Filed under: Etc., Euro, Government/Legal, Supercars, Lamborghini

The Italian Post Office is honoring one of the country’s most well-known brands, Lamborghini, by offering a commemorative stamp in its honor.

The 85-euro-cent stamp will hit post offices first in Lamborghini’s hometown, Sant’Agata Bolognese, before it is offered at offices throughout the country. The campaign is part of Italy’s recent efforts to pay homage to the country’s greatest moments and products.

The stamp features Lamborghini’s golden bull against a black shield background, which looks very similar to the badge affixed to the much-celebrated Lamborghini Miura, built between 1966 and 1973. Any tribute to that masterpiece would surely find a spot in our stamp collection — if we had one.

[Source: Italy magazine via German Car Blog]

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Filed under: Car Buying, Sports/GTs, Supercars, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Driving

The East Coast premium rental car company, Gotham Dream Cars, has just launched its own “Exotic Car Club” program called DreamShare. The program is offered through the firm’s NY and Miami locations, and offers drivers a chance to sample supercars and exotics without the hassles of ownership like depreciation, storage concerns, maintenance costs and the like. And really, for $300-$450 a day, who wouldn’t love to have a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin or Bentley available for a weekend trip to the Vineyard? Feeling a bit more patriotic? You can choose the Ford GT or Corvette Z06 then.

Like other programs of its type, members pay a membership fee and get a certain number of points they can use to rent vehicles in the rotation. They’ll even deliver the car to you. DreamShare has three tiers of service: Platinum, Titanium and Elite. Each gives you more days of rentals (20, 45, 90 days) for a higher price tag ($9,000, $18,000, $27,000). It’s actually quite reasonable when you break it down, especially for cars of this level. The current active fleet consists of a pair of Aston Martin Vanquishes, a brace of Murcielagos, a couple of Gallardo Spyders, a 360 Spider duo, an F430, Bentley GTC, Ford GT, and Chevy Corvette Z06, among others. The cars generally move to NY in Summer and Florida in Winter, but they promise cars in each city year-round. More details about the plans and Gotham’s regular rental program are available by following the read link. Sadly we didn’t see a gift registry anywhere on the site.

[Source: Gotham Dream Cars]

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Lamborghini, Lotus, Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot, Brabus

For would-be criminals, the police supercar is a bit of a paradox. Unless you have some serious get-away hardware, there is no freaking chance that you’re going to outrun, say, a Lamborghini Gallardo “fuzz edition.” On the Yang side, an officer would have to have some serious fortitude to cut you off or bump or your back end, and it’s not likley he or she will haul you off to the slammer in a two-seater.

The folks over at Deputy Dog have compiled a list of their nine favorite emergency service vehicles, and we think they’ve done a bang up job. The Italians and Germans dominate this list, and with good reason. The two countries stamp some of the hottest metal on the world market, and it only makes sense that their police departments have a shot in hell of catching suspects with like power. One of our favorite models is the Porsche Cayenne ambulance. If you required emergency medical attention, wouldn’t you want to get to the hospital as fast as possible. Check out the entire list of top emergency service vehicles by clicking the Read link. Just one question though, why the Top 9 instead of 10?

Thanks for the tip, deputydog!

[Source: deputydog]

Continue reading Top 9 Emergency Service Vehicles from around the world

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Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Supercars, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari

The exotic cars caught up in the Philippine smuggling controversy from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and others were spared due to pending legal action. The owners of those high-end rides are hoping the legal system can help them regain their cars. Standing firm on her plan to crush the cars to discourage the rampant skirting of the law and smuggling of goods, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo went ahead with automotive destruction as planned, while the exotics sat out this round.

It didn’t turn out to be quite the example-setting display of authority that President Arroyo had hoped. She didn’t show - her backup helicopter was suffering a mechanical malady - and the officials that did attend took a few hours to get their act together and decide to smoosh some vehicles in the name of deterring smuggling. 18 vehicles eventually met the business end of a trio of backhoes, sending the message that Arroyo would rather forego the estimated $2 million US dollars the cars would have brought at auction. Instead of a multi-million dollar windfall, it looks like there’s a new environmentally hazardous site at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s impound, and the cars will be sold for scrap for the paltry sum of 150,000 Philippine pesos, a little more than $3,200. Finance secretary Margarito Teves acknowledged that the government would be foregoing revenues to send an anti-smuggling message.

Thanks for the tip, Alex!

[Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer via Autojab]

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Frankfurt Auto Show, Podcasts, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Crossovers/CUVs, Aston Martin, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti, Dodge, Ford, GM, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Mercedes Benz, MINI, PSA, Volkswagen, Volvo, Renault, Brabus

We’re back with Autoblog Podcast #77, and it’s a Frankfurt-recap extravaganza. We discuss our favorite picks, as well as touching on some of the numerous highlights from the monster-sized show. We got a glimpse of the Jaguar XF in person, and it’s better in person, but can it save Jaguar? BMW unveiled the X6, it’s own AMC Spirit ripoff, not to be left behind by the Audi Cross Coupe Quattro from Shanghai. We continue on about exotic sheetmetal from Brabus, Schnitzer, Bentley, and Aston Martin, to name a few. On the more mundane tip, the Mazda 6 rocked, the Aveo was ugly, the Journey landed on its face, and could we please, please knock it off with the front quarter panel vents? After Alex’s speed-round wrapup, we discuss a solitary piece of non-Frankfurt news, the Jeep J8. Yes, it’s awesome, no, you can’t buy one. Damn, that’s stupid, Chrysler. Onward!

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Filed under: Sports/GTs, Supercars, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche, Ferrari, Driving

click image above for high-res gallery from this FCA drive

Life in Southern California isn’t always sunny and bright. Take last month for instance. When we woke up hoping to tag along on a Ferrari Club of America drive known as the Ortega Run, we were disheartened by the sight of pouring rain. We have learned from past experience that these guys and gals are a lot less likely to drive their prancing ponies when the ground is damp. It’s not so much that the cars can’t handle it, as it is the work involved. For the owners, the thought of cleaning and drying the cars when they get home starts to make that weekend drive more a labor of love than they had hoped. So when we arrived at the designated meeting point, we were pleasantly surprised at the turnout. It was definitely smaller than last year’s 80+ Ferraris, but how can we complain about the twenty or so f-cars that did make it out?

Follow the jump for more about our wet Sunday drive and click on the links below to check out all of the pics in our high-res gallery.

Continue reading FCA Ortega Run ‘08: Sunday drive with a few (dozen) Ferraris

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