For The Enthusiast Who Isn’t Ready To Embrace The Future
The 328i is better than the 335i.
We are not the only ones claiming that the entry-level , fitted with a clamorous lightweight turbocharged four-cylinder engine, is more agile and tossable than its turbocharged six-cylinder sibling – it appears to many that the segment leader has been displaced by its weaker brother.
Well, maybe.
That big ‘maybe,’ and a whole bunch of its little ‘maybe’ associates, are what convinced us to grab the keys to a brand-new six-cylinder and take it home for a week. Our objective was to determine why the muscular 335i, long the performance benchmark of compact sport sedans, was getting its tailpipes handed to it by its four-banger kin.
To solve the riddle, we put more than 1,500 miles on a brand-new 335i Sport configured with a six-speed manual transmission. Of course, we liked much of what we experienced, as the redesign fits the 3 Series very well. But we also exposed a few holes in its once-impenetrable armor – some big enough to let two fewer cylinders slip by. Has the quickest and highest-performing of the non-M 3 Series models really lost its top spot on the palace throne? If so, why would someone still want a 335i?
Who wants to wait until the of the Nina plug-inhybrid next week when we can see spy shots right this second? Neither do we.
So, what do the shots reveal? For starters, we can see that the Nina is indeed shorter than its big brother. This is expected, but the impression we have is that the Karma’s design language translates quite well into a vehicle about the size of a . The front end, too, sports a moustache-like grille that’s similar to the one on the Karma. On the back side, the “EVer” badge is still proudly in place, but the diamond-shaped exhaust outlets are missing. The four-door sedan’s rear doors have the handles hidden smoothly between the window and the C-pillar. Then there are the wheels. It’s hard to miss those. If you want to compare the Nina with the Karma directly, open the gallery above as well as in another tab and click away.
The problem with these images is that they still don’t tell us much about the car itself. We’ve heard the cost for the Nina, which is supposed to be , will be about the same as a top-of-the-line . That implies something north of $45,000, despite what Vice President Joe Biden : “It looks like a four-door Ferrari, I can’t believe it’s only going to be $40,000.” We’ll hopefully know more when we get to the next week.
After all the problems Fisker has had with the Karma launch and the DOE loan, it’s important to remember that it’s the vehicle you see above that the DOE has been helping with all along. Do you like where your tax dollars have gone?
took the NFL Films crew to the 2008 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and with the footage gathered created the rather excellent documentary (it’s still free to view on and ). It turns out Audi took a crew to last year’s race as well, and soon we’ll be treated to the sequel, Truth in 24 II.
We’ll assume Audi had no idea how that race would end up being, with Allan McNish in one of three R18 Ultras out – literally – just two hours in, and a second Audi out six hours later. After a battle of fuel, tires and pit stops the fight with the Peugeot 908s went to the last lap, making the 2011 race the fourth closest Le Mans run in 79 editions.
A forum member at Ten-Tenths said “The film should be finalised over the next 8 weeks” and that it will deal much more with the race than the backstory. If that timing is correct, it should come just in time to get us ready for this year’s running.
It’s been two years since the , and now the first fruits of that labor are about to be unveiled. The joint venture will sell a line of electric vehicles under the Denza brand name, starting with the E6 built on the platform from the first-generation Mercedes-Benz B-Class, a preview of which is shown above in a .
is said to be handling design and chassis duties, while BYD is developing the lithium-ion phosphate cells and driveline that will occupy the sandwich floor. Prototypes have been , at least 40 of which have racked up nearly two million miles as taxis. Range is said to be up to 186 miles, and we should get a first look at the real thing at next month’s .
As impressive as the is, someone at Shelby apparently thought 950 horsepower wasn’t good enough. With a few clicks of the mouse, a photo of one of the muscled-up pony cars was given a little drama to boost excitement.
At first, was that nothing in the photo was altered except shadows and that, yes, the super Shelby’s front end did in fact lift several inches off the ground in the photo you see above.
But anyone with at least one good eye can see several problems. Apparently, that does not include the Autoblog staff. We totally missed it, but one of our attentive readers, , caught it well before anyone else.
First, there’s an odd blur just beneath the front passenger side tire and just a sliver remains of the tire that was airbrushed out. If you’re gonna fake a photo, show some skill.
Second, a wheelstand would be virtually impossible to do with that much horsepower on street tires.
Third, check out those rear tires. They’re standing stock still and, as another reader, , points out, there’s light showing through the tread. The rear tires aren’t digging into the tarmac at all.
Shelby, rightly, now admits to that the front wheels were lifted not by a super powerful engine, but instead by super powerful photo manipulation software. Why, Shelby, why? You had us at 950 hp!
The is off to an impressive sales start in Japan. According to Subaru, the two-door is besting the automaker’s sales projections by wide margins. As of right now, has sold 3,551 of the coupes, which is around four times the company’s estimates. Fuji Heavy Industries put out a very conservative number of 450 units per month as a sales goal for the BRZ before the vehicle hit the market.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that a whopping 60 percent of buyers are under 40 years old, and two-thirds of all BRZ owners are opting for the six-speed manual gearbox. Those numbers are particularly impressive given the reports indicating a declining interest in cars and driving in Japan’s youth. According to the company, over a quarter of buyers are under 30.
BRZ sales kick off in the U.S. on April 20, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see similar demand levels in our neck of the woods, at least initially. .
has just revealed its to the assembled media in Dearborn ahead of its debut. And while the 350-horsepower, 350-pound-foot-of-torque crossover will be the performance capstone for the nameplate, Autoblog has learned that the Sport also previews a number of subtle performance updates that will roll out throughout the entire range for the new model year.
The Sport isn’t just an engine upgrade and appearance modifications – there are meaningful tweaks across the entire vehicle.
Among those changes is a new solid mount for its electric power steering rack, a move designed to take some of the slop out of the system and deliver more accurate direction changes (the Sport also receives its own unique boost tuning to add both quickness and heft). In addition, engineers have gone over the Explorer’s suspension and steering, fitting new ball- and steering joints, with the goal of increased stiffness so that shock and bushing tuning can be more finely adjusted. The result, say Ford officials, is a better controlled vehicle – one that allows for greater performance differentiation model to model (Sport versus XLT, say) through simple tuning of the vehicle’s compliant bits.
To be clear, the Explorer Sport stops well short of a full-on performance model like the – Ford itself suggests likely competitors include the and its . Even so, the Sport isn’t just an engine upgrade and appearance modifications – there are meaningful tweaks across the entire vehicle, including everything from a 3.16:1 final drive ratio to a water-cooled Power Take Off faceplate cooler that keeps the standard all-wheel-drive system at proper operating temps when it’s being worked harder by those 350 pound-feet.
Ford says the Sport knocks a full two seconds off the 0-60 time of other models.
Apparently Ford has learned its lesson based on feedback it received from (a vehicle that shares much of this CUV’s architecture and drivetrain). Like the , the Explorer Sport has received a brake upgrade, moving from 13.1-inch rotors to 13.8 inches. In addition, the discs themselves are thicker, leading to a 22-percent increase in stopping power. That’s good news, because Ford says the Sport knocks a full two seconds off the 0-60 time of other models, but it declined to cite a hard number.
Other Sport-specific hardware changes include a throatier dual exhaust with large polished tips, a reworked Terrain Management System to take advantage of the 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine’s extra torque in all conditions, as well as larger shock tower braces and a new cross tunnel brace for added rigidity.
Ford says it sold 135,000 Explorers last year, and fully 50 percent of those were conquest buyers. Of that percentage, 12 percent were luxury brand converts, so Ford is clearly betting that the 2013 Sport’s augmented performance and style can yield even more higher-end transaction prices.
To hear tell it, the company stumbled on something of a hit with the . According to the automaker, the vehicle didn’t just waltz past sales projections. It crushed them. Last year, 3,193 Equus models went home to loving families, and while that’s not a huge number by any stretch of the imagination, the figure is well better than the 2,000 units Hyundai expected to sell. It was also good enough to snag the company a 5.7-percent share of the premium luxury sedan segment in 2011. So, how does the Korean automaker plan to build on this early Equus momentum? By adding power, of course.
For 2012, the Equus packs the same 5.0-liter V8 engine found in the as well as a new eight-speed automatic transmission that helps keep fuel economy in check. With a few interior tweaks thrown in for good measure and the same gamut of standard equipment, the Equus continues to be a great reason to give the old stalwarts of luxury a second thought.
Episode #275 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Zach, and Dan cover the BMW 3 Series EPA fuel economy numbers game, GM holding the ChevroletCamaro ZL1 to sort out an un-disclosed issue, and the recent pricing and road test information about the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ. Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #275:
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In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:17:04
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Plugging A Hole With A Seven-Passenger Synthetic Cork
Consumers looking for a sports coupe, sports sedan, sporty five-passenger crossover, luxury five-passenger crossover, trailer-capable SUV, sporty convertible or hybrid luxury sedan have been able to drive out of showrooms very satisfied. The automaker offers a well-curated family of vehicles for each of these genres, without question.
However, affluent families seeking an import luxury seven-passenger crossover – without a traditional truck lineage – have been forced to shop elsewhere. Many of Infiniti’s missed opportunities end up holding keys to an , or . Aiming to close a gaping leak in its product range, Infiniti officially introduced the world to its all-new at the just a few months ago.
The new arrival has been engineered to “excel in the areas that luxury crossover buyers desire most – interior flexibility and roominess, safety, and advanced hospitality features,” says Infiniti. But to us, some of those qualities seem to stray from the company’s ‘Inspired Performance’ tagline. Intrigued by the new arrival, we climbed aboard an airliner and flew to Charleston, South Carolina, for an introduction and test drive of the JX crossover.
For some, the horsepower wars being waged by auto manufacturers over the past few years are getting a bit out of hand. A ? A ? Ridiculous. But if you count massive amounts of gas-guzzling horsepower and torque a crime (we don’t), then the worst of all offenders is perhaps Shelby. Last year at the , the company unveiled its most powerful creation to date: the , with up to 800 horsepower. And while 800 hp is just bonkers, Shelby’s next trick is even more insane.
Today, Shelby American has revealed the 2012 Shelby 1000. The name of, course, is taken from the car’s horsepower figure, which is around 950 in street trim and around 1,100 in the S/C track version. To harness the extra power, Shelby has installed a beefier suspension, larger brakes, a single-piece driveshaft and a nine-inch rear end, but we’re guessing it will still be quite a handful on the street.
Only a limited number of 2012 Shelby 1000 models will be produced, with the post-title package (not including the base GT500 donor car) starting at $149,995. That means the total cost will ring in at right around $200,000. Shelby says that it will start taking orders once the car is officially unveiled at the New York Auto Show next week. for the official press release.
Under its current management, has proven nothing if not ambitious. Lotus can’t achieve its goals without help from the outside, however, and thus has has teamed up with established racing teams to field cars under the Lotus name in countless motorsport series, hunted for new capital from external investors and collaborated with Mansory to customize its vehicles. It’s that last joint venture that the British automaker is now preparing to expand.
The collaboration goes back a little over a year when Lotus brought Mansory in to with some extra carbon fiber bits that debuted at the 2011 . That led to the production Evora GTE (pictured above) and subsequent special editions based thereon, but now Lotus and Mansory are preparing to roll out an entire customization range not only for the , but also the and models.
The catalog, according to Lotus, will include custom “bodywork, trim and special finishes”, although not much more information was released at this point. The collaborative effort, however, is gearing up to unveil a new variant at the come September, so for the full press blast and watch this space for more.
Autocar reports may be mulling a production version of the company’s LF-LC Concept. After receiving a near universally positive reception following its unveiling at the Detroit Auto Show this year, Karl Schlicht, head of Lexus product planning, reportedly gave the vehicle a 50-50 shot at hitting dealers sometime in the future. Those aren’t great odds, but it is a change of tone from when the vehicle first hit the stage. Back in January, made it very clear the LF-LC was strictly a concept. As you may recall, the vehicle is a 2+2 coupe with a hybrid drivetrain and a low-slung presence.
According to Schlicht, the vehicle would have never even been considered for production if it had merely been submitted as a design proposal. With a physical concept backed by chorus of positive reviews, the company’s decision makers have evidently been prompted to give the LF-LC a second look.
Schlicht himself is set to become the head of product planning for Toyota and Lexus starting on April 1.
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.
Subaru Gives Us Their Sports Car On Real Roads. Does It Deliver?
Last December, our wandering man of intrigue Jonathan Ramsey drove a prototype at Japan’s Tochigi circuit under somewhat controlled conditions and was nonetheless very impressed. Then, in that same month, SoCal lad Michael Harley – he who knows a thing or two about hot-footing it on closed circuits – took the practically identical for many unfettered laps on the island’s short and sweet Sodegaura Forest Raceway. He, too, was left extremely enthused by the experience.
My turn now. We needed a real road test of the Subaru BRZ just to see if this car really does merit the “zenith” part of its name represented by its final letter. Can the stellar handling and light weight we’ve already raved about translate into something you could happily drive every day?
The roads on which sent me with their new star pupil could not be more appropriate: the ominous Route Napoleon in southern France. This is perfect, because the number of new car drives following the has been mind numbing, and I frankly needed a spectacular car-and-road pairing to recharge my enthusiasm. I can think of no better combo for this than a promising sports car and this insanely technical French two-lane. I am here to find out if, in the real sporting car world, 200 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque are enough to keep the fire burning in me.
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.
There is little question that , under the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally, has perhaps never looked better in terms of product and financial stability.
But it’s been less than four years since the company’s stock was hovering near $1.00 a share. The Ford family was making noise about selling out. And Mulally was actually lampooned on Saturday Night Live.
Bryce G. Hoffman, a reporter for The Detroit News, has penned a new book, , on the fall and rise of the Blue Oval. The book really begins with the 2000-2001 Firestone tire recall, continues through the 2008 financial meltdown and eventually finishes with the comeback and reformation of the company under Mulally.
David Kiley, Editor-in-Chief of our sister site, AOL Autos, reviews the book for HuffingtonPost Detroit, bu you can check out a video interview with Hoffman talking all things Ford .
: Bryce G. Hoffman’s new American Icon book on Ford [w/video]
has a history of offering performance models that would make any niche supercar manufacturer cower. The latest among them is the , but the gullwing coupe and its roadster counterpart aren’t the extent of what the German automaker’s skunkworks have in store. No, that place of honor at the top of the Mercedes-Benz lineup will soon be taken by an SLS AMG Black Series.
Following in the footsteps of the , CLK63 AMG Black Series, and (most recently) the , the new SLS AMG Black Series promises to eclipse them all with an anticipated 560 horsepower, reduced curb weight and aggressive aerodynamics package.
These spy shots, snapped while the vehicle was undergoing cold-weather testing in the frigid north, also show the tell-tale widened fenders to house the upgraded rolling stock and a new front bumper to feed the over-clocked engine with all the air it needs to breathe.
We’re told to expect the SLS AMG Black Series sometime next year, but you can check out the spy shots now in our high-resolution image gallery.
has not been long known for polarizing design. The company’s styling philosophy has read more closely along the lines of “cheap and cheerful.” But when it brought out the in 2008 as a 2009 model, Ford started down a road of trying to be more expressive, emotional and evocative in the design of its crossovers and SUVs, not just with the Mustang.
For Ford, the Flex has been one of those hollow victories. The people who buy it love its Mini-Cooper-on-a-high-protein-diet look, especially with the available two-tone paint jobs, and the comfortable packaging and cruising ride they get without bumping up to a frumpy minivan. The trouble is that there haven’t been enough of those happy buyers taking the plunge.
Ford sold just 27,000 Flex models last year, down 20 percent from the year before – not exactly one of CEO Alan Mulally’s homeruns. Also, its marketing has been confused since its debut. Ford initially pitched it as a cool urban crew wagon – think Funkmaster Flex. The advertising Powerpoint presentation actually said “No dog drool.” No kidding. The high-concept ads were all shot at night on city streets. It bombed. Soon after launch, we saw families and even a dog or two in ads.
The Detroit News is reporting that General Motors will replace the 120-volt power cords on the majority of models the company has sold since 2010. The new charge cords are said to be more durable than the old hardware and should provide “more consistency in charging,” according to the report. GM has sold around 10,000 Volt units since the plug-inhybrid went on sale two years ago, and while some of those vehicles have already shipped with the new charge cords, most still use the old design.
Volt owners may also contact their dealers to begin scheduling appointments to have additional crash structure added around the vehicle’s battery packs. The additional steel is designed to protect against severe side-impacts. Technicians are also expected to add a new sensor to monitor battery coolant levels. The changes are in response to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into unlikely . GM will reportedly without the new structure and sensor, saying neither poses a safety issue.
