Lim-borghini: Rendering of a Lamborghini limo

A British luxury car rental company has announced plans to create a limousine version of the Lamborghini Aventador. The model will sport plasma TV screens, a wet bar, four doors, and a surround sound audio system. The technical challenges involved in building the prototype are formidable; the company is offering free advertising and naming rights to major financial sponsors. Custom stretch limos are nothing new, but a faithful Lambo replica is, primarily because it’s never been done before.

Limo-borghini?: Video

The clip above is the closest you will get to a tour of the Aventador limo, complete with eerie music and non-standard photo angles. The clip is more properly called a “rendered video,” or CGI, which means that the car does not actually exist yet, but that’s not stopping Cars For Stars, the UK luxury rental company. The bar area rivals anything you may have spotted in a custom Rolls classic. When and if the Lamborghini stretch ever hits the road, it is certain to draw a crowd wherever it alights.

Electric Limo: Video

The vehicle featured in the video above is not a Lamborghini, but it is a Superbus. That is the name given to the prototype, high-speed limo that gets incredible mileage and travels at 155 mph. The creators of the elegant limo, a Dutch engineer and an Italian designer, hope that the vehicle will be a smart substitute for high-speed trains in communities that have smaller populations. Looking like a Formula 1 race car that has been stretched to several times its original length, the Superbus might just be plying the roads of European cities by the end of this decade.

For more about the makers of the fresh-faced Lambo limo, see the website for Cars for Stars:
http://www.carsforstars.net
For more about Lamborghini vehicles, see that company’s official corporate website:
http://www.lamborghini.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Micro car, 1958 FMR TG500 Tiger

RM Auctions has completed its sale of a group of micro cars that fetched prices which were anything but tiny. The gas-misers were post-World War II favorites for their fuel-efficiency and ease of repair, but now the little things go for big money. The star of the bunch was a 1958 FMR TG500 Tiger, a cousin of the tamer Messerschmitt KR200. The teeny Tiger, after the auctioneer pounded his gavel, went for the not so teeny sum of $322,000.

Micro Cars: Video

For a quick walk through the collection of micro cars that were recently auctioned off, view the short video clip below, which features photos of several vehicles. The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum boasts the biggest collection of these oddities. Bruce finally decided to sell the group at a major auction event this past weekend. The Madison, Georgia, museum plays host to more than 35,000 patrons each year. People come from all around the globe to see the 200-plus micro cars, mini-cars, and super small vehicles, some of them homemade but most from legitimate manufacturers.

Micro Car Auction

A Peel Trident fetched $103,000 at the RM micro car auction. What some fans call the Jetson Car, after the cartoon character from the future; the Peel weighs just 198 pounds and features a 6.5-horsepower motor. Rounding out the top three micro vehicles at the auction was a 1967 ASA 1000 GT, which was designed by a team that also worked on Ferraris of that era. Now that the best micros on earth have been sold, how long will it be until an owner converts one to electric drive?

For a look into the unusual, wonderful world of micro cars, visit the website of the Trident Car Club, which coordinates shows, gatherings, and information about Tridents produced between 1966 and 1976. TCC puts on all sorts of shows around the UK, hosts meetings, and makes an effort to be a clearinghouse for literature about the unique runabouts. The club’s website address is below:
http://www.tridentcarclub.fsnet.co.uk/

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Oscars Go Green: Fiat 500e

Chevrolet and Fiat will be in the spotlight on Oscar night with events and promotions that highlight the Fiat 500e electric car and the Chevy Volt hybrid-electric vehicle. Fiat has been conducting a promotion called, “Into the Green,” to build excitement for its 500e. Two of those events are held prior to the Oscars telecast. In order to raise money for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Fiat will let celebrities drive 500e models for several months. After that, the cars will be auctioned to raise money for the fund.

Chevy Volt: Video

How many celebrities can you spot in the above video clip from the 2010 Global Green USA conference party? If you caught tennis star Serena Williams, then you are on the right track. In fact, the event featured the Chevy Volt, though it talked up electric and hybrid vehicles in general. As one of the stars pointed out, the party was about the cars, not the celebrities. A GM rep was on hand to let the stars take test drives and be photographed with the Volt. That event took place in the early days of the Chevy Volt’s rollout, when no one had any idea how the car would be viewed by the automotive press and the public. Now, three years later, Chevy is not the only carmaker tagging along on pre-Oscar publicity to get the word out about alternative transportation. Fiat has apparently decided that its 500e, one of the newer EVs on the block, could use a healthy dose of celebrity schmoozing on Oscar eve.

Fiat 500e, Chevy Volt

This year’s Global Green USA pre-Oscar party featured celeb Ed Begley, Jr., who drives a Chevy Volt. The Volt, Cadillac ELR, and all-electric Spark EV were talked up at the event, which is held annually to promote green initiatives.

For more about Chevrolet and Fiat, see the automakers’ official corporate websites:
http://www.chevrolet.com/volt
http://www.fiat.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

Based on objective and subjective data collected during the Super Bowl, it appears that Hyundai’s advertisement for its Santa Fe was the big winner. While giant national ad agencies vie for the most buzz from their expensive commercials during the sports fest, the Korean carmaker’s spot that featured an impending battle between bullies and good kids won out. Edmunds.com and Auto Trader.com measured Internet traffic during the game and noted that Hyundai’s ad caused an increase between 700 and 1000 percent. News writers who specialize in advertising also ranked the spot above the other car commercials which aired during the game.

Hyundai Super Bowl Ad: Video

Hyundai scored a touchdown with the following ad for the Santa Fe, which featured lots of kids, a conflict between mean bullies and good kids, and of course a shiny, sleek Hyundai Santa Fe at the heart of it all. What surprised many viewers about the advertisement, and what made it so different, was the way in which the young boys were surrealistically acting as adults. One, for instance, was employed as a fire fighter, another as a welder, and a third as a professional animal wrestler. After being recruited by their friend, whose mother was driving a Santa Fe, the good kids faced off against the bullies in a game of football. According to many Monday morning pundits, Hyundai won the Super Bowl with their clever Santa Fe ad.

Hyundai Super Bowl Ad

Hyundai has just come off a spectacular year, which saw sales increases across its entire family of offerings, including the popular Sonata Hybrid, one of the more decorated models the company sells. Each year, automakers spend countless hours, and dollars, creating commercials for the Super Bowl, which typically charges advertisers the highest fees per minute when compared to all other media slots available.

For more about the Korean automaker, see the company’s official corporate website:
http://www.hyundaiusa.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

DeLorean EV prototype

The DeLorean is back, but not to the future. The car, and its original driver, Christopher Lloyd, will appear in an upcoming episode of TV series Raising Hope, set to air on Jan. 8. In reality, the re-booted DeLorean Motor Company, now based in Texas, will be producing an electric version of the cult classic to debut sometime in 2013.

DeLorean EV: Video

Sit back and spend nine minutes being amazed by the electric DeLorean prototype, soon to be available to the public as an electric passenger car. After a tour of the Texas factory, the reviewer discusses the future of the DeLorean EV with the company’s owner, and then takes a test spin in the prototype. Zooming along at 70 mph on the highway, the Back to the Future vehicle is virtually silent. Even if you are not a fan of the car or the movie, this project seems like the ultimate conversion job, on a major scale. When the DeLorean EV goes into production it will have a range of approximately 200 miles and boast a few other extras, but will look almost exactly like the original product.

DeLorean EV

DeLorean Motor Company’s CEO, Stephen Wynne, is currently working with Epic EV to create the electrified Back to the Future car. The prototype EV made its world debut in October of 2011. Some of the original cars, which first appeared in 1981, are still around. DeLorean enthusiasts estimate that over 70 percent of the original 9,000 cars are on the road today. The electric versions of the car that arrive in 2013 will, for the time being anyway, be custom-made models with lithium-ion battery packs. The legendary car gets its name from the company’s original founder, John DeLorean, who incorporated the business in 1975.

For more about DeLorean, see the company’s official website:
http://www.delorean.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Tesla Model S, on its best behavior

The Tesla Model S is already a legend, and when it comes to one of the more traditional rites of passage for muscle cars, it certainly holds its own. Boasting 413 horsepower in its rear-mounted motor, plus a powerful 443 foot-pounds of torque, the Signature version of the Model S is no shrinking violet in terms of sheer strength. With plenty of talk these days about souped-up, tricked-out, ultra-fast hybrid racing vehicles, let us not forget that the all-electric class can throw down with the best of them. So when a couple of folks at Road & Track decided to put a Model S to the burnout test, the results were visually stunning and darn fun to watch.

EV Burnout: Video 1

Don’t try this at home. As you can see in the short film, the testers are professionals on a closed track, driving a modified vehicle. In any case, after being bombarded with “burnout” videos on the Internet, it is refreshing to see one that doesn’t burn any gasoline in the process. It also dispels the myth of electric cars being little more than low-powered golf carts. At just under 20 seconds, the show is all too short, so we have included a second Tesla burnout, of slightly longer duration. As YouTube car video addicts know all too well, you just can’t get enough burnout footage.

EV Burnout: Video 2

Burnouts

The Model S can reach 60 mph in 4.4 seconds and maxes out at 130 mph. Oddly, as you will notice, a Tesla burnout lacks most of the high decibel sound of traditional cars. Regardless, silent burnout footage will no doubt go viral and become the next major social trend.

For more about Tesla Motors, the Roadster, Model S, and Model X, see the company’s official corporate website:
http://www.teslamotors.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Tom Cruise drove this 1949 Buick Roadmaster in ‘Rain Man’

If you are a regular visitor to this site, you know that we at MyPerfectAutomobile are always in search of the perfect car for an electric conversion. While the 1949 Buick Roadmaster that Tom Cruise drove in the film ‘Rain Man’ might be a bit large for an efficient EV conversion, it never hurts to dream. The car will go up for auction, with bidding to begin at $40,000, though the final price will likely be much, much higher than that. The sleek monster of a car is real gem. It lit up movie screens when it was made into a virtual character in the film, representing the riches that Tom Cruise’s character owned but did not appreciate.

Tom Cruise Car: Video

Actually, for die-hard fans of EV conversions, there is no challenge too big. In the case of the video clip below, an enterprising EV enthusiast created one of the hottest conversions this side of Germany by building a Volkswagen Beetle electric dragster. In fact, many of the shops and individuals around the U.S. who do EV custom conversions welcome the bigger, classic cars. When outfitted with electric drive, the ancient behemoths might not have impressive range, but who wouldn’t fall in love with a classic Rolls Royce or Buick Roadster that ran on lithium ion batteries?

Tom Cruise Car

Charlie Babbit’s (Tom Cruise’s character in the 1988 film) 1949 Buick is a two-door convertible with gorgeous red leather interior and a beige exterior. The straight-8 boasts an incredible 320 cubic inches of engine and a Dynaflow automatic tranny. This car, and this car only, features a super-reinforced rear suspension which was necessary to hold the cameraman who rode along while filming. Heritage Auctions will be presenting the Roadmaster, and even though some insiders say bidding will max out around $80,000, those who specialize in Buick classics say, as Raymond might, bids could “definitely go higher. Definitely higher.”

For much more about the legendary Buick Roadster, see the information site below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Roadmaster

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Car Color: A White Lamborghini

The results are in. It turns out that car color choices have not changed much in the last ten years. According to recent data compiled by CNN, approximately 72 percent of all cars in America are either white, black, silver, or gray. White and black as car color preferences are nearly tied at about 20 percent each, with silver and gray next at 16 percent each. The least popular hue choice for a new ride is green, at a miniscule 2 percent.

Car Color: Video

Make no mistake, car owners care a lot about the color of their vehicles. The video link below walks through a professional restoration paint job of a Pontiac Fiero. Beginning at the sealer stage and documenting the process all the way to the finished product, which happens to be in bright yellow, we get a chance to see a real pro at work. At the end, go back to the beginning of the video and see what the original stripped surface looked like. This is serious painting skill at work.

Car Color

Internationally, the results of the color survey are astoundingly similar to U.S. preferences, with white the top choice by a smidgen, at 22 percent, silver second with 20 percent, then black at 19 percent, and gray at 12 percent. For whatever reason, people all over the globe seem to love white, silver, black and gray cars, and abhor green ones. Another oddity that turned up in the data was this: Car buyers who are most concerned about a vehicle’s color are those purchasing high-end rides. People shopping for budget-priced cars don’t name color as an important characteristic as often as their wealthier counterparts.

For an excellent primer, no pun intended, about automotive painting technique, the overview linked below, courtesy of DuPont, walks you through the process of industrial vehicle painting. Beginning at the electrocoat phase, the short tutorial ends with the clearcoat application. If you have ever wondered how cars are painted, this is fascinating stuff.
http://www2.dupont.com/Automotive/en_US/products_services/paintCoatings/metalExterior.html

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

This is “Not” Free

Hi there,

I want to thank you for checking us out and send you home with something FREE.

You are either here for the first time, or are returning for more! Either way, we appreciate your interest.

We have many things to offer you to satisfy that. Along with the “latest” news available about the Automotive Industry, we have a “Classified” section that’s expanding rapidly, a new “Shopping Mall” you can visit to spend some of your excess money with some of our Affiliates, or just learn more about cars of your interest from the thousands of articles we have available on pretty much every EV, Hybrid, Alt Fuel and other regular popular cars.

We also have quite an extensive library of fun and interesting videos that will be available as soon as our Web Master has the time to put them up. Worth waiting for! (Looks like he read the article and is starting on it already)

By the way, you don’t have to buy anything if you don’t want to. As a matter of fact, we are going to give you a “FREE” gift, just because you are you and you are here today!

Yes, you will have to register to find out what it is and receive it. Name and email address will do. That way we can send you our regular “News Letters” and eventually send you a request to buy something. I don’t know what that might be at this point, but we will eventually need to get some kind of income from all the money we have spent so far to put this site together.

Now, go ahead and take your FREE gift! It cost us “Thousands” to research and produce for you. (We always deliver more than we receive) It won’t always be FREE, but it is for the time being!  We just ask that you come back and tell your friends about how cool we are! I don’t know if you should tell them about the free gift, as it may not be free by the time they arrive unless you tell them right away!

Get Your Free Gift Here:

This might be a dangerous request, but we would also like to know from you, what you like or don’t like about our site. We are also open for suggestion on what you would like to see, that is not here or is hard for you to find out about. (We might not do anything about it, but it should be interesting)

Thanks again for joining us and enjoy your present!

Larry J

GM/MPA

Larry Judkin

Larry Judkin + is My Perfect Automobile’s General Manager, but people call him Lar’. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Co-owner of My Perfect Automobile. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

    

Inspiration for Batmobile: 1955 Ford Futura

The story of the original Batmobile is one of automotive history’s truly fascinating tales. And like all historical legends, there are competing versions. Purists tend to give credit for the car’s basis to designers of the Ford Futura, while Batman fans (and there are millions of them) point to George Barris, who modified a Futura for the Batman television show.

Whichever camp you are in, there is no dispute that the Batmobile, as Barris says in the video clip below, is perhaps the most famous car in the world. Its launch to Bat-fame began sometime in 1966, a few weeks before the show was to air. No one at that time had any idea how famous the show, or the Batmobile, would become. As you listen to Barris in the video clip, pay close attention to all the features he added to the car. An off-the-shelf Ford Futura would not have sufficed for the Batmobile. Mr. Barris certainly deserves the lion’s share of the credit for what followed.

Armed with not much more than a few prospective scripts and general ideas about the show, Barris decided to customize the Ford Futura into a crime-fighting, crusading, car of the future. It was complete with an “oil spiller,” ejection seats, parachutes, a nail-dropping mechanism to deter followers, plus an unheard of luxury at the time, a car-phone, which would ride into history as, “the Bat-phone.” (Apparently no one thought of Bat-texting as a driving hazard of the future).

There have been many famous TV, and movie, cars since the Batmobile, like Knight Rider’s ride, James Bond‘s many specialized cars, and the Munster mobile. However, the Batmobile reigns supreme, not only because it captured our imaginations, but also because it was just realistic enough to seem like it could happen. Every 8-year-old in 1966 dreamed of someday owning a replica of the world‘s coolest car, the Batmobile. Holy Hot-rods, Batman!

For a bit of history on the Batmobile and all its inCARnations, go…. “Quick Robin, to the resource page!”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batmobile

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…