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Car Of The Week – Morgan Aero Supersports

Beastmaster Car of The Week - Week 26

Morgan Aero Supersports.

This is the Morgan Aero Supersports. It comes in Morgan’s centenary year, and celebrates in typically striking style.

It is essentially a more open version of the Aeromax coupe, sharing its 4.8-litre V8. The 362bhp, 370lb ft unit is sourced from BMW. The engine’s made of aluminium, much like the car’s body panels, detachable roof panels and chassis. The result is a kerb weight of around 1100kg; impressively low on what’s a pretty luxurious V8 coupe.

Those roof panels are the key to setting the Supersports apart from the Aeromax. They switch the car from coupe to roadster in a more traditional manner than most rivals’ folding metal roof electrickery.

The Aero Supersports is available with six-speed manual and automatic transmissions, with Morgan bigging up the auto – ‘no other automatic car offers such dynamic power transmission’ – as not just being a soft option.

Charles Morgan, Grandson of the company’s founder, said ‘the Morgan Aero Supersports is a luxurious flamboyant sports car which also remains true to Morgan’s philosophy of lightweight minimalist simplicity. It is a celebration of our love of cars and the romance of travel and is a fitting model to announce during Morgan’s centenary year.’


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Car Of The Week – Audi R8 Spyder

Beastmaster Car of The Week - Week 25

27/06/2010. We saw this Audi R8 Spyder at The Goodwood Breakfast Club – Soft Top Sunday. The car has been universally acclaimed for its looks, build quality and performance and for confirmation of such look no further than the Pistonheads review. www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=118&i=21644

Yet for us the cab forward and long long behind doesn’t quite work. For us it looks a bit gauche and unbalanced. Quite simply, it is our car of the week precisely because it is beauty in the eye of seemingly every beholder – except us!


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Car Of The Week – Elvis and the BMW 507

Day 169/365 Elvis and the BMW 507

18/06/2010. The BMW 507 made its debut at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the summer of 1955 and production began in November 1956. Despite attracting celebrity buyers including Hans Stuck and Georg “Schorsch” Meier, the car never once reached more than 10% of the sales volumes achieved by its Stuttgart rival, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL. By 1959 only 252 had been built.

Intended to revive BMW’s sporting image, the 507 instead took BMW to the edge of bankruptcy — the company’s losses for 1959 were DM 15 million. The company lost money on each 507 built, and production was terminated in late 1959. Only 252 were built, plus two prototypes.

The BMW 507 remains a milestone model for its attractive styling, which attracted some famous buyers. American icon Elvis Presley was the most noteworthy purchaser. The one pictured here is one Elvis leased while on duty with the US Army in Germany he paid $ 3750 a fortune at the time to lease the car while on duty in Germany.

Of the 254 produced, 202 507s are known to survive, a tribute to the car’s appeal. Bernie Ecclestone’s 507 fetched £430,238 ($904,000) at an auction in London in October 2007. By 2009 the prices for 507s had reached €900,000!

The styling of the 507 later influenced the Z3, Z4, and Z8.

Groovy word of the day: milestone