Race #1 of the 2012 Formula 1 season is . Along with a talk of a more exciting season after inconclusive winter testing, everyone has had a few words about the way the new cars look, one of the most common being “ugly.”
The stepped noses used on most of the field are how every team, save for McLaren and Marussia, dealt with new regulations. In the video , Mercedes F1 driver Nico Rosberg explains the look of his car from front to back. With Michael Schumacher putting up a good time in mixed conditions during the first two Free Practice sessions, there just might be a swan in there somewhere.
We won’t press it yet, but let’s just say our hand is hovering over the big red “Vaporware!” button we keep armed for just such announcements. DiMora Motorcars still owes us – – the $2-million SLS 2 sedan with its 1,200-horsepower Volcano V16 engine, and .
While we wait for it, DiMora has seen fit to announce not just a new car, but a new division with two new cars said to be “nearing completion.” The Neoclassic Automobiles Subsidiary will, depending on your credulity, be producing the Adina Sportster and Vicci 6.2 Super-Coupe. The Adina is a Morgan-like roadster powered by a General Motors LS3 V8 with 431 horsepower.
The Vicci (pictured) gets either the LS3 or the Corvette ZR1’s LS9 with 638 running through a six-speed manual, six-speed automatic or – prepare to step in your Wayback Machine – a four-speed auto. Its faux Talbot-Lago lines hide a carbon fiber dash, paddle-shifters and a stereo that displays engine diagnostics. Assuming it gets made.
for the press release with info on two possible, but unlikely, limited-edition future cars.
If you live in a city where parking is scarce, you won’t like hearing this. MIT Professor Eran Ben-Joseph has written a book titled Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, and the gist is that the U.S. has far too many parking spaces.
Ben-Joseph estimates that there are 800 million parking spots across the U.S., taking up enough space to cover Puerto Rico in asphalt. In fact, Ben-Joseph says that many large cities have up to one third of their overall space dedicated to parking.
So what’s wrong with a glut of parking lots? For starters, they’re made of asphalt, which absorbs energy from the sun, which warms the ambient temperature. The lots also lead to faster water runoff, which hurts the ability of plants to remove toxins from the air.
The book doesn’t paint parking lots in a positive light, but we’re guessing there isn’t much that will be done to change the issue, at least in the short term. We are, after all, a country of auto owners, and we need a place to park our four-wheeled friends. And it’s not like we’re going to replace open lots with a glut of parking structures, since those can cost four times as much money to build.
Samuel Hübinette, two-time Formula D champion, will not return for the 2012 Formula Drift pro championship season. “Two of our main sponsors changed their marketing direction, so we decided that the best thing to do with the SHR drift car is to focus on doing demos,” said Hübinette, driver and team owner of Team Samuel Hübinette Racing. But don’t think team SHR has lost its competitiveness. While drifting has been put on the back burner, Hübinette (the “Crazy Swede”) has refocused his team on rallycross and off-road truck competitions.
Born in Sweden, Hübinette earned an early reputation for pushing motorcycles, cars and snowmobiles to the limit. He worked for Volvo Cars as a test driver in product development and was on the company’s Touring Car racing team from 1997 through 2000. Since moving to the United States 2004, he has secured a bronze medal in the X Games, won two Formula Drift championships, and driven in the Baja 1000. He is also a working stunt driver in Hollywood productions.
Not only has Hübinette been one of the top names in drifting, but he maintains the record for most Formula D victories. “We will miss having a competitor like Samuel this season,” said Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula Drift.
An automotive enthusiast and a vehicle specialist have endeavored to create a modern interpretation of a storied 1930s sports car. Neil Watson introduced the original Atalanta Sports Tourer 75 years ago, and to mark the occasion, Martyn Corfield and Trevor Farrington crafted a new version of the vehicle that combines modern engineering with the classic lines of the first Sports Tourer.
Details are worryingly scarce about the vehicle’s driveline, but we’re told that 85 percent of the vehicle is unique to the Atalanta brand, including certain castings, the axles, and the steering system, among other components. That also means the revival vehicle is likely to carry a price tag as stunning as the vehicle’s exterior. Unsurprisingly, the company has yet to say a word regarding the MSRP.
Atalanta is now accepting orders for the Sports Tourer, and buyers can custom tailor each car to their tastes. Whether that extends beyond the typical interior appointments wheel-and-color options to include driveline options remains to be seen. Hit the jump for the full press release.
Since the ink on the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta press release has barely had time to dry yet, speculating on a convertible variant is entirely premature. But with 740 horsepower on tap, we can hardly fault artist E. Milano for doing so, even if he went over the top with the Tolkienesque backdrop.
The artist also appears to have beefed up the design a bit, topping it off with a deep red leather interior and roll hoops that we’d be inclined to specify on the options list ourselves if we had a small fortune to spend. Like the extant coupe version better? We’ve got you covered with a couple of fresh stock images in the gallery below and some new .
When it was made public last summer that Richard Hammond was unhappy with his lot in life on Britain’s Top Gear, insiders said he would “get the bigger, more defined role that he deserves.” We don’t know yet what’s in store for him during Series 18 of TG, but it appears he definitely has a bigger role in his new BBC America series, Richard Hammond’s Crash Course.
The show puts Hammond in all manner of big vehicles with the apparent intention of running over all manner of little vehicles. It premieres on April 16 right after the season premiere of Top Gear, and there’s a much more exciting explanation of it in the official BBC trailer .
Like Elvis and Tupac before him, Apple icon Steve Jobs is showing up in all kinds of unexpected places after his passing. This latest sighting comes in a commercial for a SCR 110 scooter that channels The Jobs himself. Up close, the male actor isn’t a ringer, but the black turtleneck and design theme leave no doubt about his inspiration.
The Chinese-language tag for this commercial says “Wuyang Honda Motorcycle.” We don’t know if they made it, but a post house called CN Post Production takes credit for some of the work on it. to check out the bizarre advertisement, and for thie other side of strange, you can check out their .
Remember when that Sergio Marchionne didn’t receive a paycheck from during 2011? As it turns out, it’s because he was busy raking in the big bucks from .
Automotive News reports that Marchionne earned 14.5 million euros ($19 million U.S.) in 2011. The pay includes seven million shares of Fiat stock, which can be exercised between 2012 and 2015, plus a base salary of 2.45 million euros ($3.2 million U.S.).
That’s a lot of money for the vast majority of us, but the Chrysler/Fiat CEO is being paid close to what all the other successful chief executives are receiving. The most direct comparison (since both companies are based out of Europe) is CEO Martin Winterkorn, who made 17.5 million euro ($23 million U.S.) in 2011. Given that VW in 2011, we’re thinking Winterkorn has a good argument for saying he’s worth the extra $4M.
Police forces didn’t care much about fuel economy back in the early days of the Ford Crown Victoria, but these days, efficiency is front and center for cash-strapped municipalities. The cost of fuel keeps rising and cities continue to cut their budgets, so one or two miles per gallon might make the difference for a city deciding between a fleet of Ford’s new Taurus-based Interceptor, the Chevrolet Caprice PPV and Dodge Charger Pursuit.
And so it is with great interest we read the news today that has released official EPA-certified fuel economy figures for the new Interceptor. The base model equipped with a 3.5-liter V6 is rated at 18 miles per gallon city / 26 highway, while the twin-turbo 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 is rated at 16 mpg city / 23 highway. Finally, the Interceptor Utility (read: cop-spec ) powered by a 3.7-liter V6 returns 16 mpg city / 22 highway.
We scoured through official specs and data from Ford, and to produce the comparison table above. As you can see, the new Police Interceptor from Ford is not the precinct captain of fuel economy, not even when comparing the V6 EcoBoost model against its V8-powered competitors. The acceleration numbers, meanwhile, were all taken from the . Based on their results and the official EPA numbers that we found, the Chevrolet Caprice PPV V6 looks like the best combination of both quickness and thriftness. One thing, though, is for certain: No matter which model they choose, police forces everywhere should be saving lots of fuel compared to the aged Crown Vics in their fleets now. Learn more in Ford’s official press release .
We all tend to get a bit overzealous at times – we’ll call it part of human nature – and as many times as not, our tendencies to show off manifest themselves most when we’re behind the wheel of a hot new sports car. Like, say the brand new , also known as the here in the States, or, in form, the .
Such is the case with the unlucky fellow you’ll see in the video embedded below. During what appears to be a drive event for Toyota’s new coupe, taking place on a wet track in what we believe is Japan, one driver exceeded his talent level in a bright red GT 86, sending it careening into a makeshift wall.
The good news is that it was a low-speed mishap, which means nobody was injured and the car will need little more than a decent buffing. Or maybe a new fascia… either way, no big deal. See the video clip .
We’ve been expecting for some time that would choose to grace its stand with a variant on its new A-Class family as part of a push to bring a new range of small cars to North America. However, it now seems more likely that Los Angeles audiences will get a vision of Mercedes’ entry-level future, not New York. That’s because Mercedes has officially confirmed that it will show something called the “Concept Style Coupe” at an art, music, film and food festival in LA curated by none other than Mike D of the Beastie Boys.
Transmission LA: AV Club, a “multi-disciplinary festival,” runs from April 20 to May 6, and sponsor Mercedes promises an “artistic staging” of the concept car (expected to be a sedan), the production version of which is rumored to be dubbed CLC. The 17-day festival will be held at the Geffen Contemporary at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
All of which begs the question: With the New York Auto Show staged earlier (press days are April 4 and 5), what will Mercedes show in the Empire State? It’s too significant of a market to the Three-Pointed Star to let the show pass without debuting something significant. See the complete press release for more.
is pretty sure that its expanded family will drive up sales of the world’s best-selling hybrid, and the early sales returns indicate that the company is right, right, right.
After the sold , the smaller, and more efficient is also getting a lot of attention. Toyota announced today that the C sold 1,201 units in just the first three days it was on sale. That’s enough to make it “one of Toyota’s fastest-selling vehicles,” according to the automaker, which also pointed out that those three days of sales is more than either the or sold all last month.
If anything, those 1,201 sales are not as impressive as the C managed in Japan (where it is badged ‘Aqua’) – Toyota obtained , though it isn’t immediately clear how many units have actually been sold. So far, the newly expanded Prius family has sold almost 10,000 units in the U.S. through the first half of March. This certainly points to the Prius franchise doing well in 2012. Last year in the U.S., Toyota sold 136,463 examples of its (it sold 140,928 in 2010) and expects to sell 220,000 Prius models of all types here this year.
Finally. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for ever since and jointly announced their compact rear-wheel-drive sports car: production is now underway.
With an official ceremony at Subaru’s Gunma Main Plant, attended by Toyota president Akio Toyoda, Subaru pushed the Big Red Button (quite literally, in case you were wondering) that sent and Toyota GT 86 coupes down the assembly line. And the event was captured in both still images and video for our viewing pleasure.
Check out our high-res image gallery above, and for the video and official press release. Oh, and if you’re one of the lucky ones with a deposit down for either the Subaru or the Toyota’s twin (America won’t get one with an interlocking rings badge), it’s officially time to consider making room in your garage.
There was a point in time where if we read one more lede that started with “ sure is on a roll these days,” we would have clawed our eyes out. Fact of the matter, though, is that those words were absolutely true. Hyundai has really come a long way here in the United States, especially in the past couple of years. And the only reason people have stopped writing about Hyundai’s forward momentum is because, frankly, we expect nothing less now. Every new product blows the doors off of the one that came before it, and brand-new ventures like the line or funky-fresh are nothing short of impressive.
But every family has its black sheep, and unfortunately for Hyundai, that might be the largest one in its herd. You see, while Hyundai has worked hard to create a unique brand identity here in the United States by offering cars that are designed specifically with our market in mind, the was simply a vehicle hauled over from Korea with a few minor Americanized tweaks. Don’t get us wrong, the Equus is a plenty good car, and through its faults, we praised it in both our and as being a tremendous value that’s pretty darn up to snuff with its competitive set. But over time, can something that’s simply a good value work in the highly competitive full-size luxury set?
That in mind, we ordered a White Satin Pearl for our in order to see if after one year of day-to-day use, the big flagship would be able to stand tall with the rest of its Modern Hyundai kin, or simply be another budget-minded also-ran from the days of Old Hyundai. 52 weeks and 22,638 miles later, all we can say is, man, what a difference a year makes.
General Motors has gone on record to oppose a Washington State bill that would .
GM Regional Director Howard Lenox, Jr. wrote a letter on March 6 to Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire stating that the automaker, which makes the extended-range plug-inhybrid, is against such a bill. The state is proposing the fee as a way for EV drivers to compensate for the gas taxes that they otherwise wouldn’t be paying. The letter was on GM’s The Future Is Electric blog.
“A fee which singles out electric vehicles will be a disincentive to the growth of the electric vehicle market in Washington State,” Lenox wrote in the letter. “As a practical matter, there are so few vehicles on Washington’s roads today that their impact in replacing fuel tax revenues will, for now, be negligible.”
While drivers of the Volt actually wouldn’t be subject to such a fee because its onboard generator is gas-powered, GM appears to be looking ahead as the automaker looks to electrify more of its fleet to meet more stringent greenhouse-gas emissions requirements.
Last month, , which was introduced by Mary Haugen, the Senate’s transportation committee chairwoman. The fee, which is subject to a vote by the state’s House of Representatives, is estimated to add as much as $1.9 million to the state’s coffers by 2017. , Oregon and Kansas are among other states looking at instituting fees that specifically target electric vehicle drivers.
What do you think, should states enact taxes on EVs to recover lost gas tax revenue? Vote in our poll below, then have your say in Comments.
According to a report from Reuters, has been sued for allegedly selling pickup trucks and vans with defective fuel tank linings. The suit alleges that Ford knew about the problem and continued to sell affected vehicles over a 10-year period.
According to the complaint, the fuel tank lining of Ford’s full-size trucks and vans built between 1999 and 2008 can “separate and flake off,” clogging the fuel system and causing the truck to stumble or stall. Further, Ford is said to have issued a “secret” technical service bulletin to dealers about the problem, but never issued a recall or offering to fix customer vehicles for free.
The complaint, brought on by Coba Landscaping and Construction Inc of New Jersey and its principal Galo Coba, is said to be seeking class-action status on behalf of all owners of affected models. Considering that the Ford F-Series pickup was the best-selling vehicle between 1999 and 2008, that’s a heck of a lot of owners.
Ford has yet to comment on the issue, saying it has not received the complaint. Apparently, the issue is unrelated to the found by certain F-Series owners in snowy climates.
Rally racing, like virtually every other form of motorsport in the world, is a dangerous activity. As much as we love watching a talented driver negotiate a tricky off-road race course with skill and luck, crashing is no doubt part of the experience as well. And crashes happen rather often in the world of rallying.
During the 2012 Rally Mexico, which took place from March 8-11, 2012, there were two drivers who started the race but were forced to retire after crashing out. One of those was Evgeny Novikov, who ended his race in spectacular fashion after the roof vent of his Ford Fiesta RS WRC blew away, causing the cabin to fill with dust and debris. As the commentators point out, he was truly driving blind, at least until he veered off course and crashed.
When we say Noviko crashed, what we really mean is that he flipped, rolled and generally demolished his Fiesta rally car with a vengeance before ending up on the roof. See for yourself by watching the video .
If you’ve got that compact crossover itch that only something as sporting as the can scratch, you’re in luck. The smallest crossover is on sale now, and its online configurator tool is live.
Starting price is $20,695 plus a $795 destination charge, for a total of $21,490. That kind of cash will get you a front-drive CX-5 Sport with a six-speed manual. Opting for all-wheel-drive will force you to also take the six-speed automatic and bump the price to $24,140. (The manual transmission is not available with any of the higher trim levels, either.) Like most Mazda models, the Touring model is the next rung up the ladder, with prices starting at $24,690 for FWD and $25,940 for AWD. Grand Touring models are the most loaded CX-5 models, at $27,840 and $29,090, respectively.
We liked the CX-5 quite a bit when and look forward to getting some quality time behind the wheel of the actual production model soon. Click for the full pricing press release, then bounce on over to the configurator.
Why Automakers Are Increasingly Entering Alliances
It’s only a question of as Mazda’s desperate cost-cutting measures take aim at its U.S. workforce this week.
The maker has signaled it will post a $1.2 billion loss when the Japanese fiscal year wraps up on March 31, its worst performance in 11 years, and only by offering more than a billion dollars in new stock is it likely to head off a more serious crisis. For now, anyway.
With long-time partner Motor Company slashing its stake in its Japanese affiliate from 33 to just four percent since Alan Mulally was named CEO, even Mazda’s top executive Takashi Yamanouchi admits it will be , Yamanouchi recently acknowledging his company is “actively” looking for new alliance partners.
Of course, is not alone. confirmed this month that it would enter into a far-reaching partnership with Paris-based PSA . And Germany’s AG has repeatedly expanded the coalition it formed two years ago with the - Alliance.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
