Filed under: Etc., Euro
Throughout France on New Year's Eve, 1,147 cars met crispy deaths at the hands of arsonists. That's almost 300 cars more than the previous year.
Lighting cars on fire as a form of protest has been a habit among youth in France since the 70s, but ever since the protests of 2005, after two boys were killed in an electrical station while hiding from police, burning cars has become a go-to political statement.
But if you think 1,147 cars in one night is bad -- and as car lovers, we're not saying it isn't -- in 2007, 43,000 cars were burned, and through November of 2008, 36,700 cars were burned. That's more than 100 cars getting flambeed every single day. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has told police to
show the youth no mercy, but they apparently only make up 80% of the offenders. The other
20% of arsonists is suspected to be owners committing insurance fraud on a night that provides a great alibi.
[Source:
France 24]
Sacré bleu! French torch 1000+ cars on New Year's originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Etc., Euro, Spyker
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Silvestris Sports Cabriolet
After Dutch designer Maarten de Bruijn bought the rights to Spyker name, the first prototype design he attached it to was the
Spyker Silvestris. A couple of years later, he and partner Victor Mol had
Spyker making cars again, but in 2005 de Bruijn left the company for other pursuits. That same year, he and two other partners founded
Silvestris Haute Motive Concepts, with the first product being the 23-foot Silvestris Sports Cabriolet speedboat.
Using automotive build techniques - hence the name "Aquamotive" - aluminum panels are bonded and riveted to a tubular aluminum spaceframe. The cockpit features a tilt steering wheel and heaps of seawater-proof leather. The remotely-controlled rear hatch hides two more leather-shrouded thrones, and even the front compartment comes with a hatch (making for a markedly sleeker-looking craft when closed). There are six engines available, the uppermost being a 560 horsepower, 8.1-liter V8 good for 55 knots and more than a few envious looks. Check the Silvestris out in the
gallery of high-res photos below.
[Source:
Classic Driver]
Spyker by sea? Sylvestri Aquamotive originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Convertibles, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Etc., Supercars, Ferrari
Click above for a high-res gallery of Usain Bolt and his F430 loaner
Usain Bolt now wears the mantle of Fastest Man Alive having set world records in the 100 and 200 meter sprints at last summer's Olympics in Beijing. Fitting then that he was placed in one of the fastest cars in the world recently to take a stroll around one of the richest places in the world: Monaco. In the principality for the IAAF awards, Bolt was given the keys to drive an F430 along portions of the F1 circuit in the city. You can check out the gallery of high-res photos below while we wait for word on if he set any world speed records in the process.
[Source:
Ferrari]
Fastest Man Alive gets dream drive in a Ferrari originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In Ukrainian
