Our Favorite New Cars of 2012 Streetside Auto

Our Favorite New Cars of 2012 | StreetSideAuto.com (2012-12-31)

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It’s Monday. It’s New Year’s Eve. And it’s snowing like a 1988 top-loader VCR with a broken tracking knob. Needless to say, focus is hard to come by in an office on a day like this. But that doesn’t mean we can’t bring you something fun to read. It just means it might be a little…softball. But everybody loves these year-end lists, anyway, right? Right. Onward.

A quick note: though this is a 2012 year-end awards show, due to our peculiar American penchant for releasing cars the year before they’re actually stamped, most of these will be 2013 model year vehicles. They had to be brand new, redesigns or new special editions, and they couldn’t be delivered in America before 2012.
9. Ford Fusion
As countless data-slinging auto-journos have remarked upon, the new Fusion looks like a Brit-carved Aston Martin, and we don’t disagree. The clean, professional grille is striking, and the rest of the lines are just tight. Ford even kept the manual dream alive, offering a 6-speed in the 1.6 EcoBoost. Yes, they should have offered it in the 2.0 EcoBoost, as well, but they’ll learn.
8. Ford Focus ST
No, this won’t be a Ford shutout, but we can’t skip the Focus ST. It was Ford’s first car under the ST brand, and gave rise to the possibly more awesome 2014 Fiesta ST. But that doesn’t mean the Focus doesn’t have its own merits. There’s that trick inner-wheel-braking gizmo, tapped from the ranks of banned F1 tech, and the experts say that despite the 270 lb-ft of torque and the 252 hp spit out by the 2 liter EcoBoost mill, Ford’s anti-torque-steer-vectoring sorcery does the trick. We also love that the ST is only available with a stick.
7. Lamborghini Aventador Roadster
The original Aventador would have made our list last year (if we’d bothered to stop watching Adventure Time and written one) on styling alone, but its performance was nothing to ignore. Wanting to satisfy this year’s freckle-growing crowd, they lopped off the roof, but they did it rather tastefully. Nor did they bother about your expensive hairdo, because the Roadster can still hit two hundred and seventeen miles per hour.
6. Cadillac ATS
Cadillac needed a smaller car than the CTS, and they could have cheaped out on us. They could have rebadged a Buick or a Chevy for a boring, FWD experience, designed to get the aspiring tycoon to the driving range…like Lincoln does. But they refused, and built instead another interesting car, targeting the BMW 3-series. We love the ATS. We love its fetching but unassuming design, its 273 hp 2 liter turbo engine, and its 6-speed manual. We salute Cadillac for knowing what luxury buyers want and keeping cars fun.
5. Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
It’s the fastest production Ferrari ever built. It goes on the list.
4. Dodge SRT Viper
It’s hard to express the relief and joy we felt when we heard that Chrysler’s timeless supercar was returning. When we finally saw it we each had an aneurism. It was a very expensive time for the company. But there it was, all dripping red and beautiful in every conceivable way. Including the 8.4 liter V-10, which produces 640 hp. The Viper even ran ALMS this year. It is our hero.
3. Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Now, the aforementioned Viper is a supercar, so 640 hp isn’t unusual. It is, however, unusual in a Shelby Mustang, which is a muscle car that’s had some work done. It’s the most powerful Shelby to ever come out of the factory, and somehow the 5.4 liter supercharged V8 still gets 24 mpg on the highway – making it the most efficient engine over 550 hp in America. The days of LRA muscle cars are dying off quick, as they probably should, but this is quite a way to go out. We just hope they’re not all mothballed under dust covers in upscale garages.
2. Falcon F7
Using a special Google Maps filter, we found that the countryside is dotted with startup supercar manufacturers, plugging crate engines into carbon fiber bodies and calling it a day. Falcon is one of them, but if you suggest to the Falcon F7 that it’s not a serious car, it will throw you out into the alley, follow you, and commence to take you apart. We’ve only included the F7 on this list because we were deathly afraid that it’s going to break our knees if we didn’t. It looks like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. This is not to say it’s not a great car. It only weighs 3,000 lbs soaking wet, and that tends to agree with the 620 hp LS7 between the rear haunches. We got to see one at Woodward, and it was even more terrifying in person. Maybe it gave us a touch of Stockholm Syndrome.
1. Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S
Do we still live in a world where a man can buy a small, affordable, rear-wheel-drive sports car with 4 seats and decent power? Yes. And that’s why the BRZ/FR-S twins are our absolute favorite new cars of the year. Sure, the 2.0 boxer four only makes 200 hp, and yes, you’ll have to remove your legs before riding in the back seat, but Toyota, together with their indentured servant Subaru, might have revived an entire segment with their little homage to the classic AE86 platform. It’s a real sports car, from a reliable manufacturer, and it’s supposed to be a perfect blast to drive. Now that it’s proven successful, flying out of showrooms like Mustang brochures at the hands of 11-year-olds, could we see competitors from Mazda, Nissan, yea, Honda? Perhaps.
Well, it’s still snowing and it’s lunch time. What were your favorite new releases of 2012?
Street Side Auto
25 Cars Rappers Will Name Drop in 2013 Complex Rides

25 Cars Rappers Will Name-Drop in 2013 | Complex Rides (2012-12-13)

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Whether they actually own the vehicles or not, rappers are always weaving luxury and sports car names into their lyrics. It’s part of the whole persona. What does every rapper want you to know about them? That’ they’ve got a lotta dough. And if they’ve got money, they’re obviously travelling in nice rides. But they have to make sure and let you know exactly what they’re in, whether it be a Lamborghini, a Maybach, an S600 ‘Benz or an old school Chevy. The lyrics, like the cars, age over the years, and new models are weaved into the rhymes. Before 2013 cracks open, we’ve got some speculation about just what the trendy rappers will be stunting on everybody with. We’re talkin’ next level, like the Aston Martin Vanquish, the Ferrari F70, and the McLaren P1. Check out these 25 Cars that Rappers are bound to name-drop next year.

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2012 Mach7 Motorsports Falcon F7 | Topspeed.com (2012-02-20)

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Mach7 Motorsports waltzed into the 2011 Detroit Auto Show with a killer new machine that was poised to further represent America in the supercar war of the worlds. Turns out, that was just a prototype and they’re back in Detroit again to reveal their polished Falcon F7. The new Falcon F7 supercar will go on sale at a starting price of $195,000, with some versions heading up to $250,000. Mach7 Motorsports hopes to produce fifteen cars in the first year, twenty- five plus cars in the second year, and then consistently produce one hundred or more cars in each of the following years.

The Falcon F7 will feature an all carbon-fiber body, an aluminum/carbon fiber monocoque chassis, a billet suspension, an extreme power to weight ratio, and hand-crafted interiors. It is powered by a 7.0 liter V8 engine that delivers a total of 620 HP at 6600 rpm and 585 lb-ft of torque at 5400 rpm. With the extra power, the Falcon F7 will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3-3.6 seconds and will hit a top speed somewhere between 190 to 200 mph.
UPDATE 01/30/12: The Falcon F7 is one of the most intriguing super cars to come out of American soil in recent history. Check out this newly-released video of the supercar undergoing its first track testing session. It’s a good watch!
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Falcon F7- Local Authority

Falcon F7: Local Authority | Street Side Auto.com (2012-02-06)

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The Ford GT.  The C6 Corvette.  The Dodge Viper.  The Big Three all make (or made) supercars, and they’re each fit to press the air from your lungs with beauty and lateral

G.  But big American automakers, lately in particular, have to be cautious with their projects.  Styling must remain conservative enough to hook every last customer, because as much as we hate it, supercars don’t make much money.  Ford couldn’t make a bonkers R version of the GT to challenge current records.  And GM couldn’t plant that big LS behind the cab.  When the Aveo is your sponsor, you can’t build a mythical beast like Pagani, Noble, or Koenigsegg.
Thankfully, America has never been entirely devoid of small supercar firms, those pokey little banished cousins who refuse to quit.  Malcolm Bricklin did it back in the 70s with his fiberglass, snap-together kit cars.  SSC is doing it now, and doing it quite well.  And last month at the Detroit Auto Show, a new challenger arrived.  They called themselves Falcon and they bore us a gift.  It’s called the F7, and it’s almost perfect.
Since it’s a supercar, you want to first discuss the massive power.  But you can’t.  And you want to compare that power to the weight, which, thanks to its carbon fiber body, might top 3,000 lbs if Emma Stone filled the tank and then got in.  But you can’t do that, either.
Because when you look at the Falcon F7, you can’t say much at all.  It’s simply stunning, exactly what you’d get if you described a supercar to an artist who had never seen one, exactly what you’ve always wanted a supercar to look like.
Its none-too-stubby hood, which flaunts a daring pair of big, functional downforce ducts, ends with a face like a young Clint Eastwood- right before he pulls the trigger and takes his revenge on you.  There’s a chunky, squarish brake vent behind each door, and the ceiling comes off.  It’s a real live targa!  The kind we had in the early 90’s, which some of us barely remember.  Off the tail you’ll see an asphalt-threshing diffuser and a matching set of dilithium-chrystal-antimatter-warp-drive engines, sourced from an early Enterprise.
In short, the Falcon F7 looks to have been designed by en eight-year-old with a PhD, or else an eccentric jet builder with a penchant for Saturday morning cartoons.  It’s breathtaking, but not like an Aston Martin or a Veyron.  Its soundtrack is not an opera excerpt or the latest from Yo Yo Ma.  It’s Dream Theater or The Wall.  It makes you gasp, but only so you can laugh like a kid at the zoo.  “I want to ride one!” you exclaim.
Well.  That about covers it, right?  Oh, no, there’s power too, of course.  Now that we’ve composed ourselves, we can let you know that under that deck lid resides not a high-revving Italian, but a smack-talking American V8.  You can get your Falcon with an LS3 or an LS7, courtesy Corvette (who also donated most of the suspension), bolted to a chest hair cultivating, six-speed manual.  The LS7 blasts out 620 hp and 585 lb-ft of torque, enough to get the leg-pressable car to 60 in 3.6 seconds.  Falcon, ever the Americans, even advertise the quarter mile time: 10.9, stock.
All of this LSourcing is also good for parts availability and (relatively) cheap maintenance and tuning, which is something to consider when you see the price.  See, every supercar has to meet two of the three following qualifications before it can be called a true supercar: It must have two seats.  It must be loud, both aurally and otherwise.  And it must be unreachably expensive.  Unfortunately, Falcon were going for checkmarks across the board, because the F7, at its cheapest, will set you back a $225,000.  And if we’re honest, that’s probably a little steep for an LS-powered shed car, but someone has to cover the R&D, right?  Plus, you’re buying exclusivity, because Falcon is only building ten copies.
Thus, few of us will likely ever see one, much less throw down the quarter million bones for it.  But since we’re dreaming anyway, we’ll make a spot in the unattainable dream garage for the Falcon F7, not for what we can do with it, but for what it does to us.
Street Side Auto
oye times falcon f7

Reinventing the American Super Car – Falcon Motorsports Turning Heads with F7 | OYE! Times (2012-02-01)

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As American car companies continue its trend to produce environmentally friendly vehicles for the everyday driver there is one Michigan auto company that is doing the exact opposite – building the next home-grown super car.
Falcon Motorsports, a company based out of Holly, Michigan, is bringing back memories of a previous era of American automotive history. A time where American ingenuity produced unbelievable super cars with unique designs and the ability to roar down a highway at unimaginable speeds.
Introducing the F7 – it recently turned heads in Detroit at the annual North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) and even caught the attention of Top Gear USA.
“We’re very excited,” said Jason Verbrugghe, a Falcon representative. “We want to be able to help re-vitalize that motor city aspect of Michigan. So to have another super car aspect actually coming from Michigan is pretty impressive right now. There is nothing really super car that’s on its own here.”
Falcon Motorsports logo shimmers against the bronze painted F7 (Aman Dhanoa)After spending years of tinkering and retrofitting existing Vipers and Corvettes, Falcon founder Jeff Lemke took upon a challenge of building a street machine of his own. The process hasn’t been easy but the result is nothing short of stunning.
The idea for its concept-turned production F7 was borne out of passion and a vision for a super car that would match the power and sleekness of international heavyweights such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini.
“My background is doing aftermarket stuff for Vipers and things like that,” said Lemke. “I’ve dealt with and built cars, specific different types of Corvettes and that sort of thing throughout my history and I knew I had the tools and the know-how to get it done.”
“It was a moment where I was kind of sitting around and I was probably insane and ‘ennnhhh it’s going to be easy’, so I went for it. I pulled the trigger and realized I was very wrong.”
Since starting the project in 2009 it hasn’t been an easy road but Lemke’s dream has finally come to fruition. At last year’s NAIAS he debuted the car as a concept called Mach 7 and it attracted a lot of interest. Many concept cars fail to go into production and remain a one-of-a-kind, but that wasn’t the case for Lemke – he saw an opportunity.
Close up look at the headlights (Aman Dhanoa)“It just started out of pure passion,” said Lemke. “It was a car that I felt was a missing market in the sports car segment and I wanted to fill it. For around the $200,000 mark, there wasn’t a car like this available. Most cars like this were well over $500,000 and I felt I could do it for less.”
And that’s exactly what he has done. At the cost of roughly $195-250,000 US, Falcon’s direct competition from other American supercars are the Saleen S7 (roughly $550,000) and the SSC Ultimate Aero ($650,000) – so the F7 is a bargain in comparison. Other exotic cars, such as models from Ferrari and Lamborghini are also priced well over the F7 and range from $200-600,000.
The first production car, VIN number 001, was on display at this year’s NAIAS has already been sold. The goal this year is to sell a total of 10-15 and 25 every year thereafter.
“We’re not looking for volume production here by any means,” said Verbrugghe. “We want to keep it in that certain competitive sector where there’s not too many people that have it, so it’s a wanted item still. That’s kind of where we want to be. This car kind of demands the respect from its driver so really it’s not for everyone.”
Oye Times
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VIDEO: Falcon Motors F7 at the Detroit Auto Show | Auto123.com (2012-01-12)

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It’s mean, it’s extremely powerful and it’s made in America. The Falcon Motors F7 is a mid-engine supercar that boasts a carbon fibre body built on an aluminum and carbon fibre monocoque chassis.
The F7 is equipped with a Chevrolet sourced 7.0L V8 that produces 620 hp and 585 lb-ft of torque as well as a 6-speed manual gearbox. According to Falcon Motors, the car weighs in at 2,785 lbs and can reach 200 mph. The car shown in this video is the first production example of the F7.
auto123
falcon f7 2012 detroit auto show

Falcon F7 Supercar – 2012 Detroit Auto Show | Road & Track (2012-01-10)

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And now, straight from 255 Elm Street, Holly, Michigan…
It reads like the address of a Midwestern primary school, but that’s where the Falcon F7 supercar has been developed and is now being assembled. What we have here is the first customer car ready to be delivered, but first visiting the Detroit show.
Based on an aluminum/carbon fiber monocoque and said to boast “…a solid, testosterone driven personality,” the mid-engine F7 sells for $195,000-$250,000. The body is carbon-fiber, the pushrod-type suspension honed from aluminum billets. Steering is rack and pinion with electric assist.
Falcon claims a curb weight of 2785 lb. for the F7, and says it hits 60 mph in 3.3 to 3.5 seconds. This blistering pace is provided by a 7.0-liter Chevrolet V-8 tuned to 620 bhp and 585 lb.-ft. of torque. Spun through a 6-speed transaxle, it would ultimately take the F7 to a top speed of 190 to 200 mph. On a skidpad, the F7 is said to generate as much as 1.3g.
Falcon plans to build and sell 15 cars in its first full year of production, raising that to 25 the second year and 100 or more in subsequent years.
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$200K Falcon F7 Super Car Michigan Made | Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK) (2012-01-10)

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By JASON CARR

WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
DETROIT (WJBK) — There’s a sexy new sports car on display at the auto show. It’s hand-built in Michigan with a big new engine from General Motors. It could be yours, if the price is right.
620 horsepower, zero to 60 in 3.3 seconds, 200 miles-per-hour — meet the Falcon F7.
“All the cars that I really, really wanted were too expensive for me. I don’t have a lot of money. I’m not a super rich man. I can’t go buy a Lamborghini Adventador or one of those really great super cars,” said Jeff Lemke, who created the Falcon. “I actually felt that there was a missing market, believe it or not, in the $200,000 range.”
Lemke had a dream to build a super car from his own vision of what he wanted to drive, and he’s building it right here in Michigan.
“The chassis is built in Clinton Township. That’s designed by a race car designer. We build the body panels in Holly, and we assemble the car in Holly. The seats are sown in Waterford. This is a very Michigan car,” he explained.
The actual car unveiled at the auto show on Tuesday is already sold in the neighborhood of $225,000 to a customer in New York.
Lemke himself doesn’t get his hands on one until spring.
“You cannot find an aluminum model COG chassis, all carbon fiber body, super light weight, high horsepower type of raw vehicle for that price range,” Lemke said.
Stop by and check out the Falcon F7 when the auto show opens to the public. It’s one of the baddest rides on the floor.