All posts in “Marketing/Advertising”

Dealer says he sold LeBron James a Bugatti. LeBron replies: ‘LIARS!’

It’s news in the automobile chat rooms when LeBron James buys a new Bugatti.

It’s news as well when LeBron James doesn’t buy a new Bugatti.

Seems that a California high-end dealership “congratulated” the NBA legend for all to see on Instagram about his “purchase,” bragging that James was their “biggest VIP customer.’’ Turns out none of that was true — it’s the car-dealer equivalent of stolen valor.

“Stop the [cap]!! LIARS!!” James shot back on his own post, aiming his blast at the Effortless Motors dealership in Riverside. “I don’t know y’all and I don’t even have that car. CLOUT CHASERS.’’ James also shared a video posted by the dealer showing a car being loaded onto a truck. No details on that vehicle or on the supercar James purportedly bought.

TMZ Sports said it spoke with Effortless Motors owner Daniel Ubario, who admitted that the uproar was part of a marketing ploy, and that he didn’t expect the angry reaction from James … or from his legion of fans who took to social media to bash Ubario.

Ubario also said that he’d not worked with LeBron in any capacity in the past.

Aston Martin updates its logo for the eighth time in its history

Whoa, easy on the squinting there, folks. We know, the new Aston Martin logo looks basically the same as the old one. But we promise, it has changed. Here, take a look at the old one (below, left) next to the new one (below, right).

Aston Martin Badge 2003Aston Martin Badge 2022

There, now do you see it? Aston dropped the single vertical line at the bottom and the inverted arch. Also, the lines are thicker. It’s like Aston Martin highlighted the badge and clicked “bold.” It also happens to be the eighth redesign of the logo. The original appeared on Astons in 1920, with subsequent designs launching in 1927, 1930, 1932, 1954, 1984, 2003, and now. You can see all of them in order below.

Aston probably wouldn’t be that put off by us describing the new logo as the old one, but “bold,” because the company’s new tag line follows suit: “Intensity. Driven.” Yes, the tag line is basically a synonym for “bold.”

Aston Martin ValkyrieAston Martin Valhalla

Aston says the new branding is part of a new focus on providing luxury cars with maximum performance. It also seems to reflect the brand’s upcoming roster of mid-engine sports cars with the F1-inspired Valkyrie (above, left), now in production, and the less extreme Valhalla (above, right), the latter of which will start deliveries in 2024.

The new badging will appear on the Aston Martin F1 cars, and will also appear on these new-generation Aston sports cars.

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McCall Motorworks Revival Photos | Monterey kicks off with fancy airport party

Yesterday, the McCall’s Motorworks Revival happened, for the 30th time no less, kicking off Monterey Car Week. Which is another way of saying it happened before most people showed up. 

So what is it? Fancy cars parked among fancy planes while fancy people walk about with fancy food and cocktails. This differs from other Monterey events, such as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, in that it takes place at an airport rather than a golf course. It’s also more of an evening affair than a garden party, complete with a DJ, a band and dancing. Oh, and the cars are less impressive. That, admittedly, says more about the prime metal displayed elsewhere, especially at Pebble. There’s still a lot to ogle, even if you didn’t get to enjoy the fancy food and cocktails. We dispatched ace photographer Drew Phillips to take it all in and to put down an offer for us on that Citation Longitude. 

Amongst the new cars on display, most brought there by their manufacturers, we see a Corvette Stingray, Lucid Air, Aston Martin DBX, Land Rover Defender, Polestar 1, Hennessey Venom F5, Ruf 911s, and a big showing by Ford with a GT500, a Mustang Mach-E, a Bronco and multiple GTs. Two were done up to match an original parked alongside it, while the Bronco flanked an original prototype from 1966. Neat. Hopefully no one spilled Perrier Jouet on it. 

Classics? There were aplenty, but frankly, we’re most fond of the two VW buses: one towing the No. 22 1957 Denzel 1300SS Roadster in front of that Citation Longitude and another from Meyers Manx supporting an adorable flying boat with “Smiles for Miles” written on the side. Now that’s the kind of private plane I could get behind.  

Try to spot the new Porsche 911 GT3 in this Super Bowl commercial

When Porsche chose YouTube for the reveal of its Super Bowl commercial, the biggest news was the Stuttgart sports car maker returning to The Big Game after 24 years away. Depending on whether you’re more interested in the annual commercial-palooza or the products therein, Porsche hid even bigger newness inside “The Heist:” A sneak peek of the 992-series 911 GT3. As far as we can tell, Motor1 was first to catch the trickery, a Porsche rep confirming the subterfuge to Motor Trend. The presentation begins at 43 seconds in the video above, ending at 49, the culprit being the blue coupe on the lift above the yellow GT2 RS.

What can we tell from these snapshots? That the prototypes haven’t lied. It’s real busy in back, with a high-rise wing above a ducktail spoiler. The current 911 GT3 uses a pair of solid supports at the base of the engine cover supporting the wing from the bottom. Prototypes we’ve seen of the new GT3 fit a pair of thick stanchions set higher up on the body, next to the backlight, that clamp the wing top and bottom. Our guess is engineers needed to make room for the ducktail spoiler across the width of the car. We can’t quite make out the arrangement on the GT3 in the commercial, but it looks like the prototype plinths have been shaved down to a pair of thin braces next to the rear glass. Beneath all that, the rear bumper shows the same recessed section across its width. And an inordinate amount of the coupe’s flanks is taken up by big, 10-spoke, center-lock wheels fronting giant rotors.

Curiously, the GT3 Touring prototypes spotted at the Nürburgring lack both the big rear wing and the ducktail spoiler.   

Don’t be surprised at a Geneva Motor Show reveal in March. Technical specs have homed in on a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six with up to 550 horsepower, the choice of a manual transmission, and a speculated ‘Ring lap time of around seven minutes, which would take about 12 seconds off the current car’s time.

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