. . . so you SHOULD know by now that the STIG has been unveiled. And if for some reason you have been living on some far off planet his name is Ben Collins. Your next question should be who the hell is he? Personally we were quite disappointed when we found out who it was -- we though it would be someone fun and powerful that had been moonlighting as the stig -- and when this relative nobody was revealed it was almost a let down! BUT when you read about him you start to realize the man actually is a phenomenally talented guy who just wasnt given a shot at the big time for various reasons!

Here is our humble tribute to the man who has been a key part of one of our favorite shows for years . . .

GO HERE FOR HIS BIO -- IT IS VERY IMPRESSIVE!

Heres a snippet . . .

Collins has competed in motorsport since 1994.^[10] In 1995 he competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior, finishing third overall with two wins and eight podiums. He also competed in the Formula Opel Winter Series, placing second overall driving for Sir Jackie Stewart who commented in Autosport Magazine, “When you see the likes of Ben Collins in Formula One, remember you saw them here first”

And by Godzilla I’m talking about the motoring beast that is the Nissan GT-R. The sleaker new look makes it even prettier (although I think pretty is probably the wrong word) while improving its aerodynamics. Rumours are that the facelift will come with a power increase too. I want one…

Check out the details and a couple more pics here.

Thanks Wag

As you know we have a fairly strong focus on cars – and for the when Audi brought out the lambo powered R8 they managed to perfectly combine the joy of driving with mans ability to design, develop and progress! The R8 (not only cause Tony Stark has one) is simpy a sensational vehicle to look at, be in and even sleep in

But now they have gone one further as you well know and we have been waiting for this car counting the days till it hit our shores – well here it is – price tag and all!

The Audi R8 coupe arrived in South Africa back in 2007 with a V8 engine and better looks than most supermodels and then, in 2009, followed the 386kW coupe, still called the R8 but with a V10 engine. Now that model has dropped its top to become a convertible with a choice of six-speed manual or six-speed R tronic sequential transmission.

Audi has stuck with conventional waterproof fabric for the foldilng roof and for those to whom such things matter, it’ll take 19 seconds in either direction, folding under a carbon fibre lid. Its operation is allowed up to 50km/h.

Sometimes Ferrari take moments out of the past and show us the brilliance of what driving used to be! They make vehicles that can put us in a place miles in the future or miles in the past with the speed, elegance and control of driving perfection!

This time they are showing us where driving will go -- they are showing us what the future of technology, speed and vehicle sexiness will be! They show us a bit of the past here but this time where they are going is outrageous!

THIS TIME IT HAS ALL PAID OFF!

We’ve mentioned our love for this car before. It’s simply beautiful! And from these pictures taken in Morningside, clearly it’s here.

For more on the SLS, go here.

On a side note, a dude caught doing 290km/hr in a 120 zone in Switzerland is expected to pay a R7m speeding fine! That’s close to 3 times what the car costs over there. Ouch!

Thanks Suzie

I have had many drunken debates with people on cars and which is better – old school or new school! The general consensus is that old school styling is unbeatable the only problem is buying an old Aston / Jag etc means all the crap that comes with it – poor brakes / bad handling and the list goes on and on!

So the ideal car is to buy an old one and the retro fit all modern tech – so new engines / brake lines / suspension and again the list goes on and on – the problem with this is it costs double what the car will cost you!

So finally the boys at Bugatti have found a solution – its called the HIDALGO (yes yes we know crap name!)

The Hidalgo looks like a miniature Bugatti Atlantic.

If those BMW V8-powered Morgans are simply on the wrong side of the German powertrain brand divide for your loyalties, this AMG-powered HMC Hidalgo is a choice alternative.

A while ago we brought you the spectacular pictures of the Porsche 918 Hybrid – which was at the very least super sexy! But the problem as with almost all concepts is they are just that – a concept! Generally what happens as in all businesses the accountants get hold of a beautiful dream and turn it into a plain boring run of the mill product! Look you cant blame the bean counters for wanting to turn a profit but all the sexiness of design is some how lost!

For now though some one has obviously locked these creatures of mathematics in their offices – thank the petrol gods – and made this car a production car! We will very quietly mention it costs around $650k but dammit it is well worth it!

A 3.4-liter V8 petrol burner is combined with electric motors to put out 500bhp, while featuring the mind-altering acceleration to go from a standing start to 62mph in just 3.2 seconds. Topping out at 198mph and offering a very respectable 78mpg fuel economy…

Now you may be asking why i have said it is well worth the money and i would be thinking the same –  i mean you can buy a whole lotta house for that cash but let me give you a few reasons why!

1. This car is unbelievably sexy! (Im not calling it beautiful cause that is something entirely different - READ THIS TO FIND OUT THE DEFINITIONS!)

2. It will smoke pretty much anything at the lights !

3. I can categorically state that no one else you know or will ever meet will own one of these! (unless you are mates with Elon Musk and he is a TESLA man anyway!)

4. Finally i guarantee you it will come with at least one and probably more of these accessories!

MS Kristen Gustafson!

FOR MORE OF HER?

Is it fair to have a caption of YUM!

5. Sorry i left out that it is a hybrid and therefor much better for the green stuff!

NOW TELL ME THIS ISNT THE GREATEST CAR EVER!

I saw these pics and was quite excited by the prospect of possibly getting to see this in the flesh someday. Unfortunately the Ferrari 612 GTO is only a design rendered by Sasha Selipanov, also known as the Angry Designer. He has a blog, but you need to be invited to view it, so we can’t really tell you more.

Let the pictures speak for themselves though.

Check out the rest.

The Ferrari 458 which was launched last year must one of the most beautiful cars to come from the stable of the prancing horse (and that’s saying a lot). And while I’m not be the biggest fan of after market modifications to cars of this pedigree, the guys at Oakley Design have done an amazing job.

The beauty of it is in the subtlety. The downside is that they’re only making five of them.

Power is up compared to the standard model from 419kW to 461kW and the 0-100 time is down from 3.4s to a blistering 3.0s. They used a couple of tricks and magic to achieve this. World Car Fans has the details.

I think the car alone is beautiful. Add an artistic paint job by Jeff Koons and the M3 GT2 set to race in the Le Mans 24 Hour is out of this world. In fact it looks kind of what I’d imagine a box of smarties travelling at warp speed would look like. The fact that it can do 0-160 in 3.4 seconds makes this not too far off.

See the rest.

Thanks Wag

Armoured car? Nope, just a sign that this guy hasn’t been klapping gym boet.

Tesla must be one of the coolest motoring brands to date. And the founder, South African raised Elon Musk, must have one of the coolest jobs in the world. Having made a bucket load of cash from the sale of PayPal he formed the electric car manufacturer as well as Space X, a space exploration technologies company.

And besides a great job, he gets to do things like playing a cameo role of himself in Iron Man II.

Check out the first of a series of videos about their new Model S electric sedan. It’s pretty damn sexy!

Many purists frown upon the Porsche Cayenne. Afterall, what’s a sports car manufacturer doing producing a 4×4? Having said that the Cayenne must be one of the most successful and profitable models to come out of the Porsche stable. And for good reason, it’s still a great car.

Is there space for a bakkie in their line-up? You know, for when you want to go to the dump or move furniture in style. Designer Nouphone J. Bansasine clearly thinks so with his concept Porsche Transport. It may look very good, but I’m not convinced.

*For our foreign readers, a “bakkie” is what you’d probably call a “pick-up” or “ute”.

Tony Stark drives an R8 (who wouldn’t though when Audi were paying you a bucket load of cash to do so), so we naturally like it. Pity he didn’t drive the new GT version of the car which boasts more power and less weight. In this case it went on a 100kg diet and became 26kW more powerful. The result is 0-100 in 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 320km/hr. Nice!

Also new (in fact this pic was leaked from a dealer preview), but from the Porsche stable is the GT2 RS. Stripped of 90kgs and boasting the power of 620 horses as opposed to the usual 560 the Porsche accelerates to 100 in 3.2 seconds and goes on to… a lot.

Admittedly two very different cars, but it would be a tough choice non the less.

Thanks Kyle and Wag

Paying traffic fines must be one of the worst ways to spend your cash. I’m all for consequences for one’s actions but sometimes the fines can be so arbitrary. Not to mention those suspicious ones that arrive in the post and conveniently have you driving at 71km/hr in a 60 zone. Yeah, sure I just happened to be caught *again* doing what’s effectively 1km/hr more than the leeway.

Enter FMyFine.co.za, which helps you legally bullshit the traffic department by providing tailored excuse letters for why you were in the wrong. The end result is usually a reduction in your fine, often up to 50%. So check it out. It’s a great looking site and if you’re inclined to fight instead of pay, it may save you a whole bunch of time.