With SEMA right around the corner, it's high time Autoblog is flooded by audacious performance tuners' creations showing more bling than 50 Cent. The German aftermarket gurus at Heico Sportiv passed up plenty of sweet German hardware in favor of the Swedish Volvo S80, and the end result is far cooler than anything you can pick up at Ikea. Heico foregoes Yamaha-sourced V8 in favor of the turbocharged inline six, whose power has been pumped to 350 HP running on biofuel E85. With that kind of power in tow, the Heico Sportiv Volvo S80 will hit 60 MPH in about 5.8 seconds, and more power is promised out of the tuned powerplant by the time SEMA begins.
Some of the more impressive mods come in the styling department, and the beautiful paint job sets the tone. Designers employed seven layers of paint to make the car look metallic, and we'd say, "mission accomplished." The S80's stance is widened with the use of larger rims and tires and flared-out wheel arches. Auto-running integrated LED headlights, larger air ducts, integrated spoiler flaps, and sweet leather seats round out the major mods. Heico has made one heck of a beautiful tuner in its modified S80, and we'll be at SEMA for the official unveiling. Hit the jump to read Volvo's press release, or click on the image above to view Autoblog Green's high resolution photo gallery.
It takes a special kind of customer to take their exotic Italian supercar to Novitec. Starting off with some of the all-around best-performing automobiles ever to grace God's green earth, Novitec rips them apart in an effort to try and make them "more perfect". So what's such a customer to do when he needs to take the family along? If their mods to the Alfa Romeo 159 weren't enough, Novitec has now turned their attention to the sublime Maserati Quattroporte.
Some thought it was tasteful, some thought it was bland. One way or another, the 456 GT was a refreshingly understated touring machine from Maranello when its contemporaries were dominated by enormous ducts and wings. Compared to its successor, the 612 Scaglietti, the 456 was an exercise in good proportions and tasteful lines. Then some nutcase went and ruined it.
Like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa, this GT had an oversized rear wing grafted onto its boot-lid. The flip-up headlights – the last of its kind for Ferrari – were replaced with clear lenses mimicking the 550 Maranello. And the elegant five-spoke wheels were swapped out for multi-spoke racing rims.
It's bad enough when some tuning house rips up an F430 or 575 and mods it beyond recognition, but this example makes us wish Ferrari retained the right to repossess any of its creations that are being mistreated. Where's the SPCF when you need them?
Looking for a good way to waste time? There's no shortage out there, but here's one that's good for a few hours you'll never get back.
BusSelecta.com gives you the tools to customize any of a variety of classic German cars. As the name suggests, the site started out a few years back with the classic VW bus, but now includes the Beetle, the Type 3 and a whole variety of classic Porsches. You can customize a wide range of features, including the wheels and tires, suspension height, change the color, add decals and accessories... enough variety to keep you busy for a while. Check out the Porsche Selecta that lets you chose from a range of 911, 914, 356 and 550 bodystyles. Deck it out and then change to another model to see how the scheme you worked out for James Dean's Speedster would look on a 912 Targa.
While you can print out your design, we were disappointed to find that the printout is only on paper. To get your hands on a real one might take a bit more. If you're proud of your work, take a screen grab and send it to abresearch at gmail dot com. If we get enough, we'll make a gallery in the same vein as our CARS gallery.
Click on the image above to view in high-resolution
If Novitec's mods to the sublime Ferrari F430 struck you as overkill, you might want to take a look at another one of its creations, focusing on a car ever-so-slightly more in need of the tuning house's attention.
The Alfa Romeo 159 is hailed as one of the most beautiful automobiles on the road today, but critics lament its shortcomings in performance. Autodelta, the premier tuning house for Alfas, offers an array of enhancements, but Novitec's catalogue offers what looks to be a compelling alternative. By installing its Powerrail III engine control system, Novitec coaxes an extra 29 horsepower out of the 159's common-rail diesel engine, bringing total output up to a very respectable 229 hp, aided by a custom stainless steel exhaust system. The German tuning outfit also offers a full aerodynamic package including front spoiler, side skirts and rear spoiler, as well as a sport suspension adjustable in stiffness and in height from 35mm to 75mm. Rounding out the package are Novitec's Type N9 20-inch forged alloys skinned with 30-series Pirelli rubber.
In transforming the sumptuous 159 into a precision instrument, Novitec and Alfa Romeo offer an enticing package that's enough to make buyers forget all about the letters B-M-W.
It appears that the theme of this year's SEMA show in Las Vegas will be "Gratuitous Tuning," the time honored art of adding plastic body kits, big wheels, lethal sound systems and origami doors to our favorite cars just for the hell of it. The latest car we've found is the Maaco Medusa Mustang, a pimped out pony car that left the fine line between good taste and garishness in the dust as fast as its 550-horsepower, supercharged engine could take it. If you look closely you'll notice that most of the Medusa's exterior mods come care of a Saleen S281 body kit. Saleen also contributes the brakes, seats and aforementioned roots supercharger. The gull-wing doors look like a pair of nachos being dipped in this most cheesiest of rides, and an air suspension farts away any hope this car could handle on its 20-inch Saleen rims. A couple of mods we do like include the Maaco-applied DuPont color-shifting ChromaLusion paint and custom installed in-car computer running Windows XP on a very large LCD screen in the center console. This question remains, is the Medusa Mustang more gratuitous than the Outrageous C6? Probably not, it would need an Ostrich leather interior to pull that off.
Enormous sums of money went into the development of the epically fast and extraordinarily powerful Bugatti Veyron. The engineers managed to squeeze out a thousand horses from eight liters, sixteen cylinders, sixty-four valves and four turbochargers. But someone out there thinks there's still more power to be tapped, and that someone is Hennessey.
Hennessey Performance is the monster tuning house that specializes in giving more venom to the Dodge Viper, a car with an engine displacement slightly larger than the Bugatti's, but in stock form, only manages to produce half as much power. So while the Viper is a monstrously fast car, there was plenty more power to be massaged out of its enormous V10, and Hennessey has managed to crank it up past 900 horsepower. But the Bugatti's powerplant is a different story entirely, already the most powerful engine in production.
The company's head honcho, John Hennessey, in correspondence with Autoblog, tells us an American client approached him with the daunting task of improving on his Veyron with a custom exhaust system "to improve the power and sound along with possibly saving some weight". That's a pretty tall order, but Hennessey reckons they're up for the task.
The customer's Bugatti is scheduled to arrive in the workshop this winter, with the new exhaust completed by the spring. At that point Hennessey says they'll have all the numbers along with some multimedia clips for our enjoyment. And we can hardly wait.
The BMW M6 is one of the most powerful cars on the road, but for those looking for a bit more pizzazz, Hamann have come out with a full range of mods and accessories.
Exterior enhancements include a new front spoiler, side sills, rear spoiler, roof spoiler, rear apron end panel with integrated diffuser, rear muffler and a suspension lowering kit, plus a choice of 20 or 21-inch rims in two bling-tastic designs, coated with Hankook tires. Under the engine bay, Hamann can massage an extra 60 horsepower on top of the staggering 500 generated by the M's V10. Buyers can also opt for a variety of carbon-kevlar trim pieces in the cabin, plus a custom steering wheel. What's guaranteed to attract the most attention though, are the upward-swinging doors (of questionable taste, but irrefutable drama). The look-at-me orange paintjob is optional.
Hamann also offers custom bits for the entire BMW range as well as for Mini, Porsche, Mercedes, Range Rover, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini and Ferrari.
The Alfa Romeo Brera is quite possibly the most beautiful car on the market, but reviews have lamented the lack of "go" to accompany the "show". Alfa tuners extraordinaire Autodelta have answered the call with the Autodelta Brera J5 3.2 C.
The first Autodelta based on the new generation of Alfas (Brera, Spider, 159), the J5 3.2 C ups the performance ante with modifications to the engine, suspension, exhaust system, upgraded wheels and tires, and improved aerodynamics through revised bumpers front and rear. The "C" designation stands for "Compressore": the supercharger is supplied by Rotrex (who also make the unit for the Koenigsegg CCX). The unique supercharged direct-injection 3.2-liter V6 produces 348 hp (an 88-hp boost over stock), driving through all fours to propel this beauty to sixty in a scant 5.3 seconds.
With Alfa Romeo poised to mount its new attack on the American market, we hope Autodelta makes the trip too.
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