All posts by Francis Mitterrand

Auctions, News

Porsche 911 ‘Sally Special’ is for sale

At the beginning of the year, Porsche announced that, in collaboration with Pixar, it will produce a special edition 911 ‘Sally Special’ to help endangered Ukrainian children. The car was inspired by the vehicle from the animated film Cars, and was designed by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur.

“It’s been an honor to start designing a modern-day Sally with the creative icons behind the original character. The collaboration between Pixar and Porsche is a first of its kind and quite fitting the Co-Creation approach of the recently announced Exclusive Manufaktur Sonderwunsch program that allows customers to realize their dream cars. Whoever gets the keys to this special road car will enjoy many great road trips,” said Boris Apenbrink, Director of Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur Vehicles at Porsche AG.

The basis for the construction of this special model was the Carrera GTS, and after many modifications and 10 months of work, “Sally” was born. The whole process involved changes to make the car look as similar as possible to the movie character. It is adorned with custom Sally Blue Metallic, LED Matrix headlights with a full silver frame, five-spoke 20 and 21-inch wheels.

The interior of the car is the work of Sonderwunsch Manufaktur. The seats are upholstered in Chalk leather with Pepita seat inserts while the front seat backs have Speed ​​Blue stitching, the three-spoke steering wheel is upholstered in black leather with blue stitching. The same combination of Chalk leather and Speed ​​Blue stitching can also be seen on the door panels and dashboard. There is also a light-up “Sally Special” emblem on the door sills as well as the inscription “Sally Special 001/001” on the dashboard in front of the passenger.

Under the hood is a 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine with 473 hp (353 kW) and 420 lb-ft (570 Nm) of torque. It hits 62 in 4.2 seconds with a top speed of 193 mph (311 km/h). Power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a 7-speed PDK gearbox.

UNHCR said it was grateful to companies like Porsche for trying to help the vulnerable population, most of whom are women and children. “There is reason to hope with the critical support of companies like Porsche and Pixar Animation Studios who have generously stepped up to help ensure their safety and protection in months to come,” said Anne-Marie Gray, Executive Director and CEO of USA for UNHCR .

The car will be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s on Saturday, August 20, 2022. Maybe, it reaches a seven-figure amount.

Source: RM Sotheby’s

Hybrid, News

The delivery of the Mercedes-AMG One will begin soon

Mercedes premiered its powerful concept One in 2017 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. But no one even thought that the development, testing and problem solving, on the hybrid “beast” that comes with the Formula 1 engine, would take five years. Since then, the car has undergone many changes, and Mercedes-AMG has announced that it will produce only 275 copies of this model.

The Mercedes-AMG One is powered by a 1.6-liter Formula 1 V6 turbo engine with 566 hp (422 kW) at 11,000 rpm, which in combination with four electric motors delivers a total of 1,049 hp (771 kW). That’s enough power for this supercar to reach 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, 124 mph (200 km / h) in less than six seconds with a top speed of 217 mph (350 km / h). The engine is paired with a 7-speed gearbox. And yes, the engine meets Euro 6 standards.

The Mercedes-AMG One is one of the fastest road cars in the world, and everyone is waiting for it to show its performance on the most famous Nürburgring Nordschleife race track. It is equipped with an 8.4 kWh lithium-ion battery that allows the 1,695 kilogram hybrid plug-in car to travel 20 kilometers without the assistance of an internal combustion engine.

Each car will go through 16 stations for assembly and testing, something like the production process of luxury watches. More than 50 people work in the production of the Mercedes-AMG One, and after assembly, each car will be tested.

Although it was announced that the first copies would reach their owners at the end of last year, that did not happen. The reason is technical problems that caused a halt in development. In the meantime, AMG has finally managed to solve all the technical problems and the delivery can start.

Source: Mercedes-AMG

News

2023 Audi Q9 is coming soon

After last month’s presentation of the Audi Q6, the Ingolstadt-based company announced the arrival of a new SUV model, the Audi Q9, as well as a new version of the existing models. The new model should be a competitor to the BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS.

The Audi Q9 will hit the market in the next three years, and could be the last with an internal combustion engine before Audi becomes an all-electric brand. When it comes to other SUV models, the Audi Q8 could get a hybrid version next year, while refreshes are also expected for the Q3, Q5 and Q7 models.

Fulfilling the goal of complete electrification, for the next few years Audi has announced the arrival of several new fully electric models such as the Q4 E-tron, A6 E-tron, Artemis project EV.

As for the rest of Audi’s range, the A3, A4, A5 and A7 could get new design solutions, A6 driver assistance technology and a mild hybrid engine, while the A8 will remain the same. The destiny of the Audi TT is questionable, since the company has not announced a new generation, nor electrification. Also, the Audi R8 will soon become electric, which means that the V10 engine will become a thing of the past.

2023 Audi Q6

Source: Audi