This a project I did a few days ago about modelling a real car for practice.
The model of the car is an Audi R8. I also wanted to practice the shaders and lighting.
I used an HDRI for lighting, I used the one for the background here http://www.germanimation.de/TingelTongel/.
Modelled in Maya and Rendered using Mental Ray.
Cheers ;)
Audi R8 Azul