Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello, everyone.
I'm Justin Bell, and welcome to The World's Fastest Car
Show on eBay Motors.
Now, did you know that every city has a secret racetrack?
Well, I'm going to show you the one in Los Angeles.
And then we head up to the Monterey Bay Peninsula for my
favorite weekend of the year, and I get you exclusive access
to the concept lawn.
You know, I know we all live life fast. So why would you
watch slow?
It is time for The World's Fastest Car Show.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Jay Leno, a man who obviously knows a fair deal about cars,
once told me that every major city has its
own hidden race track.
And in LA, a part of that was the famous Mulholland Drive.
The Hollywood stars of the day used to come up and drive
their cars fast. After all, in a major city, what a gem this
is, a ribbon of road.
And you can pretty much go as fast as,
well, legally possible.
So we thought, what would be the perfect vehicle to take on
this sort of retro race track?
And we came up with the Ford Mustang Boss 302.
Not many things get me out of bed on a Sunday morning, to be
honest. But this did the trick.
We'd better get going.
Oh, you've got to love a car that gets to the legal speed
limit while you wiggle your toes.
It's got so much torque.
You know what one of my favorite things is about the
Boss 302 is this, the noise.
They've done such a good job.
It's got a four-way exhaust. And if you think you're going
to go into stealth mode in your
supermarket, you are wrong.
But obviously, if you're going to give the title of Boss 302
to a Mustang, you can't just give it more power.
They've gone and uprated the suspension.
It's got much stiffer springs.
In fact, they are adjustable.
The car comes with 19-inch Pirellis,
which are really good.
And they got the brakes spot-on as well.
It's got huge Brembos, which it's quite a heavy car.
But what I like about them is they're very precise, very
balanced, very sensitive, whether you're just tapping
the brakes to set the car, boom, like this, or getting on
them [MAKES BRAKING NOISE]
to stop it.
They do it exactly right.
It's a fabulous six-speed gearbox, really suits the
character of the car, very precise actually for such a
heavy transmission.
Very manly.
Oh, you know there is one completely redundant
button on this car.
And that is the one saying traction control.
Because even with it on, it has so much torque, so much
power, it really has not a shock.
It's a bit like a teeny-weeny bikini on Kim Kardashian.
In the end, it is going to lose the battle.
So how did it come to be called the Boss 302?
Well, back when the lead designer was going through all
the modifications and the engineering to create the
original 1970's Trans Am winning car for Parnelli
Jones, people would come by and say, who are
you doing that for.
He'd say, oh, the boss.
Therein the name stuck.
If you guys have any thoughts of your own on tracks in
cities that you live in, who knows, we may turn up with a
fancy car to a town near you soon.
Well, here we are at the Pebble Beach Concours
d'Elegance, at my favorite part of this event, which is
the concept lawn.
Now, concept cars really are the opportunity for the car
designers at all the major manufacturers to let full rein
in creativity.
In fact, they get to do what we would love to do, and that
is put pen to paper to design our dream cars.
My producer said to me, you know, Justin, this is The
World's Fastest Car Show.
You've go to pick five.
It's going to be tough.
But I went with the first one that I have a true bond with.
Come over here.
Look at this.
So this is the first McLaren road car since the mid-90s.
I actually got the chance to drive the original McLaren F1
GT car at Le Mans.
Finished third overall, let it for 10 hours with my dad,
truly amazing experience.
Remember that one had the seat in the middle?
Actually, Jay Leno's got one in his garage.
And here it is.
It is perhaps the ultimate fusion of race technology from
their Formula One program to the road car.
So I absolutely love it.
Second on my list is this, Fisker.
Who doesn't love Fisker?
It's the crazy brainchild of Henrik Fisker from Denmark.
He was involved in the design of the Aston Martin, and
actually one of the leading BMWs.
This car is, I think, almost the only
truly luxurious hybrid.
And it's got a solar-powered roof.
These guys are nuts.
But that's the whole point of the concept lawn.
Come over here.
This is not as easy as you think, because these are truly
the best cars in the world, especially if
you're a car guy.
I like this one over here.
This is the BMW 328 Homage.
It doesn't really bear much relevance to a modern-day BMW.
But this is a good example of how the designers get
influenced by the cars of the past, and of course, the
lineage of the design.
And then, they put it in together with all the modern
technology, all their design capabilities, a little bit of
imagination.
And I don't know if leather and suede straps have got a
future on road cars.
But you've got to love them for going for it.
And a similar story over here.
Just look at this.
It's the Cadillac Ciel.
But this is, again, a great prototype for their design
inspiration.
You can truly see that this is a real Cadillac.
It has all those classic belt lines and luxury and elegance.
And the interior has got all that fantastic wood.
It's even got Cadillac Ciel cigars in the back.
It was designed for the gentleman in mind.
But they really do blend, influence
retro with modern design.
So now I've got to pick my number one.
And it's over here.
My favorite on the concept lawn this year is this, the
Porsche 918 RSR. It is spectacular.
Not only is it a great design, and of course in this hot
paint scheme, it has a V8 engine in the rear, two
electric motors on the front, 767 horsepower.
And Porsche have this amazing transfer of technology from
their race program to their road cars.
Look at this.
It's this special flywheel hybrid technology they're
actually currently racing on 911s in the
American Le Mans series.
And you've got to give huge credit to a car company like
Porsche who absolutely acknowledged that customers
want a race car on the road.
And the way they do it, they prove it, is by doing it on
the race tracks.
I wouldn't be surprised, they just announced their
participation in next year's Le Mans 24-hour race, that
some of this technology will find its way onto that car.
I love it.
It's my number one in the show this weekend.
Anyway, that's a wrap for us on the Pebble
Beach Concept lawn.
Hope you enjoyed it.
See you soon.
Remember, download the mobile app, and you get to see
content ahead of anyone else, exclusively
on eBay Motors mobile.
Thanks for joining me on this episode of The
World's Fastest Car Show.
There's more original auto adventures and sneak peek
feature segments on the eBay Motors mobile app.
Download this free smartphone wonder now.