The Lost Bugatti

At the 1935 Paris Auto Salon, Jean Bugatti showed his newest masterpiece, The Bugatti 'Aerolithe' Coupe.

Despite its bold styling , it was not well-received. (Similarly styled Bugatti Atlantics now rank as some of the most expensive cars on the market, fetching into the 10s of millions, Ralph Lauren has one.) 

Not long after the Paris show, the Electron disappeared, and to this day it has never been found. Was the car hidden somewhere? Bombed to smithereens during WWII? Scrapped and used for parts by a cash-strapped Bugatti? To this day, these questions go unanswered.

Not wanting to wait until the day that the original car may be found, The Guild of Automotive Restorers near Toronto, ON has re-made this automotive masterpiece in excruciating detail. With only fifteen pictures to go on, The Guild re-created the Aerolithe of the Paris Salon right down to the magnesium body panels and wire rims. 

Check out Darkcar's video chronicling this cars amazing build process:

A BMW 850i with a Chevy 350 in it? Does it exist? Would it be awesome, or a sacrilege?

The BMW 850i was one awesome looking car. BMW's flagship of the early '90s looked like nothing else in the Bavarian automaker's lineup, and had more than a few styling elements borrowed from BMW's only supercar, the M1. The lines on the car look so perfect. It's a design that holds up well, even 25 years after the car graced a BMW new car brochure.

It also had a V12. A 5.0L torquey beast that put out 300hp and 330lb/ft of torque. Those numbers may not seem like much now, but for an early 90's grand touring car, it was a lot. Or at least, par for the course. (the Corvette of the same era also put out 300hp.) This engine was also the basis for McLaren's world destroying F1 supercar. The 850i's V12 was basically two inline-6's put together. This could make it a slightly complicated power plant.

With two computers, two PCV valves, and two of almost everything, the engine was basically Noah's Ark. Reliability was never going to be a strong suit. Which brings me to my question: Taking a Chevy LT1 or LS1 and dropping it into another car for stronger reliability seems to be all the rage lately. Has anyone ever taken one of these engines and dropped it into an 850? Would it be awesome? Impossible? A sacrilege that would get hit by lightning emanating from the BMW gods? 

I've seen people talking about it, but haven't heard of anything ever happening. Would it make for an awesome car, even if it had lost some of its V12 character? I'll take one with the AC Schnitzer body kit please...

EDIT: Looks like someone out there has done it. What a monster that thing is.

I thought the Lotus Elise was the perfect car in its stock form, until I saw this one.

The Lotus Elise seems like the perfect car stock. (At least for short distances.) Awesome looks, awesome handling, awesome power to weight ratio. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I didn't think it could get any better, until I saw this fender flared, deep rimmed monster. It might defeat Colin Chapman's vision a little bit, (which was "add lightness" and not "add deep-dish rims") but who cars, it looks awesome. Check out Stanceworks for the full story.

A Lexus dealership in Quebec has a brand new LFA for you...

…but it will cost you. A Lexus dealership in Laval, QC by the name of 'Lexus Laval' has a 2012 Lexus LFA advertised in Autotrader with supposedly only 15kms on it. The catch? She's pretty pricey. $456,815 (plus applicable taxes) will get you into this sweet 560hp beauty.

That price is about $50,000 or so more than the LFA cost new, (when you could pretty much only lease them.) But you'd expect to pay a price like that considering they are only about 500 of these babies around and there aren't exactly many for sale. (Some examples in the U.S. are selling in the $350,000 range, but they have more miles.)

If you've got an extra half mil laying around, you could do a lot worse, head on down to auto trader and make a deal!

Ford GTs without stripes are just the best

You already know that Camilo Pardo's modern Ford GT creation is the best thing since sliced bread. The 550hp supercharged behemoth was manufactured between 2004 and 2006, and sold for around $150,000 US. That may seem like a Wal-Mart special deal now, as prices have skyrocketed in the last few years, with most examples currently trading around the $260,000 range. I bet your Gallardo hasn't appreciated that much!

On top of all that awesomeness, have you seen a GT without stripes? The very rare "stripe delete" option may not be historically accurate, but the GT just looks so much lower and massively wider without the stripes to break it up. 

Check out eGarage's take with a stripe less black Ford GT with sexy HRE wheels: