FERRARI LAFERRARI

FERRARI LAFERRARI

The oddly-named LaFerrari is the Italian marque’s latest and greatest flagship hyper car. It follows in the footsteps of such automotive icons as F40, F50 and – most recently – the Enzo. With a base price of well over 1.3 million dollars and a set production of just 500 units, it ranks among the most expensive and exclusive cars available. LaFerrari was developed using the technology and expertise of the company’s successful Formula 1 team. Its carbon fiber body uses the same construction techniques as Ferrari’s F1 cars. Its complex active aerodynamics system is also directly inspired by F1 technology. The LaFerrari’s supplementary electric drivetrain was directly adapted from the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used in F1 cars beginning in 2009.  LaFerrari was introduced for the 2014 model year.

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HENNESSEY VENOM GT

HENNESSEY VENOM GT

Somehow they managed to install a huge engine into a small, lightweight car, and pushed the limits of automotive performance. With the body shell of a Lotus Exige and an eight-cylinder, 6,200-cc, 1,200-horsepower, twin-turbocharged engine and a six-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels of a 2,700-pound car, it is not difficult to understand how, with a power to weight ratio of nearly 1:2.25, it recorded a top speed of 270.49 mph in February 2014 on the Kennedy Space Center shuttle landing strip, making it one of the fastest production cars, if not in fact the fastest, in the world.

Production is on a small scale for now, just 10 vehicles per year. As of August 2014, 16 of the 29 produced Venom GTs were sold.

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Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Bugatti Veyron ($2.97 Million)

Just the Facts:

• The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse Legend Black Bess is priced at $2.97 million, making it one of the most expensive and exclusive cars on the planet.
• It debuted at the 2014 Beijing Auto Show.
• The Black Bess Vitesse Legend model is limited to a run of three vehicles.

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VOLKSWAGEN JETTA

In 1979, German manufacturer Volkswagen produced another great family car: Jetta. It was made to replace the Golf sedan.  As of 2005, almost 7 million cars have been sold worldwide, over one-third of sales have been in the United States. Since the original version in 1980, the car has continued to improve with better safety features and making use of new technology. In 2011, nearly 10 million have been produced and sold all over the world. As of April 2014, over 14 million have been sold, which made this model Europe’s and Volkswagen’s top-selling model.

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FISKER KARMA

FISKER KARMA

As a 5,300-pound, full-size, four-door sedan, Fisker Karma is an unusual supercar: it is fuel efficient and “the first true electric luxury vehicle with extended range” capable of 112 miles per gallon of gas. Karma made its debut at the 2008 North American International Auto Show. Fisker uses cheap, lightweight sheet molding compound body panels to decrease weight and increase fuel efficiency.

Karma is a hybrid powered by a four-cylinder, 2,000-cc, 260-horsepower turbocharged engine and by two 120-kilowatt electric motors charged by lithium ion batteries. The front-mounted four-cylinder gas engine generates electricity for the drive motors and the batteries. The electric motors are the sole forces directly driving the wheels. Karma has the top speed of 125-mph and reaches 60 mph in 6.3 seconds – those are ambitious claims for a car weighing more than two and a half tons.

The cars are manufactured in Finland. The first deliveries occurred in the USA in July 2011, and about 1,800 units went to North America and Europe by December 2012. Production suspended in November 2012 with about 2,450 Karmas built. Fisker Automotive filed for bankruptcy in November 2013. Successor owners say they plan to resume Karma production by the end of 2014 or early 2015.

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