Bugatti's Veyron production has come to an end

When Bugatti introduced the Veyron back in 2005 they stated that they were going to only sell 450 "examples" as they call it. As of 2011, the last of 300 hardtop coupes was bought ending 6 years of production. Also all 100 open-top roadsters have found homes. In December Bugatti celebrated the 400th sale of the Veyron to a client in the Middle East who ordered a $2.9 million Grand Sport Vitesse ‘Jean-Pierre Wimille' special edition, which itself is limited to three examples.

Unfortunately I can not find exactly how many are left, if any at all. And to make maters worse, for Bugatti, the American modified Lotus Exige, the Hennessey Venom GT, broke Bugatti's record in December at 270.49 mph. Plus its cheaper and lighter.

However, no matter what car Bugatti replaces the Veyron with, the Veyron will always be remembered as the car with 1200 hp, 8.0 L, W16, 10 radiators, seven figure price tag, and an air break more powerful then a average car's breaks. So long beautiful beast.

Mini Paceman Adventure pickup

Yes you read the title correctly, it says Mini and pick up in the same sentence. It came around by BMW apprentices at Munich and Dingolfing working in collaboration with their instructors to build a ‘creative vision' for the Mini brand. They did so by chopping the hideous end off the Mini Cooper Paceman S and removing the bench seat giving a Mini Cooper actual cargo space. On the roof is a 'off road' style roof rack that houses a spare tire or as Top Gear suggested "a gun turret, if you're equipping it for the impending apocalypse."

 The chassis was modified to give the car more ground clearance and was also equipped with Mini's ALL4 four-wheel-drive system affix to a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine bringing forth 184bhp. In the standard Paceman S it will do 0-62 mph in just 7.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 132 mph. Now imagining doing that in a pickup!

You would not find this thing rock crawling, but it would do great on a desert road or crossing a river because they even attached a snorkel to allow deeper water crossings. They added a plethora of lights on the roof and bumper plus off road tiers. Unfortunately this radically awesome Mini will most likely not reach production, which makes me sad because I love that green.

BMW M1

In 1978, BMW started production on their only mid-engine car they ever built. It was to be a joint operation between Lamborghini and BMW, however, due to some unnamed issues, BMW ended up making the car on their own.

The car that BMW ended up making was a 2,866 lbs, two door sports car with a 3.5 L straight six that produced 273 hp. It could reach 162 mph, which was quite speedy in 1978. Turbocharged racing versions had upwards of 850 hp, whoa. Mated to that straight six was a proper 5-speed manual gearbox, this car just keeps getting better.

However there are two problems with it. First, there where only 456 units made plus seven prototypes making it one of BMW's rarest cars. Also production for the M1 was halted in 1981 meaning that finding one is probably impossible. However if you do manage to find one, it would cost upwards of $150,000. Or if you would rather take a ride in a DeLorean back to 1978 it would cost $115,00 or $416,774.46 in 2014 money.

If you put those problems aside, this is a beautiful car. The interior may not be pretty or high-tech, but it is a super car so who cares. The exterior is sleek and very modern, specially for 1978. There is a lot of modern BMW in this car. If I could choose a car that I have done in the past couple of months to be able to have to look and drive, this would deffently be in the top five.

(And no, red was not the only color it came in.)

2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG Coupe Concept

I know the last two post where Mercedes, but they have a lot of cool cars coming up. The GLA is a awesome cross between a tall station wagon and a small crossover. Then there are three letters, that are optional, at the end of the name: AMG. That just made a pretty cool car; awesome. Because now you have a 4 door hatch back with 355 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque from a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4. That power is sent to a 7 speed dual clutch gearbox and on to all four wheels by a "fully-variable AMG Performance 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system", which will launch the GLA from 0-60mph in just 4.8 seconds. The AMG version also has stiffer suspension and a high performance system.

Of course its also loaded to the brim with groundbreaking technology that will keep all four tires on the ground, moving you away from that tree. It also looks spectacular from every angle, specially for a small crossover. However it uses the chassis from the CLA, which means very little rear leg room and a small trunk, but you'll forget about that when you stomp down on the throttle. If I had the $31,000 for the base package I would buy a Mazda CX-5, but if I had the $47,450 for the AMG, I might consider it.

2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive

AMG is known for making awesome sounding and looking cars for Mercedes-Benz that are also bloody quick. So one might think that AMG would never think of making an electric car. However you're wrong because, they did.

Its Mercedes-Benz's first electric since back in the day, like early 1900, but this one is probably a lot more powerful. In fact this is Mercedes-Benz most powerful road going car they have ever made and the power is instantaneous. With one permeant magnet electric motor at each wheel that churn out 740 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque and will spin up to 13,000 rpm. When tat is compared to the 2013 SLS' 583 hp and 489 kb-ft it is quite dismal. The electric motors are powered by a liquid-cooled 60-kWh, 1208-pound lithium-ion battery pack made up of 864 AA sized cells. All those AA will get the SLS from 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds and to the limited 155 mph. And when you put your foot on the brakes a KERS system, like what is found in F1 cars, will give a little wasted heat back into energy for a slightly extended range. If you plugged it into a normal wall outlay it will take 20 hours to charge. giving the user 155 miles to work with, if you don't get carried away with the instant power.

A brand spankin new electric SLS AMG Electric Drive will set you back $435,000. It sure looks the part but I would rather go for a dinosaur powered SLS Black Edition or if I was going electric a Tesla Model S.

2015 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe Concept

The S-Class is Mercedes flagship of luxury and power and in the 2015 S-Class Coupe that is not changed. Speaking of change the S-Class Coupe is almost exactly the same as when the concept was first unveiled.

The 2015 S-Class Coupe has a 4.663 liter twin turbo V8 that produces 455 hp and about 515 ft-kb of torque, which will most deffently push the coupe to unprecedented speeds. The coupe is also packed with awesome electronic like pedestrian detection and collision prevention, which can autonomously apply the brakes in an emergency, helping to prevent rear-end collisions from up to 25 mph.

Since this still a concept that was only officially released a few days ago there is very limited information on the S-Class Coupe. However by the looks it should be a pretty awesome car.

2015 Lexus RC F concept

Remember the Lexus LFA, well you should, now forget it because Lexus is coming out with a even faster sports car. It might not look quite as extreme but, its the most powerful road going Lexus ever! However it does have an appeal that the LFA did not.

Lets starts with the engine. Its a tweaked version of the 5.0 liter V-8 in the IS F bring the horsepower from 416 to 460. 460 horsepower, dang! It will be mated to a 8-speed automatic gearbox that will send the power to the rear wheels. The RC F shares its chase with the IS sedan so yes they can seat four (2+2) people. The V-6 RC coupes are expected to have all-wheel-drive as an option, which will be awesome.

The exterior looks awesome. It starts strong and powerful and smooths off to a spoiler that deploys at 50 mph. However it does not loose that Lexus fines. To distinguish it from the normal RC it also has a carbon roof. Inside its nothing less then you would expect from Lexus, stylish and awesome.

The RC F is due to be out to the public later this year starting around $65,000 for the RC F and $40,000 for the RC. Im happy about that because it should stay around a lot longer than the LFA.

Nissan IDx Concept 2018

At the Tokyo Motor Show last November, Nissan unveiled probably the car of the decade. Two fastback coup concepts that are the 21st century of the famed Datsun 510. The two coups are the Idx Freeflow and Idx NISMO, which is their sporty vision of their cars. Most likely the 1.8 liter from the Sentra will be mated to a CVT in the Freeflow and a 1.6 liter turbocharged hopefully mated to a normal manual gear box in the NISMO we hinted at the release. Why I say "hopefully" is because they talked about a sporty 6 speed CVT for the NISMO which would be silly.

There was also some talk from Nissan that customers could 3-D print body panels for the car if they so choose. I'm guessing in 2018 they will also supply a flying car option, hopefully.

On the inside it's just as cool as the outside. With an analog gauge positioned at the eye level of the driver. In the NISMO it's just a little fancier, think slacks and jeans.

However, since these are only concepts four years from their release date there is not a lot of info. Also in four years a lot of things can change on these hopeful, awesome cars. There is an estimate that the Freeflow will start in the low-to-mid $20,000 range which is fine with me. Until 2018 all we can do is twiddle our thumbs and wait, and I think that's what I will do.