German based tuner Abt Sportsline will be revealing four new tuned vehicles for the upcoming Geneva Auto Show.

For Audi, Abt will add some spice to the Audi Q3 crossover. Dubbed the QS3, the compact crossover will receive a power boost from its 2.0 liter engine to produce a total output of 266-hp. Abt has also provided an aggressive body kit to compliment the QS3′s performance.

Abt’s Audi AS6 Avant will also be presented at Geneva, decked out with front and rear spoilers, revised side skirts and a four-tailpipe exhaust system. Sporting a tuned 3.0-liter V6 diesel engine, Abt has massaged the powerplant to put out 355-hp, an extra 46-hp over stock.

For Volkswagen, Abt will feature a crowd stopping Beetle with a reduced ride height, headlight masks and 20-inch alloy wheels. In the power department, this mean Bug will deliver 237-hp.

Finally, Abt gets its hands on the new Volkswagen Up! Offering only aesthetic changes for now, the Up! receives mirror caps, headlight masks and revised side skirts.

GALLERY: Abt Sportsline Geneva Teaser

Mopar is making an appearance at the Chicago Auto Show featuring four cars they’ve decked out with loads of visual goodies including the Mopar Fiat 500 “Stinger,” pictured above.

Photos hit the media last week, along with the equipment list for the Stinger, which plays up the black and yellow paint scheme you might expect given the name. Black stripes run along the sides, and a black-and-yellow checker pattern covers the roof.

Other than the exterior styling changes, the other-other 500 (don’t forget the Abarth) comes with black chrome accents and 17-inch black aluminum wheels borrowed from, well, the Abarth. The interior also gets new color touches that match the Stinger-styled outside.

Performance-wise there isn’t much different here: just a new set of brakes, cold air intake and a cat-back exhaust to help the car’s 1.4-liter engine breathe easier.

Have a look at our pictures from the show, shown below.

GALLERY: Fiat 500 Stinger

Sex sells, even if you don’t quite know what that pretty lady is saying.

Luckily we’ve got the subbed version of the popular Fiat 500 Abarth advertisement, right here! This spot, which was proved to be one of the most successful ads seen during the superbowl, was first seen way back in November. That doesn’t really matter, as we can’t get enough of it!

Check out the translations in the video below.

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Driving down the boulevard in their Italian supercars, wealthy but genuine car enthusiasts face the difficult challenge of separating themselves from the typical playboys in fast cars. To solve this first world problem, HRE performance wheels proposed that there is no better way to add a touch of class to an exotic than by installing performance wheels with vintage flair.

Introducing the new Vintage Series, HRE wheels recreated three iconic designs from the brand’s 34-year history, each of which range from 18- to 20-inches, and are completely re-engineered as 3-piece forged wheels from quality aerospace-grade forged alloy. What’s more, each wheel is hand-finished in order to meet customer’s specifications for their modern exotic.

HRE provided a press gallery to showcase its new wheels installed upon the successors of the same automobiles that once wore the originals. The German racing car roots of the “501″ wheels are instantly recognizable, as its mesh lace design suits the latest viper green Porsche 991 ducktail nicely.  The five-porthole “454″ is a modern take on the wheels from the sensational Lamborghini Diablo and are just as striking to look at when fitted to the new Aventador. Finally, the pentagram design “505″ is a proper ode to the Ferrari F40, although pairing the set of wheels to a Ferrari 458 Spider is slightly clashing.

HRE Wheels President Alan Peltier said, “The process of recreating vintage designs that captured the style and essence of the originals was very exciting and challenging for all of us at HRE. These designs take us all back to the ’70′s and ’80′s when we were kids falling in love with exotics for the first time and truly becoming car lovers. Capturing all the character and magic of these designs, while ensuring they fit modern super cars and met our current engineering standards, made the project tougher than simply creating replicas of the original cast wheels. We found inspiration in those original designs but created wheels that reflect the HRE of today; wheels that are truly inspired.”

Wealthy automotive connoisseurs, rejoice!

GALLERY: HRE Vintage Series

[Source: Autoblog]

This year, Mercedes-Benz‘s uber-luxury brand Maybach will go extinct, as the German brand could not see the potential for making a profit in the ultra high-end luxury car segment.

However, that does not mean the brand will vanish off the face of the Earth, thanks to a coach-building company called Xenatec. They take a four-door Maybach 57S and get rid of two of its doors. Since they kept the wheelbase the same as the donor car, they gave it longer doors  and a sleek coupe body to fill in the gap.

Mechanically the car remains standard because Xenatec wanted the car to be servicable by any Maybach dealer around the world. So while you’ll have the standard cars 6.0-liter, twin-turbo, V12 engine that produces 621-hp, you’ll now also have a sportier looking body to travel around in.

And how much would it cost to have this conversion done? It’ll cost as much as the original donor car. A Xenatec 57S Coupe will cost you a cool $940,000. That’s very nearly Bugatti Veyron money.

Despite the stratospheric price tag, Xenatec has sold quite a few of these uber-coupes through their three main distributors; the factory itself in Germany, a dealer in Saudi Arabia and an armor car firm in Russia.

Finding one of these rare exotics would thus be hard, but we have. A Xenatec Coupe is looking for a new home. It is listed for sale at an exotic car dealership in Dubai, U.A.E. According to the advert, it has no mileage on it. While it is sitting at a used exotic car store, the car is still new.

So while you can still get in touch with Xenatec and pay them to build you a coupe out of your donor 57S, a fully finished example is awaiting you in a desert oasis.

Afterall, we at AutoGuide get a fuzzy good feeling by uniting the rich with expensive cars.

GALLERY: Xenatec Coupe

[Source: Alain Class]

Mopar introduced us to four new Chrysler tuned vehicles this morning, one of them being the Fiat 500 Stinger.

The Stinger comes with a Giallo (yellow) paint job, playing on the bumblebee reference, with black racing stripe and checkered flag design on the roof. To contrast the bright yellow paint, Mopar has outfitted the Stinger with black chrome accents around the headlights, door handles and mirror caps. The Stinger will ride on 17-inch by 7-inch Abarth hyper black aluminium wheels outfitted with performance tires.

The interior of the Stinger will continue with the Giallo and black theme with Mopar’s Katzkin black leather seats stitched with yellow highlights and accents. A Mopar carbon fiber instrument panel decal gives the Stinger a technical race appearance as does the Mopar shift knob finished in gloss black.

In terms of performance, not a lot has been done to the Stinger. It gets a cold-air intake as well as a free flowing cat back exhaust to squeeze some more juice out of the 1.4 liter 16 valve Mulitair engine. The brakes have also been upgrade to match the performance feel of the Stinger, utilizing cross drilled rotors to dissipate surface heat faster.

The Mopar Fiat 500 Stinger will be on display at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show.

GALLERY: Mopar Fiat 500 Stinger

MINI was proud to announce today that a John Cooper Works Super Production Car (SPC) captured its first FIA International event win this past weekend. Driver Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari took the checkered flag home at the Qatar International Rally, the first found in the 2012 Middle East Rally Championship (MERC).

Al Kuwari had his brother, Nassar Al-Kuwari as his co-driver, and the pair captured the race victory by a margin of 2m 24.9s and was the team’s first career MERC win. It was also a successful debut of the Prodrive-built, Tok Sport-ran MINI John Cooper Works SPC. The MINI SPC is the regional rally specification of the MINI World Rally Car. It is nearly identical to the WRC except the SPC runs with a smaller engine restrictor (30-mm versus 33-mm) and a smaller rear wing.

“It is a fantastic feeling to win this rally,” said Al-Kuwari, who became the 32nd driver in history to win at least one round of the MERC.  “I have achieved success in national rallies in Qatar, but this was the big one. This was the rally I wanted to win. It was a great battle with Nasser. The new car was fantastic. This is the biggest win of my career.”

The team is now looking forward to becoming a force to be reckoned with in the 2012 Middle East Rally Championship.

Japanese tuning firm Wald International has put its mark on the Porsche Panamera. After the Wald application, this Porsche is sporting the “Black Bison” treatment, which includes some tweaks in the style and performance departments.

The four-door coupe is now clad in a new carbon fiber kit that comes with a host of cool additions. Just a few include a new front fascia with sculpted air intakes, front fender air vents, a rear diffuser, a boot lid spoiler and rocker panels.

But Wald International’s Black Bison makeover doesn’t stop there. The Panamera also boasts two-tone, five-spoke lightweight alloy rims and the firm’s signature custom tail pipes. Finishing the package, Wald’s installed a lowered suspension system that brings it closer to the road and a set of bespoke floor mats.

Check out the full complement of Porsche Panamera pics after the jump.

GALLERY: Porsche Panamera Wald International

It appears that people will be willing to turn any vehicle into a stretched limo these days. We already thought the Fiat 500 Limo was a little bit silly, but these stretched exotics really raise some eyebrows.

Carbonyte UK will be collaborating with Limo Broker out in the UK to create the world’s first, super-stretched Audi R8 V10. Limo Broker is already known for their stretched Ferrari 360 Modena limousine, that has produced its fair share of controversy on the Internet. We can’t even imagine what enthusiasts will think of the R8 V10 creation.

Limo Broker stated that work on the Audi R8 conversion has already started and they estimate that it’ll be completed by the summer of 2012. The limo will seat up to eight people in clearly race-inspired bucket seats and will still be powered by the stock 5.2L V10 engine with 528-hp.

Check out the videos from Limo Broker on their two stretched, exotic limos below.

GALLERY: LimoBroker Audi R8

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Italian coachbuilder Castagna Milano has their eyes set on the American market, and to lead their entrance is a stretched Fiat 500 limo in three different variants: LimoSun, LimoCity and LimoCity Presidential.

To be frank, we’re a little skeptical that the American market would even have a demand for a Fiat 500 limousine, considering that Fiat 500 sales as a whole are lacking, but hey, at least the option is there. In the conversion, the length of the vehicle goes from 11.5-feet to 17.45-feet while the wheelbase jumps from 7.55-feet to 13.45-feet. Height also goes from 4.89-feet to 5.18-feet in the CityLimo.

The LimoSun is based on the Fiat 500 convertible  and features four seats facing one another in the passenger area. The large openings on the side and the roof can be closed with transparent panels.

The LimoCity on the other hand is a closed version packed with a circular sofa couch, mini-bar and electric sliding doors. Lastly, the LimoCity Presidential begins with a US-spec Fiat 500 and features a pair of electric motors that are capable of reaching 100-mph and a range of 155-miles.

GALLERY: Castagna Milano Stretched Fiat 500 Limo

[Source: WorldCarFans]