Autoblog

An F1 team owned by a rapper? You've got to be kidding, right? Well, he might be, but Sean "Puffy" Combs is reportedly considering buying a team. If car manufacturers, retired drivers, clothing labels and even beverage companies can own F1 teams, why can't a recording artist? In the fast-changing world of Formula One, if you've got the green, you can have the team. And nobody's more about the Benjamins than Puffy.

The notoriously impulsive hip-hop icon made the announcement that he intended to buy an F1 team at a party in London celebrating the launch of his new cologne, where he was seen spending most of the night talking with Lewis Hamilton. We'd be seriously surprised if Diddy actually went through with it, but at the very least this looks like the premise for a movie only slightly better than Soul Plane.

Feel free to post your jokes and speculation in the comments section below...just keep it tasteful, biotch!

[Source: London Times via Jalopnik]

Sportech is a South African tuner with a penchant for German cars. Out to build the fastest GTI around, they are currently working on a people's missile called the P Cubed Golf. It will have, among many other things, 335 hp, and is being built to handle just as well as it flies.

Somehow they plan to wring those 335 ponies from the turbocharged 2.0-liter that hauls the GTI, but Sportech hasn't said how they'll do it. If they pull that off, they expect a top speed in excess of 150 mph. And because apparently there isn't much to do when traveling at Mach 0.2, inside the car will be an 1,800-watt Rockford Fosgate system, three 7-inch touchscreens, two tablet PC's for the back seat passengers, wireless Internet, and a DVD screen and 15-inch sub in the trunk. Oh, and the rear bench is swapped out for twin Recaros that match the ones in front.

According to Sportech's Chad Wentzel, the paint job is meant to "make more than a few heads swivel with its dramatic looks." If you happen to be in South Africa on April 27, you can check it out at the Castrol Extreme Show. Mach schnell indeed.

[Source: German Car Blog]

There are lots of ways to crank more power out of an engine -- bore it out, bolt-on superchargers, turbochargers, intercoolers -- if you're reading Autoblog, you know the drill. Putting that power down on the road is another story altogether, though. No matter how advanced the technology in the car, it all has to meet the tarmac the same way it has for over a century. Pirelli is celebrating 100 years in motorsports, and to commemorate the anniversary it has unveiled the newest version of its flagship high-performance tire, the P Zero.

Affectionately referred to as P Zero the Hero, the latest version of the vulcanized performance icon is rated for speeds up to 370 km/h (230 mph). That's a mighty high top end that few cars can reach, and even fewer drivers will ever hit, but in speed ratings you don't want to be pushing the limits of adhesion at the risk of both car and driver.

The latest Pirelli P Zero is already being fitted to some of the best-performing cars on the road. It's standard equipment on the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, Lamborghini Murciélago and Gallardo, Audi R8 and S8, Aston Martin DB9, Maserati Quattroporte, Jaguar XK, the upcoming Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and an array of high-performance models from Mercedes AMG, Porsche and BMW. Sure, other manufacturers make high-performance tires. But there's only one P Zero.

[Source: Gizmag]