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A few days ago, one of the employees at Tesla Motors said that the first prototype of the much-anticipated and very beautiful all-electric Model S is up and running. Although the company didn't confirm any of this, they have however quietly launched a small video of the very first prototype, also known as Model S Alpha. At the moment Tesla Motors is working on the second prototype, dubbed Beta.

Tesla Motors has built at least three of these alpha units which will be used for testing the components and the subsystems. In addition, they will do a whole bunch of test drives. The aforementioned second prototype is under development at the company's factory located in Fremont, California.

The Tesla S can be charged from any 120v, 208v or 240v outlets. Depending on the chosen trim level, this all-electric sedan will be capable of providing a total range of 160, 230 or 300 miles. The car will be able to sprint to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, onto a limited top speed of 130 mph.

The base price for the car will be around $49,900 (after a $7,500 federal tax credit). A $5,000 reservation fee will be necessary but the money will be refundable.

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Tesla S Alpha Prototype

Lexus LF-A

In the last few years, we have seen the beautiful Lexus LF-A in many colors and shapes, making us dream about how would the production model look like and if it will be ever released. During all these years, the LF-A was only a just a prototype as the Japanese automaker didn't made a production version yet.

Things took a turn for the better on December 15^th when the company officially started on working on a production model LF-A at the Motomachi plant in Japan. A month has passed since then and you are looking at the first production model of the Lexus LF-A finished with a bright orange livery.

The work on this beautiful car is done by 170 people and all of them has specific roles as far as building the LF-A. To give you an example, there are a couple of specialists that only handle the very delicate (and expensive) carbon fiber components of the vehicle. More than that, all of the subsequent procedures accomplished on each and every car will be recorded and stored on journals which will have about 3,500 pages.

Being a very important car for Lexus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are being so meticulous about the LF-A model. Although it took them a couple of years and many prototypes to get to this point when they are able to offer a production model, we are glad that they have sorted everything out and the model has entered its production stage.

The Lexus LF-A can be yours if you can spare $375,000.

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First Lexus LF-A Is Done

8-Speed Automatic Gearbox 2011 Chrysler 300

It wasn't that long ago when we first drove a car equipped with a six-speed gearbox and we thought that that extra gear was quite cool. A couple of years have passed since then and the number of gears has continued to grow to seven, eight and it seems that pretty soon we will have a nine-speed gearbox. The German drivetrain supplier ZF is currently working on a nine-speed automatic gearbox and the first cars that will be equipped with it will be Chryslers.

According to ZF, the new gearbox which will be launched in two years will offer double-digit improvements in fuel efficiency. The gearbox is designed for vehicles with transverse power units, which account for about 80% of cars built around the world.

They also said that this new nine-speed gearbox will feature the "sporty genes"  of the eight-speed automatic that can be found in the 2011 Chrysler 300 (but I don't think that it is a "sporty" car at all). The nine-speed unit will have the same weight as the eight-speed and the shift times will be measured in milliseconds.

The question is: is there going to be a ten-speed gearbox in the next few years? The answer is probably no, because according to Michael Paul who is executive VP of ZF, any further gains "would require an entirely different concept".

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Nine-Speed Gearbox, Due In 2 Years

2010 Dodge Viper Final Edition

The Dodge Viper is probably one of the coolest cars in the world with great muscle lines that emphasize the car's raw power. Design-wise, things could change for the next generation of the Viper as Ralph Gilles, who is Chrysler's and Dodge's head of design said that the new look of the Snake will be inspired by "a naked woman on the beach".

This rather surprising announcement was made while Gilles was speaking to a couple of reporters at the Automotive News World Conference and although this was the most important thing that he said, he also said that the upcoming generation of the Dodge Viper will be targeted to steal away buyers from both the Chevrolet Corvette and the Porsche brand.

The next generation of the Viper will be launched in 2013 which should give Dodge engineers plenty of time to come up with a great car, but they have to deliver something great as we are certain that both Chevrolet and Porsche are working on something just as good to match the new Viper.

Regardless to say, in the next couple of years we will have some fierce competition in the sports car segment, taking into consideration the fact that there are many automakers out there that in the last few years have delivered some great cars.

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Next Dodge Viper Inspired By A Naked Woman On The Beach

Audi R8 Tron

Here is another example of how to ruin a perfectly awesome car – the 2011 Audi R8. The guys over at West Coast Customs (who in the past have made some great cars) and Monster Cable decided to add a TRON flavor to the beautiful R8. The TRON-themed motorcycle was pretty cool but this Audi R8 looks awful in my opinion, though I have to admit l like how it looks during the night with those cool lights.

Audi R8 Tron

Except for those glowing rims, the E-TRON Audi R8 has also glowing air vents and a glowing back seat. By far the worst thing about the car would have to be the chrome finish which has nothing to do with the movie. I think that it if didn't had this chrome finish I might have liked it but with it, this Audi R8 looks terrible.

Audi R8 Tron

In my opinion the car would have looked a lot better with a matte black finish instead of this "bling-bling" chrome that makes it look like a pimp car, not something inspired from Tron.

The good thing about the car is that West Coast Customs didn't change anything under the hood and the R8 still packs that same rocking engine.

Photos via TopSpeed.com

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West Coast Customs and Monster Cable Audi R8 Tron

The most popular automotive TV show in the world is back for its 16^th season and BBC just released the first trailer of the new Top Gear season. Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond will begin their journey this weekend. The first episode of the new series will air this Sunday, January 23^rd at 8 PM on BBC2.

Here are a couple of highlights from the upcoming Top Gear season:  an interesting battle between the iconic Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959; a very interesting and different review of the Skoda Yeti; the new Ariel Atom; a couple of Corvettes and Ross Kemp.

In addition, in this 16^th season we will be seeing James May wearing tights and a whole bunch of submarines. It should be a pretty interesting season, just like all of the rest. Too bad though that there aren't more episodes per season.

Although there isn't any information about the new Stig, I'm pretty sure that the guys have already found a new replacement for Ben Collins.

Warning: the next video contains a lot of spoilers of the season so you if you don't want to know what will happen this year, don't see it! Otherwise, enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Top Gear S16 Trailer