Asanti Also Has $2 Million Wheels, Which Nobody Seems To Know

As I picked up the duPont Registry I bought while grocery shopping today, I thought the same Asanti ad for its latest ultra-exclusive wheel set, the Asanti Black Series, would appear. As I paged through, I saw the same ad, but something was different. There were three other sets of wheels at the bottom, which turned out to be their uber-ultra-mega-expensive Diamond Collection. The base wheel, made of cubic Zirconium, was priced at $250,000, a quarter of the price of the wheel we all know of, the famous $1,000,000 Diamond/Sapphire wheel set that was displayed at SEMA and comes with a free Bentley. But there was also another wheel on the page, which hasn't gotten any of the attention of its $1 Million brother. The Asanti AFS 103 Series, made of nearly six times as many Diamonds as its brother with 1,200 Rubies sprinkled in, is priced at a monstrous $2,000,000! This is the flagship wheel set of the top series of the most expensive brand of an ultra-lux wheel company. In other words, Lexani makes Asanti which makes the Diamond Series which makes the AFS 103. These wheels eclipse their half-price brother to become the most expensive wheels on Earth. According to many reports, the Diamond Series is dead, but this ad in the January issue of the duPont registry tells otherwise. I wonder if it comes with two free Bentleys...

What Would You Do With a '32 Ford?

Or

There's a new poll out today that will be going on until mid-February. We are asking you guys to think of what you would do with a 1932 ford if you had the money to do exactly what you wanted. Are you a stocker freak and so would restore it to exact factory specs? Do you like 40's Bonneville-style stuff, making a period-correct salt roadster? Do you have the need for speed and you transform it into a drag car with no hope for road use? Do you rat rod it on a budget? Do you go the most common route nowadays and build a comfortable modern street rod? Do you drive a tattered car daily? Or do you have some crazy idea of your own? It's your choice. Vote in the poll now and tell us more about your dream '32 below in comments.

US-Spec 2011 Ford Fiesta To Debut At LA Auto Show (UPDATE: Leaked Photos!)

The moment all of us American automotive journalists have been waiting for is coming near. America is getting a Ford Fiesta at long last. This little hatch has been a big seller in the booming European compact car market, and journalists have been begging for its arrival in the US for years. And now, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the US-Spec Ford Fiesta will finally be shown to us. The US-Spec Fiesta is going to be at least very like the current Euro-market sedan and hatches, with little or no major changes from that model. The only major difference is that so far is that there is no indication of a two-door version of the Fiesta reaching the United States. So far one engine has been confirmed, a 1.6 Ti-VCT, there will be numerous performance options, and this little car will be packed with big tech such as Ford's Sync system and Bluetooth technology.

UPDATE: These new photos were leaked on Ford of Canada's website yesterday and show the US version of the Fiesta. The sedan has our familiar three-bar grille and faux air intakes, and the hatch also shows some changes from the Euro Models.

The Most Eye-Catching Car At Iola: Ultimate Tribute Cavalier!

  Ah, Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet. The meeting point of every car-obsessed person in the Northern section of the Midwest. For a weekend, the tiny town of Iola, WI is lit up with gleaming chrome and trailers full of rusting vintage Cragars, wheels, bumpers, and any other automotive item you could need. A full-fledged car show, a giant swap meet, a car corral, and an auction all packed into one three-day-long event that attracts thousands of men carrying their reluctant wives and the occasional genuinely interested woman. There are Dodge Chargers, Kaisers, BMWs and Duesenburgs, and all of them are interesting to anyone who loves cars. Its almost impossible to resist coming each year. Of all these cars, you'd think that the most interesting would be some classic Ferrari of Duesenburg, but this July it wasn't so. This year, the car that stole the show wasn't a car featured in multiple magazines, not a historic Bonneville racer, but a 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

  Yep, you heard that right. Walking among the many drivers for sale in the Car Corral section, near the end of my day in Iola this July, I was pretty bored and feeling kind of down. We had just been by the auction section, where the economy had lead to only one out of 10 cars we saw go up on the block sold. All of the cars I was around were drivers, with the top price being around $50,000 for a '57 Corvette, and I was going to leave in about half an hour. I was heading back to the swap meet section when a crowd obscuring a car caught my eye. The crowd was larger than the one around the featured driver Auburn/Cord/Duesenburg collection, larger than the one around the custom '54 Kaiser Manhattan featured in Hot Rod Magazine, and larger than the one around the highest-mileage car in the world, a Volvo P1800 coupe. I rushed over to see what all the fuss was about. Was it a used Bugatti for sale? A Fiat 500 with an Enzo motor? As I got closer I saw the truth. It was a Cavalier, decked out in custom gear making it a rolling tribute to Chevrolet coupes. It had '54 Corvette headlights and grille, '57 Bel Air-style rear fenders, '63 Corvette split-window rear glass, Impala hints and more. It's powered by an unknown motor, hopefully a V-8, with a nice blower on it, and it was being offered for an amazing deal of $4,000! Thats 5 different cars with a total value of $301,692 for just $4,000. No, just kidding. I wouldn't buy it either, but it does make for a good conversation.

We Don't Get As Much Mercedes-Benz In The US

  When we Americans think of Mercedes-Benz, a picture of an E-Class or an SLR Mclaren comes to mind almost invariably. Here in the gas-guzzling U.S. of A, Mercedes-Benz is a maker mid-size and large premium sedans, coupes, roadsters, and SUVs, but the picture is very different in Europe. Mercedes-Benz makes a total of four models that we don't have here in the US, and all of them are very different from the Benzes we know and love.

  Across the pond in the land where Diesel compacts rule the roads, Mercedes-Benz offers two sub-C Class compact cars, a compact coupe (an evolution of the demised C230 coupes that were offered in the US for a few years), and a minivan. There there is also the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and other commercial vans. Does the name sound familiar? If you consider the fact the MB was partnered with Chrysler, the truth comes all too clear if you didn't know already. Yep, our "American" Dodge and Freightliner Sprinters are really a re-badged Germans that avoided pesky taxes by being shipped in parts to the US and assembled here with the manufacturer of choice's badge slapped on the front. Ah, badge engineering.

  But enough about that, lets move on to the models that are sold as passenger cars, as the Sprinter is only a civilian car in a customized camper form. There are two compacts in the MB lineup that aren't here in the US, the A-class and B-class. The A-Class, a small premium hatch that comes in 3 and 5-door forms starting at a bad space-to-dollar rate of $21,453, is the epitome of a crowded-city luxury car. It has sold in huge numbers, almost 2 million since its launch in 1999, and if it was brought to the US it may become a toy for the obsessively rich to have when they're trying to look environmentally conscious. The problem, though, is that they packed the car so full of technical features for a car its small size that they met their price point way before they could focus on a full-luxury interior. The result is an interior that resembles the configuration of the Volkswagen Jetta with the leatherette package, with hard, but not low-quality plastics in some places and leather in others. The exterior, like some other Euro MB products, has not switched over to the new, more mean-looking grille yet, so it looks relatively out-or date from the front, even though a recent facelift made it more modern from the side. With power ranging from 140 to 193 HP, the A-Class is not something for speedy runs or people like Jay Leno and the Sultan of Brunei (though I wouldn't be surprised if he had one), but its more of a car for relatively well-off city-dwellers that can't stand cloth seats.

  The B-Class, introduced in 2005 and updated in 2008, is based on the A-Class architecture. It was originally intended to go on sale as the Base Benz in the US, but plans were scrapped for that and it is now sold virtually everywhere but the US, including Canada. The B-Class starts at $27,648, and like the A-Class it virtually dwarfs the price of everything else in its category. It's like a minivan shaped compact with regular doors, which MB calls a Multi-Activity vehicle, mimicking BMW's weird names such as Sport Activity Coupe for the X6. Interestingly, the higher-priced and larger B-Class has less power than its smaller brother, with rates ranging from 94 (!) to 190 Horsepower, which is at best 3 less than the A-Class' ratings. There's not much more to say about the B-Class because its essentially a more expensive A-Class with more space, more modern looks, and less power. The interior is slightly higher-rent with more leather and less plastic, and it has room for some cargo even with kids inside, which says a lot in Europe.

  Next up is a car you may know from a few years back, with the C230 coupe, a try by Mercedes-Benz at launching one of their cheaper models in the US. It started at around $25,000 in 2003, and they sold well for what they were, a cheap Mercedes-Benz. After that one venture, MB pulled the coupe out of the US and its now only sold overseas, where it is known as the CLC-Class. It now starts at $28,211 in current exchange rates, making it the cheapest and smallest MB coupe in Europe, as opposed to the $48,050 E-Class Coupe here in the States. There have only been minor changes since the C230 was taken out of the US with a minor refreshing including the new-style grille and wheel options, and the rear shape remains in its quirky half-hatchback form. The refreshing was to hide that its still based on the last-gen C-Class sedan, so the mechanical aspects of it aren't exactly thrilling and up-to-date. In fact, there is a new CLC-Class scheduled to be coming soon to replace the current coupe. The interior has leather as an option, but the overall quality is good. The horsepower ratings go from 120-268, a margin of 70 horsepower over the compacts.

  The last car that Europe gets we may not want at all. You see, this is basically a giant, boxy, Japanese-style minivan. Called the Viano, this van scraps the (insert letter here)-Class naming system, and for good reason. This is a completely different Mercedes-Benz than we know. I mean, how do the words "Mercedes-Benz" and "minivan" go in the same sentence? Yet again, it worked in Wisconsin for Buick, why shouldn't it work in Europe for Mercedes-Benz? Any Minivan that starts at $36,514 has to be luxurious and up to date, right? Well, according to Whatcar.com, it's very flexible for different types of families, with two wheelbase and three body length options, but "It's an expensive option, whose van roots show through in some areas. The engines are noisy and it's not easy to use the car’s full versatility, as the seats are heavy if you want to remove them." The horsepower ratings, though you'd hardly look at that in a minivan, range from 116 to 258, and of course the material quality is superb, but it's not anywhere near the most versatile and smart option in a minivan.

My Favorite Photos From The Past Year

  I spotted the Porsche Carrera S on a trip to Chicago a year ago.

  This Viper RT/10 was a one-time shower at the Howard, WI A&W Cruisin' Nights.

  If you're not familiar with my story about this car, go to http://bit.ly/grantur

  This Ford coupe, like the Viper, was another local find.

  On a trip to Madison, WI, I couldn't identify this truck at first.

Chevy Volt From Concept To Production

  When the Chevy Volt concept appeared on the 2007 NAIAS show floor, it drew much interest, though not as much as the Camaro concept, which manifested itself as the production Camaro this year. It was also a footnote compared to such cars that never happened such as the Ford Interceptor and Chrysler Nassau. But now, with electric technology being embraced by millions of people who don't care about driving experience and our government, many are taking a look at the Volt that they didn't before.

  What they see isn't what they glanced at on the Detroit show floor, to say the least. Almost every aspect of styling, many suppliers, and some technology has changed since the introduction of the concept, and now the Volt just looks like a wide Malibu instead of a muscular, if odd, sedan. Perhaps this is a good thing. The old styling was very controversial, with inoperable windows that kept extending down past the body line and rear-end styling that seems to remind me faintly of the Toyota IQ. Not to mention the fact that many of the features wouldn't have been street-legal. But Chevy wouldn't have got our attention with a boring sedan as a concept, right? So they gave us something that the Chevy Camaro may have been in sedan form if it wouldn't have gone the Mustang retro route.

  Now, looking back, that front end looks too sparse in comparison to the Hulking new designs seen on GMC, Lincoln, and Cadillac cars and is a bit out of date. The new car, though much more boring, seems more modern.  When the production-bodied Chevy Volt was revealed it wasn't exactly a party day by anyone's standards. But I think the styling of the new car has merit. It looks cleaner, less quirky, more practical, and altogether more modern. Safety standards come into effect here, mandating larger headlights, eliminating the inoperable windows, which wouldn't have worked anyways from a stylistic or practical standpoint, and making some structural changes. Some other changes include Suppliers for many components, some of which haven't even been secured by this point. Currently GM is expecting more demand than supply, and hopefully they won't destroy them like they did to the EV-1, which took its name from the more stylistically daring 1985 Saab Concept, which used solar panels to power cooling and heating fans.

Cobra Continues To Prosper After Official Death

  There are many different things the Selby Cobra did for America. It was competitive in world races at a time when the Ford GT40 was shunned as being too British, winning major events in a landslide. Many have tried to repeat the success of such a homegrown machine, but so far none have succeeded. Unless you count the numerous continuations, kit cars, modern interpretations, and freelance designs that have popped up over the years, which brings me to the subject of this article.

  The first thing that you think of after thinking of the original Cobra is most likely the numerous kit cars out there. From the name brands that offer accurately enough styled kits with (often Chevy) V-8 underpinnings, to the companies that make sub-par recreations based off of Civics and Fieros, they all have one thing in common. No wait make that two things. They all try to recreate the original Cobra and try to come up with names that won't get Carrol Shelby on their heels with lawsuits. From Factory Five Racing to Superformance to Street Beasts, these kits are everywhere. I think that one writer, who I can't recall at the moment has it right, saying that if we were wiped out and beings discovered the remains one day, it would seem like Cobras were the most-bought car on Earth, and the ones with the Shelby ID numbers would just be thought of as another brand that sold them. One thing I object to in these kits is the common use of Chevy 350 V-8s. I mean, if you want an automobile that drives like a Cobra, looks like a Cobra, and doesn't make you look like an idiot when you're hood is opened up, you better put an authentic Ford 260, 289, or 427 in it. I know that you could fill up the entire internet with comments to the contrary and moans about Ford part supply, but that's just my viewpoint.

  The second type of modern Cobra I'd like to discuss in this post are the ones that are made to be modern supercar version the car, such as the Iconic GTR, the AC MK VI, or the car shown above, the Gardner Douglas G350. All of these but the Iconic have LS-series Corvette motors, where the Iconic GTR has a clean-sheet motor designed by the company itself. GM Performance Parts probably wouldn't exist but for numerous kit cars and homegrown supercars. These cars are costly to develop, and many a company has gone down in flames with not one of their cars sold. AC itself, the nameplate for the Cobra depending on who you ask and the basic provider for the car Carrol needed to get it all started in the first place, is struggling to get by and its recent history is even more dramatic than the history of Vector, with many tales of fleeing from countries and several court cases tied to one event. Iconic has more hope of succeeding, backed up by the fact that they've got money behind them and a car that was developed completely in-house.

  There are also many artists' dreams out there. From furniture to auto proposals, there's always some dreamer out there rendering the next Cobra. Here's one of my favorites done by Vaughan Ling, a college student who's done lots of rendering work, and in a weird coincidence, has a Datsun 240Z like mine, dash cracks, missing stereo and all. His idea is different than many, going about things the way the retro Mustang does. You can see his other work on his blog, http://vaughanling.blogspot.com/, but the subject of this is his 2009 Cobra Concept. He doesn't want to make a complete copy, but he wants to copy the essence of the car without mimicking it (I'm talking about you, Dodge Challenger!) or copying it outright. His idea is more extreme than Iconic, more extreme than Gardner Douglas, making the Cobra look modern.

  We can be sure that there will always be fake Cobras, new Cobras, continuation Cobras, modern interpretations of Cobras, etc., but I still hold firm to my belief that nothing beats the sheer driving feeling of the originals, The AC Shelby Cobra 260, 289, and 427 that dominated their day.

"High Performance" - We Dare To Define It

Introduction:

What is “high performance?” Is it defined by ¼ mile, track, or slalom times? Top speed? Horsepower? Torque? Power-to-weight ratio?

Obviously there are many potential dimensions to high performance. Of interest to us, though, is what high performance means to the everyday driving enthusiast who spends the vast majority of his or her driving time on the public roads in a production car. Thus we introduce the Road Performance Rating or RPR. Also of interest is production car performance per dollar, so along with RPR we include the metric Road Performance Value or RPV, which related RPR to purchase price.

Derivation:

In determining a vehicle’s RPR we use quantitative data, and in the spirit of “walk the walk” we use performance data rather than vehicle specs. To assure objectivity this performance data is from independent sources, primarily testing carried out by the major car publications, not from the car companies.

The obvious question, then, is what performance data is used to derive RPR. We have determined that there are four primary performance factors contributing to overall performance on the road. These are:

­ - Acceleration,
­ - Road Holding,
­ - Braking, and
­ - Top Speed.

There are multiple performance metrics used for acceleration, but we use ¼-mile time. For road holding we use skid pad data (g’s). For braking we use 70-to-zero distance in feet. And for top speed we use mph.

The next obvious question is what relative weights are used for these four factors. We chose to weight acceleration, road holding, and braking equally at 30% each, and to discount top speed to 10%. This is because it is rare that any of us push our vehicles to their top end on the road. Obviously these weights would vary somewhat depending on whether one is driving mostly on highways, country roads, or city streets, and also depending on traffic density, but we believe this represents a reasonable balance.

A car earns points toward its RPR for its performance in each of these four areas as compared to associated performance ranges defined by existing production cars, adjusted by the corresponding weighting factors. For example, the range of standing ¼-mile times used for current production cars is from 10 seconds to 22 seconds. A car earns 2.5 point for each second below 22 seconds it achieves in the standing ¼-mile [30 (weight) / (22-10) = 2.5]. So a car that runs a 12-second ¼-mile earns 25 points for the acceleration factor (10 seconds quicker than 22 x 2.5). Conversely, a car with a 23-second ¼-mile time would receive -2.5 points for the acceleration factor. The other factors are handled the same way, and following are the performance ranges used to establish RPR point in each area:

­ - Acceleration – 10 to 22 second standing ¼ time (2.5 points per second below 22)
­ - Road Holding – 0.5 to 1.15 g’s (4.615 points per 0.1 g above 0.5)
­ - Braking – 130 to 230 feet 70-to-zero distance (0.3 points per foot below 230)
­ - Top Speed – 85 to 260 mph (0.057 points per mph above 85)

Using this approach a car could earn an RPR of 100 by having a 10-second ¼-mile, 1.15 g’s road holding, a 130-foot braking distance, and a top speed of 260 mph. While all of these numbers represent close to the best possible performance for existing production cars, no single production car today can achieve them all. In fact, as you will see below, the highest performance road car today has an RPR of 86.

As mentioned before, road performance value, RPV, is derived by relating the RPR to price. Actually, RPR cubed is used in this derivation to emphasize performance over price because, let’s face it, once performance falls to a certain level there is not much bang there regardless of how low the bucks are. However, there are a few good performance values in the moderate performance range and we will point these out below. For consistency in price derivation we use 1.15 x the base MSRP for each model.

This analysis makes no attempt to address such things as styling, features, or status as these are subjective matters. For example, the Cadillac CTS-V is the highest performance sedan in this analysis with an RPR of 69. But just behind with an RPR of 68 is the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR, also a sedan, but with its much lower price it is a significantly higher performance value. Purely from a performance value perspective the Lancer wins hands down. However, its styling and relative lack of status are just not for everyone regardless of the better performance value.

Results:

The Road Supercars

Not only does the Corvette ZR1, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, come out on top of this elite group, but the Z06 and Z51 also rate amongst the supercars. And all three ‘Vettes are great performance values in this class, especially the Z51. Other good performance values amongst the supercars include the Nissan GT-R and Dodge Viper SRT10 and ACR version. Who says the U.S.A. can’t produce great cars?


High Performance Road Cars



Lots of great cars in the high performance group. We also see the highest performance sedans, SUVs/crossovers, and hatchbacks in this group including the Cadillac CTS-V, Mercedes C63 and S63 AMGs, BMW Alpina B7, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR, Lexus IS F, Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Turbo S, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Audi RS 4, Infiniti G37 Sport Sedan, Mini Cooper Works Clubman, Jaguar XF Supercharged, and Pontiac G8 GXP.

But the big news here is the huge performance values. The real standout is the Nissan 370Z (with the better brakes that come with the sport option), but not far behind in value are the new Camaro SS, Lancer Evolution GSR, and Mustang GT. Again, some impressive U.S.-built performance value.


Moderately High Performance Road Cars





Again, there are a lot of great cars to choose from here, and again some great performance values. Leading the way in performance value within this group are the Chevy Cobalt SS and Mazda Speed3. The Hyundai Genesis 3.8, Mazda Speed6 and RX-8, Subaru Impreza WRX, Camaro LT, Mini Cooper S and Clubman S, VW GTI, and Mazda MX-5 Hardtop Grand Touring are also very good performance values.


Moderate Road Performance

Moving down the RPR scale we begin to get into vehicles for which performance is not necessarily the primary consideration, so we will not go to the trouble of listing these additional 149 vehicles here. Nevertheless, there are still some decent performance values in the upper portion of this group. These include the Honda Civic Si, Mini Cooper, and VW Rabbit.


Conclusion:

While we have included a good representative list of production cars in this analysis, we recognize that there are others of potential interest that are not included here. We will continue to add cars to the analysis as we collect additional data. If you would like a copy of the complete data set, please add a comment with your email and we will be glad to send it to you.

Donk! The Trend For The Biggest Rims

  You've seen them prowling the streets, wincing at how fast their rubber will shed and how much ride quality, or lack thereof, it has. Old Monte Carlos, Caprices, Crown Vic's, Chevelles and more, all wearing at least 20-inch rims, with many sporting 23-inchers and some wearing up to 35s.  This trend is always both coming into style and going out of style at the same time in different places, and currently its a growing trend in the upper Midwest. These cars, as you probably know, are called Donks, with huge wheels and custom paint being the main features of the cars.

  People, mainly people in their teens and twenties, see Donks as a trend for them to get instant recognition in cars that would otherwise be seen as crap. For as little as a few thousand dollars, they can have an interesting wheel and paint combo and be recognized as a car god among college students for having a Caprice.

  Donks are frowned upon by the major section of customizer community, and the main reason for this is that the cars may look distinctive, but their performance isn't usually modified except for the occasional custom exhaust system. They are also notorious for having a harsh ride quality due to the low-pro rubber and are not the main choice for more traditional hot rodders.