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[extract] This is the Mansory Cormeum. It was originally the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG but in the hands of Kourosh Mansory, owner and head honcho of Mansory, the SLS AMG gets a new nose aside from a wide arch body kit. The Cormeum, named after an opera solo performance or aria, tries to fit the earlier Mercedes Benz SLR's nose into the SLS AMG together with the front headlights from a Ferrari 599. Looks like nothing is sacrilege these days

What we have here is Edo Competition's wide body Panamera Turbo that is actually trying to hide its extra width and girth (as well as its looks) in the snow. This may be quite achievable as recent snowfall over in Europe had hit record highs causing lots of havoc in most countries over there. The blue whale-like looks are courtesy of a wide arch body kit that makes the Porsche Panamera Turbo look like it can swallow and spit out the bare shells of smaller cars via the car's quadruple exhaust pipes. It also has big fat tires on 22inch alloy rims as well as a tuned and lowered suspension setup that is quite necessary as Edo Competition has tweaked and massaged the Panamera's turbocharged 4.8liter V8 until it now makes 750hp from a 'measly' 500. The interior of the Panamera also gets a workout. It now sports cream leather, brushed aluminium inserts and something that looks like pinstriped wood on the center console, dashboard and steering wheel. And I thought pinstripes are only suitable for a very bespoke Saville Row suit. It does bring about a sense of occasion and a whole lot of nostalgia to the Panamera's cabin, making it look like a Riva speed boat instead of a car's interior. But Edo shouldn't have stuck that 'turbo' badge at the base of the steering wheel, it makes the car look like a 1980's vacuum cleaner instead (those days every appliance had the word 'turbo' plastered over it. ts Anyway, the verdict on the exterior of this Porsche Panamera make-over by Edo Competition stands as something brutish, vulgar and borderline distasteful. But I do know some out there would like it because it is brutish, vulgar and borderline beautiful. The verdict on the interior is another thing though. It looks good. Aside from that little 'turbo' badging that is.

The BMW 5 series Gran Turismo is one niche-mobile too far in terms of looks. The 5 series GT has the very blunt looking front end styling of previous generation E65 7 series as well as its ride height and the X6 styling from the A pillar rearwards. It is actually the illegitimate love child of these two BMWs but somehow, like most BMW niche-mobiles it will sell decently well. But this article isn't about making the 5 series GT sound like a total abomination as it is about HAMANN-Motorsport's reworking of it. So I will try to stop giving it a hard time for now. It has been stated that the F07 (the internal codename for the 5 series GT) was specifically designed with the United States market in particular. Which actually explains the size (larger than a 5 series sedan but slightly smaller than a 7 series) and its weird niche marketing looks. So HAMANN has decided to make the car into something a little more chic, more stylish, more sporty and of course more power. So we start by looking at the 'chic' and 'stylish' part of the modification first. Front splitter, side skirts, rear diffuser type valence with room for four 90mm tailpipes and a rear wing make the car look a little more aggressive as well as looking a little lower to the ground when coupled with the lowering kit. This lowering kit works with the standard air suspension that is fitted on the 530d, 535i and 550i versions and make the car look even less like a lowered X6 Sports SUV and more like what a 5 series is supposed to look like. The kit also adds as one of the wheel options the HAMANN Anniversary-Evo steamroller 22inch wheels and tires to complete it. 9.0inches wide in front on 265/30ZR22 tires and 10.5inches wide at the rear riding on 295/25ZR22 tires. So with the body kit and large wheels, it does look sportier than before. But it is still a little dumpy looking, to me that is. I suppose this is the best HAMANN could do with the F07. For the power part, HAMANN has also developed a tuning kit for the 530d which makes 275bhp from the standard 245bhp. Torque figures goes up from 540Nm to a tree pulling 620Nm at a fabulously low 1,750rpm. The petrol powered cars will most probably have the standard ECU tuning, air intake and exhaust systems to make petrol heads happy too.