new car cost | new car | new car design: 2012

Overview

Italy's Lamborghini, you'll recall, is the sports-car maker that produced the legendary and iconic Countach, the supercar that, after its unveiling in the early 1970s spawned nearly as many male reveries and bedroom-wall posters as Farrah Fawcett. Today, that Countach DNA -- outrageous scissor-doors design, hulking V-12 engine, stratospheric price tag -- lives on in Lambo's current flagship, the fast and flamboyant Murcielago.Power? Oh, yes: In "standard" form the 6.5-liter V-12 behind the driver's ears rocks with an asphalt-shredding 632 horsepower. If that's not enough for you (perhaps you're related to Wernher von Braun), opt for the limited-edition 670-4 Super Veloce edition, which bumps output to 661 horses (the same as Ferrari's new 599 GTO). Both versions feed a full-time all-wheel-drive system through a choice of six-speed manual or six-speed E-Gear auto-clutch manual transmissions. And if the scissor doors are simply too outré for you, consider the Roadster edition, which also bumps horsepower slightly over the standard LP 640 (though you'll have to hurry as Lamborghini is building only 50 of the drop-tops)

Yet another argument for the contention that we’re living in a golden era for American muscle cars arrives with the 2013 Ford Mustang, which will sport a brace of tech and styling updates across its line — including the most powerful V8 engine sold by any automaker in the world. How much trouble could you get in with a 200-mph ‘Stang?

The original pony car has survived 46 years only through annual tweaking between major redesigns, and offering a broad enough model range to lure in everyone from high-schoolers to professional drag racers. Thanks to the competition with the revived Chevrolet Camaro, there’s more muscle in muscle cars than ever before; today’s base V6 Mustang has more grunt than the V8 flashed seven years ago.

The biggest change comes at the top, where the Ford Shelby GT500 gets 100 extra ponies under the hood, giving the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 650 hp and 600 lb.-ft of torque — more than any Camaro, Corvette or even the Ferrari 458 Italia. Every part of the Shelby was tweaked in some fashion to handle the power riot, along with a launch control system for better controlled top-speed starts. The only thing not included are the numbers of local bail bondsmen.

For 2013, the exterior gets a freshening in some details, namely a beefed-up grille and different wheel combinations and smoked tail lamps. For the more boastful Mustang owners, a light in the side-view mirror will project the pony logo on the ground when you unlock the car.