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Sarthe(orial) Splendor
Woking, England—Tipping its own (no doubt Kevlar) bowler to their 1-3-4-5 showing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, McLaren is planning to produce five special F1s badged F1-LMs. Done up in classic McLaren-orange paint with special wheels, shocks and springs, the LMs are over 160 pounds lighter than stock (to a ton and a quarter in all), 41 horses stronger (for 668), fit with a standard rollcage (a good idea, eh Bernd?) and nearly a quarter-million bucks more costly (over 1.2 million clams a pop). The leap to 60 mph is quoted at "around three seconds." Not precisely, but who’s going to quibble?


Saab Stays Steadfastly, Surely Unswervingly Swedish
Atlanta, Georgia—Rumors are once again making the rounds that the Swedish partners in Saab, who hold an equal stake in the company with GM Europe, are looking to unload their shares and boogie. But "No way," affirms American PR director Elke Martin. "This rumor circulates every year right after the shareholders’ meeting, but it’s not going to happen. For

a country the size of Sweden to have two different carmakers is something very special; nothing’s going to jeopardize that."
Meanwhile at the dealer level, Saab has announced it’s increasing the amount of money that it will reimburse dealerships for warranty work. This means the mechanics will have more time to diagnose and fix any problems before the shop manager slams the hood on their fingers.


Lambo’s Scalp Emulates Editor’s
Jacksonville, Florida—In other words, it’s as bald as a well-polished watermelon. (True, but think of all the money I save on Nexxus.—Ed.) With the introduction of the targa-topped Roadster for 1996, Lambo’s US division expects 75% of its buyers to opt for max headroom this year. The conversion isn’t just a scalping, however, as the Roadster’s windshield, sidemarkers, main intakes, doorskins and glass are also new.

Additionally, the Roadster’s roof can be mounted over the decklid when you want to make the swap on the fly.
All this and more can be yours for just shy of a quarter-million bucks. Even with the new Roadster on line, Lamborghini doesn’t expect its American branch to achieve sales in the triple digits this year.


Quicker Q-Port Quoted
(Please! Someone Stop Us Before We Alliterate Again!)
Bologna, Italy—A twin-turbo V8 version of the current Maserati Quattroporte is finally on the way, thanks to the marriage of the existing 4-door flagship and an ex-Shamal V8 powerplant. Good for 335 bhp @ 6400 rpm, the super-Q will do 0-60 in the mid-5s and approach 170 mph. Introduced at December’s Bologna Motor Show, the first 50 units are slated for Italy.


Mazda Leans Up
Hiroshima, Japan—Mazda has announced it will deep-six its home-market Eunos badge and dealership chain. Established during the country’s boom years, the daring sports-luxury division has faltered recently despite possessing Mazda’s home-market versions of the Millenia sedan and Miata sports car. Most of the Eunos dealerships will continue as Mazda stores, but a small number will close outright.

Mazda will also be consolidating many of its formerly Tokyo-based research and planning positions into a new central office out of the company’s hometown of Hiroshima. Corporate insiders say that in addition to cutting down on the repetition of tasks, this will bring future planning more closely under the eye of Ford appointees back at HQ.


Grander GT Greeted
Maranello, Italy—Pictures at last! (Thanks, Brenda.) In addition to the oft-mentioned F133—that’s Ferrari’s in-house code for their upcoming front-engine Testarossa replacement, which we now know will be built around a 65-degree V12—the chaps in Maranello will also be releasing an uprated 5.4-liter 456GT next year. The tweaked, scooped and be-spoilered 456 will get the F133’s engine, resulting in a car good for 500 bhp, 195+ mph and a sub-five-second 0-60 time. All of which means the lighter, smaller 2-place F133 will be even quicker. Can anybody say 200+?


Q’s Cue to Queue
Spartansburg, South Carolina—Thanks to BMW’s massive ad campaign and a pent-up pool of demand, the new Z3 roadster is already backlogged through at least the end of the summer. At last count the manufacturer was claiming nearly 9000 orders for the 4-cylinder convertible, which will have barely reached dealerships by the time you read this blurb. The theoretical capacity of BMW’s sole Z3 factory, which is in South Carolina, is huge, but with 328 and 318 production taking place simultaneously, it’s going to be a while before the supply catches up. No word yet on plans to open a second production line in the basement of Whitehall.—Katrina Mueller-Jackson


Yes, But it’s a National Debt
Detroit, Michigan—You’ll look in vain for the Lamborghini name on the cam covers or the PR sheet, but that’s what lives under the deck of the just-shown M12 (nee Avtech) from Vector Aeromotive. The companies are both owned by the same Indonesian consortium, and while Vector could have kept trying to come up with a homegrown alternative, the ex-Diablo mill was ready and willing to go.

What is surprising is that the info pack handed out to clients at the $184,000 exo-tic’s launch in Detroit included a glossy flyer hawking a $44,500 down/$2999 a month lease through Chase Manhattan Automotive Finance—or, if your liquid fund is low, $29,300 down and $3473 a month. Both run for three years with a final buyout option of 75 grand.


Sven Will it End?
Detroit, Michigan—This year’s SuperSlav will be the Volvo 850R, successor to (and victor over) last year’s T5R. The power is up to an even 250 bhp, which should carry the box to 60 in the mid-sixes. The suspension will also be stiffer than the T5R’s, and there’s still no official word on the AWD system Volvo promised to save us from vaporized front Pirelli tires.

Elsewhere in the Kingdom of the Trolls, Volvo’s joint venture with Mitsubishi bore fruit at Bologna in the S40, a conservative but nicely rounded front-drive compact. The top powerplant will be a 2-liter, 16-valve 4-cylinder, though the ubiquitous turbodiesel is also expected. The Volvitsu won’t come to America.


Morbidelli Notions
Pesaro, Italy—We want to call Morbidelli’s V8 the world’s first V8-powered road bike. We really do. But we just know that if we did, we’d soon receive an invective-laden missive such as "as reported in the well-known Austro-Hungarian journal Motorbyk Sportif, August- September 1908,...."

Instead, we’ll just say that the 848cc, DOHC, 32-valve, 100-horsepower motorcycle is one boss piece of kit and leave it at that. The new Italian creation—and if you have to ask, you can’t afford it—also comes with a 5-speed transmission, fuel injection, dual driveshafts and a set of Pininfarina-designed and -built carbon fiber body panels.
A service call for the 441-pound motorcycle is as simple as packing the whole sucker back in its crate; Morbidelli sends an agent ’round to collect it, and the entire thing goes back to Pesaro. Unlike Moto Guzzi’s ’50s V8 racebikes, the Morbidelli’s longitudinal engine shows a preference for narrowness over crank effect.—Jerry Traeger and M. Edward Whitt

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