products are no strangers to hydraulics, but models that get the height-altering technology usually go by names like Impala or Caprice, not – and they are usually decades old, not 2010 models.
We say ‘usually’ because apparently an Arizona lad has gone and thrown some extra pistons underneath his gunmetal gray Camaro SS, and the result is a pony car that goes from limbo to lofty in a couple of secs. It nothing else, we can’t help but think it’d make a great doppelganger Decepticon for Transformers 3. to check out the vid, but sadly, there’s no three-wheel motion on display
has confirmed to Autoblog that the won’t remain the only efficiency-minded member of the S-Class family for long. The S350 Bluetec will be coming to the U.S. market for 2011 as the first diesel S-Class since the mid-1990s. The S350 will use the same 3.5-liter turbodiesel V6 already used in Mercedes’ ML, GL and R-Class SUVs. That engine is rated at 210 horsepower and 400 pound-feet and includes a urea injection system to treat the NOx emissions in the exhaust.
We expect the S350 to at least match – if not beat – the we achieved with the S400 gas-electric earlier this year, and it will probably have similar performance thanks to its exceptional torque. There is no word on pricing, but we anticipate it will sticker at or below the S400’s $87,950 base price for 2010.
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Photos Copyright (C)2010 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
Tribute 2010 Chevrolet Camaro – Click above for high-res image gallery
It’s easy to forget that while we spend day-in and day-out banging on QWERTYs and chasing our tails as automotive rumors get confirmed, then denied, then confirmed again, that there are men and women all over the world working to keep us safe and protect our families and our way of life. It’s , so regardless of where you stand in the political spectrum, it’s worth taking some time out of your day to say in your life.
We’re fortunate enough to live in a country where military service isn’t mandatory, and we all owe a debt to the souls that that have volunteered to serve in our nation’s armed forces. So take some time between your burgers and beers to pay your respects those that have fallen in the line of duty and honor those that are serving right now.
We recently published some renderings of what a variant of the new might look like, and we now have our first actual photos of the real thing undergoing testing. While it (predictably) doesn’t feature the two-door shooting brake layout we might have hoped for, it actually does look quite close to the four-door image. Hyundai designers appear to have opted for more of a sporty slant-back look like the Avant wagons than the more utilitarian box we typically get from .
When the Sonata launches in Europe, it is expected to adopt the current iXX naming convention used there to become the i40 Kombi. Europeans will apparently get the wagon first, followed by the sedan. At present, it remains unclear if the wagon will ever arrive in the States. From what we can see through the camo, the i40 will get a different grille from the North American model, as well as a different treatment around the base of the A-pillar. At least on this prototype, the Euro-version has chrome trim that wraps around the mirror, while the chrome on the American variant extends straight down to the trailing edge of the headlamp cluster.
The government of the United States may be actively avoiding any direct involvement in the day-to-day management of , but that doesn’t mean it won’t have a say when the time comes for the automaker to go public again. According to The Detroit News, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has hired investment bank Lazard Frères & Co. to provide it with advice on the initial public offering process.
While both General Motors and the Treasury would obviously both like the latter to unload the majority stake it owns in the automaker as soon as possible, that process needs to be done carefully. Political and public perception considerations point to an early IPO, but that may not be the smartest thing to do from a business perspective. Selling before its clear that GM’s recovery is well underway could lead to getting too low a share price. The bank will reportedly also look at other options for disposing of the 61 percent shareholding.
According to the report, Lazard Frères & Co. will get paid $500,000 a month for the first year and $250,000 per month after that if the sale hasn’t yet been completed. Estimates from various sources are that the treasury will face losses of $25-30 billion on the bailouts of GM, and GMAC.
BMW sound engineer Manuel Reichle and the 635d – Click above for high-res image gallery
When considering how to go about improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions, we typically think of smaller engines, alternative fuels and electrification. One area that doesn’t typically come to mind is that of sound design and acoustics. While the noises produced by a vehicle don’t directly affect fuel efficiency, soundtracks are important because they are often a prime determinant in whether a given powertrain solution is acceptable to drivers and passengers.
Companies like , , and others have been actively pursuing mechanisms of controlling noise at the source in order to create more flexibility for modifying the powertrains. A key example is the with its 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder gasoline engine. GM added so it could allow the engine to spend more time running at lower speeds where the engine tends to make more of a low booming sound. Without the noise cancellation technology, the engine’s sountrack would turn off drivers.
Similarly, BMW has been carefully studying the structures of engine blocks and engine bays. Careful application of ribs and tuning of the structural shapes have allowed these structures to be made lighter without risk of excessive vibration. Similarly, adding insulation materials closer to the engine also reduces the amount needed overall as well as facilitating the use of other types of engines that might be inherently noisier.
All of these factors play into making more efficient vehicles that are appealing to customers. After all, if consumers don’t want to buy a vehicle for reasons that have nothing to do with function, all of the efficiency advantages they might offer will be left stuck in ‘park.’
2010 Indianapolis 500 – Click above for high-res image gallery
Memorial Day weekend is always a great for racing fans. Formula 1 typically has its Grand Prix of Monaco on that Sunday, (although this year it was the Turkish GP taking the calendar slot), NASCAR has the annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” takes the IndyCar Series to its namesake venue, the Indianapolis Speedway for the eponymous Indianapolis 500.
The 2010 Indy 500 is billed as part of the Centennial Era races, celebrating the birth of the track in 1909 and the first 500 held in 1911. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built by Indiana businessmen Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby, and Frank H. Wheeler as a testing grounds to help bolster Indiana’s burgeoning automotive industry. It wasn’t long before racing became the raison d’être for the facility. The original tar and gravel surface was quickly replaced by 3.2 million bricks when safety became a concern.
The first 500-mile race took place on May 30, 1911, when Ray Harroun shocked everyone, unprecedentedly going solo in his Marmon “Wasp,” the rest of the field using ride-along mechanics. Harroun’s car was actually considered a safety risk without that passenger, but it made up for it by introducing a major automotive safety device. The Wasp, you see, was fitted with the industry’s first rearview mirror. The average speed in that first Brickyard endurance race was a stupefying 74.602 miles per hour. This year’s polesitter, three-time and defending race-winner Helio Castroneves, won last year’s Indy 500 at more than twice that speed, 150.318 mph.
While speeds are way up, much at Indy has remained the same. The 500 is about tradition as much as anything, and so on this Memorial Day, 33 cars once again lined up, set to challenge each other, the track, and fate – crossing the bricks 200 times to complete 500 miles around the2.5-mile-long squared oval. Follow the jump to see how the 2010 Indianapolis 500 went down in the history books.
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[Images: Tom Strattman, Mike Groll, Darron Cummings, Jeff Roberson, Steve Metz (AP), Chris Howell, Nick Laham, Jonathan Ferrey, Robert Laberge, Chris Graythen (Getty Images)]
2010 Turkish Grand Prix – Click above for high-res image gallery
That a driver’s chief rival is his teammate is one of the most pervasive and enduring truisms in grand prix racing. And lest we forget, constant reminders of this accelerate into view throughout the season. This one especially.
Whether the rivalry is between McLaren’s “dream team” of world champions; the returning champion and his young wingman at Mercedes; the ascendant frontrunners at Red Bull; or the hot-blooded duo at Ferrari, we’re certainly not lacking for examples, without even dipping into the deep well of motor racing history. This weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix was certainly no exception. Follow the jump to see what we mean.
Honda has high hopes for China, as the automaker plans to increase sales from a projected 630,000 units in 2010 to 830,000 in 2012. Before it can focus on hitting those targets, however, Honda’s got to deal with a growing labor issue in China.
Automotive News reports that Honda shut down all four of its Chinese factories through at least yesterday, May 29 due to a labor strike. The latest problem arose when 1,850 Honda parts workers walked off the job on May 17. This ultimately forced Honda to temporarily shutter two plants in Guangzhou on May 24. On the 26th, the automaker followed suit with another factory in Guangzhou, as well as one in Wuhan.
Automotive News quotes Honda spokesperson Yasuko Matsuura as saying the striking parts workers seek a raise from about 1,500 yuan ($219 in U.S. funds) per month to somewhere between 2,000 ($293 U.S.) and 2,500 yuan ($366) – basically equivalent to the wages earned by workers at Honda’s Chinese auto-assembly plants. That’s a big jump on a percentage basis, but it’s still a fraction of what Honda pays in more developed markets. For perspective, if you include benefits the typical Honda worker in Marysville, OH likely costs the company over $366 per day.
The bigger problem for Honda and other automakers is that, according to Chang-Hee Lee of the Internal Labor Organization in Beijing, “China is experiencing a labor shortage that’s shifting the natural bargaining power to workers.” We’re thinking automakers that have invested billions of dollars in China will be pretty unhappy if a long-term worker shortage leads to steadily increasing labor rates.
So, you’ve found a car that catches your eye. It’s attractive, has the features you want and is priced within your budget. Slam dunk, right? Perhaps, but a recent telephone survey administered by Consumer Reports proves that a number of additional factors can affect the decision to purchase a new car… and we don’t mean cup holders.
Among the factors tilting the scales in any particular automaker’s favor is brand loyalty, though that the desire to purchase another vehicle from the same brand varies widely between men and women as well as by age group. That aside, the most likely attributes to get a buyer to switch brands are higher quality and better fuel economy.
Also important are a lower price, a better safety record and more standard equipment. Of course, we’d like to think comprehensive automotive reviews can sway buyer preference too…
1997 Ford Escort Rally Car – Click above for high-res image gallery
Long before the and came to prominence in the world of rallying, the Escort often dominated the world’s backwoods trails. Today’s eBay Find of the Day is one of the last of the line before Ford retired the Escort nameplate after nearly three decades.
This 1997 Escort Cosworth did okay, but it really wasn’t one of the more successful in the line. It first competed in 1997 and ran until 2006, when it was used in the X-Games rally competition. The 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four produces over 300 horsepower and 400 foot-pounds of torque. The car currently has a seven-speed FFD gearbox installed, but the original six-speed unit is included in the deal, as is an extra engine and numerous other spares. The starting point is $60,000, and there were no bids on the car as of this writing.
Diving into an extremely competitive and capital-intensive business in which customers generally don’t appreciate having access to beta products is not a good way to enhance your personal fortune. In fact, if Elon Musk is being honest in the latest court filings related to his divorce proceedings, it looks like a great way to vaporize a fortune.
After selling Paypal to eBay in 2002, Musk and his partners netted $1.5 billion. An unknown portion of that went to Musk, who promptly turned around and invested several hundred million into not one, but three enterprises: , SpaceX and SolarCity. Neither Tesla nor SpaceX are generating enough revenue yet to be self-sustaining. The last we heard from someone inside Tesla, the company was selling about 20-30 Roadsters a month for likely revenue of under $4 million, plus whatever it’s getting from Daimler for Smart ED battery packs.
Apparently Musk isn’t personally self-sustaining either, claiming that he has $200,000 per month in expenses and $8,255 in income, presumably from his CEO salaries at Tesla and SpaceX. Musk’s filings also list only $650,000 in liquid assets. Given that disparity, it seems like there might be at least a bit of leeway to cut back a bit. At any rate, Musk claims that he has had to start taking personal loans from friends to make ends meet.
Needless to say, Musk’s estranged wife Justine sees the family finances a bit differently, and the reality is likely somewhere in between. If Musk’s financial position is, in fact, as strained as he says, he’ll want to complete the Tesla IPO as soon as possible just so that he can cash out some of his position.
America’s greatest truck isn’t sitting in some showroom. It’s not the one that wins the latest Big Time Magazine comparo, either. Nor is it the one that ranks highest in some tailor-made-for-PR survey results. The best truck in America is the one you see above. Okay, not this one specifically. Think of this 108,000-mile 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 as an archetype: the friend’s truck, or more plainly, the truck you can always borrow.
I borrowed this one earlier today for a messy trip to the dump. Sure, all the filth-ridden junk would have fit in the family SUV, but cleanup would have been a nightmare, and my truck-owning buddy lives just around the corner. “Sure thing. Come on by,” he says every time I ask to borrow it. And every time I use that truck, I desperately want one of my own. But the truth is, another ride’s just not in the cards right now, so The Borrowed Truck is king. It is beloved. Long may it live.
And now, it’s reader participation time. Do you have a strong relationship with a borrowed truck yourself? Let’s hear about it.
The resounding successes of the iPhone and iPad have Apple shareholders dancing in the streets, but one area in which Apple hasn’t been as successful, however, has been business applications. In fact, until recently, Apple retail stores used Windows-based devices to ring up orders. Now, aims to be among the first companies to change that paradigm by bringing the popular iPad tablet into its showrooms.
The program, called Mercedes-Benz Advantage, puts the iPad into the hands of the automaker’s sales force. With the iPad and Mercedes’ new sales tool app, associates will have lightning-fast access to the latest deals, while also providing a quicker turnaround time for customer credit application processes. Benz also says the iPad will help speed up the time it takes to turn-in a leased vehicle. Andreas Hinrichs, Vice President of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Financial, contends the Apple tablet will “provide a competitive advantage to our dealers by increasing their service levels through a more flexible financing process.”
We dig that Mercedes is thinking outside the box to deliver an expedited shopping experience, but even better, we love the fact that the Apple iPad might help customers avoid the dreaded trip to dealership’s finance room. Hit the jump to read over the press release.
Cobra Technology and Lifestyle dual-mode exhaust – Click above to watch video
German tuner Cobra Technology and Lifestyle has developed a range of aesthetic and performance parts for the coupe and roadster. One of them is an exhaust with a remote-controlled butterfly valve that allows the driver to control how loud it bellows. Delivering the same kind of effect you’d get by revving an Aston above 4,500 rpm, you can buy 120-mm pipes with a flap that ranges from “discrete sportiness to pure racing sound.”
You can check it the sound range in the video . Even with the flaps open it doesn’t seem bad at all, but it might still come in handy for those hamlets where any kind of .
The is old and tired, and in a few months, it’ll be replaced by the vastly superior . While the Cobalt may (deservedly) have an inferiority complex regarding its successor, Chevy’s generic sedan has one feather in its cap that the Cruze may never earn: the Cobalt has officially served as a (very) mobile delivery room.
Amanda McBride, Minnesotan and Chevy Cobalt driver, was in labor and driving to the hospital when it became apparent that her baby had an entirely different timetable in mind. Amanda wasn’t going to make it to the hospital. So, did she pull over and give birth on the roadside? Well, no. Instead, McBride told the baby’s father, who can’t drive due to a medical condition, to grab the wheel. She quickly pulled down her pants and . In the driver’s seat. According to McBride, the baby “just slid out.” We’re pretty certain that this is distracted driving at its zenith.
Anyhow, Chevy’s pretty excited about all the free Cobalt publicity for McBride, and to extend the news cycle make things a bit easier for the new mom, is springing for a year’s worth of diapers, a stroller, child seats and unspecified quantities of toys and clothing. See? Driving a Cobalt apparently does have its advantages.
2009 Buick Business Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
For years , has produced the GL8 minivan for the Chinese market. It’s based on the late-1990s Pontiac Trans Sport. With that van being severely outdated for the better part of a decade now, Buick’s just about ready to replace it with an all-new design. The new GL8 (we don’t yet know if the name badge will carry over) has been spotted out testing and it looks very much like the Buick Business Concept that debuted last year in Shanghai.
One of the more interesting visual elements of the concept was its dipped beltline, similar to those on the and the more recent concept. The interior of the Buick van looks very upscale, in keeping with what we’ve seen in the new and .
Considering that the prototype in the spy photos still doesn’t have completed light clusters, it’s likely that the GL8 replacement won’t officially debut until next year’s Shanghai show.
2011 Nissan Juke – Click above for high-res image gallery
It’s a big day for the upcoming . Not only did drop UK pricing details on its little run about, but the company also dumped a smattering of new photos on the interwebs at the same time. If you happen to find yourself living in the old empire and want to lay your hands on the new crossover, get ready to shell out around £12,795 for the base model. That equates to around $18,500 at current conversion rates, but includes Britain’s 17.5 percent Value Added Tax. Subtract the VAT and the base MSRP would be around $15,250. That’s a reasonable baseline comparison, but of course, there are other market-specific factors to consider in a price comparison.
The base model packs a 117 horsepower 1.6-liter gasoline engine, though a 110 horsepower diesel mill is also available in ol Blighty. Step up to the 190 horsepower turbocharged 1.6-liter and all-wheel drive, and you’re looking at a final price tag of £19,995 – around $23,850 after converting from the mighty pound and ditching the VAT. At that price point, buyers are treated to a new XTRONIC with torque-vectoring all-wheel drive.
Those numbers should give us a feel for how the 2011 Nissan Juke will be priced once it hits our shores, though don’t hold us to it. The oddly styled Juke is deceptively small and will likely straddle the various segments in the entry-level class. Off-hand, we can see it doing battle with the forthcoming , the , inexpensive ‘box’ cars like the , along with basic hatchbacks.
Be sure to check the gallery for the rash of new photos, for the full press release, and most importantly, vote on where you think the Juke needs to be priced when it comes in the states in our poll below.
Lotus Europa – Click above for high-res image gallery
Given the recent launch of the more practical , it shouldn’t come as surprise that will be ceasing production of the ill-fated Europa later this year. According to our sources, European dealers have stopped taking orders for the Elise-based coupe and production will wind down within the next few months to fill what few orders remain.
Just as a refresher, the Europa launched in 2006 with a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four putting out around 200 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque, and in hindsight, it was likely a stopgap used by Lotus to fill the need for a larger, more compliant coupe before the Evora debuted last year. Three variants were available, including the S and SE, the latter of which got a boost in output to 220 hp and an equal amount of torque in early 2008. We never got a shot behind the wheel, but judging by , there’s no love lost.
Are there any among us that don’t dream of that elusive barn find? As far as we’re concerned, locating an ancient board track racer, Shelby Cobra or even the odd would be a life-changing event. For attendees of the upcoming Fairfield County Concours d’Elegance on September 12, 2010, such a find will at least get you .
So… just what is an eligible barn find? Says Tom Cotter, widely recognized enthusiast of the genre and author of several books on the subject including the imaginatively named The Cobra in the Barn and The Hemi in the Barn, that would be “a vehicle that has been previously unknown, or known and unattainable, or discovered through obscure means; all with a great story.” Such an example (in this case a classic and apparently the subject of Cotter’s next book, named… well, we’ll let you figure that one out) can be seen above.
Have such a machine in mind? No problem, just be sure that the car is in the exact same condition as it was when you found it; no 100-point restorations allowed in this category. You’ve got until July 1st to get your submission in, and only 20 vehicles will be chosen for the show. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some serious scavenging to do…
For years , has produced the GL8 minivan for the Chinese market. It’s based on the late-1990s 
