The Lamborghini 350GT

By sabrebIade
The Lamborghini 350GT was the first production car by Lamborghini, first shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1963.

The car featured a 3.5 litre quad-cam V-12 engine (hence its designation), independent rear suspension (while Ferrari still used live rear axles) and a controversial 2+1 semi-fastback body by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan.

The 350GT generally drew high praises at the time for its flexible and high-revving engine, its stable cornering, even on rough surfaces, and its high level of finish. 120 copies were built from 1963 to 1966.

It has a top speed of 149mph and can accelerate to 60mph in 6.8 seconds.


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The Lamborghini 350 GTV

The Lamborghini 350 GTV was the prototype and forerunner of the later 350 GT (Lamborghini´s first production model).

It featured a controversial semi-fastback body design by Franco Scaglione, which was modified for series production by Carrozzeria Touring, and Lamborghini's own 3.5 liter V-12 engine. The car was presented to the public on the 1963 Turin Auto Show.


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Lamborghini

By sabrebIade
Lamborghini.
I like the way the word just rolls off your lips.
Like Eva Longoria or Ricardo Montalban.
But Lamborghini conjures images of rocket sleds that look like they're going 100 mph just sitting still.
Space ships, no FIGHTER space ships that only lack wings......sometimes.

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini, is an Italian manufacturer of high performance sports cars (supercar) based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. Lamborghini is now a subsidiary of German car manufacturer Audi AG, which is in turn a subsidiary of Volkswagen. Lamborghini is the main counterpart to Ferrari in the Italian sports car business. The company was founded in 1963 by businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini (April 28, 1916–February 20, 1993), who owned a successful tractor factory, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A..

As told by Ferruccio Lamborghini's son, Ferruccio Lamborghini went to meet Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari factory to complain about the quality of the clutch in the Ferrari 250 GT he owned. Enzo Ferrari sent him away telling him to go and drive tractors because he was not able to drive cars.
( Now how cool is that? The whole company was born from an insult!)
Lamborghini went back to his factory, had his Ferrari's clutch dismantled and realized that the clutch manufacturer was the same who supplied the clutches for his tractors. In his warehouse he found a spare part which he thought suitable, and when it was installed the problem was solved.

Ferruccio decided that his car was to have a V12 engine, and enlisted the services of talented engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, who had previously worked on a Ferrari V12. The new engine had 4 cams, a short stroke and 2 big bore valves per cylinder, and developed a surprising 350 horsepower (260 kW). The engine featured aluminium construction, with a crankshaft supported by seven main bearings, forged aluminium pistons, and camshafts with their own half-engine-speed sprocket and silent chain. The car the engine was mounted in was designed by Franco Scaglione's Scaglione-Touring.

This Lamborghini 350GTV prototype began making public appearances in 1963, starting with the Turin Auto Show. Sales of the production model, known as the 350GT, began the following year with great success, with over 130 examples sold. Born under the sign of the Taurus, Ferruccio Lamborghini used the bull as the badge by which to mark his new automobile.



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The Porsche Roxster

Our last Porsche is the " Black Triangle" of Porsche....
The Porsche Roxster is a rumoured mid-size luxury crossover SUV to be released by German automaker Porsche for the 2009 or 2010 model year. It will be built with many components of the Audi Q5 SUV. As a mid-sizer, it will be the second Porsche SUV, after the full-size Porsche Cayenne.
The Roxster has been denied and confirmed on the web over and over.
So I guess we'll just have to wait.




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The Porsche GT1

The Porsche GT1 is the successor to Porsche Carrera GT rumoured to be released in 2009. As originally reported by Autocar The GT1 will feature new as well as technologies previously developed for the Porsche Carrera GT. Testing of engines for the GT1 have already begun, although it is unclear whether Porsche will decide to use a modified version of the Carrera GT or Cayenne S's V8 powerplant.


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The Porsche Panamera

The Porsche Panamera is a four-door, four-seat sedan, currently still in concept stages, set to be launched in 2009. It will be front engined and rear wheel drive and powered by a modified version of the 4.5 L V8 found in the Cayenne, equipped with the FSI system invented by Volkswagen (Porsche and Volkswagen collaborated on the Cayenne/Touareg sport utility vehicle platform). Base spec models will be engineered with a 3.6 litre V6 found in the upcoming 2008 facelifted Cayenne, and there is even a hybrid version in the pipeline. Rumours suggest that the V10 engine from Porsche's limited-run Carrera GT supercar may be offered as well, although this is still extremely unlikely given the expense of manufacturing the engine and that Porsche does not currently have a facility capable of producing a suitable number of the V10 per year. A rumour is also around that the V12 diesel from the Audi Q7 could make it into the Panamera.

The final assembly of the vehicles will take place in Leipzig. Engines will be assembled in Stuttgart, and the car's painted body will come from the Volkswagen facility in Hanover.

The Panamera is generally considered to be the long-awaited fruit of their 989 concept from the late 1980s; some argue that it also presents itself as a suitable successor to the 2-doored 928, although some amount of debate surrounds this. It will be marketed as a direct competitor to automobiles such as the Mercedes-Benz CLS 55 AMG and Maserati Quattroporte and (to a lesser degree) a less expensive alternative to vehicles such as the Bentley Continental GT, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and Aston Martin Rapide. It is the first V8-engined sports car built by Porsche since 1995, when the 928 was discontinued and will be produced in the new plant at Leipzig alongside the Cayenne. The vehicle has been caught testing at the Nürburgring and the original sketches are a little more sleek than the taped up model spied testing

Artist renderings of the car already distributed by Porsche show a low-slung, four-door sports car with narrow side windows and flowing lines. However spy shots of the Porsche Panamera testing at the Nürburgring show a more blunt car than the artists renderings.

The Panamera's name is derived, like the Porsche Carrera line, from the Carrera Panamericana race. Earlier prototypes of four-door sedans such as the 1991 Porsche 989 prototype or the even earlier 4 door 911 based prototype, never went into production.

On the 20th of April 2007 a spy video of the Porsche Panamera became available on the net.



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The Porsche Cayman

The Porsche Cayman is a mid-engined 2-seat sports car produced by Porsche AG of Germany. First launched in the 2006 model year, the Cayman is the coupé version of the second generation Porsche Boxster convertible. Like the Boxster, the Cayman is assembled in Finland by Valmet Automotive.

The performance of the Cayman S approaches that of Porsche's flagship sports car, the 911 Carrera. Rally legend Walter Röhrl lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife track in a Cayman S equipped with optional 19" wheels, PCCB, and PASM in a time of 8 minutes, 11 seconds. The time for a standard Cayman S, as published by the manufacturer, was 8 minutes, 20 seconds. In contrast, Röhrl recorded 8 minutes, 15 seconds in a 911 Carrera. The similarity in performance between the two cars has led to speculation about whether the Cayman S will cannibalize sales of the Carrera, as the basic Carrera's recommended retail price in the United States is $12,400 higher than that of the Cayman S.

A Cayman prepared and run by privateers Jürgen and Uwe Alzen finished fourth overall (of 220 entrants) in the 2007 running of the Nürburgring 24 Hour race, ahead of two flagship Porsche 997 GT3 RSR's, a 997 GT3 Cup, and a 996 GT3 Cup. Another two privateer Caymans, entered by CSR and MSpeed, finished 22nd and 117th overall, respectively. Porsche disclaims support for the Cayman teams, while supporting some or all of the 997 teams.

A performance car feature which is not available from Porsche for the Cayman is limited slip differential (LSD). Some commentators have speculated that LSD is not offered, even as an option, because the Cayman S's performance would then be too close to the 911 Carrera. Several tuning companies offer Cayman buyers the ability to retrofit a LSD.


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Porsche Carrera GT

The Porsche Carrera GT was a supercar manufactured by Porsche in Germany.

The Carrera GT's development can be traced back to a Porsche successor to the 911 GT1-98 and LMP1-98 racing cars that had ended after the 1998, partially due to FIA and ACO rule changes. Porsche at the time had planned on a new Le Mans prototype for 1999. The car was initially intended to use a turbocharged flat-6, but was later redesigned to use a new V10 engine, pushing the project back to planned competition in 2000. The V10 was a unit secretly built by Porsche for the Footwork Formula One team in 1992, but later shelved. The engine was resurrected for the Le Mans prototype and increased in size to 5.5 litres. Unfortunately the project was cancelled after 2 days of testing for the first car, in mid-1999, mostly due to Porsche's wish to build the Cayenne SUV with involvement from Volkswagen and Audi, thus requiring engineering expertise to be pulled from the motorsports division. It was also speculated that VW-Audi chairman Ferdinand Piëch wanted Audi's new Le Mans Prototype, the Audi R8 not to face competition from Porsche in 2000.

Porsche did keep part of the project alive by using the 5.5L V10 from the prototype in a concept car shown at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show, mainly in an attempt to draw attention to their display. Surprising interest in the vehicle and an influx of revenue provided from the Cayenne helped Porsche decide to produce the car, and development started on a road-legal version that would be produced in small numbers at Porsche's new manufacturing facility in Leipzig. Porsche started a production run of Carrera GTs in 2004, shipping the units with an MSRP of $440,000 USD and a dealer invoice price of approximately $414,800 USD. In addition, the delivery charge could be as much as $5,000 USD. The first Carrera GT went on sale in the US on Jan 31, 2004.

Originally a production run of 1,500 cars was planned. But Porsche announced in August, 2005 that it would not continue production of the Carrera GT through 2006. Porsche wisely announced that this discontinuation was due to changing airbag regulations in the US and not highly disappointing sales. However, the diminishing sales volumes, high dealer inventory levels, and dealer discounts below MSRP were widely reported by the automotive press to be the true factors driving an early end to the production run

As of May 6, 2006, 1,270 GT's had been manufactured, with 604 being sold in the United States and dozens sitting on dealer showroom floors.

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