V12 All Wheel Drive Chrome Wheels Saddle Interior Radar Detector Navigation on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Rough seas delay salvage operation for burning ship carrying luxury cars

LISBON — Rough waters forced authorities on Wednesday to postpone a salvage operation for a ship packed with luxury cars that have been on fire for a week in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a port official said. With teams unable to board the Felicity Ace, heavy tug boats sprayed water to cool the vessel, which is carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Lamborghinis and Bentleys. Lamborghini of America CEO Andrea Baldi told Automotive News that there were dozens of pre-sold Lamborghinis aboard, mostly the Urus SUV. But also some Huracans and Aventadors, the latter of which have ceased production. The ship's 22 crew members were evacuated last Wednesday, the day the fire began. Some of the vehicles are electric, and their lithium-ion batteries have made the fire very difficult to extinguish, port officials have said. Joao Mendes Cabecas, the captain of the nearest port on the Azorean island of Faial, said the blaze had lost its intensity — probably because there was little left to burn. Salvage teams hoped to board the ship, which is is adrift around 170 km southwest of the Azores near Portugal, to assess its condition and start preparing it for towing, the Portuguese navy said in a statement on Tuesday. The navy took photos of the ship that showed a gaping hole at least four decks high, with burn marks running the length of the ship. It is unclear if the vessel will be towed to the Bahamas or Europe. Cabecas told Reuters bad weather prevented the team from boarding the ship. Waves as high as 2.5 meters battered the coast of Faial on Wednesday, Portugal's weather agency IPMA said. The salvage team was expected to be flown to the ship on a helicopter belonging to the Portuguese air force, which will decide on Thursday if the operation can proceed, Cabecas said. Ship manager Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd (MOL) said in a statement on Tuesday the vessel was still on fire but stable, and that no oil leak had been reported so far. It did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the cause of the fire. Insurance experts said the incident could result in losses of $155 million.   Weird Car News Audi Bentley Lamborghini Porsche

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Bentley Mulliner Bacalar is probably a roadster

The upcoming coachbuilt Bentley Mulliner Bacalar has been teased before its Geneva Motor Show reveal once again. Instead of one of the wheels or a glimpse of its rear quarter panels, we get a rather clear view of the interior. Bentley highlights the fact that there are only two seats, making this only the second two-seat car the company has offered since 1930. But looking closely, it also suggests that the Mulliner Bacalar is a convertible. The first indication is the angle of the photo, which is clearly from high up, and generally unobstructed. Perhaps it could be a design buck, but there's more to it than that. At the bottom of the photo, there's a black, horizontal object obscuring the base of the seats. It's too close to the seat backs to be the dashboard, so we think it's actually the windshield header. Then there's the placement of the seatbelts. They're mounted really low in the interior, seemingly below the window line. That's something automakers normally do if there are no pillars to mount to higher up, and if you didn't want to mount them to the seats. There also appears to be trim wrapping around behind the rear cargo area at the same height, further suggesting there's no solid roof and pillars in place. With all this under consideration, plus a previous report of a convertible in the works, we're thinking the Bacalar is a droptop of some sort. Taking a turn back to what's obvious in the photo, the interior is clearly a two-seat design, and you can see that it features matching luggage to fit the cavity behind the seats. The seats are upholstered in a nifty and sporty-looking diamond pattern with contrasting gray and yellow fabrics. Bentley doesn't specifically say what materials are used, but it says everything was sustainably sourced. The Mulliner Bacalar will be fully revealed on March 3 at the Geneva Motor Show. It will apparently take styling inspiration from the electric EXP 100 GT concept, and Bentley is stressing the sustainability aspect of the car. The same report that said a convertible was coming, though, also said it would probably get a W12 engine, and at least the convertible part of the report seems to be true. Also expect a price tag well into the seven figure range. Related Video: