lamborghini

The Geneva auto show opened in style today with a host of luxury manufacturers taking the wraps off their cars, including new models from Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Lamborgini, and Rolls Royce. Check out our pick of the supercars from the first day of action.

Click here for our coverage of the 2008 Geneva auto show.

The Hansen Audio Prince V2 speaker's liquid curves and physical presence demands respect--it all but shouts "this is very serious audiophilia," made for those with ears who appreciate the very best. Well, not just ears, but the means to indulge their vices. The 42 inch high speaker is small enough to fit in an apartment, at least an apartment with floors that can support the 540 pound weight of a pair of these $39,000 speakers.

Fellow Brooklynite Wes Bender, Hansen Audio's Senior Director and National Sales Manager, had me over to audition the speakers. Too bad he didn't have the top of the line King V2s that run $84K a pair, but if that's too rich for you, the Elixirs will set you back a mere $18K. So you see high-end audio is not so different than high-end cars... Lamborghini's new supercar, the Reventon is fourteen times more expensive then the fastest Corvette, but only a little bit faster. That wasn't a problem for Lamborghini, the entire production run sold out before the car was even built. Hansen Audio is likewise pushing the limits of what's possible in speaker design, and that's an inherently expensive proposition. Get over it.

Every aspect of these speakers' design was conceived with performance in mind, so that means not only are most of the drivers designed, engineered, and built in Hansen's Canadian factory; extraordinary efforts were expended on the speaker cabinets to better serve the sound. Which in the case of speakers, the best cabinet is the dead cabinet (acoustically inert), so the only sound you hear with Hansen speakers is the sound created by their drivers. Mass market speakers never get close to that ideal, their cabinets' "sing along" with the drivers, substantially coloring the sound.

The Hansen speakers' paint job also deserves special mention, it's the only element of the design not handled directly by Hansen. It's outsourced to a world famous luxury car manufacturer's factory in Toronto. Painting a pair of speakers takes five days and is a sixteen step process.

The "Hansen Composite Matrix" cabinet is a three-layer composite formulation (proprietary to Hansen) -- each layer is a different thickness from the other. Hansen's "Cloaking Device," the forth and final layer and is applied by hand to the internal cabinet. This sort of no holds barred design fanaticism is what separates high-end from mass-market brands, the drive to make the very best at any cost. … Read more

The Los Angeles Auto Show wraps up this weekend. I drove down to the Los Angeles Convention Center last week to check out the new BMW M3--which I hope to buy next year--and get a look at all the other new cars debuting there.

There were two clear trends at the show: higher performance and increased environmental sensitivity. The best new vehicles show improvements in both areas.

The new M3, for example, delivers 24% more power (414 hp!) from its new four-liter V8 along with 8% better gas mileage, along with more interior room than its predecessor and many new … Read more

When we saw the Lamborghini Reventon on the floor at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show, we had mixed reactions. It was either put on black gloves and sunglasses, and jump in the driver's seat, or find an X-Wing fighter and get into a dogfight with the Reventon. With its matte-gray paint and sharp angles, the thing looks like a stealth fighter or a new Batmobile. It's the most dangerous-looking Lamborghini we've ever seen, and rightly so, as it's named after a bull that won its fight with a famous toreador in 1943. From the front, it … Read more

If high-tech car gadgets are what you've been holding out for, you can finally make that Lamborghini purchase.

No, it's not going to come fully chromed like this 2005 Murcielago.

Lamborghini announced Tuesday that it is adding an onboard computer that includes an iPod and USB connection and a steering wheel in perforated leather for its 2008 Gallardo models and Murcielago LP640. All models across the Lamborghini brand will also come with a a three-year (unlimited mileage) warranty.

The Murcielago, which already was offered with a three-year warranty in the U.K., will offer the options of a … Read more

The last time we even thought about a chrome-covered car was last year, upon being blinded by a very shiny BMW. Silly us--we thought the trend might have begun and ended there.

A fully chromed 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago is being offered on eBay with just 1,414 miles on it. The listing says the car "has been the subject of numerous magazine articles" and "has had one celebrity owner," which BornRich identifies as 50 Cent. (Clearly Crave needs to update our reading materials.)

But unlike the Beamer, this one has only chrome paint, not the real … Read more

We've shown you the taxis of the future. Could some of the following complete the city fleet?

DeputyDog, a blog about "stuff," has put together a list of the nine most interesting municipal-vehicle ideas.

It includes a German police car made from a Mercedes, New York cops on Segways, a Porsche Cayenne ambulance, a Ferrari 250 GTE that was used by the Italian police in the 1960s, a Lamborghini Murcielago and a Peugeot H2O fire engine concept car.

Can you imagine giving some poor guy in a Honda a speeding ticket when you're driving a Ferrari? … Read more

I'm getting a little tired of this trend of luxury car companies lending their logos (and design houses) to random gadgets. I mean, come on, USB drives designed by Ferrari mastermind Pininfarina? Not to mention those car-themed cell phones, and that abomination of a Mini Cooper desk. It's basically just a reason to make pricey products even pricier.

I'm consequently skeptical about how good a Lamborghini coffee maker could actually be. Yes, it's made by big-name Tonino, and it's special enough so that only 1,000 have been manufactured, but does it really need the … Read more

If you thought the pictures of the 2008 Audi R8 making the rounds were gorgeous, wait until you see it in person...and from the inside. I had the pleasure at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday.

The sports-car public has been lusting after a mid-engine, high-horsepower model since Mercedes debuted its C111 in 1970. But unless you count the Porsche Carrera GT (which I don't because it was about $500,000) there has been nothing available in the "reasonable" price range.

Nearly four decades later, Mercedes' German brethren finally deliver.

Remember the old SNL … Read more