r8-spotting
We'd heard "Old Luxury" was pretty pissed over that whole turf war with Audi over luxury buyers since the Super Bowl. You remember, right? Yeah you do — that was when
the Audi R8 dropped the
horse head faux Bentley grille into "Old Luxury's" bed. Well, anyway, it looks like that hit they've had out there on the Audi brand has finally taken down one of their made men in Portugal. Yup, scratch one R8, paisan! Sure — it
looks like an innocent traffic accident, but that's just what "Old Luxury" wants you to believe. All we know is Audi better watch themselves and their
Le Mans R8 TDI next week at the
New York Auto Show. Or at least get
Iron Man in as a hired goombah to protect it. All we know is, we haven't been this upset since that
R8 went up in flames a while back.
[via
Quatro rodas e um volante!]
retro
Imagine you're Ali Baba, stumbling on the 40 Thieves' treasure — only the thieves are long gone and the treasure is actually 180 European cars of various description. That's kind of what happened in this case, where inside a warehouse welded shut for years, a wealth of dusty cars — Jags, Porsches, Lancias, Alfas, Lotuses, Austin Minis, Renaults, open-wheel formula cars, and on and on — sat rusting for over 15 years. No word yet on who's claiming the cars, or what will become of them, but we'd imagine there are a few resto shops in Lisbon whose phones are ringing off the hook. [Thanks to Geert for the tip.]
– Mike Spinelli
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news
We received this e-mail from a tipster this afternoon:
"I have it from a friend whose friend owns a ranch in Portugal that poor Jeremy Clarkson is dead, victim of a horse accident during a stunt. The accident happened on a ranch [nearby]. The incident is being hushed up for now because of big legal implications."
Holy shit. If this is true, we truly can't believe that Clarkson's gone. Although we often disagreed with the
Top Gear presenter, we loved his wit and his way with a turn of phrase. He was one of the truest scholars ever to comment on motoring, as well as one of the funniest. He was spotted
yesterday at the Cornbury Festival in the UK, but let's face it, it's not a long flight from Blighty to Portugal. If this turns out to be true, look for a full obit penned by all Jalopnik staffers. The man was truly one of the giants of the industry. Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted.
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news
Get those SCCA memberships up to date, kids, VW's confirmed a new sport coupe is indeed on the way for the 2008 model year, and that it'll be built at the company's plant in Setubal, Portugal, Edmunds
Inside Line, via Reuters, is reporting today. It took the company more than a year since the first rumors started swirling to admit building a successor to the Scirocco — last seen in the US in 1988. The news is nothing we haven't heard from German magazines over the past month or so, but sometimes it's nice to hear it from the source.
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gossip
Auto Motor und Sport brings a new round of speculative imagery (pictured) and some news on the upcoming Volkswagen Scirocco, including that it'll be introduced in 2008 for around 22,000 Euros (around $28,300), built at VW's Autoeuropa plant in Setubal, Portugal and use the Golf V platform for its bones. The coupe will likely fit between the Golf and the Eos in VW's line, which is expanding faster than a co-ed's wasteline during Oktoberfest.
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news: racing
Seeing as it's already Day 4 of the Dakar Rally and we've been lax in posting about the goings on over on the Portugal-Senegal run, we thought we'd toss out a link to Hog Wild Racing's blog. Scott Whitney and Duane McDowell are a couple of Southern California sidecar racers who have put together something that's a bit more than a KTM or a
Beemer with a sidehack strapped to it. Their machine, which has won at Pikes Peak, is powered by a water-cooled Harley motor out of V-Rod. Which sounds Andy Dick-nuts, but it apparently works. [Thanks to Denis for the tip.]
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news: industry news
The People
s
Elbow Car Company is investigating the possibility of producing its new Golf-based sportster on the Iberian Peninsula at its Autoeuropa plant in Setubal, Portugal. The plant currently builds the Ford Galaxy, VW Sharan and Seat Alhambra. Galaxy production ends next month, and Volkswagen's not sure about the future of the Sharan and Alhambra, leaving the plant open to build what the German automaker classifies as niche vehicles, including the '08 Scirocco redux and the Eos droptop, which is already slated to go into production at Autoeuropa to the tune of 45-50k vehicles a year.
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news: racing
Forget fireworks and champagne-goggling subpar members of the opposite sex this New Year's. Instead, why not spend it bombing across Europe and North Africa in the
Paris-Dakar Rally? The race, which begins New Year's Eve and continues through January 15th starts in Lisbon, Portugal this year for the first time. Also new on the docket are rules limiting GPS-related navigational tactics and a 150 kph speed limit for bikes and tricks, imposed after two motorcyclists died last year. 508 teams will make the intercontinental run this year, which we feel is criminally underreported here in the US. After all, wouldn't
you rather watch off-season NASCAR coverage?
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