Salon Privé 2011: Wet & Wonderful

Salon Prive 2011 - wet, but wonderful We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Salon Privé is one of our favourite ways to meet cars. Up there with Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach, it’s as civilised a way as you can imagine to soak up the greatest cars in the world. The greatest cars there are laid out in the sumptuous grounds of Syon Park (new venue; worked well), with food and drink in abundance.

Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster 722 S (2008): first official photos

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 29 September 2008 15:43 Not to be outdone by the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, this is Mercedes’ own ultra-fast open-top. Snappily named as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster 722 S, it’s a convertible version of the special edition 722 variant. And yes, Merc is indeed eking all it can out of the SLR supercar before the SL Black and SLC/Gullwing arrive.

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider revealed: Geneva Motor Show

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (pictured) revealed in Geneva The Alfa Romeo 4C is the epitome of a modern ‘supercar’, with ultra light weight (for a production car) allowing the 4C to produce very good performance from its modest 17500cc engine. So producing an Spider convertible immediately raises the weight issue in a more dramatic way when the car’s abilities are so dependent on it low weight, but it seems the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider – previewed as a production car with a concept at Geneva today – has managed to keep the wight penalties of the convertible 4C down to a minimum. Thanks to a canvas roof and carbon fibre rollover bars, the weight penalty for the Spider is only about 60kg (around a 7 per cent gain) which shouldn’t hurt performance too much.