A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Lamborghini builds 1,000th Aventador.
Fifteen months in and Lamborghini is celebrating a significant milestone for their flagship V-12 supercar: the 1,000th Aventador just rolled off the line. This particular prancing bull is Argos Orange and bound for Bavaria, where it will be parked beside a Diablo in an enthusiasts' garage.
Why is this important? Well, it took the Murcielago almost nine years to sell a little more than 4,000 cars, and here's its replacement almost a quarter of the way there after a little more than a year.
Good news everyone! This whole financial crisis is clearly nonsense. And environmental troubles? Not a bit of it: if V-12, 691 horsepower bright orange hypercars are flying off the shelves, everything must be back to normal. I'm buying stocks in Italian loafers.
Honda delivers first electric Fit
Of all the Honda models on sale today, I have a special place in my heart where the Fit, er, fits. It's a lovely little people-moving pod and, with the smartest-folding seats in the business, can be reconfigured to haul pretty much anything.
It's efficient too, but not efficient enough for some. To suit those who'd rather have their rides sipping electrons instead of gasoline, Honda's developed a Fit that's batterypowered. Last week, they delivered the first one to its new owners in California.
I should say "owners," really, because the Fit EV is available only through a leasing program. For a little less than $400 per month, some California and Oregon residents will get their hands on the electric Honda, which sacrifices a little of that rear seat magic to make space for the battery.
While you may not be able to get one here - yet - it's interesting to note that Honda, like Toyota, is electrifying some of their vehicles, rather than launching a stand-alone offering like the Nissan Leaf. Here, Honda is favouring a cautious, slow and steady approach over leading the charge. Oh. I just made a rather terrible pun there.
Audi opens digital showroom
In the showroom of the past, you wandered in to see the teal, fuschia and burntorange cars on display, none of them in the spec-level or trim that you're actually interested in. Then, a guy dressed like Herb Tarlek would wander over and try to browbeat you into buying a Pinto.
These days, much has changed. Showrooms are now open and airy, with plenty of glass-front. But it's just not possible to keep every model in stock, especially the more popular ones. Audi's come up with a solution.
What better way to browse than in a store filled with giant touchscreens that allow you to build your customoptioned model, tilt and swirl the car around in perfectlyrendered 3D. Couldn't this all be done at home on your PC?
Well . . . yes actually, it could. However, Audi's London-based digishowroom also has product experts on hand to help out with questions. And none of them are allowed to wear technicolour sportcoats.
London bus does push-ups
Think of jolly old England, and you can't help but cast your mind to thoughts of red phone boxes and doubledecker buses and soldiers in silly pointy hats that cover their eyes. With the London Olympic opening ceremonies just around the corner, some of those stereotypes are being dusted off. And modified.
How about this one? A 1957 Double-decker bus with two giant articulated arms. And it does push-ups.
Built to celebrate the athletic events soon to take place, it's a fun (if a little weird) way to showcase cool Britannia.
Carroll Shelby finally rests
As if Carroll Shelby's passing wasn't sad enough, his remains have been involved in a bizarre tug of war amongst the members of his family. Not literally, obviously.
Carroll wished to be cremated and his ashes divided amongst his children - or so they say. His surviving wife claims that she has a document giving sole control over Carroll's ashes to her. Then, the lawyers got involved.
Both sides are now near settlement with Shelby's remains divided into five parts to be shared out among his family. Personally, I'd like to think Carroll would like to have had his ashes scattered across the Bonneville Salt Flats, strewn out behind a speeding 427 Cobra.
Watch this space for all the week's best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to mcaleer.nsnews@ gmail.com.
