2013 Lamborghini Gallardo Lp550-2 Coupe on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Latest Forza Motorsport 5 car pack leaves us scratching our head (in a good way) [w/video]

As we scrolled down the roster of the latest car pack for Forza Motorsport 5, the Hot Wheels Car Pack, our expression became bemused over the strange mix of vehicles that we now have at our disposal. This is quite unlike any of the other sets of DLC Turn 10 Studios has offered. Sure, there are the typical headliner cars – the Lamborghini Veneno and 2015 Audi S3 – that will appeal to the mainstream racing fan or auto enthusiast. But this latest car pack is so jammed full of nuggets of automotive weirdness that it's hard not to get excited. The Hot Wheels pack has no shortage of racers, with a particular focus on historical offerings. A 1939 Auto Union Type D covers the pre-war era of Formula One, while a 1967 Lotus 49 and a 1952 Ferrari 375 represent post-war racing. For a modern twist, a Mazda USF2000 car slots in below the Indy Lights car from the Nurburgring booster pack. From here, things get vintage and weird. There are a pair of delightfully offbeat coupes, in the form of a 1974 Toyota Celica GT and a 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT (here's hoping we get a vintage Holden Monaro in the future). Those two are joined by a 1956 Ford F-100, which your author already plans on converting into a dragster with vinyl flames down the side (because that's what all vintage pickups should be). The new ride we're most excited about, though, is the 1983 GMC Vandura G-1500. Yes, that's the van from The A-Team, and we're sure it will prove to be an excellent canvas for the artists of FM5 to cover with airbrushed, fire-breathing unicorns and mystical, gray-haired wizards (or just poorly painted letters that read "Free Candy"). This latest car pack is the final monthly car pack for FM5, although Turn 10 is quick to point out that while the monthly updates are over, there will still be new batches of cars made available to gamers. As for the Hot Wheels pack, it's available now on Xbox Live for $9.99. Scroll down for the press release from Turn 10 Studios, as well as a video of the newest additions to Forza Motorsport 5's vehicle roster. Forza Motorsport 5 Hot Wheels Car Pack Now Available Turn 10 Studios is bringing the Hot Wheels® Car Pack to "Forza Motorsport 5," available for download today. The pack features a collection of vehicles built from the ground up for the new generation that car fans can collect and customize while putting their virtual driving skills to the test.

Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2 is a purist's RWD, 571-hp dream

Purists rejoice: Lamborghini has revealed the new Huracan LP580-2, ditching the all-wheel drive system for a rear-drive setup and a slight decrease in power. Like the previous Gallardo LP550-2 (and Balboni edition) before it, the Huracan LP580-2 is based on the same technologies as the LP610-4 coupe and Spyder. Instead of 602 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque, it produces 571 hp and 398 lb-ft to the rear wheels through the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Some might balk at the lack of availability of a manual transmission, but Lamborghini figures few (if any) would have ordered one that way at any rate. What the new setup means is more tail-happy handling, which the engineers in Sant'Agata have only encouraged that through specific tuning of the electronic systems. Equally as important is a lower dry weight of 3,062 pounds – 73 fewer than the all-wheel-drive coupe. To set the rear-drive version apart from its AWD counterpart, Lamborghini has restyled the front and rear ends and anchored it to the road on staggered 19-inch wheels coated in Pirelli PZero rubber. Aluminum calipers grip steel (instead of carbon-ceramic) rotors to keep it all in check. In measurable terms, that all comes down to a 0-62 time quoted at 3.4 seconds and a top speed at 199 miles per hour - respectively 0.2 seconds and 3 mph slower than the LP610-4. But the LP580-2 isn't about outright pace or bragging rights. Those are best left to the more potent and grippy model, and to the yet more powerful versions that are sure to follow. In the meantime, we can look forward to the getting a closer look at the latest version of the Huracan in the flesh at the LA Auto Show. Related Video: The rear-wheel drive Lamborghini Huracan LP 580-2: the essence of driving fun - New dynamic design of front and rear - Designed and engineered to provide perfect rear-wheel driving fun - Weight reduction with recalibrated power management for highly-involving driver experience - 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds, top speed of 320 km/h Sant'Agata Bolognese/LA, 17 November 2015 – Automobili Lamborghini presents the Lamborghini Huracan LP 580-2: a two-wheel drive version of the Huracan coupe. Specifically designed and engineered for its rear-wheel drive set-up, the Huracan LP 580-2's combines dynamic new looks with a package for an enhanced Lamborghini driving emotion.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.