A judge has reversed a lower court ruling against over the automaker’s fuel economy claims. Heather Peters successfully in small-claims court in February, claiming her 2006 Civic Hybrid didn’t return the advertised 50 miles per gallon Environmental Protection Agency rating. Peters was awarded $9,867 in damages in the lawsuit, but now Judge Dudley W. Gray II of the state Superior Court in Torrence, California, has reversed the lower court’s ruling.
Honda has offered owners a settlement in a larger class-action suit, paying out either $100 or $200 depending on the vehicle and as much as $1,500 toward the purchase of a new Honda. According to The Detroit News, around 1,700 Honda owners have declined to participate in the class-action suit.
If you read the owner’s manual of your car you’d begin to realize how much of your own vehicle you didn’t know about. If it’s a car made within the past few years, then the owner’s manual covering the dirty bits will be joined by an even thicker manual that covers just the infotainment system. , however, has a better way for buyers to learn the CUE-powered mysteries of the $44,995 XTS: give owners an iPad with the car, loaded with tutorials on how to get the most out of the system.
Yes, when the was introduced it installed with a multimedia version of its owner’s manual. Based on Wired’s discussion with Cadillac, however, this is much wider implementation, with each Cadillac dealer required to have two “certified technology experts” on duty, plus a CUE call center for owners, an online media team looks for CUE questions to answer, and a mobile CUE specialist who makes house calls. The point seems to be that this isn’t about getting an iPad with your car, it’s about understanding ever tech thing your car can do. If you still don’t know how to access the full power of your XTS, it will only be because you don’t want to.
The crew at MotoMan has rolled out the second episode of its Targa Newfoundland coverage. This time around, Brandon Fitch and I spend plenty of time talking with the guys about the challenges of Day One, how the supercharged handles some of the more technical stages and joy of hauling ass through a subdivision. Meanwhile, team MotoMan gets a few valuable lessons on competition in targa from veterans of the race like Rob Pacione and learns a little about Newfoundland hospitality at the same time. As the week continues, competitors are forced to overcome a variety of challenges, from an entire engine swap in a Lotus to a water-logged 911.
Part Two gives us all a better idea of what it’s like to compete in Grand Touring, where the goal is to hit a specific time and speed, rather than simply beat a time like in Targa class. Both competitions are challenging in their own right, but we have to sympathize with MotoMan’s frustration at being forced to limp a along at 40 miles per hour with an open road ahead of you. to check it out for yourself.
Josh Wainwright became a living testimony for the value helmets during the British Superstock 600 recently. The rider put his bike down on the 11th lap just ahead of Johnny Bradshaw. With nowhere to go and no time to get there, Bradshaw literally drove over Wainwright’s head with his motorcycle, catapulting both riders down the track.
Miraculously, Wainwright escaped the off with nothing more than a cracked rib and a broken collarbone. Bradshaw walked away without serious injury as well.
Any impact to the head involving that kind of velocity typically brings about neck injury concerns, but Wainwright seems to have avoided that peril. You can check out the video for yourself to see just how close both Wainwright and Bradshaw came to having significantly worse days.
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.
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.
Automobile’s Georg Kacher goes deep into the product plan, looking at the 32 models that the group’s ten brands will roll out over the next five years. These vehicles are expected to drive VW to the top of the mountain in 2018, where the flag for World’s Largest Automaker awaits.
The armada is based on three platforms: MQB for transverse FWD/AWD cars like the VW Golf, MLB for the longitudinal FWD/AWD cars in Audi’s stable, and MSB for AWD/RWD front-, rear- and mid-engined cars like the 960.
Said to be due in 2015, the discussed last year as a bridge model between the and 918, but Kacher has it listed with the MSB-M platform cars like the Porsche / and , not the front-engined MSB-F or rear-engined MSB-H cars. Yet the 960 is said to be a -fighting “four-door coupe” powered by a twin-turbo flat-six. We’ll wait for clarification on the number of doors, since in September of last year, posited the 960 as a mid-engined coupe priced “on the creepy side of €200,000.”
Other intriguing notes from the plan: for VW, a coupe is planned for 2016, the might get a coupe variant, the second-generation Scirocco “has the potential” for U.S. sales and the will be replaced; is desgining an even edgier third-generation , the will experiment with e-quattro, and the next-generation will break the same-sausage, different-lengths design mold.
Yes, it’s spring time in Indiana, and although ahead of the drop of the green flag, it’s time for another One Lap of America.
Having been part of the timing and scoring team for well over a decade, we tend to see a lot of the same faces and sheetmetal year in and year out, though there’s always a steady stream of newcomers. Every few races, however, there seems to be a bumper crop of new cars that show up as old ones get tired and drivers find something different to play with. This is clearly one of those times, perhaps brought about by the dominance of the over the last several years. As a result, there are a glut of the Japanese supercars in the fold, along with other noteworthy new models including an , a and , not to mention a factory-prepped . As ever, there’s a brace of and models of various vintages, along with a or two and a 430. There’s even an and an incredible sounding , also running with factory support.
Unfortunately, one key classic will be notably absent from the paddock this year: Brock Yates. Father of One Lap Of America and the legendary Cannonball Run that spawned it, Yates’ health has been deteriorating due to Alzheimer’s. Yates’ son, Brock Jr. has been ably running the event for many years, but this is the first time that .
As has become the usual, this year’s event kicks off in South Bend, Indiana at title sponsor Tire Rack’s massive headquarters with a wet skidpad event. The motley crew of madmen and their motors will then jog down the road a few miles to the South Bend Motor Speedway (a paved oval) before hoofing it over to Autobahn Country Club’s road course in Illinois. After that, it’s off to a string of road courses starting with scenic Pacific Junction, Iowa, for the Mid America Motorplex, then on to Oklahoma’s Hallett Motor Racing Circuit before heading to High Plains Raceway in Colorado. After that, it’s off to Motorsports Park Hastings in Nebraska followed by a northwestern jog to Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota. Then it’s over to Wisconsin’s legendary Road America before the sleepless and bedraggled horde stumble back into South Bend next Saturday, April 14 for a final dry skidpad event. Got all that? If you don’t, you can check out a map .
As we’ll be working the event, we won’t have the ability to give you daily updates on the rally’s progress, but if you’re interested in keeping tabs on the action, check out and , both of which figure to have live updates as the race gets underway this morning. In the meantime, you can check out our massive gallery above. It doesn’t have every one of the roughly 75 that are scheduled to race, but if you are new to One Lap, it’ll give you a good idea of the automotive diversity on display.
AutoWeek reports is slowly building a team for the brand’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The automaker has hired Graham Humphrys as a consultant. Humphrys penned the V12 LMR that took the win at the 1999 Le Mans, and he’s now tasked with heading up a feasibility study for the British luxury manufacturer.
According to Brian Gush, chassis and powertrain director for Bentley, the automaker is currently exploring which class would best suit the company. Humphrys’ 30 years of racing experience, including roles on vehicles like the March 82G Group C car, and with companies like and Spice Engineering, should prove instrumental in narrowing down the field.
In the past, Gush has hinted that Bentley would be at home in the GT class, speciffically in the GT3 category. If true, the company will likely campaign a version of the current , though the automaker could just as easily wait for the next-generation Continental before jumping into the Le Mans fray. AutoWeek says there’s no time table for the manufacturer’s return at the moment.
If the idea of building a four-seat hard-top convertible supercar in Holland strikes you as off-the-wall, then its racing counterpart should blow your mind. We’re talking about Savage Rivale, the markers of the Roadyacht GTS and the model it just unveiled at the Top Marques show in Monaco.
Packing upwards of 700 horsepower from a turbocharged 6.2-liter V8, the Savage Rivale GTR is said to be good for 2.8-second sprint to 62 miles per hour and a 360-km/h (234-mph) top speed. With those capabilities, the race-ready Savage is earmarked to tackle the Nürburgring Norschleife lap record for four-door automobiles, a distinction which (to the best of our understanding, anyway) currently belongs to a driven by rally ace Tommi Mäkinen for Car and Driver in 2010 to a 7:55 lap time, edging out Pikes Peak legend Walter Röhrl in the at 7:56 the previous year.
Only 69 examples are slated for production. We’re still waiting on final specifications to be released, but in the meantime you can check out the gallery of high-resolution images from its unveiling in Monte Carlo in the gallery above.
The General wants more rear-wheel drive vehicles in its lineup and has plans to bring a few more to America, including a sedan and possibly a wagon and sport utility, according to .
GM already sells a rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet sedan in the U.S., but only sworn law enforcement officers are allowed to drive it: The Chevrolet Caprice PPV.
Now, GM will reportedly build a civilian offshoot of the the PPV and market it as the SuperSport sedan, as we . Under the hood would be GM’s 6.2-liter V-8 creating more than 400 horsepower. That SuperSport badge will also go onto Chevrolet’s NASCAR entry next year.
Car and Driver reports that after the V8 SuperSport launches, a milder 300-plus-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 model will follow. By 2015, when the rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform is improved, production of this vehicle (as well as the PPV) will come to America, thus opening up the market for more police car sales, as some local governments can only buy American-made cruisers.
Furthermore, GM is considering building a rear-wheel-drive wagon as well as a sport-utility (read: ute) model. The updated Zeta II platform can handle both vehicles, especially since the next-generation Camaro will be shifting to the new Alpha platform that will underpin the and next-gen .
Really, all of these vehicles are derivatives of the , which is still on sale as the Holden Commodore in other markets. It was, arguably, the best Pontiac ever made. Bringing cars, wagons and utes like that to America, under any name or brand, is an immigration policy we can fully endorse.
Long before Jay Leno became an international celebrity, he was spinning wrenches at a local car dealership. While there, he crossed paths with Paul Annunziata, a brilliant mechanic with a penchant for Mopar muscle. While Leno was busy doing stand-up comedy and working his way toward network television, Annunziata was doing something really interesting: building a street-legal pro-stock drag car out of a 1975 Duster. After winning $10,000 in the lottery, he started with a body-in-white chassis before snapping up a 426 Hemi V8 from a Super Bee. Not satisfied with wedging an impossibly huge engine into the confines of the Duster’s engine bay, Annunziata bolted on a massive Roots blower.
The rear of the body had to be tubbed to keep the tires under the factory sheetmetal, and the Duster also underwent extensive engine bay modification to house its new powerplant. Even so, everything on the machine is fully functional as it would have been from the factory.
Unfortunately, Annunziata was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Rather than sell his pride and joy, he offered it to Leno for free under the stipulation that he never sell the machine. Leno agreed, but only if he could actually pay Annunziata for his creation. The two compromised by setting up a scholarship for those who are interested in pursuing a four-year degree in auto mechanics or restoration. We call that a win on every front. to see Leno take the 1,000 horsepower Duster out for a run.
A Small-Scripted S Delivers Power, Performance And Pomposity
offers its to North American buyers in no fewer than eight models with six different engine choices, including a hybrid. There’s even an oil-burning available across the Pond. At one end of the spectrum is the with a very capable 300-horsepower V6. At the other end, and at the top of the pecking order, is the , boasting a 550-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8. Not only is it the most powerful street-legal Porsche on offer, but it is the world’s quickest four-door sedan. Err… hatchback.
So others are aware of the Panamera’s potential, Porsche reserves its coveted ‘Turbo’ script only for its most capable vehicles. It is indeed a badge of honor. However, the ante is upped even further when a small scripted ‘S’ is adhered as a suffix. Its addition indicates to all others that the overall performance has been boosted to flagship levels – it is a tiny yet bold badge of bravado.
To help us solve the riddle of whether or not the Panamera Turbo S is more than just an exercise in demonstrating masculine superiority within ones social circle, Porsche deposited a stunning Aqua Blue Metallic example in our driveway for a week. It was our job to put the $195,000, four-passenger neck-snapper to the test and somehow avoid filling its glovebox with citations in the process.
It’s a rare thing, but every now and then, our automotive wishes come true. has announced that it will produce the heinous Juke-R in very limited numbers after a warm reception in Dubai. The company has already received three orders so far, and Nissan says it will begin taking additional orders in the next four weeks.
Each model will be built to order using model year 2012 drivetrain components, meaning there’s a modest bump in power – 545 horsepower versus the original Juke-R’s 480. As you may recall, the first Juke-R used bits cannibalized from a . How much will the machine cost? Nissan isn’t saying, but we’d be willing to bet the Juke-R will carry an MSRP a bit higher than the GT-R.
With 545 horsepower crammed into the quirky lines of the Juke, the machine is unlike anything else on the road. Nissan has also worked up a quick video to commemorate the production announcement. The clip focuses on the showdown between the Juke-R and . to check it out alongside the full press release.
The supermini market is a vital one for European automakers, and though its current Clio remains a popular choice, Renault is not about to rest on its proverbial laurels as its most popular model gets older and less relevant. So with that in mind, the French carmaker is apparently preparing to unveil an all-new Clio hatchback at the next major auto salon.
That show won’t be taking place until September when Renault’s home-market opens its doors at the Port de Versailles, but a pair of teaser shots have already surfaced giving us a tiny glimpse at what to expect. The images – reportedly leaked from internal documents – show the grille and a sliver of the rear 3/4. The front looks to take cues from the smaller Twingo, while the rear betrays an upward kink in the shoulder, more aggressive taillights and an altogether more sculpted shape.
Styling penned by Laurens van der Acker is expected overall to take its lead from the DeZir Concept. We’ll have to wait until after the summer to see it in full, though.
We’ve been desperately trying to put our finger on what makes the idea of a supermoto so attractive, and we may have finally figured it out. The bikes are perfect all-purpose machines, equally at home dismantling stretches of mountain tarmac as they are bashing through the woods.
Wildly controllable, lightweight and even fuel-efficient, the bikes are the perfect two-wheeled mode of transportation for the impending apocalypse. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the quick video after the jump. The clip features plenty of supermoto goodness, all shot at 120 and 300 frames per second.
That means we get to watch the bikes kick sideways in beautiful slow motion, both on dry pavement and wet mud. The video is four and a half minutes of two-wheeled goodness, and a welcome break for the middle of the week. to enjoy the show for yourself.
is rapidly approaching its 100th anniversary, and the company is reportedly hard at work on an all-new model to mark the occasion. According to Auto Express, CEO Ulrich Bez says the new creation will be an all-new mainstream model. That means we can count out any special-edition version of the or a super-limited production vehicle like the One-77. As you may recall, our spy photographers recently laid their glass on what we originally thought was a . It’s entirely possible the machine was actually the new model Bez spoke of in his interview.
Either way, a 6.0-liter V12 will likely shuttle a full 550 horsepower or so to the rear wheels. Auto Express says the two-door ought to yield a 0-62 mph time of around four seconds flat. Sounds like an Aston Martin to us. With 2013 right around the corner, it’s only a matter of time before we see this all-new model in the light of day.
With the putting out 662 horsepower and 631 pound-feet torque, we’re guessing that more than a few owners of the new will be looking to even things up via the aftermarket. The speed-obsessed guys over at are already putting a few options on the table with a three new upgrade packages that boost the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 to anywhere from 630 to 700-plus horsepower.
Apparently, Lingenfelter was eager to prove the merits of its work, and just a couple weeks after taking delivery of an early production Camaro ZL1 had it out on the track putting down times. The test car, pushing out 720 horsepower, laid down a 10.79 second quarter mile pass at Muncie Dragway in Albany, IN, and later recorded a 202 mph top speed at Continental Tire’s proving grounds earlier this week. Coincidentally, that’s the same top speed that the 2013 Shelby GT500 reached during its high speed testing at the Nardo Ring in Italy last year.
You can read more about Lingenfelter’s upgrade packages for the 2012 Camaro ZL1 as well as more details on the high speed test in the press release .
From show floor to evacuation route, one concept vehicle got the chance to test it’s meddle in the real world.
The Super Duty Rescue Truck was created to demonstrate extreme rescue capabilities not actually use them. It first went on display in February at the .
But on April 3, with just two miles on its odometer, this concept vehicle found itself in the thick of a real-life rescue mission. A series of devastating tornadoes had ripped through Arlington, Texas, overwhelming every fire-rescue department in the region. Destruction was everywhere.
Worse yet, many of the neighborhood streets were filled with debris ranging from roofs to cars and the big fire trucks couldn’t maneuver through them.
That’s when Brad Snyder, vice president of marketing at in Grandbury, Texas, got a call the Arlington emergency services director for help. The director knew the local volunteer fire department had advised Snyder on building an extreme rescue vehicle for and now the city needed its help.
“When we proposed the truck to Ford, one of the things Ford required was that everything on the truck actually work,” Snyder said Tuesday. That’s not always the case with concept vehicles, which often could not even qualify to ride on a U.S. highway.
“We never intended to put it into service,” Snyder said. But put it to work they did. Keep on reading to find out how.
How can you not be excited to see getting back into with a modern-day interpretation of the classic E-Type? Well, there is that one little issue with the that Jag announced during the . In this day and age, a 380-horsepower V6 just doesn’t cut it, supercharged or not. At least not when .
Yes, we know the horsepower wars , but if Jaguar wants the F-Type to be taken seriously, it just plain needs a V8. And according to Car and Driver, it’s going to be getting one. At least, eventually.
C/D says the F-Type will eventually get a version of Jag’s 5.0-liter V8, although it doesn’t know which one. Speculation says the supercharged variants in 470- and 550-horsepower states of tune are the most likely, as the base V8 only makes five more horsepower than the planned V6. The report also surmises that the initial roadsters will be six-cylinders when they debut in 2013, with the V8 models appearing further on in the production cycle.
