VIDEO: Aston Martin One-77 Walkaround and Interview with Dr. Ulrich Bez

VIDEO: Aston Martin One-77 Walkaround and Interview with Dr. Ulrich Bez

We can't seem to get enough of Aston Martin's One-77 elite supercar that was introduced in its final prototype form at the Villa d'Este car show in Italy last April. Luckily for us, there's always fresh news about the ultimate British sportscar. In this latest video, Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe interviews Aston Martin's boss Dr. Ulrich Bez who not only walks us around the car but he also treats us to some highly addictive sounds by firing up the One-77's 750HP V12 engine. Hit the jump to watch the video.

Source: Autocar

VIDEO: $2Million McLaren F1 Spontaneously Combusts in California

VIDEO: $2Million McLaren F1 Spontaneously Combusts in California

Picture this: it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining and you decide to take your prized McLaren F1 for a spin after six months of storage. All is great until you notice smoke coming out of the engine bay that houses the 627HP 6.1-liter BMW-derived V12. You pull over to take a looks and the next thing you know, the car is up in flames. This story actually happened yesterday, June 1, 2009, to Irv Kessler, 53, of Minnesota, as he was driving on Airport Boulevard in Santa Rosa California. .

As you can see in the video below, the McLaren F1, which was worth an estimated $2 million but was allegedly insured for $3 million (we know what you're thinking...), was a complete loss.

Pretty sad if you consider that from a total of 100 McLaren F1s, only 72 were road cars (including five F1 LM versions and three street-legal F1 GTs). The remaining 28 were race cars built for private customers competing in the FIA GT series and the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Via: Jalopnik , Source: Pressdemocrat

Nissan to Begin Production of X-Trail and Teana Sedan in Russia

Nissan to Begin Production of X-Trail and Teana Sedan in Russia

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Nissan president Carlos Ghosn took part in the opening ceremony of the Japanese automaker's first plant in Russia on Tuesday. Located at St. Petersburg, Nissan's new US$200 million assembly plant has a production capacity of 50,000 vehicles a year. The facility, which is scheduled to employ 750 workers at start of production with one shift, will build the Teana mid-size sedan and the X-TRAIL compact off-roader.

"This is Nissan's breakthrough in Russia," said Ghosn. "The opening of our plant in Saint Petersburg in the current conditions underlines our confidence in the high potential of the Russian economy. With the start of production at our new plant Nissan become an integral part of the local community."

Even though the financial crisis has taken its toll on the Russian car market as sales plunged more than 40% in the first four months of the year compared to 2008 when Russia briefly overtook Germany as Europe's largest car market, many analyst believe that Russia will be a key growth market for automakers when a recovery starts.

Spotted: Porsche 928 GTS Pickup Truck

Spotted: Porsche 928 GTS Pickup Truck

The long-gone and much missed Porsche 928 GTS with its big macho V8 engine is one of our most favorite gran-turismo coupes of the past two decades or so. That said, we find the conversion of any 928 into a mullet-loving pickup truck, pointless and in some cases such as Harry Thoma's six-wheeler 928 GTS truck, even repulsive. This particular small-bed pickup-truck version of the 928 GTS was snapped on the road (we're guessing somewhere in Denmark) by a reader of the Autogespot forums.

Via: Autogespot

Restored 1960 Morris Mini to be Raffled at UK Classis Motor Show

Restored 1960 Morris Mini to be Raffled at UK Classis Motor Show

A fully restored 1960 Morris Mini with 56,600 miles on the clock will be raffled at the British Classic Motor Show to be held at Birmingham's NEC from 13th to 15th November 2009. The red Morris Minor was restored to its former glory live on stage at last year's classic motorshow by Edd China from TV's Wheeler Dealers programme. The car will be given away in a text-to-win competition where participants are asked to answer a rather lame question of the sort "Which anniversary is the classic Mini celebrating in 2009". For the record, the answer is 'Mini Golden'...

Milotec Releases LED kit for Skoda Fabia and Roomster

Milotec Releases LED kit for Skoda Fabia and Roomster

While LED daytime running light have found their way in many upscale models, few makers offer them even as extras on mainstream cars like the Skoda Fabia hatch and its crossover sibling, the Roomster. But this is where aftermarket tuners like Skoda specialist Milotec come in. In addition to the aero parts and alloy wheel upgrades, Milotec is enhancing its product lineup for the Fabia and Roomster with the introduction of a new LED daytime running light kit. Prices -not including installation- are set at €265 for the standard kit and €289 of the tinted LEDs.

2010 Ford Taurus SHO Sport Sedan

Ford Motor Company unveiled the anticipated return of the Ford Taurus SHO on the internet, which debuted at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO will be the first one released. Ford Taurus SHO sport sedan will be AWD. It will feature a 3.5 liter direct-injected twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 producing 365 hp (272 kW) at 5500 rpm and 350 lb·ft (475 N·m) of torque at 3500 rpm and mated to Ford's 6F55 six-speed SelectShift automatic transmission with a paddle or console activated Manual mode.