From the outside, China’s upcoming Besturn B30 looks like an appropriately modern, cheap, and cheerful econocar. Under the modern skin, though, lurks the skeleton of the second-generation . That’s right, China’s newest widely-affordable small sedan is little more than a rebodied 30-year-old German sedan.
It may seem totally insane a little strange to try and market a new car based on wheezy old architecture, but if cost cutting is your goal, it starts to make a little sense. Money saved on new technology can be put to use giving the car a sleek wrapper, while still keeping the MSRP in the basement.
The second-generation Jetta is apparently extremely popular in China, which means Besturn could have made an extremely shrewd move by updating the car’s looks and leaving its mechanicals alone. Thanks to its yestertech origins, the B30 benefits from an enormous base of spare parts and mechanical know-how even before its debut this week at the Shanghai Motor Show.
has carved out a place for himself in motorsports lore as a preternaturally talented drifter and rally racer. Partnered with Ford, Foust has raced in both the European RallyCross Championship and the brand-new Global RallyCross Championship, and dominated ESPN’s X-Games. Now, Foust has made the partnership last by signing a multi-year contract to drive for Ford.
Foust’s new long-term deal has him at the wheel of his familiar Rockstar Energy-sponsored in both the European RallyCross Championship and the inaugural season of the Global RallyCross Championship. Foust is also headed to 17 in July to defend his double gold-medal run from last year and his title as the most-decorated rally driver in history.
As well as his role as Ford’s RallyCross and X-Games pilot, Foust is bringing his talent and fame along to help launch the 2012 ST, Dearborn’s upcoming 2.0-liter EcoBoost-powered hot hatch.
Evo Magazine hot hatch comparison – Click above to watch video
Occasionally, we can’t help but think we were born in the wrong corner of the globe. With our penchant for diesel fuel, wagons, hatchbacks and forced-induction four-cylinders, something tells us we would have been right at home growing up on the old continent.
Why all this musing on our misplaced youth? The goons at Evo Magazine have just released a new teaser video for the rag’s upcoming issue, and the cover story is rife with all sorts of metal we don’t get to play with here in the Land of the Free. The editors lined up three of the meanest hatchback bruisers available in the EU and matched them up against a mighty Ferrari Enzo. That’s right, an Enzo. Go big or go home, fellas.
The contenders include a Ford Focus RS, a Subaru WRX STI Spec C and the blistering new Audi RS 3 Sportback. For those of you who are keeping score, our chubby yank hands won’t even get close to touching any of that hardware in our neck of the woods. How’d the three musketeers stand up to the might Italian stallion? Your guess is as good as ours. We’ll have to pick up the next Evo Magazine to find out. In the meantime, check out the video . Thanks for the tip, Georgian!
2011 Ford F-150 – Click above for high-res image gallery
The United Auto Workers will soon be sitting down with Detroit automakers in an effort to reach a new contract agreement. Some in the know feel will be the targeted OEM in the negotiations due to the automaker’s recent successes, and a recent criticism levied by UAW leadership is that The Blue Oval employs more temporary workers than or .
The Detroit Free Press reports that Ford took a step to rectify that issue on April 7, when it laid off 120 “temporary” workers at its Dearborn truck plant. The automaker will reportedly relieve another 80 workers of their duty in the coming weeks, bringing the total pink-slip count to 200. Ford has some 2,000 temp workers in plants across the country, compared to 1,000 at GM and next to none at Chrysler.
Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans tells the Freep that the workers were only brought on to launch the , and that they knew that the position was temporary. Gary Walkowicz of UAW Local 600 points out that he’s sad to see the temps go, adding that some have been receiving half pay and zero benefits since 2002.
While it’s never nice to hear of layoffs, the cuts make some sense to Ford due to the fact that the automaker has displaced full-time workers all over the country in need of new positions. We’re thinking Ford will try to find work for as many of those workers as possible leading up to contract talks.
Gallery:
Photos copyright (C)2010 Jeremy Korzeniewski / AOL and Ford Motor Company
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The Stage 3 has always been the flagship of Roush’s modified stable, and the supercharged pony car is making a return for 2012 with a new RS3 moniker. With 540 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque on tap, the Stage 3 replaces the as Roush’s most powerful offering.
Along with the extra power, the RS3 comes with a new graphics package that is available in six stripe colors and six accent colors, making for 288 color combinations. You can use Roush’s new to see what colors like Luminescent Lime and Red-Blooded American look on the car and add optional items like the 20-inch Hyper Black wheels and rear three-quarter window louvers. The 2012 RS3 Mustang starts at $59,945 and comes standard with a 3-year/36,000 mile warranty. PR and full details after the jump.
You may think you know cars, but a new program at Stanford may enlighten you on a whole new level. The “Revs” program, which is taught by Stanford Communications Professor Clifford Nass, links the school’s engineering program with its design program.
Nass says the goal of the program is “to create a vital and much-deserved intellectual community around the car as technological and aesthetic artifact and cultural symbol.” Stanford, which has a thriving technical school that feeds Silicon Valley, is in a unique position of focusing on the upcoming technological needs of the next generation of cars and trucks.
The program was on Thursday, April 7, with a day-long symposium penned “Celebrating the Automobile.” Sounds like the life we live every day, but we rarely do so in the company of a 1933 once owned by English racing legend Eddie Hall. The celebration included scholars, experts and Le Mans Series auto racer Duncan Dayton in an effort to create an “auto-biography” of the Bentley.
Mini takes the Countryman WRC out for some spins – Click above to watch video
is excited to get back to rally racing, and its hoping the new Countryman WRC will be a good tool for the job. The automaker has been all over the place to show off its pumped-up racer, and, thankfully for us, cameras were brought along the whole way.
We have five videos waiting for you . In the first three, driver Kris Meeke does his best Ken Block impersonation by tackling a mini (or is that Mini?) Gymkhana course. The other two videos show a bit of Mini’s racing history and give a look at .
What happens when Ford takes its popular new commercial van and creates a version for moving people? The result is called the Transit Connect XLT Premium Wagon, and it is not at all what we expected.
Good news, lovers of open-air motoring: Fiat has just announced that its diminutive little 500 Cabrio will be hitting the U.S. market “just in time for spring” as a 2012 model.
The hot new Jeep Grand Cherokee in North America will – somewhere between soon and the end of 2013 – be getting the same recently improved 3.0-liter V6 turbo-diesel engine that Europe gets.
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SMS White Label Mustang – Click above for image gallery
Last Spring, Steve Saleen’s new company, SMS Supercars, unveiled its . At that time, two models were offered – the standard 302 with 440 horsepower and a supercharged 302SC with 535 horsepower. Each car came with a full body kit, interior upgrades, 20-inch wheels and tires, sport suspension and more.
For the 2012 model year, SMS Supercars is changing things up a bit, offering three models under color labels (think Johnnie Walker color labels for its scotch). Kicking things off is the White Label Mustang, which includes only basic upgrades but comes with a fairly affordable price tag of $35,540. Next is the Yellow Label, which adds the SMS supercharger system good for 545 horsepower and a set of 19-inch wheels and tires. Finally, the Black Label is the flagship model with an optional 575-horsepower supercharger system, fully upgraded suspension, complete body kit and custom leather appointments. Pricing for the Black Label is set at $48,000 for the naturally aspirated version and $58,000 for the supercharged model. More details are available in the official PR .
Personal protection south of the border, and the people of Mexico reportedly spend upwards of $80 million per year on armored vehicles. When we think of armored cars, we tend to think about and Ford Expeditions, but has for years offered a smaller, slightly more affordable option.
The Bora Protect is little more than a previous-generation , except it can stop a bullet. The no-doubt heavy little sedan costs about $70,000 in U.S. funds, but if that’s what it takes to stop a high-velocity round from entering the cabin, it’s likely money well spent. And as an added bonus, buyers of the Bora Protect receive the superior interior of the last-generation Jetta, as opposed to the cost-cut cabin of the current model.
And as you might expect, the base 115-horsepower 2.0-liter engine isn’t the mill of choice when you’re hauling several hundreds of pounds worth of Kevlar and other bullet blockers. For 70-large you also get the 200-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter mill mated to a six-speed DSG for (at least close to) proper motivation. Run-flat rubber makes shooting out the tires a less-fruitful endeavor, as well.
Something tells us that the 2.0T isn’t quite as peppy under the hood of the Bora Protect as it is in the GLI, but then again, the Bora Protect is about stopping bullets, not driving like one.
Zoo bikini model and Ken Block on Gymkhana course – Click above to watch the video
It’s a tried-and-true stunt: Take one professional driver (at least as often as not, it seems, ), put them in a fast car. Add one beautiful woman, a bunch of cameras, and stir. The result? Generally, lots of screams and nearly as many clicks on Youtube. We suspect the internet clicks will indeed come, but this particular video is suspiciously absent of screaming girls.
Judging by her lack of aural outbursts, we’d say that this particular bikini model, who was apparently plucked from the pages of Zoo Magazine, actually enjoyed her time in the passenger seat with Mr. Ken Block, he of fame. She even gives him a nice pat on the back upon exiting the Ford FiestaFocus WRC racer.
This video was shot at a Gymkhana circuit at Battersea Power Station as a promotional event for the launch of , and both the video and GPS data overlaid over the screen were captured and recorded by a Racelogic Video VBOX. See it all go down for yourself in the video .
2011 Ford Transit Connect XLT – Click above for high-res image gallery
You are no doubt familiar with the , the panel van that began importing from Europe in mid-2009. You’ve probably noticed them in your neighborhood with things like custom cakes, cable companies, cat groomers and cleaning services advertised on their flat, windowless sides. You’ll be seeing even more of them soon as the begins replacing the Crown Victoria in taxi fleets across the country.
Transit Connects are everywhere now. It turns out business owners were tired of only being offered a full-size truck or van for their commercial fleet needs, because in many cases a small, fuel efficient panel van can do the same job far better and more cheaply.
And sure, automakers have tried selling windowless commercial versions of their passenger vehicles before, but how many vans have you seen in your neighborhood? The Transit Connect has done a better job appealing to businesses because the precious cargo that it’s purpose-built to carry are tools, supplies and maybe a six-tier buttercream-frosted red velvet wedding cake… not kids.
So what happens when Ford takes its popular new commercial van and creates a version for moving people? The result is called the Transit Connect XLT Premium Wagon, and it is not at all what we expected.
Back in February, about the recall of 150,000 models due to driver-side airbags that went off on their own right after starting the vehicle. At the time, said the recall was limited to 150,000 units out of the 1.3 million vehicles being investigated due to the fact that the problem only surfaced on vehicles built on the first shift at the automaker’s Norfolk, Virginia plant.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced on its website that the recall has now been extended to include 1.2 million 2004-2006 model year F-150 models, along with its luxury cousin, the Lincoln Mark LT. NHTSA says it has received 238 instances of inadvertent deployment and 77 total injuries.
NHTSA indicates that the airbag issue stems from a clockspring jumper wire that could come in contact with the airbag lower horn plate. The friction between the wire and the horn plate could result in chafing, potentially shorting the circuit. And when that happens, an unsuspecting F-150 owner could receive an airbag surprise.
To fix the problem, owners of the affected vehicles will be able to head to the nearest Ford or Lincoln dealer for a free repair. Technicians will install a new clockspring jumper with a protective mesh cover. Hit the jump to read over the NHTSA press release.
2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 print – Click above for high-res image gallery
To help celebrate the release of the much-anticipated , Dearborn is offering new owners the chance to buy their choice of two custom prints of the car, complete with a mock chassis tag sporting their name, vehicle number and the car’s VIN.
The two exclusive prints are and are only available to Boss 302 owners. Whether you opt for the Laguna Seca print, shown above, or the Owners’ version, which features the car in your chosen hue, the framed and matted shot will be hand-signed by Parnelli Jones, who took home the 1970 Trans Am Championship in a Boss 302.
For those jealous Ford fans who can’t get their hands on a flesh-and-blood 2012 Boss 302, the Blue Oval is offering a 30.2-percent limited-time discount on other Boss-related pictures, prints and posters on offer through Ford Images. The offer ends next Friday, so now’s your chance if you’re looking for Mustang memorabilia on the cheap.
Pixar CEO and Cars Director John Lasseter looks tired. For the last eight hours, he’s been engaged in interviews and fielding inane questions from an assortment of entertainment, foreign and automotive press. But as soon as I ask about his inspiration for , his eyes light up. “I just love cars,” he starts off, and then begins describing the various locales he visited while doing promotion for the 2006 original, all of which would later influence the sequel.
That’s just one of several clear lines of inspiration between CARS and CARS 2. The original came about after Lasseter and his family took a roadtrip across the U.S. while towing a 1962 Ford Falcon. The kids named the Falcon “Arnold” and the RV “Betty.”
For the sequel – and Lasseter’s overdue return to the director’s chair – he and his team decided to take the crew from Radiator Springs global. That includes stop-offs in Japan, Italy and Great Britain to compete in the fictionalized World Grand Prix, pitting racers of all disciplines against each other on circuits inspired by their countries of origin. Underlying all that racing action is a classic spy caper and, after viewing 26 minutes of footage, a slightly darker side to the world of Cars.
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Fair Warning: We’ll be discussing a few plot points and several characters after the jump, and while there aren’t any serious spoilers, if you want to enter the theater in a blissful state of ignorance, stop here.
Xiang Dong Yu, the former engineer who was convicted of stealing trade secrets, has officially been sentenced to six years in prison. According to Reuters, the Beijing native was also ordered to pay a fine of $12,500 and will be deported after he serves his prison term. The 49-year-old Yu was arrested in 2009 on charges that he stole documents worth millions of dollars from his former employer during the 10 years that he worked for Ford.
Yu took a job with a U.S.-based company working in China in December of 2006 and copied some 4,000 Ford documents onto a personal hard drive before leaving or notifying the automaker of his new employer. The documents reportedly covered everything from engine and transmission details to electric power supply systems – all bits of information that would be incredibly tasty to China’s growing automotive industry. Yu eventually took a position with Beijing Automotive Corporation.
2011 Ford Transit SuperSportVan – Click above for high-res image gallery
While the latest hot , and models may garner most of the attention from and its performance divisions, back in the UK, the Blue Oval gives delivery boys and construction workers something to dream about with the occasional souped-up Transit. The last such it rolled out packed a 18-inch alloys and white stripes over red paint, but only a 140-horsepower turbodiesel engine. The model you see here, however, is another beast entirely.
This one-off Transit SuperSportVan packs a 200-horsepower, 3.2-liter turbodiesel five with a six-speed into the short-wheelbase 260 chassis. Upgraded aero package, rolling stock and classic blue stripes over white body are also part of the package, all to show the competition who’s boss.
Unfortunately, just a concept, the Transit SSV was prepared for the Commercial Vehicle Show at the NEC in Birmingham, England. It follows a long line of hot panel wagons from Ford UK that traces back to the 1971 GT40-based Transit Supervan, the Coworth V8-powered Supervan II of 1984, the ‘95 Supervan III that packed a 650hp Formula One engine and the Y2k Ford World Rally Transit complete with Martini racing stripes.
Follow the jump for the full press release, and scope out the photos in the gallery below.
Mopar Avenger Rally Car – Click above for high-res image gallery
When we think of rally cars, the and immediately come to mind. At no point does the enter our thoughts, but that didn’t stop Team Pentastar from building its own dirt-ready rally sedan.
wanted to celebrate a new business partnership with subsidiary Magneti Marelli by building a collaborative vehicle that combines the talents of the Italian components maker and Chrysler’s iconic Mopar team. The result is an Avenger that can handle more than America’s urban jungle.
Magneti Marelli and Mopar spent a few weeks modifying a stock Avenger Heat with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 underhood. The Avenger chassis remains intact, but a Magneti Marelli suspension was added for improved handling, lowering the Avenger by 1.5 inches. Brakes were upgraded to include 14.25-inch front rotors and 13.5-inch rear rotors, and a rear brake rally package with a hand-operated brake was included.
MINI John Cooper Works WRC – Click above for high-res image gallery
It’s been a long time in the making, but after their participation some eight months ago and for nostalgia’s sake, and Prodrive have finally and officially launched their joint World Rally Championship effort at the Mini assembly plant in Oxford, England.
The team is starting off with a limited schedule in the WRC this year, where it will contest a number of rallies throughout the year, before taking on the likes of and Citroën – which have won every drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship in the WRC for the past seven years – for the full championship in 2012.
The S2000-spec rally car has already contested three lower-level regional rallies, winning the Rally dell’Adriatico in the Italian Gravel Rally Championship. 2009 IRC champion Kris Meeke and former Citroën WRC driver Dani Sordo will debut as Mini’s official works drivers at the Italian Rally in Sardegna next month.
We’ll be watching to see how they do, but for now you can to read the full press release, and check out the images of the WRC-spec car at its debut in Oxford and the S2000-spec machine being put through its paces during Rally Portugal in the galleries below.
2012 45th Anniversary Edition Chevrolet Camaro – Click above for high-res image gallery
has unveiled a special-edition to commemorate the pony car’s 45th anniversary. The 2012 model will feature a unique graphics package that includes a special red stripe and badging along with imposing 20-inch wheels. The vehicle’s lighting will also receive a few tweaks for the occasion, including dark-silver trim for the fog light and taillamp bezels. Inside, buyers will find a Jet Black leather interior with red, white and blue stitched seats adorned with a 45th anniversary logo. Special white gauges are nestled in the vehicle’s dash, as well.
That’s all well and good, but the biggest news is that 3.6-liter direct-injection V6 featured in the Camaro will now boast 323 horsepower – an 11 pony increase over last year. That nudge rather conveniently puts the V6 Camaro ahead of the V6-equipped at 305 horsepower.
In addition to the celebratory anniversary model, The General plans to introduce a new FE4 suspension package just for the SS Coupe. Along with re-tuned dampers on all four corners, the vehicle will now see a solid 23-mm stabilizer bar up front and a 24-mm bar out back along with 20-inch aluminum wheels.
Of course, if that’s not enough to wet your whistle, we probably don’t need to remind you that the epic ZL1 will also touch down next year. for the full press blast.
You may think you know 
