How About a Tesla Motors Roadster with Electrifying Performance!
2008 will bring a very exciting electric vehicle from Tesla Motors. Their new Tesla Roadster sports a Lotus-derived chassis and potent 185kw electric motor (horsepower equivalent - about 248 bhp),
Performance wise it's admirable... corner carving, quick acceleration (0-60 mph in only four seconds).
It is loaded with extras. How about dual airbags, front and rear crumple zones and fortified side impact protection are standard safety items; inside finds air conditioning, an AM/FM/CD player with iPod connector and heated seats. And Tesla says the lithium-ion battery pack will provide a driving range of 250 miles on a full "tank."
What does a spirited yet environmentally sensitive car cost you ask? Try around $92,000 base sticker. You better hurry as the 2007 model's production sold in the blink of an eye.
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2006 Audi R8... From Concept to Market
For years, German car manufacturers have promised to bring an exotic, high-powered mid-engine sports car to America ever since Mercedes showed the C111 Wankel-powered road burner in 1970.
Enter Audi...
What they offer is a new middle-motored exotic that will come to market for about $100,000. Winning five of the past seven Lemans wins, this aluminum skin exotic shares many of the bones of the Gallardo sports car made by Lamborghini, an Audi subsidiary such as an aluminum space frame though reworked with fewer welds and lower cost. It sports a forged aluminum suspension with unequal-length control arms resembling their Lamborghini equivalents and Quattro driveline with power sent to the front wheels via a viscous coupling through a conventional manual six-speed transmission or a computerized, paddle-shifted gearbox that Audi calls R tronic and what Lamborghini refers to as E-gear.
Quoting Car and Driver, "the R8’s use of the 420-hp V-8 from the Audi RS 4 rather than the Lambo V-10. A version of the V-10 should arrive about a year after the R8’s introduction during the first half of next year, and it is expected to make at least 500 horsepower. Meanwhile, the high-revving V-8 gets a dry-sump lubrication system so it can be mounted lower to reduce the R8’s center of gravity."
