Pictures of the soon-to-be-unveiled 2011 Audi A7 have hit the Internet early. Audi's latest model will go head-to-head with the Porsche Panamera and Mercedes-Benz CLS in the profitable four-door coupe-profile sedan market. We anticipate either (or both) an S7 or RS7 variant two or three years after the car's initial launch.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Italian engineers are putting driverless technology to the test with an 8,000-mile three-month trek that will take a pair of vans from Italy to China. Each van will have one technician in the driver’s seat, but only to take control of the vehicle if an accident seems imminent. Otherwise the vans will be completely controlled by seven cameras, four laser scanners, and enough computer software to tell it how to stop, accelerate, turn, avoid obstacles, et cetera. The driverless-ish vans will follow a manned lead van being driven normally through everything from Moscow traffic to curvy mountain roads and from weather conditions ranging from the summer heat of Siberia to the bitter cold of the Gobi desert.

VisLabs, which is conducting the test, hopes to collect more than 100 terabytes of data from two pairs of two vans. They decided to bring in another set of vans because the batteries that power the electric motors in each van require eight hours of charging for every two to three hours on the road (the van’s autonomous controls and sensors are powered by a solar panel that sits atop the car). To cut back on the amount of time necessary to complete the journey, one pair will drive, while the other pair is in tow via another pair of trucks; we can imagine this caravan will not be hard to miss.

The test is designed to give more insight into preparing this technology for use in the military or transcontinental shipping: cutting man hours required for shipping supplies or even reduce the number of troops or contractors put in danger in a military convoy. The experiment started Tuesday in Parma, Italy, and, with each day producing at least four hours of driving, the engineers hope they will arrive in Shanghai, China, in October; the vans are limited to a top speed of 37 miles an hour.

We can’t help but bridge the gap to when this technology may one day mean autonomous driving for us all, or at least on our congested highways and byways. In some ways it may be a necessary evil; cutting back on the number of hours we all spend on the roadways by ridding it of all the minutes and seconds we waste when we rubberneck, slow down for merging traffic, and the vast difference in speed and following distance between human drivers in even ideal conditions. These types of projects could give our streets assembly-line-like precision, with one car exiting just as the cars behind speed up to fill the void.

These kinds of thoughts are not on the team’s mind. Right now they are more worried about finding places to recharge the vehicles’ batteries in the more remote areas.

[via Popular Science]

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Below are some videos of the Koenigsegg Agera at the Goodwill Festival of Speed; it makes some incredible sounds.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Which would you rather bring to your local dragstrip? Which would you rather drive home afterwards? The Hennessey HPE1000 makes a claimed 855 rear-wheel-horsepower on 93-octane by way of a 7.0-liter V-8 with twin turbochargers.

On the other hand, the Lingenfelter LPE LS9 Camaro just pulled out three nine-second quarter-mile passes at the Munci Dragway in Albany, Indiana, this past weekend. The fastest run of the day was 9.974 seconds at 141.64 mph. The LS9-powered Camaro SS produces 855 hp by way of a ZR1 engine with some supercharger upgrades.

However, if you absolutely must make the most horsepower, Hennessey recently showed the world what C16 (117-octane rating) racing fuel, more boost, and a remapped engine program can do to its HPE1000. Of course doing this will void any warranty you may have.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

After hearing about Renntech's new Performance Package One for the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series, Domani Motors called on Renntech to push the SL65 AMG Black Series sitting in its showroom to those new heights. Domani Motors, a large exotic and luxury automobile dealer, is proud to have a beautiful Renntech-modded Pearl White Black Series, which produces a staggering 805 hp and 1,000 lbs.-ft. of torque, in its extravagant collection of fine automobiles.

Read about Renntech's Performance Package One for the SL65 Black Series here and more about Domani's Motors Renntech-tuned SL65 AMG Black Series here.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

The second annual Mecum Monterey Auction will be headed by a Le Mans-winning 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Long Wheelbase Tour de France Competizione Berlinetta. The classic automobile was originally driven by Jean Blaton and Leon Dernier at the 1959 Le Mans and placed first in the GT class and third overall. Earlier that year the same Ferrari 250 GT LWB TdF with the serial number 1321 took first place at the 1000-kilometer Nürburgring endurance race. After its race career, the Ferrari was privately owned by only a few collectors—the most recent since the 70s—and hasn't been seen in public since at Road America in the early 90s.

“We are excited to offer collectors a chance to bid on this world class Tour de France 1959 Ferrari, the type of car that offers quality, provenance and is fresh to market,” said President Dana Mecum. “The list of amazing vehicles continues to grow for our upcoming Monterey Auction. We have expanded it to two full days as more than 400 investment-grade collector cars, exotic vehicles and ultra-rare boats are scheduled to cross the block.”

Mecum’s Monterey Auction will be held August 13–14, 2010, at the luxurious Hyatt Regency Monterey Resort & Spa. Cars will be displayed on the beautiful Del Monte Golf Course.

Follow the link to watch a video.

[via Mecum]

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Is the new commercial for the 2011 Corvette ZR1 better than the previously banned Corvette commercial from 2006?

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Rolls-Royce has vamped production up to 2003 levels to meet the high demand (especially over in China) for its Phantom and Ghost automobiles. The company is currently building 15 cars a day out of its Chichester, West Sussex, production facilities in the United Kingdom; double the number of cars it was producing in 2009. Like most companies, Rolls-Royce was hit hard in the recession but it refused to cut its plant staff. That decision is paying off for the luxury car manufacturer now.

In other Rolls-Royce news, the company says it will be offering an optional custom picnic set encased in a leather chest that can be stowed in the car's trunk. The four-person set will be limited to 100 customers and will include everything required to enjoy a nice meal on the side of the road including utensils, plates, crystal glasses, and napkins.

[via Telegraph.co.uk and Rolls-Royce]

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

Ferrari has released a new batch of images of its 599 GTO for our viewing pleasures. View all the Ferrari 599 GTO pictures in our News Center.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY

duPont REGISTRY’s Facebook page, which previously held an artwork contest that we told you about here, is proud to announce that the winner of its Exotic Cars and Women Photography Contest is Tiffani Shipman, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tiffani’s entry was a picture of her posing next to a white Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 provided by Lamborghini Las Vegas and was taken by A.D. Cook at an old Audi dealership in Henderson, Nevada. Shipman works for South Central Sportchassis, which caters to such well-known celebrities as Shaquille O’Neal and Chirs “Birdman” Anderson, as a salesperson and is not a professional model. She hopes to one day host her own T.V. show, maybe on the Speed channel, which focuses on her hobby: frame-off restorations. Read more about Tiffani Shipman on her web site.

Second place was a photo submitted by Dennis Canuto of an unnamed woman Sloan Stewart sitting next to his 1995 Volkswagen Corrado and taken by Garret Newsom in the lower level of a parking garage in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Corrado, as Dennis explains it, was a rare car imported into the United States from 1990–94. The model owned by Canuto is a 1995 model that he imported from the City of Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. Garrett wanted to create a “beauty and the beast” sort of motif, with the dark underground and metal piping representing a beast 's lair. The girl was added to highlight the “beauty” aspects of the automobile. You see view more of Newsom’s work here.

The contest consisted of a select group of 15 entries; voting was held from July 6–8, 2010, via Facebook. In total the contest garnished more than 727 comments and 250 “Likes.” View all the entries on duPont REGISTRY's Facebook page.

Provided by duPont REGISTRY