How do you improve on an amazing supercar? Audi followed Lambo’s “superlegga” and Ferrari’s “Scuderia” ideals by making their V10 R8 lighter and increasing power, albiet slightly. The result is the Audi R8 GT. One-hundred pounds lighter and running a new 560hp version of it’s V10, this is a limited edition with only 333 planned to be made.

The weight savings were achieved by replacing the motorized rear spoiler for a fixed unit, more carbon-fiber panels, thinner glass, lightweight carpets and seats. With LED headlights and carbon ceramic brakes as standard, don’t expect this R8 to be cheap – it will probably push the price well into Lamborghini and Ferrari territory. Quite a feat for a German brand that doesn’t start with “P”.

evo remains the only car magazine that I consistently read. One of the writers compared the technological acheivement that is the Ferrari 458, with the visceral old-school Porsche GT3 RS. Both are amazing cars, the sound of both of them alone is enough for me to want either of them:

On Monday, there was a launch of the new 5-Series at BMW Toronto. While I took no pictures, this video shows a similar launch at a dealer in Quebec:

Thew new 5 is a great looking car – especially when sitting beside it’s awkward previous model which suffered at the hands of Chris Bangle. Both powerplants are turbocharged, with the turbo 3.0L inline six cylinder on the 535i and a turbo 4.4L V8 on the 550i. Two new models arrive next year, a hybrid 5 rumored to be available to North America, and the M5, due to be unveiled at this year’s Geneva Auto Show.

I love the Z cars, and the latest iteration, the Nissan 370z, was recreated from plastic/acrylic in order to be used in this Shell oil commercial. Following the commercial is a “making of” documentary.

If you are a car guy, you know who Jeremy Clarkson is. For the rest of you, he’s one of the commentators on the world-famous show Top Gear. Because of it’s once UK-exclusive status, I attribute the show to the success of bittorrent as a sharing medium. Ridelust summarized the 25 best Jeremy Clarkson posts.

1. “I’d like to consider Ferrari as a scaled down version of God.”

2. [On the Porsche Boxster] “It couldn’t pull a greased stick out of a pig’s bottom.”

3. [When driving the Mercedes SLR McLaren through a tunnel] “When they debate as to what the sound of the SLR engine was akin to, the British engineers from McLaren said it sounded like a Spitfire. But the German engineers from Mercedes said ‘Nein! Nein! Sounds like a Messerschmitt!’ They were both wrong. It sounds like the God of Thunder, gargling with nails.”

4. “I’m sorry, but having an Aston Martin DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If you’ve got even half a scrotum it’s not going to happen.”

5. “Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… that’s what gets you.”

6. “Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More comfortable than what… being stabbed?”

7. [On Detroit] “God may have created the world in six days, but while he was resting on the seventh, Beelzebub popped up and did this place.”

8. “Owning a TVR in the past was like owning a bear. I mean it was great, until it pulled your head off, which it would.”

9. [On the Renault Clio V6] “I think the problem is that it’s French. It’s a surrendermonkey.”

10. [On the Enzo Ferrari] “I rang up Jay Kay, who’s got one, and said: “Can we borrow yours?” and he said, “Yeah, if I can borrow your daughter, because it amounts to the same thing.”

11. [On the Porsche Cayenne] “I’ve seen gangrenous wounds better looking than this!”

12. “The air conditioning in Lamborghinis used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw.”

13. “Whenever I’m suffering from insomnia, I just look at a picture of a Toyota Camry and I’m straight off.”

14. “If you were to buy a [BMW] 6-series, I recommend you select reverse when leaving friends’ houses so they don’t see its backside.”

15. “That [Pagani] Zonda, really! It’s like a lion in orange dungarees. Kind of fierce, but ridiculous all at the same time.”

16. [On a Chevrolet Corvette] “The Americans lecture the world on democracy and then won’t let me turn the traction control off!”

17. [On the Alfa Romeo Brera] “Think of it as Angelina Jolie. You’ve heard she’s mad and eats nothing but wallpaper paste. But you would, wouldn’t
you?”

18. “A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”

19. “This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that’s much to shout about. That’s like saying ‘Oh good, I’ve got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!’”

20. “In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled – usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.”

21. [On the Mercedes CLS55 AMG] “It sounds like Barry White eating wasps.”

22. “I’d rather go to work on my hands and knees than drive there in a Ford Galaxy. Whoever designed the Ford Galaxy upholstery had a cauliflower fixation. I would rather have a vasectomy than buy a Ford Galaxy.”

23. “Usually, a Range Rover would be beaten away from the lights by a diesel powered wheelbarrow.”

24. “Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It’s like making a hardcore adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You’d just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke’s sweaty face.”

25. “I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?”

Inside Line asks, is this the ultimate 911? The Carrera line is huge now, from the base Carrera the model range extends to include 3.8L S versions, all-wheel drive versions, a turbo, the GT3, a hardcore GT3 RS, a turbo-rwd GT2 and the Cup car.

The GT3 features rear wheel drive and a naturally aspirated 3.8L engine producing 435hp and 317ft-lbs of torque.

Nissan Canada brought this commercial out for the Sentra SE-R. It’s a great ad, revealing only midway through that the model is actually an RC car. The making of video below the commercial is very cool too. Good work by a Toronto ad agency.

Eric Bana’s documentary about “The Beast”, his beloved 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT. Guest stars Jeremy Clarkson and Jay Leno (and Dr. Phil, go figure).

Love the beast

Last week Autotrader launched a new version of their site. The search function has been updated, incorporating realtime search counting (but still one step away from realtime search). You can also filter search results with many more parameters.

This is quite a big improvement, but they still have a ways to go to match the best sites out there. It’s good to seem them putting changes out at a quicker pace and hopefully more is still coming.