Cars

2010 Aston Martin Rapide

Aston Martin’s Rapide is everything to everybody. A four-door coupe: check. A V12-powered sports car: check. The best-looking sedan, ever produced: check-check. But then again how long has it been since Aston Martin hasn’t produced an absolutely stunning product out of sheet metal? Quite some time, for sure.

Built to compete with the likes of Porsche’s Panamera, Mercedes’s CLS the upcoming Audi A7 and Lamborghini’s Estoque concept the Aston Martin Rapide had much leeway to create a “beautiful 4-place sports car” after the Panamera’s grilling by the press for its styling and the CLS’s redesign. Under the hood of the Rapide lays the naturally-aspirated 6L V12 found in the DB9 (essentially a carry-over) but pushing out 470HP through a standard 6-speed slushbox with electronic paddles making mere suggestions to the Touchtronic. Performance figures aren’t impressive (see the HP figure) and they’ll continue to disappoint those who shop-by-numbers; 0-60MPH takes just over five seconds (the same as a 2011 V6 Ford Mustang) and on to a top speed of 184MPH (less than all competitors lest electronic nannies).

But none of that’s important right now because the Aston Martin Rapide is a DB9 with two more doors and that’s just flat-out impressive. Today’s eBay find is the first Rapide available on eBay and is finished in Tungsten Silver (a carry-over corporate color for the Ford-era) with black leather and over 600 miles on the clock already. Located in Miami and listed for a smidge under 200K at $199,000 this fine piece of British engineering, er… an elongated DB9 built in Austia… can be in your driveway to proudly claim your position as the first one on the block.

32" Asanti's on Hummer H2

Hummer’s, at least in consumer form, have always been a symbol of excess. Whether they’re making the news for being banned in cities in California for supposedly breaking the asphault beneath them or for being the most likely vehicle targeted by police across the nation for the majority of tickets attributed to the high seating position of the drivers. Whatever the case, Asanti has decided the Hummer H2/H2T was the ideal showcase for its new 32″ bling.

Introduced at the 2008 SEMA show in Las Vegas, there are only a handful of vehicles that 32″ rims will fit on including the Hummer H2, Cadillac Escalade, Nissan Armada and the Infiniti QX56 to name a few. Today’s eBay find are a set of 32″ Asanti’s advertised for you to be “the first on the block with 32″ rims.” And customization of this level doesn’t come cheap, for you to be the first with such bling costs a one-time fee of $32,500.

2011 Ford Edge Sport

With over 400,000 units sold its almost safe to say that the Ford Edge, first introduced as a 2007 model, surpassed all sales expectations. Born at the intersection of high gas prices and the end of disposable income the crossover that has launched Ford and its subsidiaries into the badge-engineering game, but for crossovers.

Unveiled in February at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, the 2011 Ford Edge showed the styling path Ford was travelling down with the 3-bar grill and squinty headlights than previous generations. The new generation features a slew of new trim levels: SE, SEL, Limited and Sport but the big story several new engine variations available. Ford’s new EcoBoost range including the 2.0L inline-4, 3.7L direct-injected V6, and the power-house… the 3.5L twin turbo’d V6 with direct-injection. The 3.5L, the one you want, offer’s “V8 performance with V6 fuel economy” so the marketing boffins at Ford would have you to believe. The perfomance isn’t exactly breath taking, a la “V8 performance,” but the economy surely isn’t all that impressive. Up to 25 mpg shows that 355HP can push you around in quite a hurry while still carrying you quite a distance on a gallon of fuel.

Most reviewers were torn on the “love-it or hate” looks with too many curves but found the rounded edges did have one benefit: interior room. One important aspect to many crossover buyers who may be cross-shopping many crossover’s with SUV’s will be surprised to find out that 6-foot adults can sit comfortably in all outboard positions. View the video provided by Ford or the review’s below and read about all the interesting Sony electrics integrated into Ford’s newest generation Sync.

• Autoblog (blog, First Drive)
• Car and Drive (First Drive)
• Automobile Mag (First Drive)
• Inside Line (First Drive)
• Autobytel (First Drive)
• LeftLaneNews (blog, First Drive)

2010 BMW 5-Series

Power, handling, comfort and luxury are all associations one could make when shopping for the 2011 BMW 5-series, BMW’s mid-range sedan. This 5th generation of the BMW sedan slots above the BMW 3-series but only slightly below the 7-series having been designed on the same chassis as the se7en. BMW has done away with the majority of the Bangle design, most notably, the “Bangle-Butt.”

Comfort in the 5-series including the HVAC, audio, system functions and Sat/Nav system is handled mostly by the iDrive system. Now in its fourth-generation iDrive has been improved and is much more intutive, less distracting and easier to control than the previous generations.

Power in the 5-series is handled by either a naturally-aspirated inline-6 with 258HP (528i), a turbocharged inline-6 pushing just over 300HP (535i) or a twin-turbo 4.4L V8 producing 400HP (550i) allowing a sprint to 60 in just 5.0 seconds. Two transmissions are offered, this being German and all, a 6-speed manual and an 8-speed automatic for fuel economy… obviously.

Interesting technologies in the mid-level BMW include the aforementioned iDrive system, adaptive cruise control which can maintain a constant speed based on other cars speed, lane departure warning system, head-up display, park distance control which displays a sort-of birds-eye view of the car, is visible on the Sat/Nav screen and blind spot protection lights an indicator in the outside mirrors to let you know you’re merging into traffic. As part of the continuing BMW Efficient Dynamics campaign the car’s battery gets recharged during braking using brake-regeneration without even a hybrid system.

In relation to handling, TheAutoChannel.com reports that, “what is most appealing about the 550i though is its road manners.” Allowing those superb road manners are an overall length gain of the body with a 3-inch longer wheelbase and slightly wider track but then it would be bigger since its based on its big brother. The 5-series comes in sevreal variants: a four-door sedan, wagon, Gran-turismo body-style and expect a sporty M5 to follow.

BMW E90, E92, E93 Supercharger Kit

When the E90/E92 series BMW M3 was released it never had an easy life. It was compared to everything on the road including the Bugatti Veyron, as it should, since the M3 is often considered the benchmark sports car whether it be in the entry level, hardcore sports, sedan or coupe segment categories. The fantastic motorsports derived 4.0L V8 found in the current M3 broke the mold with 414HP and almost 300LB/FT of torque. But for those of you M3 drivers who want more, wait no longer.

Vortech’s Stage 3 supercharger boosts your E90, E92, or E93 BMW up to 775HP after chipping with less than 7PSI of boost. Unlike most supercharger kits, this one comes fully involved with a high capacity intercooler, drive belt rollers, larger fuel injectors, a K&N air filter, hose clamps and other necessary hardware to complete the project. The Stage 3 kit is only compatible with the strength of the BMW manual transmission because of undocumented torque figures, however the Stage 2 kits and under are all DCT aware. This Stage 3 kit lists for $13,389 or best offer for the full enchilada or just $8,800 for the “starter” Stage 1 kit to boost the benchmark sports car.