Car Throttle

Back in the 80's, 200 miles an hour was world-record territory for a road car. The F40 was the first stock production car to break the 200mph barrier, with others following after it.  Those early race-derived supercars were  raw, elemental thunderstorms of power and grip with little concession to human comfort. So it's a sign of great technical progress that a Finnish rally driver named Juha Kankkunen recently went 205mph in what is essentially a stock Bentley convertible, a leather-lined luxury rocket that's as far from an F40's rawness as one can possibly get.  What's so cool though?  It was 205mph on ice.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWvAUuvT5A

I have to say, if I was going to shoot for the world speed record on ice, I'd probably

The Continental SuperSports sits at the top of Bentley's range, as the halo performance variant of the Phaeton-based Continental range.  It's a bit out of place in my mind, to be honest:  carbon fibre this and that, parcel shelf instead of a back seat, E85 flex-fuel capability, a horse-ton of horsepower, Darth Vader-on-meth styling, and a top speed that clears 200mph by a comfortable margin are not things one associates with an "old money" traditional British luxury brand.  Still, it's awesome in an "I don't quite understand this" sort of way - there's no obvious reason for it's existence, but aren't you glad it exists in the first place? Well if you're a fan of the Continental SuperSports, by the transitive property you should be even

MTM (Motoren Technik Mayer), a tuning company hailing from Bavaria, has announced their newest product: a tuning program for Bentley's Continental GT and derivatives. This includes the Continental GT/Speed, GTC/Speed, Flying Spur/Speed, and the Continental SuperSports.  The upgrades mainly focus on increased power, and thankfully leave the Conti's alluring body lines alone.  It's refreshing to find a tuner that doesn't feel the need to slap gaudy body parts on a beautiful car just because they've tweaked the motor. MTM upgrades for the Continental's twin-turbo 6.0L W12 come in two flavors: hot and wild.  The first bumps output to 635bhp, and the second up to 650bhp as well as 795nM (568lb-ft) of torque.  To compensate for the extra shove, MTM also has suspension and brake upgrades for

It's amazing in this economy that tiny niche sports car makers can stay afloat, much less prosper.  Chalk Morgan's success up to a fanatically loyal fanbase, I suppose.  The ultra-traditional (that's my polite way of saying "anachronistic") brand not only continues to exist, but they continue to put out new models for Morgan fanatics to drool over.  Being something of a Morgan fanboy myself, this car really does it for me - pseudo-wood chassis and all. Called the Morgan Aero SuperSports, it's an open-top version of last year's Morgan AeroMax Coupe, which was a dramatic restyling of the new-ish Morgan Aero 8.  It has two removable roof panels which can be stowed in the trunk when removed.  So in other words, finally!  A Morgan with T-Tops! The

It's a strange world we live in.  Banks are going belly up, Wall Street's in turmoil, car sales in China are down, Lexus is making a credible sports sedan, and America has a literate president.  It only stands to reason that Bentley would see fit to introduce an "environmentally friendly" car. Then again, a Bentley is "Green" in much the same way the Ford Focus RS is a green car. So when Bentley says it's latest model is environmentally friendly, they mean it has 621bhp and will do 204 mph. I'm being serious, though.  The boys at Crewe started with the opulent 604bhp Continental GT Speed, then converted the massive 6.0L Biturbo W12 motor to run on either dead dinosaurs or decomposed corn.  Since the effective octane