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As promised, Ford officially rolled out the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible at the Chicago auto show today. And nothing from yesterday has changed.
The car still has 650 horsepower, still has a lower-than-the-coupe top speed, still is 3 seconds faster than the old coupe around Sebring, still is only available with a manual transmission.
More pictures and a surprise from Ford after the jump.
Tomorrow during the first day of the 2012 Chicago Auto Show Ford, celebrating 20 years of SVT, will show off this: the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible.
As you could probably guess, this is the same basic car as the new Shelby GT500 we've been seeing for a few months now. It's got a 5.8-liter supercharged V8 cranking out an unbelievable-in-a-production-Mustang 650 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque. (Rollin' in my 5.8 with the ragtop down so my hair can...abate? So much for my 90's rap career.) The
Ford says that the new Mustang is 3.5 seconds faster around Sebring International Raceway than the outgoing car when it is equipped with the Performance Package. The Performance pack includes SVT-designed Bilstein electronically adjustable dampers. A track pack is available on top of this wit an external oil cooler, rear diff cooler and a transmission cooler.
Once we got our heads around 650 horsepower in the GT500 coupe, we were thrown for another loop when Ford said it would do over 200 mph. The convertible won't do over 200; Ford has limited it to "only" 155.
Like the coupe, the only transmission available is a six-speed manual. We'll have more from the show floor tomorrow.
Can you see what's different about the 2013 Nissan 370Z? Probably not, so here's some help.
The front fascia got a few tweaks that include removal of the odd-looking "teeth" along with the addition of the all-important vertical LED marker lights. In back, there's...well, not much. What used to be a black patch of nothingness at the center of the rear fascia now has a red reflector.
On the actually noticeable front, there are new wheel designs for the 18-inchers that come on the 370Z coupe as well as the 19s that are included in the optional Sport package. That package also included red brake calipers and "Euro-tuned" shock absorbers. And lastly, the fuel gauge now features darker trim. Seriously.
The Chicago Auto Show is a special place for Mazda. That is where, in 1989, they first showed off the Mazda Miata. Since then they've gone on to sell some 900,000 of the tiny two-seat roadsters.
And so it should be no surprise that Mazda has chosen Chicago to show off a new special edition Miata. The Mazda MX-5 Miata Special Edition will have a black power retractable hard top (PRHT in Mazda speak), two new exterior colors, black gunmetal alloy wheels, black exterior accents, black heated leather seats and piano black interior finishes. The Premium package and the Suspension package will be standard -- that means sport-tuned Bilsteins, Bluetooth and Sirius. They will be offered with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic.
450 of the Special Edition Miatas will be produced. Pricing was not announced.
Today Audi released pricing on the limited-edition convertible version of the Audi R8 GT, the Audi R8 GT Spyder. If at any point during the pre-pricing coverage you thought "I'm interested in this car, but I'll have to see the price first," you can't afford it.
For one of the 50 R8 GT Spyders allocated to the US, you'll be spending $211,200 -- before the dealer marks it up.
Like the R8 GT, the Spyder gets a 5.2-liter V10 pumping out 560 horsepower. It's got a top speed of 197 mph, weighs 187.39 pounds less than the R8 Spyder and comes with R8 GT specific sport suspension, carbon fiber matte exterior mirrors, LED tail lights, aluminum door sills, steering wheel, alcantara sport seats, carbon fiber interior inlays and numbered aluminum gear knob. Audi will build 333 total.
Mini has finally answered the question that's been on everyone's mind since they first showed us the Mini Roadster. No, they didn't explain why it is in any way better than the Mini Cooper Convertible, they released pricing information! When the 2012 Mini Roadster goes on sale, it will carry a base price of $25,050. For that you get a 121 horsepower 1.6-liter I4 that makes 114 pound-feet of torque. The EPA fuel economy figures are 27/35. The Mini Roadster is available in two other trim levels, S and JCW. The S retails for $28,050 while the JCW will run $35,700.
For a base 2012 Mini Cooper convertible you can expect to pay $25,650 including destination/delivery. It seems $600 better to me, but if you really want one, the 2012 Mini Roadster goes on sale in late February.
Britain's CAR magazine has just acquired spy photos of the upcoming McLaren MP4-12C Spyder styling prototype and managed to catch it topless and with the aluminum top up.
The photos show shockingly good access to the car and the fact that they get images of the top up and down indicate that they're supposed to be around. We would think McLaren employee, but we have to assume anyone working at McLaren makes enough money for a cellphone with a camera that doesn't suck this hard.
CAR also reports that the top is a three-piece aluminum and plastic unit developed in part by Lotus and that McLaren has made it so that even in the convertible the engine is visible (are you listening Ferrari?). The top is said to take only 17 seconds to deploy. No changes to the 3.8-liter 592-horsepower twin-turbo V8 are expected.
View more photos at CAR's website.
The very first 2013 Chevy Corvette Convertible 427 sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction over the weekend for a staggering $600,000.
Part of this astounding price is that this "fastest and most capable convertible in Corvette's history" was sold for charity. The money went to benefit the AARP's Drive to End Hunger food relief program. For their money, the winning bidder gets the very first 427 Convertible to roll off the line. It will wear a VIN ending in 001.
By being the first off the line, it is, by default, the first convertible Corvette to get the Z06's could-be-the-best-motor-on-Earth 505-horsepower 7.0-liter V8.
As much as we all want this one driven, expect to see it up for sale again at the 2057 Barrett-Jackson auction in Space-Scottsdale with, oh, 258 miles on the odometer. When you can afford $600,000 for a Corvette, you can afford $60,000 for one that isn't a collector's item.
For every 50 of us who pore over reviews and specs and reliability, driving impressions and there are 10,000 people who simply go "Oh, that's cool. I'll take it!"
For those buyers Mercedes Benz has enlisted the talents of fashion photographer Alex Prager and professional model Lara Stone. Together with a tornado, they...well, I'm not sure what they do. Something with the new SL. I think.
Today's a holiday, so why not pretend that this day off is just another in your life of leisure and go configure yourself a new 562-horsepower Ferrari 458 Spyder.
What? Boss man didn't give you the day off? Play with this configurator instead of doing any work.
Like all Ferrari configurators, no price is given. If you have to ask blah blah blah.
Let's get the boring one out of the way first. In 2013 all Corvettes will be available with a special 60th Anniversary package. This package includes a ZR1-style spoiler, special badges, gray brake calipers, Pearl Silver Blue stripes (optional), Arctic White paint, Blue Diamond leather interior (we're venturing into anniversary edition Trans-Am colors here) and, on the convertible, a blue top. Even if you don't opt for the 60th Anniversary package, all 2013 cars will feature special anniversary badging.
Now, onto the fun stuff. Sitting in Chevy's parts bin is the phenomenal 427 cubic-inch 7.0-liter, 505-horsepower V8. While Chevy has a history of dumping 427s into Vettes (1966 L30 and L72, LZ1 and L88 in 67, L89 in 69) unfortunately, this engine has never sat in a Corvette convertible. The 427-convertible package fixes that and adds a bunch of cool too.
Porsche sells a lot of 911 Cabriolets in the U.S. (it's the largest market in the world for drop-top 911s), so no surprise that Phase II of the 991-generation rollout happened on our soil, with the automaker revealing the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.
These are late 2012 models, and they'll be out in the spring. Starting price for a standard Carrera convertible, with the 345-hp 3.4-liter flat six-cylinder, is $94,650 (including $950 for destination), while the Carrera S and its 394-horse 3.8-liter will go for $104,750.
Of course, that's not how much you'll really pay, because you're likely to pick out at least 80 options, including the PDK automated manual transmission. Work a clutch pedal? Nah, it's a convertible, man. Get some sun. Turn off your brain.
Porsche is making some big straight-line performance claims -- 4.4 seconds to 60 mph for a PDK-equipped 911 Carrera Cab, 4.1 seconds for a PDK-equipped Carrera S Cab. We timed a 991-gen 911 Carrera S coupe (with the six-speed manual) at 4.6 seconds to 60 (4.4 with rollout).
Cadillac insiders told Inside Line this morning that a two-seat roadster similar to the Mercedes-Benz SLK is being considered for production. It would use the same rear-wheel-drive platform as the new ATS sedan and likely feature many of the same drivetrain configurations.
No other details were discussed, but given Cadillac's clear intent to take on its German competitors head on, a roadster falls right into line with the entries offered by both BMW and Mercedes.
On Monday, Mercedes-Benz will pull the sheet off of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL. We've already seen the sixth-gen SL in photos, but this will be our first time to see the 429-horsepower drop top in person.
If you're looking forward to this one, or just want to experience the real-life joy of attending an auto show press conference, Mercedes will be live-streaming the reveal on Facebook. Only 2 days and 20 hours left!
Having dispatched with the 580-horsepower ZL1 before even hitting the streets, you didn't think the new 650-horsepower Shelby Cobra GT500 would sit idly by and leave the ZL1 convertible alone, did you? We didn't either, and now we have the photographic proof to back up that feeling.
Based on previous GT500 coupe-to-convertible transformations, we weren't expecting much from this one and we were right. It's essentially the same car, but with a folding cloth roof replacing the fixed one.
What spy photos don't show, however, is the significant bracing it's going to take to put 650-horsepower to the ground without pretzeling a topless Mustang.
Frankly, we can't think of a better time and place for Porsche to have the debut of the new Porsche 911 Cabrio than Detroit in January. Except, perhaps, for Los Angeles where it's currently 85 degrees. Or New York where people actually buy drop-top Porsches.
According to Porsche's Bernhard Maier, "Detroit was deliberately chosen for the world premiere of the new 911 Cabrio because the USA is far and away our largest 911 Cabrio market." Fair enough.
If you missed out on seeing this one at the L.A. show, fear not, they go on sale just a few months after the coupe version and then you'll see them all the time.
Porsche also announced information about two new SUV offerings...
75 years after launching the iconic Morgan 4/4, Morgan is celebrating the nearly ceaseless production of its first four-wheeled car with this 4/4 75th edition.
The special edition is available in three flat colors (Sport Black, Sport Red, Old English White) and features a matte black stripe with "4/4 75th" designation. It's also got painted black 15-inch wheels, black stone guard, round door mirrors and polished door handles. Interior upgrades include perforated black leather, a tawny ash polished dashboard, wood rimed Moto Lita steering wheel and black carpets.
When the 4/4 was first introduced it had a 1,122cc engine, this one has a 1,999 cc motor cranking out 145 horsepower. It propels the 4/4 to 60 in 7.2 seconds and a top speed of 118. It weighs in at 2,028 lbs.
It will be priced from 38,750 GBP in the U.K. There will be no U.S. availability.
Ford is touting its newest addition to the Ford Restoration catalog as the "ultimate stocking stuffer this Christmas." A $15,995, steel-bodied stocking stuffer.
The Ford Restoration Body Shell is stronger than the original and has better fit and finish. The "new" body is also set up to hold Ford's big block motors from that era. Ford claims that 90% of the parts needed to restore the car are available as Ford licensed reproduction parts. Guys who love the idea of a matching numbers car certainly won't dig this, but anyone who just wants an old Mustang for driving should be better served going reproduction. Besides that, you know this one's never been wrecked and you know it's straight and rust free. It's the starting point I'd take and Niebuhr never, ever would.
Another half-day, another leak for the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL. Earlier today we had some fairly low quality scans that showed the rough look of the new SL with some bits of interior barely visible.
This time, though, the leakers have gone and smashed the embargo with a full set of pics (availale after the jump) that show the new SL in the way Mercedes intended to release it. Albeit slightly sooner.
The new upright grille, Magic Sky Control roof and more dramatic side strake and headlights that look to be lifted from a new Volvo are the biggest changes we can tell you about from these shots.
The latest victim of the colander that is the internet is Mercedes-Benz. Today, brochure shots of their all-new 2013 SL have spilled all over the internet giving people a blurry, greenish look at their all new sports convertible. Not exactly the high-resolution, high-quality shots they spent a small fortune shooting for the official reveal that's coming shortly.
We don't get any new information here and we only get a quick look at the interior. That interior shot, though, confirms what we saw in previous spy photos; specifically the nav screen flanked by air vents.
Check the pics after the jump and let us know what you think.
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