Just four of these gorgeous creatures were produced by Touring, the famous Milano coachhouse - and this particular example was apparently created especially for Italian financier and ex-Ducati President Dr Carlo Bonomi.

Touring's interior sketches

The rump car was that Quatropporte - with an 395 hp, 4,244 cc DOHC V-8 engine, six-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs, double wishbones and anti-roll bars, and four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes. Apparently the bodywork was typically painstaking and the beautiful interior win tilting rear seats with a longitudinal adjustment, a fridge to keep the champagne chilled, and two seven-inch headrest monitors.

There's also a dog barrier in the back, as well as a concealed rear gun compartment that can hold two pairs of the finest shotguns. RM auctons recently sold the car for Euro117K. Bargain, we reckon.

The post Maserati Bellagio Fastback appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Ok, so the whole automotive world will be frothing as I write. We don't normally post PR-led stories - but when Jaguar launch a new car, it's a story everyone should be interested in.

There's a V6 and a V8. It's topless and it looks pretty good to us.

We're keeping our powder dry until we've driven one!

Let us know what YOU think.

Meantime: all the skinny can be found on the Jag webs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post New Jaguar F-Type Unveiled appeared first on Influx Magazine.

We're not sure of the legals on this, but when we spotted this nice Maserati Quattroporte in a tube station carpark this weekend, we were surprised to see Florida plates decking the ride.

Now, there's something very Palm Beach about this lovely four door at the best of times, but stick in a car park in the Eastern Environs of London (Essex to you and me) and it's pure TOWIE.

Question out there: how long is it permissible to rock a foreign plate on your car before you have to declare and register with the DVLA?

The post Maserati Quattroporte appeared first on Influx Magazine.

It's been a while since we shared with you the fruits of our ongoing mission in which we attempt to define the elusive term 'phatness'.

It's nothing to do with either hip-hop or the scourge of obesity that currently plagues the privileged nations of the world.

Rather it's something to do with stance, angle that is defined by, ermm... well- you know it when you see it.

As you can see a perennial phat favourite the Ferrari F40 LM (rear view) - and it's often the extreme bootiliciousness of the rear profile of our favourite sports cars that make it onto out phat list.

But as often as not it's the powerful, squat stance of other angles too. Witness the group B Quattro, the Camaro or the Ruf 911 - each of these scream of it's adnirable girth without giving up the view from behind.

And witness also how the stock-as-you-like pair of Lexus LFA super cars manage to carry their phatitude to the streets straight from the showroom - no motorsports homologation or street modification needed here...

The post Chronicles of Phatitude appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Perhaps this is because they’re too far apart. The Evo has always been a no holds barred, banzai supercar-slayer, while the bulk of Mitsubishi’s global range has been automotive white goods: functional, reliable, clever in their way, but a little dull.

And Mitsubishi could really have used the help on occasions. Despite the explosive growth of the Japanese car industry in the seventies and eighties it has never achieved the colossal scale and global footprint of Toyota, or the reputation for obsessive-compulsive engineering of Honda, or the stable links with a foreign carmaker that Nissan now enjoys with Renault. Like Toyota, it had a brief false start making cars before the war - its very first was a four-wheel drive saloon, spookily akin to the Evo – before getting sidelined into war work and taking its time to find its feet in Japan’s extreme post-war austerity, finally hitting its stride in the sixties.

Mitsubishi Motors is part of the vast Mitsubishi keiretsu, a very Japanese way of doing business in which a ‘family’ of firms with the same name, shared origins and often with cross-shareholdings co-operate. They share the red, three-diamond ‘propeller’ logo; actually not a ship’s propeller as many think, but an abstract rendering of a Japanese clan symbol.

The keiretsu’s greatest product was probably the Zero naval fighter of the Second World War. It was noted for its extreme speed and manoeuvrability, again an odd precursor of the Evo’s attributes. It’s always easier for the winning side to take pride in their war machinery but we doubt Jaguar or Bentley would try to sell Spitfire or Lancaster special editions to Germany. But this didn’t stop Mitsu making a ‘Zero Fighter’ special edition of the Evo (below).

The keiretsu also stepped in to buy out Mitsubishi Motors after a torrid financial time in the nineties and noughties, the nadir coming in 2000 when it admitted that it had covered up safety defects for 20 years. In 2004 former president Katsuhiko Kawasoe, who had resigned in 2000, was arrested with 10 others after two more deaths brought more cover-ups to light. The massive sales slump after the 2000 revelations forced DaimlerChrysler to end its relationship with Mitsubishi Motors.

But there is more to Mitsu than the Evo, scandals, red ink and misjudged special editions. Its small cars are often terrific, evidenced by the i. The i-MIEV was one of the first of the current crop of half-decent electric cars to get to market. The Pajero off-roader (despite sounding like the Spanish slang for masturbation, another misjudged name) is well-regarded in places where people depend on such things, and there have been sleeper performance car hits like the Starion coupe of the eighties, or the big 3000GT, or the very under-the-radar hot VR4 versions of the Galant (above). Trouble is, too few have noticed: we’ve all been distracted by the noisy thing with the big wing.

The post The Importance of Being Mitsu appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Evolution is the right word. The look of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has nothing whatsoever to do with latte-sipping men in black rollnecks and everything to do with dirty-handed blokes in overalls.

This purposeful product started as a porridge, three-box Japanese saloon with a wing and got progressively more steroidal as its power multiplied. It has always been as ugly as it is fast, but like a broken nose or a cauliflower ear its deformities have always signalled its intentions and been part of its appeal.

The Evo was actually an evolution from the Colt 2000 Turbo (above), whose badge it wore at the beginning of the journey in 1981. The looks have a clear link to the Evo, but the engine is the real bond; this was the first to use the legendary, endlessly-tunable 4G63 2-litre turbo four which would remain an Evo constant until the introduction of the Evo X in 2007. It made around 168bhp here, but eventually would be stretched to over 800bhp. Mirror-script lettering on the front spoiler - ‘Turbo 2000’ in this case – urgently needs to make a comeback.

Evo I
Built as the basis of the World Rally Car, and the first to carry the Evo name and number. Arrived in Japan in 1992, making around 240bhp. The II and III were pretty similar (to non-Evo geeks, anyway).

Evo anoraks take note: what follows is just a few of our personal highlights, and not an exhaustive history.

Evo V
The Evo IV introduced in 1996 was an all-new car and the basis of the Evo V and VI, but it was these later cars that started to arrive in Europe in numbers, first from grey importers and, eventually, officially through Mitsu’s importers here. Sparked the Evo-Impreza wars that dominated car magazine covers in the late nineties and early noughties.

Evo VII
Another all-new car in 2001; it was heavier but kept getting quicker and cleverer. The short-lived GTA automatic version – which came with an auto gearbox and could be specified with a luxury leather interior, chrome door handles and without a wing, was a personal lowlight. Deservedly rare.

Evo VIII FQ400
Having resisted importing the Evo for too long, the UK distributor then embraced it a bit too enthusiastically with the FQ - or effing quick - series. It was an extraordinary name for a big corporation to give a car, but it was an extraordinary car. It was hard-tuned Evo with a warranty that you could order from a showroom; as the name suggests it had 400bhp and could nut out a three-second 60mph dash. With 200bhp per litre, very regular servicing was essential.

Evo X
All change, again. This time the Evo gets a bespoke body, its looks defined by fancy designers in Europe but with due deference shown to the past. All change under the bonnet too: emissions regs finally killed the 4G63, but the 4B11 is a worthy replacement and proved robust enough for the loons at Mitsu UK to offer another FQ400. The SST sequential-manual gearbox is the other big departure.

Evo XI?
Um, not sure yet. The Evo X will be discontinued from March and there’s no clear plan from Mitsu on what will assume the Evo name, but rumours from the Tokyo motor show suggest it will be a long wait and it won’t be turbocharged saloon. Something green seems the best bet, possibly usng the in-wheel electric motors Mitsu has been experimenting with for a while. So lots of torque and four wheel-drive still…

The post Evolution of the Evo appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Ok, so it's a Lancia Delta. It may have born a striking resemblance to its badass cousin the Integrale, but where the everyman Delta was an acceptably interesting everyday motor, the S4 sprung out of another universe. And that universe was Group B.

The workaday Delta was a front-wheel-drive, five-seater hatchback, - but the S4 über-car was a two-seater with its engine slung where the kids would have presumably been. It was constructed around a tubular space frame chassis and incorporated fully adjustable all-independent suspension – beneath lightweight composite bodywork. There were loads of aero aids that increased downforce and the body was pieced together for easy oyster-shell like deconstruction.

All four wheels were driven by central and rear diffs, and the 1.8 litre 16V engine, designed by Abarth, employed two different types of forced induction to get rid of that perennial low rev turbo lag. Yes, baby. This was supercharged and turbocharged and by the end of development packed 500 horses. And this was, remember, in 1985!

200 were supposedly built, of course, for homologation into the fatal and fated formula that was Group B, but the specialists reckon there are now only around 80 in existence of the S4 Stradale. This is why the last one sold at auction, by Bonhams this summer, fetched over £100,000!

Crisis? What Crisis. Get me a Delta S4 NOW!

The post Lancia Delta S4 Stradale appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Having spent a good proportion of the last few years staring at and thinking about cars, I can finally come out. I have a fetish about matte paintwork.

It might be that the world knows what I am on about, too...it might be that my natural love for the muted can be understood by everyone.

There is definitely something laddish about the desire to turn your ride into a stealth weapon, but there's also something appealingly countercultural about rejecting the buff and the gleam in favour of the that understated whisper of badness.

It's a broad church, too. Matte sometimes looks its best in everything other than black. Let us know what you think...

The post We Heart Matte appeared first on Influx Magazine.

When the first real pics of Land Rover DC100 concept were released last week, there were instant catcalls of its betrayal of Land Rover's core beliefs.

The truth is that sales of the most down-home Landy on the market and a mainstay of utility stalwarts like military and agricultural clients the world over have been spiralling downward.

With the premium SUV and family wagons market cornered in the Range and the Disco, as well as the Freelander entry level SUV having sold well, the (hugely profitable) Jaguar Land Rover company are looking to update the core.

Sure, it might look like Skoda's Yeti from the side, and there's a predictable rounding off, Freelander-ish aspect to the general sketch of the concept.

This release is of course just the first stage of a development that is destined to produce a production replacement for the Defender in 2015, but you can image the sort of thing that will result.

For our money, though, our favourite re-imagined offroader of the last few years has been Toyota's retro hacker the FJ Cruiser (above). The FJ takes a very appealling reference to the original FJ Landcruisers, and updates the aesthetic for today perfectly.

Not sure if the FJ Cruiser has sold as well as the new Defender would need to, but hey. We're just offering our humble design-centred opinion.

What do you think?

The post Defenders of the faith appeared first on Influx Magazine.

The location is the quintessence of New Britain. Conference centres, swish boutiques and cafés now sit amid the dark Satanic mills, bridges, canals and institutional edifices that are the sweatshops of the digital age.

You'll still find folk wandering up and down these gentrified streets humming metaphorically the theme tune from Corrie. But Manchester feels more European than London these days – and there’s more quietly humming trams about than rumbling V8s.

On the day we drive the Corvette a pall of black smoke rises from somewhere in the city centre. More looting? I try a mental calculation as to whether fibreglass burns easily.

Click here to view the embedded video.

//The Car//
The orginal, 1963 Corvette Grand Sport was the end result of a factory mission to compete and win at classic venues like Sebring and Le Mans – and to add another name to a roster of American victors headed up by Carrol Shelby.

But the project, set into motion by chief engineer Zora Duntov, hadn’t been sanctioned by the GM board and was Kiboshed – but not before a handful of lightweight machines with a 6.2 litre small block V8 and all-round disc brakes were produced. All five of the originals are still in existence, each worth millions apiece.

So while a huge amount of energy in the American motor industry is looking toward alternative futures, the current Corvette Grand Sport is an echo of the past that resonated with the best of contemporary tech. But it’s not just the name and the badge that echoes Corvette’s past glories. Genuine research and technology have gone into this flagship of Yankee pride.

There’s electronic launch control with the short throw six speed manual box; there’s variable-ratio steering, which allows a mix of sharp –turn-ins and straight-line stability; there’s a relatively unobtrusive electronic handling system that makes the best of available grip – and can of course be switched off easily when you want to cut loose. Corvettes, too, were among the first production cars to offer magnetic selective ride control that assesses road surface conditions on the move and adjusts damping accordingly.

Under the hood there’s the most powerful standard Corvette engine that has ever been produced – a 6.2 litre LS3 V8 which is a direct descendent of the small block engine that originally appeared in the 1963 version of the GS. There’s an array of track-derived features in this baby, including a high-lift cam, and a high flow intake manifold and cylinder heads. The result is a super-reliable 437 Horsepower package with 575 NM of torque. GM reckons there’s a whacking 100,000 miles between major services on these engines – but they don’t choose to highlight this claim on the Corvette. With this brand-within-a-brand the marketing is all about performance, heritage and experience.

//The Experience//
When you first encounter the Grand Sport you can feel that there’s something 'un-American' about it. Not that this is some subversive pinko o a car. The original from 1963 looked and felt as if it were aspiring to a kind of European aesthetic that Shelby and his Cobras downright ignored. On this car there’s something about the light clusters, the positioning of the cooling intakes and the low, road-hoovering stance that owes more to the drawings of Pininfarina and Bertone than the boxish brutalism of American muscle.

The type and the nomenclature obviously keep reminding you of the car’s all-American heritage, but it’s a refreshingly outward looking, East Coast sort of Americana.

This Corvette is, after all, a relative lightweight contender with a curb weight of a little over 1500KG (only 20KG heavier) Ferrari’s 458. This is mainly to do with that trademark composite shell – and driving over the cobbles of Manchester you can see its wings quivering with the effort.

We’re loving the short throw gearbox (and don’t believe that any ‘Vette should come with flappy paddles, which are available if you so desire). The limited enthusiastic driving we were able to do availed us of the right amount of oversteer and grunt through those huge rear wheels.

Bury your boot and it’s pleasantly torquey and easy to fishtail through the gears – but the package, especially when switched to the more sedate touring mode, makes the car usable, even dignified. Visibility with the top down feels surprisingly good and the clutch requires no monster thigh action.

In fact, the whole drive feels very user friendly with satisfying slush-box clunks and fluid engagements. The one annoyance is the relatively convoluted stopping and starting sequence, which requires you to select reverse before leaving the car – and to switch off the intrusion sensor you have to reach over to the glove box and flick a switch. Irritating when you’re in and out of the car as we were, but probably less so when involved in day-to-day use.

//The Verdict//
We’re impressed. The thing about Corvettes is that they represent the sort of Americana that has always looked to Europe for its aesthetic inspiration. If you’re after the sort of high-octane swagger and design brutalism that characterises muscle cars – the Corvette isn’t it. If however, you’re after something that harnesses the glory of big V8 engines and marries that with some impressive tech, then this may be your answer.

Thanks to Mitch @ Bauer Millett

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