La Dolce Veloce

PistonHeads claims to have the first pictures of the Fisker Latigo, a hardtop coupe version of the convertible Tramonto. Like the Tramonto, it’s based on the BMW M6, and receives a carbon fiber body, retrimmed interior, and other minor modifications. The cost for this transformation is about US$190,000. It’s an interesting concept, bringing back the idea of coach-building, and is really just the next evolutionary step in the automotive aftermarket. For years, body kits for production cars have grown more and more elaborate, as have interior modifications. Fisker may be the first company to truly put that all together into one package and offer it as such. Up until now, most every example of a modified production car has been a unique creation reflective of its owner. It’s not surprising to see this fusion of production and aftermarket coming out of southern California.

As expected, Fisker unveiled the Tramonto at Frankfurt. It’s essentially a modified BMW M6 – new bodywork, and reworked interior and suspension.

PistonHeads has some spy shots of what looks like a replacement for the Ferrari 575 undergoing testing around Maranello. Follow that link for more pictures.

Sorry for the downtime…the power outage in LA knocked out power to our server down there, so La Dolce Veloce was unavailable all day! Everything seems back to normal now though…

As expected, Lamborghini unveiled its convertible version of the Gallardo at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The Spyder gets a minor power boost (up to 520hp) and lower gear ratios to help it reach 62mph in 4.3 seconds, with a top speed of 195mph. More pictures over at Autoblog.

The MINI enthusiasts over at Motoringfile.com have a lot of pictures and information about the new MINI concept, a stretched version with some distinctive styling updates. While just a concept, much of this car hints at what we’ll see in the new MINI in the fall of 2006. There are a few more pictures in the rest of this post, or seethis link for a bunch.
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Volkswagen unveiled its new Eos in Frankfurt, sporting a retractable hardtop and coming with your choice of the typical Volkswagen engines. Europeans can buy this starting in spring 2006, the rest of the world will have to wait until summer or fall. (more)