Video: Tramontana R Edition gets worked out by Fifth Gear

The Tramontana is a Spanish made beast sporting a carbon fiber chassis and an AMG 5.5liter V-12 with 720hp and 811 lb-ft of torque. It weighs a mere 2,500 pounds and looks like something out of a Transformers movie.

While the specs and the speed are simply ludicrous, the price is as well. Each Tramontana is build to suit it's owner, and your lone passenger sits behind you while you are at the wheel.

Thankfully some people other than the exorbitantly rich are able to drive cars like these and video tape the results so they can then broadcast the mayhem to everyone via the web. Fifth Gear got dibs on the Tramontana, and you can check out their hijinks in the video.

Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series on the dyno

Mercedes isn't playing games with it's new SL65 AMG Black Series, especially with it's powerplant. The V12 is very potent on it's own, but a pair of turbos ensure that the Black Series is ridiculous enough to warrant it's high price tag.



Automobile decided to see just what kind of numbers they could pull with this shiny new Mercedes on the dyno. And it didn't disappoint, laying down 573 hp @ 5300 rpm and 682 lb-ft @ 3620 rpm at the rear wheels. The Black Series SL65 showed its superiority over the S65 AMG, as the more spartan AMG Benz put down 36 fewer ponies and 61 fewer lb-ft. At 5500 rpm, the Black Series' beefier turbos out-muscled the the S65 by 100 hp and 100 lb-ft.



Source: Automobile Magazine

2008 Mercedes Brabus Bullit Black Arrow

Just how fast is too fast? Most humans barely ever experience 150 mph in a car, let alone 200 mph. Can anyone really tell the difference between 195 mph and 200 mph? Once you experience speed in this elite range, it can be hard to tell the difference.



"It's not so much the actual experience that counts, but the imagination of what it might be like to do 200, 210, or 220 mph," says a grinning Ulrich Gauffrés, the head honcho of Brabus's R&D department. "With the long axle ratio, the Mercedes Brabus Bullit Black Arrow could theoretically exceed 230 mph. But because of the extreme mix of power, torque, and load, we pull the plug at 350 kph [217 mph]. Incidentally, all our customers so far have opted for the more explosive but ultimately less dramatic shorter final-drive ratio."



Four of these uber sedans have been built to date, none have exceeded 196 mph as of yet. That's fast by any one's standards except for maybe the firm that builds them, Brabus, who has a long history of building fast Mercs. Plant your foot on the gas pedal and general mayhem ensues. Tires spin uncontrollably, the rear tries to take over the front. But when your punishing the rear axle with 974 lb ft of torque, that can be expected. As a matter of fact, the bad Brabus has to be chip restricted to 811 lb ft to somewhat protect the rest of the drivetrain.



Masochists can opt for the total package by opting for the matte black finish for an extra $6200.



Powering this freight train is a 6.2-liter twin-turbo V-12 that musters 720 hp at 5100 rpm and serves up 811 lb-ft of torque from 2100 rpm. Compared with the twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter unit that it's based on (the one that powers Mercedes-Benz's S600, CL600, and SL600 models), the uprated engine features a longer-stroke crankshaft, bigger-bore cylinders, special pistons and connecting rods, high-performance camshafts, and a free-flow exhaust that's brutal enough to crack an egg from a mile away.



The transmission is a five speed automatic, which is reasonable since it's recommended that you keep both hands on the wheel to prevent being embarrassed. Traction and stability control help, too, as do the 285/30YR-19 rear Yokohamas, which are a little fatter than the 265/30YR-19 footwear on the front wheels. Other chassis upgrades include beefier antiroll bars, a wider track, high-performance brakes, and a specially prepared ten-way-adjustable spring and damper setup. Extra money buys carbon-ceramic brake discs, but the standard setup is better-suited for everyday use. Combining twelve-pot fixed calipers and 15.0-inch rotors in the front with six-piston calipers and 14.2-inch discs in the back, the Bullit decelerates with vigor.



the 4079-pound Bullit will accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds, according to Brabus. After 10.5 seconds, the Bullit reaches 124 mph. Give it fourteen more seconds, and it will thunder past 186 mph, still gaining momentum. While lesser cars like the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG or the BMW M5 start to run out of steam at 155 mph, the monster from Brabus keeps charging ahead. To save stress and fuel, fifth gear is summoned relatively early, but there is still so much oomph on tap that this maximum Merc doesn't run into an invisible wall until an indicated 202 mph, which is all the relatively short 2.65:1 axle permits.



Unfortunately, no Bullits will be officially sold in the U.S. For those who are so inclined, the asking price will be around $587,000 and up. But if you're a millionaire looking for an outrageously fun toy, this car's for you.

2009 Cadillac CTS-V First Look

Cadillac is on a mission. Long have they played second fiddle to the likes of BMW, Mercedes, and other luxury auto makers. For a brand once known as the "Standard of the World," they weren't just going to lie down and give up to the Germans and the Japanese.

GM as a whole has been on a roll lately. The new Malibu is receiving praise, the Corvette ZR1 will be terrorizing roads soon. The new Camaro is making huge waves. The newly redesigned CTS sedan was crowned as Motor Trend's Car of the Year. And they follow up with a out of the park home run, the new CTS-V.

As you would imagine, the new "V" is powered by a small block. It was developed along with the ZR1's powerplant and features such racy items as a dry sump oil system and the saddle-mount twin intercooler bricks that allowed the LS9 to limbo in under the Vette's low hoodline.

The same quiet, efficient, four-lobe blower design is used, though it's a bit smaller and makes less boost (8.7 psi versus 10.5). Using LS2-like valvetrain restricts the Caddy's redline to 6200 rpm, while the ZR1's low-mass bits tolerate 6600 revs. Befitting the sedan's statelier nature, the Corvette's loud-mode exhaust is ditched in favor of a quieter system with four catalysts and a modest resonator (it's quiet, but for resonant drone at 1500 rpm). The sound is dominated by pleasing V-8 induction noise embellished with a bit of supercharger whine.

The bad Caddy puts out 556 hp at 6100 rpm and 551 lb-ft at 3800 rpm; that's down 82 horses and 53 lb-ft from the ZR1's power peak, but, more important, it trumps rivals like the M5 (by 56 hp and 168 lb-ft) and the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG (by 49/86). In Europe, the Audi RS6 has Cadillac outhorsed with 571, but that naturally aspirated spinner falls short by 72 lb-ft of twist, and AWD bloats its weight-to-power ratio to equal that of the CTS-V-7.7 lb/hp. And only Cadillac offers a no-cost choice of six-speed transmissions: paddle-shifted planetary automatic or a proper three-pedal stick.

Both the stick and the automatic cross the 60-mph mark in 4.1 sec, but taller gearing in the manual's first three gears blunts its quarter mile slightly (12.4 sec at 117.1 mph versus the automatic's 12.3 at 117.5). Either transmission performs comfortably ahead of the M5 (4.5, 12.5@114.9) and E63 AMG (4.3, 12.7@113.0). If you're looking for autobahn supremacy opt for the manual, which tops out at a reported 193 mph in sixth, while the automatic is limited to 175 to protect the transmission.

All of this power is routed through a heavily revised suspension. Second-generation Magnetic Ride Control shocks, like those on the ZR1, work magic in expanding the envelope of comfortable ride and sharp handling. Tour and Sport settings offer completely different control logic. Each has the bandwidth to go full-firm or full-soft in an instant, but Sport elevates the baseline damping control and lowers the thresholds of steering, braking, or road inputs that trigger a damping-rate change. Tour provides supple ride comfort with reasonable body-motion control on twisty, imperfect public roads, but when running hard on a smooth track or up a mountain pass, Sport curtails roll and pitch far more aggressively by instantaneously transitioning to high jounce-damping rates at the wheels on the outside of a turn and high rebound-damping on the inside, or full jounce front/rebound rear during braking.

The CTS-V uses Brembo brakes on all four corners, with six-piston front, four-piston rear calipers chomping on huge 15.0-in. front rotors featuring co-cast technology (iron braking surfaces and cooling vents cast around an aluminum hub and spokes). The 14.7-in. rears are all iron. An optional track package swaps traditional bolted iron/aluminum rotors for the co-cast ones, eliminates the surface grooves (they compromise pad life in heavy track usage), and paints the calipers red. 60-0 times are around 105 feet.

Cadillac's new super four door CTS-V may or may not entice buyers away from BMW and Mercedes showrooms. Those types of customers aren't always enamored with quarter mile times and other performance numbers. But it may make them think twice. For those of us who appreciate a little burning rubber smell with our cushy leather interiors, the Cadillac CTS-V goes on sale soon.