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As you’re reading this, several of us are on the way to Monterey, California, ready to provide tee-to-green coverage of the annual classic car week festivities. The real action starts with Gordon McCall’s Motorsports Revival – aka The Jet Center Party – tomorrow evening and with the festivities bookended by grand-daddy of them all: The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. In between there are enough other concours, races, auctions and miscellaneous car events in the mix to keep any type of enthusiast happy. While we plan on covering as much of the proceedings as possible, we hope some of you will be in attendance as well. To that end we’ve compiled a schedule of events with brief descriptions and links to keep you in the know up on the Monterey peninsula. Follow the jump to read our complete Autoblog Monterey Classic Car Week Calendar.

[Sources: See Monterey and About.com]

Continue reading Autoblog Monterey Classic Car Week Calendar

Autoblog Monterey Classic Car Week Calendar

You can buy a lot of sports car for $295,000. A fully loaded Lamborghini Gallardo; an Audi R8 and matching R8 V10; three Nissan GT-Rs and a Mustang GT; a 911 Turbo, a Cayman and a Boxster… we can play that game all day. But buying a great car (or cars) is just part of the equation. Insurance, storage, fuel and track time can add up quickly, even for the well-off among us, but the folks over at Skip Barber have a different idea.

The world-famous driving school is offering a lifetime pass for a not so affordable $295,000, but that lofty figure includes just about all the learning and racing your heart desires. Lifetime Fast Fast Pass owners can register for an entire season in advance, race at one of the school’s 10 tracks or show up at any event and fill any open spots. One thing lifetime pass owners can’t do is bump another driver from a purchased spot; a damn good rule if you ask us.

The latest offer from Skip Barber comes after the driving school offered a $150,000 unlimited pass, $100,000 national pass or a $75,000 regional pass. School officials are gauging interest in the passes, and if too many die-hard drivers purchase a lifetime pass a cap may be placed on the amount of available spots. If you’ve got the means, get in quick.

[Source: Skip Barber]

Lifetime membership to Skip Barber available for $295,000

It’s no secret that Volkswagen has ambitious plans for the U.S. market over the next decade. The German automaker has its sights set on a combined one million sales per year (made up of 800,000 VWs and 200,000 Audi vehicles, give or take) by the year 2018. That’s three times as many vehicles as the company sold last year.

Of course, selling more cars in the U.S. means building more cars in North America. Hence VW’s billion dollar investment in a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the automaker will build the upcoming “New Midsize Sedan” specifically for the American market.

Put down your Little Debbie snack cakes, job seekers – a report from Autoweek suggests that VW has plans in the works to build another vehicle in Tennessee. While we had previously heard that the second model may be an Audi, it now seems as if it may be a VW-badged small car of CUV. The report also indicates that an engine plant may go up alongside the new facility to build engines for North America.

In any case, the value of the U.S. dollar as compared to the euro is likely to have a large impact on whatever decision is finally made.

[Source: Autoweek]

Small car or CUV could be added to Volkswagen plant

One of the great things about being a gearhead in the UK is the Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) process. In short,
the IVA (formerly the Single Vehicle Type approval) is a set of rules that allows one-offs and very low volume vehicles to be approved if they meet only the most basic requirements of a road car. If it’s equipped with head- and taillights, turn signals, seat belts and doesn’t spew too much smoke or have any other obvious issues, you can get it registered. Lotus uses IVA to make UK street versions of its 2-Eleven track car and that’s how Reynard Racing Cars will now sell the Inverter – a race car barely adapted for the street – to liven up your daily commute.

Power is currently available from either a 1,000-cc Honda Fireblade or 1,340-cc Suzuki Hayabusa inline-four, but a variant powered by a 2.0-liter Ford Duratec is under development. With the road version weighing a mere 981 pounds, the 180 horsepower Fireblade should provide plenty of performance. The Inverter starts at £35,000 for a turn-key unit (that’s around $56,000 USD including Britain’s Value Added Tax) or you can get a rolling chassis and body starting at £14,900 (in the neighborhood of $24k). Check out video and specs after the jump.

[Source: Reynard Racing Cars]

Continue reading Reynard Inverter gets road legal in the UK [w/video]

Reynard Inverter gets road legal in the UK [w/video]

Here’s a Ferrari unlike any you’ve ever seen, and that includes the amusement park rides. The Prancing Horse’s three-seater Formula 1 demonstrator, called the Marlboro Red Rush, was doing laps in the rain at Fiorano with either testing dummies or two tiny passengers. We’ve seen plenty of two-seater F1 cars, but this is the first we’ve heard of a factory-built three-seat joyrider and from the most unlikely source. We’d still like to know, though, how to get in? Oh, and “shotgun…”

UPDATE: Turns out this guy has been around for years and is a part of the Marlboro Red Racing School, and as one would expect of any Ferrari it sounds like a lot o’ fun… Hat tip to Jim

Spy Shots: Three-seat Ferrari F1 car testing at Fiorano

Whereas the videogame and CGI worlds are obsessed with ever higher polygon counts to help replicate the smoothness and texture of real life objects, a group of designers at United Nude (great name) has started a project by the name of Lo Res to explore design in the opposite direction. The group takes typical objects like a shoe, a chair, glasses or a Lamborghini Countach, scans them into a computer and then renders them with ever decreasing numbers of triangles.

The result is a kind of computer-aided abstract take on whatever object has struck their fancy. If the group likes the finished product well enough, they’ll even go to the trouble of having the object built in true-to-life size like they did with the Lamborghini Countach. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can hop in the Lo Res Countach and go for a ride, but you could certainly hang it on your wall as a piece of fine art.

[Source: United Nude via Engadget]

Lo Res Project builds Lamborghini Countach with fewer triangles

As July’s By The Numbers showed us, American buyers are quick to forget the pain of having to fill up a full-size pickup or SUV when gas prices are in the $4-per-gallon range. Without the guiding hand of Uncle Sam pushing the car-buying public towards smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, consumers are all about being large and in charge in the passing lane. But According to Automotive News, General Motors is keen to the fact that fuel won’t stay cheap forever, and to prepare for a returning tide of buyers rushing to small cars when oil goes sky high again, the company is planning a more diminutive product lineup.

If the Automotive News article is on its mark, we can expect to see a new compact Buick called the Verano as well as a hybrid version of the Lacrosse. There’s no telling exactly which architecture the baby Buick will use for its bones, but the Chevrolet Cruze wouldn’t be a bad bet in our eyes. Likewise, GMC will see the introduction of a production version of the Granite concept and Chevrolet should have the all-new Aveo join its ranks along with the Spark city car. Automotive News even says that The General is planning to shrink the Impala. Sounds good to us, but when it comes to Buick, these small-car rumors crop up nearly every year.

[Source: Automotive News]

Report: Buick Verano compact coming in 2012

The post-bankruptcy Chrysler Group is continuing its financial recovery even as the overall economy continues to sputter along. In the April-June quarter, the automaker posted an overall operating profit of $183 million and added $474 million to its cash coffers. After factoring in all the non-operational expenses (everything besides building and selling cars and trucks), the automaker still had a $172 million loss for the quarter. That’s not bad considering the only new product that Chrysler has launched in the past year is the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it didn’t start shipping to dealers until late in the quarter.

Chrysler isn’t providing any comparisons to the pre-bankruptcy 2009 results, but second quarter revenues are up 8.2 percent compared to the first quarter of this year. The operating profit was up by $40 from Q1 and the bottom line was cut from the $197 million loss in the first three months.

For the remainder of 2010, Chrysler is projecting to at least break-even as it starts to sell the new Jeep in volume and brings a number of new and revised products to showrooms after a long drought. The revamped Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 will be joined by the Fiat 500 by the end of this year, and several other vehicles get major interior upgrades. Depending on how things go in the current quarter, Chrysler says it expects to probably bump up its projections for the second half of the year.

[Source: Chrysler Image: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty]

Continue reading Chrysler reports $183M second quarter operating profit, $172 million loss overall

Chrysler reports $183M second quarter operating profit, $172 million loss overall

When Lotus hinted that its Exos Type 125 track-day car would deliver the ultimate customer track experience, we had no idea they meant this ultimate. The 125 was revealed to a few of Lotus’ friends at the Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion, and it’s about as close as many of its buyers will get to a Formula 1 car.

Powered by a 650-horsepower Cosworth V8 that runs up to 10,300 rpm, the 650-kilogram open-wheeler is no doubt awesome fast. With a starter motor and a tear-down interval of 4,000 kilometers, it should go relatively easy on budgets as well. Lotus says it will be offering 25 of them for one million dollars each, and will develop a training and racing program around them.

At least one Autoblogger has wondered if there isn’t more to this car than merely promoting Lotus cars and owner experiences. Ferrari was viewed askance earlier this year when it put Alonso in an F10 for some “promotional” work at Fiorano, since it looked a lot like contravening Formula 1’s testing ban. The Type 125 is so close to this year’s T127 – it’s even named as if it were last year’s F1 car, although Lotus wasn’t in F1 last year – that you should win a prize for spotting the minor differences. Or that could be just some silly tinfoil hat talk right there…

[Source: Teamspeed]

Lotus Exos Type 125 revealed as quasi-F1 car

The waiting game. A new round ensues for enthusiasts every time an automaker like BMW unveils a new product, a four-door sedan, especially. In the case of the 5 Series, what we’re eagerly anticipating is the new M5. In the meantime, BMW has released its own line of M-Sport accessories and Alpina has joined the party with the new B5 Bi-Turbo. Now German tuning house Hamann has entered the fold with its own equipment list for the mid-size Bimmer.

The package consists of a new body kit, complete with a new front bumper incorporating an adjustable front lip spoiler and daytime running LEDs, side skirts, rear apron and diffuser and a pair of spoilers, along with 21-inch matte black alloys with contrasting polished rims, a 35-milimeter dropped suspension and a four-tip exhaust system. Carbon fiber and aluminum accessories are available for the interior, though details on Hamann’s engine upgrade program have yet to be revealed. In the meantime you can check it out in the high-resolution image gallery below.

[Source: Hamann via CarScoop]

Hamann fills the gap to the next M5 with custom BMW 5 Series

Honda Performance Development will continue its involvement in IndyCar through the 2012 season when new engine and chassis rules take effect. The current, normally aspirated 3.5-liter V8s will be replaced after the 2011 season with smaller displacement and lower cost units that are limited to 2.4-liters. Honda announced this weekend at the Mid-Ohio race that it will produce a new twin-turbocharged 2.4-liter V6 available for lease at a price 40-percent below the current engine’s price.

The new formula is open to all manufacturers, but so far Honda has been the only company to commit to the new engines. Honda has been the sole supplier of IndyCar engines since 2006 following Chevrolet’s withdrawal from the series.

[Source: Honda]

Continue reading Honda to supply new 2.4L turbo V6 for 2012 Indycars

Honda to supply new 2.4L turbo V6 for 2012 Indycars

	GM’s Larry Nitz: finding buyers for the $41,000 Volt will be easy Confidence has never been GM’s problem with this vehicle.		Elon Musk rips into Nissan Leaf’s “primitive” batteries The quote machine continues the good work.
	Ford claims 2011 Explorer is 85% recyclable – but aren’t most cars? Yes, they are.	Other news: Dung Beetle: This GENeco Bio-Bug runs on gas Auto execs question need for widespread public charging infrastructure High demand for Nissan Leaf pushes back debut in Holland by 6 months

AutoblogGreen for 08.09.10

While traveling the country as part of the 2010 Mini Takes The States road rally, we stopped off at Philadelphia’s Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum to get a closer look at some of the iconic cars that helped shape motorsport as we know it. This museum represents the personal collection of Dr. Frederick Simeone and features over 60 different cars from the full spectrum of automakers.

The museum isn’t as glitzy and glamorous as you might expect, but that’s not to say it’s lackluster, either. There are no spotlights or interactive displays, and there are no one-offs or custom builds. Instead, you get an array of cars that saw actual competition. LeMans, Brooklands, Sebring, the Mille Miglia – it’s all on display. What’s more, the museum regularly takes the cars out to its three-acre parking lot for demonstration days.

Located near Philadelphia International Airport, the Simeone museum is open six days a week, and admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for students and free for children ages eight and under. Group rates are available, and complete details are available over at the museum’s website.

Scroll through our gallery below for a few dozen high-resolution photos of the beautiful cars on display, and if you’re ever in Philadelphia, be sure to stop by and see the collection firsthand.

Photos by Steven J. Ewing / Copyright (C)2010 AOL

Autoblog tours the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia

For years, Toyota was seen as an infallible, safe choice for consumers seeking high-quality, reliable and safe vehicles. That may still be the case, but recent events have made it abundantly clear that Toyota is as capable of making major mistakes as any other giant automaker.

Perhaps some of that lost image will be restored after a series of independent investigations into Toyota safety are concluded, assuming of course that the findings are favorable for the automaker. Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’s North American quality chief, believes they will be. At the Council for Automotive Research’s annual Management Briefing Seminars, St. Angelo said, “I can’t find a technician who has found a sticking pedal… I am 100-percent confident that there is nothing wrong with our electronic throttle control system.”

St. Angelo continued, saying that 80 percent of all owners of vehicles recalled for sticky accelerator pedals and bad floor mats have had their vehicles repaired. Interestingly, the quality chief added, “Recall is not a four-letter word,” suggesting that it’s best to admit to issues up front and repair them in a timely fashion – a practice Toyota hopes will keep customers returning to its showrooms.

[Source: Detroit News Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]

Toyota quality chief: “I still think our electronic throttle system is perfect.”

The people at MSN Money have unearthed a little known stipulation in rental car contracts that allows the manufacturer of speed and red light cameras to directly charge your credit card if you’re caught breaking the law. How? Big name rental agencies like Hertz, Avis, Advantage and Budget have an agreement with a company called ATS Processing Services to share renters’ credit card and personal information. ATS operates a fair portion of the traffic enforcement cameras in the U.S., and when a rental car gets popped running a red light, the company immediately checks to see who was renting it at the time and charges his or her credit card. Oh, and they ding you for a $30 administrative fee.

This presents a few problems. Namely, it does away with that whole “due process of the law” thing on which our entire justice system is based. In their defense, the rental companies say that having ATS directly bill renters is an easier system than what used to happen. Once upon a time, when a rental car snagged a fine from a traffic enforcement camera, the rental car company was expected to pay it and then track down and charge whoever had incurred the infraction. Neither process is exactly reassuring for those who rent cars on a regular basis, but it seems to be the norm. Next time you find yourself at the rental counter, be sure to read the entire contract.

[Source: MSN Money Image: Tim Boyle/Getty]

PSA: Renting a car may result in unexpected speeding ticket charges

Roush Yates Engines has announced that it will be offering up a race-prepared version of Ford’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 for American Le Mans Series prototype competition in 2011. Roush Yates is developing the engines for use under the new 2011 LMP2 rules that require production-based engines. This will be the first competition application for Ford’s twin-turbocharged and direct injected V6 that debuted in 2009.

The first chassis constructor to announce support for the Ford V6 is Lola, with installation kits available for both its open-top and closed coupe 2011 LMP2 cars. According to Roush Yates spokesperson Kenna Primm, the race engine will be reduced down to the 3.2-liter maximum allowed under ALMS rules compared to the 2.8-liter displacement of the twin-turbo V6 announced by Honda at Le Mans in June. Output will likely be somewhere around 400 horsepower.

In addition to the EcoBoost V6, Roush Yates is also evaluating a race version of the Mustang’s 5.0-liter V8 for ALMS competition.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Continue reading Roush Yates to supply Ford EcoBoost V6 for 2011 ALMS competition

Roush Yates to supply Ford EcoBoost V6 for 2011 ALMS competition

Leave it to the Germans to turn a real-life radio control car, a video camera with a wireless transmitter and an arcade box into the best 3D rendition of the old Playstation game Wipeout we’ve ever seen. If designer Malte Jehmlich and friends would have stopped after designing a massive multi-level carboard track for their remote control cars, we would have thought it was pretty cool. But the innovative crew attached a plate to their 1/28 scale car and mounted a video camera with a wireless transmitter that sends a video signal to an arcade racing cabinet to make this a truly multi-dimensional video game. The racing cabinet is equipped with a steering wheel and a monitor that displays the r/c car’s progress in real time. The whole project took them two months to put together.

Jehmlich and his friends are currently working on integrating force feedback and power-ups using sensors built into the track. Very cool, indeed. Hit the jump to watch video of the Great Room-sized arcade game in action. We’re thinking that we’d want one of these in the basement, but we’re not sure if our wives would approve.

[Source: Vimeo via Engadget]

Continue reading Video: Reverse-engineered Wipeout racing videogame is silly brilliance

Video: Reverse-engineered Wipeout racing videogame is silly brilliance

Review: 2011 Ford Fiesta SES promises the democratization of fun

Remember when economy cars offered few concessions beyond roll-your-own windows, rear window defrosters and AM radios? It was…

Mid-engined Corvette development confirmed… by Saab engineers?!

1990 General Motors CERV III concept Before things went all tipsy in the auto market, the engineers at General Motors were apparently hard at work on some pretty interesting projects. How…

Lexus allowing outright purchase of LFA in U.S., demands right of first refusal if you try to sell it

Shortly after the LFA supercar was unveiled last fall, Lexus announced that it would only be available to lease in the U.S. Toyota’s…

Also of interest:

• How the British Pay Homage to 50’s America: Chevrolet Spark woody
• Spy Shots: Clearer look at reborn Lancia Stratos emerges
• Japanese inventor makes gas and brake one pedal
• Infiniti reportedly registers JX nameplate for trademark
• Spy Shots: Dodge Avenger facelift caught

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Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 8.5.10

We’ve all heard the rhetoric about how small cars are primed to be big sellers over the next few years, and nobody seems to be responding to that direction sooner than Toyota. The Japanese automaker is getting ready to challenge the diminutive Smart Fortwo here in the United States with the Scion iQ, and we’ve just been told by Toyota representatives to expect it to hit dealer showrooms around March of next year.

Unlike its main competitor, the iQ sports a unique 3+1 seating arrangement that will allow three real-sized human beings to fit in the car with an extra spot for a munchkin or car seat. Scion also promises that its micro car will boast real storage capacity, which is an important factor if people have any inkling to use their urban runabout as a second car.

Expect a price somewhere in the vicinity of the Fortwo when the iQ hits the streets early next year.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Scion iQ to hit dealerships in March 2011

Before things went all tipsy in the auto market, the engineers at General Motors were apparently hard at work on some pretty interesting projects. How interesting? How about an actual mid-engine Corvette? Autocar says that an unnamed Saab engineer confirmed that the Swedish automaker had actually been charged with developing a transmission for such a beast when the company was still under The General’s wing. Evidently, the cog box used a wet clutch setup and was built to handle up to 590 lb-ft of torque. If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll likely note that those twist figures are just south of what the ZR1 puts to the pavement right now.

How about them apples.

As Autocar points out, that project was canned when credit went tighter than a fat man’s socks, but there may be a ray of light in this whole tale. The UK publication claims that GM has fired up the burners under the C7 project one more time, and that a mid-engine chassis will indeed be part of the recipe. If you’re buying what Autocar is selling – and we’re not necessarily in that group – a turbo V6 will supply the car’s grunt, too.

[Source: Autocar]

Mid-engined Corvette development confirmed… by Saab engineers?!