turquoise Lamborghini LP670 SV launch control

LP670 SV going wild!

Another video from summer 2010, before the SV had an accident and changed a little bit (adding "italian" themes to the car, such as italian-flag-brake calipers!)... Great video from Marchettino of this car getting a bit crazy!

The deal with car plates: explained !!

  What's the big deal with car plates??  

Of course, cars and plates go together. But not everyone really understands the "meaning" of plates and what they represent. What I'll try to do here is to explain what the fuss is all about, according to me. What kind of plates are we talking about? Just browse down and take a look at the pictures, plates such as : 11111, G 55, 77177... I think you get the drift. Those kind of plates are usually a good way for the authorities to make a quick buck : they're very expensive. Sometimes, worth millions of dollars (numbers such as "1" or "5", for example). Attention : although this article is all about arabic plates, the special plates phenomena is not exclusively arabic : countries such as the UK allows car owners to choose their number plate (in exchange of a certain sum of money): 2 BE, F1ANCY, BUL 5, VI...

Bugatti Veyron Centenaire

The Bugatti Veyron Centenaire - Only 4 in the world

Ever since the 1001-horse-powered Bugatti Veyron was launched at the Paris Auto Show back in 2000, Bugatti hasn't stopped creating exclusive limited editions (it is said they're having trouble to sell all of the 300 Veyrons that were supposed to be built, so they keep creating special editions of it). Actually, there are more than 10 limited editions of the Veyron nowadays, I think! As far as I'm concerned, they're only simple declinations of the magnificent Veyron, and I wouldn't mind it that much if they didn't bear some rather silly names for most of them (for french speakers, at least). Nevertheless, I'm not here to spit on the Veyron nor to be harsh with it, because I love all Veyron models and wouldn't dare to criticize too much what I worship.One of those limited edition is the CENTENAIRE.

Only 4 were made. 
A dark-green/chrome one (the Malcolm Campbell edition), a white/chrome one (the Hermann Zu Leiningen edition), a crimson/chrome one (the Achille Varzi edition) and finally a blue/chrome one: the Jean-Pierre Wimille edition (yes, they all have chrome as a main color). The Jean-Pierre Wimille edition of the Centenaire is the exclusive Bugatti Veyron I had the privilege of spotting in Paris during summer of 2009 and 2010. 
Funny fact: 3 out of those 4 limited-edition Veyrons are owned by people from the middle-east: two of them are from Qatar (the Hermann Zu Leiningen and Jean Pierre-Wimille) whereas the Achille Varzi has Liechtenstein plates (when I wrote the article) but is owned by someone from the Middle-East that lives in Monaco. That comes to show how much they love being exclusive! 

Why is this car special? Rare. Only 4 Centenaire.

Sources for the pictures: 

• http://bugattipassion.fr/
• Raphael Belly's FlickR Photostream
• Telkine's FlickR Photostream
• Autogespot

Bugatti Veyron // Jean-Pierre Wimille Centenaire edition

More pictures here (click to enlarge):

Bugatti Veyron // Hermann Zu Leiningen Centenaire edition

Bugatti Veyron // Achille Varzi Centenaire edition

Bugatti Veyron // Malcolm Campbell edition

The Al-Thani supercar collection

The Al-Thani supercar collection

Many rich persons collect cars as if they were stamps. The middle-east is home to some of the most amazing supercars garages you could imagine, especially with the royal family. Among all the private supercars garage in the world, the Al-Thani's has got to be one of the most fascinating. The Al-Thanis are the ruling family in Qatar, a country in the persian golf. 

This garage is exclusive not only because of the cars themselves (considering many private collections are far greater in number) but mostly because of the cars' color: turquoise. This bright shade of blue, turquoise, is bound to catch one's attention. I personally find it amazing. Not only the paint is turquoise, but so is the interior. Making this private supercar collection my personal favorite. All the cars belong to a few persons "ANA Al-Thani", which stands for "Abdulrahman, Nasser, Abdulla". Probably three brothers or cousins (funny fact: the Al-Thanis are the new owners of Harrod's in London, and two of their supercars were clamped outside their own store in the summer of 2010).

Some of the supercars include:

• Koenigsegg CCXR "Special One" (watch my video of the car)
• Lamborghini LP 670-4 SV (watch my video of the car)
• Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (watch my video of the car)
• Pagani Zonda "Uno" (watch Marchettino's video of the car)
• Lamborghini LP640
• ... and what is next ??!! 

Source of the pictures: car forums, FlickR

Take a look at more pictures from his collection (click to enlarge)