A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
For sale: Donald Trump's Lamborghini Diablo
In many ways, Donald Trump is much like a used Lamborghini: loud, brash, colourful, shoddily assembled, almost certainly a bad idea. And at least one of them's for sale! (Publicly.) Offered for sale out of New York at an asking price of $299,000, this bellowing bovine comes with a lusty V-12, all-wheel drive, and bragging rights.
Admittedly, close to three hundred grand for a car that'll be old enough to drink next year is a lot. However, this one's got well-documented celebrity ownership. Talk about playing the trump card.
These days, Lamborghini is a highly polished operation, perfectly capable of building cars that hardly ever catch fire or fly off a cliff when the steering wheel falls off. This Diablo is a far more ornery beast, a relic of a time when Chrysler owned the company. It's big, dumb, loud and lovable.
Should Trump clinch the Republican nomination, and perhaps even the U.S. presidency, his former Diablo could become quite valuable. As it sits, it's still a special car by virtue of its rarity.
It's the perfect tribute car for a Trump fan. Best of all, being a convertible, at least this sky-blue 1997 Diablo VT roadster isn't shy about admitting that its lid comes off.
Mazda spins up rotary rumours
Early last week, Mazda released a silhouette that sent the Internet revving to redline, a sexy two-door coupe concept that's planned for reveal at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. "New RX-7!" shouted the headlines - not so fast.
While many, and count me among them, would be happy to see a return of everyone's favourite slightly-rude-sounding engine - the Wankel - there are a few hurdles.
Put it this way: if VW can't or won't get the well-understood turbodiesel engine to pass emissions requirements, how the heck is tiny Mazda going to get the oil-swilling rotary engine past the EPA's tailpipe sniffers?
The rotary is a very odd engine, one that excels at racing applications. This doesn't necessarily translate to the street, and most RX-7 or RX-8 owners will tell you that their cars are delightful, but a bit thirsty. Not only that, but this new coupe concept could merely be a styling exercise, and not actually powered by anything. If forced to guess at what way a rotary engine might actually make its way back into a street-driven RX-coupe, it'll be as an ultra-compact range extender. Think BMW i8 for the rest of us.
Nissan Teatro for Dayz seeks to impress digital natives
Speaking of the Tokyo Motor Show, which can be counted upon to always provide some seriously quirky machinery, Nissan has a full lineup on display. Along with an updated Leaf (practical) and a two-door sport coupe-crossover called the Gripz (less practical), there's something called the Teatro for Dayz. Okay, first of all, putting "z" at the end of words has been clinically proven to be the least youth-oriented thing ever. It's the kind of move Poochy the Dog might make.
Second, the boxy little Teatro EV is a deeply unexciting car, and has nothing really to do with driving. It's meant to be a moving space ("Teatro" means theatre in Italian), filled with digital screens for better social media whatever. Sure, an autonomous box to haul around people who'd rather look at their phones than drive might actually work - but who would want to own one? Sorry, TfD, but even digital natives will either buy a modern Z, or take the bus.
Wire-frame Evoque convertibles take over London
As a way to promote their upcoming Evoque convertible, an SUV that answers a question almost nobody was asking, Land Rover has pulled off a pretty neat stunt. Members of their design team fabricated wire-frame models of the new car from thin aluminum rods, and then painted them day-glo colours and scattered them about the UK's capital city, in front of Harrod's, Bulgari and Burberry. I'm sure this didn't annoy anyone looking for parking in traffic-choked London at all. No sir. The Evoque convertible is a very silly vehicle indeed, combining the best bits of an urban Land Rover with the practicality of a convertible. It's like a high-heeled rubber welly that's been converted into a sandal. I'm sure it will sell annoyingly well.
Panoz creates street-legal Delta-Wing
The Delta-Wing racing concept thrilled race fans simply because it was so otherworldly. It was a throwback to a time when racing demanded and rewarded innovation, a distant cousin to the six-wheeled Tyrrells. And it actually worked! The two close-mounted wheels up front gave the Delta-Wing the look of some high school notebook margin sketch, but the engineering was sound.
A street version has been rumoured for years, but finally Panoz has come out with a concept version of what that might look like and ... oh dear. It's part Ouija board pointer and part 1990s novelty videocassette rewinder. Some things only work on the track.
Watch this space for all the best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
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