March 12th 2008
Celebs Promoting “Green” Qualities of $2 Million Natalia Luxury Vehicle
Filed under: cars-houses, transport — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 3:43 pm
And you thought the $98,000 Telsa Roadster was a bit out of budget. For the price of the Natalia SLS 2, you could open up your own Tesla dealership.
Two years since it was first announced, the car deemed “the world’s most luxurious, expensive and technologically advanced production automobile” is coming together for an expected 2009 release. Some familiar voices are also popping up in press releases exalting the “green” features of the vehicle and heralding the Natalia as the kick-start America needs to stay competitive in the auto industry.
So for $2 million this car must have some serious green cred, right? Well, yes and no. For one thing, this thing is still completely dependent on fuel. Sure, it features a flex-engine capable of using either ethanol, E-85, or gasoline — but it’s a V16 displacing a whopping 14 liters and pushing an outrageous 1,200 horsepower. The press release says the Natalia will offer “excellent gas mileage” by employing variable-cylinder technology and a “cutting edge” fuel delivery system, but I’m not holding my breath. In a time when vehicles like the Tesla Roadster can go 250 miles on a charge with zero emissions — touting the cutting-edge green of a $2 million car that uses gasoline seems to fall a bit flat. Still, celebrities like Willie Nelson and Larry Hagman are offering nothing but praise. From the release,
“I’m excited to see creative car producers exploring fuel sources that can be harvested from Middle America instead of the Middle East,” says country music legend and alternative energy advocate, Willie Nelson. “America can lead the way with renewable and sustainable energy like we once did with oil and gas. This is the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not a freight train!”
“DiMora reminds me of a young Lee Iacocca,” says actor, auto enthusiast, and green energy proponent Larry Hagman, “…conjuring a forgotten time when a name carried meaning and a craftsman’s fingerprints were scattered across every intricacy that goes into making an engine flawlessly hum.”
Other famous names potentially interested in owning their own Natalia include Adrien Brody, Kathy Ireland, and Jay Leno.
I don’t know, even if I was crazy wealthy, I can’t imagine ever throwing $2 million at a car; much less something that was still dependent on oil. What do you think?
Larry Hagman, who rocketed to fame as J.R. Ewing in the hit television show Dallas, briefly visited the Hollywood Goes Green conference today and spoke a bit about his passions for renewable energy. While the 76-year-old actor played an oil tycoon on TV, his personal home doesn’t use a drop of it. In fact, it produces enough energy to power a dozen or more average households. Unbelievably, Larry Hagman has the largest residential solar-power system in the United States — a 102.7KW array that produces 150,000 kilowatt-hours per year!
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