Today announced that a will pace this year’s Indianapolis 500, marking the 23rd time that a Chevy has paced the race and the 11th time the has performed the duty. With 638 horsepower from its supercharged 6.2-liter V8, the Corvette ZR1 will be the most powerful production machine to serve as the race’s pace car.
Helping to celebrate six decades of production, the 2013 Corvette ZR1 pace car mimics the design cues of the that debuted earlier this year with Arctic White exterior paint and a full-length racing stripe in Pearl Silver Blue. Inside is a Blue Diamond leather-wrapped interior with suede accents.
Look for the 2013 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 during the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500, scheduled to start at 12:00 pm ET on Sunday, May 27th.
Get ready. The hype machine is revving up for the . And it’s not going to slow down in the coming months, as Ford prepares to launch it’s most important midsize entry in 30 years.
Even with no pricing available, Ford has launched its website. The configurator will walk a curious customer through all of the variations of the new Fusion from a base S model to the fully loaded Titanium to the gas-electric Hybrid. (The only model missing is the plug-in hybrid Fusion Energi.)
The configurator, which Ford says on the website is for “survey purposes only,” will allow you to see the Fusion S in eight different colors (the Titanium model comes in nine – click through to see them all), list out each model’s engine choices, features and options, as well continue the buzz the Fusion created at the .
After building the Fusion of your dreams, you can also sign up for email updates, which, over the summer, will be many.
BMW Takes On Mercedes And Audi In The Profit Margin Wars
As the years go by, it’s become the Germans who are most closely watching what each other are doing over the backyard fence. So much so, at times, that it can almost seem like they’re freely swapping all their trade secrets unapologetically in full view.
Take this nicely executed new luxo-niche player, the . It’s no scoop, of course, that it was created specifically to not miss out on what both and are discovering for themselves with the and . And yes, that “nicely executed” modifier just used to describe the Gran Coupe could indeed ring with more enthusiasm.
The 640i Gran Coupe we sailed around in all over Sicily under a crisp sun is a generally good-looking machine. designers have taken the existing Big Bimmer language and successfully created a new dialect for the company, if you will. But these “four-door coupe” creations are curiosities for which many develop a love (or, occasionally, a distaste) for over the long run. Only the first-generation CLS in 2003-04 absolutely socked it to us at first glance, and since then, everything else in the genre has felt derivative. Well, they essentially are blatant derivatives, right?
is massaging the 2013 line with more modern gearboxes and trims to match its more modern design (the non-conceptual version of which still has yet to be seen). In addition to the six-speed manual replacing the five-cogger currently offered on four-cylinder models, the folks at the Temple of VTEC forum have found an order sheet indicating a CVT will be available on mid-range LX, EX and EX-L models. For the enthusiasts hoping for the manual to return to the V6 sedan, no dice – the 6AT is what you’ll get.
The sheet also omits the sedan’s current SE trim slotted between the LX and EX, and in its stead is a Sport trim. It can be had with either the manual or the CVT, but it’s not listed with the “navi” option. The coupe’s trims remain the same. When we can put these specs together with the actual 2013 car, then we’ll start to guess how it will far against its archfoe, the .
Automotive News reports may use the company’s new to put some distance between itself and parent company . Buyers have snapped up a total of 4,900 GS models in just two months, breezing by year-long sales estimates in the process. The company attributes much of that success to non-traditional advertising efforts, including the Tori 500 iPhone and iPad app, and says that it could use similar tactics in the future to lure buyers in based on traits like “character and handling.” Traditionally, consumers have turned toward Lexus because of Toyota’s reputation for efficient and reliable machinery.
The GS, with its hour-glass grille and aggressive front fascia, is a first-step in giving the luxury automaker a more distinct brand image. In the past, Lexus has had trouble keeping buyers coming back, and the company believes that’s partly due to the fact that luxury consumers are more interested in owning a brand than a particular vehicle. As such, we can expect to see more corporate design cues across the company’s portfolio in the near future. The move may help set Lexus apart as something other than a slightly nicer Toyota in consumers eyes.
Most General Motors dealers make their living off selling pickup trucks. (That’s why when it came time to trim the brands and reorganize under bankruptcy, survived and didn’t – because dealers needed to have a truck to sell, not a .) That makes this year a tricky one for dealers, according to Automotive News, as they need to have enough or models in stock to get them to the 2013 model year.
What makes this quandary different from most years is that GM is readying all-new pickups, meaning that it will be . The full-size and GMC trucks date to 2006, making them the oldest in the industry that don’t wear a badge on their tailgate. Dealers, of course, don’t want to be caught with many 2012 trucks – vehicles that are already difficult enough to sell – but they don’t want inventories to run completely dry and risk turning away customers.
With a combined 29 weeks of downtime scheduled for three truck plans, according to the report, some dealers are stockpiling pickups to avoid running out if the truck production pipeline dries up before the 2013s start shipping. Other dealers are taking the opposite strategy, turning down 2012s and waiting for next year’s models.
Given all that has happened to GM in recent years, we imagine that most dealers know altogether too well that you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
The M Division of has of sportifying performance parts to the 2012 and 2011-2012 . Among the suite of components are a sport steering wheel, carbon fiber and Alcantara interior trim, carbon fiber splitters and mirror caps and two-toned 20-inch forged wheels hiding a Brembo big-brake kit with painted calipers. Oh, and racing stripes.
Naturally, in addition to making your car look more M-ish, the parts carry a multi-year BMW warranty. for the skinny and get a visual idea of where your paycheck’s about to go in the high-res gallery of photos.
If you’ve been sniffing around the PlayStation Vita debating whether to pull the trigger, has an offer for you: buy an and you’ll get the Vita free. This isn’t the first tie-up with the little car and the little console: the iQ was one of the available vehicles in the MotorStorm RC game.
The offer is good only until June 31, 2012, so you’ve got some time to think about it. Sure, this will add (just) $15,700 to the price of your portable gaming station… but at least you’ll have some way to carry it. And when you’re finished making that deal, can we interest you in a for the ? But first, for a read of the Scion press release with details.
The minivan segment has grown from fiercely competitive to downright cut-throat. With fairly new iterations of vehicles like the , , and , formerly acceptable entries like the have fallen straight off the map. This isn’t news to the Korean automaker, either. spokesman James Hope has confirmed there will be no 2013 Sedona.
But that doesn’t mean the company will stay away from the segment for too long. Hope made it clear Kia will be back with a new family hauler, though declined to share any details on the vehicle.
Odds are that means a new Sedona will come along in 2014 or so, though that’s just speculation on our part. While Kia refreshed the minivan in 2011, the changes didn’t cover much beyond a mildly reworked front fascia. The vehicle was still saddled with an embarrassing “Poor” rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety roof-crush test.
Announced , finally gave us some more details about the was the all-electric EV will be sold to the general public during the 26th Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles today. The important number? The MSRP for what Toyota calls a “fully equipped” RAV4 EV is $49,800 and will be available before the end of the year.
Toyota says the RAV4 EV’s range is 100 miles and that the car will charge from empty in approximately six hours on a 240V/40A charger. The new RAV4 EV has LED and halogen headlights and it has special “environmental blue” color emblems on the outside. The vehicle will be made at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc., plant in Woodstock, Ontario. The first generation of the new RAV4 EV was . Our First Drive report is .
With a battery and powertrain designed by , the new RAV4 EV certainly appears to be one of the new breed of . We had heard that the RAV4 EV will be lease only, but the official press release says the car “will go on sale in late summer 2012 through select dealers, initially in four major California metropolitan markets.” Those markets are Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County and San Diego and the news matches the rumor we heard last year, that sales about be In all, Toyota hopes to sell just 2,600 units in the next three years. , you’ve got nothing to worry about.
April was a busy month for the , with over 2,500 miles added to the odometer and a heaping helping of people and things passing through its doors. When I picked up the Countryman, I was impressed by the fact that were neatly stowed behind the front seats. However, the biggest of models didn’t fare so well when the rear seats were occupied.
On a shopping day with the kids, a relatively small amount of goods proved to be far too much for the Countryman’s diminutive trunk. As a result, I had no choice but to disperse boxes at the feet of my wife and kids, which was a decidedly unpopular move (don’t let the smiles fool you). The kids didn’t love the lack of roominess, but I can assure you that my 2,500 miles were mostly enjoyable.
I got a huge kick out of the Countryman’s spirited handling, even though I didn’t find our long-termer to have the same go-kart-like demeanor of its smaller siblings. The good news, however, was that I was able to average 26 miles per gallon during my month with the Mini, with a high of 30 mpg and a very entertaining low of just over 20 mpg. But don’t blame the Countryman for that 20 mpg number – that tank of gas was all about exploring the performance limits of our smallest long-term loaner. And even so, my own average fuel economy is higher than the dismal numbers that Editor Ewing brought up in .
One thing I didn’t like about the Countryman was a sometimes jarring ride, which we’ve attributed, in part, to the dreaded run-flat tires. The throttle was also a bit odd, as the first few degrees of pedal travel felt a bit dead. It took a few days to get used to it, and it helps to always drive in Sport mode.
The Countryman did require a non-scheduled trip to the dealership during its month in my hands. After just a few days with the car, I noticed that the fan kicked on at full blast every time I turned on the car. I didn’t think much of it at first, until I came back outside one day and discovered that the fan was still on after about 10 minutes of the vehicle being turned off. The ‘check engine’ light illuminated the very next day, so off to Motor City Mini we went. As it turned out, the engine’s thermometer was on the fritz, and the dealer replaced the part under warranty. That one issue aside, we’ve enjoyed nearly 15,000 miles of carefree Mini motoring.
Our Mini will spend the month of May shuffling between a number of staffers, with a few road trips planned as warmer weather starts to grace southeast Michigan. Stay tuned to see how the Countryman fares.
Keep your eyes locked on the official for the majority of our updates, as well as the official Autoblog Twitter account (, look for the hashtag).
Forget cloth, the upcoming Lamborghini Aventador Roadster will use a removable two-piece carbon fiber hardtop, according to the Italian magazine .
The weight-cutting measure means the convertible won’t have to stack on the pounds just to include al fresco driving. The carbon fiber roof will weigh less than a cloth top and its underlying metal frame. It also means that the entire rear section of the car won’t change from the hardtop model, Quattroroute reports.
We first saw the hardtop in spy photos , though we weren’t sure of Lamborghini’s plans for the 700-horsepower V12 racer at the time. Lamborghini is expected to debut the roadster at the this fall.
Ah yes, the Nürburgring. Where else would you expect to find the forthcoming Gran Coupe? Well, other than on the stand the in September or .
While of the big 560-plus-horsepower sedan, 6post.com has snagged footage of the M6 Gran Coupe squealing tires and clipping apexes with some of its siblings on everyone’s favorite German road.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. The sentiment certainly applies to cars as well, but doubly so. Years of driving and photographing new vehicles have taught us that you can’t evaluate a new model – or even judge its styling – based on photos alone, no matter how good or bad the images or the sheetmetal might seem. And you can’t really know anything until you get that car off the auto show stand and out in the wild, driving it on the street in its natural habitat.
We explain this because when we first spied the new , we didn’t think much of it: Mostly carryover front fascia, grafted-on taillights, Bangle butt. Move along, nothing to see here. But a funny thing happened when we got behind the wheel of the Malibu Eco for a week. We warmed up to it. We actually liked it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall concerning 2011-2012 and models. A fuse controlling the power distribution unit for the ABS and ESC system can overheat, causing both features to fail.
Charger Pursuit vehicles were recalled a couple of months ago over the same issue and it was thought that severe usage was the culprit. However, a number of civilian reports convinced to recall all of the vehicles in question.
Chrysler will begin notifying the 119,072 owners this month. Affected vehicles can be taken to the dealer to have the fuse in question relocated, free of charge. for the official NHTSA bulletin.
Cadillac’s is scheduled to hit dealer showrooms this summer, and General Motors has finally divulged pricing. Its smallest luxury sedan will start at $33,990 including destination(*), but that price will only snag you the entry-level model, powered by a 200-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder paired with a six-speed automatic. Stepping up to the turbocharged, 270-hp 2.0-liter will push the price up to $35,795, and bring all-wheel-drive and manual transmission options into play. The top-of-the-line ATS carries a $42,090 price tag and is powered by a version of the 3.6-liter V6 from the , rated at 320-hp and mated to an automatic tranny, with all-wheel-drive available.
While these prices are hard to evaluate without a full breakdown of standard equipment – which promises in due time – we can compare them to two benchmarks, the all-new 2012 and the slightly larger CTS. While Caddy does undercut the base 3 Series price of $35,795, that entry-level ATS is down some 40 horsepower. The mid-priced ATS, the one with the turbo 2.0-liter, however, trumps the 328i’s 240-hp engine by almost that much. With equivalent starting sticker prices, it only makes the inevitable head-to-head battle all that more interesting.
The CTS, however, starts at $36,810, which makes the top-level ATS seem spendy at first glance. Granted, the CTS is nearing the end of its life cycle, but clearly those looking for a more luxury-oriented, V6-powered sedan are going to have to closely study the standard equipment sheet to determine what justifies the $5,000-plus price premium for the smaller car.
for the full press release, and be sure to check out the new images in our .
Those looking to get around the Nürburgring with a quickness will soon be able to hop into a . The luxury automaker has announced it will bolster its fleet at the infamous German track with the addition of an XJ Supersport. The-510 horsepower sedan will feature a few tweaks to set it apart from its kin, including matte grey paint and both the Sport and Speed packages. The latter of those two nudges the vehicle’s top speed from 155 to 174 miles per hour. also nixed the standard leather seats for a set of four race buckets, each with their own four-point harnesses.
A full roll cage also takes care of keeping everyone safe as they rocket around Green Hell. The XJ Supersport will begin giving Jaguar fans rides around the Nurburgring at speed sometime soon. for the full press release.
has been involved with Life Ball, one of Europe’s largest charity events, since the brand first bowed in 2001. This year, the automaker turned a brand-new over to Franca Sozzani, chief editor of Italian Vogue, for a complete makeover. Sozzani dipped the convertible two door in matte Deepest Purple paint with contrasting rally stripes and added steel accents on the side mirrors and wheels to help set the machine apart from the standard model. The charity car also sports a unique floral design on the roof. Mini will auction off the special Roadster at the Hall of Ceremonies at Vienna’s Hofburg palace.
Life Ball highlights the fight against AIDS. The celebrity-studded event features live music and a fashion show, and Mini says that sales of its past Life Ball models have raised over $654,000 for AIDS research. Scroll past the break for the full press release.
After Lawrence Drake gave up his pickup truck for a Chevrolet HHR, he wanted a camping shelter more hardy than a tent. The trick? Finding a solution that was in line with the HHR’s 1,000-pound tow capacity. He found it when he designed the Teal Camper, a modular enclosure that fits on a four-by-eight trailer and weighs just 630 pounds empty, including the trailer.
Basically, the camper is a set of weather-sealed panels that are bound with Phillips-head bolts and a strap. They come in a few configurations, such as corner pieces and those with windows and door openings, and you can assemble them in rectangular shapes as small or large as you like. The standard kit comes with a bed that sleeps two and a table, but Drake has designed lightweight optional fixtures like canvas cabinets. There’s also a pop-top that can extend headroom to six feet, and the entire assembly can be bolted to a plywood floor with straps or angle brackets.
Drake’s gone as far as he can on his own resources and is looking for investors for manufacturing. As such, there’s no price tag yet but he projects around $3,000 for an empty shell. It’s a neat concept that we think deserves a shot. Check it out in the gallery of photos.
After Lawrence Drake gave up his pickup truck for a Chevrolet HHR, he wanted a camping shelter more hardy than a tent. The trick? Finding a solution that was in line with the HHR’s 1,000-pound tow capacity. He found it when he designed the Teal Camper, a modular enclosure that fits on a four-by-eight trailer and weighs just 630 pounds empty, including the trailer.
Basically, the camper is a set of weather-sealed panels that are bound with Phillips-head bolts and a strap. They come in a few configurations, such as corner pieces and those with windows and door openings, and you can assemble them in rectangular shapes as small or large as you like. The standard kit comes with a bed that sleeps two and a table, but Drake has designed lightweight optional fixtures like canvas cabinets. There’s also a pop-top that can extend headroom to six feet, and the entire assembly can be bolted to a plywood floor with straps or angle brackets.
Drake’s gone as far as he can on his own resources and is looking for investors for manufacturing. As such, there’s no price tag yet but he projects around $3,000 for an empty shell. It’s a neat concept that we think deserves a shot. Check it out in the gallery of photos.
