Posts tagged Minneapolis
What’s Going On 3/4-3/6
Mar 2nd
Tribute Night at Amsterdam Bar and Hall – Friday, March 4th
Unless you have a Delorean and can time travel back to the early nineties it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to hear Weezer’s entire Blue Album, Alice in Chains’ Dirt and Nirvana’s Nevermind performed live from start to finish. Fortunately, you won’t need Marty McFly’s help this weekend because all three albums will be performed atAmsterdam Bar and Hall’s Tribute night. All this for just $10.
MMA at Mystic – Friday, March 4th
The last fight we saw at a casino was between two seniors trying to stake their claim on a lucrative penny slot. This weekend you can witness more intense fighting when the MMA heads to Mystic Lake. We’re not big on fighting, but you probably knew that since we’re looking for a Volkswagen Hippie Bus.
Bedrace for bridging – Saturday, March 5th
There’s nothing quite like snuggling up in a warm bed — while hurtling down a snowy ski slope. If this sounds like your idea of fun you have to check out the Subway Bed Race for Bridging. This annual winter extravaganza pairs mattresses of all sizes with exuberant individuals looking for a different type of winter activity.
Minnesota Roller Girls Home Season Championship – Saturday, March 5th
Hell on wheels. That’s what we’d call our roller derby team if we had one. Alas, we don’t so we have to resort to watching others play. We’re in luck because theMinnesota Roller Girls Home Season Championship kicks off this Saturday.
What’s Going On – 2/25
Feb 25th
A shortlist of upcoming events that piqued our interest
Adult Coloring Club – Thursday, February 25th
Who says coloring should only be for kids? The Coloring Club MPLS gives artistic adults an opportunity to put their colored pencils to use, which is good for people like Amber (one of our graphic designers) who have “coloring degrees” and want to keep up on their skills. Throw in $5 beers from Eastlake Craft Brewery (the event host) and coloring sheets from local artists and you can’t go wrong.
WinterFest at the Union Depot – Friday, February 26th
When he was in town last week Vice President Joe Biden had nothing but good things to say about St. Paul’s Union Depot. If that’s not reason enough to plan a visit maybe a little beer might persuade you. This Friday the Minnesota Craft Brewers guild is hosting Winterfest, a tribute to Minnesota beer. Chase out the winter chill with a multitude of Winter Warmers, hearty food, beer education, entertainment and music.
Tech Fest 2016 – Saturday, February 27th
We’re all for introducing our youth to engineering, mechanics and hands-on technology. If we don’t who is going to fix all of these old cars we’ve collected? All kidding aside, The Works Museum is hosting a neat family engineering and technology fair offering hours of technology exploration for the whole family. Consider it a good alternative to sitting home on the couch.
Red Bull Crashed Ice – February 26th and February 27th
The icy spectacle known as Red Bull Crashed Ice returns to St. Paul this weekend for its fifth straight year in a row and serves as the grand finale of the worldwide four-stop tour. If you’ve never been it’s definitely something you should check out. Also be sure to check out the Crashed Ice Village. If you’re looking for easy travel to and from St. Paul Metro Transit will be offering a variety of free shuttles.
Inside the Aston Martin Vulcan
Feb 10th

photo by The Drive
The production of the Aston Martin Vulcan is in full swing, of course by that we mean they are being hand built in a small facility outside of Aston’s main manufacturing space. All 24 cars are being built by a 40-member team who have worked on all of the Bond cars, put together the DBX concept, and shoehorned a V12 into the Vantage. In other words, they build all that is awesome in the world of Aston Martin. The Vulcans are built to order and will be run in a race series with only Vulcan’s all over the world, starting in United Arab Emirates at the Formula track Yas Marina. You can find more details about the Vulcan on our blog here.
Carfection recently was able to tour and fortunately for us they made a video with some great sneak peeks at the details incorporated into this track only car, you’ll want to turn up the volume for this one.
Aston Martin Vulcan leading the way for the future of oil changes
Nov 10th
Castrol is working hard to reinvent the oil change, which frankly sounds about as easy as reinventing the wheel. After a couple of years of developing what they are calling Nexcel, they have done something special. The Nexcel unit itself holds oil and the filter all in one container and simply fits into a base within the car’s engine bay. Once the recommended oil change interval is reached the Nexcel unit can be changed out in 90 seconds by simply lifting the unit out and replacing it with another one. The unit is sent back to be reconditioned for reuse and can be reconditioned 5 or 6 times before its service life is over.
We first found about this new product from an article on Autoblog.com and it peaked our interest that the Aston Martin Vulcan was going to be the first car to implement Nexcel. While the Vulcan is a track only car, Castrol UK worked closely with Aston Martin to develop Nexcel and test it in the real world, retrofitting Aston Martin’s cars with Nexcel and have been testing in England for the last couple of years. After talking to a representative from Castrol at SEMA we found out that other manufacturers are very interested, one being Ford as they get the street version the GT ready for 2017. There are also a couple of companies with fleets of long service life heavy duty trucks looking to retrofit this technology for their use as it would pay off over the life of the truck as they are in service for hundreds of thousands of miles.
Aston Martin Vulcan Revealed
Feb 25th
Aston Martin has announced that it will be bringing its extensive racing heritage to Gentlemen Racers by way of the Vulcan. The Aston Martin Vulcan project was born to give the customer an experience of performance driving like no other. Ownership allows participation in many performance driving events worldwide, unlike programs from competing performance brands. And Aston Martin will work with owners to ensure they can take the Vulcan to the tracks they want to drive and that it will meet the various sound requirements. Once you have committed to ownership, Aston Martin invites you to Gaydon for a unique commissioning experience to select the colors and finish for the car. Additionally, they take measurements for seating, steering wheel grips and custom racing suit and helmet.
Prior to taking delivery, Aston Martin will offer intensive track training for each customer via their Fast Track Training program. Experienced professional racers will offer a chance to refine driving skills and technique through practical and theoretical training events using Aston Martin’s already extensive stable of performance cars like the V12 Vantage S, One-77 and the Vantage GT4 race car to further build the customer experience.
If you haven’t been impressed so far, lets cover the car itself: The Vulcan boasts some amazing features like carbon fiber removable panels surrounding a rigid carbon fiber tub. Power comes from a 7 liter V12 engine producing 800 plus horsepower which is set back behind the front axle line to ensure an excellent weight balance. All of this power is channeled to a six speed sequential gearbox mounted in the rear of the car by way of a magnesium torque tube housing a carbon fiber drive shaft. To tame all this power, the brakes are carbon ceramic racing discs with 6 piston front and 4 piston rear controlled by a driver adjustable Bosch anti-lock braking system. Push rod suspension is mounted to all four corners with 4 way adjustable DSSV dampers.
Safety is also very important to Aston Martin, so they have worked very hard to design the Vulcan with FIA race requirements. This will include Frontal Head Restraint, 6 point racing harness, roll cage, fuel cell and fire extinguisher. All of these safety features allow the Vulcan to run one-make races or other open races.
A Day with the Maserati Ghibli
Aug 4th
My name is Michael Ashby and I am the Service Manager here at Luxury Auto. I have been with the brand since 2010. When I am out and wearing our branded clothes the question I get asked the most is, “It must be cool to drive those cars?” In reality, I spend the majority of my time behind my desk finding solutions to our clients concerns. I have time behind the wheel of everything we service through quality control test drives and the random events I get invited to attend, but I have never used one of our cars the way an actual client would. This changed though when a few dates lined up perfectly. I had planned to attend the Vintage race weekend at Road America to watch our Marketing guru Ben Robertaccio race his Porsche 914-6. At the end of the week Maserati graced us with a Short Term Factory Demo Ghibli and I thought to myself, what a great opportunity to really experience life with a Ghibli.
The car in question was a gorgeous Blu Emozione Q4 with all the boxes ticked. With all our gear loaded up and my two daughters sitting comfortably in the back we headed toward the Wisconsin border to spend the evening by the river. After an overnight stay we awoke at 3:50 a.m. and under the cover of darkness my wife Angie, my Dad, and I eased stealthily out of the neighborhood. Once clear of the sleepy homes the Sport button was pressed, the car barked, and we charged toward daylight and a racetrack that was five hours away.
This was a great way of finding out how the car behaved on a road trip. My wife, Angie, deftly navigated the touch screen display and quickly paired our phones to the car. Road America was entered into the Garmin based navigation system with ease as we settled in for the ride. My Father is a gas mileage machine and sees it as a challenge to beat the manufacturer’s ratings on his personal car so after scrolling through the screen options we reset the mileage calculators to see how this car would fare. I was impressed with how well this car rode along the highway. We took it out of Sport mode for the lion’s share of the freeway slog as it benefits you none at all and it saves around 1500 rpm and a gear or two, the suspension soaked up the expansion joints with aplomb and for all the Sporting premise around the car the steering was well weighted and did not follow every groove on the road.
After a few hours we left the freeway and headed across Wisconsin and through some small towns, this is where we used Sport mode and employed the used of the aluminum shift paddles. Although the speeds were 25-30 mph, 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears were used to full effect and the exhaust sound of the twin turbo V6 echoing off the surrounding buildings and trees was extraordinary.
Sightlines around the car are fantastic, not really any blind spots which always make navigating unfamiliar towns easier. A quick stop for refreshments allowed Angie to use the cooled center console, complete with two cup holders, to keep the requisite road trip Red Bull cool for later consumption. After brief discussion, she also found the cooling vent inside the glove box and turned that on to keep the fun size M&Ms that I crave from melting. They may not melt in your hand but they don’t do well in a hot car on a hot day….
We arrived at Road America shortly after 9am and after reading the schedule for the day my eyes lit up when I saw there was track touring over the lunch hour. I signed up and paid the pretty ridiculous fee to experience the Ghibli on the track. I must admit that I am not unfamiliar with this track; I hold a pro level race license and currently compete in the Pirelli World Challenge Race Series. We had just raced here a few weeks prior so I was curious to see what it would feel like behind the wheel of a Maserati.
As we eased onto the track, along with four pace cars controlling the speed limit of 55 mph. I was able to give my wife, Angie, and my Dad a proper view of the track from a driver’s perspective. Although the speeds were much lower on the Straights than I would typically experience through some of the corners we were able to properly exploit the correct racing line. We of course selected Sport Manual mode with ESC, electronic stability control, turned off. I was genuinely impressed with how quickly the Maserati performed the manual shifts and the poise it showed through some of the most famous corners in Motorsports; Turn 5, the kink and the Canada Corner. As the session came to a close and the car count dwindled we found a few gaps to push a little faster, Turn 5 was attacked with a little more authority and the run uphill to the Corvette Bridge was done at full throttle and I am sure the roll bar equipped Miata in front did not expect a searing blue Italian Sedan to get through a corner so quickly and the pass was made as we entered turn 6. Angie and my dad were likewise impressed by the Ghibli. I think the noise it emits on downshifts and the burble on upshifts was the big winner, but they also commented on how flat it cornered and they both have laps on Race tracks with other cars as a comparison. We left the track and parked with some of the other participants, many of whom wandered over to discuss the car and comment on how unique it was. We spent the rest of the day watching the fabulous on track action and witnessed Ben set his fastest ever lap in his Porsche during a great race.
As the time came, we left with great memories and another long drive into the late evening. With the dynamically adjustable headlights piercing the night and the other occupants getting sleepy, I was left alone to draw some conclusions from what ultimately was eleven hours behind the wheel and a little over 600 miles. This car has the room to satisfy most families; I constantly got thumbs up and double takes wherever we went which shows that this car is special and rare. Once my phone was paired it worked flawlessly. I never had to select it and always picked it back as soon as we got in the car, something that may not be said of earlier models. The new system only made one mistake on the way to the track and the mistake was only to take two extra turns. We averaged 25.8 mpg for the trip, including 6 laps around the 6 mph over posted limits throughout the freeway stint and only used Sport mode on the track and short periods everywhere else, this was quite impressive considering this is a 410hp Twin turbo V6. The only real issue that I found with the car is now having a wife who wants one. …Not a bad problem to have really.
Guest Photographer at Morrie’s Luxury Auto
Mar 21st
Guest blog post written by: Joshua Duffy- The Art Institutes International Minnesota.
Ghibli: A fiercely hot wind of Northern Africa
Feb 4th
On the 100th anniversary of the Maserati brothers opening their shop, the Ghibli arrived in Minneapolis. As the exclusive distributor for Maserati in Minnesota, Morrie’s Luxury Auto witnessed record sales during the last month of 2013. Customers are coming en masse to experience what is sure to be the car of the year.
Ghibli: A fiercely hot wind of Northern Africa. While the Ghibli name has been used to define such things as an AMX fighter jet, ultra-light bicycle wheel sets, and even a Japanese animation studio, one thing is evident… the Maserati Ghibli is an exotic sports sedan that truly embodies the fleeting wind and fiery temperament.
Not only is the Ghibli a magnificent example of beautiful Italian design, it has been rated as a top safety pick from the IIHS. The European equivalent, the Euro NCAP, claims that “Maserati’s level of protection would be available to occupants of different sizes and to those sat in different positions.”
With the Ghibli being the first Maserati under $100,000, earning top safety picks, and featuring an elegant design; Maserati is set to take market share from the cookie cutter designs from the usual luxury manufacturers. Please browse these links to read more about recent crash testing.
http://www.euroncap.com/results/maserati/ghibli/539.aspx
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/maserati/ghibli
Twin Cities Luxury Auto at the 2013 Twin Cities Auto Show
Mar 15th
Twin Cities Luxury Auto is proud to present two of our finest vehicles in inventory at the 2013 Twin Cities Auto Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Gracing Luxury Lane is a 2013 Maserati GranTurismo Sport finished in Rosso Trio and a 2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 in Dragon Red – an absolute stunner.
The exhilaration of driving a Bentley to the Convention Center, and further driving the new Continental GT V8, a vehicle that can cost over 200k, is just something not many people get to experience. While the drive was nice, and the process of getting into Luxury Lane a little stressful, overall I think that for possible future clients the only thing they’ll experience is pure joy. The GT V8 is a great option for those potential buyers who want the best new thing to come from the Crewe factory, and want to see how a V8 performs in Coupe as opposed to the much larger Mulsanne. With the addition of the V8 engine comes better fuel and engine management systems as well as the new release color in Dragon Red.
As for the Maserati, this GranTurismo will turn heads and keep people talking long after you’ve passed them by. With a Ferrari-assembled engine, the GranTurismo Sport just doesn’t sound like anything else on the road, save for a Ferrari. The engineers and designers in Italy have prided themselves on creating one of the most exhilarating and best looking and sounding cars in history. While its looks may suggest otherwise, this elegant refined Maserati has a mean side and when switched over to Manual Sport mode break neck acceleration is right at your fingertips.
The 2013 Twin Cities Auto Show is open from March 9th to March 17th and features over $15 million in new vehicles. Cadillac, Hyundai, Kia, Lincoln, Ford and Nissan all have a presence plus many more brands across the spectrum. Come to Twin Cities Luxury Auto or any of Morrie’s dealerships and ask for a discounted ticket for the 2013 Twin Cities Auto Show. Also be sure to check out Luxury Lane and see the 2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 and the 2013 Maserati GranTurismo Sport. We’ll be looking for you!