Articles by Jeff Glucker

It's the last in a wild line of amazing machines. I'm talking about the Pagani Zonda, which has just reached the end of its crazy life.The final machine has been officially revealed, and it arrives as the Pagani Zonda Revolucion track special.The Revolucion is a stunning collaboration of carbon fibre, engine engineering, and aggressive design work. It's also the culmination of everything Zonda, which means it needs to leave a big imprint on the planet.It does just that thanks to the 6.0-litre V12 AMG engine that pushes out 597kW and more than 745Nm. That power doesn't have much vehicle to push because the Revolucion weighs in at just 1070kg.That's over 45kg lighter than the lightest 2013 Mazda MX-5 available right now. Think about that for a moment... that's 597kW in a vehicle that weighs less than an MX-5. And don't forget, Pagani's heavier and less powerful Zonda R is capable of lapping the Nürburgring Nordschleife in an astonishing 6:47, so we wonder what the Revolucion will do.It's going to be a quick one. The transmission needs to be quick to keep up, and the 6-speed sequential gearbox employed here can shift gears in just 20 milliseconds. There's a whole lot more than just an engine and gearbox at play here, of course. The chassis is carbon-titanium while the bodywork is crafted from pure carbon fibre. The brakes and suspension have been designed to deliver an unparalleled handling and braking experience.Engineers also had to tweak the aerodynamics of the car to keep it from blasting off and returning to its home planet. The aerodynamics feature important innovations, like new deflectors up front and a vertical stabiliser at the rear. The car also gets a Formula One-inspired DRS (Drag-Reduction-System) on the rear wing. The system has two different operating modes, both of which can be activated by the driver at a push of a button on the steering wheel.It's a truly outrageous machine that wears the Zonda name rather well. It costs as much as a Zonda should too: with a pricetag of over $2.8 million. Sadly, just five will be built and almost all are certainly accounted for.Viva la Revolucion.www.motorauthority.com 

Honda is heading back to Formula One racing, and the automaker is doing so with former motorsports partner McLaren. This is big news for F1 fans, as it reminds many of a truly glorious era of Formula One racing.Interestingly, McLaren has a made a bit of news as of late on the street-legal side of the road. The MP4-12C is, by all accounts, a supremely super supercar and the new P1 should prove to be even wilder. Now comes talk that McLaren wants to build a car to take on the Porsche 911.Motor Trend seems to think this might mean that Honda and McLaren are cozying up even more tightly than it would appear.Honda is showing their desire to get back into the sports car world, both on and off the track. The NSX is (hopefully) just around the model-year corner, and teaming up with McLaren for F1 could bring about exciting bits of engine technology.Perhaps this merger could lead to a McLaren designed vehicle with Honda internals. If that thought doesn't tickle your enthusiast fancy, you need to go back and watch clips of Ayrton Senna using his loafers to heel-toe an Acura NSX around the track.www.motorauthority.com 

When I was 19, I was in Rhode Island attending college while trying to figure out ways to make the radio in my '87 Honda Prelude louder. I wound up being forced to sell that car when I got bad grades my first semester and nearly lost an academic scholarship.Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu is doing quite a bit more than I, and probably a bit more than most of you as well. Budisteanu recently competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where he won the top prize of a $75,000 scholarship. His focus? Making autonomous car technology more affordable.As it stands, autonomous car tech is still rather expensive. The fancy high-resolution 3D radar used by Google, for example, runs in the range of $75,000. Budisteanu says his system can be created for around $4,000.How does he do it? By replacing the high-resolution system with one that utilises a much lower resolution. He has created an artificial intelligence program that can pick out curbs, lane markers, and all the other obstacles that drivers face on the road. That data is processed through a webcam while a low-resolution radar system handles the bigger objects such as cars and houses. All of the data collected is sent to a computer that is in charge of the system, and then decides on how the car should behave as it rolls driverless through town.In 50 simulations run through the system, the autonomous vehicle performed perfectly 47 times. Those three other times might scare you, but Budisteanu is already working to sort that out with a slightly higher-resolution radar system. He says the price will climb no higher than $4,000. The intelligent young man has attracted great attention through this competition. Budisteanu has received funding from a Romanian company that will allow him to begin working on a prototype.Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how to make the radio in my current car louder.www.motorauthority.com 

When you think Lotus you're also supposed to think about adding lightness. It's the philosophy of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, and it was the ethos with which Lotus cars were designed, developed, and produced. One area Lotus doesn't want to be light in, is of course its own wallet. Thanks to a little bit of walking around money, the British sports car manufacturer and engineering firm might be able to breathe a little easier. According to a report from Autocar, Lotus is nearly ready to receive a cash injection of £10 million (about $15 million). This comes from a government program called the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), which is designed to help companies create new jobs and provide training. Giving Lotus a bit of this money shows that the automaker is prepping to move forward with new models and production. Apparently Lotus initially applied to receive funds via the RGF over two years ago. At that time the automaker was under the guidance of Dany Bahar, and we all know how that saga shook out. Now, under the leadership of a new management team, Lotus is ready to get its hands on the cash. Still, the actual amount of £10 million is under a bit of speculation. It was based on the initial application paperwork filed by Bahar. There could be new paperwork, or Lotus could've finally finished the process to receive its initial request. www.motorauthority.com  

The Biggest Loser has proven that weight-loss shows can draw serious attention. Volkswagen must be watching because the German automaker is looking for lower numbers on the scales with the Golf. According to Edmunds, VW is nearly ready to offer up an optional extra that will help the popular hatchback ditch a few pounds. A carbon fibre roof will be offered up on the performance variants of the hot hatch, which could net weight savings of around 8-9kg. The Mark VII Golf GTI is appearing on the not-too distant horizon, so it's no surprise that we might see some of the weight-saving tech from the newest Golf. There's been a Carbon GTI rumoured to make an appearance that will make more extensive use of the lightweight material. We're happy that VW is also offering up the good stuff to those vehicles sitting a bit lower on the vehicular totem pole. Normally, carbon fibre is a very expensive material with which to work. Carmakers are learning new tricks, however, to reduce the cost and utilise the strength and lightness benefits in more applications. By bonding a bit of carbon fibre to a thin layer of steel, which acts as the core of the roof. The carbon fibre adds in the required strength for safety without requiring additional steel or aluminium. Thus a customer is left with a lightweight solution that also happens to look pretty good as well. www.motorauthority.com

It's funny that BMW still uses the tagline "The Ultimate Driving Machine". The automaker's lineup is jam packed with a wide variety of machines that seem to focus on a wide variety of areas that put driving lower on the priority list.There seems to be no end in sight either, because the 2014 BMW 3-Series Gran Turismo is nearly here. It's the ungainly blend of a wagon and a crossover that seems to offer the utility and style of neither.We find it odd that BMW is choosing to pursue a niche that only it occupies. Especially considering it's a space that doesn't seem to be a strong seller, as they should know with the 5-Series GT.Still, the automaker is pressing on and we're sure that even more variants that no one asked for are on the horizon.No, we don't expect every vehicle to be an evolution of the E30 M3, E39 M5, or even the basic 3-Series that is loved across the planet.We're just a bit sad that BMW still considers itself the builder of vehicles worthy of the title "Ultimate Driving Machine", when they should be called "The Ultimate Answer To Questions No One Is Asking".www.motorauthority.com

According to a report from CarBuzz, Aston Martin is saying goodbye to the V12 Vantage. This seems like very sad news, as the twelve-cylinder twitch machine remains ones of the most exciting vehicles in the AM lineup in... well, forever. It's a brutish beast that combines tons of power, a V12 engine note, a manual gearbox, and rear-wheel drive. This is the ultimate recipe for high-level hooning. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that we'd be rather upset if it does wind up disappearing after just four short years. To confirm this, we reached out to PR and Brand Communication Manager Matthew Clarke. His response? "The current generation is indeed now done". Read between the lines people. That is PR speak for 'stay tuned because the next generation must be around the bend'. This makes us happy because, if the new Vanquish is any indication, we should be in for something even more special. We know that Aston Martin needs someone to step in and provide a bit of a cash infusion to smooth things out, but the cars are finally there in terms of quality and a V12 Vantage built with this improved internal tech will be a truly wonderful machine. www.motorauthority.com  

Generally speaking, the Gumball Rally has become a seemingly no-holds barred on-road playground for the world's wealthy elite. We're not fans of all the on-road antics but not every Gumballer runs the event in that manner, either. Many treat it as a way to see different parts of the world in all sorts of high-end machinery. For some, however, the types of vehicles that show up have become stale.Team Galag from Saudi Arabia is one such team that's seen it all. In fact, they entered a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and a Lamborghini Aventador in last year's Gumball. Now though, the team is ready to shake up the Gumball establishment. This is an impressive undertaking and it will wind up bringing a bit of Gotham to the streets of Europe.Team Galag is building a street-legal Tumbler... let that sink in for a moment. Street-legal Tumbler!Team Galag is pairing up with Parker Brothers Concepts to create an exact replica of Batman's favourite ride. Under the seemingly radar-resistant bodywork sits a 299 kilowatt 6.2-litre V-8 engine surrounded by a tubular chassis. This build is being taken oh-so-seriously too, because it has to last the entire 4828 km of the Gumball journey.To say we're excited to see Team Galag pilot this through Europe is an understatement. This build gives Gumball a breath of fresh air, and returns a bit of the fun that the rally first brought to the point-to-point race world. If they bring in the Aventador as the "Bruce Wayne Support Vehicle," then they will official have blown our minds.www.motorauthority.com 

Even if you're not a super spy sent on a mission your superiors deem impossible, you should still be interested in the upcoming 2014 BMW i8. Besides showing off its extremely exotic styling, the i8 features a plethora of exciting technology that's put to use to provide a compelling and sure-to-be-exciting driving experience.Not only that, it's capable of doing all of this while spitting out zero emissions because it's a plug-in hybrid-electric car. It wasn't always going to be solely an electric machine, however, as there was talk of an M-variant that would change the car from silently mean and green to wicked loud and gasoline swilling.Rumor had it that the ...car would feature either an eight or ten-cylinder engine. Now though it seems any plan for a fuel-only version has been put to rest, according to CAR.Still, there's a whole lot to get excited about with the 2014 BMW i8. Yes it will be offered with a torque-vectoring powertrain, but the i8 driver will also be able to switch between a zero-emissions front-drive mode, a rear-wheel-drive mode, or an all-wheel-drive mode. If you want to cruise along silently, you can run the BMW i8 for up to 32km without requiring help from the 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine.A more electrifying idea is to run both the electric and gasoline engines at the same time. This way you make full use of the available 293kW and 450Nm. Mash the throttle in this mode and the run from 0-96km/h should happen in well under five seconds. Keep that go-pedal pushed and you will eventually run into the 250km/h top speed.www.motorauthority.com

Audi is looking to take over the world. Well, the world of luxury automobiles not the actual world. They don't like when you make those jokes. Audi has sky-high sales targets and it needs nearly every vehicle in its lineup to sell, and sell well. There are some vehicles it needs to sell... that haven't even arrived yet. Case in point is the oft-rumoured Audi Q8, a full-size SUV that has its sights set on some serious competition. According to Autocar, Audi is prepping the Q8 to arrive and tackle a rather legendary name among the SUV set. We're talking about Land Rover. More specifically the Range Rover Sport. The story goes that Audi will essentially build up the bodywork of the A8 sedan and plop it down on a revised version of the MLB platform. If the Q8 does come to see the light of day, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a potential flagship-grade SUV on the automaker's current favourite platform. Still, just as Bentley and Lamborghini were set to bring their respective sport utility vehicles out to dealerships around the country club, it would surprise no one if the idea of an Audi Q8 faded into the ether just the same. If Audi wants to see itself reach the lofty sales goals the company has placed upon itself, perhaps a near halo-like SUV isn't the right way to go. Of course, we still wish Audi went ahead with the R8 V12 TDI, so stay tuned for the Q8. www.motorauthority.com