Much as it is to any automaker doing business there, China has grown to become a vital market for the brand. In fact, the group’s iconic SUV brand sells more vehicles in China than anywhere outside North America. And so to celebrate its success in the Chinese market, Jeep has rolled into with the customized you see here.
What sets this designconcept apart from any other Wrangler Unlimited is the dragon motif that dominates throughout. Jeep started with a Rubicon Unlimited, blacked out everything from the fenders and bumpers to the wheels and roof and applied bronze-gold dragon decals to the hood and left flank, the spare tire cover, the unique carbon-fiber engine cover and the interior. Bronze-gold trim complements throughout, with a gold and black leather interior with gold snakeskin bolsters to top it all off.
More than a simple decal job, the Wrangler Dragon design concept looks pretty convincing, and if demand in China is high enough, Jeep might even build it. Just don’t count on it showing up in your local dealership on this side of the Pacific, though – you’ll just have to scope it out in the high-res image gallery above and for further details in the official press release.
The super-SUV is, arguably, the most significant debut of the . Maybe not in terms of sales volume, but at it’s a completely new direction for the modern Lamborghini brand (nevermind the “Rambo Lambo” from the ’80s), and moreover, it shows the first glimpse into the new premium SUV architecture that will gradually make its way through the entire Volkswagen Group portfolio.
We’ve already divulged about the Urus, including the meaning behind its questionable name (it’s a Spanish bull – go figure), but now it’s time to take a look at the bruiser live on the stage in Beijing. Before its debut, we were skeptical about how a high-riding Lamborghini SUV would look, but if we’re honest, we like what we see. It’s absolutely in-tune with the rest of Lambo’s design language, and it’s not nearly as enormous as you might think. We just wonder how much space there is in the back seat and how much utility is offered by the cargo bay.
Click above to peruse through a high-resolution gallery of images live from Beijing, and to watch a video of the SUV’s unveiling live from the Chinese expo.
has a long and storied history of being an innovator since its creation in 1986. As the first luxury brand from Japan, the marque brought with it the first variable valve timing technology, the first drive-by-wire electronic throttle, the first in-dash navigation system and the first instance of torque-vectoring all-wheel drive.
Laudable accomplishments, all of them, and Acura reaped rewards for the technological advancements it brought to the automotive realm. Venerable nameplates like and launched Acura into first place in the premium luxury car segment in 1987, the brand’s first full year of sales.
And then things started to go downhill. The Legend was replaced by the poorly received and the discontinuation of the Integra in 2001 and the a few years later in 2006 left Acura without a proper entry-level model. Acura sales peaked in 2005 and have floundered ever since.
Is Acura’s new ILX the machine it needs to inject some much-needed life into its lineup?
Back in January at the , Volkswagen a concept car called the E-Bugster. A chopped-down, electric-powered roadster, the E-Bugster cut a lean, mean, green profile. The only thing that was missing, ironically, was a chance to see the convertible with its top off.
If you’re going to make a roadster, at least have the courtesy of showing it off with the roof down, right? Fortunately, has fixed that in time for the concept’s Asian premier at the , revealing a cowled rear deck replacing the rear seats inside the chrome bezel surrounding the cabin.
Aside from the open cockpit, the E-Bugster you see here is the same as the Detroit car, complete with its 114-horsepower electric powertrain that can take you up to 100 miles and quick-charge to 80-percent capacity in just half an hour. Scope it out with its hair down in the gallery above and with it up in the gallery below.
Eterniti Motors chose the 2012 Beijing Motor Show to unveil the Artemis, an engineering prototype of the we saw at the Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this year. From the looks of things, the boutique automaker has ditched the -inspired front for a fascia that borrows a bit more heavily from the playbook. The company says the vehicles on display are currently running prototypes used for testing and that finished examples should be in production by this summer.
Designed to offer buyers new levels of luxury and performance, Eterniti calls the Artemis a Super SUV. The cabin boasts absurd levels of hand-crafted detail, including quilted carpets with lambswool rugs, natural wood veneers with carbon fiber and piano black accents and twin reclining rear seats. Eterniti stitched the SUV’s body from carbon composite and massive 23-inch wheels are standard equipment. Under the hood, a 4.8-liter twin-turbo V8 (?) dumps 600 horsepower to the ground and helps the machine dart to 62 mph in a scant 4.5 seconds.
Buyers may purchase their own Artemis for around $337,785 at current conversion rates, complete with a two-year, 100,000-mile warranty. Eterniti thoughtfully offers insurance and financing for those who don’t have that sort of cash on hand. for the full press release.
Starting with the , Nissan will be launching in the United States over the next 15 months. And while the sedan you see here is initially heading to China as the Nissan Sylphy, it’ll be heading to our shores as the later this year, albeit with a few market-specific tweaks.
For now, Nissan has released a short video teaser of the North American-spec 2013 Sentra, which you can view . The video shows the new compact sedan in its SR trim, which Autoblog has learned is only a North American-specific trim package. The rest of the Sylphy’s styling appears to carry over largely unchanged, with new details like LED running lamps and taillamps rounding out a design that’s essentially a downsized version of what we see on the new Altima.
In China, the Sylphy will be launched with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine mated to Nissan’s next-generation Xtronic continuously variable transmission. It might not be an all-new powertrain, but remember, this is the same strategy that Nissan is using with the new Altima – one that has paid big dividends in fuel economy. The engines themselves haven’t changed, but with an improved CVT, we should see gains in not only performance but fuel economy, as well.
We’ll see the North American-spec 2013 Sentra this summer with the car officially going on sale this fall. to watch a teaser video of the Sentra SR, and to read the full press materials about the Chinese-market Sylphy.
has unveiled the production version of its EcoSport crossover at the 2012 Beijing Motor Show. The small five-door utility should offer buyers plenty of functionality in a compact and efficient package thanks to a range of drivetrain configurations including a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder Ecoboost engine. The small-displacement engine is good for 118 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque, which should be more than enough to move the little machine around. All told, Ford says the EcoSport will see duty in over 100 world markets, though the CUV isn’t expected to show up in our neck of the woods.
The EcoSport Titanium is currently on display in Beijing, complete with 16-inch wheels and a massive chrome grille. All models featureFord Sync with voice control, while smart keyless entry and remote start are also available. As expected, the crossover also comes laden with safety tech, including dual front and side-curtain airbags.
The EcoSport will be a cornerstone of Ford’s aggressive expansion into China that will see it roll out some 15 new models by 2015. In the CUV segment, Ford of China presently only sells the , but it will add the EcoSport, Kuga (read: ) and to its showrooms as part of this initiative. for the full press release.
Just about every brand under the Group umbrella has its own performance line these days. Marques like , and may not need them, but Volkswagen has the R line, has the RS range, Skoda offers the vRS models, and Seat badges its under the Cupra name.
It’s a nameplate that’s become synonymous with Latin-flavored hot hatches in markets around the world, and one of those vital markets is China. Little wonder, then, that Seat chose the to launch its latest Cupra model.
Technically billed as a “concept,” even Seat admits the vehicle you see here is pretty darn close to the production model that is scheduled to debut later this year. It starts out with the latest Ibiza hatchback (which itself shares its underpinnings with the Volkswagen Polo) and upgrades it with VW’s celebrated 1.4 TSI engine that packs a turbocharger, supercharger and direct injection to produce a solid 180 horsepower. All that juice is driven to the front wheels through an electronic differential and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Seat’s also given the Ibiza Cupra Concept a suitably beefed-up look with LED lights and 17-inch wheels and a fully equipped interior, all of which you can read more about in the press release (together with video footage) and scope out in the high-res image gallery above.
It’s not every day that a country celebrates the diamond jubilee of its reigning monarch. In fact, this is only the second time they’re doing so in Great Britain, making the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II a cause for, well… jubilation. And to help with the festivities, has launched an exclusive special edition. But rather than make it another , this time it went with the top-of-the-line .
Limited to just 60 examples, the Bentley Mulsanne Diamond Jubilee Edition was unveiled not in the UK itself, but in Beijing – the capital of the country that is now Bentley’s largest market, where the automaker has just opened one of its largest showrooms, and where the is now getting under way.
For the special edition, Bentley’s own in-house coachbuilder Mulliner (which also built the unique State Limousine that carries Her Majesty about) gave the Mulsanne such special touches as gold-embroidered headrests, veneered fold-down tables in the back and leather cushions, all with the gold motif of a classic royal carriage.
The jubilant Mulsanne can be ordered in a variety of muted combinations of the colors of the Union Jack, but one would simply not discuss the matter of the bill in polite company. You are, however, invited to peruse the press release , as well as the high-resolution images in the gallery above.
It’s been the better part of a year since we first brought you that Victoria Beckham – who had then just signed on as a celebrity “creative director” for the brand – was set to get her own special edition of the chic new . We didn’t know quite what to make of the news then – much less when the British purveyor of luxury SUVs released a just a few days ago – but now JLR has taken the wraps off its glamorous new special edition, and it’s not nearly as gaudy as you might think.
As you can see, the second vehicle released by Land Rover’s new Engineered To Order division (alongside the new Jaguar XJ Ultimate) is characterized by matte black paint, which contrasts with the gloss black and rose-gold trim. The interior is finished in vintage-finish tan leather, with mohair floor mats and a microsuede headliner. It also comes with a four-piece set of fitted leather luggage, and a leather portfolio carrying the owner’s manual and bearing Victoria Beckham’s own signature.
In other words, it’s suitably posh for a vehicle resulting from a collaboration between the Land Rover Design team and the pop star who made her name as Posh Spice. Only five examples out of the 200 planned for production will make it Stateside, with no word yet on pricing. We’ll also be keeping an eye out for more images of the luxed-out, matte-finish Evoque when they surface, but in the meantime you can view the solitary pic released so far in high-resolution and delve into the full press release .
The upper end of the Chinese market is all about chauffeured luxury automobiles, and given the prevalent Anglophilia in the Far East, would be remised not to jump at the opportunity being seized by so many of its competitors. So it is only fitting that the stoic British marque chose the to announce what is billed in every sense as the Ultimate version of the sedan.
One of two products launched in Beijing by the new Engineered To Order division of Jaguar (alongside the ), the XJ Ultimate packs everything a pampered passenger could desire: individually adjustable rear seats with power everything (separated by an illuminated and leather-trimmed center console), motorized fold-down tables, chilled champagne bucket and flutes, iPads with keyboards mounted to the backs of the front seats and a 20-speaker Meridian sound system. Exclusive finishes like Herringbone veneer, machined aluminum and LED lighting round out the package.
All that gear is set in motion by Jaguar’s 510-horsepower supercharged V8, riding on an adjusted suspension and 20-inch wheels. While the Chinese market may be the target for luxed-out limos like this one, the XJ Ultimate isn’t exclusive to China. In fact 30 examples (all in black) are earmarked for the United States, with price tags pegged at $155,000. for the pair of press releases on the XJ Ultimate and the Engineered To Order department.
The engine lineup is about to get a lot more interesting with the addition of a pair of forced-induction powerplants. The engines, announced in time for this week’s , will be mated to efficient eight-speed ZF transmissions.
The more powerful of the two is a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 making 340 horsepower or 380 hp, depending on the configuration. The all-aluminum V6 is derived from Jaguar’s 5.0-liter V8 and it features quad cams, direct injection and a Roots-type twin vortex supercharger with a water-cooled intercooler. The 3.0-liter boasts a 10.5:1 compression ratio, up significantly from the 9.5:1 ratio of the supercharged 5.0-liter.
Jaguar also notes in its press release that the 380-horsepower version of the supercharged 3.0-liter will rest under the hood of a high-output variant of the upcoming (pictured above) when it arrives sometime in 2013.
Jaguar will also offer the 240-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four that’s already available in the . Jaguar hasn’t announced which vehicles will receive the efficient 2.0 turbo, but the new F-Type seems a good bet. to read over Jaguar’s press release.
Bulgarian tuner Vilner has some kind of Luxo-Ray that fires munitions packed with at least two tons of quilted leather and Alcantara, then aims it at just about everything as soon as it can be reloaded. The latest target is the Defender Wood, making this in a year that the Defender has come into Vilner’s sights.
Last time they only hit it with one barrel and left the floorboards and cargo area covered in black carpeting. This time they unloaded both barrels, so in addtion to black-and-brown Nappa leather and Alcantara wrapping everything from the sport seats to the third brake light, Vilner’s added leather arm rests, wood paneling underfoot and a new treatment for its 600-watt “Ground Zero” sound system that all but eliminates usable cargo space.
Oh, and the whole thing is soundproofed. So that no one can hear you scream at your passengers to remove their dark-soled shoes and not eat, drink or touch anything.
At what point does a political issue become a moral one? And at what point, if any, should motor racing enter that debate? These are the questions that Formula 1 and all those involved have wrestled with since the Bahrain Grand Prix was put back on the calendar for this year.
Some argued that sporting competition should rise above such issues. Others decried the cold-heartedness of holding something as glitzy as an F1 race where government forces are brutally cracking down on protestors – particularly when the race itself is orchestrated by said government.
One way or another, however, the grand prix took place this weekend in Bahrain, entering the record books as the fourth round in this year’s championship. Keep reading to find out how it unfolded.
Britain is not without its automakers, even if they are all foreign-owned, but certainly ranks among the most quintessentially British of them all. Parent company has cashed in on this with a succession of special editions that celebrate its Anglophilia.
The latest are called the Hyde Park and Green Park editions, named after public spaces in London. The Hyde Park model comes in off-white with brown trim (which Mini calls “Hot Chocolate”) on the roof, mirror caps and stripes. The Green Park edition has green trim (British Racing Green, naturally) to contrast with the same Pepper White body color.
Owners putting down their deposits for a special new Mini can opt for two body styles (hatchback and wagon) and four engines: 122-horsepower Cooper, 184hp Cooper S, 112hp diesel Cooper D and 143hp diesel Cooper SD.
The interiors have also been spruced up for the special editions, as you can see for yourself in the attached image gallery. More info can be found in the press release below the fold.
Everything You Want To Know About Lambo’s Super SUV
The promise is to make it the most powerful series production SUV on the market, but also the least polluting.
has told us repeatedly that it wasn’t planning on doing such a thing anytime soon. We expected most likely the front-engine four-door super sedan – playing off the and 1968-’78 Espada – to become the raging bull’s third model line.
Feast your eyes on the Lamborghini Urus, or “LB736.” First off, yes, it is part of an upcoming (i.e. sometime in 2015) Group premium SUV onslaught. In the company of Lamborghini design director Filippo Perini and research and development guru Maurizio Reggiani, we were able to pry into all of the details back in mid-March during a special preview at company headquarters. We’ve had to hold off scribbling until today because the official debut for the edgy 4×4 happens right about now at the . is foreseen as a good market for the supersonic SUV, but the United States remains Job One.
In comparison to the clumsy seen at the recent , the Urus hits us almost gleefully by comparison; it’s right on the money with Lambo’s current design language. Lamborghini’s Perini understands that this is a polarizing proposition: “When Lamborghini creates a whole new model line, it’s automatically risky since it doesn’t happen so often.”
And we were nervous about it, too, imagining a four-seater setup that would need to ride way too high, sort of like the first generation or that Bentley. But when the veil came off and the hard lights hit it, we were pleased.
James Bond has driven a lot of noteworthy vehiclesover the course of his long, fictitious career in Her Majesty’s secret service: , , , … and those are just the cars. There’ve been countless motorcycles, tanks and trucks as well. And in between high-speed chases across dangerous and picturesque terrain, 007 has streaked across the sky in helicopters, jets and hot-air balloons, above it in the space shuttle. Let’s not forget that Bond is also a commander in the Royal Navy, so he’s also no stranger to speedboats, jet-skis, yachts, warships and submarines.
It’s hard to keep track of it all, so with the latest film, Skyfall, coming out in October, we’re glad to share this tidy infographic that lays out all the Bond vehicles from every movie, plus some trivia and miscellany for the most die-hard Bond fans and automotive enthusiasts. It’s similar to , only updated and more comprehensive. Click the image above to .
Unlike the in South Korea, this is a collaboration between Swiss bike maker BMC and the real Lamborghini car company. The BMC impec Edition is a version of the BMC’s impec bicycle, further developed with Lamborghini’s carbon-fiber experts and assembled using some automotive build techniques. It’s set off by a suede Lamborghini saddle and suede handlebar tape, as well as an -matching Argos Orange downtube.
Only 30 will be offered for sale, and you’ll need to have €20,000 ($26,172 U.S.) handy when you get to the cash register. Still with us? Then you can purchase it at your local Lamborghini dealer or a BMC bike retailer, and it’s on display now at Milan’s Brian&Barry boutique if you want to kick the tires. Softly.
We’ve all heard the argument that cars can’t be art. As a commodity, vehicles are slaves to parameters of functionality, manufacturing and economics that simply have no bearing on traditional works, but Canadian sculptor Pierre Arpin believes that shouldn’t stop car parts from ascending beyond their usual lot in life. While waiting in a repair shop, Arpin spotted a trashed hood and asked to take it home. The shop obliged, starting the artist down a lengthy path of creation. While he typically favors hoods, doors and radiators have also received his unique touch.
Arpin uses heat to remove the orignial paint before taking a grinder to the metal to create his unique designs. Depending on the work, paint may be reapplied afterward. The artist calls the process a type of “alchemy,” and says that the technique gives the pieces a certain level of “immortality.” We don’t know about that, but as people with various car body parts strewn about our offices, we can see the appeal.
In the wake of earlier this week, rolled out its Concept Style Coupe at the at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), yesterday. The “CSC” is expected to officially make its world debut at the next week, but the sneak preview gave us an early look at the four-door in the flesh.
Expected to ride atop Mercedes’ new MFA platform, the CSC is a close-to-production glimpse at the automaker’s long-awaited compact sedan ( when it arrives). Styled like a smaller version of the Mercedes-Benz , the CSC features sleek and aggressive bodywork over 20-inch turbine-style wheels. The roof features a large panoramic glass panel allowing plenty of light to spill into the four-place cabin. Under the hood of the concept is a turbocharged four-cylinder, rated at 211 horsepower, sending its power to the automaker’s 4Matic all-wheel drive system.
The art exhibit, open free of charge through May 6, is an interesting audio visual experience curated by Mike D of the Beastie Boys. The Mercedes-Benz CSC is shown in a dark room under banks of halogen lights that are choreographed to illuminate to the music (only audible by wearing headsets hung from the rafters). It was nearly impossible to take pictures, but we have updated our gallery with some supplied photography. Don’t forget to check out the press release below.
