has announced that it will set up a new research facility in Palo Alto, California. While the manufacturer has similar labs in locations from Germany to China and Israel, the new location will be the first on the West Coast. Specifically, engineers and designers will focus on independent technology projects as well as finding new research directions and potential partners. While Ford is currently recruiting some staff locally, others are expected to be pulled from the company’s global workforce. Something tells us the company will have no trouble finding volunteers to move from Dearborn to Palo Alto.
TJ Giuli is one of those volunteers. The Ford researcher is a Stanford alumnus who’s going back to California to help lead the lab’s establishment. According to Giuli, the research community in the area is excited to have Ford in the neighborhood. for the quick press release.
Most gearheads know the is the European near-twin of the . There are obvious exterior differences, such as the Ampera’s “boomerang” headlights and Opel badging, but inside, the only noticeable difference is another Opel badge on the steering wheel.
Bradley Hasemeyer and the crew traveled to Germany to find out if the trans-Atlantic differences were more than skin deep. Surprisingly, he found one rather interesting revision.
In the U.S., Volts get three driver-selectable operating modes. We get Normal, Sport and Mountain modes. But German Amperas get a fourth mode: Halten mode. When cruising the Autobahn, drivers can restrict the use of the Ampera’s battery and run only on the small, fuel-efficient engine. Once back on surface streets, they can turn loose the battery and bask in bank-account-boosting, ridiculously good, low-cost electric motor cruising.
Why don’t we get Halten mode in the U.S.? Well, the obvious reason is probably that most Americans don’t speak German. Beyond that, though, Hasemeyer can only guess that government regulations might hold back implementation here. The again, maybe General Motors just likes Germans more.
If you haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch the full 13-minute CBS “60 Minutes” segment on that , we have yet another reason for you to do so. The good people at Allpar.com seem to have spotted something interesting lurking in the background of an interview with Ralph Gilles, head of design for Chrysler. Look closely, and there’s a red sports coupe hanging out just over the executive’s shoulder. Allpar.com seems to think this is a glimpse at the rumored Barracuda resurrection. After all, Chrysler made sure to trademark the ‘Cuda name earlier this year.
Automotive News took the time to ask Chrysler about the vehicle in the video, and the company very tactfully replied that the vehicle is “just one of the many concepts and projects in our studios. That is one student model.”
A student model that may hint to the design of the Barracuda? Possibly. See the complete video if you missed it the first time ’round.
If you hear the pejorative “chick car,” what comes to mind? ? ? Would you believe neither made Inside Line’s list of 2011 models with the highest percentage of female ownership? No. 1, with 57.9-percent female ownership was the . Considering the female dollar is sought-after, it’s probably too bad that Volvo decided to for 2012.
That means No. 2, the with 56.9 percent, could take the top spot for 2012. Or maybe the at No. 3 with 56.4 percent. We’re also kind of wondering how the new will fare this year.
No. 4 is another VW that shouldn’t surprise. The cute has been a perennial favorite among the ladies. It was No. 1 , but as we know, the newer, more aggressively styled Beetle is enjoying among the guys. No. 5? The , of all things.
Here’s how the rest shake out according to Inside Line:
Top ten 2011 models with the highest proportion of female buyers
One of the inevitable pleasures of owning a vehicle like the or Toyota GT 86 (better known as the on this side of the globe), is the level of go-faster, look-faster and sound-faster parts served up by any number of willing companies. Whether its from a factory-backed performance group or another reputable company, bolting on a slew of goodies is one of the easiest ways to personalize your ride. Toyota Racing Development has evidently wasted no time in coming up with a few special components for the GT 86, including a free-flowing exhaust, fully adjustable suspension and a monoblock caliper kit. TRD recently slathered those parts onto a GT 86 in Japan and let a few lucky souls behind the wheel.
Fortunately for us, Carnifty was on hand with a camera to capture the vehicle in action. While the shaky-hand cam business indoors does little to convey how the coupe handles, the video does give us a good idea of what the 2.0-liter four-cylinder will sound like with an easy-breathing exhaust. to watch the video for yourself.
It’s been six months since extensive flooding put a strangle hold on manufacturing in Thailand. Now, Reuters reports that has finally resumed production at its Ayutthaya plant. All told, the disaster is said to have cost the company the production of around 260,000 vehicles worldwide for the fiscal year that ended last month.
While a rash of parts suppliers and other manufacturers were forced to shut down during the flooding, Honda was arguably hit the worst. According to Reuters, and were able to adjust production to include suppliers from other countries, but Honda was stuck with a fully flooded facility.
The Ayutthaya plant builds the for the Asian and Australian markets. After the flood waters receded in October, Honda vowed not to use any parts or sell any vehicles damaged by the disaster. As a result, hundreds of otherwise new vehicles were sent to scrap. to see video of the cars awaiting their destruction.
With the price of a barrel of oil beyond $100 per drum, global oil powerhouse Royal Dutch Shell is raking in some serious coin. But while Shell is bringing in the big bucks, it still cannot pay one very important client.
Bloomberg is citing four sources who claim that Shell is finding it difficult to pay Iran about $1 billion due to financial sanctions put in place by the United States and Europe. The bill is reportedly the result of about eight million barrels of oil. On January 23, the European Union placed the ban on oil from Iran, but gave companies until July to wind down business with the world’s second-largest producer of oil.
Shell is in a tough spot because it is stuck between obeying sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to scrap its nuclear program and paying the National Iranian Oil Co, which supplies about 100,000 barrels of crude daily. But while Shell is at risk of angering Tehran, other oil companies stopped getting oil from Iran months ago.
It doesn’t appear that it will be easy for Shell to pay its bill, but there may be a way. Bloomberg reports that the oil giant could approach the British government to help settle the debt.
General Motors struck back at the mighty with the similarly brawny , and now it looks like GM has taken aim at the as well.
According to posts on the Camaro5.com forums, a dealer reference guide has revealed buyers will be able to opt for a new performance track package for the . The 1LE pack includes a number of aerodynamic tweaks, including an aggressive front splitter and unique rear spoiler, both painted in smoke gray. Red Brembo brake calipers, a hood wrapped in matte black vinyl and 20-inch wheels shod in Goodyear Eagle Supercar tires are all part of the party. Those big rollers are actually borrowed from the ZL1.
Larger sway bars front and rear as well as stronger axle half shafts help the vehicle withstand track abuse. A Tremec six-speed manual gearbox with a higher 3.91 final drive and a liquid cooling system is also standard. Finally, the report says the Camaro 1LE will feature an optional dual-mode exhaust similar to what’s found on the .
Will the hardware be enough to help the Camaro fend off the road-race ready Boss 302? Given the sublime driving experience the tweaked Mustang offers its buyers and the heady 444 horsepower on hand, it seems unlikely. That doesn’t mean we’d be averse to putting the two head to head on a track, however.
UPDATE: General Motors has now released official information on the 1LE. The model will land at under $40,000 and and be able to pull up to 1g on the skid pad. According to Al Oppenheiser, Camaro Chief Engineer, the vehicle was able to best the three-minute lap time at Virginia International Raceway, and GM is currently seeking approval from SCCA to allow the package to be used in the Touring Class competition.
In addition to borrowing the dual-mode exhaust from the ZL1, the 1LE will also feature the same variable-effort power steering. Other changes include a strut tower brace, ZL1 wheel bearings, toe links and shock mounts as well as a ZL1 high-capacity fuel pump and pickups for consistent fuel delivery during hard cornering. Even if the 1LE can’t keep pace with the Boss 302, it should make for an impressive on-track machine. for the full press release.
The redesigned is already selling quite well, and it looks like the three-row crossover is about to add another variant to boost the bottom line a little more. posted on its Facebook page a 26-second video that teases a high-performance version of the Explorer.
The video show only a mesh grille, a beefy exhaust and what appears to be body-color wheels. There’s not much else we can share about the brawny family hauler, but we think it’s safe to speculate that an EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6 with 350 or so horsepower lies in waiting under the hood of this Explorer Sport.
The good news about this tease is that we won’t have to wait long to see the finished product. Ford tells us that the powerful CUV will be officially unveiled on the on March 28. to watch the video for yourself, and stay tuned for more information on this hi-po ‘ute as we get it.
Research by the American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety has revealed teenage girls are twice as likely as their male counterparts to use devices like cell phones while driving. The study used video taken of young drivers while they were behind the wheel to determine how teenagers engage in distracted driving. While talking on the phone and texting ranked among the highest sources of distraction, personal grooming and reaching for objects in the vehicle also played significant roles. Outside of using electronic devices, AAA found teens were distracted around 15 percent of the time while behind the wheel.
Girls were also found to be 10 percent more likely than their male counterparts to be engaged in other distracted driving activities. AAA found the young ladies to be 50 percent more likely to attempt to reach for something in the vehicle and 25 percent more like to eat while operating a vehicle.
Of course, driving with passengers in the vehicle also contributed to distraction, while having a parent or adult in the vehicle caused rates of distracting behavior to fall off. Shocking stuff we know. for the full AAA press release.
If you were in Houston back in January for the car show there, you may have seen a there which dubbed a “production-intent concept.” The most iconic of Chrysler brands then with a similar GC with more of a Storm Trooper look, joined by a blacked-out . These, too, were called “production-intent concepts” – a name that wasn’t all that dynamic. So Jeep opened a contest called “Name My Ride,” and the handle chosen was “Altitude.” Now Jeep is putting the Altitude into its product catalog for the , Compass and the , too.
Like the concepts, the production Altitude special editions are characterized by their blacked-out approach. For the Grand Cherokee, that means a black grille surround, black headlamp trim, black liftgate light bar, blacked-out 20-inch alloys and a black interior, complemented by “platinum chrome” on the lower fascia and the mesh grille. For the Compass, the Altitude edition blacks out the grille, headlamp bezels, roof rails, step pad and 18-inch alloys (as well as the interior), whole the Patriot Altitude gets black 17-inch alloys and cabin but trades in most of the rest for chrome and polished steel.
If this all strikes you as just too dark, each model is available in other colors for the bodywork, in which case the black trim provides the contrast. They all come packed with optional extras as well, with prices starting at $20,240 for the Patriot Altitude edition, $22,190 for the Compass Altitude and $35,595 for the Grand Cherokee Altitude. Like what you see? Check ‘em out in the high-res image gallery and the full press release .
is an automaker the operates in two spheres: racing and road cars. The company builds the latter to fund the former, but while the two have long operated as fairly separate units, there is plenty of room for overlap. Like its Corse Clienti department.
Established to facilitate privateer racing teams running Ferrari GT cars in various series, the Corse Clienti division also runs the firm’s elite XX development program that allows some of its best customers the opportunity to act as “client test drivers.” In other words, people pay big money – and by big, we mean millions – to test out new equipment developed by Maranello’s skunkworks before it’s implemented on future road cars.
The program started with the Enzo-based FXX back in 2005, which was succeeded by the 599XX in 2009. But like the FXX led to the even more extreme FXX Evoluzione, so has the 599XX. More an upgrade package than a new car, the $250,000 evolution kit includes a bigger front splitter, giant rear wing with moving foils, a 30-horsepower upgrade to 740 and another two years of factory-supported track days.
The most recent was held at Japan’s Suzuka circuit, where the 599XX Evoluzione hit the track for the first time since delivery to its eager new owners. It was also the first time the upgraded track car was run in public, following its back in December. Of course, now that the range is being phased out, we can’t help but wonder what Ferrari will base its next developmental track car on: the new F12 Berlinetta? The ? The upcoming Enzo successor? It’s early to tell, but you can check out the 599XX doing its thing in the video clip and press release , along with the fresh crop of high-resolution images we’ve added to the gallery.
Any device or system that draws a driver’s attention away from the road is inherently distracting, but some navigation systems are better than others. Now, AT&T Labs is said to be hard at work developing a steering wheel with haptic feedback that may allow more drivers to keep their eyes off of the center console screen. According to MIT’s Technology Review, the system uses 20 small actuators to to create a pattern of vibrations in the wheel. When the wheel buzzes clockwise, the driver is meant to turn to the right, while counterclockwise vibrations suggest turning left. The company’s research indicates that when the system is used with standard audio and visual cues, inattentiveness in younger drivers drops by around 3.1 percent.
Researchers defined “inattentiveness” as time spent looking away from the road in driving simulations. The haptics had no impact on older drivers, but a separate study by Carnegie Mellon indicated drivers over the age of 65 could see their inattentiveness drop by around four percent.
Even with the promising results, it will likely be years before a similar system could be adopted by automakers, if it ever reaches the market at all.
Back in the summer of 2010, the factory in Maranello, Italy, with one request: could they build him a with a V12? Nearly two years later, this is what resulted.
Reportedly called the SP12 EPC (bearing the initials of the famous rock guitarist), the one-off product of the Ferrari Special Projects division with a few photos the other day, but now we’ve got video footage of the car moving under its own power away from a London dealership – presumably en route for delivery at the multiple Grammy Award winner’s home.
With styling cues borrowed from the – an early mid-engined Ferrari that was never officially homologated for sale in the United States – the SP12 EPC is said to be based on the 458 Italia. Which isn’t a bad place to start. The big question on everyone’s mind, however, is what resides under the hood? Did Ferrari manage to shoehorn in the twelve-pot as hoped, or did it stick with the 4.5-liter V8 in the donor car? Hard to say, but sources point towards the latter.
to watch the blurry, shaky footage and listen to the custom creation rumbling, and share your thoughts – eight cylinders or twelve – in the Comments section below.
Formula One may, to outsiders, seem like a monolith, but it is in fact a gathering of rather disparate parties. There’s the FIA which governs the series from a sporting standpoint, there’s the collective of teams competing in the series, and Formula One Management, the company that holds the sport’s commercial rights under the direction of one Bernie Ecclestone. The only way they all get along is through the terms of the Concorde Agreement – the contract that divides up the spoils, namely television revenues and prize cash, between the parties. And that contract is coming up for renewal.
Ecclestone is eager to please the teams and get them to sign what will become the seventh Concorde Agreement when the current one expires at the end of the year. And to get there, rather than negotiate with all the teams equally, Bernie has been offering big incentives to certain teams. Those include in particular , McLaren and Red Bull – the teams which have, in the past dozen years or more, accounted for the lion’s share of the titles (both drivers and constructors). F1 would suffer a tremendous blow if any of these teams were to leave, so Ecclestone has reportedly offered them such incentives as cash bonuses, shares in Formula One Management and seats on its board, and performance incentives that would in theory be open to any team that achieves them but would in practice favor those three top team.
One team being left out of those incentives is , one of the largest automakers participating in the sport – running its own team and supplying engines to two more (including McLaren), not to mention the safety and medical cars used at each grand prix. According to The Telegraph, Mercedes is now threatening to take legal action under European competition laws (regulations that are formulated to prevent the abuse of a dominant position) if it gets left out of the incentives being offered to other top teams. Ecclestone may be forced to cave to Mercedes’ demands, lest he find himself back in court while losing a top team and engine supplier from his roster.
CBS’ 60 Minutes sat down with Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne last night to discuss the automaker’s resurrection and the touch-and-go period in 2009 when the executive began talks with the federal government over a controlled bankruptcy. Marchionne said that when he arrived at Chrysler, the company’s employees were all afraid the company wouldn’t survive. Now, he says, that fear is gone. The segment explains how Marchionne saw early on how well Chrysler strengths, specifically in minivans and light trucks, could dovetail with Fiat experience in small-car technology. The executive calls Chrysler the “other half” of the Fiat coin from a product perspective.
The segment also spends some time looking at the upcoming Dodge Dart, with Marchionne saying the car is “mechanically outstanding.” The executive played a strong hand in improving both Fiat and Chrysler quality, at least according to Consumer Reports. The besweatered Marchionne also spends a bit of time talking about American workers and the labyrinth of bureaucracy within Chrysler when he arrived. to watch – it’s well worth the 13 minutes of your day.
Dutch website NU that expects low demand for its Electric, and therefore it decided to stop building the mostly electric car (it has a small, ethanol-burning heater to keep passengers warm). The original source for this information was a story in the Belgian newspaper The Age that cited Volvo’s government affairs director, Anders Kärrberg. Turns out, this isn’t quite right.
First, Volvo has always said the C30 Electric is a limited program. When the company started making the attractive EV in last summer, the public plan was . So, the fact that the automaker is getting ready to finish up building the 250 units and then reevaluate the situation is not a surprise.
We asked Volvo’s Malin Persson about the situation, and she told Autoblog that “[it has] never been our aim to continue with production of C30 Electric for a longer period of time.” She added that:
[Volvo Car Corporation] will not end the production of the C30 Electric – but it has always been a project limited in numbers and time.
Approximately 200 cars have been built from the first generation, another 50 remain to be built before summer.
In the second generation, starting after the summer, 100 cars will be built in cooperation with Siemens and with Siemens technology.
The know-how and experience VCC has gained and will gain from the C30 Electric project will be extremely valuable when taking decisions about the way forward when it comes to electric cars.
So, instead of reporting that Volvo is stopping C30 Electric production, the reality is that 100 vehicles has been added to the build order. How aggressively Volvo continues to push on with electric technology beyond its C30 program – in something like the – remains to be seen. Kärrberg told The Age that Volvo thinks EVs will only make up one percent of the market in the next eight years, thanks to expensive batteries and a hodgepodge of government incentives.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has produced addressing and attempting to assess driver distractions. , “17 percent (an estimated 899,000) of all police-reported crashes reportedly involved some type of driver distraction in 2010.” Out of that number, three percent, or 26,000 accidents, were caused by distraction from “a device/control integral to the vehicle,” such as a navigation or infotainment system.
The document provides voluminous guidance to reduce or eliminate possibilities for distracting the driver, and at first glance, their adoption would seem to make in-car navigation systems useless. One of the guidelines suggests that “Systems providing non-safety-related dynamic (i.e. moving spatially) visual information should be capable of a means by which that information is not provided to the driver.” Another states that “static or quasi-staticmaps” are fine – a quasi-static map being one that’s updated every few seconds, but “Dynamic, continuously-moving maps are not recommended.”
These are only guidelines and they’re full of loose phrasing, but the question is what kind of visually useful navigation system could be built to satisfy them. They appear to allow for audio-only navigation while driving, but making maps either inaccessible to the driver or only refreshing them every few seconds would make such systems useless unless a driver can get by with knowing his position once every four seconds. Again, this is only a document that attempts to pair suggestions to evidence derived from hard data, but as far as a practical solution to driver distraction, this might not be the road map drivers or automakers are looking for.
Didn’t get your deposit down in time to secure a condo in ? Not to worry, because just across town – that town being Miami – Pininfarina has been contracted to design another building.
Developed by the Related Group, 1100 Millecento Residences (pictured) is being designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott at 1100 South Miami Avenue. So where does Pininfarina come in? Aside from Ott citing the famed Italian automotive design house and coachbuilder as a primary influence in his work, the developers have brought Pininfarina in on the project to design the interior space of the building – the first such project it’s undertaken in America.
That includes all 382 apartments in the 42-story tower, along with the ninth-floor pool deck with club room, the rooftop infinity pool with private cabanas, the fitness center and the private theater. We’re told to expect a lot of exotic woods and Italian leather. But then we’d expect no less from any project Pininfarina might undertake, automotive or otherwise. See for the brief press release.
The new is taking a one-week, 3,300-mile U.S. road trip, and not only will it tour the skeevy diners, restless rest areas and truck-stop toilets of this fine land, it’ll eat up its tires on nine of our nation’s finest tracks. If you think that sounds like the Tire Rack One Lap of America, you’d be correct.
In addition to providing the official vehicles for the event, the Munich firm is sending a team of drivers from its BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina to compete in the newly created ‘Showroom Stock’ category. begins May 4 in South Bend, Indiana, and as with all the other entries, the M5 will get just one set of tires to test its gumption in various motorsports disciplines and thousands of highway miles. for a press release with more info and be sure to check out for updates when the event kicks off in May.
