hautexotics automobile dealer blog

Lamborghini is, of course, the premier name when it comes to exotic cars. Well, the Lamborghini Reventon is the most exotic of the king of exotic cars.

The Lamborghini Reventon is the ultimate symbol of extreme exclusivity. Just 20 of these vehicles were produced, and they come at a price tag of 1 million Euro each - before taxes.

The Reventon truly is the ultimate Super Car. The Reventon was designed at the birthplace of the Lamborghini, and was built in collaboration with the R&D department at Lamborghini. The design of the Reventon is inspired by modern aeronautics, giving the design a very precise and a technically striking style all of its own, full of contoured surfaces and interrupted lines. The LCD displays inside the Reventon even resemble the cockpit of a modern airplane.

The exterior of the Lamborghini Reventon is made of CFC, a type of composit carbon fiber material. CFC is both stable and light, and the body is made up of CFC as well as steel.

Like other V12 Lamborghini models since the Countach, the doors of the Reventon open upwards. The Reventon keeps the features of the Murcielago LP640, upon which it was based.

One of the best things about owning a Porsche is the camaraderie that comes with other Porsche owners. While this isn’t unique to Porsche or to exotic cars in general, there’s just something special about being part of a small group of Porsche owners.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and the surrounding areas, Porsche owners have even formed a club. Believe it or not, there are about 1,100 members in this local Porsche club. The club is the “Maverick Region” chapter of the Porsche Club of America.

The Maverick Region is a highly social club. There are some members of this club that have been involved for more than 25 years, and many wonderful friendships have been formed over time. It’s an all-volunteer organization, but the members are extremely active. Some former members have even moved to other parts of the country, yet they retain their membership and, most importantly, their friendships.

As members Porsche owners receive a discount at some of the local Porsche dealers in the area. If you’d like to know more about the Maverick Region, check out their website.

I remember growing up in a small Midwestern town. Back then, in the late 1960s, Corvettes were everywhere, at least during the summer. The people driving those corvettes were, almost invariably, young adults and teenagers.

This was the day of muscle cars, of cars that had more horsepower than most of today’s SUVs. Those were also the days long before Corvettes were considered exotic cars. Back then, if you waited around long enough on a Saturday afternoon, you were bound to hear about a street race going on nearby. No matter what the other car or cars involved, one was almost always a Corvette.

When I got my first regular job, my first purchase was the registration fee for the business program at our local college. My second purchase, however, was a 1978 Corvette. It had 18 miles on it, and I had to have my father co-sign the loan.

I drove that car all summer long. I didn’t race it; I was too worried something would happen to it. I waxed and washed it every week. I babied that car, hoping it would last forever.

It didn’t, of course. In fact, it only made it to September when someone ran a stop sign and plowed into it, totaling it. No one was hurt, but it wasn’t until this summer that I finally drove another Corvette. This new one is definitely more stylish and exotic, but it still makes me feel like I’m 19 years old again.

The first Porsche 911 I ever saw was in the movie Cannonball Run. The 1991 Hal Needham film featured everyone from Dean Martin to Burt Reynolds to Farrah Fawcet to Jackie Chan. I’ll never forget the exotic car road race movie. It left an impression on my young eyes, and was probably the first time I considered becoming an exotic car enthusiast.

The Porsche 911 has gone through significant changes throughout the years. There is speculation about even more changes for the 2009 model year. Porsche announced, among other things, a new rapid-shifting dual clutch transmission. This new transmission technology replaces the TIptronic, and gives the Porsche 911 an additional two tenths of a second off of its acceleration.

In addition, the new 911 is going to be surprisingly fuel efficient. The 911 Carrera with the PDK transmission gives 28.8 miles to the gallon.

The interior of the 911 will see some minor changes, and come more along the lines of being enhancements instead of brand new designs. Also inside the vehicle, the communication management system receives an upgrade.

If you’re not an enthusiast, you probably won’t notice many of the changes to the Porsche 911 for 2009. If you’re like me, however, you’ll not only notice them, you’ll love them as well.

At one time or another in your life, you need to get to Italy.

If you’re like me, a trip to Italy is almost like heaven. Between my love for Italian food and my taste for exotic cars, I could spend a year in Italy and not miss home too much.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Italy. Here are some of the amazing exotic car-related experiences I had there:

• I visited the Ferrari factory in Maranello. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to take tours of several car factories in my life. This one blows them all away. It has to be, in my mind, probably the most beautiful, as well as the most modern, car factory I’ve ever seen.
• The Lamborghini factory was impressive, as well. The neat thing about my tour of thatfactory is that, while I was there, a former Lambo racing champion was visiting the plant, as well. Everyone from the line workers to the head office swarmed him to ask for autographs.
• Now, I didn’t drive the Mille Miglia - the 1,000 mile road race that took place in the early 20th century, but I did get to visit its starting (and ending) line in Brescia. I could only imagine all of those cars lining up for several days worth of wide-open racing on public roads.

If you’re like me, the fact that you’ve invested so much money into your exotic car means that you’re going to do what you need to do to keep it maintained. In fact, one of the reasons I got into exotic cars in the first place is that I enjoy tinkering around, and these cars provide great opportunities to do so.

One of the most basic areas of maintenance for your exotic car is in your tires.An exotic car, even more than a regular car, requires a high degree of maintenance to keep it in top shape. One of the best ways to improve the way that your car handles and to extend the life of your tires is to frequently check for tire problems. Tire problems are most often caused by either a misalignment of the front end or just general wear and tear on the tires. Here are some of the things to look for on your tires that may indicate a problem:

• Camber. If the top of your tires seem to tilt either inward or outward when you look at them from the front of the car, it’s called camber. A small amount of camber is normal, but if it looks severe, there may be an alignment problem.
• Toe-In or Toe-Out. This refers to the degree to which your front wheels point toward each other. A small amount of toe-in, where your car’s tires point toward one another, is normal when the vehicle isn’t moving. This keeps the tires from being forced out at high speed. If there is severe toe-in, or if the tires point away from each other while not moving, there is a problem.
• Inflation. Tires can be over- or under-inflated. Too much air inside the tire makes the center of the tire push outward, and causes just a small band on the tire to actually meet the road. This causes the tire to wear quickly. Too little air in the tire causes the tire to wear at the shoulders, causing uneven wear and causing the tire to wear out sooner.

You know, one of the things that I’ve always thought was funny about the Lamborghini was the especially low driver’s seat. Now, don’t get me wrong; I think there’s something especially exhilarating about driving along so close to the ground. But I once heard it joked that the primary demographic market for Lamborghini was millionaire gymnasts, and that may not be too far from the truth. Heck, the roof of the Gallardo reaches right about to my neck, proving I’m either especially short or it is. Regardless, it gives me a chance to tower over something.

The Lamborghini sits so low to the ground that it includes an electronic lift. The lift helps get the front of the car up further off the ground, which presumably helps as you back out of a driveway. If anything screams “exotic cars,” it’s an electronic front lift.

Still, there’s nothing like driving a Lambo. 512 horsepower and 10 cylinders screaming down the road, pushing a one and a half ton chunk of steel is just plainly sweet. Pushing a Lambo to 200 miles per hour on a closed track is an amazing rush that everyone should get to experience, at least once in their lifetime.

Exotic cars are one of those areas where people tend to invoke talk of class divisions. People that don’t have access to exotic cars often complain about those that do, and accuse them of being selfish or they try to guilt exotic car owners into feeling bad about buying something so expensive. Nothing gets me more upset, though, than hearing this kind of talk. The fact is, exotic car owners are some of the most giving people in the world.

Take for example a recent event in Brampton Ontario. At this exotic car expo and event, Exotic car owners provide enthusiasts the chance to ride around in a variety of exotic cars for a $20 donation. Every dime raised in the event goes to the James Fund at the Hospital for Sick children located in Toronto. The money will go toward childhood cancer research.

Enthusiasts got their money’s worth, too. They could ride around a slalom course set up in a parking lot in their choice of exotic cars. Cars lincluded A Ferrari, a Cobra, a T-Rex, a Lotus, a Porsche and a Viper. The cars were driven by race car drivers or instructors at the ILR Car Control School, and so the ride was actually a “ride at speed” and quite thrilling. On top of all of that, there were photographers who donated their time and photographed each participant during the event.

It’s this type of event that demonstrates really how far the philanthropy of exotic car owners and enthusiasts can go.

I don’t know what it says about the economy, class or business in general, but I was interested to discover that the exotic car rental business is not suffering nearly as much as many other parts of the automotive industry.

Take, for example, Mitch Katz. Mitch is a Connecticut businessman who owns an exotic car rental service. Katz leases most of his vehicles to athletes, actors, actresses and other people who have a sizable bank account and an equally sizable passion for exotic cars.

What is unique to me about Katz’s business is that he doesn’t actually own any of the vehicles he leases or physically hold onto them. Rather, his business is to negotiate between the customer and the car dealer to make a contract that both can agree on.

Leasing an exotic car can be especially advantageous for the person leasing the vehicle. Leasing lets the buyer avoid a large sales tax payment, instead paying smaller monthly taxes on the lease payment. It also allows buyers to switch out to another exotic vehicle when they want something different.

The top five leased exotic cars include the 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo E-Gear, 2008 Ferrari F430 Spider, 2008 Ferrari F430 Coupe, Aston Martin V-8 Roadster, and the 2008 Bentley Continental GTC.

For me, I view exotic cars more as a collector’s item, though. I’d rather buy one outright, maintain it, and add it to a collection, even if the sales tax hit is higher up-front. At least I’m putting money into an asset, as opposed to renting one.

One thing I’ve always thought I’d love to do is participate in an exotic car bull run. A bull run is a cross-country or even cross-continent adventure trip where drivers of exotic cars travel during the day and meet in designated cities each night, enjoying parties and one another’s company.

The Bullrun began in 2004. It was started by Andrew Duncan, a former investment banker. He and partner David green organized the first North American Bullrun as a cross-country trip from Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida.

The 2007 Bullrun began in Montreal, Quebec and ended in Key West, Florida. Socialite Paris Hilton drove that Bullrun, driving a 2007 Spyker Spyder C8 convertible along the way.

This year’s Bull run started in Calgary. The night before the run, participants enjoyed an evening at The Whiskey nightclub. The 2008 Bullrun featured more than 100 exotic cars. It stopped in Big Sky, Montana, Aspen, Colorado, Park City, Utah, Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, California, Tuscon, Arizona, and ended in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 27.

Cost for the event was $20,000, which included food, lodging and entertainment. I had the opportunity to be in Las Vegas during the stop this year, and I can tell you that there’s nothing quite like seeing 100+ exotic cars driving down the strip.