Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 – Click above for high-res image gallery
Automakers try to keep upcoming models secret, meting out limited details on their own terms until the vehicle in question makes its debut. But the best laid plans of mice and men, wrote Steinbeck, often go awry. And in many cases, it’s government agencies that can be held responsible, whether it’s or a patent offices releasing regulatory sketches.
In this case, it appears to be the Environmental Protection Agency and its website, which has apparently let slip the arrival of the . The information in the EPA data sheet is roughly the same as the existing coupe’s, but it’s not these sorts of details that count here. After all, how many drivers are really that concerned with fuel economy or carbon emissions?
Now, this should come as no surprise, as we’ve been expecting the open-air Lambo to arrive at some point, particularly since its predecessors – the and Diablo before it – offered convertible models. But this appears to be our first real confirmation.
Buick Enclave and LaCrosse – Click either image for high-res gallery
To help build the brand, has turned the Opel Insignia into a , and in the fall, the will become the . These new products are proving to be a shot in the arm for Buick, but will the magic work the other way around?
According to a new report by GMInsideNews, we may soon find out. The site claims that The General will make room in the lineup for the next and . The move would likely make sense from a cost perspective, giving GM economies of scale thanks to increased production, while also adding to the Opel lineup without significant engineering expenditures. The General could also take advantage of its global footprint by building the Opel version of the LaCrosse or Enclave in the U.S. or even China, where labor is cheaper than in Germany.
Can GM succeed in turning the LaCrosse and Enclave into future Opel models? Hard to say, really. On one hand, if GM pursues this path, it will likely reap substantial savings from shared engineering costs between Buick and Opel. On the other hand, the Enclave and LaCrosse are quite large for most European cities and tastes, and GM will need to offer competent diesel and four-cylinder petrol powertrains for the models to have a shot at strong sales.
eBay Find of the Day: Local Motors Rally Fighter – Click above for image gallery
Interested in putting a Local Motors Rally Fighter in your garage but don’t want to put in any of your own wrench time? Perhaps you don’t mind turning wrenches but would prefer not to wait until the next build session, which starts in January of 2012? We’ve found the answer to your problems. A fully built Rally Fighter is for sale on eBay Motors, and you can “Buy It Now” for $84,900.
This particular Rally Fighter features a 430-horsepower6.2-liter V8 engine that would otherwise be found under the hood of a . The mighty mill is paired with a four-speed automatic transmission, and each unit comes with a GM Performance Parts warranty. The Fox suspension allows for 18-inches of travel in the front and 20-inches out back. Inside the Rally Fighter, a set of Sparco seats help keep occupants in check, and the power windows, air conditioning and heat keep them comfortable.
If the asking price seems a bit steep for your tastes, the seller is also accepting offers. , and take a look at the only ready-to-rumble Rally Fighter we know of that’s for sale right now… at least for the rest of the day.
is recalling 106,000 models built between 2001 and 2003. A total of 52,000 of those units were sold in the States.
Toyota says that if the steering wheel is strongly turned to the full lock position over and over again, the electric power steering pinion shaft nuts may become loose. Over time, that may result in the driver having to exert more force than typically necessary to turn left.
Owners can expect to be notified of the recall in early July, and the repair (in which dealers will replace the electric power steering pinion shaft nuts with new equipment) is expected to take around four hours.
In addition, the Japanese automaker is recalling a handful of and all-wheel drive models for improperly heat-treated front drive shafts. The recall covers a total of 34 Venza models and 16 Sienna units produced in 2011, and owners can expect to be notified of the problem by June of this year. for the full press blast.
Say what you will about the state of Formula 1 racing today, but at least when the day is done, there’s a winner and there are losers. The drawn-out legal battle between Group and Team Lotus, however, has come to a rather anticlimactic resolution.
As you may recall, Group Lotus (that is, the car manufacturer and engineering consultancy) licensed its name to a Malaysian racing team a couple of years ago. That team then turned around and independently acquired the name Team Lotus from a third party. Group Lotus cried bloody murder and terminated its agreement with the team, who in turn did not relent. Then Group Lotus entered into a partnership with the Renault team (which also powers the Team Lotus cars), resulting in two teams carrying the name Lotus-Renault and a whole lot of confusion.
Unable to resolve the issue, the two outfits went to court, and having heard both sides, the judge has rendered his verdict. Of sorts. Justice Peter Smith found both parties in the right, and declared, essentially, that while the name Lotus belongs rightfully to the automaker, the name Team Lotus – deemed to have been separately cultivated, and neglected for years by the automaker – rightfully belongs to the Malaysian racing team, which acquired the name. The judge also ruled that Team Lotus had breached certain terms of its contract with Group Lotus, and awarded the latter damages to be paid by the former.
At the end of the day, Team Lotus has the legal right to continue using its name, while Group Lotus has the right – both within F1 and without – to the name Lotus by itself. Which hardly makes the matter any more clear, though the automaker is expected to appeal the decision. for statements from both parties.
On September 20, 2011, the next installment of Codemasters’ F1 videogame will be released for the PC, XBox 360 and PS3. Codemasters has revealed that it will also unveil the game for two portable systems: the Sony NGP and Nintendo 3DS.
That latter revelation means tri-dimensional open-wheel action with all of this year’s teams, drivers and tracks. Though we’ve yet to witness the results ourselves, you can color us intrigued.
The studio hasn’t yet announced a date for the portable releases, but we should know more when E3 hits Los Angeles in two weeks time. In the meantime, feel free to have a look at our of the video game franchise.
Dallenbach Racing Team Pike’s Peak racer – Click above to watch video
Last year, at the 2010 Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb, our very own . The most exciting class is arguably the Unlimited group, which run insanely powerful machines driven by mad men looking to break the elusive 10-minute mark. In 2010, only three men strapped into Unlimited-class racers, and one of them goes by the name of Paul Dallenbach.
Phillips captured the following quote from Dallenbach’s mouth:
“My car is good on hard surfaces… but I really need to come back with some factory help on an engine. That’s my big thing that’s hurting me right now. I’m running the same engines I’ve had for ten years. They’re great engines, and they have great torque, but I really need something that’s more reliable.”
Well, Dallenbach has a helping hand for the 2011 race. Two of them, in fact, and they’ve been provided by . Banks has teamed up with the Dallenbach Racing Team, and the two are sharing a wealth of turbocharging and engine-tuning knowledge. As a result of the twin-turbocharged shove, power has been pushed from 745-horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque up to 1,307-horsepower and 1,206 pound-feet of torque.
That’s a healthy dose of added scoot.
Paul Dallenbach and the Banks Power team now believe they have a record-breaking machine on their hands. Rhys Millen and Nobuhiro Tajima are equally confident in their own machines. Should the weather cooperate, this looks like the year we see a sub-10-minute ascension of Pike’s Peak. We will be in Colorado to capture the action, but in the meantime we have video of the Dallench Racing Team car taking a few shakedown runs. to get an idea of how quickly that much power can push a car around.
Rules are rules, and they apply equally to everyone – including the President of the United States. Especially when he’s on foreign soil.
After President Barack Obama’s famous limousine – known as The Beast – got exiting the US embassy in Dublin, it was shipped across the Irish Sea to England, the next leg of the president’s European road trip. Now the mayor of London is demanding Obama pay the congestion charge for his limo and the rest of his motorcade.
A notorious car nut and onetime automotive journalist, Major Boris Johnson insists that the £10 ($16) charge applies to each of the president’s vehicles, and that the bill is currently being tabulated. The fees are only the latest part of an ongoing dispute between the city’s transportation department and foreign missions like the American embassy, an issue that Johnson reportedly raised directly with Obama during his visit.
London insists that embassies in the British capital city owe some £51 million ($83m) in congestion charges for driving through the city during peak hours, of which the American embassy’s share is estimated at £5.3 million ($8.7m). Diplomats view the fee as a tax from which they are exempt under international law.
There’s no denying the freshened Continental GT is up for a coveted space in the garages of the wealthy, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Conti is the car they drive to the office more days than not.
The 2011Volkswagen Jetta is, arguably, the most controversial redesign of the year.
BMW proves that its 328 Hommage can move.
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Reuters is reporting that personal information from more than 283,000 Canada customers has been stolen by cyber criminals. The data includes names, addresses, vehicle identification numbers and, most importantly, some financing account information.
Still, Honda maintains that the profiles don’t contain the goods necessary for identity theft. Crooks typically need bank account numbers, email addresses and birth dates to pull off a successful cyber heist. Honda Canada had collected the consumer information back in 2009 when it urged its customers to register for on MyAcura and MyHonda sites.
The automaker first became aware that something was awry when traffic to both sites shot through the roof. Shortly thereafter, an inordinate number of unauthorized attempts to access member accounts hit the radar as well. On May 13th, a letter was sent out to owners who potentially had their personal data compromised.
This isn’t the first time that Honda has been the victim of an online attack. Just last year, 2.2 million vehicle owners had their from the Japanese automaker’s databases.
If you were thinking about buying , you’d better start working out your shifting arm. Car and Driver has managed to extract a bit of information about the upcoming German sports car, and it appears . You will be able to row-row-row-row-row-row-row your own boat gears.
Why the additional cog? reportedly wanted to supply the next 911 with a taller final gear in order to improve fuel efficiency. Hopefully we’ll get to see the all-new shift pattern in the flesh when we head to Europe for the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
2011Jeep Wrangler – Click above for high-res image gallery
According to The Toledo Blade, citing ordering guides sourced from dealerships, the will finally get the automaker’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 for the 2012 model year. Since 2007, the Wrangler has been fitted with a 3.8-liter V6 engine (which replaced the venerable 4.0-liter inline six) that has met with less than stellar reviews. The new engine may have been a foregone conclusion, but it’s a welcome one nonetheless.
Equally as important is news that the Jurassic-age four-speed automatic will be replaced with a five-speed unit. That’s nice and all… but why go with a five-speeder when six (or more) is the current standard?
In any case, the report claims that the 2012 Wrangler’s powertrain will be identical to the units in the . That means we should expect 290 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. Those are much-needed improvements of the old 3.8, which offered up 202 horses and 237 lb-ft. Fuel mileage will reportedly improve to 16 city, 23 highway from 15/19.
In other news, Allpar.com reports that the 2012 Grand Cherokee will get a six-speed automatic to replace the five-speed unit in the 2011 model. (Guess we know where those older gearboxes are headed, eh?) In a further bid to improve fuel economy, the Pentastar-equipped Grand Cherokee will also be getting electrically driven power steering in place of the current hydraulic unit.
has agreed to replace a Dodge Charger Pursuit and all of the police gear inside for free after the vehicle mysteriously burnt to the ground. As you may recall, a Curry County, Oregon sheriff’s deputy saw his new cruiser (which had 6,000 miles on it) go crispy after stopping to assist in a search and rescue operation.
Patrick Combs, the rescuee, was found and taken to a local hospital by ambulance, but deputy Jared Gray’s new Charger Patrol didn’t survive the scene. The fire seemed to take hold in the passenger-side front wheel well and continued to reignite after fire crews extinguished the blaze.
There was one small caveat to the vehicle’s generous replacement, however. In exchange for the new set of wheels, the sheriff’s department had to agree to sign a non-disclosure, which means we may never know exactly what set the car ablaze.
As our friends at The J point out, no reports of toasty civilian Chargers have been made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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UPS tests composite delivery truck – Click above to watch the video
UPS is known for its amazing level of efficiency, and that reputation could soon extend to fuel savings thanks to a prototype dubbed CV-23. The delivery company has ordered five of these prototypes to be tested through the end of 2011, but this is no ordinary next-generation package hauler.
The CV-23 weighs about a thousand pounds less than the typical UPS truck, thanks to the fact that it is made with composite materials instead of metal. The lightweight materials could help UPS deliver up to 40 percent better fuel economy than the current UPS fleet truck. Those kinds of fuel economy gains can pay huge dividends in rural areas where trucks are required to drive large distances. And since the body panels are plastic, bumpers, panels and other parts can be replaced easily.
to watch video of the CV-23 as it is tested by UPS management. If the company is sufficiently impressed, the guys and gals in brown could order more trucks, potentially saving 84 million gallons of fuel per year. We’re guessing drivers will want to see some crash test data before seeing what brown plastic can do for them, but otherwise, this seems like a pretty good idea.
If forecasts from TrueCar.com are accurate, and will be the only automakers to post sales gains in the month of May. Mildly interesting news in itself, but the real shocking nugget is that the Korean conglomerate is expected to pass (including its luxury brand) as the third-best-selling automaker in the United States.
Surely there are multiple reasons why Toyota and Lexus sales are expected to drop in May (when compared to April, 2011 and May of 2010), but parts and inventory shortages stemming from the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan are front and center.
Credit also goes to Hyundai and Kia for the dramatic gains they have made on their Japanese and American competitors in the last few years, both in sales and in consumer perception. That said, Toyota seems likely to rebound in the coming months, so it will be an interesting exercise to follow the sales charts.
When all the numbers finally come in, TrueCar.com expects the month of May to show an eight-percent drop in sales from April. As you would expect, shortages of cars imported from Japan is partly to blame, but lowered incentives from all automakers is also cited as a contributing factor.
On September 20, 
