Last July, Tex O’Reilly was clocked driving 173 mph in a 50 mph zone in his Lotus Elise – an offense that would normally have landed the father of three in jail.

O’Reilly beat the rap, however, by hiring a team of defense lawyers who argued that such a speed “was impossible.” The unmodified Elise, they said, has a top speed of 127 mph. This argument was upheld by Judge Andrew Hamilton, despite the prosecution arguing that the officer’s radar gun was accurate.

Defense lawyer Dominic Shelley, said that, “They (Lotus Elises) are not built for that speed and the likelihood of one being able to keep control of such a vehicle at that speed is beyond comprehension,” he said.

The offense occurred on a stretch of A515 (a country lane in Derbyshire). The vehicle in question could not be tested because O’Reilly sold it to an individual  Germany shortly after the incident in question.

O’Reilly’s defense team did arrange a plea bargain with the prosecution, however, that saw him plead guilty to a lesser charge of dangerous driving at “just” 105 mph.

“May I make it absolutely clear that had you been driving at 150mph you would have been going immediately to prison,” said the the judge. “However, you were not driving at 150mph, you were driving at 105mph, and for whatever reason the prosecution have accepted that basis of plea, and that puts the case in a different light.”

O’Reilly didn’t exactly get completely off the hook, however, as he still had to pay a £5,000 ($7,247) fine and received a license suspension for two years. He also had to pay £1,250 ($1,812) in court costs.

“So far as this offense is concerned, he offers no excuses or justifications,” said defense lawyer Shelley. “He recognizes that day as being a gross error of judgment. He understands and accepts fully how he could have caused considerable danger.”

[Source: The Telegraph]

German tuning house Hamann Motorsport has just released details of its new Imperator tuning package for the Bentley Continental GT and Speed models.

The package includes a complex widebody kit made up of 16 pieces, including a front bumper with two LED daytime running lights, side skirts, a new rear bumper and diffuser, a rear spoiler and an eight-piece fender flare kit.

Hamann engineers also set about to match the looks of the Imperator with some serious performance, which isn’t hard when you’re working with a twin-turbo 6.0-liter W12 engine. Thanks to an ECU tune as well as a new exhaust system (including high-flow catalytic converters, an x-pipe and new mufflers) the GT model gets a boost from 560hp to 630hp at 6100 rpm and torque rises from 479 ft-lbs to 553 ft-lbs at 1600 rpm.

The power increase for the GT Speed raises it’s already impressive numbers into supercar territory with 650hp (up from 610hp) and 612 ft-lbs of torque ( up from 553 ft-lbs) at just 1600 rpm.

The Imperator kit also includes a new control unit for the Bentley air ride suspension that lowers the front of the car by 30mm and the rear by 20mm, helping it handle better and look meaner on a nice set of Hamann wheels.

Hamann offers its motorsports-inspired Edition Race wheels in a 21×10.5-inch fitment front and rear with 295/30/21 tires. This setup does, however, require 5mm wheel spacers (included).

For an even more extreme look (and why not?), Hamman also offers a new wheel, the Anniversary Race, in a 22-inch setup. This setup comes in a 22×10.5-inch front and 22×11-inch rear fitment with 265/35/22 front tires and 305/30/22 rear tires.

As always, Hamann will craft whatever interior the customer wants. The company also offers a standard silver clear-coated carbon fiber accessory kit with 10 pieces including the center console, center stack, gauge surrounds, passenger dash insert, door inserts, ashtray covers, shift knob and paddle shifters.

An aluminum pedal set and sport steering wheel are also available for the Continental GT and GT Speed.

Hamann has already produced one of the limited edition Imperator models and it is currently on sale at the company’s Dubai offices.

For more details on the Imperator kit visit:

www.hamann-motorsport.com

GALLERY: Hamann Imperator for Bentley Continental GT and Speed

Generally speaking, car manufacturers hold press launches of new vehicles for the press, but not this time. As Hyundai continues to reinvent itself as a company, it is also reinventing how the whole system works and so they’ve invited, well, everyone, to come along - virtually anyway (those without WiFi, an ethernet cable or anything remotely resembling a 56k modem need not apply).

What Hyundai is doing is planning a live webcast of it the press launch of its new Genesis Coupe. Those interested can drop by http://genesispresspass.com/live/ at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on March 25th (this Wednesday) and participate. That’s right, not only will the unwashed masses get to share this glorious moment with the unwashed press, they’ll be able to take part by submitting questions that may (or may not) be answered by Hyundai executives, through a question and answer session.

The webcast will also include a briefing on Hyundai and the new Genesis Coupe with highlights on all the technical details – basically all the boring stuff before they strap the journalists in and let them bang gears on a race track.

http://genesispresspass.com/live/

Rolls-Royce has just confirmed that the upcoming baby Rolls, aka the 200EX, aka the RR4, will be offered with a new and very powerful Turbocharged 6.6-liter V12 engine.

CEO Tom Purves made the announcement at a press conference in New York, whee the 200EX is currently being shown as a part of a world tour.

This entirely new powerplant will make in excess of 500hp and be combined with a new 8-speed ZF automatic transmission. There is no word on torque numbers but they will no-doubt exceeds the 500 mark as well, giving the new Rolls that classically effortless old-Rolls feel.

Purves also said that the engine will have significantly better fuel economy and significantly reduced emissions as compared to the 6.75-liter V12 engine found in the current range of Phantom vehicles.

“There has been a great deal of interest in this car since we first talked about producing a new model series in the autumn of 2006 and the reaction 200EX received at its unveiling at Geneva was very positive. As we move another step closer to the start of production at Goodwood, it is exciting to be able to share some of the specific technical details with customers and the media.”

He continued, “RR4 will deliver an authentic Rolls-Royce experience to owners, so expect peerless comfort and build quality. However, we have consciously engineered this car to be more involving and dynamic for those owners around the world that will wish to drive it themselves.”

GALLERY: Rolls-Royce 200EX:

More on the Rolls-Royce 200EX after the jump:

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After watching from the shadows for years as Toyota dominated the hybrid market, Nissan is finally preparing to launch it’s own ground-up hybrid vehicle; except it won’t be a Nissan, it will be an Infiniti.

According to a report in Japan’s Nikkei, which cites no sources, the hybrid will be based on Infiniti’s mid-level luxury M platform and would hit the market in 2010 in both Japan and North America.

Currently Nissan does offer one hybrid in its lineup, the Altima Hybrid, but that vehicle actually uses a Toyota hybrid system. Nissan is promising its new hybrid system will provide more power and do so much faster.

At this point it is unclear if Nissan’s new hybrid technology would be similar to the second generation setups currently being brought to market by automakers like Toyota or if the new hybrid system would use a lithium polymer (as opposed to lithium ion) setup – something which Hyundai is currently exploring.

The article also says that Nissan has significant hybrid ambitions with plans for many hybrid models in the future, both in the luxury and performance segments.

Infiniti recently debuted it’s Essence Concept at the Geneva Auto Show, a 600hp hybrid Grand Tourer, that gets its power from a 440hp twin-turbocharged direct-injection 3.7-liter V6 and a 160hp electric motor. Infiniti says that the electric motor in the Essence makes twice the power f a conventional electric motor due to its unique makeup.

[Souce: Nikkei via BusinessWeek]

Source: Auto Motor und Sport

The New York Auto Show is always an important venue for Mercedes-Benz, which is really no surprise considering the prevalence of black S-Classes that roam the streets of the Big Apple.

With this in mind, Mercedes always manages to unveil something in NY that is not only important, but incredibly cool. This year it will be the 2010 E63 AMG, the high performance sibling of the E-Class.

Power increases just 11 ponies to 525hp and torque sits at an impressive 465 ft-lbs. The gains have been made on the same 6.2-liter V8 engine found in the previous model.

According to the report on WorldCarFans from German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, the 2010 E63 will get suspension modifications, a slightly wider track and a rear air suspension. Eighteen-inch wheels are standard equipment with large AMG brakes.

With the minimal power increase we do expect to see a noticeably lighter curb weight. It’s also entirely possible that the new E63 could feature direct-injection technology, which can not only be credited for the power increase but would also significantly reduce fuel consumption.

A wagon (or Estate version as they say in Germany) is expected to be unveiled later this year at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

[Source: WorldCarFans via Auto Motor und Sport]

Lamborghini will not be building a four-door exotic – at least not any time soon. Maurizio Reggiani, the head of R&D for the Italian exotic car manufacturer told U.K. publication AutoCar that the Estoque project would be shelved.

The controversial sedan was unveiled by Lamborghini at least year’s Paris Auto Show and was scheduled to be an all-wheel drive four-seater along the lines of the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide. Planning was still in the early stages, however, and so pulling the plug on the Estoque isn’t going to cost Lamborghini much.

When the exotic sedan did break cover in Paris there was no word on a powerplant, although Lamborghini did suggest that the engine could be anything from the LP560′s V10, to a turbocharged V8, to even a diesel or hybird powertrain.

This was seen as a progressive move by Lamborghini, by finally showing some interest in alternatives to the internal combustion engine. (We should note, however, that Lambo’s switch to direct injection in the LP560 made for a huge increase in fuel-economy).

With a world economic crisis and wait times for the standard Lambo models getting shorter and shorter, Reggiani commented that now was simply not the right time to launch such an ambitious project. Yup, the recession strikes down another vehicle, although we’re not so sure its a bad thing in this case.

GALLERY: Lamborghini Estoque Concept

[Source: AutoCar]

The sixth generation GTI is set to launch any day now in Germany and Volkswagen has just released some (but not all) of the details on Germany’s hottest hatch. Not only does it get a new look and more powerful engine but is also comes with several new innovations and has been built with the input of legendary racer Hans-Joachim Stuck – a confessed GTI-freak.

“Even when I was under contract with BMW, I preferred to drive to the Nürburgring in a GTI,” said Stuck. “It was in a GTI that I drove 911 drivers to distraction on the North Loop. My wife was even driving
a GTI when she first caught my attention.”

The new GTI continues to use the 2.0-liter TFSI engine but with a slight bump in power to 210 ps (207hp). All that power is available as early as 5300 rpm and stays on full until 6200 rpm. Max torque is rates at 206.5 ft-lbs and comes on at just 1700 rpm. “In practice, this means impressive power in all of life’s situations,” say Stuck.

This is enough, says VW, for the 2010 GTI to accelerate to 62 mph in just 6.9 seconds. Top speed is 150 mph.

VW also made sure to make the revised engine more fuel efficient with an average fuel economy rating of 32.2 mpg. To give this perspective, the fifth generation GTI was capable of 31.4.

There is, however, more to the performance improvements in the new GTI than just more power. For starters, Stuck helped in completely redesigning the suspension of the car. The springs, shocks and rear stabilizer bar have all been completely reworked for a better handling car. The GTI also sits lower than the standard Golf, by 22mm up front and 15mm in the rear.

Add to this the fact that the GTI VI gets Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC), allowing the shocks to continuously react to the road conditions and driver’s inputs to provide the best suspension for that moment. The shocks will even adjust according  to acceleration, braking and steering inputs to stiffen the suspension in fractions of a second, reducing pitch and roll in the chassis.

The DCC system also lets driver’s choose the sort of driving characteristic they want by opting for a “Normal,” “Sport,” or “Comfort” setting.

The DCC system “produces an ideal synthesis of great comfort and excellent handling properties in the GTI,” says Stuck. “There are of course many sporty cars that are simply too stiff. Yet this one is always right.”

An additional technological advancement found in the sixth-generation GTI is what VW calls XDS – or an electronic transverse differential lock. What this system does is apply a slight amount of brakes to an inside wheel that has begun to slip while cornering. This slows the inside wheel to a rotational speed similar to the outside wheel and thereby provides maximum grip. VW says this system makes the GTI feel more like an all-wheel drive car than a front wheel drive car.

“XDS gives the car an enormous measure of driving stability. And it leads to greater driving enjoyment, since it reduces understeering,” says Stuck. “Experienced sports car drivers will be much more active underway. Yet, XDS is a very important safety feature for normal drivers too, because they will not experience any unpleasant surprises with the GTI.”

Other highlights offered on the new GTI are Adaptive Cruise control, bi-xenon headlights with 13 degrees of movement and a second generation of VW’s Park Assist, which, like the well-known (and much maligned) Lexus system will help a driver parallel park. Drivers just need to operate the gas and brake (as well as the clutch in manual transmission cars) and the car will do the rest. The new system has been improved to allow for parking in tighter spaces, with just 3.6 feet on either side of the car, down from 4.6 feet on the previous generation.

Add all this together with a new look (including a new twin-pipe exhaust design) and a stunning VW interior and the 2010 GTI is a complete package no matter what the road ahead looks like.

“The new GTI succeeds in bridging the gap between a serious business car during the
work week, and a competitor on the Nürburgring on the weekend,” says Stuck.

GALLERY: 2010 Volkswagen GTI

More on the new GTI after the jump:

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Seth Thomas, piloting the No. 38 BimmerWorld/GearWrench BMW 328i, jumped into the lead off the standing start during the first race of the 2009 World Challenge Touring Car series and never looked back.

With a qualifying run that landed him in 2nd, Thomas used the BMW’s rear-drive advantage to get a quick lead on pole-sitter Pierre Kleinubing in the front-drive RealTime Acura TSX and after just three laps had put just over a second between the two cars.

“I didn’t expect that kind of advantage going into Turn One,” Thomas said. “The BMWs have rear-wheel drive and they launch really well off the start. Pierre [Kleinubing] has a lot of experience starting up there and I expected him to be tough and get a little better launch. The way it worked out, I went into the brake zone for Turn One and looked in the mirror and saw the gap. I just thought ‘just maintain that and see what we can do.’”

Kleinubing and RealTime teammate Kuno Wittmer attempted to chase Thomas down, but after Whitmer retired due to mechanical problems, the race belonged to the Bimmerworld team, taking the podium 2.563 seconds ahead of the RealTime Acura.

“I’ve been coming here for many years,” Thomas said. “I always had good success at Sebring in the BMW Club stuff I did. Then we came to World Challenge and things went a little haywire. After last year, it’s definitely redemption here. Last year, we should have started on the pole but a technical infraction got us in trouble and we had to start from the back. I felt like this year was going to be the year.

“I keep telling everybody, there’s no words that can describe winning. It’s the best feeling. We’ve worked so hard to get here and it’s finally happened.”

Kleinubing admitted he pretty much lost the race right at the beginning thanks to an overly eager right foot.

“Halfway through first gear I spun the tires pretty badly on the big painted stripe and lost a little bit there from first to second. [Thomas] pulled a huge gap at that point. Every time I’d get a little closer, he seemed to answer and pull it back out. I just did what I could and finished second.”

Kleinubing states that he was eager to get to the next race where he will pilot a brand new TSX. At Sebring, only RealTime owner/racer and defending series champ Peter Cunningham had one of the new TSXs on the track and finished in 9th place after loosing body work in an incedent.

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Officially unveiled as the Mazda MPS at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this month, the U.S.-spec MazdaSpeed3 will make it’s North American debut at the New York Auto Show on April 9th.

We don’t expect much to change from the Euro version, so don’t plan on any more power from the direct-injection 2.3-liter turbo-four. Power is rated at 260ps (256hp) and 280 ft-lbs of torque. Thankfully, the MazdaSpeed3 doesn’t need more power.

This is enough for a 0-62 mph run of 6.1 seconds, so the run to 60 might be able to get under the 6.0-second mark.

The engine does get some advancements though. For starters, emissions are reduced thanks to a new single-nanotechnology catalytic converter. As well, the 2.3-liter engine gets 0.5 liters/100km (0.1 mpg) better fuel economy.

In terms of technological advancements, the MAzdaSpeed3 has plenty of them. For starters the new engine features an advanced boost controller that reduces peaks for a more linear power delivery. The left and right drive shafts have been modified to reduce torque steer. The six-speed manual transmission now has wider ratios than before and the tranny uses a low-viscosity fluid to reduce shift effort.

With the new body and chassis, the 2010 MazdaSpeed3 is naturally better, however, it also gets large stabilizer bars, stiffer springs and shocks. As well, it now features 18-inch wheels with big brakes – 12.6-inches up front and 11-inches in the rear.

We’ll bring you full details in our New york Auto Show coverage starting April 8th.

Full Euro-spec details after the jump:

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