La Dolce Veloce

AutoWeek captured this upcoming Mercedes sports car testing recently. This future sports coupe will feature gullwing doors, plenty of horsepower (~600hp), and a pricetag of several hundred thousand dollars. It’s expected to be unveiled in Geneva in 2010. (via AutoWeek)

First, the good news. AutoCar has a gallery of official pictures of the upcoming V12 powered Aston Martin Vantage which you can view at this link. Now, the bad news. If you live in the US, these pictures are the closest you’ll come to this car, as there are no plans to import it here. You can read more at AutoWeek.

Well, this photo may not show much, but that’s the (disguised) replacement for the F430, to be called the F450. You can expect this to be unveiled this fall, with sales beginning in 2010. (via Jalopnik)

Mazda has released pictures of its new Mazda 3 hot hatch which is due to be unveiled at Geneva. You can expect a similar turbocharged powerplant with somewhere around 260-270hp. (via AutoCar)

Pistonheads reports that Aston Martin will be bringing a couple new gems to the Geneva Motor Show next month. First up in a convertible version of the DBS, no surprise there. The other will be a Vantage with a V12 under the hood! This was shown in concept form previously, but appears to have been given the green light for production.

Without a doubt, my favorite commercial from yesterday’s Superbowl had to have been the Mr. Potato Head commercial by Bridgestone. Check it out below.

Hulme. Yes, Hulme. From New Zealand. Ok, so they don’t quite have the brand recognition of a company like Ferrari, but they DO have a very capable design team and grand ambitions, as evidenced by their latest creation, the Hulme SuperCar (they don’t, apparently, have much of a Marketing department to work on new product names). The specs are what you’d expect for, err, a Supercar….V8 (from BMW), 550hp, rear wheel drive, AP brakes, carbon fiber and tubular steel construction, 2643lbs. Don’t expect to see this on US streets though.