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Maybe its just me, or does anyone else find Miss Australian faintly unattractive in a strange, 'I would love to bring you home to meet my Mother...but........' way?

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It's the lovely Craigette!

In Portland Oregon, the woman here need to shave. They are kind of hairy.

Here is Miss Portland

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lol...somewhere this thread completely went off the track! not that I am complaining....I needed a good laugh on my Birthday!

Eric: To me here is the best super car in the world. Certainly not produced in Italy.

1000 horsepower
237 mile per hour top end.

John F. Shireman

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The Bugatti Veyron costs around $1.4 million and is built at a loss for Volkswagen. Magnificent German engineering ....but it's play at Italian heritage rings false. What a shame they took Giugiaro's original styling and handed it over to a designer from Skoda.... it has too many "production car" styling touches...that front end could be an Alfa sedan.

Personally I'd chose the real thing...the Maserati MC12 Stradale. And it's only $800.000.... the claimed top speed is a little slower than the Bugatti at 205mph vs. 235... but I'm sure it could be tweaked...
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v33/ronaldo/?action=view¤t=Maserati_MC12_Stradale.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v33/ronaldo/Maserati_MC12_Stradale.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

...or I could ante up $2.5 million and buy a Ferrari FXX....

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From today's NYTimes:

Chrysler's New Ally Takes a Pragmatic Approach

By BILL VLASIC

DETROIT -- The last two times Chrysler was sold -- to Daimler-Benz in 1998 and to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007 -- its new owners promised nothing less than a remarkable renaissance for the smallest of Detroit's Big Three.

But Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of the Fiat Group, the Italian carmaker, has no such grand visions for his company's prospective alliance with Chrysler. His company's plan to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler is accompanied by a blunt assessment of its prospects.

"I think Chrysler has all the prerequisites to survive," Mr. Marchionne said Monday in an interview. "But the bigger issue is, What does it look like two or three years from now? It's not as if Fiat is going to show up and Cinderella is going to be magically turned into something else."

Chrysler has been struggling to avoid bankruptcy since last year, when it joined General Motors and Ford in asking for federal aid to make it through the worst downturn in the United States auto industry in more than 25 years.

Chrysler has received $4 billion in government loans, and is counting on getting an additional $3 billion by April to stay in business.

For Chrysler, its deal with Fiat -- announced last month -- is the linchpin of its turnaround effort.

In exchange for a 35 percent stake, Fiat will let Chrysler build small cars using a number of its "platforms" -- the automobile industry term for the mechanical underpinnings of a vehicle, including engines -- so that Chrysler can broaden its lineup beyond large pickups, S.U.V.'s and minivans. This current mix is one reason Chrysler's sales have fallen so quickly over the last year.

The deal will also allow Fiat to re-enter the American market, from which it withdrew in 1984, and to eventually build Fiat and Chrysler models together on assembly lines in the United States and Europe.

The talks between Chrysler and Fiat started last summer when it completed a deal to buy a Chrysler engine plant in Brazil.

Mr. Marchionne, Fiat's chief executive since 2004, said he had no designs to become involved with Chrysler on a large scale.

But after initial discussions with Thomas W. LaSorda, a Chrysler vice chairman, Mr. Marchionne said he started seeing a Chrysler-Fiat alliance as a logical combination for both parties.

"We're not doing this because we're good Samaritans," Mr. Marchionne said. "We're willing to take a risk on investing technology and time to help Chrysler come back to life and bring value to Fiat shareholders."

After meeting in recent days with Chrysler executives at company headquarters in suburban Detroit, Mr. Marchionne offered a utilitarian appraisal of how the two automakers could help each other.

"We have to get back to being metal bashers," he said. "We need to go back to some simple rules of making and selling cars."

Mr. Marchionne, 56, has taken just such a basic approach to remaking Fiat from a bloated conglomerate into a leaner, more focused competitor in the European auto market.

Previously head of the Swiss industrial testing company SGS Group, he was recruited by members of Fiat's founding Agnelli family to shake up the auto company. Mr. Marchionne promptly unwound an unsuccessful alliance with G.M., and divested the company of airline, insurance and banking divisions that he said had distracted Fiat from the car business.

An outsider in the clubby Italian business establishment, Mr. Marchionne is plain-spoken and informal. Instead of suits, he favors open-collared shirts and cashmere sweaters. He unapologetically conducts interviews while working his way through a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

He sees Chrysler's problems -- too much capacity, no access to capital, a need for more fuel-efficient vehicles -- as symptoms of an industrywide illness.

"We all have to do the restructuring that is needed, no matter how painful," he said. "We have to be willing to restructure to make sure that we can sell what we build."

With the right products, he said Chrysler could make money on its 11 percent share of the United States market, even if industry sales remained depressed.

Analysts say they think that Fiat's small-car expertise could at least give Chrysler the opportunity to make a transition from its dependence on larger vehicles.

"Fiat's inclusion into the future equation allows Chrysler a technology and economies-of-scale lifeline," said Michael Robinet, head of global vehicle forecasts for CSM Worldwide. "But other daunting challenges remain."

Fiat itself is profitable, but the company has made no commitment to put cash into Chrysler. Instead, Fiat will offer vehicle platforms that Chrysler can modify with its own designs and interiors to appeal to fuel-conscious American consumers.

Industry observers who were ready to write Chrysler off as a lost cause see Mr. Marchionne's back-to-basics approach as its only hope.

"He appears to have done a remarkable job in getting Fiat's quality and sales back up," said Jerome York, a former Chrysler executive who has advised the billionaire Kirk Kerkorian on his investments in the auto industry.

But it will take at least two years before Fiat cars can be remade into Chrysler models. Mr. Marchionne sidestepped questions on whether an additional $3 billion in government loans would be enough to keep the company solvent until then.

He said that it was "up to Chrysler" to negotiate lower labor costs with the United Automobile Workers and to shrink its debt to qualify for more loans.

And Mr. Marchionne is unfazed by some in Congress who question whether American taxpayers should lend more money to Chrysler if it benefits a foreign automaker.

He said that Fiat could eventually get a majority ownership stake in Chrysler if certain goals were achieved.

"We are not asking for anything from Chrysler," Mr. Marchionne said. "We're not going to take any of its money. We're offering platforms, engines and a distribution network outside of North America, in exchange for an equity position. Really, the risk is all on us."

nytimes.com/2009/02/03/business/03fiat.html

I am sure that Ferrari made tons of money when they built the Enzo and the next generation Enzo the FXX.

At a mere $250,000 with a top speed of 203 mph and with a 0 to 60 time of 3.2 seconds the Lamborghini Gallardo seems to be right up there with the Maserati MC12.

Sometimes something that maybe real expensive might not be worth the purchase price.

John F. Shireman

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Heck, if we're talking the ultimate in luxury, we might as well look at the Maybach. I'd take one, but I couldn't afford the insurance, let alone the car! (I'm a broke-a$$ed white boy, remember??)