Factory option maybe? Probably not. But hey, who’s to stop this guy from dreaming, right? We’re sure that if he had been up a car or two at this stoplight the real Bimmer on the right would have given him some real street cred.

[via Holmeslice at TeamSpeed, Chad Waite]

Drivers beware! The red and blue lights that appear in your rear-view mirror every so often are moving to another car. Today Ford unveiled their newest Police Interceptor based on the 2011 Taurus and let us be the first to say, we approve…just as long as it’s not behind us.

So besides a bunch of lights, a huge front battering ram, and a mean black and white paint job, what makes a Ford Police Interceptor different from a regular Taurus? For starters, lots of things just seem to do more. The brakes have 60% more swept area than a standard Taurus,the rear bench has more room to transport trouble makers in comfort, and the back doors open up 70 degrees, a full 10 degrees more than its civilian sister.

Ford also says the car is designed to take a 75 mph hit from the rear- we’ll believe that when we see it on Cops. Expect to see these on the hunt in a year or two.

[AutoBlog, Chad Waite]

Lets pose a hypothetical situation. You’re a dad with two children and a trophy wife. You’ve landed that big that big account at work and have some extra money in the account to buy that car that says “I am successful and financially secure.” You’re hairline has recceeded past the point of  “I care” so a convertible is definitely in the mix. And you know that no matter what car your choose your family will want to be a part of the motoring action.

Only one car fits as a solution to this situation and unfortunately it doesn’t exist…till now. Porsche has revealed to AutoCar magazine that the roof on their 4-door Panamera will be coming off, making way for a convertible version of the already hideous looking vehicle. Why? We’re asking the same question.  Obviously there is a market for this convertible supercar but it’s also obvious that investors and not car lovers run Porsche now. But luckily for everyone who thinks the car is as awful as we do take comfort in the fact that the convertible Panamera is still a year or two away.

[AutoCar, Chad Waite]

Hummer- it’s the brand that just won’t die! At least that’s what it looks like as the supposedly doomed brand has started up production of their H3 again! Don’t do a double take- you read that right. The Hummer factory has come to life yet again to produce a specially requested batch of 849 H3 units for an unspecified fleet buyer.

Lets just sum this news up in one sentence: Hummer is still producing vehicles!!

It seemed like just yesterday when the deal to sell the dying brand to Sichuan Tengzhong of China was finalized. And it was almost yesterday when the sale’s stone that it was set in crumbled. And it really was yesterday when the brand was declared dead by GM and was set to be terminated.

So while we’re on the subject of requesting cars from brands that don’t exist anymore, we’d like to get our hands on a Saturn Ion, a Pontiac G6, and a DMC DeLorean please.

[TTAC, Chad Waite]

BMW isn’t known for making small vehicles. The x5 isn’t exactly a space saver and the 7-series was based off of original blueprints for Noah’s Ark. But with Audi’s recently unveiled pocket-sized and incredibly attractive A1, BMW has officially announced to Autocar magazine that they too plan to enter the small car segment.

What does this mean?

Just like Audi and their A1, BMW will most likely offer a premium B-segment hatchback with front-wheel-drive and a typical German price tag. However, unlike the Audi the BMW will probably look better (even though the A1 is mmm mmm good) and forgo the electrical problems that come standard with every Vdub and their premium counterparts. And because of their ownership of Mini, BMW already has the hardware to jump straight into the B-segment end of the pool.

Now take a seat because here comes the buzzkill. We won’t see these cars till mid-2013 at the very soonest, and that’s if everything goes according to plan…which it won’t. But hey, that just means two years of spy shots and BMW teaser commercials that we get to report to you!

[AutoCar, Chad Waite]

It’s back! A few days ago we saw the first spy shots of the new Ferrari 599 GTO, a car that should be nothing short of spectacular and damn pricey. Now new pictures of the Italian thoroughbred at its home stomping ground in Maranello have surfaced all over the intertubes. The pictures don’t reveal any major new visual changes but still leave us as excited as a sugar eating kid on Christmas morning.

With the pictures have come rumored details on the 599 GTO itself and it seems things are business as usual at Ferrari. Horsepower should hit around 700 from a big, loud Ferrari V12 with a redline of 9000rpm (tunnel driving anyone?). And that type of power means 0-60 is dealt with in a tidy 3.5 seconds (is it bad we wished it was quicker though?) and a top speed of over 210+ mph. It’s speculated that only 500 will be produced and to get one you’ve got to shell out a mind-blowing $410,000. Business as usual indeed.

[CarMagazine.co.uk, Chad Waite]

Once again the South Town Expo Center in Sandy, Utah played host to a medley of cars and exotic vehicles at the Utah Autorama Car Show. Custom restorations of cars older than the state of Hawaii were the show’s bread and butter, however, amidst all of the 1930 roadsters and hordes of Mustangs were exotic head turners, custom bike displays, automotive vendors, BMX stunt rider shows, and celebrity appearances and autographs.

Our highlights started with a quite modern and very out of place Noble M400, surprisingly the second Noble we’ve seen in Utah in a year. A handful of other supercars were scattered about the showroom floor including a Lamborghini Gallardo and Mucielago, a 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10, and an absolutely stunning red 1973 DeTomaso Pantera (or a Ford GT according to the brilliant 15-year-old kid behind me).

But our “holy crap!” moment came when we stumbled across a  1972 Fiat 500 in perfect condition and decorated with Ferrari symbols and a Scuderia racing stripe. It’s the Fiat that wants to be a Ferrari– how cliche yet absolutely wonderful! This small Fiat is, without a shadow of a doubt, the coolest car in the history of the world.

Moral of the story? We went to Autorama expecting to get another informative Utah Auto Expo. Instead we stepped into an entertaining time warp to a generation where ‘MPG’ didn’t mean a thing and Plymouth cars were ‘just swell.’

[Chad Waite]

A few years ago, a good friend of mine and his dad decided they wanted to fulfill a dream of theirs and restore a 1974 Dino GTS.  They found a proper chassis to start with, and together began a 2 year journey of show winning restoration.  Luckily for us, they created a website dedicated to their project.

Some of you who aren’t in the know might ask, why the Dino? What makes it so special?  Simple answer: Just look at it.  Seriously, is there anything more gorgeous?  But, apart from the heavenly good looks, there is the performance and legacy that can only come from a car linked to Ferrari.

Enzo Ferrari wanted to create a lower priced, more “affordable” sports car for the public; something to compete against the Porsche 911.  At the time, all Ferraris were screaming V-12’s and Enzo wanted to keep it that way.

To help differentiate the cars, the “Dino” brand was created.  The name “Dino” comes from Enzo’s late son, Alfredo Ferrari, who died after a battle with muscular dystrophy.   The car, named in his honor, began life in 1968 as the Dino 206 GT. It had a mid mounted 2 liter V6 engine creating about 160 horsepower.

With a greater demand for power, the 246 GT and GTS evolved.  The “S”, of course, stands for “Spyder” or as I like to say, hot automotive “Sex”.  Both models came with a larger and more powerful 2.4 liter V6 that made between 175hp (U.S.) and 190hp (Europe).   In a chassis that weighed only 2400lbs, the Dino was able to outperform its Porsche rivals across the board with a higher top speed and a faster 0-60 time of about 6 seconds.

Approximately 1200 Dino GTS’s were made between 1972 and 1974. Only the lucky few, like my friend and his father, are able to call one their own.

The 2010 Geneva Motor Show has given us our fair share of exotic and very expensive supercars including the new Gumpert Apollo S and the Lamborghini and Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. Koenigsegg even wow’d visitors with their new 910 horsepower Agera.

But wait- why stop at a car that doesn’t even develop horsepower in four-digits?

For a second time at Geneva, Koenigsegg dropped some jaws after they introduced the one-of-a-kind CCXR Platinuss- a car that can only be described as an expensive tire shredder. Why? The CCXR Platinuss was specially developed for a Brazilian dealership to run on Bio-ethanol E100, a tweak that results in an absolutely incomprehensible 1100 brake horsepower!

This arena of horsepower is so seriously beyond comprehension that the only way to remotely understand what 1100bhp means is a simple comparison. Lets look a new 2010 Toyota Corolla. At 2811 lbs, the Corolla sports an average 132 horsepower from its inline-four cylinder engine. Now take the CCXR Platinuss. At a curb weight of 2822lbs- just eleven pounds more than the Corolla- this Koenigsegg is eight and half times more powerful on paper than your average, everyday car. Eight and a half!

But we’re sure it feels like a hell of a lot more off paper and behind the seat.

[GTSpirit, Chad Waite]

First VW introduced the Scirocco and gave us here in America the proverbial “naa, naa, na-na, naaa” by saying “no soup for you!” and not releasing it on our shores.  Even though all of us here at DailyDerbi agree it is truly a hot hatch, VW has no plans to bring it here.  Well, VW is at their teasing ways again with the new Polo GTI recently debuted at the Geneva Auto Show as covered by the blokes over at Autoblog.

The Polo GTI is the original MK1 Golf GTI reincarnated providing the same lightweight, peppy fun of the original but for the modern age.  The peppiness comes thanks to a twin-charged, meaning both a super AND turbo charged 1.4 liter 4 cylinder that cranks out 178 hp and an impressive 184 lbs/ft of torque.   Lighter than its bigger brother, the Golf GTI, but with similar power numbers means the little Polo should be good times on both road and track. The Polo GTI also benefits from the excellent interior fit and finish that VW has become famous for with modern displays and nicely appointed throw-back plaid seating.

There may be a light at the end of this tunnel as VW execs are considering bringing the Polo, and possibly it’s pepped up GTI version, to the U.S.  Let’s hope they do, fingers crossed!