Autoblog

Hey, if you missed the For Yor Eyes Only Lotus Esprit sale a couple of years ago, your shot to own another Bond-driven Lotus is on the horizon. In December, Bonhams will auction one of the two 1976 Lotus Esprit S1s used in The Spy Who Loved Me. The film is well known for the car/motorcycle/helicopter chase that culminates with the Lotus flying into the drink and turning into a submarine (one of those famous prop cars sold last year); and the Stromberg hench-babe giving chase in a JetRanger turning into a charcoal briquette.

A look at the photos Bonhams includes with its listing make it pretty clear that the interior used in the chase sequence's dialogue scenes between Roger Moore and Barbara Bach did not match the one in the actual car being auctioned. The proud new owner of this one will surely revel in the splendor of its green-and-red plaid motif! Bonham's expects this Esprit to fetch more than £80,000 -- a healthy premium over what less famous S1s go for on the open market.. Still, we'd fork it over in about two seconds if we had that kind of walking around money. For some of us, this car was our first exposure to the Esprit, and it looks as good as ever. (Even better with Barbara Bach riding shotgun...)

Follow the jump to relive The Spy Who Loved Me's chase sequence.


[Sources: BBC, Bonham's]

Busy week in the world of Knight Rider. Fresh off the news that last week's episode got beaten in the ratings by a telenovela on cable and that the show's getting reinvented in a bid to make it actually watchable, we're back for another round of this televised KITT-lamity.

Tonight's Episode:
"I Wanna Rock & Roll All Knight" A criminal couple with congressional ties threatens to reveal the secrets of Knight Industries.

See you masochists after the jump.

Go figure. Nissan's playing the debut of the revised and now U.S.-bound Cube very, very close to the vest. We say this because there are photos of the new 370Z all over the place -- released by Nissan, no less. The Cube? Not so much. We posted leaked imagery, and were subsequently forced to pull them down, so we know they were accurate. (No worries, scraped copies of that post are all over the web. Click away.) Aside from that, the only other views of the redesigned Cube came courtesy of Tomica's new die-cast. So it was with excitement that we opened this new Cube teaser video released by Nissan (view after the jump), only to find that it shows absolutely nothing except the logo. We're waiting like everyone else for the car's debut next week at the LA Auto Show. In the interim, you can pass the time by reading our review of the current JDM model.



[Source: Nissan]

The current Bentley Arnage family's farewell tour culminates with this. We've already seen the Brooklands coupe and the Arnage Final Series sedan, and now with the L.A. Auto Show, the Azure droptop gets its opportunity to take a curtain call. Say hi to the 2010 Bentley Azure T, which gets the same 500-horsepower, 737 lb-ft 6¾-liter V8 lump found under the substantial bonnets of the aforementioned duo. A 6-speed auto directs all that grunt to the rear wheels. What's it cost? No word yet, but the regular Azure is already a mortgage on wheels, so use your imagination. Then add more.

The T is distinguishable by its "Le Mans" vents, a darker grille finish, and 20" five-spoke wheels, among other things. Based on the photo to the right, it would seem that there are no more cows or trees on Earth, because Bentley is using all of them to trim the Azure T's passenger compartment. Top speed is 179 mph and zero-to sixty takes 5.2 seconds. Not bad for a sled that weighs in at a shade under 5,700 pounds. Stopping power comes from the same massive carbon/silicon carbide brakes fitted to the Brooklands. Is all this excessive? Sure. Does it have the approximate carbon footprint of Indonesia? Quite possibly. Do we want one? Oh, hell yeah.

Bentley's unnecessarily verbose press release follows after the jump. They could have done it in a couple of sentences, like "It comes with everything. Bring money. " See? Done.


[Source: Bentley Motors]

"Truth-enhanced" car dealer advertising is nothing new. After all, how many times have you seen a newspaper ad for a special on, say, a base model, when the accompanying image shows a fully-optioned, range-topping version of the car instead? It's your job to read the fine print and stay informed so that you're not disappointed by the crank-window special the salesman presents when you get there.

To that end, we'd like to offer a helping hand to potential customers of Lynnfield, MA's Kelly Jeep. If you visit their website and click on "New Vehicle Specials" (under New Vehicles), you'll find a listing for an '08 Chrysler Town & Country. Okay, fine -- but the image that's paired with the listing is the one above. It's the Photoshop love child of the Euro-spec 300C Touring and a Town & Country. In fact, it doesn't look half bad with the 300's front end, big wheels, and flared fenders. One might even be tempted to ask, "Damn, that thing got a Hemi?" Whatever the case, it's more appealing than the blandtacular actual Chrysler Town & Country, which is what the nice man at the dealership will be happy to show you. We understand that the car in the photo above is hidden away in a barn where the owner also keeps a stable of unicorns. Thanks to Koko for the tip (and the laugh).



[Source: Kelly Jeep]

Knight Rider. It is the bane of my existence, and it is going to get radically changed according to The Hollywood Reporter. The current formula is getting canned, as are three of the regular actors -- Sydney Tamiia Portier (Carrie), Yancey Arias (Alex), and Bruce Davison (Graiman). Knight Rider czar Gary Scott Thompson is calling this a full "reboot" of the show, which follows the partial reboot that occurred between the pilot telemovie and weekly series premiere. Why is this necessary? There are two key reasons.

1. The show sucks. The acting, the writing, Attack Mode K.I.T.T. -- I could go on. For more details, read the liveblogs. You will then know what I do: this is crap.
   
2. No one watches. KR apologists will talk about how the show plays well with guys in the 18-34 demo, but seriously, these people need to zip it. Last week's episode was beaten outright in its timeslot by Cuidado con el Angel. That's a telenovela that airs on ... wait for it, because this is completely awesome ... Univision.

So, in an effort to make the show not suck so that more people watch, Thompson says, "We're moving away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula and closer to the original, making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping more regular people, everymen." Regular characters Mike, Sarah, Zoe, and Billy survive the rejiggering, and the word is that NBC will look to stunt-cast other actors in the weekly stories to add some juice. (Cough...Hoff...cough). The new-and-probably-still-not-improved KR will arrive in January. If this frantic re-do doesn't yield marked improvements ratings-wise, we expect to see KITT turn into a pumpkin instead of an F-150 at season's end.

Either way, I'm stuck watching it every week. Feel free to join me.

[Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, TV By The Numbers]

Oh, you thought it was over, didn't you? Well, you (and I) should be so lucky. Last week, Knight Rider was pre-empted by the Obamercial, so your humble blog host got a much-appreciated bye. Tonight, however, the 8:00 hour on Wednesday is once again hijacked by the KITT crew.

The official NBC.com episode synopsis:
"Knight of the Living Dead" Halloween turns deadly when a tech is murdered inside Knight Industries headquarters.

And the expanded version, according to my Tivo:
"Knight of the Living Dead" A tech is murdered at Knight Industries headquarters; while they are stuck on a flight during a storm, Sarah and Mike must try to stop KITT before it self-destructs.

Oh, goody -- a week-too-late Halloween episode featuring problematic air travel. On the upside, maybe Billy is the tech who gets murdered. Keep hope alive.

After the G419 Invitational ended last Sunday, I was outside BSing with Davey G. Johnson (the erstwhile Jalop, friend of Autoblog, and all-around great guy) as we looked over the cars that still remained parked in the GPNY lot. The front row contained both a Gallardo Roadster and a spanking new LP560-4, while row two was home to a silver Diablo SV. We were going over the SV, commenting on how it's aged rather well, when Davey noted something that inspired this particular post.

"Look at that," he said, pointing at the all-lowercase, italicized, block-letter 'lamborghini' badge on the Diablo's rear deck. "That would look so much better on the new cars." The new-school Lambos, as you're all aware, wear the cursive 'Lamborghini' on their tails. Davey and I walked over to the LP560, eyeballed it, and returned to the SV. I have to say, I'm with him on this one. Those lowercase block letters are like Countach-flavored exoticar comfort food, and they'd look perfect on the angular modern Lambos. Then again, maybe the happy medium would be to split the difference and go with this classic.

In any case, let's put it to a vote:

So, this would appear to be a big weekend for die-cast reveals of cars that are debuting at the LA Auto Show later this month. Yesterday, it was Tomica's 2010 Nissan Cube on eBay. Today we get the new 2010 Ford Mustang GT in the form of a Hot Wheels prototype, again on eBay. There in all its 1:64 scale glory is Ford's pony car with its new fascias and substantial power dome hood, but without mirrors. Hey, shipping's only $8.50 from Kuala Lumpur. If you're a hardcore collector, bid away. Us? We'll keep an eye on the store shelves at Target and pick up the final product for a buck. Thanks once again to Galvin for the tip!


[Source: eBay]

So, exactly a week ago, I was in Mt. Kisco at Grand Prix New York for the first annual (hopefully) Garage419 Invitational. Put simply, it was great. Big props to Matt Farah and the crew at Next New Networks for organizing the whole shindig, which put a big, fun group of guys (and one gal) together for an afternoon of karting and comraderie for a good cause -- Racing 4 Research and the Children's Tumor Foundation. The event raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $9,000. If you missed out on donating, and want to add to the tally, you can still do so by clicking here. Just because the event's over doesn't mean the fundraising's stopped.

Farah had some fun with the field, making sure the course was nice and wet during qualifying to ensure that slippery fun would be had by all. After qualifying, we all lined up for a Le Mans-style start and proceeded to race for the next hour and ten minutes. I was paired up David Noto, an all-around good guy who's also fast in a go-kart. Together, we finished 15th out of the 26-kart grid, thanks in large part to David ripping off very fast laps (in the 1:01 range) during the final leg, in which he picked up two positions all by himself. (Your humble correspondent's fastest lap was around 1:06.) You can see the final rankings over at Garage 419.com, and if you follow the jump , you can watch G419's 2-part extravaganza along with a third video produced by Team Polizei's Alex Roy and co.

Thanks again to Garage419 for having us, and thanks to all who donated to the cause!