Force India has come a long way. What started out as Jordan Grand Prix and changed hands (and names) several times before landing in the stewardship of Indian bazillionaire Vijay Mallya has become a solid mid-field contender on race days. In 2011, the team finished sixth in the constructors’ standings, behind front-runners Red Bull, McLaren, , and Renault GP. In 2012, however, Force India aims to challenge Mercedes and Lotus for fifth place using the car shown above.
The VJM05 bears the same unfortunate stepped nose of the just-unveiled Ferrari F2012 and Caterham CT01, a trend we expect to see across much of the field as teams deal with F1’s technical regulations. Engine, transmission and KERS are again provided by Mercedes-Benz through a partnership with McLaren, and while former DTM champion Paul di Resta returns for another season in the cockpit. Adrian Sutil departs the team in the wake of his , his seat now occupied by Nico Hulkenberg.
We’ll be watching to see if the young duo can continue to move Force India up the F1 hierarchy. For now, you can check out the press release after the jump and photos from the car’s unveiling – which included the first on-track session of any 2012 F1 cars revealed thus far – in the image gallery above.
When announced its return to endurance sports car racing with the new TS030 Hybrid this season, the plan was to enter a handful of races, like Le Mans and Spa-Francorchamps, on an invitational basis.
Plans change, though, and Toyota has now upgraded the program to a full manufacturer entry, paving the way for it to compete in the entire FIA World Endurance Championship schedule. Now, with budget constraints, it’s likely that Toyota will still pick and choose which races to contest, but it does open the door.
The change was apparently made in order to support endurance racing as a motorsport discipline. As part of its arrangement with the FIA, organizers at the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) need at least two manufacturers in the LMP1 category. With Peugeot’s withdrawal, the series lacked the requisite level of participation, so Toyota stepped up to fill the void. Follow the jump for the full announcement.
has been targeted by Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy organization, over the automaker’s 40 mpg fuel efficiency claim on the Hyundai Elantra. The group says Elantra owners have seen fuel economy averages of 18 and 19 mpg instead of the the 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway reported by Hyundai and the Environmental Protection Agency. As such, the group has sent letters to both Hyundai CEO John Krafcik and President Eok Jo Kim warning that if the automaker advertised the 40 mpg claim in the company’s Super Bowl spots, Consumer Watchdog would release a retaliatory video of its own. The group has since followed through with that threat.
Hyundai has since released a new, updated version of its Super Bowl ad, and Consumer Watchdog claims the Korean automaker has now promised not to include the 40 mpg figure in any of the spots. Hyundai, meanwhile, released a statement saying the company’s advertising was “in no way” influenced by the Consumer Watchdog claims, comments or statements. for a look at the Elantra Super Bowl spot, the Consumer Watchdog clip about the vehicle’s mileage claims and a press release from the non-profit.
Also worth a read is of two cars boasting 40 mpg EPA highway ratings: the SFE and the Hyundai Elantra. Ultimately, when you get past all the noise, it’s important to remember that “your mileage may vary” is a mantra for a reason.
The eBay Motors smartphone application has a clever new feature. Users can now take a photo of any car they see on the street and the app will find similar listings for them automatically. Want to know how much that in the parking lot is going for right now? Just point and shoot. We tested the app ourselves and found it to be fairly accurate. It had no trouble honing in on a , but struggled a bit with editor-in-chief John Neff’s 1991 Ford Taurus SHO.
The good news is that if the app gets confused, it just asks you for more information about the vehicle. Users can also be notified when they’ve been outbid on an item, share their auctions via Twitter, and watch special racing coverage with host Justin Bell. to check out the full press blast.
A minivan is not what you’d expect to see winning a racing series. Nor would a budget brand like Dacia. That’s where Alain Prost comes into the picture.
The three-time Formula One world champion isn’t quite retired: he’s still competing in the Andros Trophy, a French ice-racing series. After hoisting the trophy twice in a row with a snow-spec Toyota Auris rally machine, Prost switched over to Dacia, for which he has now claimed his third personal title and the first for Renault’s Hungarian budget brand.
The title fight came down to the last race in Auvergne, France, where the natural snow and best efforts of race organizers could not separate Prost (or his son Nicolas) from the bare tarmac. The vehicle with which he did it was a new racer (loosely) based on the new , an MPV that doesn’t make its production debut until theupcoming .
Check out the high-res photos in the gallery for a closer look and follow the jump for the full press release.
In China, it’s common for managers in various levels of the corporate hierarchy to have personal drivers, hence the proliferation of long-wheelbase sedan variants that we don’t see in North America. sells the and there, and now BMW is following up the it currently offers in China with a elongated version of the new 3 Series sedan.
Likely dubbed the 335Li, the long-wheelbase 3 will be produced in China alongside the regular 3 Series. We’re interested in seeing how well the long-wheelbase 335 handles compared to its standard-length sibling.
The diesel era at Le Mans may not be over yet, but already we’re seeing the emergence of a new propulsion trend: hybrids. recently announced the TS030 Hybrid LMP1, Peugeot was working on a hybrid version of its 908 prototype before it killed the race program, and now Audi has confirmed a hybrid version of the R18 TDI.
Few details were released, but what we can tell you is that Audi will field four cars at Le Mans this year: two with hybrid assist and two without. One will be headlined by Allan McNish, one by Oliver Jarvis, one by Timo Bernhard and one by André Lotterer, with supplemental drivers to be announced sometime before the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans kicks off in June.
Audi also announced a two-car entry for the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship, with four cars to be run at select racers like Spa and Sebring. Expect more details on the R18 hybrid to be released later this month, but in the meantime you can check out the official announcement after the jump.
We’ve gotten various peeks at the Mercedes-Benz A-Class for a few months now, from the to to . Then, of all things in all places, a cyclist with a handlebar-mounted camera of the real deal while riding in Lanzarote, Spain for what we assume is a photo or video shoot.
If you liked the look of the patent drawings, then you’ll be happy with the glimpse here. It even looks close enough to the for us to give Mercedes props for truth-in-concept-car designing. There’s debate as to whether this is the , but regardless, the final version will be shown at next month’s . Until then, watch the video .
is looking to meld the smartphones with the television in a new ad campaign. The automaker is giving fans a chance to win two in new promotion that uses the Shazam mobile app in conjunction with a TV spot. When the commercial airs, viewers simply fire up Shazam and enter the giveaway. (They can also enter the sweepstakes online.) Toyota says the program is the first and largest of its kind to use Shazam.
The “Connections” TV spot is designed to encourage further exploration of the so-called “Camry Effect,” a social media campaign focused on how the Camry impacts people’s lives for the better. Fans can enter the sweepstakes once daily for a chance to take home a Camry for themselves and one for a friend. for the full press release.
hasn’t exactly been secretive about its desire to offer a five-door hatchback version of its ultra-stylish sedan. After all, the first concept for the latest CLS, which was introduced as a 2012 model, introduced us to the at the in 2010. And yes, MB itself called the car a Shooting Break, not Brake.
Based on that concept, we have a pretty solid idea of how the CLS Shooting Brake will look. Judging by these spy shots that were snapped in Northern Sweden, there won’t really be any surprises. And that’s totally fine by us.
We’d expect Mercedes-Benz to deliver its super hatch in both CLS550 (with 4.6-liter twin-turbo V8) and (with 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8) flavors, which means the biggest question left to answer will be whether the company decides to call it the Shooting Brake or the Shooting Break. We, like pretty much everyone else in the world, vote for Brake.
The next GTI will be an order of magnitude better, bringing it back in line with the original hot hatch.
Lighter, faster, stronger, better. That’s what we can expect from the seventh-generation , due to be unveiled at the before it hits dealerships across Europe this fall and eventually lands on U.S. shores as a 2013 model.
So what makes it special? A combination of new manufacturing processes, an all-new platform, a range of upgraded engines and what will go down as one of the greatest democratizations of active safety and in-car technology in automotive history.
What’s more, the next GTI will be an order of magnitude better because of it, bringing it back in line with the original hot hatch while packed with even more standard features.
It all starts with Volkswagen’s new Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform, which is set to underpin every front-wheel-drive VW product from the to the , along with the 2013 . To hear VW tell it, it will redefine the automaker’s manufacturing processes while curing world hunger and eradicating leprosy.
The good people of Tennessee are no doubt thrilled to have a plant in Chattanooga. The facility already features well over 2,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, and now the German automaker is bolstering employment by another 200 full-time VW staffers, boosting the employment total to 2,500 full-time and temp workers.
VW says it is making the move to enable the plant to increase production from 31 vehicles per hour to 35. The boosted line rate also means that VW dealers will soon have more sedans to sell, though the automaker failed to mention the sedan in the post-jump press release. Given VW’s torrid sales pace in January, we’re guessing the jump in factory output will be good news for the automaker’s retail outlets.
VW isn’t just looking for line workers – the automaker is also looking for supervisors and engineers. Hit the jump to read over the VW press release, which includes information on how to apply for a position.
Few things can stand between a and the finish line. Not rain, not sleet and certainly not snow. So while the latter on Maranello, where Ferrari was planning to unveil its latest F1 challenger yesterday, that didn’t stop the Scuderia from showing it off to the world, through the magic of this newfangled invention they’re calling the “internet”.
The F2012 you see here is the fifty-eighth F1 car built by Ferrari, comprising a chassis and powertrain developed and produced entirely in-house: a rarity among F1 teams, particularly in these past few years since major manufacturers like , and withdrew from the sport.
The most prominent change to the car’s form over the it replaces is the rather aesthetically challenged but aerodynamically-optimized stepped nose, which (like the one on the and expected to follow on several more) conforms to revised FIA regulations while allowing sufficient air to pass underneath the nosecone to allow the underbody aerodynamics to do their thing. The rear section is also more tapered, leading to the rear wing with the Drag Reduction System that returns from last season.
That’s all well and good, of course, but what really matters is how the F2012 is going to stack up against the competition – particularly from the returning champions at Red Bull and longtime rivals at McLaren. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will wring out all the F2012 it has to offer, but only time will tell if they’ll be able to add another trophy to the cabinet in Maranello. In the meantime you can check out their new ride in the high-res image gallery above and for the full press release, technical details and video footage.
Rumors typically have a limited shelf life. Either they come to fruition, or they just die off. But not this one. The automotive press has been anticipating a follow-up to the LM002 (pictured above) for decades now, but with anticipation building, they appear to finally be coming to a head this year.
Although not quite an official confirmation, a spokesperson for Lamborghini’s parent company has indicated that all the speculation regarding the imminent arrival of a new Lamborghini crossover are, essentially, true. The concept version is expected to debut at the in April with a retuned version of the V10 engine in the and an eye on the likes of the Maserati Kubang and – only likely higher-end in its market position.
The decision-making process in Sant’Agata Bolognese was reportedly to build (previewed by the Estoque concept at the 2008 ) as a third model line, but the current speculation suggests that Lamborghini could build both, with the four-door sedan to follow a couple of years down the line.
has named its electric concept car headed for next month’s Geneva Motor Show the EMERG-E. The company says that its showcar will be a coupe powered by a 1.2-liter gasoline engine with a range-extending electric motor. The powerplant will be mounted amidships for superior weight distribution, and the Japanese automaker promises the concept will offer impressive performance.
Infiniti has released very few details beyond saying the car’s pure-electric range will be “respectable.” The vehicle also promises zero-emission driving in most urban settings, so there’s a good chance the concept will show off some advanced charging tech as well. The automaker is intent on making us wait until the vehicle’s full unveil in Geneva before it drops any more clues, though a few more teaser images have surfaced to whet our appetite. Check them out in our gallery below.
Though the may be a niche player in the North American market, the small van market is big business in Europe. According to , it accounts for some 700,000 units annually, and that’s a pie of which Daimler wouldn’t mind getting a bigger slice. And so it has announced its new Citan.
Taking its name from a combination of City and Titan, the Citan will slot in below the Vario, Sprinter and Vito in order to meet the needs of workers who need to get around crowded city streets and take their gear with them. Mercedes plans to offer it in a broad range of configurations, lengths and engine options once it hits the market in the fall.
The concept was unveiled at a logistics symposium held at the Mercedes-BenzDesign Center in Sindelfingen, and will be presented for the first time in public next September at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show. In the meantime, you can check out the details in the press release after the jump and the renderings in our high-res image gallery below.
After having us over to drive its raging new last September, is now aiming to show just how efficient their F10 can be with the occasionally silent and rage-free ActiveHybrid 5. Whereas the ActiveHybrid X6 and ActiveHybrid 750i arrived somewhat lacking in state-of-the-art hybrid credentials, the ActiveHybrid 5 carries a true and undeniable full parallel hybrid powertrain starting with all the goodness you find in a 535i.
This ActiveHybrid 5 is essentially a 535i sedan that pollutes less, travels farther on each of its 17.7 gallons of fuel, is painted BMW’s alternative-propulsion color of choice, Bluewater Metallic, and weighs 330 pounds more due to its electric motor, electric power unit motherboard and lithium-ion battery pack. Both CO2 emissions and range are said to improve by roughly 16 percent in a car that performs up to par with a 535i, so it’s a likeable proposition. Sticking with the standard 17-inch wheel/tire setup and setting the Driving Dynamics Control to Eco Pro mode, that’d make the CO2 rate 240 grams per mile – an impressive stat that most Americans still don’t care about – and an average EPA city/hwy combined fuel economy score of around 31 miles per gallon.
has announced plans to enter the FIA with this, a hot new racer based on the newly redesigned (well, the European five-door, anyway). Details are slim about the new touring car racer, but the automaker has released a statement confirming that the Civic will be powered by a bespoke 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four, developed by Honda R&D in accordance with FIA’s Super 2000 regulations. Honda has also formed a joint partnership with Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport to develop the new Civic.
So, how soon will we get to watch the new hatchback swap paint with other WTCC racers? Honda hopes to officially join WTCC this season, with some inaugural rounds possibly held in Japan, China and Macau. Following that, a two-car team will be entered into every race in the 2013 championship. for the full details.
Of all the car shows around the calendar year, the Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance doesn’t typically fall on our radar screen. But maybe it should, because the annual event in Florida – young as it is – has a history of offering firsts. Maybe not the first time a vehicle is seen in North America, mind you, but a first just the same.
the event included the sale of the first examples of the , Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster and Audi R8 GT to be delivered in America. The year it was the (yeah, that’s the one with the V10) and . And before that, the event’s auctioneers sold off the first Audi R8 Spyder, and .
Noticing a pattern here? Organizers have no intention of dropping the ball this year, when they’ll be auctioning off the first U.S. deliveries of the new . Now if you’re thinking that we haven’t even seen the new SL63 AMG yet, you’re absolutely right. The new itself has been shown, but not the AMG version, which is expected to pack Affalterbach’s 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 with 571 horsepower on tap. Once the car has been unveiled and deliveries commence, the winner of the auction is guaranteed to be the first to get one in the United States.
As if that’s not enough, there will also be an Audi R8 GT Spyder – one of only 50 slated for production and the only one in red to be made available in the U.S. – as well as a and a whole mess of special-edition Shelby muscle cars, with proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Follow for more info, or head down on February 25th to see the bidding frenzy at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
If you grew up in a sufficiently northern climate, you probably remember staying eagerly tuned in to the local radio or television station, praying on a cold day that enough snow would have fallen for them to close the schools. Well that’s what’s happened in the Modena area in northern Italy, but while the school children may be celebrating in their jammies, the racing fans among them will be disappointed to learn that the snow has caused the launch of the latest Scuderia single-seater to be canceled.
Enough snow, as you can see from the photo above, has fallen on Maranello to not only close down the team’s private Fiorano test track – which was supposed to be used for the car’s first demonstration run – but also all the roads leading to and from the site, preventing the motorsport press from getting there.
Ferrari will undoubtedly reschedule or make alternate arrangements to unveil the new car, but for now, the latest scarlet speedster will have to stay under wraps. Official announcements can be found .
