Porsche Finally Gains Control of Volkswagen

In a surprising move, German sports car maker Porsche has just taken over the largest European car manufacturer, Volkswagen. After purchasing more than 50 percent of VW’s shares, Porsche is now in the driver’s seat of a massive conglomeration controlled by its shareholders and unions.
This isn’t the first time that Porsche has attempted to overtake Volkswagen. In 2005 the automaker made a failed attempt to acquire more than 50 percent of VW due to unstable market speculation, which had sent VW shares as high as $1,350 per share. With such growth, VW claimed in August to have overtaken Ford to become the third largest automaker in the world, behind GM and Toyota.

Reports claim that Porsche intends to increase its stake to 75 percent this year, gaining complete control of the auto group. At dealers such as Volkswagen Saint Louis, the relationship between VW and Porsche has already been apparent. Vehicles such as the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne already share many components with each other. VW and Porsche have much to benefit from each other strategically observes Mercedes Benz Pittsburgh dealers.
Trade unions are powerful at VW, and reports also indicate that Porsche control may upset the balance currently established. While Porsche claims to be a long-term investor, job cuts at VW plants could ultimately result. At the retail end, Dartmouth Volkswagen expects plenty of long-term changes and exciting new products, perhaps further blending components and design across the likes of Porsche, Volkswagen, and Audi.

Ferrari History

One of the most excellent sports car brands all over the world is Ferrari. In 1947, the company was founded by Enzo Ferrari in Italy. It was former known as Scuderia Ferrari. Ferrari supported and sponsored a number of race drivers as well as manufactured racecars, before venturing into the production of legal vehicles in 1947.
"1947 125 Sport" was the earliest road car of Ferrari. In order to finance Scuderia Ferrari, Enzo came up with the idea of producing and selling road cars. Although the period was highly profitable, Enzo was still hesitant with the idea he came up with. For him, people purchase his produced cars for prestige rather than the car's performance.

As time passed by, Ferrari came out as the top racecar producer and a leading race team. The company became successful without knowing that there are hidden tensions among its senior managers. Because of misunderstanding and conflict of ideas, Giralamo Gardini, sales manager of the company who had troubles with the intrusion of Enzo's wife, finally has decided to end his work with the company. Many other people even came along with the resignation of Gardini. They have decided to come up with a fresh and new company that will become Ferraris' competitor. With the many resignations the company had, there was a great loss.
Before a number of resignations, Ferrari was working on a project called "250GTO". This was handled by Mauro Gorghieri and Sergio Scaglietti. The purpose of the project was to improve things. Dino road cars and models such as "F275" and "Daytona" were considered best sellers in the market.
The company had a lot of rising competitors in the early 60s when Shelby Cobra, a V8 engine powered came out. Ford attempted to buy the company but unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in their motives. Ferrari also experienced great challenges with Porsche. This was because of the "Porsche908" model. However, it was still Ferrari 312PB models that conquered the World Sports Championship that took place in 1972.
1988 was the year of Enzo's death. Ferrari saw an enormous increase in old car values and even the sales of fresh new models. It was a comeback for Ferrari f1 team when Michael Schumacher made up his mind to sign up for Ferrari. From 2004 up to the present, Ferrari is still controlled by Fiat Group. The Fiat Group owns a 56% stake in the company. The rest, they say, is history. Ferrari history that is.

Lamborghini History

Lamborghini cars are much-loved by car aficionados around the world. They have excellent performance in terms of speed and built with style. The main characteristics of a Lamborghini cars are its tremendous style and tremendous speed. They are the number one rival of Ferrari. And if you happen to live in Beverly Hills you will likely see a scissor-door Lamborghini at malls , drive thrus and coffee shops. These kind of vehicles are designed exclusively for some customers.
The founder of Lamborghini, Ferruccio Lamborghini, who served with the Air Force mechanics corps with Italy during the World War II. And he was good in working with engines. When World War II was over there was a shortage of tractors. Lamborghini grabbed the opportunity and he bought military machines that were a surplus and changed them to tractors. It was a brilliant idea and his move resulted in a thriving business career as a young entrepreneur. And it made him a very wealthy man very quickly.

The tractor business of Lamborghini became more successful during 1950 and they expanded to heater and air conditioning business and was even a more flourishing business. Lamborghini was a car lover and he had a lot of sports car that were considered the best at that time. And because of his frustration of Ferrari cars he built a car that was more better from the Ferraris. He built a state of the art automotive factory in the small village of Sant'Agata. And his automotive engineer was Giotto Bizzarrini who worked with Ferrari before. The tractor business also faced hard times during the early 70's that led Lamborghini to sell his controlling interest of Automobili Lamborghini SpA to a Swiss industrialist. When the oil crisis came his problems worsened and led him to sell his shares that were left. But after ten years Lamborghini declared bankruptcy because the development of the military truck style Cheetah were not selling well.
But on 1980 the company rose back and the reason for this was the introduction and popularity of Countach. It is an over the top, fully styled with angles and vents sports car. In 1987 the Lamborghini was sold to Chrysler. There was also another change of ownership in 1994.
Lamborghini has already produced models like the four-seater Espada and other V8 sports cars. And cars such as the Countach and the Diablo are always recognized as Lamborghini cars. And the rest, they say, is Lamborghini history.

History of BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, in English, Bavarian Motor Works, like Mercedes-Benz is a German automobile manufacturer. The man behind this was Karl Friedrich Rapp. This started in the year 1913. It was not known to everyone that BMW was then a manufacturer of aircraft engines. Rapp established "Rapp-Motorenwerke" in Munich. He started to manufacture his own aircraft engines. Unfortunately, they suffered from problems with vibrations.
Rapp Motoren Werke experienced different problems with the reliability of the aircraft engines. Due to financial problems, Rapp decided to resign from the company in the year 1916. Two Austrians then took over. They were Franz-Josef Popp and Max Fritz. They were able to convince Gustav Otto to merge with them. The merging of the "Gustav Flugmaschinefabrik" and "Bavarian Aircraft Works" gave birth to Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke. The company was then renamed to BMW and in 1918 became BMW AG.

The very first aircraft engine of BMW, Type Illa, was produced during the year 1917. It features a unique "high-altitude carburetor" developed by Fritz that allows it to develop full power at altitude.
After a year, the said aircraft engine powered a biplane to 5,000 meters altitude in just 29 minutes. During those days, it was already a very impressive performance. It then led to the strong demand for BMW engines.
The successor of Type Illa was born in the year 1919. It was named Type IV. With this new engine, Franz Zeno Diemer was able to set an altitude record of 9, 760 meters.
The present logo of BMW seen in the cars today was introduced in the early 1920s. It was based on the circular design of an aircraft propeller.
The company thought of other products and so they started to build engines for motorcycles. They designed the M2 B 15 for the "Victoria" motorcycle. This was the first BMW motorcycle engine and was produced from 1920 to 1922. The first motorized bicycle named "Flink" paved its way in the year 1921. It was powered by a Kurier two stroke engine. In 1922, the first BMW factory was built.
The year 1928 marked the beginning of the BMW car. The company bought the car factory at Eisenach/Thuringia and with it the license to build a small car called the Dixi 3/15. the Dixi was the counterpart of Austin 7. The German version of Dixi was BMW Dixi DA/1. This period was the best for BMW since it was beginning of all the success it is experiencing until now.

2009 Aston Martin DBS - Quantum of Solace

Don't the cool guys seem to always pick some of the fastest and sleekest designed cars? Well, then it should be no surprise that James Bond will be sporting a serious and speedy vehicle, namely the 2009 Aston Martin DBS in the upcoming film "Quantum of Solace". The V12 exotic sports car has a 6.0 liter engine with an exquisite interior hand finished that is attractive to common and rich folk alike. The aerodynamic design makes it even better suited for espionage.
The Aston Martin DBS zooms from zero to sixty in just 4.2 seconds. Underneath the hood, it puts out up to 510 hp. At only 3737 pounds of weight this exotic feline will hit the roads a blazing and top out at 191 mph according to reliable testing sources.

The 2009 DBS provides an optional six-speed automatic transaxle, 2+2 seats, 20-inch wheels and an audio by Bang & Olufsen. The design and layout is the same as the DB9 with a bit more sleekness. The body is made of aluminum and carbon fiber. One of the new colors for this model is aptly named Quantum Silver.

For 2009, the Aston Martin DBS comes equipped with new vented carbon ceramic brake discs which are a first for an off-track Aston Martin. These are custom designed to align with the double wishbone alloy suspension that features damper control which utilizes two separate valves to set the damper for five different positions. This feature is an important trait if you want to possess instant adjustment of the car's handling characteristics and out maneuver the thumbs up road warriors trying to beat you to the club or international airport.
Gentlemen, if you are considering getting one, not as a spy, what could possibly stop you when you can rent one first to get a feel of the superior handling and awesome design before using a fraction of available funds to acquire it for a cool $265,000.