1988 Rolls Royce Silver Spur on 2040-cars

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The hottest modern sports cars rendered as rally racers

The modern-day World Rally Championship a monumental amount of fun to watch – I should know, as I recently was lucky enough to head to the UK to watch WRC Wales Rally GB – but even the most monstrous of the current WRC cars are based on fairly pedestrian European hatchbacks. Back in the heyday of rally, the Group B era in the 1980s, much hotter cars were the basis of even more incredible competition machines, for the most part. Take the exotic Ford RS200, or the Lancia Delta S4 with its twin-charged engine. And the hatchback-based Group B cars were bonkers, too. So what would some of our favorite modern cars look like if Group B had never ended? A British site named CarWow hired an artist to reimagine everything from the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the Porsche 911 as a retro-inspired rally car, and they were kind enough to let us share the results in the gallery above. The gallery features an Alfa Romeo Giulia in Martini livery, an Audi TT in classic Ur-Quattro colors, a Fiat 500 Abarth sporting massive flares and a hood blister full of auxiliary lights, a new Ford Mustang in RS200 livery, a Lancia Delta in Alitalia colors, a Porsche 911 in Rothmans livery, a Renault-Alpine in classic blue, a Rolls-Royce Wraith tribute to the Jules cologne Corniche Coupe, and a relatively modern-looking VW Touran. So far, the favorite around the office is the incredible Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is an homage to the wonderful 300 SEL 6.8 AMG "Red Pig" that essentially put AMG on the map. Check out the gallery above and see which one you like the best. Related Video:

Jon Olsson’s Amazing Custom Rolls-Royce

Professional skier and YouTube personality Jon Olsson has a large collection of vehicles. His recent addition is a customized Rolls-Royce Wraith named, George The Rolls. Rolls-Royce Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video jon olsson wraith

The Silver Spectre is a custom shooting brake based on the Rolls Wraith

The Rolls-Royce Wraith coupe undergoes a long-roof transformation in this custom by Niels Van Roij Design, and the result takes the name Silver Spectre Shooting Brake. It turns out the Wraith looks particularly fetching as a shooting brake, as these pictures attest. The Dutch-based automotive designer's firm previously built a Tesla Model S shooting brake for a wealthy Dutch collector and also built a spate of two-door Range Rovers, the Adventum Coupe, after the factory canceled the project. Aristocratic long-roofs seem to be their speciality. The Silver Spectre is custom-bodied from the A-pillars rearward. The roof is constructed from a single piece of carbon-fiber composite. The elongated custom side glass is accentuated with silver trim. The bustle-back liftgate is claimed to take its inspiration from "Anglian limousines of the 1950s and 1960s" and features inset glass. The sculpted forms are set off by the deeply metallic brown paint, which has nearly the level of metal flake used in bass boats. Inside, there are individual rear seats, and the available fiber-optic starlight headliner extends fully rearward. The leather-lined rear compartment is the perfect perch for the most pampered pooch — purebred Corgis, perhaps? Under the hood, the 6.6-liter V12 is massaged to deliver 700 horsepower (up from 624) and 664 pound-feet of torque (compared to 605). Each Silver Spectre will be individually kitted out with a unique exterior paint treatment (single color or two-tone), leather or silk upholstery, and a special custom interior element specific to that vehicle (such as a matching picnic hamper). If you like what you see, best get your order in soon, since only seven will be built. Related Video: