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Salvage team boards burnt ship Felicity Ace off Azores, towing begins

LISBON — More than a week after a ship packed with around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Lamborghinis and Bentleys, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a salvage team managed to board the vessel on Friday and started to tow it to a safe location off the Portuguese Azores archipelago. In a statement, ship manager Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd (MOL) said the Felicity Ace remained stable, and the smoke that for days billowed from the vessel, adrift around 170 km southwest of the Azores, had stopped. The 22 crew members of the Panama-flagged Felicity Ace, which was carrying around 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys from Germany to the United States, were evacuated last Wednesday, the day the fire broke out. Some of the vehicles are electric and their lithium-ion batteries have made the fire very difficult to extinguish, port officials have said. Previous attempts to board the ship to assess its condition and start preparing it for towing had failed due to the fire and rough seas. On Friday, the team was able to board by helicopter and the salvage boat Bear started towing the vessel to a "safe area off Azores," the ship manager said. It was not clear where exactly the vessel was being towed to. It was being escorted by two tug boats and another salvage craft equipped with firefighting gear, MOL said. Related video: Image Credit: Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) via Reuters Green Weird Car News Audi Bentley Lamborghini Porsche Electric fire car fire shipping cargo ship

Lamborghini downshifts toward record sales

Reuters reports that the Lamborghini Huracan is doing exactly what it was intended to do for the brand: increase sales. The company set yearly sales records up to and including the first full year of the global financial collapse, moving 2,430 units of the Murcielago and Gallardo in 2008. But even 1,144 combined horsepower couldn't keep that momentum going, and by 2010 that had dropped to 1,302 sales worldwide. Retail success returned with the markets and buyers who deemed it finally safe to be seen in a brand-new six-figure car. Last year, the company set a sales record of 2,530 units, a 19-percent increase over 2014. In an interview with Reuters, company CEO Stephan Winklemann said that Lamborghini should break that number this month. The momentum is coming from the US and Asia, specifically Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Sales in mainland China are "broadly flat," but that has to be considered success when other much less spendy carmakers are hurting something awful in the People's Republic, and luxury makers have returned their primary attentions to the US. Next year could be even better, with the Huracan Spyder going on sale in the spring. Two years after that, the brand plans to double its current sales with the arrival of its supersport crossover, which has a target of "about 3,000" per year. Related Video:

Lamborghini's upcoming V12 hybrid leaked in patent images

Varryx and Wilco Block are two Euro-based car enthusiasts we've come to know mostly for their ability to get spy video and images of coming treats. They've both done it again, both on Instagram, and both with the same car, publishing a series of design patent drawings. Lamborghini Automobili SpA submitted figures of its hybrid V12 successor to the Aventador to the North Macedonian bureau of the World Intellectual Property Office, perhaps hoping the out-of-the-way geographic location would translate to an out-of-the-way digital sequestration before the reveal this spring. But the Internet hates keeping secrets, so here we are. What we're privy to are every major angle of a coupe that looks like it has the design of the Aventador as its foundation, bookended by fascias from a couple of Aventador-based specials. Varryx provided the colors for the image above.  Lamborghini said design of the Sian FKP 37 "is just for the Sian." Fundamentally, perhaps, yes. But in the patent images, the tall, horizontal-y-shaped lighting DRL that welcomes the sharp, pincer-like curve of the front fenders, and the lower intake outlines make clear connection to the Sian. The Huracan Tecnica is the bridge, the V10-powered coupe adopting another take on the Sian's style. The vertical spat behind the front wheels could also trace its lineage from the limited edition super sports car. The rest of the middle is all Aventador, a swelling body and large side intakes embracing the low cabin and naturally aspirated V12. In back, it's the Centennario, a special edition introduced at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. The six long strakes on the immense diffuser mimic the number on the Centennario, the difference being the coming production car moves its exhaust up high, where two Centennario taillights flank with two large hexagonal ports instead of the show car's three small tips down low. That engine will be an all-new V12 unit in a new drivetrain, we've been told, aided by a small battery and some supercapacitor tech that's another nod to the Sian. Total output's a mystery, but the Aventador Ultimae clocked 769 horses, the Countach 800 horses, and those not only didn't have hybrid help, they were lighter. Fear not about the weight, automaker CEO Stephan Winkelmann says drivers won't feel the additional weight. We wouldn't be surprised to hear a number higher than 800.