We can’t help but like the . It’s roomy for its class, it’s very efficient and it certainly helps that the high-volume is entertaining to drive. It’s no wonder, then, that the four-ringed automaker has managed to make its five-millionth A4 at its plant in Ingolstadt, a 2.0 TFSI Quattro variant in Misano Red. The A4’s success story is aided by the fact that the model comes as a wagon or sedan, plus available Quattro all-wheel-drive, an S variant and a CUV-ish Allroad model that isn’t sold in the States.
Frank Dreves, Member of the Board of Management at Audi, calls A4 number five million “another major milestone in Audi’s history. All versions of the A4 are efficient, elegant and enjoy outstanding success in their class.” Hit the jump to read over the brag-filled press release.
Aston Martin’s assembly plant in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England
Entering the very top of the luxury saloon market is no easy task. Even a company like has had trouble positioning its program against the likes of and – owned by its archrivals at and , respectively. is looking at taking a bite out of the hyper-exclusive market with the impending re-launch of its brand, but both Aston and Daimler apparently believe that getting a profitable foothold in that stratospheric segment is more than either of them are up to alone. So they’re going at it together.
Reports began emerging of an Aston/Daimler partnership several years ago, suggesting that Daimler could turn to Aston for its expertise in building small production runs – a skill to which Daimler is not accustomed. Now Car and Driver is detailing the particulars of that tie-up that could lead to big things for both automakers. What Daimler would get out of the deal is the potentially more viable production of next-generation Maybach models, also built atop the platform (albeit the next iteration) but at Aston’s plant in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England.
What Aston would get in return is the technology (in platforms, drivetrain and other equipment) on which to base its new Lagonda range, including a sedan built alongside the Maybach line as well as a -based crossover. The question is whether the partnership could extend to provide Aston with a new platform to replace the aging VH architecture on which its entire lineup is now based.
Automakers in Japan are desperate to restart their factories, but part shortages are in many instances holding up production. But that’s not the only issue, as rolling blackouts are making it difficult for the manufacturing sector to maintain steady operation.
USA Today reports that one solution to the problem could be a rotating schedule. Basically, Japan’s automakers would alternate which days plants would be open for business. The plan could be as simple as ‘ runs on Monday, gets Tuesday, gets Wednesday and smaller automakers get Thursday.’ Alternatively, automakers could alternate shifts on a per-region basis so as not to stress the weakened power grid. Bloomberg reports that automakers will meet soon discuss a rotating schedule.
Japan’s all-important auto industry is still early in the process of getting back on track, so we’re likely to hear a lot more oddball ideas like a rotating production schedule. Ultimately, automakers will need to get back to full-scale production in the next few weeks, or car buyers around the world (including here in the U.S.) will start to feel the pain.
Ford SVT Raptor with Phoenix Camper – Click above for high-res image gallery
The is a special kind of truck. After all, there aren’t many mass production vehicles on this planet capable of performing the off-roading feats that the Blue Oval rig can do without breaking a sweat. But what happens when your trailblazing journey involves an overnight stay, and there are no Holiday Inns out in the middle of the desert?
Phoenix Campers thinks they have the answer in the form of a specially built pop-up camper unit that fits within the 5.5-foot bed of the Raptor. The snug-fitting camper top can be had in body color, complete with an extension of the digital mud available on the flanks of every Raptor. The camper features a refrigerator, three burner stove and a double sink with water tank. The main bed in the cabover portion is a full queen-size, and if out the dinette you’re greeted with a blow-up queen sized bed with electric pump that measures out to a short but predictable 5.5-feet in length.
More important is the fact that this camper fits securely in the bed, giving the owner the ability to shut the tailgate for extra security. The unit is also relatively light weight, which means that this Phoenix Camper shouldn’t kill the Raptor’s off-road chops.
But while Phoenix Campers touts this camper’s utility and sturdiness, the company can’t hide the fact that this makeshift mobile home is less than appealing to the eye. But hey, if you’ve bought a Raptor expressly for going off-roading, you’re probably more interested in the fact that this capable little pop-up camper won’t do much to hamper performance.
Let’s put this out there: is a feisty little company. When tried to ,” the electric automaker said, “.” Tesla has also had a long-standing beef with the BBC TV show Top Gear, largely because of that . If you don’t remember, that was the show where the supposedly ran out of energy on the track. The two groups have sniped and over time, but Tesla did what Tesla does and for “libel and malicious falsehood” ().
Tesla’s point is that Top Gear had an idea in mind (that electric vehicles are lame) and staged the show to prove it. On Tesla’s blog site, Vice President of Communications, Ricardo Reyes, writes:
The show’s script, written before the cars were tested, has host Jeremy Clarkson concluding the segment by saying, “in the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.” …
Yet the show continues to air. … The programme’s lies are repeatedly and consistently re-broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers on BBC channels and web sites, on other TV channels via syndication; the show is available on the Internet, and is for sale on DVD around the world.
Not the kind of thing you want repeated, and Reyes says that potential customers still ask Tesla staff about the show’s claims, so the staged event has entered the popular mindset. Naturally, a Top Gear spokesman told the news department, “The BBC stands by the programme and will be vigorously defending this claim.”
Just because something is interesting to watch on TV does not mean it’s true, of course, and in this case the courts will have to figure out what really happened. Us? We’re wondering why it has taken Tesla around two years to get around to filing a suit. Either way, you can watch the Top Gear clip in question after the jump. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
The trouble with rolling out a new car is that it instantly makes its stablemates look outdated. That’s especially the case with a company like that only has two model lines. But there’s nothing to do about it but soldier on with new models to continue the cycle. So, now that the new is upon us, details are beginning to surface on the replacement for the .
Introduced back in 2003 and incrementally updated every step along the way, the Gallardo is due for replacement, and as we , that replacement is tipped to be called Cabrera. Expect composite construction (as employed on the Sesto Elemento and the Aventador) to help reduce the car’s weight, while a new version of the Gallardo’s V10 engine could boost output up to 600 metric horsepower.
Rumor has it that a supercharger could be employed, but with only around 30 horsepower of tuning to do to reach 600 – not to mention a range-topping 700-horse Aventador from which to keep its distance – we doubt Sant’Agata would need forced induction to get there. Expect the tentatively-dubbed Cabrera LP600-4 to debut sometime next year.
Yesterday, was met with a slight production hiccup. The Swedish automaker’s parent company Spyker Cars confirmed that production briefly ground to a halt at its Trolhättan assembly plant when a number of suppliers stopped the flow of parts due to non-payment of bills.
Saab says it “expects to resolve these issues in the short term,” and workers resumed production this morning. Any cessation of production invariably costs an automaker big bucks, and even though the stoppage was very short in duration, its understandable that other suppliers and analysts might have the jitters about whether Saab’s financial position is stable.
Given that Spyker its own automotive unit to CPP, Saab should have enough cash on hand to pay the bills, although the automaker itself announced a nearly $200 million loss from last year. Follow the jump for the official announcement.
Sebastien Bourdais at the 2011 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Following and a couple of test sessions, four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais is returning to open wheel racing in America with the Dale Coyne team. The French driver had graduated to an unsuccessful stint in Formula One with Scuderia Toro Rosso after dominating the Champ Car series in its pre-merger days, and is returning to IndyCar racing this season.
The deal with Coyne will see Bourdais campaign only the street and road-course races on the calendar, and not the oval speedways – less due to his relative expertise in the corners as opposed to banked tracks and more, according to reports, to avoid scheduling conflicts with his drive for Peugeot’s Le Mans team.
Bourdais’ return kicked off this past weekend at the season opener in St Petersburg, Florida, however he didn’t make it onto the starting grid. The experienced grand prix driver crashed his Dallara in the first chicane during a warm-up session, resulting in heavy damage. After his teammate James Jakes crashed around the same time at Turn Three and the team was left without a back-up car, it had only enough parts to repair one chassis and Jakes’ was the less damaged of the two.
We’ll look forward to seeing Bourdais get his groove back at the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park on April 10, followed by Long Beach on April 17 and Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 1 before the series hits the speedways in June.
With all the trinkets and gizmos we pack onto ourselves before we leave the house, do we really need a physical car key? clearly doesn’t think so. The British purveyor of luxury GTs was among the first to replace the key ignition with a push-button. Then the company teamed up with its watchmaking partner Jaeger-LeCoultre to incorporate a transponder into branded timepieces designed to lock and unlock its cars. Now Aston is taking things one step further, and soliciting the services of the mobile phone to get there.
Created in collaboration with Canadian luxury cellphone company Mobiado, this concept phone was just unveiled at the BaselWorld watch and jewelry expo in Switzerland. It’s called the CPT002, and it’s one of the slickest gadgets out there. It can lock and unlock your car like a proximity fob, but that’s just the start. The phone will also interface wirelessly with such social media websites as Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare to help you locate the friends you’re meeting or automatically update them on the progress of your road trip or track day. It’s also designed to allow the car to access the phone’s accelerometer to help prepare for an impending crash.
All that is packed into a slick design that suspends a transparent sapphire crystal capacitive touch screen between two platinum bars that house the processor, battery, SIM card and all the rest. Unfortunately it’s just a show piece for the time being, but if this is what the future of mobility looks like, count us in for the ride. Details in the press blast .
2012 HondaJet – Click above for high-res image gallery
The first FAA-conforming HondaJet managed a top speed of 489 miles per hour at 30,000 feet on March 11. That mark surpasses Honda’s original goal for the jet, and gets it one step closer to production. The flight tests are still in their early stages, so it will be a while yet before the light business jet is available for purchase by well-to-do consumers.
Honda says the jet managed those performance numbers thanks to an extra-slippery shape and a unique over-the-wing placement of the plane’s engines. Aircraft Company is conducting its flight tests of the HondaJet at its corporate headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Feel free to read more about it in the press release .
Rolls-Royce showroom Abu Dhabi – Click above for high-res image gallery
The news these days from the Middle East mostly focuses on warfare and revolution, but not in Abu Dhabi. The gulf emirate remains an island of tranquility, and that’s where has opted to open its largest showroom ever.
The dealership includes some 900 square meters of showroom space – that’s nearly 10,000 square feet – incorporating a coffee bar, a customer configuration lounge and enough floorspace to showcase five vehicles in uncluttered opulence. Which is really something, considering that the company currently offers only four variants across two model ranges. There’s a service facility adjacent as well. The new Abu Dhabi location is the 82nd in an expanding chain of Rolls-Royce dealers around the world, and the eighth in the Middle East alone.
Porsche Panamera Turbo S – Click above for high-res image gallery
We that a Panamera Turbo S could be in the works with an official debut coming at the New York Auto Show in April. We didn’t have to wait long to find out, as has released the first details about its new flagship four-door.
As expected, the Turbo S gets a power increase up to 550 horsepower, 50 more than the standard Turbo model, thanks to new twin turbochargers with enhanced turbines and modified engine programming. Torque is also up, 553 lb-ft compared to 516 lb-ft. Porsche says that the Panamera Turbo S is capable of reaching 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds as well as a top speed of 190 mph, all while returning an estimated 15/23 mpg. The car will reach showrooms later this Spring, with pricing in the U.S. starting at $173,200. You can read full details about the Porsche Panamera Turbo S in the official press release after the jump.
As of now, we’ve seen plenty of photos and footage of the upcoming , and now the grandaddy of videos has just been released. This time, has leaked nearly 30 minutes of the M5 undergoing cold weather testing in the Alps. There’s plenty of everything here, from nice stills to rolling footage of the upcoming M car bounding through the snow.
The F10 M5 is rapidly approaching its debut, first at a private press conference at the end of this week, then at the in mid-April. We already know that the car will have a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 replacing the outgoing car’s V10, and Americans will still be able to get a traditional stick shift. We’re ready, BMW. for the video.
Hyundai Veloster Rally Car – Click above for high-res image gallery
Just a little over a month after it was , the Hyundai Veloster Rally Car made its competition debut at the Global Rally Championship this past week.
Flying under the Rhys Millen Racing banner, which also works with Hyundai in Formula Drift and for the Pikes Peak Hill climb, a duo of rally cars managed to make it through the entire weekend trouble free – something that couldn’t be said for some of the more established teams. Hyundai’s team did experience some teething problems with tire compounds and gear ratio selections, but they plan to rectify those issues for the next round of RallyCross next month in Snoqualmie, WA.
We got up close and personal with Millen’s Veloster at the event, and came away with plenty of photos for your visual enjoyment. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at the 500-horsepower, 2,600-pound, all-wheel-drive, carbon fiber rocket ship.
The Compass has finally received a more thorough overhaul for the 2011 model year, with some additional upgrades including a new steering wheel, a new front fascia and grille with a revised hood to match, along with a new four-wheel-drive package that confers a “Trail Rated” label to this least illustrious Jeep.
We’re quite confident in saying that this is certainly the most realistic Need for Speedgame yet. Still, not everyone will enjoy the punishment this game can offer.
Dan Roth, Chris Shunk, Chris Paukert and Zach Bowman take a look inside the Autoblog Garage and discuss the past week’s top stories.
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Russian drifters take on Moscow’s streets – Click above to watch video
Fans of drifting can be found all over the globe. The sport started in Japan and has quickly spread around the world, including a recent . In fact, drifting seems to have taken hold in a land as far away as Russia. As an aside, if you search for “russian drifting” on Google, the first few links are for monitoring ice flows. But we digress…
A pair of sideways-driving enthusiasts have taken to the Moscow streets with their rubber-destroying machines to prove that drifting is alive and well in Russia. Shot in high-definition, this is no shaky Flip cam-shot clip but rather a surprisingly well done video of two drivers taking control of their cars. Check it out by .
Toyota Avensis BTCC – Click above for high-res image gallery
Touring car racing is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance as of late. DTM is growing from a German national series to a proper international championship, while the World Touring Car Championship is living up to its name by expanding outside Europe. V8 Supercars are as popular as ever Down Under, just as Super GT is in Japan. But arguably the most resurgent is the British Touring Car Championship.
Title-sponsored by Dunlop, this year’s BTCC will feature no fewer than 27 competitors – and all-time high for the series – fielding 13 different models from 10 manufacturers, representing , , , , , Proton, Seat, , Vauxhall and . That could very well be higher and more varied participation than any other major racing series in the world.
When the BTCC launched its Next Generation Touring Car formula, it was Toyota’s British subsidiary that with the new Avensis racer, which has finally made its public debut at Silverstone – a little behind schedule, but still a week before the series gets under way at Brands Hatch. The car will be campaigned by Dynojet Racing and Speedworks, with Frank Wrathall, Jr. and Tony Hughes behind the wheel of each, respectively. The cars are built atop frames rolling right off the assembly line at Toyota’s Burnaston plant, and powered by a turbochagred 2.0-liter four with over 300 horsepower. Check out the full press blast for more.
In 2009, Concorso Italiano held a , regarded as the first Ferrari supercar. The gathering was a resounding success, with fifteen examples showing up to break the record for the most 288 GTOs in one location at the same time. Concorso followed that up the next year with a to celebrate the car’s 20th birthday.
So what’s next? The F50, of course. Concorso has announced that the third-generation Ferrari supercar will be honored at this year’s event, and are currently putting out the call for owners to bring their prized possessions to Monterey in August. Just 349 were produced from 1995 to 1997, so anything more than a few in one place would be impressive.
You can view the galleries of the 288 GTO and F40 reunions below, and look for our Monterey coverage in August for a report on the F50 gathering.
BMW M3 Matte Edition – Click above for high-res images
Automakers have all sorts of different ways of celebrating milestone anniversaries. In the case of the , which turns 25 years old this year, opted to roll out a series of special editions for individual markets. Japan, for example, got the Competition Fire Orange Edition. Here in the United States, we got the . Australia got the , and in China they got the . The latter proved so popular that BMW has opted to roll out a second special edition for the People’s Republic.
Called the Matte Edition, its defining feature, as you might have guessed, is the matte black paint job, complimented by black chrome trim, high-gloss 19-inch alloys to contrast with the low-gloss body, red brake calipers and an interior decked out with carbon fiber trim and red stitching. Mechanically, the Matte Edition is exactly the same as a stock M3, but the color scheme is one of the most attractive we’ve seen yet. Follow the jump for the official press release (translated into English).
Ford suspension testing – Click above for high-res image gallery
Despite increased government expenditures in England to fix the country’s potholes, is eager to prove it still rigorously tests its cars for their ability to withstand big pavement gaps. According to Ford, its cars go through thousands of miles of tests across two proving grounds to make sure they won’t sustain damage when presented with uneven surfaces.
The Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium goes as far as to include an inch-by-inch recreation of a notoriously porous English road. More abusive road surfaces are simulated at Ford’s Dunton Proving Ground in Essex, England. Ford says that between the two test facilities, it tests every wheel and tire combination sold on its entire European vehicle portfolio.
The budget for this sort of testing is huge, as each test car is strapped with around $2.5 million worth of electronic gadgetry designed to register and record the effect of each pothole strike. Ford uses the data to improve its current suspension systems and design new ones, which will go on to be further refined at Lommel and Dunton.
Yesterday, was met with a slight production hiccup. The Swedish automaker’s parent company Spyker 
