Aston Martin opens up driving program to paying public.

vehicles; however, they only way to access it is to be an AM owner.  Now, the British company is opening up the program to the paying public.

Similar to the courses which Aston runs in Belgium and in England, the American program has been running for four years at the Michigan Proving Grounds in Romeo, which it rents out from former parent company Ford on a periodical basis. The $2,500 program takes place over the course of a full day of one-on-one instruction with a qualified expert who can demonstrate for pupils just what a modern Aston is capable of.

Since opening the program to the public, it’s already been booked pretty solid with 20 customers a month. In the winter months, however, Aston reportedly plans to take the program down south to various facilities in warmer climates.

Ferrari F458 Italia.

So Ferrari has brought us the 458 Italia. It’s the first all-new mid-engined production Ferrari in a decade, replacing the F430 which itself was based on the 360 Modena. It’s set to debut at the Frankfurt auto show in a couple of weeks, but Ferrari’s already given a sneak peek at this gorgeous beast.

The 458 Italia represents a significant step forward from the already blindingly fast F430, adopting the latest lessons gleaned from Ferrari’s campaigning in the Formula One world championship. Under its curvaceous bodywork lies an all-aluminum chassis, powered by a new 4.5-liter V8 with direct injection, producing 562 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque, revving all the way up to 9000 rpm and driving the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

This is enough power to accelerate from 0-60 in under 3.4 seconds en route to a top speed of 202 mph. Inside the all-new interior features controls centralized on the steering wheel, from which the driver can control everything, and a warning system that alerts the driver when his ride is ready to roll.

~ Raine Devries

Alas, Bentley has arrived on the scene to ensure your a@@ is covered when the action goes down and your arch nemesis pulls out his AK-47.   That’s right, for a mere investment of $500,000, you can pick up a bulletproof Bentley Continental Flying Spur from Germany courtesy of global luxury marketplace JamesList.

Sporting military grade B6-level protection, this car will keep you as safe as a baby in mama’s arms as you dash through Baghdad or Beirut.

From an outside appearance, the car looks like a standard Bentley and the modifications have little effect on the 552-hp engine’s performance but the changes are there:

• Ballistic steel in the doors, pillars and sides of the vehicle
• Bulletproof glass
• Run flat tires
• Explosion proof gas tank
• Kevlar flooring

Other optional features include:

• Self-contained oxygen supply system in case of poison gas attack
• Exploding hinge bolts that blast open the doors should a race for the border exit is needed.

On the two-day journey you can switch between a Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin DB9, BMW M6 and a Weismann MF3, with stops at top luxury hotels, restaurants and spas along the way.

The Swiss tour begins at the historic Palace Luzern on the lake in Lucerne, while the Austrian jaunt starts at Schloss Fuschl on Fuschlsee Lake, a stone castle built in 1450. Local guides lead you on six-hour drives through the “sweetest hairpin turns, the sharpest inclines and the most breathtaking picnic spots.”

About nine months ago, Aston Martin started taunting performance car aficionados with teaser shots of its upcoming One-77 supercar.   Now, with much fanfare, the first completed vehicle has made its way out of the marque’s factory in the United Kingdom and over to the shores of Lake Como in Italy where it took part in the Concorso d’Eleganza, where it received rave reviews.

Aston’s brutally-styled beauty took home the Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes, garnering 30% of the total number of votes cast at the event in the process. Not only were the event’s attendees the first to gaze upon a fully assembled One-77, they also got to hear it run for the first time ever.

Watch the car in slow action here and check out the sound of that sweet motor!

The four-hour event will take participants on more than 150 miles of open road as they experience the newest Lamborghinis including the Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder and the Murcielago LP 640 Roadster. Space for the exclusive, adrenaline-packed event is extremely limited.

The Veyron was introduced in 2005 as the fastest production car in the world and it is currently the fastest accelerating and decelerating production car in the world, with a 0 – 100 km/h – 0 time of 8.6 seconds and, at 1.1 million euro (1.5 million USD), it is also one of the most expensive cars in the world.  The car is named named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti company.

Perhaps the 17 Veyrons currently for sale on JamesList  seemed like a logical investment during the boom days  is proving either an expensive liability these days or a way to raise some much-needed cash.

The number of Veyrons being offered up is even more astonishing when one takes into account the fact that, although over 200 Veyrons had been sold, only 132 had actually been built.

But for the savvy shopper, the Veyrons on offer range from a relative bargain for a 2005 model in Germany at about $1 million all the way up to $2.6 million for the first model in the 2006 production run.

Of course, no two Veyrons are exactly alike.