Sports Cars And Bikes

European hunting season cancelled: Cadillac CTS-V not crossing Atlantic

Cadillac's wicked new CTS-V may have the likes of the BMW M5 in its sights, but it appears that it won't be hunting down the best that Munich, Stuttgart and Ingolstadt have to offer on their Autobahn home turf. According to Top Gear, Caddy's U.S. minders don't think the V's blown V8 is good for Europe, so the car apparently won't be making the boat trip across the Atlantic. Unfortunate, as it would have been interesting to see how America's ultimate muscle sedan would have fared when euro journos pitted it against all the hometown favorites. Sure, we'll see comparos done Stateside, but it would have been fun to see Cadillac put on the "away" jersey to try and add some luster to that long-tarnished "Standard of the World" mantle against Europe's top performance machines -- including the ones we don't see here, like the new Audi RS6 .

The Black Ops: Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series

This is the Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series.
MB describes it as the 'exclusive high-performance coupe for the discerning motorist'. By 'discerning' we presume they mean 'totally and utterly crazy in the heed'.
The SL Black - the third Black series car after the SLK and sensational CLK - is based on the latest SL 65.

The 6.0-litre V12 biturbo engine has been tweaked by AMG to 670bhp and 1000 Nm of torques - that's 737lb/ft in old money or 152lb/ft more than an SLR...
The standard SL 65 AMG has a measly 612bhp.

The SL Black also gets a chunky wide-arch bodykit, modified intake system, two trapezoidal tail pipes and a carbon roof. The SL's trick vario roof folding hardtop has been junked in favour of an integral roll cage.

Composite brakes are fitted, as are 20-inch alloys and a retractable boot spoiler. The Black is 250kg lighter than the SL 65 AMG.

0-62mph comes up in 3.9seconds and top speed is limited to 199mph - figures near identical to the SLR and all for $90,000 less than the bigger Mercedes.

Which begs the question, why spend the extra?

BMW 335i Coupe & Cabriolet Get M3’s 7-Speed Double-Clutch Gearbox

Parallel to the market launch of the facelifted 3 Series sedan and touring models, BMW announced the availability of its new 7-speed semi-automatic gearbox with double-clutch for the 335i Coupe and 335i Convertible models. Named DKG, the new double-clutch transmission was introduced for the first time on the M3 Sedan. It offers the driver the choice of controlling the gearbox changes through a shift lever on the centere console or via paddles on the steering wheel.
Equipped with this gearbox, the 335i Coupe with the 306Hp twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter straight six completes the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in 5.4 sec or 0.1 sec faster than the model fitted with the 6-speed manual transmission and 0.3 seconds faster than the 335i Coupe with the previously available 6-speed automatic.

Furthermore, the double-clutch gearbox helps drop consumption in both the 335i Coupe and Cabriolet by up to 5% compared to the equivalent models with 6-speed manual or automatic transmissions. In particular, the 335i Coupe & Convertible models with the DKG achieve an average fuel consumption in the combined EU test cycle of 8.8lt /100km (26.7 mpg) and 9.1lt/100km (25.9 mpg) respectively.

2010 Honda S2000 Roadster Rendering

While I still haven’t got any official word on the S2000 replacement, Japanese car magazines are at it again drawing up their own renderings of Honda’s next generation rear-wheel-drive roadster. According to T.L. who sent us this latest scan, the unnamed Japanese magazines says that new S2000 is expected to be unveiled in 2010 with worldwide sales starting in 2011. It is stated that Honda’s S2000 will offer buyers more options in terms of powertrains, including two new engines, a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder V-TEC unit delivering approximately 250Hp and a 3.5-litre V6 V-TEC unit with about 350Hp.