Paul Ricard: HEXIS Racing AMR preview

Paul Ricard: HEXIS Racing AMR preview Racing series   FIA-GT3 Date 2009-09-30

Welcome!

HEXIS Racing AMR, which is used to carving up European roads far from its base in the Gard, will have to travel no more than 172 km to the superb "High Tech Test Track" at Le Castellet. For this home circuit Philippe Dumas and his team will want to forget the disappointment in Portugal, where both Aston Martin DBRS9s had to abandon the race when they were well in the hunt for victory. The aim will therefore be to consolidate the lead in the Teams class in the FIA European GT3 championships and to position themselves once again for the final dash to the line for the Drivers title. All of this without losing sight of a 2010 season holding out great promise in, possibly, three race categories.

HTTT - a very special moment

For HEXIS Racing AMR, the magic initials HTTT could well stand for "Hot Trophy Trail Time" on the Var circuit. The fact is that a home race always has a special meaning for a team. They can look forward to great local support. The fact that a HEXIS Racing AMR Aston Martin is starring on the poster of a meeting devoted 100% to Grand Tourisme is a source of encouragement.

This meeting takes place three weeks after a Portuguese outing which proved a great letdown for HEXIS Racing AMR. Flashback: Over the first half of the season, the Aston Martin No. 3 of Julien Rodrigues and Thomas Accary achieved a podium position at Silverstone and a victory at Oschersleben. The Aston No 4 of Manu Rodrigues and Frederic Makowiecki shot into a 3rd and then the top podium place at the night meeting in Adria and went on to secure another 3rd place finish in Germany. Provisional results: the pairings occupy 2nd and 3rd places respectively in the European championship; all four drivers have their eye on the title and the team has an eight point lead over its nearest rival in the Teams class. At the end of this 2009 season there are still so much to play for! Provided, of course, that the mishaps at Portimao do not recur too often.

Team manager Philippe Dumas has this to say on the disappointments suffered in Portugal: "We were hit by several technical problems. My hope is that they all occurred on the same weekend and on the same circuit and that they'll leave us alone at Paul Ricard! I just think that the Portimao track is particularly hard on our style of car mechanically, with too much emphasis on sudden compression at high speed. But we need to be aggressive and take some risks if we are to compete in these hotly contested championships."

The team, FIA GT3 European vice-champion for the 2008 season, wants to prove that it has moved up a notch this season. "It's in the difficult times that the true metal of a good team can be seen", Dumas went on to say. "At Portimao we proved that we are a strong and closely knit unit. It's got heart. People understood the team's commitment and passionate desire to succeed. Despite the nightmarish results and the failure to score even a single point, the weekend was strangely enough the best of the season from the technical and sporting standpoint. The men and one woman comprising the team worked fast and well and even Aston Martin Racing complimented us on their performance. The drivers did their job perfectly. I have to congratulate everyone concerned on the commitment and spirit shown. It is this attitude which makes for a great team and is consistent with the view of racing which we share with Clement and Michel Mateu. In the end, it's all about people. We need to stay positive and remember that we're experiencing a fantastic sporting season and performing very well and that there's still a third of the way to go! The Paul Ricard circuit is certainly a determining factor in terms of our objectives. We're ready for the battle and for the points count at the end."

GT3, 2, 1... HEXIS Racing AMR's countdown to the future

If the end of the 2009 season promises to be exciting, 2010 won't be a bad year either for the Ledenon team. Clement Mateu has this to say regarding the latest developments: "We're continuing to work increasingly on our future with Aston Martin and on a few other more or less familiar projects. The FIA GT3 is as always on the agenda and we plan for major development work so as to keep up with the competition. We are thinking about contesting a national championship as well as Europe, using the same cars. We might also enter the Nurburgring 24 Hours with our third DBRS9 GT3 model, in an endurance version. This year has seen our first venture into GT2 racing and a first podium position in the FIA GT class. Since we're very interested in the Le Mans 24 Hours, why not enter a V8 Vantage GT2 next June? Our participation in the FIA GT1 World Championships is still very much on. We're very keen to know more about the schedule and the TV coverage since these factors are vital to our budgeting and expenditure and revenue estimates. A meeting with the SRO operator is scheduled this weekend at the Paul Ricard circuit. Whatever happens, we should like to thank partners and drivers, who have placed their trust in us, and both Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Lagonda. We're only just at the beginning of a great adventure."

-credit: hexisracing.com

A Long Bet on Electric Cars

The Obama Administration is eager to establish a green auto industry and is willing to spend money to make it happen. So far the U.S. Energy Dept. has agreed to lend $8.5 billion to help companies large and small retool plants to make more fuel-efficient cars and develop new technologies. On Sept. 22, the Energy Dept. announced the latest such loan: $528 million for a Silicon Valley startup called Fisker Automotive that vows to produce 130,000 plug-in hybrids by 2013.

The U.S. government believes in funding companies outside the established industry because it's important to nurture new ideas. "We're trying to create competition among technologies in the marketplace," says Matt Rogers, an Energy Dept. adviser. Fisker and Tesla Motors, another startup that has received $465 million in federal money, both say their cars are high-tech and have spurred plenty of consumer interest. But some experts believe the upstarts are too small to compete. "We're pouring $1 billion into two companies without a future," says industry watcher Maryann N. Keller. "The economics of the industry favors large companies."

If the aim of industrial policy is to help nations become leaders in promising new areas, then Fisker, say critics, doesn't pass the test. Founded by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, the company is best described as an integrator—using other people's motor and battery technology, an engine from General Motors, and a Finnish contract manufacturer to build the cars. Fisker says it is more than an integrator, having developed its own chassis.

Tesla has more credibility as an innovator. It has the only true electric car on the road, and it designed the battery pack that provides the juice. Its technological prowess prompted Daimler (DAI) to invest $50 million in Tesla and tap the company to make electric Smart cars.

But it will be a huge challenge for either Fisker or Tesla to achieve sufficient scale. Selling 100,000-plus cars a year requires a large network of dealers. Eventually Fisker will have about 100 stores nationally; Tesla has seven with a few more on the way. By contrast, Nissan (NSANY), Toyota (TM), Ford (F), and General Motors have thousands of dealers in multiple markets that will be able to sell and service electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The big players also lease cars, which is vital to reach affluent customers who have the wherewithal to try pricey new technology. Fisker and Tesla have yet to cut deals with banks to offer leases.

Keller and other critics say the U.S. government should put taxpayer money into more established players. Ford got money to retool plants; Nissan to develop an electric car. But the Energy Dept. nixed GM and Chrysler back when they were headed for bankruptcy. Now that they have emerged, is it time to reconsider? Chrysler has an electric car program but would have to prove that the company is viable in the long run. GM, meanwhile, has a cleaned-up balance sheet and the electric Chevrolet Volt on the way. Rogers of the Energy Dept. says both companies will get another look now that they have emerged from bankruptcy. Should Toyota decide to build any of its future hybrid cars in the U.S., it too could be eligible.

Not every government investment is a sure bet. The question is how much risk taxpayers should shoulder. The feds have put $465 million into Tesla, but it has raised only $300 million and change in private capital. And the U.S. has invested five times as much in Fisker as private investors. Rogers says Fisker must raise more money to tap the credit line, but debt will still account for 70% of the company's funding. So the risk, and burden if these companies fail, will mostly rest with U.S. taxpayers.

Welch is BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau chief.

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DIARY: Donald Trump's bald spot delivered

One of our neighbours bought a great car (PT Cruiser convertible) through an online store like eBay and Flug got all jealous. "I'll do even better," he vowed, and began searching the Internet for a sporty something - a Ferrari, Acura, Porsche, McLaren, Jaguar, Stingray, Maserati or Gremlin.

He found one, a 2010 Aston Martin Rapide, and it was only $8,000. I said: "Flug, I think that car costs somewhat more than that, or, in the words of the late Damon Runyon, more than somewhat. I will look it up on the Internet, but I think it's more like six figures, and that's not counting decimal points and the digits found to the right of said decimal point."

I know this sounds a little personal, but I went home and Googled - and I don't mean with Listerine. That search engine - Google I mean, not Listerine - showed the price all right, but with only a 19" computer monitor I couldn't see all the digits. I had to go over to Old Man Manley's place and look at it on his 32" monitor. The price just barely fit on his wider monitor. It was more than eight thousand dollars.

I went back over to Flug's house and told him so, but the big guy, not given to consultation (unfortunately for the psychiatric profession), had already bid on and won the item.

Next morning, bright and early about noon (my wife had piled all the wood in the shed, washed all the clothes and the vehicles, and had tilled both gardens) I looked out my bedroom window and saw the NetExpress truck in Flug's driveway. After washing up and having a light breakfast (which my wife finally made) of bacon, eggs, ham, pancakes and a bean sprout, I walked over to Flug's about 3 p.m. In his driveway was a carton about the size of Donald Trump's bald spot.

"Where's your Aston Martin?" I queried. The big guy was close to tears. Between sniffles - and bites of hand-held blueberry waffles - he explained that he had somehow missed the small print in the online store's description of the car.

"The whole car's in there," he pointed to the huge box. "It's like one a them soap box derby cars that the kids used to drive around. Imagine! Eight thousand dollars. Why didn't you warn me? He reached for his filleting knife that he always carries with him. I backed away, but he merely opened the box. It was an Aston Martin all right, but one you might see through the wrong end of the telescope.

Eight hours later, we had it all together, with only 183 parts left over. There was just room for him in the driver's seat, if he stripped and anointed himself with oil, as it were. He started the engine, which sounded remarkably like mother's 1942 Singer sewing machine. Very smooth.

A 2010 Aston Martin Rapide, a 1942 Singer - there must be a poem or song in there somewhere, but I thought I'd get some distance between Flug and me before I composed it or I'd find myself de-composing. Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.

************************

Flug's antics haven't been the only newsy items in this community during the last week. Every parent I know is practically hyperventilating with sighs of relief after their little angels went back to school following Labour Day. Of course that great hulk who lives here and inhales the refrigerator's contents twice a day was ecstatic about returning to school. He's in grade 12 this year, which I find really weird; I may be mistaken (I'm told I often am) but it seems to me that it was only five or six years ago that my wife and I were lugging him home from the hospital. He saw the fridge, ate three ham sandwiches and went to bed for an hour. The rest is history.

Speaking of Labour Day, I wonder every year why it is called that. Makes no sense to me. How could it be Labour Day when it's a holiday from labour? This year I looked it up and found that it originated in the 1870s in Hamilton, Ontario after workers went on strike for a 9-hour day. Lazy bums. I work more than that in a week, and I'm 61.

The Canadian annual celebration of the workers' success in getting trade union protection led to a similar holiday in the U.S., but try and get them to admit that some other country thought of something first. Good luck with that.

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Bob's website: users.xplornet.com/~robertlafrance/Index.htm

Clunker Cash: No Boost for Consumers

IF ANY PROOF THAT the cash-for-clunkers scheme was one of the dumbest ideas ever to come along, consider some of the geniuses that took up the federal government on its offer of up $4500 to junk their rides.

Among the clunkers going into the crusher included a 1997 Bentley, a 1997 Aston Martin, a 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG and 37 models that were less than a year old, the Detroit News reported. All those exotic older cars and the new ones had to be worth more than the $3500-$4500 their owners got to trade them in for new gas-sippers, but apparently they made the irrational choice of a junking their not-so-clunky car instead of selling or trading it in.

Why such dumb choices? An old joke holds a possible clue: A chap sees a classified ad for a two-year-old Corvette for just $1,000. Why so cheap? He asks the woman who answers the phone. "My husband ran away to Tahiti with his secretary and he e-mailed me to sell his 'Vette for whatever I could get for it and send him the proceeds."

Other than such revenge served deliciously cold, one commenter at the Detroit News Web site also observed that a clunker could have been "a Caddy that took a swim during Katrina." But excepting such instances, a rational recipient of clunker cash got more than the trade-in was worth and likely was going to buy a new car anyway. Or, perhaps, the clunker deal swayed the buyer from a late-model used car.

While there were undeniable benefits -- 22 Peugeots went into the crusher, may they rest in one solid, irreducible piece -- the costs were vastly greater. According to an estimate by two University of Delaware economists cited by the Detroit News, the costs of the $3 billion cash-for-clunkers program exceeded the benefits by $1.4 billion.

Still, auto sales surged to a boom-time 14 million annual rate in August as car buyers went ga-ga for clunker cash, bringing joy to them and dealers -- especially dealers. Now comes payback time.

"On closer inspection, we do not see lasting, tangible benefits for the economy," Citigroup economists write about cash for clunkers in this weeks Comments on Credit. "The sales spike probably borrowed from future months and will fall off sharply now that the program has ended.

"We believe that the program did not help that the program did not help auto makers much because the rise in sales was temporary, and gave car buyers only a small cost savings. The biggest beneficiaries of this program were the auto dealers themselves, who essentially received a huge transfer from the U.S. Treasury," they add.

Because Uncle Sam sent the voucher directly to the dealers, they gained tremendous flexibility in negotiating prices. Added to the mix of variables dealers can manipulate -- base prices, incentives or rebates, and the concessions they deign to grant -- comes the clunkers program. Since depressed sales already had them giving deep discounts, the government vouchers essentially replace dealer discounts and incentives, Citigroup explains.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures the average expenditure per car is $22,000. If the average clunker check of $4,000 were split evenly between the dealer and the buyer, the cost would be reduced by 9%. Given half the autos purchased in August involved clunker cash, the consumer price index for new vehicles would have fallen by about 4.5%. Based on the actual number, Citigroup reckons consumers got only about 15% of the benefit of the program.

So, the folks who traded in Bentleys and Aston-Martins for clunker cash weren't the only ones who were deluded. It seems most of the car buyers who rushed to get in on the deal also were fooled.

"The most notable effect from the cash for clunkers program was to distort the path of consumer spending in the third and fourth quarters," the Citi economists add. "As a result of the surge in vehicle sales in August, real consumption is likely to have grown at a 2% annual rte in the third quarter, which would be the biggest gain in 2 ½ years.

"Half of that growth was due to the rise in motor vehicle sales. Now that the program is over, we estimate that vehicle sales plummeted back toward the 9 million unit range in September and will remain low through autumn. As a result, we expect real consumer spending to fall back noticeably in the fourth quarter." the Citi economists write. Neither gives a true picture of the trend in consumer spending, which they see improving in 2010.

But John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics contends the expiration of one-shot schemes will give way to new downlegs.

"The broad economic data remain deep in recession territory, even with the cash-for-clunkers program and the first-time homebuyers tax credit running their courses. The clunkers programs has expired, and given the closing period on home sales, so, too, has the bulk of the tax credit," he writes.

(The first-time homebuyers' $8000 tax credit applies to purchases that close by Nov. 1, though Congress could extend the deadline. If not, a house likely would have to be under contract to close by Dec. 1, and that could be pushing it given the likely last-minute rush.)

"With consensus estimates having created irrationally optimistic expectations for a near-term economic recovery, economic reports in the months ahead increasingly should disappoint expectations," Williams concludes.

Various series are "bottom bouncing" along what SGS defines depression-level peak-to-trough declines of 25%. And improvements in year-over-declines represent the easier comparisons versus depressed year-ago readings, he adds.

For instance, durable-goods orders are down 28.6% from their peak and have been bouncing around the January 2009 seasonally adjusted monthly level of $160 billion into August, even with cash-for-clunker upticks for motor vehicles in July and August.

Similarly, housing starts in August were down 29.6% from a year earlier; at a 598,000 annual rate, the month's starts were within the range of normal volatility relative to the trend of 550,000 units, Williams writes.

Now that the feel-good programs -- cash for clunkers and the first-time homebuyers tax credit -- have expired or are about to, it's not clear what can take their place with consumers facing falling employment and incomes, diminished wealth and still-tight credit. But they were fun while they lasted, even if the improvements were illusory.

Comments: randall.forsyth@barrons.com

Frankfurt Motor Show 2009: The power and the green-tech glory

After the drab days

we’ve been through in the auto industry, the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show was an explosion of new products and green technologies.

Volkswagen Group had a dominant presence in Frankfurt presenting more a dozen cars and concepts ranging from the 189 mpg L1 Concept to the stunning, V16 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Sang Blue roadster — all 1,001 horsepower of it.

During a closed-door interview, Detlef Wittig, executive vice-president group sales and marketing, who served as president of Volkswagen Canada 20 years ago, said VW no longer intends be a “niche” player in the North American market.

This will be lead by a new small car and a new mid-size sedan.

He also confirmed a version of the Polo, not in its current form but probably as a notchback, is “under consideration” for Canada’s strong sub-compact market if pricing and a place to build it can be worked out.

Among other highlights from VW Group were:

■ Lamborghini Reventon Roadster: Dubbed “the most-exclusive” car in the world — because only 20 will be hand-assembled — its 6.5-litre, 12-cylinder generates 670 horsepower, catapulting the Roadster from zero to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 205 m.p.h.

■ Audi e-tron: Four motors, two each at the front and rear axles, drive the wheels, making the concept car a true quattro.

Producing 313 horsepower, the two-seater accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds, and from 60 to 120 km/h in 4.1 seconds.

The lithium-ion battery provides a useable energy content of 42.4-kilowatt hours to enable a range of approximately 248 kilometres.

■ Audi R8 V10 Spyder: The new R8 Spyder, with fully automatic lightweight fabric top, brings added wind-in-hair intensity to the already extreme driving experience delivered by the lightweight aluminum, mid-engine and quattro-equipped super car.

Based on the 525 horsepower, V10, 5.2-litre FSI model, but featuring a bespoke body incorporating additional weight-saving carbon fibre composite panels, the new open-air R8 will be available in Europe by spring.

■ Volkswagen E-Up! Concept: Powered by an electric motor capable of delivering a peak of 54 horsepower (constant) and 154 lb/ft of torque driving the front wheels, the E-Up! Concept can accelerate to 100 km/h in 11.3 seconds before reaching a top speed of 120 km/h.

■ Bentley Mulsanne: Echoing the Bentley S-Type of the 1950s, the super luxury segment Mulsanne features a 6.75-litre V8 producing 512 horsepower and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

It stands out due to a bold frontal design dominated by the traditional Bentley matrix grille and highly prominent, classic round inner headlamps with chrome surrounds, flanked by two, smaller outboard lamp clusters, all featuring the latest in lighting technology.

The iconic ‘Flying B’ retractable radiator mascot is available as an option.

Other important vehicles at Frankfurt included:

■ Aston Martin: The Rapide is the marque’s first production four-door sports car going head-to-head against the Porsche Panamera.

A 301-litre luggage compartment affords generous space for belongings for all four passengers, whether they are sports bags or sets of skis, creating an Aston Martin that can be enjoyed on any occasion, anytime, anywhere.

The Rapide features a hand-built 6.0-litre V12 engine producing 470 horsepower.

A standard specifically tuned six-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic transmission allows the driver to change gear automatically or manually via the steering column-mounted magnesium paddles.

■ BMW: The BMW calls the Vision EfficientDynamics its most innovative concept car ever.

Its unique powertrain, ground-breaking performance potential and exo-skeletal style bodywork crafted from aerodynamic knowledge gained in Formula One sets it apart.

Powered by a three-cylinder turbo diesel engine and two electric motors, the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics is capable of BMW M3 performance but with

a fraction of that model’s CO2 emissions and far greater fuel economy.

■ Chrysler: Looking surprisingly very much at home tucked in between Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati was the Chrysler and Jeep stand.

Approximately 40 per cent of European Jeep Wrangler Unlimited buyers are expected to opt for the new “Moparized” version that was displayed.

It features chromed mirror covers and doorsills, accents that hold true to the black and chrome theme.

Further, Mopar’s 18-inch chromed aluminum wheels are added to enhance the appearance.

Finishing off the iconic Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the historical seven-slot grille is upgraded to a chromed grille.

■ Ford: There was a lot of buzz at the Ford stand but one of the biggest announcements was confirmation that the seven-seat Grand C-Max model will be introduced in North America in late 2011, joining the new Fiesta, the Transit Connect commercial van and the next-generation Ford Focus as one of six European-designed models promised by the company under its “One Ford” strategy.

Built on the Focus platform the new C Grand C-Max, features twin sliding doors and innovative seat design to provide outstanding space and flexibility.

■ Mercedes-Benz: The fabled Gullwing returned in the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG that features an aluminum space frame body with gullwing doors, an AMG 6.3-litre, front-mid V8 engine with a top power of 571 horsepower, dry sump lubrication, seven-speed dual-clutch in a transaxle configuration, a sports chassis with aluminum double-wishbone suspension and a curb weight of 1,620 kilograms.

The Gullwing accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds and has a top speed of 197 m.p.h. (electronically limited).

The fuel consumption of 21.4 mpg (combined) is best in class (all figures are provisional).

The near-series Mercedes-Benz Concept BlueZERO E-CELL PLUS electric car combines environmentally friendly electric mobility in the city with unrestricted suitability for long-distance driving.

This is made possible with the combination of the battery-electric drive and a combustion engine.

The range extender gives the BlueZERO E-CELL PLUS a total range of up to 370 miles, with some 100 km solely under electric power and thus free of local emissions.

■ Porsche: Although now a part of the Volkswagen Group, Porsche had a separate stand with four new 911 models: The 911 Turbo, the 911 GT3 RS, its 911 GT3 Cup motorsport twin and the limited-edition 911 Sport Classic, which will not be available in North America.

The Frankfurt exhibition also marked the European premiere of the four-door, four-seat Panamera Gran Turismo.

■ Ferrari: The Ferrari 458 Italia is an eight-cylinder two-seater berlinetta with a mid-rear mounted engine and represents a genuine break with the past in terms of Maranello’s previous high-performance sports cars.

It boasts a new 4,499-cc V8 engine, which punches out 570 horsepower with F1 dual-clutch gearbox, combined with a 1,380 kilograms dry weight.

This results in an extraordinary weight/power ratio of 413 horsepower/ton.

This means it sprints from zero to 100 km/h in under 3.4 seconds and hits a maximum speed of over 325 km/h.

■ Hyundai: Hyundai created a special Blue Drive Zone, where it exhibited a wide array of its new eco-friendly technologies and products demonstrating its commitment to lowering emissions and improving the fuel economy of its vehicles.

Centre stage is reserved for the world debut of the ix-Metro, a new hybrid electric CUV for the European sub-B segment which promises CO2 emissions of just 80 g/km.

Of more immediate interest to Canadians, the ix35 joins the European C-segment and it expected it to replace the Tucson compact CUV here.

Alongside was the significantly revised Santa Fe, which benefits from a wide range of engineering and cosmetic changes to fine-tune the driving experience and make it even more competitive versus rival 4x4s.

■ Kia: For Canadian audiences, the big news was the seven-seat Sorento.

It is longer and lower than the current model and incorporates Kia’s new design DNA, while featuring a much more spacious and luxurious cabin.

The 4,685-millimetre long SUV is also significantly sleeker than the previous model with an aerodynamic drag figure of Cd 0.38, down from 0.43.

And, while no one was talking officially about it coming to North American, Kia’s new premium B-segment (sub-compact in Canada) contender will be named Venga when it goes on sale across Europe later this year.

Designed, engineered and manufactured in Europe, the 4,068 mm long Kia Venga features an unusually long wheelbase for its class of 2,615 millimetre and a 1600 millimetre high roofline to maximize cabin space.

■ Lexus: The Lexus LF-Ch full hybrid concept is Lexus’ first approach to the competitive European premium compact segment.

The LF-Ch’s full hybrid powertrain is engineered to deliver all the performance customers expect from a premium compact hatchback, while at the same time returning low fuel consumption, CO2 and NOx emissions.

With the benefit of the full hybrid technology of Lexus Hybrid drive, the car can be driven in a fully electric EV mode, a power option that is not available to drivers of mild hybrids.

■ Maserati: The Maserati GranCabrio is the Trident brand’s third prong and completes Maserati’s product line-up that now consists of three different families of models: Quattroporte, GranTurismo, GranCabrio.

The GranCabrio is powered by a 4.7-litre V8, 433 horsepower engine and is the convertible with the longest wheelbase on the market.

■ Mazda: The Mazda stand introduced Europeans to the new Mazda CX-7 featuring Mazda’s new family face as seen on Mazda6 and Mazda3.

Also offering a bolder stance, the new Mazda CX-7 is powered by a high-output diesel engine for European use.

Mazda CX-7 debuts as the first Japanese passenger car to have a diesel engine fitted with a selective catalytic reduction (scr) system, which cuts NOx emissions by 40 per cent.

■ Opel: A Canadian car for the masses?

Now that Canadian-based Magna International is a major shareholder in Opel, the future of the next generation Astra was the subject of much speculation.

The new Astra five-door hatchback shown in Frankfurt was very good looking and gets a claimed 12 per cent fuel efficiency increase over the current model.

In Europe, it has a front-facing camera that recognizes traffic signs, like the speed limit, and informs the driver.

■ Rolls-Royce:

The Rolls-Royce Ghost will be powered by a brand new 6.6-litre turbo charged V12 engine unique to Rolls-Royce.

This engine produces 563 horsepower, delivering a zero to 60 m.p.h. time of 4.7 seconds and a governed top speed of 155 m.p.h..

The engine is combined with an eight-speed automatic ZF gearbox.

Rolls-Royce has already confirmed the Ghost will ride on an intelligent four-corner air suspension system using multi link aluminum front and rear axles.

The fully integrated system allows each of the Ghost’s dynamic handling systems to work together in harmony, providing the optimum levels of refinement and comfort at all times.

■ Saab: The all-new 9-5 sedan signals the dawn of a new era for the Saab brand.

With progressive, confident styling and advanced technology, Saab’s distinctive new flagship will bring a fresh, alternative choice to the premium sedan segment when it goes on sale in 2010.

The all-turbo powertrain lineup is the broadest ever offered by Saab, carrying forward Saab’s engine strategy focusing on responsible performance through the development of highly efficient four cylinder turbo engines.

In Europe there is a choice of three fuels: diesel and E85 bioethanol and with diesel power, the new 9-5 offers CO2 emissions as low as 139 g/km.

■ Toyota: Using the same powertrain as the latest generation Prius, the Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept is the first mainstream model in Europe to benefit from Toyota’s refined, smooth and quiet hybrid synergy drive.

The car will accelerate from zero to 00 km/h in around 10 seconds, while returning class-leading combined cycle fuel economy and sub-100g/km CO2 emissions.

At the same time, the new Prius Plug-in Hybrid Concept made its world premiere in Frankfurt.

Prius Plug-in Hybrid expands the capabilities of Toyota’s full hybrid technology, enabling pure electric operation for short-range day-to-day transportation.

■ Volvo: Showcasing a series of sporty visual features, the Volvo XC60 R-DESIGN package also adds a specially tuned sports chassis and sharper driving characteristics, enabling customers to enjoy the XC60’s practicality together with more dynamic handling and distinctive styling.

The new dynamic driving properties of the XC60 R-DESIGN have been possible with the introduction of a stiffer chassis and stiffer damping.

This has been achieved without impacting dramatically on ride comfort allowing passengers to continue to enjoy a comfortable ride on any type of road surface.

Aston Martin's majority stake holder Investment Dar in trouble

Reports worldwide indicate that Aston Martin’s majority stake holder, Kuwait-based Investment Dar is in financial trouble. The company that owns 51% of the British sports car maker is having financial difficulties as a result of the this year’s worldwide economic slowdown.

The company purchased the stake for US$480 million in 2007 from Ford, and the purchase move was part of a joint venture between a group of companies. Since the purchase, it was reported that Investment Dar opted for a “Standstill Agreement”, which basically allows the company to suspend payments to banks. It nearly sold the sports car brand late last year, but eventually managed to maintain its ownership.

When the above mentioned “Standstill Agreement” comes to an end, the company has to make payments, and the company may have to sell part of, or its entire stake of Aston Martin.

Source.

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Why Remaking the Auto Industry Makes No Sense

There are two competing theories on how to reset the auto industry. One is that entrepreneurs can create auto companies from scratch by outsourcing major component systems and abandoning traditional dealers. The other is that five or six giant companies should rule in a globally consolidated auto industry.

Neither theory makes sense.

The Entrepreneurs

First, take the entrepreneurs—people such as co-founders Elon Musk and Marc Tarpenning of electric car maker Tesla Motors. The theory is that entrepreneurs can quickly integrate new technologies (mostly electric propulsion systems) and cobble together cars from outsourced design and components. But assembling cars this way cannot reach the scale necessary for mass volume. Small production volumes result in high prices that can't compete with those of the large auto companies. Although they might be late in adopting a technology, they will have the advantage of scale.

The San Carlos (Calif.)-based Tesla Motors sells the only electric vehicle legal for highway use. But the price of the current model, the Tesla Roadster, is $101,500. That's in the range of the ultra-luxury Porsche Carrera. Despite the high price, Tesla probably loses money on each Roadster it sells. Fisker Automotive, based in Irvine, Calif., prices its Karma model, which uses a hybrid drivetrain, at $87,900. Deliveries will begin next year, but at that price Fisker, owned by former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, is unlikely to sell many of these imported vehicles assembled in Finland.

Entrepreneurs focus on building a car, but that's half the challenge of success in the auto industry. Car developers often ignore the reality of how mass-market cars are sold, financed, and repaired, and they forget how important resale values are to establish a brand permanently in the market. Cars stay on the road for 10 to 15 years, and owners expect a car to have a predictable value throughout its lifetime. That means the supporting infrastructure is as important to the broad base of consumers beyond the elite collector, who is impressed when Tesla sends a technician to his home to fix a part.

The Consolidators

On the other end of the spectrum from the entrepreneurial approach is Sergio Marchionne's vision of a globally consolidated automotive industry. Marchionne, the CEO of FIAT (FIA.MI) and Chrysler, believes that eventually there will be only five or six large global automobile companies serving the mass market.

The consolidation theory has its roots in the mid-1970s, when the Arab oil embargo resulted in a global recession. Under the theory, excess production capacity, which today approaches 30 million units annually, would be eliminated through the thinning of vulnerable companies and the closing of uncompetitive assembly plants. Production would shift from high-cost locations to low-cost areas as part of this global restructuring, increasing the efficiency of the enterprises.

Sam Kazman: Aristocrats can afford car-free days

In the early 1800s, when railroads first began to spread across Great Britain, the Duke of Wellington reportedly sneered that this innovation would "only encourage the common people to move about needlessly."

For last week's World Car-Free Day, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, channeled the Duke of Wellington, complaining about the "domination of the car" and called for a new type of society "in which we are not dependent on it to such a great extent for our daily needs."

The Prince reportedly owns two Audis, two Jaguars, a Range Rover and an Aston Martin. The Duke of Wellington undoubtedly had other means of getting around the British countryside, but despite being separated in time by two centuries, these two aristocrats had something in common--a distaste for commoners enjoying the mobility to which they themselves were born.

World Car-Free Day appeared, at first glance, to be a lifestyle event--a celebration of living without cars. But it had an underlying political agenda; its organizers call on "governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars."

And these days, when the air is thick with claims of impending climate catastrophe and the need for so-called sustainability, calls for automotive restrictions are finding an increasingly receptive political audience.

But for most people in this country, the car-free life would be as desirable as being shackled to a ball-and-chain. It is easy to forget the incredibly liberating nature of the automobile. In the 1910s-1920s it ended the crushing isolation of rural life.

In 1955-56, it enabled black people to boycott the segregated buses of Montgomery, Alabama.

In the 1970s-1980s, it gave mothers the ability to enter the job market while still getting their kids to day care and putting food on the table. Today, the car allows new immigrants to enter the American mainstream by vastly expanding their choices of where to work and where to live.

Even in cities with well-functioning mass transit, a car can be essential if you're old or ill, or are carrying babies and groceries, or if the weather's miserable, or if you've got to get somewhere after the busses and subways have closed. It's no wonder that most promo shots of Car-Free Day events featured only the young and healthy, out on picture-perfect sunny days.

Being able to get around freely is not some superficial desire that can be dismissed as the product of an allegedly car-addicted Western culture. Some Americans may view India and China as countries happily populated by bicyclists and pedestrians, but consumer demand for cars in those countries is booming, especially with the introduction of new low-priced vehicles. The car, it appears, satisfies a pretty basic human need.

A philosophy professor who emigrated here from Eastern Europe once commented on Car-Free Day by noting that, given his time behind the Iron Curtain, he'd already endured enough car-free decades.

Living car-free may be fine for many people during some phases of their lives, and it may be fine for some people for all of their lives, but it's no way for most of us to live--regardless of what Prince Charles and his fellow aristocrats may think.

Sam Kazman is general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, www.cei.org, a free-market advocacy organization.

Different take on Grand Touring

To say that Dutch automaker Spyker is a niche company is a massive understatement. While firms such as Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen talk of producing millions of cars annually, Spyker would be tickled pink if it could eventually produce 400 C8s in a single year.

It hopes the path to that relative success will be shouldered by its new Aileron coupe. Designed as a grand touring sports car rather than the ideologically pure Spyder and Laviolette, the Aileron boasts both an automatic transmission and an audio system.

However, before you start thinking the tiny firm has sold out its purist principles - Nulia tenaci invia est via, or "For the tenacious, no road is impassable" - be forewarned that said audio system consists of an amplifier, an iPod hookup and a singular dashboard button that serves as the volume control.

No radio faceplate or six-disc CD changer for Spyker. So, even though its $252,000 price tag sees it competing with the Aston Martin DB9s and Ferrari 599s of the world, Spyker looks at grand touring differently than the rest of us. The doors are still gullwing, ingress and egress are best suited for the limber and the performance is exhilarating, not to mention extremely aural.

Powered by the same 400-horsepower version of Audi's 4.2-litre V8 as the Spyder and Laviolette, the heavier (1,425 kilograms) Aileron isn't quite as responsive as Spyker's shorter-wheelbase C8s.

On the other hand, the longer wheelbase allows for the incorporation of a ZF six-speed automatic, a feature the company thinks is essential to broaden its customer base. Indeed, the ZF tranny is superbly civilized, yet it still incorporates Spyker's quirky yet extremely artistic aircraft-influenced shift linkage. Overall, it's an impressive package that could stand a few more ponies since it weighs almost 200 kg more than the Spyder. Spyker also took the time to design an all-new chassis for the Aileron.

Unlike the shorter Spyder and Laviolette, the Aileron's front and rear tracks are the same width, the double wishbone suspension is a more traditional production car design (similar to the Lotus Evora's) and the brakes enjoy a modicum of power boosting.

Though easier to drive, the result is that the Aileron is a little dartier than the Spyder, though, to be fair, it is still phenomenally stable. It also turns into corners with remarkable precision.

Conversely, the brakes could still stand more boost. It seems ridiculous to change a car so completely to accommodate an easy-to-drive automatic transmission and then still require Arnold Schwarzenegger's quadriceps to apply the brakes. One item beyond reproach is the Aileron's styling, inside and out.

Externally, it still incorporates Spyker's manifold scoops and inlets, but the overall shape seems a little more mature and a little less look-at-me-right-now. Inside, you'll still find a gorgeous combination of milled aluminum, quilted leather and aircraft-quality toggle switches that Spyker says cost US$50 apiece. If I don't sound as enthusiastic about the Aileron as the Spyder and Laviolette, it's not because the newest Spyker is a lesser car.

My hesitation is that in trying to civilize its rough edges with the more "accessible" Aileron, Spyker has charged into a segment occupied by much larger automakers whose budgets almost ensure their end products are more polished.

That makes the job of selling a niche car all that much harder.

Clunker Cash: No Boost for Consumers

IF ANY PROOF THAT the cash-for-clunkers scheme was one of the dumbest ideas ever to come along, consider some of the geniuses that took up the federal government on its offer of up $4500 to junk their rides.

Among the clunkers going into the crusher included a 1997 Bentley, a 1997 Aston Martin, a 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG and 37 models that were less than a year old, the Detroit News reported. All those exotic older cars and the new ones had to be worth more than the $3500-$4500 their owners got to trade them in for new gas-sippers, but apparently they made the irrational choice of a junking their not-so-clunky car instead of selling or trading it in.

Why such dumb choices? An old joke holds a possible clue: A chap sees a classified ad for a two-year-old Corvette for just $1,000. Why so cheap? He asks the woman who answers the phone. "My husband ran away to Tahiti with his secretary and he e-mailed me to sell his 'Vette for whatever I could get for it and send him the proceeds."

Other than such revenge served deliciously cold, one commenter at the Detroit News Web site also observed that a clunker could have been "a Caddy that took a swim during Katrina." But excepting such instances, a rational recipient of clunker cash got more than the trade-in was worth and likely was going to buy a new car anyway. Or, perhaps, the clunker deal swayed the buyer from a late-model used car.

While there were undeniable benefits -- 22 Peugeots went into the crusher, may they rest in one solid, irreducible piece -- the costs were vastly greater. According to an estimate by two University of Delaware economists cited by the Detroit News, the costs of the $3 billion cash-for-clunkers program exceeded the benefits by $1.4 billion.

Still, auto sales surged to a boom-time 14 million annual rate in August as car buyers went ga-ga for clunker cash, bringing joy to them and dealers -- especially dealers. Now comes payback time.

"On closer inspection, we do not see lasting, tangible benefits for the economy," Citigroup economists write about cash for clunkers in this weeks Comments on Credit. "The sales spike probably borrowed from future months and will fall off sharply now that the program has ended.

"We believe that the program did not help that the program did not help auto makers much because the rise in sales was temporary, and gave car buyers only a small cost savings. The biggest beneficiaries of this program were the auto dealers themselves, who essentially received a huge transfer from the U.S. Treasury," they add.

Because Uncle Sam sent the voucher directly to the dealers, they gained tremendous flexibility in negotiating prices. Added to the mix of variables dealers can manipulate -- base prices, incentives or rebates, and the concessions they deign to grant -- comes the clunkers program. Since depressed sales already had them giving deep discounts, the government vouchers essentially replace dealer discounts and incentives, Citigroup explains.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures the average expenditure per car is $22,000. If the average clunker check of $4,000 were split evenly between the dealer and the buyer, the cost would be reduced by 9%. Given half the autos purchased in August involved clunker cash, the consumer price index for new vehicles would have fallen by about 4.5%. Based on the actual number, Citigroup reckons consumers got only about 15% of the benefit of the program.

So, the folks who traded in Bentleys and Aston-Martins for clunker cash weren't the only ones who were deluded. It seems most of the car buyers who rushed to get in on the deal also were fooled.

"The most notable effect from the cash for clunkers program was to distort the path of consumer spending in the third and fourth quarters," the Citi economists add. "As a result of the surge in vehicle sales in August, real consumption is likely to have grown at a 2% annual rte in the third quarter, which would be the biggest gain in 2 ½ years.

"Half of that growth was due to the rise in motor vehicle sales. Now that the program is over, we estimate that vehicle sales plummeted back toward the 9 million unit range in September and will remain low through autumn. As a result, we expect real consumer spending to fall back noticeably in the fourth quarter." the Citi economists write. Neither gives a true picture of the trend in consumer spending, which they see improving in 2010.

But John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics contends the expiration of one-shot schemes will give way to new downlegs.

"The broad economic data remain deep in recession territory, even with the cash-for-clunkers program and the first-time homebuyers tax credit running their courses. The clunkers programs has expired, and given the closing period on home sales, so, too, has the bulk of the tax credit," he writes.

(The first-time homebuyers' $8000 tax credit applies to purchases that close by Nov. 1, though Congress could extend the deadline. If not, a house likely would have to be under contract to close by Nov. 1, and that could be pushing it given the likely last-minute rush.)

"With consensus estimates having created irrationally optimistic expectations for a near-term economic recovery, economic reports in the months ahead increasingly should disappoint expectations," Williams concludes.

Various series are "bottom bouncing" along what SGS defines depression-level peak-to-trough declines of 25%. And improvements in year-over-declines represent the easier comparisons versus depressed year-ago readings, he adds.

For instance, durable-goods orders are down 28.6% from their peak and have been bouncing around the January 2009 seasonally adjusted monthly level of $160 billion into August, even with cash-for-clunker upticks for motor vehicles in July and August.

Similarly, housing starts in August were down 29.6% from a year earlier; at a 598,000 annual rate, the month's starts were within the range of normal volatility relative to the trend of 550,000 units, Williams writes.

Now that the feel-good programs -- cash for clunkers and the first-time homebuyers tax credit -- have expired or are about to, it's not clear what can take their place with consumers facing falling employment and incomes, diminished wealth and still-tight credit. But they were fun while they lasted, even if the improvements were illusory.

Comments: randall.forsyth@barrons.com

Gore's 'green' car, $89 K -- $529 M loan

Fisker's Karma, a hybrid sports car, above, initially will cost about $89,000. The company also plans family sedans in the $40,000 range. (Photo by Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

by Mark Silva

We hadn't had time until now to contemplate the loan that the U.S. government is giving a California-based company backed by former Vice President Al Gore that is building a hybrid sports car in Finland that will fetch about $89,000 a model.

The car is called Karma.

Gore, Nobel Prize-winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth, champion of the campaign against climate change and the candidate who collected the majority of the popular vote in the 2000 election for president, was among the first to put a down payment on one of the company's "green" - actually gun-metal gray in the promotional model -- cars, as the tale is told by the Wall Street Journal.

Fisker Automotive will draw a $529 million loan from the government, part of a $25 billion fund that Congress approved to spur development of fuel-efficient vehicles.

"Fisker's top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner,'' the Journal reports. "Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.''

The Department of Energy tells the Journal that Gore's involvement in the company had nothing to do with the loan - it was awarded on the merits of the design. And most of the loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed, according to the agency, as the Journal tells the tale.

Another California startup that concentrates on all-electric vehicles, Tesla Motors, has secured a $465 million government loan to manufacture a $109,000 British-build roadster.

"This is not for average Americans," Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington, tells the Journal of the loans. "This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It's status symbol thing."

DOE officials examined Fisker's application for months, the Journal reports. They toured its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-drove prototypes.

The Journal quotes Matt Rogers, who oversees the agency's loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, as saying that Fisker got the loan after a "detailed technical review" that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience.

"It's the ability to drive significant change in fuel economy across a large market segment" that sold the deal, Rogers said.

"Henrik Fisker, who designed cars for BMW, Aston Martin and Tesla before starting his Fisker Automotive in 2007, says his goal is to build the first plug-in electric hybrids that won't sacrifice the luxury, performance and looks of traditional gas-powered luxury cars,'' the Journal reports. "The Karma will target an exclusive audience -- Gore was one of the first to sign up for one.

"The four-door Karma, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles, and will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the span of a year, the company says. Production is scheduled to start in December, with about 15,000 vehicles a year expected to hit the U.S. market starting next June.''

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, confirmed that the former vice president backs Fisker and purchased a Karma.

"He believes that a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible strategy for solving the climate crisis," she said in a statement for the Journal report.

Fisker's loan comes from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help auto makers invest in technology to meet a new congressional mandate for better fuel efficiency. In June, the DOE awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.

First drive: Spyker Aileron coupe

Spyker's Aileron Coupe.Photograph by: Bud Moore Photography.com, National Post

When only 253 cars have been sold in your company’s seven-year history, virtually any model introduced will be more mainstream.

To say that Dutch automaker Spyker is a niche company is a massive understatement. While firms such as Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen talk of producing millions of cars annually, Spyker would be tickled pink if it could eventually produce 400 C8s in a single year.

It hopes the path to that relative success will be shouldered by its new Aileron coupe. Designed as a grand touring sports car rather than the ideologically pure Spyder and Laviolette, the Aileron boasts both an automatic transmission and an audio system.

However, before you start thinking the tiny firm has sold out its purist principles — Nulia tenaci invia est via, or “For the tenacious, no road is impassable” — be forewarned that said audio system consists of an amplifier, an iPod hookup and a singular dashboard button that serves as the volume control.

No radio faceplate or six-disc CD changer for Spyker. So, even though its $252,000 price tag sees it competing with the Aston Martin DB9s and Ferrari 599s of the world, Spyker looks at grand touring differently than the rest of us. The doors are still gullwing, ingress and egress are best suited for the limber and the performance is exhilarating, not to mention extremely aural.

Powered by the same 400-horsepower version of Audi’s 4.2-litre V8 as the Spyder and Laviolette, the heavier (1,425 kilograms) Aileron isn’t quite as responsive as Spyker’s shorter-wheelbase C8s.

On the other hand, the longer wheelbase allows for the incorporation of a ZF six-speed automatic, a feature the company thinks is essential to broaden its customer base. Indeed, the ZF tranny is superbly civilized, yet it still incorporates Spyker’s quirky yet extremely artistic aircraft-influenced shift linkage. Overall, it’s an impressive package that could stand a few more ponies since it weighs almost 200 kg more than the Spyder. Spyker also took the time to design an all-new chassis for the Aileron.

Unlike the shorter Spyder and Laviolette, the Aileron’s front and rear tracks are the same width, the double wishbone suspension is a more traditional production car design (similar to the Lotus Evora’s) and the brakes enjoy a modicum of power boosting.

Though easier to drive, the result is that the Aileron is a little dartier than the Spyder, though, to be fair, it is still phenomenally stable. It also turns into corners with remarkable precision.

Conversely, the brakes could still stand more boost. It seems ridiculous to change a car so completely to accommodate an easy-to-drive automatic transmission and then still require Arnold Schwarzenegger’s quadriceps to apply the brakes. One item beyond reproach is the Aileron’s styling, inside and out.

Externally, it still incorporates Spyker’s manifold scoops and inlets, but the overall shape seems a little more mature and a little less look-at-me-right-now. Inside, you’ll still find a gorgeous combination of milled aluminum, quilted leather and aircraft-quality toggle switches that Spyker says cost US$50 apiece. If I don’t sound as enthusiastic about the Aileron as the Spyder and Laviolette, it’s not because the newest Spyker is a lesser car.

My hesitation is that in trying to civilize its rough edges with the more “accessible” Aileron, Spyker has charged into a segment occupied by much larger automakers whose budgets almost ensure their end products are more polished.

That makes the job of selling a niche car all that much harder.

'Spyke' of adrenalin

The 2010 C8 Spyker aileron presents a super-sleek profile on highway 22, near Millarville.Photograph by: Courtesy, Bud Moore Photography, Calgary Herald

Strapping in--no, let me rephrase that--climbing in to the Spyker C8 Aileron feels a little like being a test pilot.

Not only does it take a little practise to squeeze under those pivoting gull-wing doors, but once in place, the panel in front of you is lined with toggle switches and aviation-style gauges on a spartan, brushed aluminum dashboard.

The leather-lined cabin is cavern-like and tightly enclosed, visibility is aimed at the road ahead, the engine tucked smack right behind you--all told, a very serious environment.

Ladies and gents, this is not your uncle's Sunday driver.

That feeling--what serious drivers call the pucker factor --increases when you begin the start sequence; flipping up the red guard switch, pushing the ignition button and engaging the automatic Sport mode.

At this point, and much like a test pilot, you had better get your seating position right and the mirrors at the perfect angle. You might also want to tie your shoelaces, too, because what you are about to experience is nothing like any other sports car on the road.

Last week, the Netherlands-based carmaker brought its first pre-production model C8 Aileron --yes, you heard right, the one and only first production model C8 Aileron coupe--to North America and Tony Dilawri's Spyker Calgary dealership for a series of media test drives.

So raw was this first model, that some of the fit and finish on the vehicle had not yet been finalized. By the time this article goes to print, the Aileron will be flying straight back over the pond, where it will be tested further --the results to be implemented in upcoming production models.

While elite carmakers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati boast decades of sports car tradition, Spyker Cars is fairly new to the game, but the marque itself, is not.

Founded in 2000 by Victor R. Muller, its chief executive, Spyker Cars draws it name and inspiration from the famed Dutch car and aircraft company founded by Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker in 1898.

Known for its circular radiators, that firm would go on to build successful touring cars and racers, as well as airplanes and airplane engines for the First World War. After changing ownership it would run out of money in 1926 after producing about 2,000 vehicles in total.

That same aviation heritage is overtly reflected in all Spyker sports cars, and especially the new C8 Aileron.

The first styling cues that catch one's eye are the sweeping ducting tubes on the roof and side panels, which bring cool air to the engine compartment, brakes and cabin.

The 19-in. turbine inspired Rotorblade wheels are also hard to miss. Reminiscent of the blades of a modern jet engine, they carry race-ready Z-rated Michelin tires (235/35 up front, 295/30 in back) for optimum handling.

The Spyker logo itself also sports a propeller, and stamped on the exhaust pipes is the Latin motto of the original car company: "Nulla tenaci invia est via," which translates to: "For the tenacious no road is impassable."

Tenacious or not, the Aileron represents a new direction for the boutique car company.

Spyker has refined and distilled some of the racetrack rawness seen in its other available models, the popular Spyder convertible and the Laviolette coupe, and made the Aileron as much an exhilarating daily driver, as it is a street legal, full-blown sports car.

They also widened and squared off the frame and given the all-aluminum body a stunning new look which, arguably, makes it obscenely noticeable wherever it goes. So much so, in fact, rubberneckers can pose a menace as they pull up alongside to get a look.

But the Aileron is more than good looks. Beneath that ultra-sporty skin lies a formidable drivetrain. A mid-mounted 4.2-litre Audi V-8 provides 400 h.p. and 354 ft.-lbs. of torque at 7,200 r.p.m., providing a top speed of 300 km/h and a neck-snapping 0-to-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds.

Weighing in at about 1,360 kilograms (3,000 lbs.), the Aileron boasts an enviable power-to-weight ratio.

The test car was also equipped with a Tiptronic six-speed automatic ZF gearbox, with manual override. (A manual Getrag six-speed gearbox is also available.)

To say this car likes to rev is an understatement. Merely pulling away from a light brings a menacing roar that telegraphs to every living thing within a block that this is no ordinary set of wheels.

Yet the Aileron is not a wildcat that requires a Formula One driver to tame it. Spyker appears to have found the right balance in its newest model.

The Tiptronic allows the driver to sit back and enjoy the sights, sounds and sensations . . . or to use the steering-column mounted shift paddles.

Another Spyker oddity--one which I've never seen in any other car--is a fully exposed console shifter. Instead of hiding the linkage under the console, as in most other cars, it is exposed and presented in polished silver, adding to the lustre of exclusivity.

Where one can't see brushed aluminum, every inch of the Aileron's cabin is covered in luxurious leather from Hulshof Royal Dutch Tanneries.

Fourteen standard colours are available, but Spyker will also make it any colour "if desired by the customer."

Noticeably absent from the pre-production car's cabin was a dash-mounted stereo. The following production models won't have one either, though it will have an iPod input, 300-watt amp and a six-speaker Kharma sound system. According to the rep, this is not in keeping with the Spyker driving experience.

To be honest, one would have to crank it up pretty loud just to match the roar of the V-8, which is packed right behind the driver's seat. Future models will also feature an in-dash navigation system and Bluetooth interface.

And finally, how does the Aileron perform? Quite simply: superbly.

A quick jaunt down to Millarville and back offered a glimpse of the Aileron's "ready-to-rock" personality.

The four-corner, aluminum wishbone suspension with Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks kept us glued to the asphalt and inspired confidence with its precise response on a variety of undulating, twisty roads.

And when it came to stopping that ride--in a hurry--the rock-hard four-piston ventilated disc brakes could seemingly stop a train. I found them a bit too hard for my suburban tastes, but I was told it would probably softened a bit in the coming models.

If Spyker was trying to build a car that could be equally comfortable driving to your favourite restaurant, or give anyone a run for his money on a race track, then it has achieved that.

It also has a trunk which can actually hold a few things, including groceries or a six-pack of Budweiser tallboys.

And speaking of bringing home the bacon, you may be wondering exactly who is the target market for the Aileron. (The automatic equipped coupe retails for $263,000 Cdn, the manual for $252,000)

According to company reps, the typical Spyder customer is worth about $10 million, owns a share in an executive jet and has already had the red Ferrari, the black Lamborghini and the silver Aston Martin. That same customer, they say, is looking for something rare and different.

No question there: the new Spyker A8 Aileron screams "vive le difference" at every angle. Inside and out.

And going by the looks and questions we received from numerous onlookers, this small Dutch car company could well be onto something.

THE SPECS - Type: Advanced mid-engine, two-seat sports car - Body: Structural aluminum space frame chassis - Brakes: Spyker branded aluminum AP brake calipers (four-piston), AP brake discs, cross-drilled and ventilated; Bosch ABS system with EBD - Engine: Audi 4.2-litre V-8, 40 valve, mid-mounted, multipoint fuel injection system with electronic ignition; 400 h.p. @7,200 r.p.m. - Transmission: Tiptronic six-speed automatic ZF gearbox with manual override (automatic transmission), or Synchromesh six-speed trans-axle getrag gearbox (manual transmission) - Performance: Top speed, 300 km/h; acceleration 0-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds - Price: Manual, $252,000; automatic $263,000. plus freight & PDI, $3,000, and Transport Canada green levy, $5,000

The best and worst cars to restore

This 1929 Le Mans Bentley was David Grainger's favourite restoration.Photograph by: David Grainger for National Post, NP

I am often asked which cars are my most and least favourites to work on or restore.

It's difficult to pick my most favourite as there have been so many truly beautiful automobiles I have had the great fortune to have worked with. Looking back, though, one particular car stands out as having made the deepest impression. It was a magnificent 1929 Vanden Plasbodied, 4.5-litre Le Mans Bentley. It was a monstrous machine, fully capable of reaching speeds of 160 kilometres an hour and cruising at 130 -- no mean feat for a vehicle built in the 1920s.

The car was one of the W. O. Bentleys, which were truly remarkable vehicles. They are called W. O. s after their creator, W. O. Bentley -- this is to demarcate them from the Rolls-Royce Bentleys produced after Rolls took over the company in the early 1930s.

These Bentleys ruled the tracks of Europe and set records at Le Mans. Ettore Bugatti hated them, calling them the world's fastest lorries, and there was some reason for his loathing. The Bentleys were incredibly fast. They were also immense, dwarfing the other cars on the tracks.

The car I had the pleasure to know was British Racing green and sported an original leather-covered body emblazoned with the Union Jack on the sides, a fitting and quite common marking for these locomotive-like leviathans.

I still miss taking care of that Bentley. To rub salt in the wound, I chanced upon it in the parking lot at the Laguna Seca race track in California a couple of years ago. The temptation to jump in and take it for a spin was intense, and it could have been easily done as the formula for starting it, as arcane as it is, does not require a key. Lest you think that is not secure, you are wrong. If you don't know the secret to starting a Bentley -- and few people do-- then you have no chance of stumbling upon the right procedure.

Having waxed enthusiastic about one outstanding and famous British car, it is with some regret that I name another well-known -- even infamous -- British car as my least favourite and most challenging endeavour.

It is an offering from Aston Martin. What is truly ironic is that I am an ardent admirer of every single car that has ever issued from Aston Martin -- aside from the Lagonda.

It was not always so. When I first saw a Lagonda decades ago at its introduction to Canada, I was quite impressed with the low-slung styling of the futuristic four-door

sedan. Today, its styling looks antiquated and contrived, although that is not a reason for dismissing it. Many great cars have not aged well and yet still demand respect.

The reason for my dislike is that the Lagonda was conceived as a cutting-edge creation packed full of exotic solid-state electronics, including television screens on which road speed, engine speed and all other information was displayed. Digital dashes are pretty mundane these days, but, in 1976 when the car was conceived, it was a huge risk -- and one that has proved to be the car's undoing as far as serviceability is concerned.

Right from a prototype that broke down on the day of the model's introduction -- leaving press and guests wondering where it was -- to cars whose gremlins are constantly raising blood pressure, the Lagonda has proven better at being broken than belting along the highway. This is not to say that driving one is not a great experience. It drives and handles beautifully as befits its heritage. It's just that it does neither for very long, and any drive's enjoyment is always tempered by the knowledge that it is only a matter of time before the car glides to a halt because some tiny, electrical impulse has failed to reach its destination.

Worse than being a marooned driver is being the one who has to fix it. The Lagonda is one of those creatures whose problems are never apparent but need to be coaxed out by laborious testing and time-consuming hit-and-miss tactics. Once a problem has been discovered and repaired, it often creates a cascade of other tiny failures in weary and complex electrical circuits. There is no help to be had. Aston Martin dealers often laugh and wish you good luck (and good riddance) and the Lagonda even leaves experts scratching their heads. The car is so heavily laden with what amounts to experimental circuitry that it creates a rich environment for continually breaking down -- but rarely the same way twice. I am sure it must hold the prize for most hours spent on maintenance to achieve a mile of road usage.

The sad thing is, I seem to be getting a reputation for being willing to work on Lagondas, so it seems as though I won't be rid of having at least one of the breed on the premises for quite some time.

If that were only true for the Bentleys, the world would seem a touch more in balance.

david@guildclassiccars.com

Does Ford Really Have a Better Idea?

Autumn is an exciting time for Detroit's Big Three, a season for rolling out their brand new cars to the acclaim of eager buyers. This autumn, however, the only U.S. automaker with much to be excited about is Ford, which leads to an obvious question: Could it be, in the words of its old ad campaign, that Ford really DOES have A BETTER IDEA? Martha Teichner presents our Cover Story: So they really call it a face, as if it had eyes, a mouth and a nose? "Yes," said car designer Earl Lucas, "because companies are identified by the front grille and the head lamps, and it does look like a face." As long as American cars have existed, the many faces of Ford have been unmistakable, even when they were mistakes like the Edsel. In 1986 the Taurus, once America's best-selling car, was actually considered bold. But that was then. Three years ago, Lucas and his team were told to reinvent the Taurus, just as the Ford Motor Company has set out to reinvent itself. What did the early designs look like? "Clearly we wanted a more expressive, a more sculptural car," Lucas said. "Especially I think, the face of the car is awfully important." If you closely at the "face" of the 2010 Ford Taurus, released last month, you'll see the face of the one U.S. car company confident enough of its survival to refuse a government bailout, the one Detroit automaker that avoided bankruptcy. So what did Ford - one of the world's iconic brands - do that the others didn't? To answer that question, meet Ford's cheerleader-in-chief, Alan Mulally, CEO since 2006. "We were losing share and so we needed to develop a plan that dealt with that reality," he said. Hiring Mulally was part of one of the biggest gambles in U.S. corporate history. Remember when gas prices were just starting to spike? When suddenly SUVs weren't selling any more? In 2006, Ford lost $12.6 billion. Then-CEO Bill ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford, knew he had to do something radical. "That's when I started to look around the country for somebody who had restructured a major corporation," Bill Ford told Teichner, "because it had to be big. There weren't many people like that in America - certainly were no people like that in car companies." (AP)Alan Mulally (pictured left at a 2006 press conference) had restructured aircraft manufacturer Boeing, and gotten it through desperate times after 9/11, but he had no experience in the auto industry with its entrenched culture. On Sept. 5, 2006, Bill Ford resigned as CEO. He stayed on as executive chairman, but Detroit was still shocked. "It takes something for a person like Bill Ford to stand up and admit this job is bigger than they can do," said Bryce Hoffman, who reports on Ford for the Detroit News. "Naysayers out there were looking at kind of past examples and saying this is not going to end well for Ford." But that was nothing compared to what came next: Ford borrowed $23.5 billion. "We mortgaged everything, including the blue oval," he said. Teichner said, "You had the sense that Ford was in a lot of trouble but maybe GM and Chrysler weren't." "I would characterize it a little differently: I would say that we recognized our problems earlier and jumped on them earlier," Ford responded, "and while it looked to the outside that we were thrashing about, we were actually starting to restructure." The loan bought Ford a three-year head start on its Detroit rivals . . . breathing room to re-think everything about how it does business, from the cars it builds to making painful cuts, not only on the assembly line, but in the executive suites. Bill Ford had already announced he wouldn't take a salary until the company was profitable again. "If you grew up in our family, you would understand that being part of this company is a real privilege," he said. "And it's never been about the money. We felt this was a really important part of America and then a really important part of American manufacturing and American history, and it's worth preserving." In 1913 Henry Ford invented the moving assembly line so that he could mass-produce the Model T. The following year he announced he would pay his workers $5 a day, more than double the standard factory wage. He said he wanted his employees to be able to afford the cars they built. That was just the beginning. For decades the United Autoworkers Union won hefty contracts from Ford and the other U.S. car manufacturers. Autoworkers helped to define the prosperity of the American middle class - that is, until the Japanese began to outsell Detroit, and companies like Toyota built non-union plants in the United States. Those high wages and life-long benefits for which UAW members fought so hard were one big reason why Detroit couldn't compete, couldn't make a profit. Today, collective bargaining is about negotiating cutbacks - the UAW willingly joining U.S. automakers in their battle just to stay in business. Since 2001, Ford has shed nearly 145,000 jobs, more than a third of its workforce. Since 2003, it's closed 17 plants, with more to come. UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said, "Ford, if you look, when you start looking at Atlanta, you look at Wixom, you look at Norfolk, Edison, Lorraine, Wayne, there's a lot of assembly plants that have closed down, and that's very dramatic. "It's hard on families, it's hard on communities, it's hard on states, reduces the tax base, puts a lot of people in the unemployment lines, all those things are very difficult and very challenging for us," said Gettelfinger. "But we've stepped up. We tried to find a way to help ease the pain, if you will, by offering buyouts." And wage concessions. And reduced benefits. The union has taken over retiree healthcare. At the beginning of restructuring, Ford's labor costs were $70-80 an hour per worker for combined wages, benefits, and retirement costs, Now, Ford says, they're almost down to Toyota's $50 an hour. Of course, there's still the problem of building cars people want to buy, and making money doing it, especially given the recession. Ford's most profitable vehicles are still heavy-duty pickups, fully loaded, which (according to some estimates) can make the company as much as $24,000 each. Compare that to small cars, like the Focus, which only make hundreds. "The Ford Motor Company was more an umbrella for many auto companies, like Aston Martin and Jaguar and Land Rover and Volvo and a very strong relationship with Mazda," said Mulally. "I think 97 different name plates." Now there are fewer than 20. All those non-Ford brands under the umbrella are going or gone, part of Mulally's strategy for turning the corporation around. Ford is also bringing models to America that were originally designed for Europe, where high quality, fuel-efficient, even luxurious small cars have long been in demand. Mark Fields, Ford's president for the Americas, predicts that 3 million people in the U.S. will buy small cars within the next three years. He showed us the Ford Fiesta, launched in Europe and China over the past year. "We'll be launching it here in the U.S. in the first half of next year," he said. "And the technology in the Fiesta, you couldn't find in a large car probably five years ago: the navigation system, the high end audio system, the temperature control system, all those things customers, these days, don't want to compromise on." Ford's overseas car customers also had their own colors: "This is a color we have in Europe, it's called squeeze," Fields said. "Squeeze?" asked Teichner. "No, don't ask me how we developed the names for the colors, but yeah, we call this squeeze on the Fiesta." Part of Ford's great gamble is that Americans are ready to go green. Coming soon: an entire showroom of new designs and technologies, including a plug-in electric vehicle by next year. The good news: The Focus and the Ford Escape were on the cash-for-clunkers top ten sellers list. But here's the bad news: Ford is still losing money - although it's losing less money every quarter - and it's not losing as much as GM and Chrysler. "That's the new math of the American automobile industry," said journalist Bryce Hoffman. "The right way to look at Ford is that it is doing a better job of navigating through this storm, and it has a better chance of emerging from this as a viable company." And probably as the largest U.S. automaker (though not as big as Toyota) surviving with no government bailout obligations, Ford expects it will return to profitability by 2011. "It was very important for us to make it on our own," Bill Ford said. "We've struggled. We took on a lot of debt to do it. We hear from people all the time that they like the fact that we are digging ourselves out of the hole ourselves, and that we're doing it kind of the old-fashioned way." For more info: Ford Motor Company United Auto Workers The Detroit News (Automotive Section)

Rolling sculpture beats gold as values of collector cars soar

“When you have something they’re not making any more of, the value goes up,” said comedian Jay Leno, host of the Jay Leno Show, who has a collection of 105 cars, including 8 Duesenbergs, and 90 motorcycles. “If you’re knowledgeable, you’ll probably end up making money.”

Prices on collectible cars have gained about 60 per cent since September 2006 according to an index created by David Kinney, publisher of “Hagerty’s Cars That Matter,” a pricing guide and Website. His Blue Chip index of 25 vehicles tracks actual sales and includes automobiles such as the 1960 to 1963 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, which has gained 112 per cent since September 2006, and has a current book value of $4.2 million.

Collectible cars have beaten art, wine, stocks and gold, which is up 30 per cent since September 2006. The Art Market Confidence Index at Artprice.com has fallen 37 per cent from a year ago and is down 69 per cent since September 2006. The WinePrices Fine Wine 100 Index dropped 38 per cent between April 2008 and January 2009, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has declined 24 per cent over the past three years.

“It’s an addiction, a passion,” said Guy Anderson, 56, a Georgia collector. “We all make sacrifices to have these cars. You can’t have just one. Each car does something different.” He rents buildings around his Woodstock, Georgia, home to house his 15-car collection, which includes a 1965 Abarth Simca race car.

A 1953 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Coupe sold at the Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach, California, in August for $1.65 million, more than triple some pre-auction appraisals of about $500,000, said Serio, the Massachusetts dealer. The last time the one-of-a-kind vehicle was available, in 2007, it sold for $887,000.

“That car just blew the roof off the market,” Serio said. “Everybody in the car world was looking at each other and saying, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

Television has helped fuel market boom, said Ford Heacock III, president of Heacock Classic, a collector-car insurance company. The Speed Channel, a unit of News Corp, has been expanding coverage of auto auctions since 2002. Bidding under cameras and lights gets people excited, Heacock said. Transactions among private parties are generally priced well below auctions, he said, a flaw most pricing guides don’t account for.

“There’s a lot of glitz and glitter. It’s hard not to get mesmerised. The whole industry is driven by passion,” Heacock said.

Some collectible cars, such as the ‘57 Chevy, have declined, said Richard Lentinello, editor-in-chief of Hemmings Motor News, a collector-car publisher in Bennington, Vermont.

The most-desired cars such as Italian-made Ferraris and Bugattis and have held up very well, Lentinello said. A 1938 Bugatti Type 57C sold at Gooding & Company’s August auction for $1.38 million.

“If you’re reasonably knowledgeable and you know what you like, there’s a good chance other people will like it too,” Leno said.

Cars that were popular 30 or 40 years ago will generally remain popular today, Lentinello said. Collectors are attracted to features such as hand-made bodies, small production runs, certain types of engines, and a racing pedigree.

“All Ferraris aren’t worth $1 million to $2 million,” Lentinello said. “Some are worth only $200,000. You have to do your homework. You can get burned fast.”

Among the traps for buyers: cars that aren’t the advertised model, switched vehicle identification numbers, restamped engines, cars restored with shoddy workmanship, and cars whose most valuable production parts have been removed.

The biggest declines among collectible cars are high- octane muscle cars from Detroit’s so-called golden age: the 1967 Corvette 427 Convertible and the 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible, down 25 per cent last year and 47 per cent over three years, according to Hagerty’s guide.

Bonhams auction house has sold 5 or 6 cars for more than $1 million in the US over the past year, and between 10 and 15 worldwide, said Rupert Banner, director of business development for the firm’s motorcar department in New York.

Cars that were expensive when built tend to be expensive now, he said. A 1933 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Convertible once owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hopalong Cassidy in US movie Westerns, was sold at a Bonham’s auction in Carmel, California, for $1.44 million in August.

It’s one of a very small number of cars manufactured by the Auburn, Indiana-based company in the 1920s and 1930s. Duesenbergs gained cachet from a 265-horsepower engine with a top speed of 119 miles per hour.

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Handmade classics beat gold as the value of collectable cars takes off

By Jeff Plungis Stephen Serio, a classic car dealer in Massachusetts, expects the 1966 Ferrari 275GTB on his lot to sell for about $810 000 (R6 million). Five years ago the same car sold for $500 000.

"When you have something they're not making any more, the value goes up," said comedian Jay Leno, the host of The Jay Leno Show, who has a collection of 105 cars, including eight Duesenbergs and 90 motorcycles. "If you're knowledgeable, you'll probably end up making money."

Prices on collectable cars have gained about 60 percent since September 2006, according to an index created by David Kinney, the publisher of Hagerty's Cars That Matter, a pricing guide and website.

His Blue Chip index of 25 vehicles tracks actual sales and includes cars, such as the 1960 to 1963 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, which has gained 112 percent since September 2006, and has a current book value of $4.2m.

Collectable cars have beaten art, wine, stocks and gold - up 30 percent since September 2006.

The Art Market Confidence index at Artprice.com has fallen 37 percent from a year ago and is down 69 percent since September 2006.

The WinePrices Fine Wine 100 index dropped 38 percent between April last year and January, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index has declined 24 percent over the past three years.

"It's an addiction, a passion," said Guy Anderson, a collector based in Georgia. "We all make sacrifices to have these cars. You can't have just one. Each car does something different." He rents buildings to house his 15-car collection.

A 1953 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Coupe sold at the Gooding & Company auction in California last month for $1.65m, more than triple some pre-auction appraisals of about $500 000, said Serio, the Massachusetts dealer. The last time the one-of-a-kind vehicle was available, in 2007, it sold for $887 000.

"That car just blew the roof off the market," said Serio.

"Everybody in the car world was looking at each other and saying, 'Are you kidding me?'"

Television helped fuel today's market boom, said Ford Heacock III, the president of Heacock Classic, a collector-car insurance company. The Speed Channel, a unit of News Corporation, has been expanding coverage of car auctions since 2002.

Bidding under cameras and lights got people excited, Heacock said.

Transactions among private parties were generally priced well below auctions, he said, a flaw most pricing guides did not account for. "There's a lot of glitz and glitter. It's hard not to get mesmerised. The whole industry is driven by passion," said Heacock.

Some collectable cars, such as the '57 Chevy, had declined, said Richard Lentinello, the editor-in-chief of Hemmings Motor News, a collector-car publisher in Vermont.

The most desired cars, such as Italian-made Ferraris and Bugattis, had held up very well, Lentinello said. A 1938 Bugatti Type 57C sold at Gooding & Company's August auction for $1.38m. Collectors were attracted to features such as hand-made bodies, small production runs, certain types of engines and a racing pedigree.

"If you're reasonably know-ledgeable and you know what you like, there's a good chance other people will like it too," Leno said. - Bloomberg

The best cars featured recently in Exec Digital

We revisit three of the best vehicles in the past few issues By Ben Lobel

July: 2009 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet

This one has been worth waiting for. Described as the most refined and technically advanced convertible Porsche has ever built, the 2009 Turbo Cabriolet is the last word in speed, precision and exhilaration. It combines the performance of the Turbo S Coupe with the versatility of an electric folding roof. The electro-hydraulic operation of the roof means the driver can open or close the top automatically in just 20 seconds. “But that could be 20 seconds of relentless storm!” I hear you scream. Well, you may get a little moisture on your summer power suit, but any adverse weather conditions won’t affect the handling of this ride. It boasts exceptional anti-lock brakes, and even if you did go spinning off into the tempest, the Turbo’s crumple-zone body structure will probably ensure that the injuries you pick up won’t be severe enough not to allow you to jump back behind the wheel to repeat the frivolous experience. The point is, it’s a sports car. Observe: 3.6 litre DOHC 24-valve turbocharged 6-cylinder engine capable of producing 415 bhp. 0-60 in approximately four seconds. As the website gushes, it’s power, it’s torque, it’s acceleration. Aesthetically, aerodynamically, resistance is futile.

Ferrari 599XX

Ferrari revealed something rather special at this year's Geneva motor show - the 599XX. The car is aimed at speed-addicts and uses the latest F1 technology to make this an extreme track car. Modifications to the standard 599, which is the prettiest Ferrari I think I’ve ever had the pleasure driving in, include a boost to maximum revs of 9,000 rpms, which will squeeze all the power possible from the vast V12 700-bhp engine. Due to go on sale at the end of this year, Ferrari will give each lucky buyer the opportunity of participating in a series of dedicated track days around the world. No price as yet, but expect something in excess of £250,000.

Aston Martin Rapide

For the CEO with an Aston back at home that only sees daylight at the weekend, here’s something that will make family life far more exciting. The Aston Martin Rapide was an ambitious project indeed. Aston have looked drop dead gorgeous with two doors for as long as I can remember. But four doors? Can it really work? Well, yes, it’s worked a treat. Described by some as ‘James Bond’s family car’, it looks like a Vantage with two extra ways in. But if your children don’t wipe their feet, you’ll have some serious prioritising to do.

Based on the DB9 and DBS chassis, the newcomer promises a unique blend of performance, space and style. Due to arrive on the roads in 2010, the first versions will be powered by a 6.0-litre V12, developing around 450bhp. However, further down the line, Aston is also hinting at a new hybrid models that will keep the green celebs and their very particular wives and offspring in California happy.

Not so reassuring for true Aston fans is that the Rapide is expected to be the first Aston Martin built outside the UK. The car is set to be assembled at Magna Steyr, in Austria.

Rio Ferdinand on his gangland film and his cars

“I would say, ‘However much money I make or if I make it in football, I am always going to live here.’ But you do evolve and move away.”

Back in those days, Ferdinand remembers being driven around in his dad’s bright yellow VW Beetle, before he was scouted and signed by West Ham, aged 17. That’s when he bought his first car. “It was a [Ford] Fiesta 1.3 Freestyle,” he says. “It was like the beast of all cars. I loved it. I had just received a £4,000 signing-on fee from West Ham United, so I went into the showroom and said, ‘I have this amount of money to spend, what can I get?’ The dealer pointed out the car, which was not brand new, and I said, ‘I will have that’.”

The problem was, Ferdinand says he had never even heard about insurance. The dealer suggested he call his mum. “The insurance was two grand. As a young footballer, I was loaded with extra premiums. Fortunately, my mum was able to help me out and I was able to pay it back, monthly. But I had the car.”

Ferdinand wasn’t left impecunious for too long. After five years with West Ham, he was signed by Leeds United for the then record-breaking fee of £18m in 2000. The following year he became club captain before being sold to Manchester United for £30m in 2002.

With the moves came the cars. He has driven the full gamut of footballers’ bling-mobiles: from a Bentley Continental GT to a Cadillac Escalade via a souped-up Overfinch Range Rover. “I also went through the phase of having American jeeps and the Ferrari 360 Spider,” he recalls. “You just had to go fast in that Spider. It was like a go-kart.”

It also attracted the attention of the police. He has been banned four times from driving, on one occasion averaging a speed of 105mph and being fined £1,500. His off-the-pitch antics almost signalled the end of his career before it had really begun, and he admits the money and fame went to his head: “From 17 to 20, I was out all the time,” he says. “I wanted to enjoy the opportunities. When someone would say, ‘Come along to the opening of this or that club for a free night’, I would go. It would be irresistible.

“Fortunately, I had a man, called Dave Goodwin, who was my old district manager when I was 12, who said, ‘What are you doing?’ My mum and dad also said, ‘Stop going out or you’ll be on the scrapheap’.”

He says his choice of car reflects a new-found maturity. “I like comfort driving and something to look nice. The Aston Martin allows you to cruise. You are sitting in comfort and I like the process of driving a good car.”

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BMW 135i M Sport convertible

Here’s what he says: “We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make”.

Bang on. You can buy a cheap car that takes you to work economically and you may be pleased with the savings you’ve made. But saving money is never joyful. It is mean-spirited and demonstrates that you have a heart of coal. If you wish to lead a joyous life, you should always spend 10% more than you earn.

Joy in a car can come from many quarters. It can come from the “feel” of a button on the dashboard. It can come, such as it does in a Porsche Boxster, from that spine-tingling noise the exhaust makes at precisely 5200rpm. It can come from the way a car turns into a corner or, as you will find in a Nissan 370Z, from the way the engine blips on down changes. Joy can come from a nicely flared wheelarch, from good graphics on a sat nav screen, from the surge you feel when you accelerate. Sometimes, as is the case with the Aston Martin DBS, it can come from so many places, all at once, you are left feeling a little bit light-headed. Even the stitching on the seats made my heart feel all gooey and warm.

I’ve never been able to put my finger on quite why I don’t like cars made by Proton and so on. But now I do. They are not joyous. They are built purely to shore up an emerging nation’s balance of trade, and you will never find any joy in anything where every single part has come from the lowest bidder.

Joy, contrary to what BMW would have us believe, does not make us smile. Even in the aforementioned DBS, I do not gurn like a mad person as I drive along. But joy does make us happy and content and satisfied. In a car, joy is more important than an airbag.

Strangely, however, the one car company that rarely gives me any joy is BMW. It’s why I would never buy one of its cars.

That’s not to say its cars are no good. The new Z4 is marvellous and the M3 is one of the most perfectly balanced machines ever created by man. It makes an F-16 fighter jet look ungainly and lumpen.

However, you always get the sense with a BMW that science has ruled the roost throughout the entire design process; that anything with a bit of flair or panache has been ditched to make way for another equation. And as for the line, “We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make”?