Automotive Excellence

I feel the need to touch on my passion for La Machina - the car - after salivating my way around the official Ferrari web site - http://www.ferrari.com/  and stumbling across this:

This is the Ferrari Aurea, V8, state of the art and drop dead gorgeous. I want one.

Ferrari allow their customers to customise their purchase - this Aurea has has a nose wing added, rear wing and contrasting paintwork. You can choose the colour of the stitching on the leather seats if you want, the colour of the dials on the dash, even the brake caliper colour to either contrast with or complement your chosen paintscheme.

Just to show you the gorgeous curves that combined form the body of this Ferrari.

Then again, as a boy who devoured everything to do with Formula 1, and at that time living in New Zealand, I was always going to be a McLaren supporter, and I am to this day. My allegiance is toward the the marque that now bears the name of it's late founder Bruce McLaren and this is just one reason why:

The McLarenF1. This particular car was once just about the most powerful road capable (capable but not advisable) car on the planet. The incredibly succesful Formula 1 race team put this together several years ago and it remains my dream car. Ron Dennis, the company owner engaged F1 Brabham race car designer Gordon Murray to work his magic for him and he obliged with this. The car has been at the top of the supercar list for many years and recently underwent a magnificent, but - in comparison to it's forebear at least, less techologically staggering makeover. Visit the McLaren website - http://www.mclaren.com/ - and you can view the new version, listed as the McLaren MP4 12C. New state of the art technology is the common denominator with both models, the latest however returns to a conventional side by side 2 place seating configuration. It is, as you might expect, a beautiful piece of automotive thinking put into production 

The unique design of the first model saw it produced as a 3 seater (the driver is seated front centre whilst passengers are seated either side to the rear of the driver). At the time it was the world leader in technology and design, and has only really recently been bypassed by the likes of the Bugatti Veyron and others.

McLaren have maintained the tradition of unveiling each new Formula 1 race car in the Tangerine colour Bruce McLaren used on the original team cars. That Tangerine colour also beautifully covers the carbon fibre curves of the the road car above and is a means to advise others - Beware, this is no ordinary McLaren F1.

I support the McLaren F1 team and will do so from beyond the grave if I can. The same goes for the Prancing Horse of Ferrari, as in life on the road and the racetrack they run neck and neck, so too must I juggle my personal preference between these two stand out leaders in the pursuit of automotive excellence.

Think Long and Prosper

Biggles