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It costs nothing to dream

By Brent Hopkins
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, LOS ANGELES
Saturday, Dec 02, 2006, Page 16

IN a room of batlike Lamborghinis, a million-US dollar ride and cars that crack 100kph in less time than it takes to read the words "speeding ticket," Andrew Stuart's cheap car sells for US$190,000.

The dapper chief executive of Bentley Motor Cars USA doesn't so much make cars as he does rolling bank vaults. The Continental GTC — that's the inexpensive one — arrived in US showrooms last week and already has a 12-month waiting list. The Flying Spur, a stately four-door sedan, uses a 12-cylinder, double-turbo engine to achieve acceleration normally found in lithe, little sports cars. The Arnage, at a cool US$271,696, has built-in umbrella holders and a trunk that's carpeted on all sides.

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, which started yesterday, dreamers will wander through the luxury concourse to imagine themselves behind the wheel of these fantasy vehicles. They'll point, marvel over horsepower and hand-tooled leather and joke about taking one home.

These are not practical cars to take to the dry cleaners. They are performance machines decked out with decadence normally reserved for people named Trump or Bond.

"You can churn a car out on the assembly line all day long, but when you build it by hand, that's where the quality comes in — and the expense," Stuart said. "It's really a piece of furniture and a work of art."

Works of art that, while they have four wheels and an engine, share little with the cars most patrons will drive to the show. Spyker, a Dutch manufacturer that draws its design inspiration from the airplanes it used to build, doesn't even have keys for its several-hundred-thousand-US dollar sports vehicles. Instead, it has futuristic-looking discs that look like something out of Mission: Impossible.

"The sky's the limit with these," said Rona Cortez, a Spyker brand ambassador. "Louis Vuitton will make some custom luggage to match that fits in the trunk for US$18,750.

"You can watch it being made 24 hours a day on a Web cam. It's like watching the birth of your child. Your very expensive child."

The company used the show to highlight its new Super Sport Utility Vehicle, a striking US$320,000 contraption, and the LaTurbie C12, which sells for US$360,000. The latter, which can be fitted with US$30,000 worth of options, will "humble the most arrogant of drivers," in the words of Cortez.

And for someone who doesn't want to be humbled, there's the eminently more practical Mustang by Giugiaro. A one-off concept car with a cowhide interior and a 500-horsepower Ford racing engine, the car won praise from Ford design guru J. Mays as "a classic American icon wearing an Italian designer suit."

"This is not the US$25,000 Mustang you see driving down the street," Mays said. "If this went on sale, it'd be closer to US$130,000. The chances of it ever going into production are slim to none."

At prices like that, the shark-faced Lotus Elise seems like a theoretical bargain. Tiny, lightweight and muscular, it thrives on acceleration rather than massive power and sells for around US$43,000. Its supercharged cousin, the Exige S, hits 100kph in 4.3 seconds, down from the just-too-slow 5.1 seconds it managed in a previous model. For US$60,000, it's the veritable economy model of supercars.

"A lot of people see this as an exotic car with an exotic price tag," said Simon Croft, marketing communications manager for the British manufacturer. "You Americans are fantastically good at stopping me at gas stations to ask questions, and the ultimate one is: how much?"

For the driver who wants to answer that question with the ultimate response, there's the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. With a US$1.4 million price tag and a 1,001-horsepower engine, its maker didn't even have to do anything new to stir up excitement. It put up the exact same display it did last year, brought the same car and had no trouble drawing a crowd on preview day.

Bugatti spokesman Georges Keller said the rare ride, which boasts a top speed of 407kph, is really quite reasonable to use to get around.

"It's as easy to drive as a Golf or a Passat, but you've got a lot more performance," said Keller, who demonstrates an amazing capacity for understatement. "It's very easy to handle. You put it in drive and send your wife out to pick up the newspaper."

If she pushed it up to top speed, didn't run out of gas and somehow avoided the California Highway Patrol, she could leave Los Angeles, pick up the paper in San Diego and return in under an hour. It beats having to wait for delivery.

That's ridiculous, but that's what cars like this are all about. Most will never see the rigors of the street, let alone maximum velocity. They're expensive showpieces for people who don't mind dropping US$500,000 on a Lamborghini, so long as no one else on the block has one.

"To really enjoy and get the full use of the Lamborghini, you've got to know how to drive it," said Carrie Spencer, who handles public relations for Automobili Lamborghini. "Some people will buy these and never even drive them."

In that sense, and probably only that one, they're much like the folks roaming the show floor.

"Guys come to a show like this to take pictures of the cars and the girls," said Taylor Erickson, who suited up in a skintight outfit to pose next to a slew of supercars on the way into one of the massive halls. "It's a car they'll probably never get to drive, and a girl they'll probably never get to date."
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