Highlighting the classic conundrum of creating a bespoke luxury car from more plebeian underpinnings is a report from Automotive News that was forced to reject the initial designs for its version of the Nissan Leaf electric car. Apparently, those first attempts, which came in from ’s San Diego styling studio, were too similar to the standard Leaf.
According to Ben Poore, vice president of the North American Infiniti Business Unit, though, those problems are now long gone. “I was in Japan last week and saw the final three or four designs for the car,” assures Poore. “And I can tell you without a doubt that we’re going to have a uniquely Infiniti product.”
So, what kind of “uniquely Infiniti” changes can we expect from the upmarket electric vehicle? Surely there will be styling updates to bring the funky little hatchback more in line with the rest of the Infiniti lineup, and we’d also expect an interior that’s suitably upgraded with more luxurious appointments. Also, Poore suggests that the car must have adequate acceleration and performance in order to satisfy Infiniti’s more demanding clientele.
Predictably, these improvements will bring with them an increase in the Leaf’s . How much more, though, remains to be seen, as does the actual release date of the Infiniti-fettled Nissan Leaf.
By now, we’ve all read the various incarnations of the muscle car shoot-out, which means that had the crew from Motor Trend decided to simply line up the V6 versions of the 2010 , 2010 and 2011 against one another, odds are you could have picked the podium without breaking a sweat (or reading the article). And that’s why we’re guessing the editors decided to throw in the for spice.
At first glance, this feels like the easiest game of “which one doesn’t belong” ever played, but on closer inspection, the Genesis 3.8 looks right at home among Michigan’s Neapolitan pack of muscle cars. The Hyundai boasts 305 horsepower from its sizable V6, which is more than any of the big domestics. How does it fair against the entry Mopar, Bowtie and Blue Oval? We’ll go ahead and spoil it for you by saying that MT didn’t just invite the Korean coupe to the dance. It named it belle of the ball, too.
Why did the Genesis Coupe take the gold, even ahead of re-powered 2011 Mustang? According to MT, the Hyundai simply feels more like a sports car than the rest of the suspects. Funny – we thought they were testing muscle cars…
Chevrolet Cruze Irmscher Edition – Click above for high-res image gallery
Fair is fair. If North American buyers will have the option of equipping their Chevrolet Cruze with the RS sports package – just a couple of weeks ago at the New York Auto Show – when it finally comes home to roost, don’t the Europeans deserve a little something to? After all, they’ve had the Cruze on the market there for a while. So to keep them interested, General Motors’ European operations have teamed up with tuning house Irmscher for a sporty little number of their own.
Irmscher has fitted the Cruze with a 25-mm lowered suspension, a rear spoiler and a set of nifty looking 18-inch turbine-style alloys. But the real news is the car’s freer-flowing exhaust system that gives the 2.0-liter turbodiesel engine a 36-horsepower boost to bring output up to 186hp and the 0-62 mph sprint down to eight seconds flat.
Best of all – for German customers, at least – the Cruze Irmscher Edition can be ordered directly from their Chevrolet dealers. The package was unveiled at the AMI show in Leipzig, Germany.
2011 Ferrari 458 Italia – Click above for high-res image gallery
Chances are you probably haven’t seen the 458 Italia in person in the United States. The company’s newest mid-engined V8 coupe missed out on expected appearances due to Ferrari’s absence at the major auto shows this year, and only top clients and celebrities were invited to the held for the 458 Italia in Southern California last month.
Ferrari did finally show off the 458 Italia to the public this past weekend – not at a major auto show or concours event but rather near the small town of Tooele, Utah. The decision wasn’t completely random, however, as Miller Motorsports Park was hosting the second Ferrari Challenge event of the year.
The 458 Italia was prominently on display next to the garage filled with Corse Clienti and F430 Challenge cars, and it definitely attracted its fare share of attention. Check out the gallery of live photos below, and check back soon for more coverage from the Ferrari Challenge.
2010 Audi S5 Cabriolet – Click above for high-res image gallery
Taking a great looking performance car and chopping off its roof is risky business – compromises are inevitable. That’s especially true in this modern age of unibody structures. Removing a big chunk of a vehicle’s architecture without adequately reinforcing what’s left can yield a chassis incapable of managing the position of the wheels, let alone result in a vehicle that loses its level of driver engagement and enthusiasm. On the other hand, reinforcements add mass – often lots of it. It’s a treacherous path, as both flaccid body control and weight are the mortal enemy of performance.
You can understand our trepidation, then, upon learning that was planning on introducing its S5 Cabriolet at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. By our reckoning, the German debutante’s rollout was cause for both consternation and celebration. When the A5 and S5 coupes arrived in 2007, they were hailed as being among the best looking cars ever to wear the brand’s Four Rings. The new Cabriolet models would bring with them the euphoria of open-air motoring, but we had to wonder – would Audi’s rakish new hardtop be turned into a floppy flier just by giving it a roofectomy? Equally as important, would the model’s newly downsized engine drop the performance? There was only one thing to do: Put the range-topping S5 Cabriolet through a week-long test.
Gallery:
Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
: 2010 Audi S5 Cabriolet speaks too softly, but carries a big stick
ex-USF1/ex-Brawn/ex-Honda transport trailers – Click above for image gallery
Want to start your own Formula One team? There’s space on the grid next season since USF1 failed to make it this year, and we wish you better luck. But it takes more than luck to start a team from scratch. It takes a lot of know-how, a lot of money, and a lot of equipment. That’s where this auction comes in.
About half of the grand prix races on the calendar are based in Europe, so when they’re not flying around the world to far-off destinations, F1 teams spend a lot of time on the road. That’s why the spec out their own trailers, to shuttle their personnel and equipment from track to track across the old continent. When USF1 was gearing up for their endeavor, they bought a pair of trailers from the World Champion Brawn GP team (having apparently been used by the Honda team beforehand) before they evidently got new ones through their acquisition by .
The trailers – which were supposed to be repainted in red, white and blue – never made it that far in USF1’s hands. The team ultimately shut down, and this pair of trailers was seized by the courts in the UK. Now the local sheriff’s department has put them up for sale on eBay Motors. They come equipped with all the bells and whistles, including place for three race cars, elevator platforms to unload them engineering offices, generators, on-board metal lathe milling machine…the works. They don’t, however, come with the tractors to pull them, or the cars they’re meant to transport…or a for that matter. Reportedly worth some £300,000 (nearly half a million dollars) apiece when new, each is selling without reserve to the highest bidder, with current bid prices at the time of writing standing at £16,100 ($25k) and £12,900 ($20k) respectively. Check ‘em out in the auction listing for all the details. Thanks to everyone for the tips!
There are good problems and there are bad problems. dealers across the U.S. are having trouble selling vehicles, but not because of uncompetitive product or industry-wide sales woes. Automotive News reports the reason for Audi’s sales troubles have everything to do with a supply shortage that stems from strong first quarter sales. Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen reportedly told AN that U.S. dealers are “short of everything,” with and supplies running especially low.
Last year, Audi cut U.S. deliveries by 6,000 units due to weak sales here in the States, but the German luxury automaker saw brisk sales in December followed by a first quarter that bested the first three months of 2009 by 35 percent. Audi now has a 29 day supply of product for U.S. dealers; about half the typical 60 day reserve and a third of the 88 day supply of March, 2009. De Nysschen says Audi has allotted an additional 3,000 vehicles to the U.S. for 2010, which should help dealers a bit. That said, we’re thinking Audi isn’t looking to beef up inventories too much considering the fact that the Four-Ringed automaker managed to keep incentives in check at a time when other automakers are dumping truckloads of cash on the hood to boost their sales.
Gallery:
Photos by Dan Roth / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
For now, at least, car sales seem to be on an upward trajectory in the States, and according to AutoTrader, and seem likely to be beneficiaries of the newfound consumer interest. In March, the most viewed new car on AutoTrader remained the Chevrolet , outpacing the and . Now that Ford is releasing all new powertrains for the 2011 Mustangs it will be interesting to see if the Camaro can retain its momentum.
Speaking of momentum, Hyundai continues to pick up velocity with its new Sonata. While the was only ranked 10th overall, it was #1 among mid-sized sedans for the first time ever, beating the standard-bearing , , and . The Sonata jumped from 22nd place in March 2009, while the Accord dropped from seventh to 12th. Another big winner was the new Chevy , with a 186 percent increase in pageviews, taking it from 12th to eighth place overall.
Allan McNish in Audi R15+ – Click above for high-res image gallery
Despite winning in its debut at the 2009 12 Hours of Sebring, last year was not a stellar year for Audi’s Le Mans Prototype program. After a thorough reboot, Audi is trying again this year with the R15+ TDI. The heavily revised R15+ has been testing for two months and this weekend it is competing for the first time at Le Castellet in France for the first round of the Le Mans Series. In qualifying the Audi managed to get onto the front row alongside the first privately run Peugeot 908 fielded by Team Oreca. Follow the jump to find out what happened in the eight-hour race.
2010 BMW 135i – Click above for high-res image gallery
According to , the is selling like tequila at spring break. The small-scale Bimmer may not have exactly received a warm embrace from big-boned Americans, but sales of the 1 have been good enough around the globe the company to build over a million examples. The 1-Series has only been on the market since 2004, and is still in its first generation.
Part of the car’s success is likely due to the wide variety of body styles and engine choices available outside of the States. European buyers can snap up efficient four-cylinder engines, both in gasoline and turbo-diesel guise, as well as functional hatchback versions of the 1. Meanwhile, we get our baby BMW in just two flavors – coupe and – with only two engine options.
Odds are that the car will only get more popular as time goes on. BMW has made it clear that the all-electric ActiveE is headed to lease fleets sometime soon, and that car’s 170 horsepower electric motor is bound to be a welcome addition to the lineup.
BMW Z4 GT3 on a lap of the ‘Ring – Click above to watch video
Richard Göransson of Schubert Motorsport took the around the ‘Ring, and while the thing has a glorious sound the word that kept coming to mind during the 11-minute stint was “handful.” That could have been because Göransson was trying to extract everything he could get from the car in the wet, but our suspicion is that whoever pilots this little racer is going to need steady nerves and quick hands. And don’t get us wrong about that – we’d love the chance to try it our ourselves. for the action.
Hennessey Venom GT – Click above for high-res image gallery
You might say the American automotive industry is divided into two groups: The Big Three, and the rest. That latter category might include up-and-comers like , niche manufacturers like SSC, as well as super-modifiers like Hennessey and wannabes like DiMora. Those last two are hoping to break out obscurity with high-end offerings of their own, and have teamed up along the way to make it happen.
After decades of tuning Vipers and ‘Vettes, recently debuted the new Venom GT, a of Lotus on ‘roids with a supercharged Corvette LS9 V8 mounted amidship. It can be ordered, starting at around $600,00, with 725, 1,000 or even 1,200 horsepower. Sounds exactly right for the Middle East, doesn’t it?
To that effect, Hennessey has signed DiMora – the effort behind the vaporware Natalia SLS super-sedan – to sell the Venom GT in the Middle East and in India, two burgeoning markets for rich toys like this one.
The BMW 6 Series could probably be considered long overdue for a serious makeover, and this one looks to be it. We got , but an intrepid user at the Bimmerpost forum has tracked the thing with a video camera, and the rolling stock looks like it will add to the 6 line. Notice the front is much sleeker, and we’re especially interested in how the rear seems angled slightly upward.
Power from the new 7 Series engines will keep the action brisk, as you’ll see in the vid, but we still aren’t sure how (or if) BMW . for two minutes of spy action.
Put this down as a public service announcement for rich people: A strong loonie is what our neighbors to the north have all been waiting for. Thanks to the loonie’s climb up the currency value charts, has dropped prices of its line by two percent. A Boxster is suddenly $4,000 loonies cheaper than a few months ago, at $55,600 ($55,467 U.S.) vs. $59,600 ($59,457 U.S.), and the number-one-selling Cayenne is now $54,200 ($54,070 U.S.). There’s probably no better time to convince your wife to bring a 911 Turbo home – after all, spend more, save more.
We’ve still got about six and a half months until the official Job One production date for the , but GM’s plug-in savior is popping up on the streets around Detroit. Most of the Volts spotted in public are from the fleet of 80 IVER prototypes GM built last summer; cars with unpainted black bumpers and primer gray finishes. A few of those mules have been completely trimmed out for use as demonstrators such as
This weekend a camera crew from Detroit’s Channel 7 News spotted one of these finished cars. We can’t tell from these photos if this is one of the IVERs or one of the new production validation cars that started rolling out of the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant a couple of weeks ago. Either way, every time we see a Volt in the wild, it feels a bit more real. A tip of the hat to Vince!
It’s true. Those souls that spent the majority of their elementary-school education ratting out their classmates to the teacher may have finally found a new way to be a pain make some money. Several new websites have recently started up, all encouraging people to record license plate numbers they see in their area. The more plates they pull down and enter into the sites, the more cash they make – at least theoretically.
Why would anyone want a boatload of numbers? It depends on the site, but the majority of the operations, including Narc That Car, are pointed toward giving companies up-to-date information on where delinquent borrowers are keeping their vehicles. So if your neighbor is behind on his car payment and you turn in their license plate number, they may be asking you for a ride to work before too long.
Of course, not all of the plate-collecting sites are designed to out people down on their luck. Others, like Data Network Associates, hope to use the information gathered by users to help police quickly locate vehicles during an Amber Alert – a noble cause, even if the way the information is gather is slightly below board.
There may be some reason to take pause, though. Most of the sites pay very little per each plate, but hand out more cash if users help sign up friends and family. If you’re starting to think this sounds an awful lot like a Bluth Company special, you’re not alone. The Better Business Bureau is already taking a hard look at a number of the sites in question, including Narc That Car. When push comes to shove, it pays to remember that what seems too good to be true typically is.
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson with Fifth Gear’s Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson
Been hankering for a little British car show action? So have we. But it looks like we’ve got a few months to go until our favorite shows from the Beeb return with new episodes.
After having been spied filming a segment in Iceland, Top Gear is – according to its own magazine – confirmed to begin airing its latest season this coming June. (In the meantime we can wish Jeremy Clarkson a happy 50th birthday, which he celebrated on Sunday.)
The Top Gear scheduling was rather expected, but it now appears that some setbacks have forced rival program Fifth Gear to be delayed until the same month. The troubled show was expected to air its new season – with a – later this month, but according to an entry on anchor Tiff Needell’s Twitter page, the impending British elections have forced a schedule change. So come June, it looks like we’ll be knickers-deep in British motoring television, but we’ll just have to sit tight until then.
There’s $77 billion owed to the pension plans contributed to by auto industry manufacturers and partner companies and we’re to assume that at least seven billion of that is ’s Voluntary Employment Benefit Association. The way is going, it looks likely to pay that off without needing unsavory assistance. When it comes to ‘ and ’s obligations over the next five years, though, the Government Accountability Office has warned that Uncle Sam still needs to keep a close eye on whether both automaker’s debts will be paid on time.
GM has $12.2 billion in pension liabilities, while Chrysler has $2.62 billion due merely to keep up with obligations over the next five years. Even though they came out of bankruptcy and trimmed their workforces, both are still on the hook for to pay white- and blue-collar pensions. The GAO’s concern is whether they will be profitable enough in the next five years to keep up with those payments. If not, the hook gets transferred to the government to the order of $14.5 billion.
GM appears to be slowly turning its ship, but we’re still in the dark about Chrysler. However, we know the Pentastar has big plans and one figures Marchionne didn’t buy the company just to go bust. That means that at the moment, this is only bell-ringing on the part of the GAO. But don’t take your eyes off the ball, guys.
We all know by now that no matter what the law dictates, those with an interest not in-line with the law will do what they can to work, shall we say, around the law. Wisconsin is said to have one of the highest rates of DUIs and binge drinking, and that probably has something to do with the state’s beer culture. Kids under the age of 21 can drink in public if they’re with a parent or legal guardian, and when you get your first DUI – at any age – it’s treated as a traffic violation, not a criminal act.
Why is that allowed to continue? The theory goes something like this: State legislators are the same kinds of hard drinkers as the general populace and they don’t want to get worked over for DUIs. Said a University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin professor, “There is a live hard, play hard, cut corners, get away with anything you can culture in the Legislature. Driving drunk is just part of a larger political culture of getting away with anything you can.”
Case in point: State rep Jef Wood has been busted three times in less than a year, and plans to defend himself in part by establishing the well populated history of assemblymen caught drunk behind the wheel. That makes it sound like things aren’t going to change any time soon. And makes us think there’s a little bit more going on in those flyover states than one would imagine…
This Tuesday, VP of global powertrain development, Barb Samardzich, will be addressing the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, and Ecoboost technology will again be at the top of her agenda. Samardzich will confirm that before the end of this year three more Ecoboost engines will be in production at Ford, including the 1.6-liter inline-four due to be built at the Bridgend plant in Wales and debut in the new C-Max people mover.
At the Chicago Auto Show it was announced that the new 2.0-liter inline-four will go into the 2011 and during Tuesday’s address Samardzich will also confirm that turbo’d four-pot will find its way into the new unibody as well. That installation should come as no surprise since just such a combination was listed as a powertrain for the when Ecoboost was originally announced.
The final announcement (and one of the worst kept secrets in the industry) will be the confirmation that the 2011 will be available with a 3.5-liter V6 Ecoboost. This will be the first rear-drive Ecoboost application, and brings the total number of announced Ecoboosted vehicles to eight (nine if you count C-Max and Grand C-Max). However, Ford is saying there will be 11 Ecoboost vehicles this year, with the one likely candidate for the 2.0-liter and the Mondeo may get one of the four cylinder units as well.
Samardzich will also announce that Ford has upped its Ecoboost production target from 1.3 million to 1.5 million by 2013 – not bad when you consider when Ecoboost was first announced Ford was targeting 750,000 units.
