More on this.
I'm presently at Monterey Week sitting in my room at the Portola Inn. The RM auctions are going on right below me and right there as you enter inn, the Hennessey Venom GT is there with a bunch of Hennessy reps (including John Hennessy who many say is a crook).
Random musings:
- As soon as I walked in to look at it last night, I met Michael Anthony - Van Halen bass player. Super nice guy - took a bunch of pics. And yes, like every famous person, he's 5 feet tall.
- The car? Sorry people, it's a damn Elise. No getting around that. My wife came down about 10 min later and says 'oh look, it's your car' A million dollar 'hypercar' being mistaken for a $30K car. Yep, that's what you want.
- They said they are making 12 of them. Stats on the window show $940K price. 0-60 in 2.3. 0-200 in 15 (claims Veyron is 0-100 in 24).
- The interior looks like Lotus Trim Shop - certainly nice, but this thing is bone stock Exige interior just with some alcantara and fancy stitching. The only difference is a Momo on a quick release hub.
- The carbon splitter and skirts are very cool - in that they'd look awesome on our $30K Elises. Expect more on a $1M car!
- I was at Concorso Italiano earlier in the day and saw some stuff that, while it may not have the same performance numbers, is more original - specifically, the Kepler Motion - VERY COOL. The yellow Vector that Barrett Jackson is auctioning (the widest car I've ever seen) and even the new LP700 Aventador. Every one of these cars are designed from scratch. Sorry, but taking an Elise and pimping it out for a $1M is CHEATING.
On the side, was able to meet and shake hands/photos with Stephan Winkleman - CEO of Lambo - super nice guy. I wonder if Dany would have been so accomodating. Dude must have taken 400 pictures with people. Him and Barry Meguiar (Meguiars/Car Crazy) - by far, nicest guys there.
Here are some pics of the million dollar Elise.