Jeremy Clarkson endorses Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 as his 2008 Car Of The Year. Despite being American and made out of recycled plastic and low build quality, Jezza believes it is just a surprise since it delivers Ferrari performance for almost half the price. ZR1 is powered by a small block V8 LS9 caret engine which develops 638bhp and 604 lb ft of torque. Follow the jump to read Jeremy’s article…

It’s been a quiet year for the world’s motor industry. There have been no wrecks, nobody drowning; in fact, nothing to laugh at at all. But, hidden in the sea of normality and business as usual, were a couple of gems.

We start with the BMW X6, which must receive my inaugural What Were They Thinking Of award. Have you seen one? No, and I doubt you ever will because in a world that’s plagued with recession and run by people who believe the world’s polar bears are up at the North Pole sipping pina coladas and slapping on the factor five, it is surely the most inappropriate piece of corporate thinking since Sir Clive Sinclair said: “Yes. The electric slipper. That’s what people want . . .”

However, I cannot say the BMW X6 is the worst car of the year, partly because I have not yet driven it and partly because it cannot possibly be worse than the Chrysler Sebring Convertible. Unless it smells of slurry and the radio is jammed on Rap FM.

The Sebring is an extraordinary car. Ugly to behold and hateful to drive, it is not cheap, elegant, comfortable, practical, prestigious, clever, economical, luxurious, well designed, well thought out or, if the rental car I drove in America this year is anything to go by, especially well made either. Perhaps this is why the boss of Chrysler chose to go to Washington in his private jet. He knew that if he used a Sebring, it would break down on the way. Or worse, it would get there and he’d be a laughing stock among his business-mates from Ford and General Motors.

Strangely, however, the Chrysler is not the worst car I drove all year. That accolade rests with the diesel-powered Kia Sedona people carrier.

With the Sebring, you get the impression that the designers and engineers couldn’t be bothered to make a good car. With the Sedona you are left with the distinct impression they simply didn’t know how.

I cannot conceive of how empty, pointless and lacking in ambition or style your life must be for the Sedona to be a solution. It is like alcohol-free beer, a pointless car-free facsimile of the real thing, and as a result, it can have no place in the life of a sentient being.

The biggest disappointment of the year is a closely fought contest between any number of cars but the winner is Audi’s RS 6. It promises much and on a racetrack it delivers a great deal. But to buy a five-seat estate car simply because it’s so fluent through Becketts is like going out to buy a pet goldfish and coming home with a horse “because it’s so good over the Chair”.

The drawbacks you will encounter in real life are too endless. The uncomfortable seating, the weird steering and a very real sense that in a car like this, 572bhp is a lot more than you will ever need. It’s said you can’t be too beautiful or too rich but you can have too much power. Because one minute you’ll be overtaking a lorry and the next you’ll go mad and want to invade Poland.

Other disappointments are mostly centred on cars which aren’t really as good as others that do broadly the same thing. The Ford Kuga, for instance, is not as good as the Volvo XC60 and the Renault Twingo Renaultsport is not as good as a Fiat 500 Abarth. And then there’s the Vauxhall Insignia, which is massively better than the Vectra it replaces. But not quite as good as the Ford Mondeo. And who says: “Right. What I want to buy is the second-best four-door saloon with no badge prestige”? Actually, come to think of it; who wants to buy the best?

My main gripe of the year, though, rests with seat designers who have got it into their heads that we only like leather – there’s really nothing wrong with pleblon, especially on a day that’s hot or cold, and doubly especially if there are any corners between your house and your place of work.

Worse, though, they seem to think that what we really want are seats in our cars that are less comfortable than those in our kitchens. I know that cod liver oil is good for you. I also know you will go to heaven if you only eat weeds and you spend your evenings embroidering kneelers for the local church. But we are not all vegi-vicars. That is why we don’t wear hair shirts and it’s why we want the seats in our cars to have a bit of give. Are you listening, Vauxhall? Are you listening, Ford? Go and find yourself an old Renault Fuego Turbo. Check out the bean bags it came with and you’ll know what I’m on about.

And now we shall move on to the good stuff from the past 12 months. On television recently, I said the best car from the year was the Caterham R500 but it’s important to remember that the criterion we were looking for was very specific. The winner had to do more than you could reasonably expect for the money.

The Nissan GT-R was a contender because it costs almost half as much as a Porsche 911 Turbo and yet around the Nürburgring – and such things do matter with cars like this – it is faster. Then you have the VW Scirocco, which costs, as near as makes no difference, the same as the Golf GTI on which it is based. And yet it’s so much more desirable. But the winner had to be the little Caterham, which is faster round the Top Gear track than the Bugatti Veyron . . . even though it costs about 30 times less.

However, if you broaden the search engine and look simply for the best car of the year, the Caterham isn’t in with a shout because it’s ugly and geeky and I wouldn’t have one even if the option was the loss of my right testicle.

Best car, then? Hmmm. You cannot discount the Rolls-Royce Phantom drophead because it is exquisite in almost every way. Nor can we ignore the Fiat 500 Abarth because it’s just so bouncy and wonderful and so full of enthusiasm. I don’t think it would be possible to be in a bad mood while driving this car. And soon there will be a 200bhp version with a spoiler the size of Middlesex on the roof. That’ll make the Mini Cooper look like a brogue.

However, the car I’ve selected wins because it’s just such a surprise.

Over the years there have been a great many Corvettes, and none of them, if we’re honest, have been any good. Oh, there have been some fast ones and some with great charisma. Mostly, they have been pretty as well. But to drive? No. They were the automotive equivalent of Big Macs. Cheap, plastic and at the right time, and in the right place, sort of just what you want. But like I said. Just no.

And then out of nowhere came the ZR1, which has a supercharged V8 that manages to be both docile and extraordinarily savage all at the same time. I’ve been trying to think of a dog that pulls off a similar trick, but there isn’t one. And anyway, this car is not a dog.

Oh, it’s not built very well. After just three days in my care, the boot lock disintegrated and the keyless go system refused to acknowledge the keys were in the car, but I didn’t mind because there is simply no other car that looks this good, goes this fast – in a straight line and around corners – and that most of the time bumbles about like a forgetful uncle. And when you throw in the price tag of just £106,690 – lots for a Corvette but modest next to a similarly powerful Ferrari – the case for the defence can sit down and put up its feet knowing that the prosecutor simply has nowhere to go.

It is an epic car and I’m only sad that unless the healthcare and pensions company that makes it can be turned around, it will be the last of the breed.

Indeed, I worry that the next 12 months will bring us many wrecks, many drownings and absolutely nothing to laugh at at all. I shall therefore stop short of wishing you a prosperous new year. Instead, I shall hope that in our new-found poverty, we can still all be happy.

source : Jeremy Clarkson column in TIMES UK

For me, AMG , are the best three letters in the automotive world! They always do nothing but the best. Their work is the reflection of perfection, absolute joy and tremendous fun. Driving, or even riding, in an AMG car is an unforgettable experience. Latest gems by Affalterbach jewelers, includes the incredible SL 65 AMG “Black Series”,  ML 63 AMG “Performance Studio” and ML 63 AMG “10th Anniversary”…

SL 65 AMG BLACK SERIES

SL 65 AMG Black, which offers racing performance with alcantara and leather simultaneously, is definitely a car in its own league.It is made by the same guys who worked on Formula 1 safety car SL63 AMG. There is no competitor that delivers such experience with this level of quality and refinement. It is powered by Mercedes famous Nuke, the 6.0 litre V12 Bi-turbo which in the black checks out a massive 670 hp (normal 65 models got 612)  and torque of 1,000 newton metres! It is an stripped version of SL65, and it is a full 250 kg lighter than that, but still got a lot of luxury items, which again make it a unique combination of power, exclusivity and feel. This is why AMG Black is not comparable to other light weight stripped out super cars, as they tend to chop your head on every step on gas or brake your back on every bump and have (It’s a Jezza saying!) fewer luxury than an Egyptian lavatory! But SL 65 Black is absolute power not corrupting, but under control, and it cares about you,while it can smoke everything else out there at a light touch on the right pedal. It is priced at 327,250 Euros , yea, it’s helluva money, but then it’s helluva car!

ML 63 AMG Performance Studio

Mercedes was the first to introduce Performance SUV class to the market, and after the ML63 AMG almost all SUV makers added a hot version to the lineup. Here is the upgrade by AMG’s PERFORMANCE STUDIO which gives a fresh look to the mighty ML. Most impressing item is new AMG high-sheen light alloy wheels which are size 21″ on this car. They are colored same black as body. But main story is inside where there is a totally new exclusive diamond trim. AMG marks are engraved in headrests which is a very cool touch. continue below for more details on this…

ML 63 AMG 10th Anniversary

As I mentioned above, Mercedes was the first with high performance SUVs and ML 55 AMG was the first of the breed , launched in 1999. Powerplant in that was the V8 55 series which is one of the greatest engines of all times, this engine went up to more than 500 horsepower in some models before it replaced with new 63 serie. In ML 55 it came with 347 hp which ten years ago was a lot of power! ML 63 10th anniversary is a limited edition with all new options are not available with regular ones. check below for more details in official Mercedes note …

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