We record Episode #283 of the Autoblog Podcast tonight, meaning you can drop us your questions via our Q&A module below and chime in to direct our conversation. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast if you haven’t already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #283
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If you sift through eBay Motors like a junkyard dog looks for bones, you may have already come across a image from . They look a little out of place in an eBay Motors auction gallery, perhaps because they’re a bit too perfect compared to the usual lot of hastily snapped images. The irony, however, is that these glossy-looking glamor shots don’t come from a physical studio at all, but are rather the result of renting the Photoshop expertise of Dimostra’s digital artists to turn those hastily snapped images into something special.
This Chicago-based company offers a number of services related to vehicle photography, but the Studio Effect is what caught our eye. Company spokesman and partner David Nawrocki tells Autoblog that many hours of Photoshop manipulation go into each Studio Effect image despite the price of just $49 per image. Doesn’t sound reasonable to you? Try finding an independent digital artist with skills like this and see what he charges. That price includes a digital copy of the resulting Studio Effect image, but Dimostra also offers on which you can emblazon your Studio Effect shot – everything from a keychain and coffee mug to a T-shirt or framed gallery picture.
We were curious how the process works, so we sent Dimostra some images of one of our own cars – a 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo – to see what they could do. Turnaround time was a few days, during which time the company helped us choose the best image to use from ones we already had, as well as offered tips on how to go out and shoot the sort of image that results in the best looking Studio Effect shot. Check out the results in the gallery above, as well as some other before-and-after shots from the Dimostra artists.
Motor Trend reports has pulled the plug (literally) on its electric . Word has it none of the ultra-luxury automaker’s current clients have any interest in an electrified land yacht due to niggling factors like range anxiety and a perceived loss of premiumness. Apparently the world’s super wealthy only feel content when their transportation runs on the tears of crushed ecosystems. That’s a bit odd considering the 102 EX Concept bowed at the Geneva Motor Show with more torque than the buttery-smooth V12 in the standard Phantom. Still, all the torque in the world is no balm for a range of under 100 miles.
While it’s true Rolls-Royce officially quoted a total range of around 120 miles from the 1,452-pound battery pack in the machine’s nose, we’re more than a little skeptical of that figure. Then there’s the issue of keeping the electric Phantom charged. We can imagine the typical Phantom owner isn’t accustomed to waiting for anything, let alone twiddling their thumbs for eight hours while their cripplingly expensive sedan charges. With all that compromise, Rolls-Royce says it just doesn’t make sense to produce the 102 EX.
Big trucks just aren’t appealing enough on their own, at least in some places. For proof, look to a Shanghai dealer who is offering about three years worth of free gas to anyone who buys a new Denali. Too bad it’ll take about 20 years to pay off the big truck.
The dealer is giving away five tons – about 2,000 gallons, worth around $8,000 in China – of petrol to new Sierra Denali buyers in China’s largest city, according to . The offer appears to be a nod to rising China gas prices, which are climbing towards levels similar to those in the U.S. now that the Chinese government is doing less to artificially keep gas prices down. Full-size trucks have been sold in China for about three years and are known to be status symbols in China, says The Detroit Bureau.
There is, of course, a catch. The Denali, unlike most General Motors vehicles sold in China, is built in the U.S., so the price tag is about $134,000, or almost three times what the model sells for in the States. Here’s hoping a few free car washes come with those full tanks.
has announced a voluntary recall of roughly 650 F Sport models over a potential issue with one of the electronic control units.
When the vehicle is parked with the steering wheel turned, the calibration of the ECU for the Variable Gear Ratio Steering can cause the steering wheel to “become off-centered” if the car is immediately restarted.
Lexus will be notifying owners in early June, at which time they can take their cars to the dealer to have the ECU recalibrated free of charge. for the press release.
recalling 2013 Lexus GS 350 F Sport over faulty ECU
The Mini John Cooper Works line is set to get a little more efficient. Engineers have given the turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine a tune-up with new reinforced pistons, a sturdier cylinder head laded with lightweight cams, and sodium-filled exhaust valves. Though the forced-induction four-pot is good for 208 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque, an overboost function can step up the power to 207 lb-ft.
For the first time, buyers can snag their own John Cooper Works creation with a six-speed automatic transmission, complete with wheel-mounted shift paddles. Combined with electric power steering, the changes should be good enough to offer a sizeable jump in fuel economy.
No official numbers have been released as of yet, but Mini says the new John Cooper Works Hardtop is capable of returning 7.1 liters per 100 kilometers on the EU cycle when equipped with the automatic gear box. That works out to around 33.1 mpg, though the Environmental Protection Agency figures are bound to vary greatly.
Mini has also officially announced the will feature all-wheel drive as standard equipment. Using the same engine and transmission options as the rest of the JCW line, the high-riding JCW Countryman can nip to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds. for the full press release.
The Biggest Hammer Of Them All Is Sharper Than Ever
We would love to be able to look you square in the eye and say, “All you need to know about the can be summed up in one figure: 662.” After all, that’s the obscene amount of horsepower ripping at the rear tires courtesy of the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 under the hood. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. For the first time in its life, the GT500 has found itself lined up against a legitimate competitor in the . The muscle car/supercar crossbreed from General Motors is stitched to conquer not only the quarter mile, but nation’s road courses as well.
In order to answer that threat, the engineers at have laid a hand on nearly every mechanical and electrical system on board the GT500. While that means the blown V8 churns out a diabolical 112 more horsepower than the previous model, it also means the top-tier now comes with tricks like user-selectable Bilstein dampers, adjustable electronic power steering, larger brakes and an array of optional cooling systems. In fact, if this car came wrapped in a slightly different shade of sheetmetal, we’d be talking about an all-new model instead of a refresh.
This isn’t the (or , or ) time we’ve caught the next-generation Big Daddy out testing, but this latest set of spy photos gives us our best look yet at some of the SUV’s new exterior details. (Sidenote: We have to commend for having some of the coolest camouflage patterns in the world.)
As you might expect, the Range Rover’s shape hasn’t changed too much from the current generation, though we can clearly see a sleeker front fascia with headlamps that seem to incorporate new LED running lights, as well as a slightly sleeker roofline. But the big news for this next-generation vehicle is the huge reduction in weight that’s supposedly on tap – reports have estimated that as much as 800 pounds have been shed from the SUV’s body. This weight savings is largely due to an all-new aluminum platform, as well as widespread use of lightweight materials throughout the body.
Mum’s the word on what’s going to be found underhood, but we’d expect the usual range of eight-cylinder engines to be offered here in the United States. Murmurs of a hybrid powertrain have also been spinning ’round the rumormill, so don’t rule out the possibility of some electric boost being on tap, as well. Click through the above gallery to see the full slate of spy shots for yourself.
has claimed its first overall victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hour race with the R8 LMS Ultra finishing in both first and second place. The win comes after a slew of endurance race wins for Audi in the last 12 months including the Bathurst 12 Hour and the 24 hour races at Spa and Zolder.
The winning Phoenix Racing R8 LMS Ultra, driven by a German quartet of Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock, managed to complete 155 laps of the Green Hell free of technical issues or crashes, and finished over three and a half minutes ahead of the second place R8 run by Abt. A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 claimed the final place on the podium.
“We are absolutely delighted about this long desired victory,” said Dieter Gass, Head of Racing Commitments at Audi Sport, after the race. “For three years the Audi R8 LMS was always the best GT3 car at the Nürburgring. Now we have taken overall victory in the fight with seven other brands.”
to see the official announcement from Audi or view photos from the race in the high-res gallery above.
The overhaul of ‘ marketing battle plan isn’t finished. The Wall Street Journal reports that Joel Ewanick, GM’s global marketing chief, is giving the brand a hiatus from Super Bowl advertising, believing it’s just got too expensive and that variety is called for. Thirty-second spots for next year’s big game are projected to cost $3.8 million.
The development comes quickly after GM decided to citing a lack of effectiveness (), and comes during a year of realignment efforts throughout the company: a began earlier this year and , a brand for and set up shop in Detroit, and personnel .
The General’s global ad spend in 2011 was $4.7 billion, and word is that GM doesn’t plan on spending less, it only wishes to spend better – Ewanick says the changes made so far will net the company $2 billion in savings over the next five years. It’s clear he’s looking to unlock more efficiencies; observers say that GM is also trying to improve its ad performance overseas and find better ways to reach demographics that have migrated in all directions and to all media.
A lot of things go down when a high-profile company is in high-profile trouble – unlikely entities can arrive with unexpected sums of money and take the company in unpredicatble directions. Such was the case with DeLorean Motor Car – which is – when the business, headquartered in Detroit and building cars in Ireland, was taken over by the Russian emigrant who founded discount retail stores Big Lots and Odd Lots.
Hemmings Blog has the tale of how Sol Shenk rescued a bankrupt DMC from the banks in 1982 after John Z. DeLorean’s arrest. Shenk already had experience in the specialty car business having bought the bankrupt hulk of Malcolm Bricklin’s car company and taken over the parts distribution business. Shenk set DMC and its inventory up in a Columbus, Ohio building on Dublin Avenue that had housed turn-of-the-century carmakers, hoping to make the most of a brand that still had clout.
Obviously, that didn’t happen. From his corn-belt HQ, Shenk was able to have more cars built in Ireland and sell most of them and the inventory, as well as offering a gold-plated DMC-12 for a Big Lots giveaway. But he couldn’t run the company and sell the cars at a profit, which led to him selling what remained and all the rights to the owners of the new Texas DeLorean Motor Company.
Said the VP of that company of the Columbus address, “When the BlueJackets [hockey team -ed.] came to Columbus, the Dublin Avenue address became much more expensive, and we moved all the inventory to a new facility in our hometown just outside Houston.” Head over to Hemmings to read the whole story.
has released the first 30-second ad spot for the 2013 , with its seventeen intial seconds spent covering the era of Lincoln glory from 1922 to 1976. The ad almost feels like an apology for the MKS, as if the ad team really wanted to sell the 2013 but was assigned the penalty-box MKS and had their protestations silenced with, “Just make something!”
We think the MKS deserves a little more love than that.
According to the timing sheets for the Nürburgring 24-Hour race, the P4/5 Competizione set a lap time of 6:51 during qualifying. That would make it faster than the of 6:58.16 in 2010, and the fastest -powered vehicle to ever run the ‘Ring.
In case you don’t remember, the 700-horsepower 599XX was also a purpose-built, track-only racer driven by a test driver. On the other hand, we don’t have specs on the P4/5 Competizione to compare, but that doesn’t make the achievement itself any less impressive. The only car ahead of the P4/5 Competizione in the not-street-legal category is the Pagani Zonda R, which . Glickenhaus himself told Jalopnik he thought the feat was “pretty cool” and that Ferrari was welcome to challenge it.
Surely the most important of the classic is the 250 series. Over its decade of production, the 250 series gave us some of the most recognizable models of the marque’s history, including the GTO, the Testa Rossa, the Lusso and the original California Spyder.
This year Ferrari is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the series that was built around Giachino Colombo’s enduring 3.0-liter V12. To mark the occasion, the Ferrari Museum in Maranello is displaying two unique and important 250s from its historical archives. One is the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta that Stirling Moss drove to victory at four races in 1961. The second is the so-called Breadvan, which was commissioned by Count Volpi di Musurata and developed by Piero Drogo and Giotto Bizzarrini. It was one of the original shooting brakes and provided the inspiration for the new .
The two are already on display in the museum for any visitor to see, but if your travel plans aren’t sending you to Maranello anytime soon, you can still check them out in the photo gallery above and the press release below.
Can’t wait for to start producing the EXP 9 F? Sold on the idea but not on the execution? Armortech may be able to help you out.
They’ve teamed up with Atelier Valdeig to turn the Q7 into something of a Bentley SUV, only without the Bentley badge. Called the Tresor (from the French word for “treasure”), the custom igets fully restyled, and boasts an interior that has been (or will be, from the look of the cabin renderings) retrofitted to Bentley-like levels of opulence.
The customizers can base their modifications on any version of the Q7, all the way up to the 493-horsepower V12 turbodiesel, and can even stretch the wheelbase or armor it – a particularly sought-after feature in markets where security is a luxury. The full press release is posted below, and you can check out the renderings in the photo gallery for a closer look.
The curtain is rolling back on Cars Land, which opens at Disney’s California Adventure next month. Mater himself makes appearances in a network commercial and the new microsite, and on the latter he’ll be happy to take you on a tour of some of the attractions at the live-action Radiator Springs, including a Racer’s test drive and Luigi’s Flying Tires.
You can watch the commercial and to check out the microsite.
Last year, the Monterey Motorsports Reunion announced that the Shelby Cobra would be the featured marque for 2012 in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary. It’s shaping up to be quite the celebration. Earlier this month it was announced that no fewer than 45 competition Cobras will be racing on the track come August, with owners from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada in attendance. In fact, demand to participate was so high that several entrants actually had to be turned away.
Shelby Cobras won’t just be on the track, though. The event expects at least 200 Cobras, real and replica, to gather in the infield car corral. Shelby and will also bring a collection of historic Cobras to display in the paddock. In other words, if you’re a Shelby Cobra fan then start making plans to attend right away.
You can read the official announcement from the Monterey Motorsports Reunion below.
It takes a fast and agile car to keep pace with MotoGP racing bikes. Fortunately the M division is up to the task, providing safety cars (or what we’d call pace cars on this side of the Atlantic) to the race organizers of the top-level motorcycle racing series.
The most recent vehicles to perform the duties have been the and the crossover, but now BMW is introducing a the new coupe to the mix. It’ll debut in safety car guise as pictured above at the Nürburgring this weekend.
While it’s unclear whether any modifications have been made to the 552-horsepower twin-turbo V8, the M6 MotoGP safety car has been upgraded with new spoilers front and rear, special lighting equipment and BMW’s traditional blue, blue and red striping on a white body. And if we were betting men, we’d put our money on some upgrades to the brakes, suspension and tires, too.
Toyota’s Huntsville, Alabama production facility, which makes the company’s four-cylinder, V6 and V8 engines, is getting a couple of big boosts: $80 million and roughly 125 new jobs. When the spending and hiring is complete, the enlarged factory and the plant’s 1,150 workers will raise engine-production capacity to more than 700,000 units, with V6 production more than doubled from 146,000 engines per year to 362,000.
Toyota’s been spending and hiring all this year, with $645 million invested in growth and 1,100 jobs added to the rolls. “This V6 line addition,” said a company EVP, “continues to reflect our growing optimism for an improving North American market.” Toyota’s press release is posted below.
If you’ve got the cash to place on the hood (or nose cone, as it were), most any Formula One team will sell you one of their old race cars. After all, they’re not using them anymore, and it’s a good way to raise funds to develop next year’s car. But not McLaren. The team from Woking – one of the most successful in the series – doesn’t sell its old cars, though with 176 grand prix victories, twelve drivers’ championships and eight constructors’ titles, you can bet they’d fetch a pretty penny. Instead, it keeps them all warehoused at a facility, location undisclosed, simply called Unit 2.
The warehouse contains some 75 grand prix cars, an untold number of the team’s sports cars from other racing series (like Le Mans, Can-Am and Indy), and various road cars it’s produced over the years, like the legendary McLaren F1, the it built for , and the new MP4-12C. But while none of these cars are for sale, Unit 2 will soon be depleted of much of its stock.
Their destinations? The 35 global dealerships that McLaren Automotive has opened or will open by year’s end, like the one pictured above in Düsseldorf. Each showroom is to get a racing car to display alongside the road cars it has for sale, and many of them will be location-specific. The dealer in Monte Carlo, for example, will display the 1993 MP4-8 that Ayrton Senna drove to victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. The dealer in Brussels will reportedly display the 2004 MP4-19 with which Kimi Raikkonen won the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix. And the Philadelphia showroom will display the 1976 M26 that James Hunt piloted to victory at the US Grand Prix that year.
So if you want to see a piece of McLaren racing history, better call up your and find out when their show car is due to arrive. Just don’t go looking for Unit 2, because even if you can find it, chances are they won’t let you in.
The overhaul of ‘ marketing battle plan isn’t finished. The Wall Street Journal reports that Joel Ewanick, GM’s global marketing chief, is giving the brand a hiatus from 
