with my own eyes: the Mercedes SL65 Black Series

On Saturday, I was in Chicago again and brought 2 cameras (in case my main one ran out of battery, which it did) to go back to my favorite part of the city: the Gold Coast. There they have one of the best dealerships I have ever been to, Bentley/Bugatti Gold Coast on Rush St. Since the last time I went, when they had a Bugatti Veyron, they have gotten a lot of new inventory, much better than the last time I went. They haven't sold the Veyron yet, in fact I saw the dealers driving it around the streets of Chicago late at night, so I got another look at it. But since I have already taken a full photoshoot of the Bugatti, I had to pay attention to the other cars there - which included a Ferrari 458 Italia, Porsche Carrera GT, several Lamborghini's and Bentley's and this Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series.

This is not the luxury Mercedes your boss would drive. With the price tag of over $300,000, it takes CEO money to buy one, but this SL65 Black is a real supercar that is best driven by a race car driver or a fighter pilot. The engine is a twin turbo V12 that is capable of 670 horsepower, and the top speed is almost 200 mph, making it almost as fast as other Mercedes supercars such as the CLK GTR and SLR McLaren. This is my first time seeing a "Black Series" Mercedes, it's just an awesome car and it looked great in white. Hopefully soon I will buy a 1:18 model of it.













Soon I will write about the 458 and Carrera GT

in the driver's seat: the Lotus Evora

On Sunday, I went to the Geneva Concours d'Elegance, in the small town of Geneva, IL. It takes place every August and is one of the best car shows in the Midwest US. I took hundreds of photos, and will post them on my blog in the upcoming weeks, but first, I will post about the car I got to sit in: the brand new Lotus Evora.

I'm a big fan of Lotus, I recently wrote about my 1:18 Esprit V8, which there was a yellow Esprit V8 at the Concours. I've sat in several Elise's, and now, an Evora. The Evora was put into production in 2009, as a brand new model not related to the Elise or Europa. Lotus stuck with their mid engine, rear wheel drive platform that makes their cars so much pure fun to drive, and the Evora was given a 285 horsepower V6 engine. EVO Magazine, one of my favorite car magazines, named the Evora Car Of The Year for 2009.

I'm very tall and lanky but had no problem sitting in this Evora. I love sitting in cars that are low to the ground with a lot of leg room, and this Evora is perfect for that, it has one of the nicest interiors on a sports car I have ever seen. The next step is for me to drive it Here are the pictures!

English gentleman: the Ascari Ecosse

In the United Kingdom, there are several small car companies that make exotic cars. One of the most notable people in the British exotic scene is Lee Noble, creator of Noble Automotive, a legit line of supercars that give Ferrari and Lamborghini a run for their money. But before he created his own line of high performance Britons - Noble's M12, M400 and brand new M600 - he designed this: the Ascari Ecosse. The Ecosse began life in 1995, showing at different car shows in the UK. It was then called the F-GT, but they later renamed it the Ecosse, which is the French exonym for Scotland. In 1998, it was put into production. The Ecosse used a 4.7 liter V8 sourced from Ford, and the Ecosse's narrow, finesse shape kept its weight down to 2756 lb. The performance figures were impressive for its time, top speed was 201 mph and the 0-60 time was only 4.1 seconds, making it comparable to the Ferrari 550 Maranello. The Ecosse's design screams 1990's, and it has gone down as a rare and forgotten supercar, as only 17 were made. Ascari has now moved onto the KZ1 and A10 under the direction of Klaas Zwart and Paul Brown.

British exotics being my favorite, I think they are underrepresented in 1:18 scale. This Ascari Ecosse would be a great addition to my collection that already has such supercars from England as the Lotus Esprit V8, McLaren F1 and Jaguar XJ220.