It could be said that no auto show is as glamorous as the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. Held on the picturesque shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, the annual concours is sponsored by . So it only stands to reason that the Bavarian automaker wouldn’t let the show come and go without making a splash on its own.
Previous years saw BMW roll into Cernobbio with such show-stopping concepts as the and the , but this year it’s not looking back on its history to draw its inspiration. Instead it’s teamed up with celebrated Italian coachbuilder Zagato to dream up the concept you see here.
A rare instance of Munich reaching beyond its own design department, the BMW Zagato Coupé is a one-off concept, but is far from a fragile show car. The shape is aerodynamically optimized and the car is fully road registered in Germany, and has already undergone high-speed testing at BMW’s own test facility. The Bavarian automaker remains tight-lipped on its underpinnings and running gear, but the obvious conclusion – whether ultimately correct or not – is that it’s based on the roadster.
Whatever lies beneath the hand-crafted aluminum shape, however, is of less consequence than its design. Reinvigorating a tradition of collaboration that goes back to the 1959 BMW 3200 Michelotti Vignale through to the Giugiaro-designed M1 of 1978, the Zagato Coupé concept aptly embodies design cues attributable to both BMW and Zagato – from the twin-kidney grille (whose mesh is made up of little Zs), over the double-bubble roof (a hallmark of Zagato styling originally intended to accommodate a racing helmet in early designs) to the Kamm tail that BMW and Zagato both claim as common heritage.
The greenhouse is set way back and the hood is longer than it took us to put together the immense gallery of high-resolution images BMW has released of the show-stopping concept, which you’ll want to check out in detail along with the full press release .
is moving to make its Easy Fill Tire Alert system standard equipment on its 2013 model year vehicles. Taking the tire pressure monitoring system to the next logical step, the Nissan system honks the car’s horn when you’ve inflated your tires to the correct pressure. No more reading the tire pressure placard on the door jamb and hunting around in the glovebox for a pressure gauge.
While Nissan actually introduced this feature beginning with the 2011 minivan, its proliferation throughout the lineup makes sense. After all, it’s a good idea, and , despite its importance for both fuel economy and on-road safety. If Nissan’s system can actually encourage a few of those disinterested drivers to maintain proper tire inflation pressures, it’s a win for all.
to watch a Nissan-produced video demonstrating the feature on the company’s and read the press release.
There are two directions automakers can go to produce a vehicle with electric propulsion – be it a hybrid or an outright EV: make it look the same as any other car, or make it stand out. Like (for example) did with the , made the look (for better or worse) unlike a conventional sedan. But while Toyota answered the call for more space with the equally “distinctive” , Nissan has gone a different route in producing a bigger brother for the Leaf.
That route is called the , pictured above in concept form. And while the nose, unique shade of blue and electric powertrain are conceptually borrowed from the Leaf, the rest is nearly identical to the existing NV200 van that is being rolled out in New York as .
Nissan has just announced the production of the e-, set to start next year at the same plant in Barcelona, Spain, as the conventionally-powered . As a result, Nissan will hire 700 more workers at the plant and invest some €100 million (U.S. $126 million at today’s exchange rates). Details like projected cost and annual capacity are not to be found in the press release , but Nissan does say the electric van will be built starting some time in fiscal year 2013, which we take to mean before the end of March 2014.
has claimed its first overall victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hour race with the R8 LMS Ultra finishing in both first and second place. The win comes after a slew of endurance race wins for Audi in the last 12 months including the Bathurst 12 Hour and the 24 hour races at Spa and Zolder.
The winning Phoenix Racing R8 LMS Ultra, driven by a German quartet of Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock, managed to complete 155 laps of the Green Hell free of technical issues or crashes, and finished over three and a half minutes ahead of the second place R8 run by Abt. A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 claimed the final place on the podium.
“We are absolutely delighted about this long desired victory,” said Dieter Gass, Head of Racing Commitments at Audi Sport, after the race. “For three years the Audi R8 LMS was always the best GT3 car at the Nürburgring. Now we have taken overall victory in the fight with seven other brands.”
to see the official announcement from Audi or view photos from the race in the high-res gallery above.
The has launched a formal field inquiry into the by a sedan, Bloomberg reports. The conflagration, which destroyed the Karma, the garage and a few nearby vehicles, took place on May 3 in Sugarland, Texas.
Claude Harris, NHTSA’s director of vehicle safety compliance, said that the investigation is “ongoing,” adding that “no determination has been made at this time.” Until an official cause is isolated, we’re betting there will be a good bit of , finger pointing in all directions…
It’s worth noting that NHTSA has also been actively investigating the safety of battery packs used in the after reports of fires in the wild and after NHTSA’s own crash testing procedures.
No, that’s not a in a fat suit, it’s the automaker’s brand-new all-electric race car, and it’s set to take on the in July. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an EV enter the Pike’s Peak challenge – for battle last year, a car that set the bar for all future electric racers.
says that its race car, dubbed i-MiEV Evolution, uses the same motor, drive battery and other major components as the standard, bean-shaped electric car that we haven’t quite grown to love. Aside from the additional bodywork, the chassis has clearly been lengthened and widened, and the race car now uses an all-wheel-drive configuration rather than the rear-wheel drive of the standard i-MiEV.
To give you an idea of just how big the racer is, a quick glance of Mitsubishi’s specs show that the i-MiEV Evolution’s dimensions are within a few inches of the stock . We wouldn’t be surprised if the all-wheel-drive system was sourced from the Lancer, as well.
Mitsubishi will also be bringing two more of its EVs to the Pike’s Peak event, including an i that has been updated with a more aerodynamic front bumper and new safety equipment, as well as a bone stock model. for the official press blast.
The has had one of the preeminent in the world for more than two decades, but a new group of students is looking to make its own mark in the world of green engineering. The school will be fielding its first entry in the annual this year.
If you think a bunch of newbies would launch their effort somewhat low-key, you probably aren’t from Michigan or familiar with the Wolverine Way. Michigan has set its goal at nothing short of the North American record of bettering 3,169 miles per gallon with its single-cylinder, Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine. The expectation is that the Michigan car will hit 3,300 mpg.
The Supermileage competition has been held since 1980, requiring students to design and build extremely lightweight, single-seat vehicles. The competition itself involves circling the Eaton Corporation Proving Grounds test track. Last year, 27 teams competed, with Quebec’s Universite de Sherbrooke dominating the competition, recording 2,158 mpg, over 500 mpg more than its cross-province rival, Universite’ Laval.
The 2012 Supermileage competition is scheduled for June 7-8 in Marshall, MI. to read the press release and watch Michigan’s promotional video.
Forget the . The still carries the sales gravitas that the CX-5 aspires to, but for now, the C-segment sedan and hatchback that has provided eight years of sales bedrock is still the most important model. That’s why, after making hay with the debut of the CX-5 crossover and its innovative powertrain, the tried-and-true Mazda3 was the next in line for the engine, transmission and aero-tweak hat trick that’s allowed the car to claim a 40 miles per gallon highway fuel economy rating.
Putting a new engine in an older car as a way to boost interest and sales isn’t a new idea, of course. Sometimes it works, and other times it’s not enough to re-float sales that have run aground on the sandbar of customer ennui. The Mazda3 has also consistently pleased enthusiasts, so we wanted to find out how its comportment has changed after the heart transplant.
Gazoo Racing (full name: Gazoo Racing Masters of Nürburgring) has unveiled a concept racing version of the famed that features both a turbocharger and a supercharger to offer up 320 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque.
The car, officially called the Sport FR Concept, oozes high performance out of its fenders and includes Gazoo brakes, spoilers and suspension tuning, according to . However, few specifics were available.
teamed up with Gazoo earlier this year to help jump start it’s small-displacement engines. Earlier this year, Toyota gave the green light to the . Gazoo was expected to build about 100 of those cars.
The extended-range plug-in vehicle will start production about a year after its previously estimated mid-2013 date, Inside EVs blog reports, citing leaked company documents that were dated “a few weeks ago.”
The Atlantic, formerly known as Project Nina, will compete pricewise against the and sedans, as well as the and , and and . That would put the model in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, according to the publication. The model, which will still be produced at Fisker’s Delaware plant, will have 300 horsepower, a 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds and emissions of 50 grams per kilometer of CO2, Inside EVs reports, citing the documents.
“As these documents are obviously leaked investor documents and highly confidential, I am not prepared to comment any further,” a Fisker representative tells Autoblog sister site, AutoblogGreen.
The status of the Atlantic has since plans for the former plant in Delaware were put on hold once the U.S. Department of Energy froze most of the $529 million in loans earmarked for the California-based company.
Fisker the Atlantic at the last month, saying that the car’s price tag would be “a much lower price point” than Fisker’s sedan.
Long before unveiled the Urus concept for its new SUV at the last month, we got two chances to preview the show truck: once at the factory in Italy and once at a private preview in New York. The Italian automaker’s development chief Maurizio Reggiani wasn’t prepared to talk about powertrain options at the time, but in speaking with Automotive News, he’s now given us a hint of what to expect should the Group board give the project the green light.
As expected, the Urus would have to be based on the same platform that is slated to underpin the next , , and Bentley EXP 9 F (if similarly approved) in order to make good business sense. Unfortunately, that new PL73 architecture is made principally of steel, a material that Lamborghini has been getting away from in favor of new types of carbon fiber construction. In order to keep weight down – Lambo is targeting 4,400 lbs for the Urus, significantly less than its potential competitors – it would need to make other components out of carbon to compensate.
That covers the mass side of the power-to-weight ratio that is integral to any performance vehicle. As for the power, Reggiani says the company has yet to make a final decision. The last time Lamborghini made an SUV – the legendary LM002 “Rambo Lambo” – it was powered by the same high-revving V12 as the Countach, lending to speculation that the Urus could incorporate the new V12 from the or the V10 from the . Reggiani, however, indicates that the new twin-turbo V8 powering the latest RS models and the Continental is a more likely choice, given that it would help keep weight down and provide more low-end torque than the naturally-aspired 10 or 12-pots the Raging Bull marque currently produces for its sports cars.
You are the driver of a yellow , and you’ve been waiting at a traffic light for something like an entire minute. That glowing red orb of light has been the matador’s crimson cape to your bull, taunting you, holding you back, making you very, very angry. So crush the gas pedal a few times and let your V10 snort for all to hear – when the light turns green, everyone’s going to know you are not to be toyed with.
You get the green flag and drop the hammer… and all of a sudden you – and two motorists in the oncoming lane – wish you could take it all back and do it all over again. Softly this time. Have a look at the video for a guide in how not to take off from a light. The action starts at 0:40.
Few marques get auto collectors riled up quite like , and of classic Ferraris, few are as highly sought-after as the legendary Testa Rossa. We’re talking, of course, about the 50s-era roadster (as opposed to the 80s-era cheesegrater supercar), and the originals continue to fetch top dollar (or euro) whenever and wherever their fortunate owners are willing to part with them.
That when and where came this past weekend in Monte Carlo during the Historical Grand Prix of Monaco where RM Auctions sold some highly desirable classic metal. Topping the list was the rare 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Spider you see here, one of only two built, which sold for a whopping €5,040,000 – equivalent to over $6.4 million at today’s exchange rates. That’s considerably more than the that RM auctioned last year, but substantially less than the record in 2009.
Of course the Testa Rossa wasn’t the only car sold at the event, which brought in an astonishing €33.5 million (~$43m) in sales on 87 percent of all lots sold. In fact it wasn’t even the only Ferrari represented there, though it was the most expensive by a wide margin. A 1966 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder and a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ‘Tuboscocca’ (one of only 12 Vignale Spyders produced) each fetched €2.5 million ($3.2m), a rare factory Daytona Spyder brought in over €1 million ($1.3m), the car which Michael Schumacher drove to the 2000 Formula One World Championship and that each brought in over €800k (about a million greenbacks).
Other notable racing machinery sold at the auction included a Peugeot 908 LMP (which won several Le Mans Series races), a LP600 GT3 (raced by Blancpain CEO Mark Hayek in the Super Trofeo series), a Ferrari FXX Evoluzione and a pair of Ducati Desmosedici MotoGP racing bikes. Follow the jump for all the juicy details and scope out the headline Testa Rossa in the high-res image gallery above.
Those of you foolish enough to follow the Autoblog Podcast know I have a soft spot for . There’s just something amazing about a beaten old car secreting flawless mechanicals down below. The guys at Big Muscle have managed to track down what may very well be the queen of all sleeperdom in Dru Diesner’s 1972 Nova The machine wears its original faded green paint, plenty of dents and dings and a very dated interior, but there’s something special under the aged skin. Built with a twin-supercharged LS2, the Bowtie dumps 1,160 horsepower on its ultra-wide rear tires.
That’s my kind of magical. Mike Musto takes the machine out for a quick sprint around the back streets of Chicago and eventually talks Diesner into using the car to do what it does best: vaporizing its rear tires. to check out the clip for yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have Chevrolet Novas to salivate over.
After eight days, 3,300 miles, nine tracks and untold bloody knuckles and zip ties, the song remains the same: Leh Keen and the No. 3 TopSpeed Motorsports emerged victorious at the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America on Sunday. Keen, his co-drivers Doug Wilks and Lawrence Richard, and their 2010 GT-R put on a clinic, remaining atop or near the top of the leaderboard of every event, from road courses to ovals to drag races and autocrosses.
If Keen’s name sounds familiar, it’s either because you follow racing – the Georgia native is a multiple Grand Am Rolex GT series champion, currently campaigning a 911 GT3 with Brumos Racing – or because you follow One Lap (this is the third victory in a row for Keen and his second victory in a row at the wheel of the black and green GT-R). In fact, the top three spots this year were all occupied by Nissan’s heavyweight, with the No. 4 2009 GT-R of Todd Treffert and Tyson Timperley and the No. 7 2012 GT-R of Hugh Bate and Craig Kahle rounding out the podium. A total of seven GT-Rs entered this year’s One Lap, though none were officially sanctioned efforts.
Of course, for most competitors and fans, Brock Yates’ One Lap isn’t actually about winning – there’s no prize money doled out and trophies are modest. The event is more about the camaraderie among driving enthusiasts that inevitably results from one of the most unique and challenging tests in motorsports – a week-long pressure-cooker test of man and machine. For more results, photos, videos and tall tales, check out One Lap of America or .
When it comes to supercars, the sky is the proverbial limit. You can literally spend millions. And with vehicles like the , and , you can spend hundreds of thousands on a top-of-the-line luxury sedan, too. But when it comes to SUVs, prices seldom if ever breach the $100K mark fetched by the likes of the and the .
There are a handful of automakers aiming to break that barrier though. Like the upcoming SUVs from and , the on-again, off-again Spyker D12, and this, the FX Sebastian Vettel Version.
Based on the , the Vettel edition has had the output from its 5.0-liter V8 upped to from 390 horsepower to 414 for a 5.6-second sprint to 60 and a 186 mph top speed. The suspension is said to have been set up by the reigning two-time world champion himself, with the carbon fiber aero kit developed by his Red Bull Racing team. The only change we’ve heard of from the concept car pictured above to the production version will be a more conventional pearl white paint job instead of the matte white of the show car.
Only 200 examples will be produced, with 50 earmarked for continental Europe, and most of the rest likely heading to the Middle East. The price for such a high-end performance crossover? 120,000 euros, or about $155,000 in American greenbacks (if it were actually offered here). Of course if that still seems too slow and too cheap, you could always order a custom Juke-R from Infiniti’s parent company and smoke some supercars in the process.
It seems like we’ve been hearing about the for a decade, but a report in Yahoo! states that the electric sedan is only a month away from production. That’s about one month ahead of schedule, as is reportedly wrapping up crash testing fast enough to start making the hotly anticipated EV.
The Model S couldn’t come at a much better time for Tesla, as the automaker just announced a first quarter loss of $89.9 million. The prospects aren’t any better for Q2, but the second half of the year should be an entirely different story. Q1 revenue was only $30 million, and the first half revenue is expected to come in around $60 million. With the Model S around for the second half of the year, sales are expected to skyrocket into the $600 million range. Tesla plans to move about 5,000 units in 2012, even though the automaker currently has 10,000 orders in-hand.
Some of those 10,000 hand-raisers might have something more to get excited about, as Tesla announced that the top range Signature model, which features a 85-kWh battery pack, will be able to travel on a two-cycle charge. That’s 20 miles more than Tesla previously announced. The first 1,200 copies of the Model S will be Signature models with the largest-possible battery pack.
Nevada has officially granted a license to test autonomous vehicles on public streets. The tech giant underwent demonstrations in both Las Vegas and Carson City to prove its vehicles are as safe or safer than those piloted by mere humans. The state requires two people to be in the test vehicles at all times, including at one occupant in the driver’s seat and another monitoring the vehicle via an onboard computer. If anything goes wrong, the human “driver” can take over by simply applying the brakes or taking hold of the steering wheel.
As of right now, Google has only applied to license three vehicles. Each one will carry a red license plate with an infinity symbol. According to Bruce Breslow, Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles director, vehicles with autonomous capability could be on the road within three to five years. When that happens, the machines will wear green plates.
Watch out, , there’s a new hypermiling crew in town.
John and Helen Taylor – calls them “mileage experts” and “the world’s most fuel-efficient couple” – recently drove a stock 2012 Passat TDI SE all the way from Houston, Texas to Sterling, Virginia without refueling. That’s 1,626.1 miles from just 19.3 gallons. Bad with numbers? VW has done the math for you: it’s 84.1 miles per gallon (we came up with 84.2, but who’s counting?).
The three-day trip happened earlier this month, and it turns out that the Taylors are not new to the high mileage game. They have the “48 Contiguous U.S. States Fuel Economy Guinness World Record.” Still, the new Passat TDI record is impressive and it mimics some of the ways that Gerdes runs his hypermiling trips. As you can see in the gallery, the gas tank was filled to the brim with gas (see ) and there was a LOT of documentation going on during the trip. These sorts of things are important, since the Taylors often run workshops on driving efficiently and have, over the years, “collected more than 90 world fuel economy and vehicle-related records from drives around the globe.” They run the website .
If you’ve never laid eyes on a Vespa ACMA, allow us to introduce you. Manufactured for use in World War II, the scooter came equipped with a small cannon designed to launch rocket-propelled grenades.
Soldiers found an advantageous firing position, deployed stabilizers, plucked a grenade from a stylish wicker basket and fired upon the enemy, which, we should point out, was probably rolling happily along in a tank. Vespa ACMA, thy name is David. For obvious reasons, ACMA examples are plenty scarce. You can still find them, though, and if you want one to call your very own, we have good news for you.
The ACMA-obsessed crew over at Hemmings found an original example stored at a Messina military camp for the past 30 years. While the cannon has been deactivated, the rest of the Acma is in original and complete condition right down to the khaki green paint. If you like what you see, you’d better get your check book ready. This particular version is up for auction with an estimated final bid of $16,000 to $20,000. Head over to the for more information.
