Blog
Revealed: Bentley EXP 9 F
Mar 6th
Have you outgrown your Continental GT? Do you find the Range Rover too common? The Cayenne Turbo too slow? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, Bentley has your answer. Welcome, everyone, to the Bentley EXP 9 F concept.
Destined to be the most powerful and most luxurious SUV ever built, the EXP 9 F will be the third model in Bentley’s lineup, alongside the Mulsanne and Continental ranges. Revealed the night before the start of the Geneva Auto Show, the EXP 9 F is very elegantly styled, featuring a prominent hood, flat beltline, a generous grennhouse and Bentley’s hallmark matrix grille. You’ll also recognize the well-defined power line that runs over the front fenders and through the door handles towards the prominent rear “haunch,” just as you’ll find on the Continental GT.
The interior is as opulent as one would expect from the folks in Crewe, with leather, wood and chrome everywhere. The “T” shaped dashboard echoes the design found in the Mulsanne, and Bentley expects the EXP 9 F’s interior to set new benchmarks for luxury in the SUV segment.
They also expect the performance to set new benchmarks for the SUV sector. Motiviation will likely come from the venerable 6.0L W12 found in the Continental Range with the power being sent through an advanced all-wheel drive system. Power and torque figures haven’t yet been released, but expect to see north of 600 horsepower and more than 590 pound-feet of torque.
Pricing hasn’t yet been released, but stay tuned to the Twin Cities Luxury Auto blog for updates as we get them. For those of you anxious to get line for the EXP 9 F, we expect it to be in our showroom by sometime in 2015-16. We’re now taking pre-orders.
Head on over to Bentley Motors’ website for more information about the EXP 9 F, or over to Autoweek for their write-up on the EXP 9 F.
Source: Bentley Motors
Via: Autoweek
Robb Report Names the GranTurismo MC its Car of the Year Runner Up
Feb 28th
It might seem silly to brag about a second-place finish, but hear us out. Robb Report has just name the Maserati GranTurismo MC the runner-up in its annual Car of the Year contest, losing only Lamborghini’s astonishing new Aventador. Who’s to blame them, really. The Aventador is, after all, the first all new raging bull since 2004, and it has nearly 700 horsepower. And something called “Thrust mode,” whatever that is.
The Maserati’s second-place finish is especially noteworthy since the MC isn’t an all-new model. Yes, there are a number of significant changes to the car from the new bodywork to the more powerful yet more efficient engine, but it’s not too terribly different to the GranTurismo S. Those changes, though, make a very big difference in the feel and performance of the car. Robb report summed it up by saying, “No one could find fault with the GranTurismo MC. Indeed, the MC might have topped the Aventador if bonus points were awarded for sales, because more judges expressed interest in purchasing this car than any other at the contest.” High praise, indeed.
Check out the full article here, or check out their video review of the GranTurismo MC here.
source: Robb Report
via: Maserati
Riding Shotgun with Juha Kankkunen, World Champion Rally Driver
Feb 14th
The name Juha Kankkunen should immediately resonate with all you rally fans out there. Just in case you’re not a rally fan and you’ve never heard of Kankkunen before, here’s the skinny. He’s a former rally driver for Toyota, Peugeot and Lancia and has won 23 individual rallies and has earned four world driver’s champion titles. Needless to say, the man can drive.
What you may not know is that Kankkunen is a big fan of Bentley. Such a big fan, in fact, that he set the world speed record on ice in 2007 with his own Bentley Continental GT. You read that right – he drove his own car at nearly 200 miles per hour on ice. In 2011, Kankkunen beat his own record in a factory-provided Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible averaging 205.48 miles per hour (one run in each direction on the track). Both records were set in largely stock vehicles, save minor aerodynamic improvements, the addition of roll cages, studded Nokian tires designed specifically for the task, and that’s it.
To see what it’s like to drive a 5000-plus pound car at insane speeds on a frozen fjord, Bentley invited some of its best-performing dealers to attend a driving event in Finland. Our General Manager was the fortunate one from Bentley Minneapolis to make the trip. Bentley provided lots of seat time for Matt and the other folks who were there, but the best part may have been the ride along with Juha himself.
Luckily for us, Matt brought a camera with him to capture the experience. Check out the video below to see what it’s like to ride with a world-champion rally driver in a 621 horsepower Bentley on nothing but ice and snow.
Note: the car in the video is the very same Continental Supersports Convertible that set the 205-MPH record in 2011 (shown in the photo above).
Maserati takes Superstars Series title
Oct 25th
Truth be told, I hadn’t heard of the Superstars Series, which is similar to the German DTM, Japanese Super GT, and Australian V8 Supercars series. The competitive field is made up of naturally aspirated V8 two and four door cars like the Mercedes C63 AMG, BMW M3, Audi RS4, Cadillac CTS-V, Jaguar S-Type R, Porsche Panamera S, and Maserati Quattroporte EVO. The EVO is a specialty race version of the Quattroporte featuring the bad ass widebody setup you see above, in full race trim.
Driver Andrea Bertolini drove his Swiss team Maserati Quattroporte to the championship, after trailing by 20 points leading into the final races at Vallelunga. Bertolini is a driver and test driver for Maserati and Ferrari, and previously won the FIA GT series in the Maserati MC12 in 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010 – the only Italian driver to have won four international FIA titles.
Here’s a rather raw video of some highlights from the race at Monza, earlier this year:
The Swiss team was founded in 2008, to kick off the Maserati Quattroporte Superstars project. Based in Switzerland, the team now consists of 13 people, with Engineer Giuseppe Angiulli acting as Technical Director. Giuseppe’s experience covers 5 years in F1, 2 years in Alfa’s DTM project, 2 years working for BMW Motorsport, and work on ALMS prototypes. He collaborated with Michelotto Corse in developing the Ferrari F360 and F430, and worked with team Villorba Corse’ F430 in the Italian GT series. He worked for Vitaphone racing for two years as Track Engineer while they competed in the FIA GT championship, running Maserati MC12s.
Here are some more photos of the fantastic Maserati Quattroporte EVO:
Lamborghini Gallardo Driven
Oct 5th
A week ago I had the opportunity to drive our 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo to shoot some video for the web. I’ve always liked the Gallardos, and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. It looks awesome in white (Bianco Mocerus) over black, and has some nice touches like the Callisto silver-painted wheels over red calipers, and clear engine cover. Add-in the E-gear transmission, leather touches in the cabin, suede sport steering wheel, power \ heated seats, navigation, and 6-CD changer, and you’ve got over $25k in options on this car. Can’t say I would have skipped any of them.
The driving experience is fantastic. The engine note is mean down low, and superb at high RPMs. Back in 2006 Lamborghini made some changes to the car which included a sportier exhaust system, with valves opening at high rpm, while maintaining a quieter note in town. They’ve also tweaked their E-Gear transmission over the years, and that was apparent driving this car. 1st gear engagement was smooth, even in sport mode, while the next 5 cog-swaps are dealt with how you expect them to be: Snappy when you’re driving hard, a bit more subdued when you’re taking it easy.
The suspension is surprisingly forgiving. Thanks to Minnesota’s notorious Winters, we can’t exactly brag about our road quality. Sure it’s still best to avoid the big potholes, but the average every-day stuff was soaked up without ruining my day. That is to say – you feel the bumps (you’re supposed to in a car that’s capable of nearly 200mph), but it’s surprisingly comfortable to drive.
In typical supercar fashion, the old Lambo stereo was not much worth mentioning. For 2008 Lamborghini added the onboard computer, a welcome addition. Flip down the screen and you can insert two SD cards full of MP3s. I had mixed success with the system. Most of my memory cards didn’t work. After searching the forums it seems it’s compatible with SD, but not SDHC cards. So you’re limited to under 2GB, which is something like 30 hours of music. In the real world I only got a 256MB card to work, with about 4 hours of music on it, but I presume a deeper dive into the owners manual would have solved my problems. The navigation is typical Audi, which is to say it works pretty well, but without the very-quick MMi interface it can be a little tedious to enter your destination.
Check out this Lamborghini Gallardo for sale on our site: www.twincitiesluxuryauto.com/detail-2008-lamborghini-gallardo…
Overall this is a pretty fantastic supercar. With around 520 horsepower, a superb all-wheel-drive system, and E-Gear transmission – this is a shockingly easy car to drive. Certainly it’s fast enough to hurt you, but it’s not quite so eager to take your head off like a Ferrari 430 might do if you’re not careful. Just about anyone could get in this car and drive it fast, a trait lampooned by Top Gear a couple of years ago: (skip ahead 3 minutes)
Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale – making music
May 17th
The only thing that makes this better, is knowing I’ll get to hear it in person. We just ordered our only allotted MC Stradale.
Spring is Here
Apr 13th
You know it’s Spring when the shop is full of cool cars coming out of storage, and getting prepped for warm weather driving… More >
Via Autoblog: Maserati Quattroporte Replacement Coming to Frankfurt
Mar 24th
It’s been around for some time now, but the Maserati Quattroporte is still one of the best looking, sounding, and driving sedans on the planet. The competition is only getting more and more fierce, though, with the likes of the Porsche Panamera and the Aston Martin Rapide fighting for the same buyers as the Quattroporte.
Autoblog is reporting that we should see the replacement for the long-in-the-tooth Quattroporte later this year at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Expect to see styling that echoes the design language used on the current GranTurismo and GranTurismo Convertible, as well as a more powerful and more fuel efficient version of the 4.7L V8 currently used in the Quattroporte S (the 4.2L is being phased out later this year), as well as an all-wheel drive option. There is also a possibility that the base powerplant could be an all-new turbocharged V6, though nothing has yet been confirmed.
Head on over to Autoblog to read what they had to say.
Stay tuned to our blog for more information as we get it.
source [Inside Line]
via [Autoblog]