Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Cold Start. After the extravagant Monterey Car Week, we usually end up talking about a couple of bespoke cars from the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley (and they were at The Quail in force again this year), but these pantheons of greatness have been overshadowed this year. Even Porsche's new 911 GT3 RS tribute car and Kia's EV6 GT aren't that fascinating in light of recent events.
The most boring part of today's recap concerns the reveal date of the seventh-gen Ford Mustang, an icon and a legend. But that car is hardly on our radar after numerous Car Week reveals, a few of which we'll discuss here. There's the Lamborghini Urus Performante, the V10-powered McLaren Solus single-seater, the marvelous Bugatti W16 swansong drop-top, the Tesla Plaid-smashing Lucid Air Sapphire, and the otherworldly Koenigsegg CC850, a masterclass in retro styling and futuristic innovation. Enjoy, because this one is an absolute banger.
McLaren Shocks Monterey With V10-Powered Single-Seat Supercar
What you see below is called the McLaren Solus. While there's certainly a lot of Senna about this monster's shape, it is also clearly an altogether different animal, representing what happens when a manufacturer turns a Vision Gran Turismo concept into reality. What looks like Speed Racer's wet dream brought to life is our fantasy, too: a naturally aspirated single-seat supercar powered by a V10 engine that produces 829 hp with the red line arriving somewhere after - get this - 10,000 rpm. 10,000! 5.2 liters of displacement, no turbos, and straight-cut gears? What more could you want, besides your own track to enjoy it whenever you like? Just 25 will be made, and each costs a minimum of $3.5 million. Worth it? Absolutely.
Click here to read the full reveal
7th-Gen Ford Mustang Will Debut On September 14th
In any other new week, a story like this would be going viral. The S650 Ford Mustang will finally be unveiled next month on September 14. The news was made public last week with Ford announcing that "THE S7AMPEDE" (the reveal campaign for the seventh generation of the iconic pony car) will be prefaced with a cross-country event that includes all six generations of the Mustang until now. This will become an annual road trip called The Drive Home and will be open to all Mustang owners. This year, it will start on September 6 and will traverse nine states with over a dozen stops, ending at Ford's Detroit HQ on the 14th, just in time for the reveal of the seventh-generation 'Stang.
Click here to read the full article
Lamborghini Unwraps Urus Performante With 657 HP
Widely considered by many as the first true super SUV, the Lamborghini Urus has brought in boatloads of cash for Sant'Agata and inspired numerous other automakers to follow suit with high-horsepower SUVs that offer as much luxury as their mainstream exotic offerings. Now, the Urus Performante has arrived with its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 boosted to 657 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque. Sure, that's not as much as Aston Martin's DBX707, but the Lambo now holds the title of the fastest SUV up the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb course, a record it has snatched from sister company Bentley and its Bentayga. There's lots more to this car than just a jump in power, though, so check out the full reveal for more.
Click here for the full article
Bugatti W16 Mistral Revealed As 8.0-Liter Engine's Swansong
Bugatti's famous 8.0-liter, quad-turbo, W16 engine has been an icon since it was introduced in the Veyron. In the time since, the engine has spurred various Bugattis onto hitherto unseen levels of performance, snatching numerous world records along the way. As the age of electrification begins to infiltrate even hypercar manufacturers, Bugatti has decided to give the legendary engine the send-off it deserves by creating the W16 Mistral, a stunning roadster that wants to bag one more record for the complex power plant. With the same 1,578 hp you get in Bugatti's record-breaking Chiron Super Sport 300+, the hypercar is coming to show Hennessey who's boss. If you want one, you're already too late. All 99 sold out before the car was even teased, despite a $5 million price tag.
Click here to see the W16 Mistral in detail
Lucid Unleashes Tri-Motor Air Sapphire To Decimate Tesla Plaid
Lucid has revealed its latest development, and it's a tri-motor powertrain that gives the spectacular Air a new name and over 1,200 hp. The Lucid Air Sapphire is now the world's most powerful production sedan and, as such, promises a 0-60-mph time of under two seconds and a sub-nine-second quarter-mile. It'll even do 100 mph in under four seconds, and it will do that over and over without any lengthy battery cooldown conditioning processes. Unsurprisingly, this isn't an accessible EV. The car will cost $249,000 before any options or upgrades, but for an EV that can do over 200 mph while cossetting you in unrivaled comfort, it seems like a fair price to pay.
Click here to read the full story
Koenigsegg Blows Minds With Unparalleled CC850 Hypercar
In a world where four-figure horsepower claims abound, we tend to become a little numb to how insane such figures actually are. So how do you stand out? If you're Christian von Koenigsegg, you do it by coming up with inventions and innovations that nobody else even thought were possible. As part of the celebration of Koenigsegg's first production car 20 years ago, the company has now unveiled the CC850, a retro-modern take on the CC8S. It looks fantastic from any angle and produces 1,363 hp, but that's not even its most appealing feature. The astounding Light Speed Transmission has evolved to become the Engage Shift System, a nine-speed, super-fast automatic that doubles as a six-speed, gated manual gearbox with a clutch. Keep an eye on the site for our deep dive explainer article coming shortly, but in the meantime, it's worth looking at the photos in awe. Keep tissues on hand - the price tag is eye-watering, and the looks are, shall we say, sultry.
Click here to be astonished by the CC850
