Supercars

In almost any city where supercars gather in their sinister red, black, and yellow broods, you will find supercar clubs. Most clubs, though, are like settling for a zoo instead of going on safari: you save yourself some time and money only to be cheated out of seeing what an animal can really do. And just as you'll learn little by watching a hippo in its air conditioned paddock, you'll know next to nothing about a Ferrari F430 Challenge stuck on road duty and date nights.

Enter RS Academy, a supercar track club with some of the finest vessels made for carving up kerbs, as well as entry to three of the best tracks in the world for doing just that: Germany's Nurburgring, Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps, and the members only Ascari Race Resort in Spain. The club keeps a fleet of cars at each track so that all you need to do is show up with a helmet and a Zen-like focus on the finest racing line. Along with the aforementioned Ferrari, the fleet includes the Caterham R500 Superlight, BMW M3 CSL, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, and Radical SR3. When you're at Ascari, you have access to the that club's Spanish fleet as well.

The Academy is hosting taster days at the Ascari Race Resort in Marbella this month for sampling the club's offerings at an in-house venue. Annual subscriptions begin around £12,000, and come in three varieties. If you want to make the most of your time behind the wheel, RS maintains 12 instructors among the three tracks who will guide you to a racing license and, if you're good enough, a seat in the RS Academy race team. Between the tracks, the cars, the Jedi-racer trainers -- and did we mention Marbella? -- not even Speed Racer had it this good.

Gotham Dream Cars, the premier exotic car rental and touring company that has a fleet of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, Aston Martin and Maserati supercars, is planning their first ever Legends Dream Car Tour on June 9 and 10. Sports car and luxury auto enthusiasts will enjoy an exciting and scenic drive in the New York area, switching between five Lamborghinis led by one of the most famous test-drivers of all time, Valentino Balboni (above) of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. The four-hour event will take participants on more than 150 miles of open road as they experience the newest Lamborghinis including the Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder and the Murcielago LP 640 Roadster. Space for the exclusive, adrenaline-packed event is extremely limited.

The limited-edition Lamborghini by Versace which we first wrote about plans for in 2006 is finally going into production for fall. The car, which will be a convertible in contrast to the coupe originally developed, will be a bright pastel white with a black-and-white leather interior. The price of the special-order Murciélago LP 640 Roadster Versace has yet to be named, but expect to pay a healthy premium above the model's already hefty base price of $358,000. The V12 roadster, designed by Donatella Versace and just unveiled in Milan during Men's Fashion Week, will feature a see-through engine bay cover and the fashion house's signature Greek key motif on the doors, front fascia and nappa leather seats. Versace has also designed an accompanying line of black calfskin accessories including luggage, wallet, gloves, driving shoes, hat and even a pair of leather jeans all bearing an engraved metal Lamborghini Versace tag.

[via Kempt & Autoblog]

Meadow Brook's Concours d'Elegance, suburban Detroit's luxury car show to end all luxury car shows, will feature the return of an old favorite: Alfa Romeo. The high-end car manufacturer announced that it will bring its vehicles back to the United States, starting with the $200,000 8C Competizione supercar, then continuing in 2009 with the Brera and the Spyder.

Since the automaker pulled out of the States in 1995, numerous comebacks have been rumored to no avail. With the beautiful show in Rochester Hills as the canvas, Alfa has finally mapped out a plan. In addition to the new Competizione, Alfa Romeo will show off its Berlina Aerodinamica Technica technology on its cars from the 1950s.