If you’ve been waiting for someone to combine R/C cars and Ken Block’s brand of gymkhana, you’ll want to pay a visit to Hot Wheels. The toy maker has of Block’s rallying , and after you load the required eight AA batteries you’ll be drifting it around corners WRC-style in much less time than it took Block to learn his craft.
We won’t mention the center-mounted wheel under the car that makes it all a bit easier. Instead, you can to see a video of Ken Block writ small for yourself.
We can now add a rendering and a litte more gossip to and its recent designation. GM has used the SS designator for more than 50 years but only got around to trademarking it five years ago, and persistent rumors have suggested that a civilian version of the will simply be called the SS.
previously confirmed that its next NASCAR entry will be , which suggests that the and are disqualified. But a new car called the SS would fit, and the rumormill suggests it will be a derivative of the Zeta-platform Holden Commodore. The folks at Chris Doane Automotive have opened the rendering account and taken this rather conservative stab at what a reboot of a U.S. Commodore might look like.
Yes, we’ve been here before, and in fact, we’re still here. The now extinct but universally lauded was itself a Americanized Holden Commodore, and the current Caprice law enforcement vehicle is a long-wheelbase version of that Holden that packs either a 3.6-liter, 301-horsepower V6 or a 6.0-liter, 355-hp V8. Resurrecting the G8 would return a vehicle that many loved but was handicapped by Pontiac’s zombie status, improve Holden’s fortunes and give Chevy a proper rear-wheel drive sedan with teeth. To all of that, we say Yes, Yes and… Yes.
The group of hackers known as Anonymous last night announcing their intent to hack and take down the officialwebsite for Formula One at for the duration of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Their reason? To protest the increasingly violent crackdown on the people of Bahrain by their own government.
As of this writing, as promised and another website, , is displaying a message from Anonymous that claims responsibility.
In its press release, Anonymous addresses Bernie Ecclestone, president and CEO of Formula One, directly, promising the following:
Anonymous will turn your web site (www.formula1.com) into a smoking crater in cyber space. We will also jam your phone lines, bomb your E-Mail inboxes – and wreck anything else of yours we can find on the internet.
The group also calls upon fans of F1 to ignore the race by either not attending in person or watching it on television. They also appeal to the drivers themselves to protest the race by not crossing the starting line at the beginning of the race.
Last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix was , and despite the increasing frequency of protests and leading up to this weekend’s race, it has not yet been cancelled. As a result, activists, now including the Anonymous group, are using the motorsport’s worldwide popularity to gain attention for their cause.
In the music industry, a band’s third album is typically make-or-break. You start with the debut album, introducing the general public to the band’s polished works, then comes the sophomore record, which proves whether or not the band can keep its fan base happy and gain more traction in the music scene. But the third album must show if that band’s sound and style has a good enough mix of individual flare and mainstream appeal to keep them successful in the long-run.
If you think about it, the same can be said about the automotive landscape, and for the purpose of this review, the . The first-generation Escape, launched in 2000 as a 2001 model, entered during a time when small SUVs and “cute-utes” were booming. The redesigned 2008 Escape built upon the first model’s success, and now, as the curtain is about to close on that ruggedly handsome, boxy Escape, this new third-generation model has some mighty big shoes to fill.
Over the past year, the Escape has been an absolute sales superstar. In 2011, moved over 254,000 of the compact crossovers – a 33-percent gain over 2010’s numbers. To get an idea of just how impressive that is, know that in the same timeframe, moved just over 218,000 , while sold 137,000 and hustled around 193,000 models. Building upon that success, Ford announced that with 60,000 units sold in the first quarter of 2012, the Escape posted its best Q1 numbers in its 11-year history. Talk about going out with a bang.
But rather than sticking to the original formula of a small, trucky crossover, Ford has completely redesigned the Escape for 2013. Perhaps the biggest point of contention surrounding the new model is its styling – the two-box, upright design has been ditched in favor of the automaker’s Kinetic language, employing a more, shall we say, Focused appearance.
So here it is, the ever-important third album. Does Ford’s all-new Escape have enough mainstream appeal to take on the best and brightest of the CUV set while still being able to appeal to loyalists? We headed to the roads around San Francisco to find out.
Delaware may be joining , , and other states in cracking down on drivers who use the left lane for more than passing. A bill in the Delaware legislature would institute fines of up to $230 for drivers who camp out in the left lane on roads with at least two lanes in each direction, according to USA Today.
Delaware’s current law requires drivers to keep right only when going slower that the flow of traffic, according to the report. The new measure would resemble nearby New Jersey’s law – the Garden State currently fines left lane dawdlers up to $200, though a recent proposal would raise that to $300.
The Delaware bill is supported by AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Delaware Police Chiefs Council. For what it’s worth, we think it’s a good idea as well, but don’t take our opinion for it, let us know what you think by voting in our poll below.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t much in the way of confirmation, but M division president Friedrich Nitschke told Car and Driver that the company was “considering” building an M Performance version of the . While that’s not quite an M7, it’s close.
Remember, that BMW has created to offer a higher performance version of its vehicles to slot between the standard models and the full-blown M cars. M Performance will also allow BMW to create performance diesel and all-wheel-drive models without sullying the M badge.
Of course, enthusiasts looking for a full-size BMW performance sedan can already have an like the one pictured above, but there’s something alluring about a real M-badged 7-Series. Given that BMW has already , it only seems fair that the 7-Series gets some love too, even if it’s just in M Performance form.
Nitschke’s interview revealed a few more interesting details about BMW’s product plans, namely that turbocharged engines are here to stay. He said BMW has no plans to use superchargers for its M products, and it sounds like naturally aspirated M engines are a thing of the past as well. Manual transmissions will continue to be offered, as according to Nitschke, new models will be equipped with transmissions that use software and electronics to “protect” the tranny from mismatched shifts. We won’t be seeing a hatchback M135i here in the U.S., however, nor are any of the diesel M Performance models headed towards our shores.
Last year aimed cameras at the the 150 Camaros making the drive to Phoenix for Camaro5 Fest. The footage has been pieced together into a ten-minute documentary called Alter Ego, a celebration of owners in celebration of their cars.
It’s more than that, though, since it pauses to take a look at the model that made the name, and the annus horribilus of 2002 when Camaro production ceased.
There’s also lots of tire smoke. Naturally. to watch.
Argentinian rally champ can attest to the udderly day-ruining power of hitting a wayward cow on an ATV at open throttle. There’s no way to know for sure, but we can guess Bonetto was thinking, “Oh, that’s bull…!” right before T-boning this side of beef. Unlike some cows, most ATVs don’t have horns, and even if Bonetto’s did, there was little chance of it being herd over the roar of his quad. Plus, ATVs aren’t exactly known for quick steering.
At the last moment, the cow tries to hoof it out of the whey but gets creamed anyway. The resulting crash will make your blood curdle. Luckily, Bonetto is chucked from his ride because it becomes hogtied with a barbed wire fence, rendered unusable for the rest of the race. The cow? Of course it ran off to hide, likely to get a good ribbing at the next celebrity roast. The race probably ground to a halt.
This wasn’t Bonetto’s first rodeo, and we’ll steak our reputation on the bet that he’ll go a little slower next time. And, yes, we know the video is from 2011. We thought we’d milk it just a bit more.
Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Hot on the heels of Audi’s official announcement that it had from Investindustrial Group, , the in-house performance arm of German automaker , has ended its “marketing cooperation” with the storied Italian motorcycle brand.
Naturally, Mercedes-Benz doesn’t want to sponsor Ducati now that it’s been taken over by, in its own words, “a rival car manufacturer.” While there had been some speculation that Mercedes or its AMG division might make a bid for Ducati, the automaker claims that was :
“Our focus lies clearly in developing and producing premium performance cars and we will be concentrating all our energy on this.”
Seems pretty cut and dry to us, but if you want to read more, feel free to for the brief announcement. We have to wonder, though, what will be come of the ?
Along with Renault- CEO Carlos Ghosn, CEO Alan Mulally is confident in the growth of the electric car segment. It’s a long-term play, though, so Mulally isn’t committing the electric Ford Focus EV to making a strong sales statement. For now, Ford’s chief says he’d be fine moving fewer than 5,000 Focus EVs in the model’s first full year. And even that would mean a steep rise in uptake based on in December and January.
TheWall Street Journal reports that Mulally has also let slip the cost for the battery pack in the all-electric Focus: “around $12,000 to $15,000,” which makes a bit more understandable. Given that price range and the EV’s 23-kWh battery, that means Ford’s cost is between $522 and $650 per kWh, which is lower than the so far this year.
Reportage on the current sales of EVs is a bit schizophrenic – for example, , , but the commentators and the numbers seem to support Mulally’s confidence. If the Focus EV did manage 5,000 sales this year, that would be a little more than half of the 2011 tally for the , yet according to Bloomberg, EV market share grew more quickly than any other segment in Q1: Nissan is still working through its Leaf pre-order list, sales to 2,129 units vs. March 2011, the Opel Ampera has exceeded sales expectations, and other electric vehicles and their marketing pushes will come online later this year. Oh, and gas prices are still climbing.
There were no Focus EVs sold in February or March, but the retail push is gearing up now for the Spring season.
The 1961 Impala SS inaugurated the SS trim line to the brand, and its SS cars have found more than a million homes since – examples helping the way. Turns out, though, that just got around to patenting the designator SS on April 13, 2012. Since the SS descriptor has historically indicated a model variant or trim level, distinctions that apparently don’t normally warrant trademark protection, the questions are why now and what for?
The evidence would seem to lead to this being a model designator, not just a trim, and there have been of the will hit the market and simply be called SS. But if that’s the case, what would the we’ve seen in spy shots be named, and what – if anything – would happen to the SS trim available on other Chevy models?
Click the image below for a look at the patent application, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out what is going to go where.
is using the to reveal a special edition with Victoria Beckham – not “created with” or “by,” just “with.” It was , but Posh Becks has been busy doing the kinds of things keep a woman called Posh busy.
LR has made a vid to support the cause, but it stretches the definition of “teaser” since it’s more like 17 seconds of Fashion TV meets Tron in monochrome, bracketed by titles. If you look really closely, you might even see the Evoque in it. to check it out.
When sold and to Tata Motors for $2.5 billion, the auto industry was in rough shape. And it didn’t help that the luxury combo pack didn’t exactly have a lineup full of fresh rides.
Only four years have past since that historic sale, but the industry is in much better shape and new vehicles like the and have seemingly done wonders for the luxury brands. In fact, Tata’s investment may be in much better shape than most anyone would have thought. According to Bloomberg, analysts predict that an Initial Public Offering could show that the brands are worth a combined $14 billion.
That’s a monumental return on investment, and there are plenty of reasons for the lofty estimate. Tata reportedly earned $2 billion off JLR in 2011, and sales are at all-time highs. The brands are also expecting major growth in China and Russia, and Tata has promised to double its investment in new products. Tata has also pledged 40 new or refreshed models in the next five years, which is likely more new metal than some full-line manufacturers would be willing to promise.
But while JLR is apparently worth an estimated $14 billion, it appears that Tata isn’t quite ready to issue an IPO. Company spokesman Debasis Ray told Bloomberg in an email that Tata is planning to fund the brands through internal cash accruals.
At present, has the capacity, through its joint venture Changan FordAutomobile, to build about 600,000 vehicles per year in . That’s not enough to sustain the brand’s , so it makes sense that the automaker has officially announced plans to build a new facility in Hangzhou.
This $760 million expansion will bring Ford’s total investment in China to $4.9 billion, and it will double the automaker’s production capacity in that country by 2015. Ford calls this its most rapid expansion in 50 years – not surprising, given that the Chinese automobile market is expected to crest 30 million vehicles by 2020 – and it will make this region in China its largest manufacturing base outside its traditional playground in Southeast Michigan.
Ford isn’t saying what vehicle(s) it plans to build at this new Chinese plant, but it is suggesting that it will increase its available models from five to 15, along with 20 new powertrain options, by 2015. Feel free to read Ford’s official press release by .
It may come as a shock, but diesel cars are doing well outside of their traditional European home. The just-released shows that , but the real story is that we might be seeing the start of a golden era for diesel-powered cars in the U.S. In fact, clean diesel sales were up 35 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over Q1 2011, a trend – and it is a trend, since diesel sales were up 27 percent in 2011 – that the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF) says is due to higher fuel prices pushing people into the efficient oil-burners.
Allen Schaeffer, DTF’s executive director, said in a statement that, “I expect clean diesel auto sales to increase further as several new diesel cars are introduced in the U.S. market in the next year.”
Right now, it’s pretty much all Jetta TDI, all the time.
Once those other vehicles arrive, we’ll see how the market shakes out. Right now, it’s pretty much all , all the time. A while back, we spoke with Lars Ullrich, the director of marketing and business excellence, diesel systems North America, for Robert Bosch LLC. He told us that diesel Jettas made up 44 percent of all diesels sold in the U.S. last year, which makes the Jetta sort of the Prius of diesels in America. Last year, had 58 percent of all diesel sales in the U.S.
Does this mean the Jetta TDI is “the” diesel in the U.S.? Ullrich said it depends on how you look at the numbers. About 60 percent of all s sold in the U.S. in 2011, for example, were diesel, but the A3 sells in smaller numbers overall than the Jetta. When you have diesels available in high-volume models, he said, you end up selling a lot of diesels.
Diesel-powered passenger cars and medium-duty pick-ups had around three percent market share in the U.S. in 2011.
What does the big picture look like? Overall, diesel-powered passenger cars and medium-duty pick-ups had around three percent market share in the U.S. in 2011. That may not sound like a lot, but compare it to the hybrid market share, which has gone from 2.7 to 2.4 to 2.1 percent over the last three years, Ullrich said. Today, there are 25 clean diesel models available in the U.S. By 2014, that number will double, he said, which gives us an indication of where the market is moving. Echoing Schaeffer, Bosch’s prediction is that the U.S. will see diesels grab 10 percent of the market by 2015.
While increasingly popular, diesels are not perfect. There are issues like the , for example, and a fossil fuel is a fossil fuel. But it’s clear that Americans are considering diesel more than they used to. The question is what happens when the and arrive? Or more of ’s -D models? And, further down the line, when we see more merging of electric and diesel powertrains, where the diesel – perhaps – is burned in an efficient generator to generate electricity. That’s when things get even more exciting.
High gas prices are helping and do quite well in the U.S., too. The Diesel Technology Forum says hybrid sales increased 37.2 percent while plug-in electrics jumped 323 percent. Overall, vehicle sales were up 13.4 percent. For more number-crunching details, see our monthly green car sales charts for , and of 2012. The DTF has compiled a list of all the diesel-powered vehicles available in the U.S. .
If you’ve got an hour to kill and an itch to watch some exciting Targa Newfoundland action, we’ve got good news for you. SPEED has been kind enough to stream the network’s one-hour special free online. The episode spends plenty of time following both the Modern and Classic divisions with barely a nod toward Open or Grand Touring. That’s a shame for plenty of reasons, both because the competition was incredibly tight across the board this year and because I hung out with in both the latter classes during my .
Still, the Flyin’ Miata guys get a little time on screen. The rest of the coverage details the fight between Scott Giannou in his and Bob Yuille in his . There’s also plenty of interviews with Ralph Gilles. You can check out the full episode by clicking .
. On a day in which has dominated the news – by and for the auto show – it completes the hat trick by announcing that its new factory will be built in Mexico. Production is slated to begin in 2016, but Audi only announced that the plant would be building “an SUV model.” Speculating on which that might be, we imagine it would make sense for one of the brand’s high-volume nameplates to be built here in North America, which would point to the .
Audi parent already operates facilities in the Mexican cities of Puebla and Silao, so the company is intimately familiar with the nuances of building cars in the country. That should help in getting the facility up to speed quickly, although Audi board members emphasized finding the right location in Mexico in their statement announcing the decision.
Audi also said it could supply vehicles from Mexico worldwide, and reiterated its goal of selling two million vehicles each year by 2020. That, of course, is part of Volkswagen’s stated intent of .
In the pantheon of bad ideas and even worse ideas, capturing yourself on video gratuitously breaking the law and later flaunting your indiscretions to the local constabulary ranks right between and .
Funny thing is, people seem to make this egregious mistake rather often. Exhibit A: . Exhibit B: The video you’ll see below.
First off, it’s seriously stupid and irresponsible to risk your own life and the lives of others by riding at speeds of up to 185 miles per hour while weaving your way through traffic. But it takes even fewer brain cells to share video evidence on YouTube, especially considering that we can all see that you’re riding what appears to be a 2006 Yamaha R1 painted up in factory blue.
According to CBC News, Vancouver Island police are trying to track down the rider in this clip. Scroll to see the video for yourself.
Our sister site, AOL Autos, just dug up one of the largest rebates we’ve ever seen on a new car. If, for some reason, you must have a Maybach before the brand ceases production altogether, you may in line to snag a tidy $100,000 rebate. Daimler previously let slip that the company will kill the ultra-luxury brand in 2013 and replace it with a new high-end . Given that Maybach models never exactly jumped off of the showroom floor, we’re guessing the German automaker needs all the help it can get moving the and .
Even with $100,000 off the sticker price, you’ll still need a suitcase full of C notes to take one of these machines home. The entry-level Type 57 commands a $376,300 MSRP while the Type 62 starts at $427,700. Even at those prices, reports suggest the a staggering $500,000 on each and every model it sold. It’s a wonder the marque stayed around as long as it did.
Youngman has made another bid for bankrupt , according to new reports. The Chinese automaker has offered to buy what’s left of Saab for $470 million at current conversion rates. The news comes courtesy of Dagens Industri. The newspaper also indicates that’s the absolute lowest the Swedish automaker’s pledgees and real estate owners will accept to settle the company’s impressive debt. The deal would also set aside an additional $1.47 billion to restart production at the mothballed Trollhattan facility. Other foreign automakers are also vying over Saab’s remains, including India’s Mahindra & Mahindra.
Pang Da, meanwhile, seems to have no interest in continuing to pursue Saab. The company paid out around $59 million for vehicles Saab was supposed to produce. That never happened, and now the Chinese company has had to undergo the unpleasant task of reporting that loss to its investors.
Saab around $1.9 billion at the moment, and its assets are valued at just $532 million.
