#Events

Lamborghini has hosted its very own Concours d’Elegance.

Aston Martin has four exotic vacations planned and you can join in for the ride of your life this summer.

Mazda just announced that it’s become the official automobile sponsor of South by South West (SXSW), a music, film and interactive festival hosted annually in Austin, Texas.

Each year, hundreds of Italian exotics venture over to Monterey, California for the annual Concorso Italiano to celebrate all things automotive from Italy.

Is it possible for gear heads to do something good with their obsession of all things automotive?

Having shared a gallery as well as a walk-around video of the six concepts featured at the  Annual Moab Easter Jeep Safari, new photos have just been released of the Moab concepts in action.

An annual showcase of upcoming, potential Jeep products, the Moab Safari is a great way for the iconic brand to connect with its core audience. Unlike other concepts, however, these Jeeps are not meant to sit in rotating pedestals in convention halls. At Moab, Jeep spent the week demonstrating its vehicles and gained a lot of instant feedback from its die-hard community of Jeep 4×4 fans.

Taking their first Le Mans victory in 1924, the Bentley Brothers and their powerful, heavy, rugged, and reliable Bentley Blower dominated motorsports in the 1920s, outclassing rival Bugatti and its more elegant, lightweight, but considerably more fragile machines.

Despite Volkswagen ownership and the passing of many decades, Bentley cars still retain this trait today. Since 2005, Bentley has provided customers an opportunity to experience the power of new Bentley vehicles in a controlled environment atop a frozen Finnish lake. Known as the “Power on Ice” driving experience program, this year, Bentley instructors will provide excitement and education as customers experience the maximum potential of the new 621-hp Continental Supersport and 567-hp Continental GT.

According to Bentley, the success of “Power on Ice” warranted expansion and for 2012, Bentley will be launching driver training programs in North America as well. No dates and locations have been released so far, Bentley has only said that the program will deliver an experience “like no other.” That statement is hard to refute when we’re considering a track day behind the wheel of 5,000+ lbs. luxury grand tourers with more than 600 horsepower at your disposal.

Check out the Bentley North American Driving Programme promo video; slow-motion action shots, dubstep and all.

The IZOD IndyCar Series will be brought to China for the first time in a race scheduled on August 19, 2012.

The Tokyo Motor Show, held only once every two years, marks its return for 2011. After the nation suffered severe destruction from earthquake and tsunami, Japan intends to show the world the resilience of Japanese industry and manufacturing. Moreover, as previous shows were held at Makuhari Messe, a convention center located in the Mihami-ku ward of Chiba City just outside Tokyo, the Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Koto-ku, marks the return of the Tokyo Motor Show to the city of Tokyo for the first time in 24 years.

Texas is truck country, so when you’re looking to organize an event for loyal pickup customers it would seem the best place to do it. Recently, Nissan decided to just that, putting on its first ever truck rally for Frontier and Titan owners at Hidden Falls Adventure Park, not far from the state capital Austin. The park contains more than 200 miles of off road trails and allowed Nissan to bring together more than 41 Frontier and Titan owners for a three day shindig with an off-roading theme.

Volkswagen has a long history of unveiling wild SEMA-esque cars at the annual Worthersee GTI Meet and this year proved to be no different. While its not the Bentley W12-powered widebody GTI, the GTI Excessive is a more realistic street car and certainly gets our motors running. The car features flared fenders and a complete areo kit, as well as a wider track. In addition a new spring and shock setup takes the place of the standard setup, while larger brakes will be found inside 19-inch gloss black wheels fitted with semi-click tires. The car’s 2.0T engine remains mostly untouched, with the exception of a light weight exhaust system. VW says that depending upon how well the car is received, it may offer many of the parts on the car as dealer installed accessories.

It’s probably hard to believe for some, but Ford‘s ‘other’ legendary nameplate, Thunderbird, celebrates it 55th anniversary this year. When it was first introduced, the two-seat, personal luxury car was a smash hit and arguably saved Chevy’s Corvette from distinction. Although the T-Bird morphed into a four-seater for 1958 and became increasingly larger and more ostentatious through the 1960s and early 1970s, it always sold respectably.

For all the doom and gloom that’s still been circulated about the economy, you’d think sales of classic and collectible vehicles would be in the tank. However, the market for such vehicles, although a far cry from the heady days of 2005-06, appears to be demonstrating remarkable resilience. Recently, Mecum held it’s Kansas City Auction on April 9-10 at the city’s Bartle Hall/Convention Center complex. Over 300 collectible and special interest vehicles crossed the block, resulting in a total amount of $6,375,000 in sales generated over the course of the weekend.

According to Auction President Dana Mecum, “our total gross sales for the Kansas City auction, nearly tripled the dollar value from our previous one held here. The Bartle Hall venue continues to be a great location, and when combined with our live television program ‘Mecum Auto Auction: Muscle Cars & More,’ we were able to draw a very strong crowd to the event.”

Mecum had a 62% sell-through rate at the Spring Kansas City Auction, which is robust by most any standards. Below is a list of the 10 top selling vehicles and their winning bids. There’s at least five cars on the list this author wouldn’t have minded taking home.

[Source:  Mecum Auctions]

See the list after the jump:

After last year’s incredibly successful Ferrari 288 GTO reunion, Concorso Italiano will try to bring together F40 owners for this year’s go-fast festival. In total 13 owners have already confirmed attendance and Concorso organizers expect many more in the coming weeks.