The World’s Most Expensive Flamethrower

Most flamethrowers are fairly inelegant machines, consisting of two tanks, a spray nozzle and an ignition source. The best kind of flamethrowers, though, are built of carbon-fiber, aluminum and steel, and generally shoot flames only as a byproduct of incomplete combustion.

Take the twin-turbo Lamborghini Gallardo in the video below, for example. The car puts out some 1,250 horsepower at the wheels, and you don’t produce that kind of grunt without sucking lots of fuel (and air) through your engine. Not all of that fuel gets burned in the cylinders, especially when you blip the throttle repeatedly. Instead, unburned fuel gets sucked into the exhaust, where it later ignites with dramatic effect. Read more

It’s Over, Johnny: Lamborghini Kills The Manual Transmission

The replacement for Lamborghini’s Gallardo, due next year, will come only with a slushbox. Granted, it’s a dual-clutch, paddle-shifted slushbox that will produce quicker and more precise shifts than a human ever can, but it’s still an automatic transmission. Gone is the stunningly beautiful machined shift gate, and gone is the satisfaction of a perfectly executed downshift. You’ll get better downshifts from a computer, but where’s the sense of accomplishment in having a silicon chip apply the exact amount of throttle to match revs in the next lowest gear? Read more

Report: Lamborghini To Produce ‘Everyday’ Cars

One of the cruelest myths of childhood is that you’ll someday be able to afford the real versions of all those Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars you played with as a kid, or even all those plastic model kits you lovingly crafted. The truth is that few of us ever earn the kind of income to make such dreams come true, especially after you factor in the cost of all those things you didn’t need to worry about in childhood. Who knew that food and clothing cost money, and that houses are very, very expensive? If you do get to the kind of income where buying a Lamborghini is possible, you soon learn the other cruel reality: supercars may look like fun and may offer breathtaking performance, but they suck to drive in traffic and you’ll rarely get the chance to open one up on public roads. After the initial “look at me” thrill is gone, most supercar owners bring their cars out only for special events and track days, which seems like a cruel waste of potential. Read more

Lamborghini Gallardo Tricolore Defines Good Taste

When Italian supercar builders release a special edition version of their product, “tasteful” isn’t usually the first word that comes to my mind. Most have garish paint schemes and vinyl decals that look like they were razor cut by a baboon. Wearing a blindfold. Worse, most have giant wings and more carbon fiber than an F1 starting grid. That’s why Lamborghini’s Gallardo Tricolore, built to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian reunification, is so stunning. If anything, it’s even more subdued than a regular Gallardo, with the single distinguishing feature being the Italian flag stripe that runs down the car and through the interior. It’s definitely a case of “less is more” when it comes to style. Read more

Top Gear Fans: Clarkson’s Lambo For Sale

Are you a fan of the wit and wisdom of Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson? Do you prize your signed copy of his “Heaven and Hell” DVD above all else (even if he did sign it, “Sod off, Jeremy”)? Are you looking for a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with the steering wheel and pedals on the wrong side of the car? If so, I’ve got good news for you – his former ride is up for sale, although he’s not the one selling it. Actually, the car is being sold by its current owner, who bought it from Clarkson. The current owner (and the car, presumably) is in the UK, but the ad is being featured by an Australian website, J-Spec Imports. If you’ve got the $145,000 asking price, you may want to do a little digging before you blindly wire transfer the funding from your account to theirs. Read more

Meet The Newest V12 Lamborghini

Lamborghini isn’t letting us see their latest V12 supercar up close and personal until next month’s Geneva Motor Show, but that didn’t stop them from leaking the above image of the new car in camo guise. The good news is that this test mule isn’t clad in black vinyl, so we get a decent feel for the lines of the car. If this is the final design, I have to say two thumbs up; Lamborghini had been going down a bizarre styling path lately (case in point: the Reventon), and this car pulls them back to center. You can see the influences from Murcielago, but I’m also seeing heritage here. The muscular front fenders remind me of the iconic Countach, but in a more evolved manner. Read more

Cars With Launch Control: Houston, We Have Lift Off!

[original post date: 02/10/2009] I honestly believe that the new Nissan GT-R has sparked quite an interest and crave for launch control. Many cars way before the Nissan GT-R have had their own system for a launch control either in a SMG transmission in the E46 BMW M3 or the Volkswagen’s early DSG found in the GTI.

The ultimate crave for launch control baffles me but you have to understand that I would take a full manual transmission any day over a, what Jeremy Clarkson calls them, floppy paddle gear box. Even with Nissans woes with grenaded transmissions in the GT-R, launch control is still a big hit. Even Hitler “had to launch it”.

Ever since the introduction of drive-by-wire, auto manufacturers have been toying with new electronics that improve upon the over-all safety of a vehicle. New systems come standard in many vehicles now such as dynamic skid control or also known as vehicle dynamic control or electronic stability control (name varies from each manufacturer). Many of these new systems utilize a combination of computer operated units from the ABS braking, traction control and accelerator control. I am sure if manufacturers thought they could play with these systems and make a car safer then why not develop a precise method for accelerating a vehicle with a computer to make it faster.

It is all a numbers game if you think about it. I am sure many car enthusiasts, including yourself, may have experimented with dropping your clutch at a certain RPM to get the full potential out of a launch from a dead-stop. Even you guys with automatics have almost perfected holding the brake pedal while stomping on the accelerator in preparation for a ‘launch’. What if your car could do this for you? Well, many new exotic and sports cars can but it does take the use of a special transmission or a manual transmission that is controlled by a computer, except in Porsches’ case with their newest launch control system on a full manual transmission.

Where did this idea and technology come from?

If you think about it, F1 cars among other racing cars were already using a type of the technology that we see in today’s cars fitted with dual clutch transmissions and SMG (Sequential Manual Gearbox) units. Racing is where it begins… most times. From the F1 cars now shifting well under 60 milliseconds to the Nissan GT-R’s dual clutch shifting time of around 200 milliseconds, computers have taken cars to a new level of performance where a human just simply cannot match yielding a much higher level of performance.

Cars with Launch Control

Many of the baby boomers know ‘launch control’ to be something only NASA quotes in the control room during a space shuttle launch. Now we can all experience a ‘horizontal’ launch in many of today’s technologically advanced performance vehicles.

So which cars have launch control? Below is a short list that we have compiled of all vehicles with an available launch control. If we missed any please post a comment below and let us know.

Please note: Some of the vehicles included on the list may only have a staging RPM setting which some may call “launch control” but it is not as involved as a fully automated launch control or uses a sequential shifting transmission (paddle shifter) such as in the Nissan GT-R.

• Audi R8
• Audi TT
• BMW M3
• BMW M5
• BMW M6
• Bugatti Veyron
• Chevrolet Corvette/ZR1
• Ferrari 360cs
• Ferrari 599 GTB/GTO
• Ferrari F430/Scuderia
• Ferrari 458 Italia
• Lamborghini Gallardo/LP560
• Lamborghini Murcielago/LP640
• Lexus LFA
• Mercedes Benz McLaren SLR
• Mercedes Benz SL63 AMG
• Mercedes Benz SLS AMG
• Mitsubishi Evo Lancer Evolution/MR
• Nissan GT-R
• Porsche 911/Carrera/S/GT2
• Volkswagen GTI/Golf/Rabbit/R32

Various videos demonstrating launch control below after the jump…

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Lamborghini Gallardo Goes Skiing

Forget flying down a ski run, this Lamborghini Gallardo goes up an intermediate blue run, then back down — passing cross country skiers as it goes. Read more

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