Lamborghini and Tag Heuer teamed up for a new limited edition luxury cell phone. With a design based on the strikingly sexy Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640, the MERIDIIST looks about as cool as a cell phone can look. Only 1963 (the year Lamborghini was founded) copies of this phone will be made, starting at an enormously expensive $7,500.

The phone is constructed from stainless steel and coated in black titanium carbide (really hard stuff,) and you can get it in various colors of leather, alligator skin, or rubber. My favorite: Black calfskin leather with red stitching. The screen is made from sapphire crystal, the same scratch-resistant material high-end watch faces are made from.

The whole phone has a sharp-edged design any Lamborghini lover will adore, although the dimensions and feature design resemble phones from five years ago. The rear is styled after the Murciélago LP 640’s V12 engine block and engraved with your “XXXX/1963″ limited edition number.

Battery life is an impressive seven hours talk time, 28 days standby power. Tech features are a typical 2 megapixel camera and WAP 2.0 browser, quad-band GSM, an ultra-sensitive antenna, an OLED screen on top displaying time, and Lamborghini wallpapers and screen animations.

Worth the price? Not even close, but if you just bought a new Lambo, chances are you’re not worried about saving money on your cell phone bill. Continue Reading…

Although Porsche has seen its share of trouble recently, from the back and forth, who’s going to own who take over bids with Volkswagen (VW won that round) to the critical panning of the Panamera, that doesn’t mean Porsche isn’t forging ahead.

As a matter of fact, word on the street is that Porsche will be rolling out seven (count ‘em seven” new models in the coming years. That’s a pretty ambitious task for a company that already makes only … just a second, let me count this out on my fingers … only four models already. I got that right, right?

The 911, Cayenne, Cayman, Boxster … oh, and the Panamera. OK, make that five models.

So adding seven is a pretty big deal.

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Remember when Fiat bought into Chrysler, and there was all that speculation about which models, if an, Fiat would be bringing over to America. More than a few people, me included, were hoping that Fiat would bring in their new 500. A great competitor to BMW’s MINI, for one thing, and it also looked to be a stout performer, given its diminutive proportions.

Turns out Fiat IS bringing the 500 to these shores, and not just any 500, but the sporty 500 Abarth version.

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The 2009 Toyota Venza is quite an interesting vehicle. According to Toyota’s comparison website, the Venza’s main competitors are the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord, but the Venza is obviously no mid-size sedan. It looks more like a small crossover SUV, or maybe a wagon, but smaller than both. It’s the length of a Toyota Camry, the width of the Highlander, and in between the two for every other dimension. Despite never figuring out what the Venza really is, I found one important thing about it: it’s incredibly useful.

Sitting between the Toyota Camry and Highlander in size certainly has its upsides. Most people don’t need as much room as an SUV gives them, but need more versatility than a sedan, and that’s where the Venza comes in, essentially creating its own class of vehicle in between a car and SUV. Continue Reading…

German body shop custom builder and highly recognized nameplate Karmann has been having a rough time of it lately. Really rough, as a matter of fact. Last I was reading, it looked like Karmann was going down for good. Now comes word that VW, long time working partner/client of some of Karmann’s best known work – the Karmann Ghia for one, and Karmann also was responsible for various VW cabriolets throughout the years, for another – might just by the struggling firm outright.

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Sad news today out of England that Graham Nearn, the man most responsible for keeping the Lotus 7 flame burning bright has passed away. Nearn, who was 76, started out as a “dealer” for the immortal 7 back when they first hit the market in the late 1950s, and later, went on to save the brand, and continue producing them under the Caterham name.

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