Honda S2000

Personally I've never been that fond of the Honda S2000, but I simply cannot ignore the fact that this car has become a real driver's icon.

Manufactured by the Honda Motor Company, a Japanese firm, it was launched in April 1999 as a celebration of the company's 50th anniversary.

The Honda S2000 gets its name from the engine displacement (2 liters), and thus follows in a line of tradition of  several cars before - the S500, S600 and S800 roadsters from the 1960s.

Here's another bit of trivia: did you know that the S2000 held the record for highest horsepower per liter for any NA piston road production car for over 10 years? After that, Ferrari introduced the 458 and the record was broken. Impressive!

Spyker C8 Aileron GT Racer and Geneva presentation

This is the final post about the Spyker C8 Aileron - after this post, normal posting of other series will resume.

Todays post features two parts: the first part contains a few shots of the Spyker C8 Aileron GT Racer version, and the second part is a series of shots taken at the presentation of the car at the Geneva car show. Enjoy!

Spyker C8 Aileron Spyder

As promised in my last post, I'll stick with the amazing Spyker C8 Aileron for a while. Todays post features a set of pictures of the Spyder version - enjoy!

Spyker C8 Aileron

Produced by Spyker Cars, the C8 Aileron is a luxurious two-seater sports car. The base model has an Audi 4.2 litre V8 engine, 400BHP strong, enabling the car to reach a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph).

It is the successor of the Spyker C8 Laviolette.

I have found several sets of very nice pictures of the Spyker C8 Aileron, the C8 Aileron Spyder, the Racer GT as well as a few shots of the car's initial launch at the Geneva motor show, so I'll be posting these in a few galleries - let's have a Spyker week!

Here is the initial gallery of Spyker C8 Aileron pictures - enjoy!

Cizeta-Moroder V16T (or Cizeta V16T)

While I was browsing for pictures of the Benarrow PB15, by chance I stumbled upon several pictures of the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, and since I couldn't find enough decent shots of the former, I decided to skip the PB15 for now and post the V16T instead.

This Italian sports car was built from 1991 to 1995, and created by automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli in a joint venture with music composer Giorgio Moroder, as the only product ever to come out of the Cizeta company. The car bares the name of both men: Ci-Zeta are the initials of Claudio Zampolli, and the V16T hails from the fact that the engine is a V16 engine, mounted transversely in the central rear position (albeit not a true V16 - this particular engine was comprised of two V8s sharing a single block).

The design was created by Marcello Gandini, and could be considered what the Diablo would have looked like: after Marcello Gandini's design was altered (to put it friendly) by Chrysler (who had control of Lamborghini at the time), Gandini joined forces with the Cizeta company. Besides the design fact, a group of ex-Lamborghini employees also had a big share in creating this Cizeta-Moroder.

Not only was this a fast, exclusive sports car with a top speed of 328km/h (204mph) and an impressive acceleration from 0-100km/h (62mph) in just 4 seconds, it was also quite luxurious. Alas, not a lot of cars were made: with a price tag of about €250.000 (or $300,000) and a production plan of one car every week, still only 8 cars were made (one of those being the initial prototype). Later on, two coupes and a spyder were added, and you can still order a spyder TTJ as of May 2006 - but the price has gone up to a whopping €649.000 (or $849,000).

Giorgio Moroder left the company shortly after the car was shown to the audience, but the name of the car remained the same. The badging however, changed to "Cizeta V16T".

Quite a tale for an extraordinary car - I hope you enjoy these pictures!

Mazda MX-5

A hairdresser's car for some people, iconic roadster for other people - you can say whatever you want about the Mazda MX-5, it has become a real icon. Instantly recognizable and a lovely car to drive.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ever popular icon - enjoy!