Audi TTS Roadster1

Filed under: Aftermarket, Convertible, Europe, Specialty Now, from the "weird little French car" file, we give you the 2013 PGO Automobiles Cévennes speedster. Powered by a turbocharged 1.6-liter BMW four-cylinder engine mounted midship, the little roadster serves up a healthy 181 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The modest muscle gets to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. Consider our interest piqued. PGO Automobiles says the new model tips the scales at a scant 2,200 pounds and features a theoretical top speed of 140 miles per hour. That's plenty fast enough to get you in trouble or get you dead. Fortunately, engineers also managed to bolster the car's rigidity by 15 percent and a new MacPhereson strut setup front and rear helps the car handle the twisties with a bit more composure than previous efforts from the automaker. As you may recollect, PGO Automobiles got its start manufacturing kit cars modeled after the Porsche 356. Its clear the company's designers have held on to some of their favorite elements from that car. Rounded fenders front and rear as well as familiar-looking headlights all harken back to the little German droptop, but elements like the smallish windshield and variety of air inlets clearly identify the car as French. We dig it.PGO launches Cévennes Speedster in Europe originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Spy Photos, Convertible, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury Despite looking fresh and fancy as ever, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is nearly four years old now. Its design was first shown to the world at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, and judging by these spy photos, it looks like a couple of small changes are in order for Merc's gullwing baby (or not, seeing as how the test car spied this time around happens to the the Roadster). The timing of the update is interesting, seeing as how Mercedes introduced a new GT model that effectively replaced the standard car last June. The SLS AMG GT didn't receive much in the way of optical attention, however, so perhaps this is just the Three-Pointed-Star keeping things fresh. The only real camouflage on the test car seen here is found up front, where it looks like the SLS' fascia has undergone a slight nip/tuck. The grille shape has been modified a tiny bit, and it appears that the lower lip gets the majority of the changes. Our spy shooters tell us that we shouldn't rule out more changes down the road, possibly to the headlamps and taillamps. Of course, there could be further massaging under the hood or inside the cabin, but it's unclear if any of that is going on based on these photos.Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG spied with minor changes originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments