Jim Nabors wasn’t born or raised in Indiana, and he doesn’t live there. Yet that hasn’t prevented him from becoming one of the state’s favorite sons. Singing “Back Home Again In Indiana” before the vast majority of Indianapolis 500 races over the past 40 years will do that for a guy.
But this year, the 81-year-old actor and singer won’t be able to make the trip from his home in Hawaii to Indy, due to a scheduled heart surgery, according to USA Today. Apparently the tradition is important enough to the folks that run Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that instead of calling John Mellencamp, they have dispatched a video crew to our 50th state to record Nabors singing the song.
According to the report, Nabors has performed the song before every Indy 500 since 1987 except for the 2007 race, which he also missed for health reasons. Nabors also sang before the 1972-1978 races and two additional times in the 1980s, according to WTHR.
to watch video footage of Nabors singing before the 2010 Indy 500.
With the putting out 662 horsepower and 631 pound-feet torque, we’re guessing that more than a few owners of the new will be looking to even things up via the aftermarket. The speed-obsessed guys over at are already putting a few options on the table with a three new upgrade packages that boost the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 to anywhere from 630 to 700-plus horsepower.
Apparently, Lingenfelter was eager to prove the merits of its work, and just a couple weeks after taking delivery of an early production Camaro ZL1 had it out on the track putting down times. The test car, pushing out 720 horsepower, laid down a 10.79 second quarter mile pass at Muncie Dragway in Albany, IN, and later recorded a 202 mph top speed at Continental Tire’s proving grounds earlier this week. Coincidentally, that’s the same top speed that the 2013 Shelby GT500 reached during its high speed testing at the Nardo Ring in Italy last year.
You can read more about Lingenfelter’s upgrade packages for the 2012 Camaro ZL1 as well as more details on the high speed test in the press release .
We can’t tell you how many times we’ve asked an automotive executive about future product plans only to be given the default, “We’re investigating new options,” or, “Anything is possible,” write-offs. So, to that end, here’s another bit of grease for the ever-spinning rumormill.
Auto Express reports that could possibly launch a sportier version of its entry-level , dubbed – wait for it – Evoque Sport. The news comes after the British magazine sat down with Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s design director, at the recent . When pressed about plans to expand the Evoque range, McGovern stated, “For the moment, we’re looking at the and – we could do a more overtly sporty one, for example.”
A suggestion, Land Rover: Move the Evoque Sport above the cabriolet on your to-do list.
McGovern didn’t spill any more beans about what a Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Sport (what a mouthful) would be powered by, but Auto Express suggests it would likely be a boosted version of the 2.0-liter turbocharged four found in the current model. Of course, more visual aggression would be added in the way of larger wheels, a body kit and a lowered suspension. Beefier chassis and brake components would likely be added to enhance the drive experience, as well.
Assuming the Evoque Sport does come to fruition, we likely wouldn’t see it until the end of next year since the current vehicle is still a newborn in the market. So, for now, rumormill, keep on spinning.
is taking its on U.S. tour for a few months. One of the stops between Toronto Tuck World and the Volvo Ocean Race in Miami was Wendover, Utah, to attempt a couple of record-breaking speed runs.
Mean Green uses a 16-cylinder engine that puts out 1,900-horsepower, tied to an electric motor that adds 200 hp and 885 pound-feet. With that package, the Swedish Viking Speed Records Team and pilot Boije Overbrink were aiming for 165 miles per hour in the flying kilometer. They didn’t quite make that lofty goal, but they did well enough to break not one, but two world records. for the story of the day.
How much would you pay for a derelict ‘67 with a 427? If you said about thirty grand, you’d be in the ballpark – but that would still be all the money in the world for a barn find like this ‘Vette. The owner admits the car hasn’t run in over 30 years and she (the car, not the owner) clearly needs to get involved in a serious relationship with a body man.
But what if we told you that Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, the hero of the NASA Apollo program, and by all accounts a genuine good guy, was the first owner of the car? How much would that make it worth? Better hope your guess has six digits in it, because bidding on eBay Motors for this derelict but potentially highly collectible car has already shot past $120,000 – and has yet to meet the seller’s reserve price.
Before readying the checkbook, however, we might suggest actually reading the seller’s ALL CAPS description. It’s a wonderful tale that starts with the car being provided by Rathman , the famed dealership that leased Corvettes to astronauts for $1 per year. A NASA employee allegedly bought the car after Armstrong turned it in and the seller claims he’s hounded that NASA employee for 30 years trying to buy the Corvette, but it was only two months ago that he claimed his prize. There’s a whole lot more to the story, including buying a carburetor in Texas and wanting to turn the car into a National Corvette Restorers Society “Survivor.”
The bottom line, however, is that the seller is now trying to flip the , without much in the way of evidence that the car belonged to Armstrong, at least that’s presented in the eBay Motors auction. Perhaps we’re just being skeptical, but before spending over $100,000 on a car for which the majority of the purchase price is for its provenance, we’d like to see more in the way of authentication than one Protect-O-Plate photo. Since Neil Armstrong is still alive, we hope that whoever winds up restoring this Corvette does a more thorough job of vetting and presenting its history.
The folks over at Saabs United have been a fixture on the Swedish automobile scene for some time now, cementing themselves as the hub for all manner of news and gossip as the fight to keep the brand alive has ebbed and flowed over the past couple of years. So significant was SU’s bond with the automaker that its principle, Steven Wade, had the ear of buyer Victor Muller throughout the General Motors extrication process, and eventually Wade , leaving others to run the website.
With Saab having slipped into bankruptcy and the company’s Trollhättan plant idled, Saabs United now finds itself at the center of a new fight – an effort to preserve the final – possibly the final Saab ever. An Arctic White Griffin sedan, the 9-3 exists in a state of partial build but is scheduled for final assembly at the end of this month. The car is part of a special batch of about 50 partially finished cars and a cache of spares that Trollhättan dealership group ANA , and it will be for sale. Saabs United has taken it upon itself to rally the faithful in an attempt to purchase the car for donation to the Saab Cars Museum, which was itself .
It seems only fitting that the 9-3 Griffin would join other final examples of various models in Saab’s history at the Museum, but even then, the car’s fate might not be entirely secure. According to SU, “A number of cars at the museum from the history of Saab that was written in the last two years are NOT secured. They are either borrowed to the museum or are still missing.”
As of this writing, the funding effort is well on its way, with Saabs United faithful and various clubs and investors having raised over 15,000 Euros (around $19,750 USD), with a goal of 28,500 Euros ($37,500) within the next 18 days. If the total amount needed is not reached, fundraiser proceeds will still go to the Saab museum, and if extra money is raised, it’ll be donated, too. If you’re interested in learning more or making a donation, .
The venerable served the United States as the go-to vehicle for 25 solid years. Before that, various militarized models had been pressed into service since 1941, when the army first identified the need for a lightweight, all-terrain vehicle capable of carrying a few troops and all their gear into battle.
It seems the so-called Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAPS for short) aren’t going to have the same kind of life expectancy as their predecessors. According to CNN, the military is finding it difficult to cook up uses for the 20,000 MRAPS it possesses that are no longer needed for the war in Iraq, where the threat of improvised explosive devises necessitated gigantic V-shaped hulls and several tons of armor.
Due to the sheer size and weight of the machines, along with the specialized nature of their design, the military isn’t likely to continue using MRAPS in differing battlefield conditions after troops are pulled from Afghanistan in 2014. So, what will become of these 20,000 MRAPS? So far, the only option on the list is for mine clearing and explosive ordinance disposal. Thing is, they don’t need 20,000 of them for that.
In any case, one thing is for certain: Lives were saved due to the ability of the MRAPS to protect U.S. troops from roadside explosives (see above). And for that, everyone is thankful. As far as the future goes… may we suggest heavily armored food trucks? Or the circuit?
Facebook is a big deal, even if you’re an exotic car maker with one of the world’s most powerful brands. In this case we’re talking about , which recently hit eight million followers on the social networking site.
How does an automaker with such a rich history celebrate a 21st century milestone? to watch the good folks in Maranello, Italy throw down after gaining 8,000,000 followers. Hint: it involves a predictably red 458 Italia, plenty of open pavement and a knack for drifting and donuts. Of course, Ferrari would like us to believe that they wrote out “8,000,000″ in rubber, but we’re more interested in watching the 458 do its thing.
As much as we love games like Forza and Gran Turismo, these driving simulators are hobbled by one glaring omission: peripheral vision. Driving requires a view from more than just the windshield, and while Forza 4 and Gran Turismo 5 have made steps toward giving players a better a better look at the track around them, the nature of a flat screen is cursed with limitations. Of course, if you have the cash, Motion Simulation has a solution for you. The company’s new TL1 simulator was built in cooperation with none other than the minds at Ariel. You know, the folks responsible for the mighty Atom.
The system uses three high-definition projectors to give the view a complete view of the virtual track ahead. What’s more, the simulator is compatible with consoles like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the kit is prohibitively large and expensive. If you want one, you’ll have to fork over $18,600 at current conversion rates, along with a big portion of your living room. Considering that kind of cash will buy you a very nice used sports car, we’ll have to take a pass on this one.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a video of the actual Atom simulator available just yet, so for the moment, you’ll have to content yourself with footage of the company’s great-sounding Touring Car simulator. Check it out by .
Ford’s twin-turbocharged 3.5 liter EcoBoost V6 has proved popular with customers, with more than 180,000 finding homes in driveways and garages since launching in 2009. has but a single facility in the United States turning out this engine, Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1. Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 is also home to the 3.7 liter V6 that kicks out over 300 horsepower in the and continues to sell at full tilt in the .
With two belles of the automotive ball under a single roof, Ford is adding 250 workers and a third shift of production at the Cleveland engine plant to keep up. “We are tripling production to meet customers’ growing need for fuel-efficient engines” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas. The manpower will largely come from Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2, which is being closed later this week.
General Motors initially wanted to buy one-third of Isuzu Motors Ltd, which would give it the right to veto board decisions, but has scaled back how much of the Japanese company it might try to buy, according to a new .
At current stock prices, GM would have paid more than $3 billion for a controlling share of the truckmaker, which specializes in small trucks and diesel powertrains. GM is now considering buying a 10 percent share, anonymous sources tell Reuters, which would make it the largest single owner of stock in the company. and both have smaller shares of Isuzu.
GM once owned nearly half of Isuzu but its last 7.9 percent of the company in 2006.
The GM/Isuzu partnership helped bring vehicles to the U.S. like the , , and . But there’s to expect a new small pickup for America this time around.
The , which sources tell Reuters is “very much preliminary”, could open up the Southeast Asia market, where GM is currently a bit player. Additionally, GM could help Isuzu develop a hybrid or other environmentally friendly vehicles. It’s almost enough to make us wonder why they ever sold it in the first place.
We so wanted to lead this post with a Jim Belushi joke. Alas, the press release announcing the launch of its rear-drive flagship in Korea today specifically clarifies that the K9 will be renamed for other markets.
While Kia says the large sedan rides on “its own platform,” we know enough about the auto industry to posit that much of that platform is shared with the underpinnings of corporate cousin Hyundai’s and . Like the pair, Kia is clearly hoping the not-called-K9-here will help the brand move upmarket, positioning the car as a premium product designed, in the words of Kia’s head of design Peter Schreyer, “to compete head-to-head with the European luxury brands.”
The Kia sedan will split the difference between the Genesis and the Equus, matching the 120-inch wheelbase of the latter, but with an overall length of 200 inches that’s three inches shorter than Equus and almost four inches longer than the Genesis. The Kia sedan will have the same 0.27 coefficient of drag as both the Hyundai models.
Kia says its luxury sedan will be powered by two distinct versions of the corporate 3.8-liter , one making 286 horsepower and the direct-injection version rated at 329. The more powerful engine is said to be “joining the global engine line-up next year,” which we’d expect would coincide with the flagship sedan’s U.S. launch. Both engines will be mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Kia says the car will be available with a number of safety features including a lane-departure warning system and blind sport detection. A reclining rear seat with leg rest will also be available, just like in the Equus.
Today’s announcement raises an interesting possibility. While we wouldn’t expect Kia to send its flagship stateside with the less-powerful V6 – indeed, a V8 engine option is surely bound to accompany an official statement of the car’s U.S. sales plan – doing so would certainly allow Kia to bring the car to market at a more attractive entry-level price. Kia has a scant resume when it comes launching anything other than budget models here in the U.S., and the brand certainly has considerable work to do if it aims to catch up to Hyundai in pricier segments.
It will certainly be interesting to see where Kia tries to position its unnamed sedan – and whether its (*ahem*) dogged pursuit of the luxury dollar will succeed. Scroll down to read the full press release and check out our .
As far-fetched as it may seem, the owner of the Japanese Harley-Davidsonmotorcycle that has been found. Beachcombers sent photographs of the bike to Harley-Davidson, which managed to track the registration to Ikuo Yokoyama in Miyagi Prefecture. Yokoyama lost three family members and his home in the tsunami that struck Japan a little more than a year ago and assumed his bike was gone forever. But the beachcombers have extracted the bike from the remote shore, and at its own expense, Harley-Davidson reportedly plans to have the machine shipped back to Miyagi, where it will be restored and returned to its rightful owner. Yokoyama is still living in a temporary shelter.
The bike drifted some 3,100 miles across the Pacific ocean in the back of a cube van. Yokoyama was using the box as storage for the bike on his property. Harley-Davidson says that despite plenty of corrosion, the motorcycle is in surprisingly good shape given what the machine has endured.
Miyagi Prefecture was one of the hardest-hit areas of Japan, where the disaster left 11,000 people dead or missing. Click to watch a CBC report on the remarkable story.
It’s been fascinating to sample Audi’s new EA824 V8 in all of its various incarnations. Our first crack at the new TFSI powerplant was in Audi’s own 513-horsepower , and we then went on to try it out in the new . Most recently, we dipped into the 4.0-liter biturbo in the new before getting behind the wheel of the closely related S6 seen here.
Versus the previous S6 with its muy macho -derived 5.2-liter V10, everything is quicker, more efficient and lighter in weight. The new fourth-generation S6 Quattro with S-tronic seven-speed dual clutch comes in at a European curb weight of 4,178 pounds – about 30 pounds lighter than the previous V10-stuffed car with its automated six-speed. Yes, power is slightly lower now at 414 horses, but peak torque of 406 pound-feet is slightly higher and happens over a vastly wider range of 1,400 to 5,200 rpm. Audi’s 0-62 miles per hour sprint time is now listed at 4.6 seconds, a figure that compares favorably with the outgoing car’s official 5.2-second time.
For my test drive, Audi thoughtfully provided a couple of S6 four-door setups for me to sample: those with Dynamic Steering and the torque vectoring sport Quattro rear differential, and those without. You know which trim I went for already. So equipped, these S6 sedans were all painted Misano Red… an exterior color that Americans cannot get this time around. So, just visualize me thundering around Bavaria in a car painted shades of white, black, silver, gray, or blue, since those are the paint chips you’ll find on the order sheet at your local dealer.
As the man behind illicit video site MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom finds himself in a world of trouble. But before he was arrested by the New Zealand authorities and had his property seized, the controversial internet bajillionaire took a little trip to the Nürburgring. Only he wasn’t about to take a ride in the Ring Taxi and call it a day.
No, instead Dotcom shipped in not one, not two, but three CLK AMG DTMs from his private collection in New Zealand (with vanity plates reading “Good”, “And”, “Evil”), rented out the entire track and hired former Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen to drive alongside his business partner Finn Batato. And while he was at it, he hired a crew of over a hundred people, set up about 30 cameras and rented two helicopters and an airplane for the aerial shots.
The resulting video is nothing if not indulgent, and unfortunately, it has techno music drowning out the exhaust notes, but you can view it by . NSFW Warning: the music contains explicit language.
Yellow cabs are synonymous with New York. It doesn’t matter if it’s an old Ford Crown Victoria, an even older Checker Cab or the new Nissan NV200: paint it that deep yellow and put a dome light on it, and you’re looking at a New York taxicab. But the Big Apple is about to get a new type of taxi, painted a different color altogether.
We’re talking about the new Boro Taxi which the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission has just launched. Targeted at New York’s outer boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island (as well as Northern Manhattan) – the Boro Taxis can take just about any vehicle you’d expect to see in yellow (including the NV200), painted a bright shade of “apple green” (that looks like matte lime to our eyes) and put them on the streets of the outer boroughs exclusively where it’s notoriously difficult to hail a cab.
The color was apparently chosen to stand out from existing vehicles on New York City roads, including private automobiles (because who would paint their own car that color?), police and emergency vehicles and traditional yellow cabs. The first 6,000 of the 18,000 permits will be issued by the commission starting in June. So the next time you’re looking to hail a ride in New York anywhere but Manhattan, look for this shade of green and raise your hand.
We’ve got bad news for you if you had your heart set on the of the . Car and Driver reports the German automaker has decided the four-door would simply be too expensive to sell in the American market. The article cites unnamed European sources as saying the vehicle still has a strong chance of making it to dealer lots in the EU, even though no final decision has been made at this point. By the time the machine made it to our shores, it would likely be more pricey than the current . That’s a problem.
Original reports suggested Volkswagen needed the U.S. market to justify production volumes to sell the new CC in both the EU and China, but the company seems to think the likely small U.S. sales would have little impact anyway. C/D reports the automaker is tentatively planning to sell the smaller CC in the People’s Republic anyway.
From show floor to evacuation route, one concept vehicle got the chance to test it’s meddle in the real world.
The Super Duty Rescue Truck was created to demonstrate extreme rescue capabilities not actually use them. It first went on display in February at the .
But on April 3, with just two miles on its odometer, this concept vehicle found itself in the thick of a real-life rescue mission. A series of devastating tornadoes had ripped through Arlington, Texas, overwhelming every fire-rescue department in the region. Destruction was everywhere.
Worse yet, many of the neighborhood streets were filled with debris ranging from roofs to cars and the big fire trucks couldn’t maneuver through them.
That’s when Brad Snyder, vice president of marketing at in Grandbury, Texas, got a call the Arlington emergency services director for help. The director knew the local volunteer fire department had advised Snyder on building an extreme rescue vehicle for and now the city needed its help.
“When we proposed the truck to Ford, one of the things Ford required was that everything on the truck actually work,” Snyder said Tuesday. That’s not always the case with concept vehicles, which often could not even qualify to ride on a U.S. highway.
“We never intended to put it into service,” Snyder said. But put it to work they did. Keep on reading to find out how.
sales are up 10 percent already this year, after ending 2011 on a 20-percent uptick. With its Alabama assembly plant , something had to change. In response, the Korean automaker will be adding 877 jobs at its Montgomery assembly plant to begin a third shift, starting in September 2012.
Hyundai said the plant is now responsible for creating over 3,000 total jobs, with the latest expansion adding some 20,000 units of annual capacity. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama builds both the and sedans.
While this move will work as a short-term solution to Hyundai’s capacity restraints, if the company continues to grow sales as it has in the past few years, it will soon be faced with the necessity of building another new production facility, for months.
has made it clear that it is hard at work on a successor to the automaker’s bread-and-butter . Word has it we’ll get our first glimpse at the next-generation Mini toward the end of next year, and when it debuts, Sonny Lim believes the machine will be smaller, more mainstream and far less gimmicky than the current creation.
Having served as the senior designer with DesignWorksUSA, Lim knows a thing or two about BMW styling. His sketches show a modern three-door hatch that’s still easily-identifiable as a Mini thanks to bulging fender arches pushed far to the vehicle’s corners, pie-plate headlights and a traditional Mini grille.
Lim says the next-generation Cooper will be more true to the concept of the original Cooper. Measuring in at just 140.6 inches from stem to stern, the Mini Zero Concept is shorter than the current hatchback and just slightly longer than the the now deceased . The clipped size means the Zero weighs in at 1,851 pounds, which should help it yield better fuel economy and performance with minimal changes to the drivetrain. Head over to for a deeper dive.
