reason to have to hang in there and watch the game unless, of course, you like the American version of  rugby. We’ve collected and put all of the auto manufacturers’ Superbowl 2012 ads right here in one place. Aren’t we a nice bunch? Be amazed, be appalled, be disappointed. Let us know what you think?

It looks as if Toyota invests as much creativity in its ads as it does in designing dull and boring family cars. The one’s titled ‘It’s Reinvented!’ but we’re still trying to figure out what, you can’t reinvent boring obscure rubbish.

Another one from Toyota although, as with its cars, Lexus is more exciting than its parent, if only just a little bit. Lexus has even gone as far as calling its advert, ‘Beast,’ in the way that people ironically call their lapdogs ‘Beast.’ Very edgy for Lexus.

Hyundai: Hey, it’s different we guess. Hyundai has included people from its plant in here, so it gets a couple of points for company involvement, but the alignment to ‘Rocky,’ yeah, we’re just not so sure.

Hyundai, then, provides us then with a the perfect segue into the adverts involving movies, movie references and old movie stars. No one seems to have realised that if  they’d include Ryan Gosling, ladies will be in the dealership while the men watch the game.

Honda’s piss-take on Ferris Beuller’s Day Off gets Matthew Broderick clearly looking 25 years older than he did in the original Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and and places him in an ad that he will surely regret  one day.  What are out-of-work actors supposed to do, we suppose? We’d certainly fake an illness to spend a day in a Ferrari 250, notsomuch in a Honda CR-V.

Honda redeems itself (only slightly) with this remotely funny advert involving the Saab-loving, in the Seinfeld series at least, Jerry Seinfeld and car-nut funny man, Jay Leno. But it’s actually only the sound of the NSX that makes this advert worth watching — a pure tease.

Volkswagen’s ‘The Force’ advert last year with mini-Darth took the ad world by storm (49 million views on YouTube to-date) and went viral by virtue of the fact that it was cute and clever. VW had some pretty big shoes to fill and showed some promise with the teaser, “The Bark Side”…

…but ultimately let the side down with, “The Dog Strikes Back.” Poor form after last year’s great success.

Volkswagen shows that its alright to use pets, and so Suzuki also gets in the action with some pooches, these being some huskies in for a head-bopping time…

These are the ones that are actually quite good. Cadillac is first up with ‘Green Hell,’ a reference to the Nurburgring that unashamedly punts its performance credentials and actually communicates the values of the car. Imagine that? There’s the crafty inclusion of the advertising boards stating “Wir sind Opel,” “We are Opel” for the english types, which is important because this is the BMW 3-series/Mercedes-Benz C-Class/Audi A4 competitor. It’s clearly intent on telling the Germans that Cadillac is no longer a fat American pig and it’s roots, in fact, lie very close to home.

The former king of Superbowl ads, Budweiser has once again produced a hit and it only gets a mention here because there’s a car in it, a very famous car. And that’s what makes it funny and causes a smile to crack across even the most hardened 30 year-old’s face. The younger kids probably won’t get it, though.

Vampires are the rage. Everyone loves them, don’t they? Even Volvo. Audi pulls off a clever ad and actually ties it into one of its product’s selling features, the LED headlamps. Amazing what sticking to the basics can do, of all the leaked adverts so far, this is one of the best in our opinion.

Update: Chevrolet has held out until now so showcase five ads for Big Game Day and all of them are BRILLIANT, well four of them are. In our humble opinion, of course.

Chervrolet Sonic’s Bug Advert hits the cute spot with this one…

Chervrolet’s Volt advert gets the message across succinctly, “Smartest car in the galaxy” while dispelling the myth that electric cars have a very limited range. Clever.

Hitting the youth market and doing something clever, simple and effective but more of a teaser for the full new Chev/OK Go video on Sunday.

A very funny graduation video for Chev’s Superbowl Sunday madness.

Very emotive, brilliant. Very Clever. The advert for the Chevy Sonic.

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The weekend of 28 and 29 January 2012 was black. South Africa lost two talented motorsports men in unrelated incidents, to the families of Curt Alchin and Wim Pretorius, ZA Car gives its condolences.

Despite the news items, ZA Car Show isn’t sponsored by BMW or MINI, it just appears that they have the most to talk about at the moment. On that front, MINI officially announced the MINI Roadster — a convertible based on a hard top that was based on a convertible, the MINI Coupe — and it also alludes to JCW becoming a stand alone sub-brand like the recently announced BMW M-Performance range. We discuss.

The silver slats in the kidney grills give the car a 'cleaner' appearance if that makes sense? Either way, it emits less toxins, produces V8-like power and consumes fuel like a diesel. For more images (around 70 in total) click on the image to be redirected to our gallery. To view in a new tab (if you're streaming the show at the moment) right click and select 'open in new tab/window.

Christo is going to LeMans this year, that is the commitment to motoring that we have here at ZA Car Show,  and no he’s not getting sent there by a manufacturer so to the South African motoring journalists who read this, you don’t need to hound manufacturers to find out why you never got invited. He, however, was sad to see the departure of Peugeot from the LM1 class which would have left it a one-horse race. It’s also good to see that Toyota is regaining its motorsport ‘mojo’ with the announcement of the Toyota’s LM1 racer, the TS030. It will be a 3.4l V8 Hybrid. This is important becuase we cover another perfomance hybrid in the form of the BMW 5-series Active Hybrid. It’s no tree hugging hybrid like the Prius, but rather a performance hybrid that delivers diesel car-like consumption, very low emissions, and performance equal that of a V8. It doesn’t look like ‘hairy arm pit’ hippie car either, which is what tends to be the perception with the term hybrid.

Toyota will return to Le Mans with the LM1 contender, the Toyota TS030. Click on the image to be redirected to the gallery.

In other news Audi’s extremely beautiful A5 has had a nip here and tuck there and come off looking even better. It’s like taking giving Naomi Campbell or George Clooney (see we keep it relevant for everyone here) a slight make over — the blank canvas is already good so it can only get better, right?

Handsome, very handsome. It's the facelifted A5 and it is finally in SA. Click on the image to view the gallery.

Finally we wrap up the show with the ZA Car Show road test. This week it’s the Audi A6 3.0t, which is actually supercharged not turbo’d. Good car, bad car? We’re torn a little bit between good and boring, but you’ll have to listen to the show to find out why. Enjoy.

We cannot fault its looks nor the way it is built, but in creating something that is so competent Audi has removed any sort of soul, granted the words 'soul' and 'Audi' are rarely used in the same sentence in any event.

Episode 148 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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Lamborghini’s latest ultra-mad all-about-the-numbers hypercar is a real hit. Despite a name we’ve poked fun at, it really is a mad piece of design – the way supercars should be. It’s also the car that was requested by ZA Car Show Twitter fan matt_stretch91, who qualified his request with “most insane tail pipes you’ll see in a while!”. We agree. So here, have a selection of badass photos from Flickr’s best photographers, of the 700hp, 8500RPM raging bull.

]]> http://www.zacar.co.za/2012/01/25/wallpaper-wednesday-a-vent-a-door/feed/ 0 http://www.zacar.co.za/2012/01/25/zacs147/ http://www.zacar.co.za/2012/01/25/zacs147/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:15:25 +0000 trevor http://www.zacar.co.za/?p=3006

64kbps stream Download audio file (zacs147.mp3)

I googled the number 147 to find out what the number meant in numerology terms. I didn’t understand a thing, but there were two tarot cards one with ‘love’ and the other with ‘devil’ on them. That pretty much sums up the Alfa Romeo 147, then. It also, hopefully, shows how much we love ZA Car Show and with our news and reviews, stop you buying the devils cars regardless of how many times Trevor says buys a SAAB. Whatever the meaning,  listen to the show now, because having told you this, you’re either about to fall in love if you share ZACS with all of your friends or will turn into a devil if you don’t. It’s your choice.

This week with the start of the WRC, Citroen driver, Sebastian Loeb has kicked off the WRC Sebastien Loeb Invitational Season. Will he be as unstoppable as the other Sebastian, Mr Vettel? With the WRC starting we’re glad that the Dakar has ended. Have you considered a Mazda 3? Yeah, we didn’t think so, so you might like the debate that breaks out as Christo tries to tell us about its new update. The Jeep Wrangler has also had an update and it appears to be quite significant while we swoon over the Fiat 500 1.2 Cabrio Audi R8 GT Spyder and Review the MINI One — the one car you should not overlook at if you are already looking at things like the Ford Fiesta, Mazda 2, Volkswagen Polo and Toyota Yaris — we’re willing to bet you’ll be very surprised.

Your hosts this week are Christo van Gemert, Trevor van de Ven, John Beale and Patrick Gearing.

As always, click on the image to view full galleries of the cars featured. You will be directed away from the page, so right click and select “Open Link in New Tab/Window” to avoid this.

MINI Bayswater. Apart from the riduculous colour, these special editions seem to sell out before they're made available. We cant fault MINI on its style. Click on the image to view a full gallery.

Yes it's a Mazda. It has a new engine in the range - 2.5 litres in capacity now and some other tweaks. Click on the image to see a gallery.

Jeep can pull of khaki better than a farmer from Limpopo. Click on the image to see a full gallery (not from the local local launch).

The Fiat 500C 1.2 has become South Africa's cheapest convertible. Oh we do like this little thing.

You can now order one of these in South Africa. You'd better have a fat wallet and not drive past Porsche on your way to Audi.

This is the basic Mini One. It looks pretty much the same as every other MINI, but offers far better value than most competitors. Find out what we think in the show.

Episode 147 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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Two’s company and this week, our second show of 2012 it’s Trevor van de Ven and Christo van Gemert that keep you company while chatting about cars, some good and some bad. There’s a slew of new BMW engines destined for the BMW 1-Series (international markets only at this stage), which get’s our Captain Consumption aflutter with excitement, were still not quite sure why. BMW has also announced that it will be launching an M Performance series which will be more dedicated than simply adding an M-Sports pack to your Beemer, while being not quite as hardcore as BMW’s M cars. Why, well you’ll have to listen, won’t you? Christo van Gasoline reports back from the Abarth 500 launch that he attended recently and the two round off the show with a review of the Audi TT-RS and Mitsubusi’s Titanic Triton.

We dont have a picture of the engines so an image of the new M-Sport pack for the 1-Series will have to do. Can you spot the add-ons?

You think we included a picture of Dr. Friedrich Nitschke, the President of BMW M Gmbh, because of that magnificent moustache? You'd be wrong, there is a car behind him, which is the only indication that we have at the moment of what the new M Performance cars will look like and the M550d X-Drive looks deceptively like full-blown M5 unless there's some sloppy PR going on here.

There's a sting in the tail of this little car. Click on the image to view a comprehensive gallery. You will be redirected, so right click the image and select "Open in new tab/window"

The one we had looked identical to this, red is certainly the best colour for this beast that out accelerates just about everything on the road. Hear what we think on the podcast. For a gallery, click on the image but be aware that you will be redirected away from this page. To stay here, right click on the image and select "Open in new Tab/Window"

There's nothing new here, it's a Mitsubishi Triton. We review it...

Episode 146 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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The answer might not be as obvious as you think, unless you’re the wiseass who said, “A bungie jumper with a Hot Wheels in his pocket!”

Instead, this is an electric car. From Finland. But despite its massive acceleration – 9.4g, to be exact – it only tops out at a paltry 160km/h. Yes, it’s a serious slot car from the Finnish national league. Hand-wound motors and specialised… everything means that this little lightweight, light-speed racecar is capable of feats that the human body simply can’t handle. Such as lapping a 45 meter circuit in just two seconds. Click on the video to see what we mean.

“Don’t call me, Babe” are the immortal words from Pammie’s 1996 hit-film Barb Wire. Okay it wasn’t a hit. But like Barb, Fiat is trying to shake misconceptions and stereotypes. The notion that the 500 is ‘girly’ has haunted the car since its launch, but our Trevor and Patrick will fervently disagree. However, to the average man-on-the-street, the perception is otherwise and rightfully so. The car is often described as “cute” and  ”pretty,” – even Barbie has a Fiat 500 (and J-Lo) but these new scorpions from the Fiat group have a serious sting in their tail.

Click on the image to view a full gallery of the Abarth 500, Abarth 500 esseesse and Abart 500 695 Tributo Ferrari. You will be redirected away from this page, so right click and select 'open in a new tab/page.'

After quite a wait (the Abarth 500 launched overseas in 2008), it has finally been made available to South Africans through the Abarth Performance Centre at Arnold Chatz in Craighall Park, Johannesburg, and will cost you R230 000 for the 1.4l turbo-charged engine producing 99kW @ 5500rpm and 206Nm from a relatively high 3000rpm. The Abarth 500C will cost R255 000 for the privilege of an uninterrupted view of the African skies above. Fiat engines have always been a little ‘fizzy’ and beg to be driven, and the Abarth 500 appears to be the same. The Abarth 500C is also available with the Dualogic ‘manu-matic’ MTA transmission, if changing gears with a stick aint your thang, and gains an extra 4kW in the process upping the power to 103kW at a lower 5000rpm. It gives the hydraulically actuated manual transmission – no dual clutches here – less of a hard time and makes it more drivable without requiring the ‘box to change down as often.

In both cases you might want to opt for the additional ‘esseesse’ kit which harks back to the old days of Carlo Abarth’s go-faster kits in a box. It gives this wee-beastie a power jump to 118kW @ 5750rpm and an increase of 24Nm to 230Nm @ 3000rpm. Also included is a brake upgrade with bigger calipers and cross drilled disks, performance suspension complemented by sports dampers from Koni, and rounds it all off with some nice 17-inch alloy wheels that are available in either white or black. The kit costs an additional R37 000 and will be fitted by the Abarth Performance Centre. Best of all you get to keep the crate that it all comes in - there’s no ‘fitted at the factory’ box to tick here and adds to the allure of owning a true Abarth esseesse.

Not for girls. The Abarth 500C even looks good in colours other than primer grey.

The original esseesse models were enthusiast cars and that remains the same here. You dont need to buy the extra kit. Truth be told the 99kW version will likely be ample for most people and the Abarth styling alone gives it the cred that the 500 lacked amongst South Africa’s testosterone-fueled masses. But for those discerning few who enjoy driving, it can be made that little bit more special by eking out slightly more fun for the daily commute, from an already capable chassis. This car enters the school yard that has been occupied by the Polo GTi, RenaultSport Clio, Citroen DS3 and Peugeot 207 GTI and they’re pretty big bullies.

A nice place to be. Look at the ''I'm serious about my pedigree" shift-light cluster on the centre console.

The boring stuff is that the Abarth 500 is pretty much standard high-spec safety (Euro NCAP 5-star) tand features seven airbags including one for your knees, ABS, EBD, ESP, Blue&Me mobile phone prep and iPod integration, a sport button, metal shiny bits everywhere, a shift-light pod, and Abarth sport seats. All very nice.

It's in RenaultSport Clio, Polo GTI, Citroen DS3 territory and it wants to play.

We’ll save you from all the other nostalgia and trivia that goes with the Abarth badge – you can listen to the upcoming podcast for that – but well leave you with this: the “Don’t call me, Babe” leitmotif of Barb Wire comes from the original advertising for the Barb Wire Dark Horse comic book. Barb was quite a bolshy broad who wasn’t afraid to lay a bit of smackdown on the boys. She used those words to differentiate herself from a buxom, slightly airy comic book heroine named Babe, by John Byrne, and like Barb, the Abarth 500 is not an airy, cutesy 500, it’s a parabuthus granulatus.