Autoblog

It's been a good run for million-plus-mile vehicles recently. In September, it was the gent with a million-mile 1989 Saab SPG, then in October it was another gent with a Volvo P1800 cruising past 2.6 million miles. The domestics opened up the 2008 race to a million three days ago with a Wisconsin man 1,200 miles away from the 6-zero mark in his 1991 Chevy Silverado. Now it's Ford's turn, with a deliveryman based in Toledo just 147 miles (at time of writing) from the magic million.

Like the Silverado owner, Doug Schell bought his 1997 Ford E-250 van used with 40,000 miles on it. The van still has its original engine and transmission, neither of which has been rebuilt. Schell said he puts 80,000 to 100,000 miles a year on the workhorse, delivering parts and "single envelopes" all over the country. Unlike the Silverado owner, Schell only changes the oil every 10,000 miles, and the van is missing certain features like working air conditioning. Even so, with severe understatement, Schell concedes "It's a really good van." What does he plan to do to celebrate the feat? "I'm thinking of throwing it a party," he said, "but I don't know if that's too weird." No reason to party is weird, Doug. Thanks for the tip, Tina!

[Source: Toledo Blade, Photo by Andy Morrison]

click above to view more high-resolution images of the Maybach 62 Laundaulet

Lord help us, for the automotive industry has sunk to a new low. As if it wasn't bad enough that Maybach created an ode to conspicuous consumption like the 62 Landaulet, but now Mercedes' big, goofy brother has decided to put the thing into production.

Following a spat of rumors, Maybach initially unveiled the half limo/half convertible/half marshmallow in Dubai this past November, and then laid it on us in person at the Detroit show. It starts with the Maybach 62 S and then peeled off half the roof like a can of sardines and slathered whitewash all over the thing. Unfortunately, as we could see by the yellow Cayenne we showed you yesterday, money and taste don't always go together, and Daimler seems content to separate the former from those who don't have the latter. The reported list price rivals the concept itself for sheer lunacy: $1.19 million. That's an unfathomable $756k premium over the $433,750 list price for a 2008 Maybach 62 S, though we've found conflicting reports that it will start at £350,000 or around $685,000 USD. We'd like to speak to any potential customers considering buying a Maybach 62 Laundaulet about this bucket of extremely rare sand that we're offering for a very reasonable price.

We've added some new official high-res images of the 62 Laundaulet to our gallery of live shots from the 2008 Detroit Auto Show below.

[Source: Motor Authority]

Speculation over a potential second model from Bugatti has been a colossal roller-coaster. There were rumors of a super-luxury sedan, an entry-level roadster and a targa variant of the existing Veyron.

The Veyron was a pet project of former VW Group CEO Ferdinand Piech, who remains chairman of the VW supervisory board and is said to be keen on moving ahead with a follow-up to the Veyron. When Martin Winterkorn took over, however, he was reported to have shelved any plans for an additional model, prompting Bugatti CEO Thomas Bscher to resign. Bugatti then shifted to the control of Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen, who, after shoehorning the Veyron's engine into a Bentley Arnage luxury sedan, revealed last September that there would be an additional Bugatti coming.

Reports are now surfacing which indicate that the new model could be an even more expensive, even faster supercar than the Veyron. Whereas the Veyron, for all its enormous, time-bending power and speed, was designed as a comfortable grant tourer, the new model would be a tighter, more track-focused supercar. Power would likely come from a retuned version of the Veyron's 8-liter quad-turbo W16, which was long reported to be under-rated in its power production of 1000 hp, and is tipped to produce 1175 hp in the new version. Artistic renderings from German magazine Auto Motor und Sport depict the car with styling more akin to a Le Mans racer, with a protruding front splitter and an enormous rear wing.

The vehicle, currently rumored to be code-named "Project Lydia" after Ettore Bugatti's wife, would exceed the 400km/h top speed of the Veyron in pursuit of a Nurburgring lap time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. While these reports could very well turn out to be no more substantial than previous ones, if Bugatti did built Project Lydia in a reported run of 70 examples for a whopping Є2.5 million apiece, it would easily eclipse anything else out there.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport via Motor Authority]

For a retiree, Michael Schumacher sure has been getting a lot of press lately. If he's not testing prototypes for Ferrari, he's taking on rivals in the Race of Champions or getting in trouble with the fuzz for driving a taxi. But the 7-time world champion is also making an awful lot of money for someone who isn't even working.

Thanks to continued partnerships with some of Schumacher's biggest sponsors, the driving superstar is expected to pull in a staggering €35 million over the next seven years, taking his sponsorship deals through 2014.

Schumi's manager Willi Weber has been hard at work maintaining the commercial relationships with such big sponsors as Shell, Omega and Deutsche Vermogenberatung. At this year's RoC, the champ wore a white, black and orange suit decked out in sponsor's logos instead of the scarlet he wore while driving for Ferrari.

[Source: F1-Live, Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty]

Fifteen years and three generations on, the three-millionth Nissan Altima has been birthed at the Smyrna Tennessee plant. The Altima is Nissan's current sales champ, with diverse trim-level and power unit options, efficiency nuts and performance enthusiasts can both find something to love in the Altima. When it first debuted, we weren't all sure how exactly to pronounce its name – its predecessor was the easily articulated Stanza – but it was a tidy little compact with good manners and tasteful styling. My, how it's grown! The Altima has bulked up in size to Maxima-esque proportions, with edgy, stylish bodywork where there were once "bar of soap" cues, this ain't no mid-'90s compact anymore. The available 3.5-liter V6 has the motive force to outdo many comers, and the coupe version has even more speed baked into the style. On the flip side, the hybrid Altimas sip fuel more gently than the other powertrain options.

The Altima is produced in two locations, Smyrna being the first US Altima assembly plant in 1992, with Canton, Mississippi joining up in 2004. Smyrna pops out about 750 new Altimas per day, while Canton does nearly as many, at roughly 600. Altimas for export are also produced in Smyrna before they're shipped north to Canada, south to Mexico, or to Gulf Coast countries. So far this year, the export markets have consumed 20,000 of Smyrna's cars. Since its start as a Stanza stand-in, the Altima has gone on to become Nissan's bread and butter sedan – not too shabby.

The full press release is after the jump.

[Source: Nissan via TAC]

Click above to view the high-resolution image gallery

For those who like their meat rare and red, news has come of the most scrumptious slab of automotive prime rib. At its upcoming event in Maranello, RM Auctions will be putting up on the block one of the rarest and most valuable Ferraris in existence: the one-of-a-kind 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa.

The car that Phill Hill and Olivier Gendebien drove to victory at Le Mans in '62 has an estimated value between $8-10 million. Not only was it the last Testa Rossa ever built, but it was the only one to feature a 4-liter engine. As if the pedigree were not enough, Hill and Gendebien chalked up their third Le Mans win with this car .

Canada-based RM Auctions is collaborating with Sothebys and Ferrari to hold the "Leggenda e Passione" auction at the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello outside Modena, Italy, on May 20. In addition to the rare Testa Rossa, RM will also be auctioning off a number of other historic Ferraris, including a 1970 512 S, 1953 340 MM, 1966 Dino 206 SP, 1987 F40 Prototipo and an F310B monoposto that Schumacher drove in the 1997 F1 season, in addition to a wide variety of racing memorabilia from the Ferrari factory vaults. For collectors and observers alike, the sale of these historic items should itself be an historic event.

Check out the images of the rare Ferraris in the high-resolution gallery below, and all the juicy details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: RM Auctions]

This isn't exactly new news since it happened back in September, but a search of our archives shows that we didn't cover the fact that in a little over 17 years, traveling salesman Peter Gilbert racked up 1,001,385 miles, a distance equal to 40 times around the Earth, in his 1989 Saab 900 SPG.

Amazingly, other than a hood replacement and a "few other parts" due to eight deer collisions and a transmission overhaul at 200,000 miles, the vehicle still wears most of its original equipment. Gilbert states that at the 600,000-mile mark it wasn't using any oil, which he attributes to meticulous maintenance using synthetic fluids. It was then that he thought it might just go a million miles, and it did. In fact, Gilbert thinks it might go a million more if it weren't for the harsh Wisconsin winters that have taken their toll on the frame and body.

After mileage verification from Saab, the vehicle was donated to the Wisconsin Automotive Museum, which is home to a number of rare vehicles. Since then, Gilbert has purchased another Saab, with just a few less miles.

Interestingly enough, while a handful of vehicles have reached the million-mile mark, including this Dodge Ram, only one has been officially recorded as reaching two million miles... a Volvo P1800.

[Source: Saabnet.com

You may be shocked and startled to find out that Takuma Sato is among the highest-paid drivers in F1. This despite his dismal driving record, reputation as an irresponsible driver, and inability to hold on to his race seat without protection from his patrons at Honda.

Factoring in his salary from perennial backmarkers Super Aguri, plus his sponsorship contracts – which we'd assume would be substantial given Japan's love of F1 and Sato's standing as Japan's premier racing driver – Takuma pulled in an estimated $7.7 million in 2006. His new team-mate at Super Aguri, meanwhile, will be paid about $250,000 – barely a fraction of Sato's earnings.

That kind of dough puts Takuma in the same earning bracket as world champion Fernando Alonso and ahead of his old team-mate Jenson Button, among many, many other well-reputed drivers.

At this point, Autoblog would like to welcome Super Aguri to hire any member of our writing staff. There are several of us who'd be glad to crash a whole bunch of cars for you for a lot less than $7.7 million!

[Source: F1i]