Brabus has been creating 320 km/h speedsters based on Mercedes-Benz sedans since 1996, beginning with the Brabus E V12 that had a top speed of 330 kph. It’s latest iteration is the Brabus Rocket 800 launched at the 2011 IAA Frankfurt motor show.
Celebrating their 125th anniversary, Maybach exhibits the Edition 125 variant of their 57 and 62 regular and S models at the 2011 Frankfurt International Motor Show.
One of the largest auto shows in the world, the 2011 edition of the Frankfurt International Motor Show is yet again playing host to various debuts and a whole slew of concepts as well as a notable number of tuners. Of note are the 2012 Porsche 911, 2012 Volkswagen Up, 2012 Mazda CX-5, 2012 Hyundai i30 and the 2012 Ford Focus ST. Among concepts, there are the Cadillac Ciel, the Kia GT, the Ford Evos, the Fisker Surf and the Volvo Concept You. The tuners showed off the Eterniti Hemera Cayenne, the Brabus Zero Emission E-Class, the AC Schnitzer 1-Series M Coupe and the Alpina B6 Bi-Turbo Convertible.
We honestly never got the point of the A5. To add to the pointlessness, we then got various versions of it thrown at us. Anyway with the idea of bringing things up to date, Audi has now released a facelifted 2012 RS5 powered by Audi’s go-to-engine; the hand-built 4.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 delivering 450 hp at 8,250 rpm and 430 Nm of torque at 4,000-6,000 rpm sending it to 100 km/h from a standstill in just 4.6 seconds with an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h (or 280 km/h on request).
On the heels of the 2012 Ford Focus ST release, Ford unveils the Fiesta ST concept at the 2011 IAA Frankfurt Auto Show in a production-ready guise and hints at how the future Fiesta ST model may look when it joins its older brother in the global small car portfolio.
The Ford Focus is one of the best handling hatchbacks in the market. Combined with a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder Ford “EcoBoost” engine producing an impressive 247 hp and 360 Nm of torque and you get the production ready 5-door 2012 Focus ST. Oh, and to spice things up, it comes in a 6-speed manual transmission.
You might be wondering why we’re driving the new Ford Explorer again. Aside from still trying to figure out whether it is officially a 2011 or a 2012, we had some issues with our previous grey test vehicle due to earlier abuse. So Ford has now offered us a fresh new vehicle to play with.
Those teaser shots are not that of the new Cayenne; heck, it is not even a Porsche, not so by branding. Meet the all-new Hemera, the prototype of the very first model from the newly-established European marque, Eterniti Motors. And since Eterniti chooses to call this a prototype, we assume that they are not entirely done with morphing the Cayenne yet.
So how about sitting in the driver’s seat and doing nothing but watching the car drive for you? Well, that is exactly what BMW has been working on for the past few years; a car that drives almost by itself with the least possible driver intervention. BMW has indeed succeeded to a good extent with their autonomous assistance systems in beta stages, which means autonomous cars are not far from reality.
A Kia Optima Hybrid has set a new Guinness World Record for the lowest fuel consumption in a hybrid gasoline vehicle (which is a new category) by driving through 48 adjoining U.S states. In order to qualify, the Optima was required to achieve a minimum of 4.53 litres/100 km.