Do you still remember DeTomaso Pantera L? Yes, this is a super car made by the Italian manufacturer De Tomaso which was made between 1967 and 1971 and is quite famous in its time. Unfortunately his aura is now faded due to losing prestige with today's fast cars..
But don't assume that the De Tomaso car manufacturer will be gone forever. Because recently at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Italian automotive manufacturer was resurrected and succeeded in designing and displaying a new supercar with a modern design to rival the super car scattered on the streets today and named 'De Tomaso P72.'
The Italian automotive company was founded by Alejandro de Tomaso more than 60 years ago and has now been revived, after being bought by a Hong Kong-based company called Ideal TeamVenture. And is the same company that bought the German supercar brands Gumpert and changed its name to Apollo. Then Apollo presented a V12 beast named Intensa Emozione.
The new De Tomaso P72 is not the spiritual successor of De Tomaso Pantera, the most famous model of De Tomaso. Instead, it pays homage to the P70 prototype racer of 1960s, whch was born of a collaboration between the De Tomaso founder, Alejandro de Tomaso and Carroll Shelby, but unfortunately only raced once and stopped on the opening lap at the 1966 Mugello Grand Prix. The P70 featured a body penned by Peter Brock and now some of the lines have made the transition through time to grace the modern P72.
A bespoke carbon fiber monocoque structure of De Tomaso P72 supercar. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2LApNyc)
And the person responsible for the sexy appearance of the modern P72 is Jowyn Wong from Wyn Design. His goal is to combine modern bodies that are aerodynamically optimized with retro cues that recalling P70. Things like wing mirrors and front emblem cover pay homage to P70, for example. The interior of the P72 is just as beautiful. Polished copper and diamond pattern details adorn the cabin and classically designed switchgear and circular analogue display dials take inspiration from the timeless design themes of the '60s and '70s.
"I had no idea my concept from the mid '60s would in any way be influential to a car being presented today," Brock said after learning of the P72. "My first impressions of the new DeTomaso are all so positive I hardly know where to begin. The exterior form is so well done it invites you to keep walking around, admiring every subtle detail."
All this wrapped around a bespoke carbon fiber monocoque structure, designed to meet Le Mans' prototype safety requirements. Complete technical details will be disclosed later because P72 still has to go through a process of market homologation. De Tomaso said the car would remain largely unchanged, right down to the sweet exposed manual transmission mechanism.
De Tomaso still keep silent about the P72 technical specification. Some assume that this supercar uses a hybrid-turbo-V6-clever-clogs powerplant, or some suggest the P72 could come with a V8 in true De Tomaso spirit or even V12.
And reportedly, these De Tomaso P72 will be made in a very limited number, which is only 72 units. Until now De Tomaso still opens opportunities for those of you who are interested in having this beautiful supercar. And also mentioned this supercar was given a price tag of around €750,000 (around $846,250) and buyers in North America would be served through Miller Motorcars in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Are you interested in having it? If 'yes,' then prepare your money immediately and order now! Don't miss it. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | MOTORAUTHORITY | MOTOR1]
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The current electric car market seems to be more promising for most car manufacturers in the world, including Lotus. These British car racing and sports car maker is starting to glance at electric-powered cars to become their newest line up. Reportedly, Lotus will introduce Lotus Type 130 as their newest electric car.
The British company has just revealed a silhouette of a car that is claimed to be Type 130. But the new prototype will be introduced in London on this year. To note, the Type 130 is Lotus's new car after more than a decade of absence presenting a new type of car.
As qouted by Driving Electric, the automaker have moves to trademark "Evija" name in the UK under several trademark classes, ranging from toys to vehicle development. And Evija's name follows Lotus's penchant to make their car branding with names starting by the letter 'E,' and given the impending reveal of the electric hypercar, it makes sense that Lotus would want to trademark the electric-powered car's name.
Currently only a car silhouette is available. Lotus itself revealed the prototype is still being developed. "Type 130 will be the most outstanding Lotus product in our dynamic history. This will mark a turning point for our brand and is a demonstration of our capabilities and what will come from Lotus." said CEO of Lotus, Phil Popham, as reported by NewAtlas on April 17, 2019.
The new electric hypercar is currently doing the rounds under the Type 130 code name, which follows an internal naming practice at Lotus. For example, the original Elite of the 1950s was Type 14, while the current Elise, first launched in 1995, was the Type 111.
Latest teaser for Lotus Type 130 electric hypercar. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2JazvWA)
At present some details of the electric hypercar have been revealed, although Lotus has confirmed that only 130 units are destined to be built, each tends to be order by a 7-digit price tag. Production will be handled at Lotus headquarters in Hethel, England, and the shipments will begin in 2020. And the latest teaser photo released on earlier this month shows a panel that includes a charging port.
The car is being developed to help restore Lotus' image as a genuine alternative to Porsche and Ferrari, which aren't expected to have pure electric models available until the middle of the next decade. New parent company Geely is reportedly spending as much as $2 billion on future developments at Lotus, including potentially increasing its stake in the British firm from the current 51 percent. The remainder is owned by Malaysia's Etika Automotive.
Lotus is known to have not released a new model since releasing Lotus Evora in 2008. Since then, the British automotive company has only produced special editions of several existing models, such as the Elise 20th Anniversary, Elise Sport, Elise Sport 220 and so on.
If Lotus is committed to presenting an electric car, of course in the next few months there will be a number of specifications related to Lotus Type 130. Let's wait, how will Lotus present its first electric car in the last 11 years. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LOTUS | NEWATLAS | DRIVING ELECTRIC | MOTOR AUTHORITY]
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At present the development of electric-powered vehicles looks increasingly massive. This can be seen by the increasing number of electric-powered vehicles produced by the world's automotive manufacturers. Apparently this also aroused interest from Drako Motors Inc, a Startup EV company based in Silicon Valley to participate in producing an electric-powered supercar. Recently they gave a teaser video of the upcoming supercar called Drako GTE.
A front fascia and headlights teaser image of all-new American electric supercar called Drako GTE. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2FQ77H6)
The American automotive manufacturer has repeatedly claimed that Drako GTE is an extraordinarily luxurious and powerful supercar. Even according to the company, the car will be able to accommodate four passengers and carry their luggages "luxuriously" in tandem. On the strength side, Drako Motors plans to make this supercar driven by an ultra advanced, fully electric quad motor architecture and capable of running at around 1,200 horsepower of power and 6,490 lbs-ft of torque and also has a top speed of 206 mph.
Do note, Drako is really talking about wheel torque, not torque as it's typically measured. Wheel torque is calculated with drive ratios and isn't just what the powertrain creates total. Just like when Tesla bragged about their second-generation Roadster which has torque of up to 7,000 lbs-ft, but in reality, the marketing department just wanted to make some eyes widen.
Drako Motors team posed with a prototype car with all-wheel torque vector drive system at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 2015. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2RSsz2M)
Drako Motors is actually not a completely new company. They have been around for several years (founded 2013), but have worked quietly to build the GTE. In 2015 startups built a prototype to show off the all-wheel torque vector drive system. They even went further by doing running test on those prototype at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and succesfully completed a lap in 7:49.
Apart from confirmation that we will see a car, we have no other information about this car now. Only a very short teaser video that shows the front fascia and headlights. We can't even comment its design on super-fast video display, but we know that Lowie Vermeersch, a former Pininfarina director is the person behind the looks.
Here's the first look of Drako GTE:
Well, it's good if we wait until August 16 at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering during 2019 Monterey Car Week, where Drako Motors plans to debut their car. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | DRAKO MOTORS | MOTOR AUTHORITY | INSIDEEV]
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Back to 2018, Ares Design seemed to pop up out of nowhere and suddenly come up with a rather stunning design, that can be said as the most beautiful and also out of the box concept they ever made.
2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2YhY8p7)
They are called it in Italian as 'Wami ProgettoDue,' or 'Project Wami'. This project was inspired by the 1956 Maserati A6CGS Spyder classic figure with the body by Frua, but instead its figure looks like the details of that car were just Photoshopped onto a Miata.
Left side view of 2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2YhY8p7)
“When it comes to fruition Project Wami will be the finest bespoke roadster and a true testament to Ares Design’s painstaking eye for detail,” Ares promises. We loved their last few designs, so hopefully, they take another stab, or three, at this one.
Dashboard view of 2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design (it look has three pedals, but no shift lever is visible). (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2YhY8p7)
Ares says it will be
made of lightweight and strong materials such as handcrafted aluminum,
carbon fibre, and leather, which means it won’t be cheap either. The details are still very little, because the project seems to be in the early stages of development.
But, the windshield is one part that is difficult to change, even if most of the body panels are changed. In the eyes of some people, Project Wami looks rather similar to Ferrari Portofino, which means might be it carries a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 engine.
Right side view of 2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2YhY8p7)
As qouted of driving.ca, at glance the interior looks okay, but there is something very strange here. Because, from the rendering images shows three pedals, it indicating that the car was adopted manual transmission system, but no shift lever is visible and also no detailed description where's those shift lever been hidden if it existed.
Dashboard revision view of 2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design (it look has shift lever now). (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2NrtV68)
But after we saw those retro concept car's cabin taken from the official site of Ares Design, it was clearly seen where the shift lever was placed (it looks like someone from Ares Design has made corrections to the previous image).
Interior revision view of 2018 Wami ProgettoDue or Project Wami by Ares Design (it look has shift lever now). (Picture from: http://bit.ly/2NrtV68)
The
release date hasn’t been discussed, and neither has the powertrain or
the car it’s based on. And also there's no further information whether there're Ares Design customers who willing to order this retro concept and built it into real car. Or might be You are interested to be the first one in having it? *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ARES DESIGN | DRIVING.CA]
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Have you ever noticed the name of supercars that combines numbers and letters? Perhaps one of You doesn't know what the meaning of that.
Apparently those combination are not just sweetener, it turns out that there's a meaning too! Yes, like humans, the name of each car also has meaning. Similarly, when giving a name, it should not be just sound nice or look good.
Supercars like the Lamborghini Centenario, Bugatti Chiron, or Pagani Huayra are the same. In addition to the names that are easily spelled, mentioned but remembered as well, and after that supercars usually have names that use a combination of letters and numbers.
As quoted by Zing, the combination of letters and numbers has a deeper meaning to explain the car itself. And the car naming by using a combination of numbers and letters can be seen in the supercars of Lamborghini, Ferrari and McLaren as follows,
1. Lamborghini
Lamborghini supercar models like Huracan, Aventador, or Murcielago use the names of famous Spaniard bulls. After that name, usually there are rows of letters and numbers, such as LP700-4 or LP580-2. Those combinations are not just accessories. The 'LP' in Italian means 'Longitudinale Posteriore' which means vertical engine.
Then the number 700 or 580 is a number that refers to the amount of power produced by the engine, which is 700 hp or 580 hp. This number can be a fixed number or only an estimate. While the last number, like 2 or 4 refers to the drive system, 2-wheel or 4-wheel drive system.
But, rich people as well as Lamborghini users actually don't care about the meaning of the name above. So, at this time Lamborghini no longer uses the character of a combination of numbers and letters. It can be seen to the Lamborghini Urus, Huracan EVO, or Aventador SVJ.
2. Ferrari
While another Italian premium car manufacturers, Ferrari apparently also has a combination of numbers and letters that have a certain meaning. But unlike Lamborghini, the row of numbers on the Ferrari car does not refer to the power produced by the engine. Rather it refers to the engine capacity.
For example, Ferrari 458, which means 4.5L engine capacity and V8 engine. Previously this was applied to Ferrari 360 and F430, which meant using 3.6L and 4.3L engines. While for the Ferrari 488 GTB, the 488 number means the 488cc engine capacity.
Whereas in the last generation cars like the Ferrari F8 Tributo, it has a different meaning. This car is equipped with the most powerful Ferrari engine has ever made, ie 3.9L twin-turbo. Then the number 8 means? That refers to the 8-cylinder. And Tributo itself means Thank You.
3. McLaren
Apparently, naming like this is also contagious to the McLaren-made supercars. It's just that McLaren uses a simpler naming system. Like a supercar with the names 540C, 570S, 650S, and 720S refers to the power produced by the engine.
For example, the 570S has 570 PS of power, of which 1 PS or power unit is equivalent to 0.98 hp. While the letter 'S' that follows the row of numbers means 'Shaped'. The letter 'S' on 570S means Sport Series. Whereas 'S' on 650S and 720S means Super Series.
But the McLaren supercars also has names like 540C, 600LT, or 675LT. Naming like the last three is an exception. The letter 'C' can mean Casual which refers to the supercar concept for daily used. While these two letters 'LT' means the Long Tail, which represents the supercar physical type with a long stern.
At the end, now we're able to understand the meaning of combination of numbers and letters on those three supercar above. O..eM..Gee.. Or see Ares Maserati concept.. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ZING]
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