Fiat North America has made a special announcement at the Fiat-Lancia club meet in North Carolina.  Before the new Fiat 500 debuts there will be a special edition launched first.  This “Prima Edizione” as Fiat is calling it will be a limited edition with only 500 made.  Each car will be numbered and only a sport manual transmission will be offered. You can have any color you want as long as it’s red, white or gray.  Who got the first dibs?  Members of the Fiat-Lancia club at the meet did. They got first chance to put down deposits and choose colors that they would like to have.  Pretty cool move from Fiat North America.  Hope to see them out later this year.

Recently at the Eurosatory Defense Expo in France, Mercedes-Benz debuted a military grade G-Wagon.  This Mercedes is no joke, especially the name; the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon Light Armoured Patrol Vehicle 6.X CONCEPT.  The name should give you an idea of what this Benz entails, a powerful diesel motor that can achieve up to 100 miles-per-hour and do that with up to 1.3 tons of cargo.  A short wheel base, adjustable shock absorbers and 17 inches of ground clearance enable this vehicle to conquer almost any terrain.  The armor plating surrounding the vehicle and the under carriage provides safety against small mines or other types of ammunition.  When these parts are damaged, they can be easily interchange for a quick turn around.  Interesting to see that Mercedes can come out with something so creative, but it is yet to be seen if this will be better than the Hummer?

If you have ever watched the Dakar Rally then you will know that Volkswagen is not one to look over; They have won the past two Dakar rallies with their TDI Touareg.  Volkswagen is the only manufacture to win with Diesel technology and is looking for a hat trick in the 2011 Dakar Rally in South America.  The Race Touareg 3 is not a completely new design but is more of a face lift;  the basic 300 horsepower TDI motor will still be used along with the suspension and chassis.  Changes will be focused on the outer shell of the vehicle.  Anything that Volkswagen can get to optimized their Touareg will help because this year the course is more grueling and technical with faster deserts, higher altitudes and more twisty mountain passes.  Look forward to seeing the new Race Touareg debut in August.

Downforce is crucial in any form of racing be it Nascar or LeMans.  Aero kits and spoilers can make or break a drivers chance to get on the podium; simply put a good aero kit will allow you to hold a few more miles-per-hour through a corner and that could mean passing the guy in front of you.  In the ALMS, BMW has recently had their regulations changed and it has hurt them drastically.  Their big V8’s are having issues keeping all the power down.  Last year they lost their dive planes up front due to the regulations going from GT2S to GT2.

The BMW team is going to be testing and trying to get approval for their new Eurospec LeMans body kit; it features brand new front, rear and side sections as well as redesigned wheel arches.  BMW hopes that this will increase the cars’ downforce and reduce drag.  We all hope so because BMW has been struggling to try and make a podium finish in the extremely competitive GT class.

Everyone already knows about the Veyron’s 16 cylinder quad turbo engine that held the World Land Speed Record for a production car at 253 miles-per-hour.  The record was eventually beat by another car, so Bugatti revamped their Supercar.  It is now the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport.  The aero kit has been changed slightly but more importantly there is more power; 200 more horsepower and torque.

The car was tested on Volkswagens Ehra-Lessian high speed oval track.  Between two runs forward and backwards on the 5 mile straight, they averaged a top speed of 267.81 miles-per-hour.  The higher of the two laps was a blistering 269.8 miles-per-hour.

Later this year the new face lifted MINI’s will be rolling out onto the roads.  Most of the changes are fairly minimal at best but ALL MINI’s will now have the option between two different diesel motors.  The MINI Cooper D will be the fastest out of the two doing 0-60 in a blistering 9.7 seconds with 112hp and 199 lb-ft of torque.  These numbers might not be too impressive but 74mpg surely is.  BMW AG built the motors out of aluminum to keep weight down and in turn make these cars handle and be very nimble.  The Clubman and Convertible have numbers below what the Cooper D has but it will be sure to sell well with 74mpg.

The second oldest motor sports race in history is held in Colorado Spring; It’s called the “Race to the Clouds“. This year marks the 88th running of the race, a winding 12.42 mile course with 156 turns, asphalt, gravel and dirt with an elevation change of just over 5000 feet.  30% of your race car’s power is lost by the time you reach the top. Needless to say, it’s not an easy race, but Jeff Zwart took a specially prepared Luminox Watch Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car to Pikes Peak and showed the competition a few things.  Beating the previous record holder for his Time Attack 2wd Class by 18seconds, you would think he would be content; But nope, he ended up going faster than some of the pole sitters in higher classes!

“This 911 GT3 Cup car seems to perform seamlessly from the bottom to the top of the Hill. I’ve have never been so comfortable driving Pikes Peak, and the speed I can carry into the turns – more than 115 miles-per-hour – is faster than I have ever gone here, and yet I can set up well for the dozens of hairpins which populate the course,” said Zwart.

RUF is a world renowned Porsche tuner that pushes the limits.  Their new V8 power plant is nothing short of impressive either.  The lightweight  4.5l V8 puts out 550bhp at 8500rpm.  This powerful V8 was engineered to be compact and light-weight in order to fit into the ass of a 911;  It only weights 440lbs. Utilizing a dry sump system and with 4 valves per cylinder this RUF power-plant has been optimized to deliver world class power.