Fastest ever Ferrari Enzo

The Ferrari Enzo is the ultimate car from the Italian masters.

With 650bhp and 485lb/ft of pulling power, the hypercar will accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.65 seconds and hit 217mph.

It's an engineering masterpiece with Ferrari aficionados Jay Kay, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton and Nick Mason all owning models.

However, for some people 217mph is not enough because German tuners Edo Competition have created the Enzo XX, giving the standard car a bit more oomph by fiddling with the engine, air filter and exhaust manifolds. It now gets carbon ceramic brakes with overall weight reduced by 100kg.

The engine's capacity has been increased from 6-litres to 6.3-litres with the Enzo XX now boasting an epic 800bhp and 575lb/ft of pulling power.

As a result the Edo Enzo will accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds, 0-124mph in 9 seconds and 0-186mph in 19 seconds.

With a top speed of 236mph it's a mentally quick car, destroying the standard Enzo's 217mph v-max but would you really want to buy one?

As a standard car the Enzo is brilliantly brilliant with just 399 standard models ever built. But since it was launched in 2002 a load of these hypercars have been be written off with one Canadian model spontaneously combusting a couple of weeks ago.

When our man Vijay saw the footage he turned the air blue with obscenities before sitting in the corner crying. He didn't really, but he was quite upset.

So we're not sure modifying something as pure as the Enzo is worth doing, particularly because it's one of those rare cars which is appreciating in value. With an original price-tag of £450,000, you'll find it hard to buy one for less than £800,000 today.

BD DIESEL SUPER B SINGLE TURBOCHARGER KIT -- 250-425 HP

BD Diesel Turbocharger
Part Number: B701045220
Manufacturer Number: 1045220
BD Diesel Turbocharger BD Diesel Turbocharger
List Price: $1,373.86
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BD DIESEL SUPER B SINGLE TURBOCHARGER KIT -- 250-425 HP, Designed For Easy And Bolt-In Replacement, Supports Modified Applications Making Up To 425 Rear Wheel Horse Power, Offers Quick Spool-Up, Cooler Exhaust Gas Temperature, And No Surging, Ideal For Street, Towing And Mild Competition Applications, Can Easily Be Upgraded To A Twin System For Even More Power, Includes An Adjustable Waste Gate, All Necessary Adapters Or New Down Pipe, Spring-Loaded T-Bar Clamps And Turbo Feed/Drain Fittings, With Manufacturer's Limited 1-Year Warranty

Chevrolet Corvette Pricing Announced, $9,495

First things first, pricing has been announced for all 2011 Chevrolet Corvettes, except the Z06 Carbon Edition shown here.

However, GM has priced both the Z07 Ultimate Performance package (which has the special-edition car's Michelin tires, Brembo brakes and magnetic dampers) and the CFZ Carbon Fiber package (which has all the carbon fiber exterior pieces). The Z07 package costs $9,495 and the CFZ package costs $3,995. Add them both to a 2011 Corvette Z06 ($74,305), plus $950 destination, and you're already at $88,495.

Of course, you'll likely be required to check off the $7,170 premium equipment group (3LZ) in conjunction with these options, boosting the price to the neighborhood of $95K, Corvette Blogger points out. And that gives you some idea how much the 2011 Z06 Carbon Edition will cost.

In other news, the 2011 Corvette ZR1 costs $110,750 with destination -- an increase of $2,920 over the 2010 model. All other trim levels see an increase of just $20.

Toyota Set to Pay $16.4 Million Fine "To Avoid Litigation"

Today Toyota agreed to pay it's relatively meaninglessly 16.4 million dollar fine regarding its sticky-pedal recall.

Meaningless not only because that the capped fine is less than a drop in the bucket to Toyota (Automotive News reports it will be below 2% of net income for the financial year ending March 31), but also because they're side-stepping all real penalties in relation to the safety debacle they caused.

Without a cap, fines could have been up to $6,000 per vehicle, or $13.8 Billion total.

According to Toyota, "We agreed to this settlement in order to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation, as well as to allow us to move forward fully-focused on the steps to strengthen our quality assurance operations. This will allow us to focus on delivering safe, reliable, high quality vehicles for our customers and responding to consumer feedback with honesty and integrity."

Toyota goes on to say they regret the NHTSA's decision to seek the civil penalty, they in no way violated the Safety Act, and that they did not hide any safety defects.

Furthermore, new steps have been taken to make their improve quality assurance operations, including strengthening "information-gathering capabilities to respond more quickly to customer concerns and investigate potential quality issues more aggressively" (no word on how they did that) and appointing a Chief Quality Officer for North America.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood disagrees with Toyota a bit, saying, ""I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly...By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk."

Toyota has 30 days to pay the fine, which is expected to be in the form of an electronic transfer.

After that little drop is paid off, Toyota has a couple more problems on its hands: 1) there may have been multiple defects, leading to more than just the one $16.4 million fine, and 2) the 180 lawsuits seeking class-action status and 57 individual suits "claiming injury or deaths" related to the recalls.

By Phil Alex

Official Information and Photos on Compact Hybrid Out And About

Official information for Lexus's Euro-fighting hybrid, the CT 200h, has just come out of the Press Release closet. Riding on 17-inch wheels mounted to a newly-developed front-wheel drive platform, the smallest Lexus ever is powered by a 1.8-liter gasoline engine mated to an electric motor with power (no performance figures have been released) going through an E-CVT transmission with, surprise surprise, settings that include ECO, SPORT, and NORMAL. But these are all facts we already know.

Spacially, the CT comes in at 4,320 mm long and 1,765 mm wide, with a 2,600 mm wheelbase. That helps Lexus' Audi A3-fighter provide owners with 345 liters (12.2 cubic feet) of cargo room with the rear seats up, or 700 liters (24.7 cubic feet) with them folded down.

Suspending the car are McPherson struts and an anti-roll bar up front, while a double-wishbone setup does the job in the rear. Standard-fare shocks and springs are at all four corners, although the rear springs and shock absorbers were "positioned separately to minimize intrusion into the load-space floor".

Lexus says the rear suspension, which makes use of a lightweight trailing arm, is "exclusive to the CT 200h".

The interior - much like the exterior - is pulled heavily from last year's LF-Ch concept model, with its "asymmetrical dashboard" broken into a Display Zone (upper area) and Operation Zone (lower area including the shifter and Remote Touch control knob).

Other cool features include a switch in personality when SPORT mode is engaged: the "hybrid indicator" becomes a tachometer and the mood lighting goes from blue to red. Sporty.

Will this front-wheel drive compact-luxury-hybrid hatchback solve Lexus's sales woes in Europe? Time will tell, but having a small hybrid hatchback in one's lineup never hurts. Especially in Europe.

The long-awaited 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid sports coupe

The long-awaited 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid sports coupe made its world premiere in production guise at Detroit Motor Show today. Compared to last year's Tokyo show concept, the U.S.-spec model seen here has remained more or less the same with changes limited to the different alloy wheels, the larger exterior mirrors, the Honda logo that has moved from the grille to under the bonnet and the revised tail lamp crystals.

The strictly two-seater CR-Z also retains the concept model's lightly futuristic interior boasting a multi-layer dashboard and three-dimensional instruments with a blue color scheme.

The coupe also gets a mid-ship console behind the front seats to optimize cargo space while a hard-shell separator can be closed to create additional hidden storage.

At the heart of the coupe is a 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine with Honda's compact and lightweight Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid-electric system.

The CR-Z's 10kW electric motor assists in acceleration and also acts as a generator during braking or coasting to capture kinetic energy that recharges the 100-volt IMA nickel-metal hydride battery pack. The gasoline engine can automatically turn off during vehicle stops to further improve efficiency.

The hybrid system delivers a combined peak output of 122 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 128 lb-ft. of torque at 1,000 to 1,500 rpm with the standard six-speed manual gearbox and 123 lb-ft when combined with the optional CVT.

The CR-Z also gets a three-mode drive system that allows the driver to select between individual modes of performance for Sport, Normal and Economy driving styles. The system, which affects the settings for steering, engine response, motor assist and air conditioning, is activated through three backlit buttons to the left of the steering wheel.

While Honda did not announce performance figures for the U.S.-spec model, a leaked brochure of the JDM CR-Z makes word of a 0-100km/h (62mph) time of 9.7 seconds, which if true, isn't exactly what you'd expect from a car that's the spiritual successor of the CR-X.

What the Japanese automaker did reveal are the preliminary fuel economy estimates. Honda anticipates that the CR-Z will achieve an EPA-estimated fuel economy rating of 36 city/38 highway mpg for the CVT-equipped models and 31 city/37 highway mpg (7.6 lt and 6.4 lt/100km respectively) for the manual cars.

Again, nothing to be excited about. For example, the latest Toyota Prius that is powered by a 134HP hybrid powerplant and can sprint from 0 to 60mph in 9.8 seconds returns 51mpg city and 48mpg highway. Heck, even the BMW 335d sedan with its mighty 260HP diesel achieves 36mpg on the highway.

When the CR-Z arrives at Honda's U.S. dealers later this summer, it will be offered in two trim levels, base and EX.

Standard features on the base model include Vehicle Stability Assist, an audio system with six speakers, automatic climate control, power windows and door locks, remote entry and cruise control.

The CR-Z EX will add High-Intensity Discharge (HID) Headlights with Auto-On/Off, fog lights, a 360-Watt premium audio system with seven speakers including subwoofer and Bluetooth, and perforated leather-wrapped steering wheel.