We record Episode #266 of the Autoblog Podcast tonight, and you can drop us your questions via our Q&A module below. Check out our discussion topics or chime in to help determine what else the crew chats about this evening. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast if you haven’t already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #266
Barrett-Jackson 2012
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The (we’ll spare you the Elton John lyrics) was one of our favorite concepts from the . Sure, the name is silly, but this pint-sized concept showed what could be in store for an even more mini . A smarter , if you will. However, a new report from CAR states that the entry-level Mini project has allegedly been canned. The Rocketman as we know it has been grounded.
The reason? CAR reports that it would be a costly endeavor to develop the Rocketman to meet street-legal specifications; specifically, handling, stability and crash standards. The concept only measures in at 134.6 inches long – a full 12 inches shorter than a standard hatchback, and while Mini insiders said that a production version could come as early as 2016, there are now no plans to offer a vehicle smaller than the current Cooper.
It’s common knowledge that buses fight dirty. Enter into fisticuffs with public transportation and you’re likely to find yourself on the raw end of a well-aimed 2×4 plank. Just ask the pedestrian in the video . We’re short on context with this one, but from the looks of things, the bus attempts to come to a stop for a traffic checkpoint or tollbooth, only to slide on black ice and bowl straight through the traffic control arm.
It all sounds innocuous enough, but click to check out the unintended result for yourself.
It’s a story, we know, but this is – in all likelihood – the end of the road for Sweden’s “other” automaker. Sure, there are still talks of one foreign entity or another picking up where and Swedish Automobile (Swan)/ left off, but even if they do, they’ll have a heck of a lot of work on their hands. And that includes rebuilding its presence in North America.
With the parent company having already filed for bankruptcy in Sweden, the next step is for Saab Cars North America to follow suit, and that’s precisely what’s happening.
The operation based in Royal Oak, Michigan, ceased operating last month when its parent company did, but resumed distributing parts just this past Thursday. That does not mean, however, that the American business will remain afloat. With no money to keep it going, Saab Cars North America is being liquidated. Sources estimate the company’s liquidated assets at around $100 million (give or take $25m), offset by a relatively minor $10.5 million in liabilities.
As for the dealers, they’ll have to choose to declare bankruptcy individually or let the administrator dealing with SCNA’s liquidation tend to theirs as well.
Long before the first U.S. soldier laid a boot on Iraq soil in the first Gulf War, General Motors planned to build a manufacturing facility in the country. According to The Detroit News, the years since haven’t been entirely kind to the automaker’s sales efforts in Iraq. That’s no shock given America’s reputation in the Middle East nation, but its prospects are beginning to look up. Whereas GM once trailed even Renault in sales, the company managed to move 35,000 vehicles last year. Not bad considering the entire new vehicle market in Iraq totaled just 115,000 in 2011.
GM’s sales largely consisted of SUVs and pickup trucks (like the locally available version of the Colorado seen above), though The Detroit News notes that some and sedans have sold as well, too. That’s particularly impressive given that Iraqi drivers aren’t required to have insurance and kidnappers in the country have been known to favor those who drive high-dollar luxury vehicles.
has unveiled the new production model five-door Up! after of the vehicle made their way to the web. The newest member to the Volkswagen small-car line is expected to land on dealer lots in Germany by early March, with availability opening up to the rest of Europe by summer. The vehicle will launch with the exact same engines and external dimensions as its three-door brethren. That means buyers will be able to opt for either a 60-horsepower, 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine or a 75 horsepower version of the same powerplant. Even so, Volkswagen anticipates roughly half of Up! buyers will opt for the new five-door bodystyle.
The five-door Up! does serve up a few stylistic changes over its three-door counterpart beyond the addition of two extra doors. For starters, the rear hatch is solid glass and the hatchback’s side profile line is now basically straight from front to rear. In the three-door version, that line kicks up slightly as it heads toward the rear of the vehicle. Buyers can expect to pay $13,295 (including Europe’s notorious taxes) at current conversion rates, which is a little over $600 more than the three-door hatch. for the full press release.
General Motors is having a hard time with the . First, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe into the vehicle over the possibility of , and now some of its dealers are refusing to take their allocations of the extended-range plug-inhybrid. For example, according to Automotive News, GM set aside 104 Volt models for 14 dealerships across the greater New York City market. Of those vehicles, dealers took just 31. The problem isn’t just out East, either. The report claims one California dealer turned down all six Volt models allocated to him despite the fact that his franchise sold 10 of the vehicles last year.
GM, meanwhile, admits that ordering on the vehicle is down. The automaker attributes the slump to the fact that most dealers were awaiting resolution on the NHTSA investigation (the Volt has since been given a clean bill of health), though GM has announced a to prevent the fires in the future. Even so, public opinion on the vehicle has taken a ding, and many dealers may simply be waiting for the dust to settle before recommitting to the model.
Racing Dreams is an award-winning documentary that follows the racing exploits of three go-kart racing youths chasing an entry into the world of NASCAR. As we reported before, when Racing Dreams , Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson got behind this project as executive producer, and now this documentary is making its broadcast premiere on Thursday, February 23 at 9 PM on Public Television. The will also stream the movie on its website for a month following the debut.
The idea of a karting documentary may not sound immediately captivating to anyone but the most hardcore of racing fans, but the story of Annabeth Barnes, Josh Hobson and Brandon Warren (11, 12, and 13 years old, respectively), has a track record of surprising viewers. It’s more than just the story of how entry into professional auto racing of any sort increasingly starts even before adolescence, it talks about how the experience of fierce on-track competition colors the already-bewildering arrival of adolescence. Indeed, racing isn’t the kind of subject matter you’d expect to find on PBS, but director and producer Marshall Curry has woven a story that’s been rewarded with honors at many film festivals around the United States. Racing Dreams is a story about life that happens to have racing figure into the plot. Check your local listings to catch the documentary on your PBS station, and after checking out our gallery, you can watch the trailer and read the official press release, both posted .
How The World’s Most Powerful Sport Utility Vehicle Fails At Being Absurd
Twenty years ago, sport utility vehicles were trucks. They had big, heavy frames, solid axles and low-range four-wheel drive. At best, they would accelerate to 60 miles per hour in under nine seconds and top out just over 100 mph. “Handling” simply meant that they could keep all four wheels firmly planted while circling an onramp.
Twenty years ago, only exotic sports cars boasted more than 500 horsepower. They accelerated to 60 mph in less than five seconds and could hit 150 mph if allowed enough space. Tuned suspensions, oversized brakes and exhaust systems that roared were expected, but supple rides were not.
Now, take a look at that brand-new silver sport utility vehicle in the image above. Beneath its leather-lined and sound-insulated cabin is a 550-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8, electronically controlled suspension, six-piston brakes and permanent all-wheel drive – it’s the most powerful SUV on the market.
The tall four-door will sprint more quickly than (and outrun) a 360 Modena Spider F1, plow through foot-deep snow drifts and take a family of five, with a ski boat in tow, to a lakeside Fourth of July picnic.
This electric DeLorean is just a prototype, but our sister publication, got to take it for a spin and found that a 260-horsepower electric motor finally makes the DMC-12 the sports car everyone has always wanted it to be. While we get to see plenty of footage of , this episode also includes an interview with DeLorean Motor Company CEO Stephen Wynne.
While we don’t want to give too much away, Wynne discusses future plans for the Texas-based DeLorean restorer and remanufacturer, which include . Wynne tells Translogic that the car is expected to sell for between $95,000-$100,000. The car is said to have a 100-mile range, which would make it roughly equivalent to the , but with far more performance - not to mention its iconic time machine looks.
With all the as of late, we wonder if perhaps this is the car to change their minds about EVs? See Translogic’s full experience with the electric DeLorean in the video .
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has big plans for the Jacob K. Javits Center. The politician recently announced plans to tear down the convention hall to make way for housing, hotels and museums. The remainder of the land would then be leased to developers as an additional source of income for the state. That comes as a shock to architect Bruce S. Fowle, who has been renovating the structure for the past six years, working to turn the 25-year-old structure into a brighter space with a smaller environmental footprint.
While the proposed demolition is still years away if it occurs at all, the plan brings into question the future of the New York Auto Show. Cuomo says the conventions like the auto show that are currently hosted by the Jacob K. Javits Center will be relocated to a new $4 billion center at the Aqueduct racetrack in Jamaica, Queens. The funds will reportedly come from Genting, a Malaysian gambling company, according to The New York Times.
Last Summer showed off its technology created in partnership with the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. It turned a rear window into an augmented-reality screen that would keep kids interested in something other than asking “Are we there yet?” Now has showed off a similar bit of kit called Windows of Opportunity, developed with the Bezalel School of Art and Design in Israel.
GM’s Windows concept is aimed just as much at kids as adults. The team came up with four different apps that provided interactivity ranging from a virtual take on drawing on foggy windows to checking what was on other augmented windows on cars around the world. We’re probably a long way from seeing something like this in production, but you know you can look forward to the day when your kid monitors your driving style from his child seat. for the full press release and a short video on GM’s new tech.
Choosing a safety car to pace a racing series is tricky business that almost invariably results in either a constant flux of vehicles called into duty or playing favorites between the manufacturers taking part in the series. NASCAR changes its pace cars about as quickly as it changes tires. Formula One sticks with Mercedes-Benz machinery, and nobody seems to complain very much. But DTM bridges the gap with a slightly different approach.
In the German touring car series, each of the participating automakers provides safety cars to the series organizers, which alternate between them from one race to another. That was simple enough when it was just and , but now that has thrown its proverbial hat into the ring, DTM is putting a third car into the rotation. And this is our first look at it.
Revealed with a handful of crude snapshots on the BMW Motorsport fan page on Facebook, the BMW DTM Safety Car looks closer to the standard, roadgoing M3 than the DTM racer, but with some extra modifications. Those include special wheels, an emergency light bar and a stripped-out cockpit with full roll cage and Recaro buckets. But there could be something special going on under the hood as well, where a bright orange engine cover lurks under a unique louvered hood. That could mean a more powerful version of the outgoing M3’s high-revving V8 engine to help it stay out in front of all that racing machinery.
We’ll have to wait for BMW to release additional information to find out, but for now you can check out the low-res images in the gallery above.
Say what you will about the – whether you think it’s the best-handling SUV on the market or a storied automaker turning its back on its heritage – you can’t argue that it hasn’t been a huge success for the German automaker. In fact, Porsche has produced 100,000 examples of the Cayenne – and that’s only counting the current model.
The milestone unit is set to be delivered to a customer in Brazil, one of the 124 markets in which the Cayenne is currently sold in five different versions. The milestone comes at an auspicious time for Porsche, which this year celebrates 10 years of production at Leipzig, where the Cayenne and are built. With the approaching introduction of the smaller Cajun line at Leipzig, the plant is expected to reach the 500,000 mark before the year is out.
has announced that it will give both bonuses and merit-based raises to the company’s salaried workers in the United States and Canada for the first time since 2008, according to Reuters. On average, the manufacturer will offer a 2.7 percent salary increase based on individual performance. The company stopped offering the bonuses after the financial crisis of 2009 sent automotive sales into a plunge. Ford paid neither bonuses nor merit raises that year, but offered merit raises in 2010. In 2011, the company’s workers received bonuses only.
Of course, this decision has sent all eyes toward General Motors and and their plans for their own workers. According to The Detroit News, both GM and Chrysler have said raises and bonuses will be determined by their own performance, not their rival’s actions. GM has announced the company will make a final decision after it analyzes its financial results for 2011. Chrysler, meanwhile, intends to announce its fourth-quarter 2011 results on February 1, after which it will determine whether its workers will be eligible for their yearly awards.
Take a flight overseas and you may happen upon a PorscheDesign store in an airport somewhere. That’s because, while the automaker’s product-design division has dozens of locations around the world, few of them are in the United States for a brand that is typically European in its focus. But all that’s changing with the company’s new flagship store.
Rather than locating itself in a traditional European capital or a mall in some emerging market in Asia, the new Porsche Design mega-store is based right here in these United States. The new SoHo location, on West Broadway in Manhattan, New York, encompasses some 250 square meters of retail space. That includes displays for the brand’s fashion lines, as well as its other products (ranging from luggage and pens to watches and phones) and a dedicated 50-square-meter VIP area for big spenders.
If you’re planning a trip to New York, be prepared to spend all your savings on designer Blackberries and driving gloves. But if you’re not heading to the Big Apple in the near future, you can still check out the press release and the array of high-resolution images in the gallery above.
When a new vehicle arrives, the previous model is usually consigned to the history books. But that isn’t always the case. , for example, has continued production of outdated models in South America and other markets years after they’ve been replaced. did the same with the XJ Cherokee in China, and now has taken a page out of the same playbook with the Panda Classic.
Launched in 2003, the outgoing Panda remains a strong seller in Italy (where, despite its lingering age, it held 38 percent of the market share last year) and across Europe (where its 15.7 percent market share makes it the top-selling city car). It’s now being replaced by the New Panda, but rather than phase the old car out completely, it lives on as a budget proposition.
The front-drive Panda Classic will be offered in one trim level, with six color options and four engine options. The all-wheel-drive Panda Climbing soft-roader also soldiers on with similar specs.
Although the New Panda may be the better product in every way, European buyers on a budget may find the Panda Classic a tempting proposition with prices starting at just 7,900 euros. Full details follow in the press release .
Being agriculturally inclined to build barns in the country, we don’t expect barn finds to turn up in the middle of a high-turnover metropolis. Yet that’s been happening more regularly of late, and writer Michael Mraz has found another example in South Central, Los Angeles: a one-of-one 1935 Caracciola 500K built especially for Silver Arrows race driver Rudolph Caraccioloa. It is pictured above in better days, after having been restored and displayed on the lawn at the Pebble Beach concours in the late 1970s.
What’s amazing about the Caracciola 500K, and tragic for car lovers, is that it has a good deal of company: in a piece called “Wheels of Fortune” in the February issue of Town & Country magazine, Mraz found scaffolds full of vintage metal in awful condition, rusting outside in a parts yard called Porche Foreign Auto. They include:
Porche Foreign Auto was started in 1967 by a German butcher named Rudi Klein, who bought the Caracciola 500K after it was shown at Pebble in 1978. He took it to a Mercedes show in Newport Beach in 1980, and when it wouldn’t start he loaded it on a trailer and took it home. It hasn’t been seen since, outside of the parts yard.
Klein passed away, and his salvage yard is overseen by his sons, who won’t let any gawkers into to view the cars. Even Mraz was denied entry. But he spoke to folks who have seen the collection, and one said that there are vehicles people have sought for decades and thought had been destroyed. The head of the Mercedes Classic Center in Irvine believes the Caracciola 500K could be worth more than the 1937 540K Spezial Roadster that was auctioned for nearly $10 million at last year’s RM Auctions at Pebble. But we might never know.
Town & Country doesn’t have a proper website, so pick up the magazine to read the piece and see what the automotive world is missing. There’s a sample of it in the attached gallery, but be warned, it’s not pleasant to see.
Being agriculturally inclined to build barns in the country, we don’t expect barn finds to turn up in the middle of a high-turnover metropolis. Yet that’s been happening more regularly of late, and writer Michael Mraz has found another example in South Central, Los Angeles: a one-of-one 1935 Caracciola 500K built especially for Silver Arrows race driver Rudolph Caraccioloa. It is pictured above in better days, after having been restored and displayed on the lawn at the Pebble Beach concours in the late 1970s.
What’s amazing about the Caracciola 500K, and tragic for car lovers, is that it has a good deal of company: in a piece called “Wheels of Fortune” in the February issue of Town & Country magazine, Mraz found scaffolds full of vintage metal in awful condition, rusting outside in a parts yard called Porche Foreign Auto. They include:
…a pair of one-off prewar Maybachs; one of two Iso Grifo Spyders (designed and engineered by Giotto Bizzarrini, who also has the Ferrari 250 GTO on his résumé); one of 29 …; a couple of 502s and 507s; a half-dozen or so Miuras, with their mighty V12 engines; and the last surviving example of the seven Horch 855 Spezial Roadsters ever built, a specimen once owned by Eva Braun that was for a time on loan to the Audi Museum in Germany. ( was founded by August Horch.) Parked one on top of the other are dozens upon dozens of Carrera carcasses….
Porche Foreign Auto was started in 1967 by a German butcher named Rudi Klein, who bought the Caracciola 500K after it was shown at Pebble in 1978. He took it to a Mercedes show in Newport Beach in 1980, and when it wouldn’t start he loaded it on a trailer and took it home. It hasn’t been seen since, outside of the parts yard.
Klein passed away, and his salvage yard is overseen by his sons, who won’t let any gawkers into to view the cars. Even Mraz was denied entry. But he spoke to folks who have seen the collection, and one said that there are vehicles people have sought for decades and thought had been destroyed. The head of the Mercedes Classic Center in Irvine believes the Caracciola 500K could be worth more than the 1937 540K Spezial Roadster that was auctioned for nearly $10 million at last year’s RM Auctions at Pebble. But we might never know.
Town & Country doesn’t have a proper website, so pick up the magazine to read the piece and see what the automotive world is missing. There’s a sample of it in the attached gallery, but be warned, it’s not pleasant to see.
The marketing shenanigans continue under the rubric of “Let’s Do This,” this time with a five-story 3D projection of a claw game on the side of The Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. In fact, that a couple of Sunset Boulevard’s lanes had to be shut down to accommodate the controls, which were a waist-high gearshift and an acclerator pedal.
So big was the PR stunt that it earned Chevrolet a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the mightiest claw game on Earth. to see it in action and to watch someone win a non-projected, very real, Chevy Sonic.
![e5b40 racing dreams poster 628 Confirmed: <i>Racing Dreams</i> documentary premiering on PBS in February [w/video]](http://theautoblog.ru/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e5b40_racing-dreams-poster-628.jpg "Confirmed: <i>Racing Dreams</i> documentary premiering on PBS in February [w/video]")
