Chris Bangle may be the name most recently associated with design, but he’s just one of many men and women who have sketched and sculpted automobiles for Bayerische Motoren Werke. BMW enthusiast website has to the beginning of the brand, when a BMW was a knockoff of an Austin 7. The names we all know show up in the chronology; giants of post-World War II automotive design world like Michelotti, Bertone, Gandini, Bracq, and of course, Hofmeister.
In addition to the Italian hired guns who sketched for BMW at one time or another, a few surprising names dot BMW’s history. , the largely unsung automotive engineer responsible for much of the original Volkswagen Beetle, also did contract work for BMW. Aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm based his Kamm-Coupe on BMW 328 mechanicals. Raymond Loewy’s mid-century lines were wrought upon at least one BMW 507, and Albrecht von Goertz was a colleague of Loewy’s before he designed the 507.
In more recent years, it’s intriguing to note the diversity of backgrounds. You’ve got Bangle, Henrik Fisker, current design chief Adrian van Hooydonk (the man actually responsible for the “Bangle Butt”), and Z4 designer Juliane Blasi. Perhaps the most understated of all BMW designers is Jojii Nagashima, the man responsible for the outgoing E90 3 Series, the iconic E39 5 Series, and, along with Boyke Boyer, the E36 3 Series. Taken as a whole, BMW has a pantheon of automotive design big-thinkers, a trend that doesn’t look to be slowing anytime soon.
Force India has come a long way. What started out as Jordan Grand Prix and changed hands (and names) several times before landing in the stewardship of Indian bazillionaire Vijay Mallya has become a solid mid-field contender on race days. In 2011, the team finished sixth in the constructors’ standings, behind front-runners Red Bull, McLaren, , and Renault GP. In 2012, however, Force India aims to challenge Mercedes and Lotus for fifth place using the car shown above.
The VJM05 bears the same unfortunate stepped nose of the just-unveiled Ferrari F2012 and Caterham CT01, a trend we expect to see across much of the field as teams deal with F1’s technical regulations. Engine, transmission and KERS are again provided by Mercedes-Benz through a partnership with McLaren, and while former DTM champion Paul di Resta returns for another season in the cockpit. Adrian Sutil departs the team in the wake of his , his seat now occupied by Nico Hulkenberg.
We’ll be watching to see if the young duo can continue to move Force India up the F1 hierarchy. For now, you can check out the press release after the jump and photos from the car’s unveiling – which included the first on-track session of any 2012 F1 cars revealed thus far – in the image gallery above.
Renault has a wide array of products in its portfolio. In its home market it offers a baker’s dozen model lines, and when you get down to bodystyles the range ratchets up past 20.
While we don’t get any of them in North America, the United Kingdom remains a vital market for the French automaker. But British buyers haven’t been buying Renaults as much as they used to, prompting a drastic shift in strategy. As a result, Renault is cutting the Modus, Kangoo, Wind, Laguna, Espace and the entire Gordini line from its UK lineup, .
So what does that leave for UK shoppers? The Twingo, Clio, Megane, Grand Scenic and Traffic. Renaultsport models remain on offer, through the Twingo RS is now available in only one version. Those will soon be joined by the and Twizy, as well as the Dacia range. Regardless, this represents a drastic cut in a vital market for one of Europe’s largest automakers. Details in the press release after the jump.
has been targeted by Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy organization, over the automaker’s 40 mpg fuel efficiency claim on the Hyundai Elantra. The group says Elantra owners have seen fuel economy averages of 18 and 19 mpg instead of the the 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway reported by Hyundai and the Environmental Protection Agency. As such, the group has sent letters to both Hyundai CEO John Krafcik and President Eok Jo Kim warning that if the automaker advertised the 40 mpg claim in the company’s Super Bowl spots, Consumer Watchdog would release a retaliatory video of its own. The group has since followed through with that threat.
Hyundai has since released a new, updated version of its Super Bowl ad, and Consumer Watchdog claims the Korean automaker has now promised not to include the 40 mpg figure in any of the spots. Hyundai, meanwhile, released a statement saying the company’s advertising was “in no way” influenced by the Consumer Watchdog claims, comments or statements. for a look at the Elantra Super Bowl spot, the Consumer Watchdog clip about the vehicle’s mileage claims and a press release from the non-profit.
Also worth a read is of two cars boasting 40 mpg EPA highway ratings: the SFE and the Hyundai Elantra. Ultimately, when you get past all the noise, it’s important to remember that “your mileage may vary” is a mantra for a reason.
The eBay Motors smartphone application has a clever new feature. Users can now take a photo of any car they see on the street and the app will find similar listings for them automatically. Want to know how much that in the parking lot is going for right now? Just point and shoot. We tested the app ourselves and found it to be fairly accurate. It had no trouble honing in on a , but struggled a bit with editor-in-chief John Neff’s 1991 Ford Taurus SHO.
The good news is that if the app gets confused, it just asks you for more information about the vehicle. Users can also be notified when they’ve been outbid on an item, share their auctions via Twitter, and watch special racing coverage with host Justin Bell. to check out the full press blast.
A minivan is not what you’d expect to see winning a racing series. Nor would a budget brand like Dacia. That’s where Alain Prost comes into the picture.
The three-time Formula One world champion isn’t quite retired: he’s still competing in the Andros Trophy, a French ice-racing series. After hoisting the trophy twice in a row with a snow-spec Toyota Auris rally machine, Prost switched over to Dacia, for which he has now claimed his third personal title and the first for Renault’s Hungarian budget brand.
The title fight came down to the last race in Auvergne, France, where the natural snow and best efforts of race organizers could not separate Prost (or his son Nicolas) from the bare tarmac. The vehicle with which he did it was a new racer (loosely) based on the new , an MPV that doesn’t make its production debut until theupcoming .
Check out the high-res photos in the gallery for a closer look and follow the jump for the full press release.
The beige blurs in the still above are sheep, and they’re apparently very excited about something in that little blue car. Supposedly, a farmer in the Caucasus was just trying to get through a lane, and this, dubbed the “sheep cyclone,” is what developed.
for the video. If you put on headphones and listen closely, you might be able to hear the car whispering Or whatever that would be in Russian.
We’ve gotten various peeks at the Mercedes-Benz A-Class for a few months now, from the to to . Then, of all things in all places, a cyclist with a handlebar-mounted camera of the real deal while riding in Lanzarote, Spain for what we assume is a photo or video shoot.
If you liked the look of the patent drawings, then you’ll be happy with the glimpse here. It even looks close enough to the for us to give Mercedes props for truth-in-concept-car designing. There’s debate as to whether this is the , but regardless, the final version will be shown at next month’s . Until then, watch the video .
There are very few things that get the unanimous approval of everyone here at Autoblog. One of them is Icon 4×4, which makes impossibly expensive yet worth-every-penny reimaginings of history’s best off-roaders. For this year’s , Icon debuted something new that had nothing to do with off-roading, yet still had our whole team salivating.
Christened a “Derelict” by Icon founder and designer Jonathon Ward, this looks like an abused artifact from a time not worth remembering. Knowing Icon like we do, however, it’s anything but. The Derelict is fitted with a 6.2-liter V8 from producing 430 horsepower and an interior upholstered in gorgeous vintage briefcase leather, but the exterior is as original and rusty as it was when Icon found it. What we didn’t know at SEMA is that the ‘52 Chevy isn’t the first Derelict that Icon produced.
Our friends at have produced an excellent video about how the two Derelicts came to be, including how Jonathon Ward and his company made them. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t as easy as dropping a new engine into an old car and redoing the leather. The Derelicts were meant to be high-performance yet reliable daily drivers, which requires more thought and engineering than we ever imagined.
to be one of the first to watch this latest video from eGarage.
hasn’t exactly been secretive about its desire to offer a five-door hatchback version of its ultra-stylish sedan. After all, the first concept for the latest CLS, which was introduced as a 2012 model, introduced us to the at the in 2010. And yes, MB itself called the car a Shooting Break, not Brake.
Based on that concept, we have a pretty solid idea of how the CLS Shooting Brake will look. Judging by these spy shots that were snapped in Northern Sweden, there won’t really be any surprises. And that’s totally fine by us.
We’d expect Mercedes-Benz to deliver its super hatch in both CLS550 (with 4.6-liter twin-turbo V8) and (with 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8) flavors, which means the biggest question left to answer will be whether the company decides to call it the Shooting Brake or the Shooting Break. We, like pretty much everyone else in the world, vote for Brake.
The next GTI will be an order of magnitude better, bringing it back in line with the original hot hatch.
Lighter, faster, stronger, better. That’s what we can expect from the seventh-generation , due to be unveiled at the before it hits dealerships across Europe this fall and eventually lands on U.S. shores as a 2013 model.
So what makes it special? A combination of new manufacturing processes, an all-new platform, a range of upgraded engines and what will go down as one of the greatest democratizations of active safety and in-car technology in automotive history.
What’s more, the next GTI will be an order of magnitude better because of it, bringing it back in line with the original hot hatch while packed with even more standard features.
It all starts with Volkswagen’s new Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform, which is set to underpin every front-wheel-drive VW product from the to the , along with the 2013 . To hear VW tell it, it will redefine the automaker’s manufacturing processes while curing world hunger and eradicating leprosy.
There’s something inexplicably mesmerizing about watching a factory in action. Seeing the innumerable complex mechanisms mesh in perfect harmony to create the products we know and love is part of what makes shows like National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories so interesting. Now the program is headed to Dearborn for a look at how the and come together on the line in crystal-clear HD video. The show will also spend time with both trucks out on the company’s proving grounds, which means there’s a good chance we’ll see the Raptor bashing over various obstacles.
Consider us excited. Last year, the Ford plant in Dearborn produced 344,446 vehicles, making it the third most productive plant in North America behind the facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico and the plant in Puebla, Mexico.
The show will air on Saturday, February 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern on the National Geographic Channel, but you can get a glimpse of what to expect in the video .
be built on Ultimate Factories this weekend [w/video]
Though the may be a niche player in the North American market, the small van market is big business in Europe. According to , it accounts for some 700,000 units annually, and that’s a pie of which Daimler wouldn’t mind getting a bigger slice. And so it has announced its new Citan.
Taking its name from a combination of City and Titan, the Citan will slot in below the Vario, Sprinter and Vito in order to meet the needs of workers who need to get around crowded city streets and take their gear with them. Mercedes plans to offer it in a broad range of configurations, lengths and engine options once it hits the market in the fall.
The concept was unveiled at a logistics symposium held at the Mercedes-BenzDesign Center in Sindelfingen, and will be presented for the first time in public next September at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show. In the meantime, you can check out the details in the press release after the jump and the renderings in our high-res image gallery below.
Motor Trend launched its new “Wide Open Throttle” news program on YouTube with a bombshell: “ Puts Hold on Coupe.” While it certainly gave us reason to click play, there’s just one problem. The report – claiming that not just the coupe, but multiple – may not be accurate.
Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell gave us the usual manufacturer disclaimer about not commenting on future product, but he did tell us, “There has been no recent radical shift in strategy” for the ATS. Reading between the lines, that either means an ATS coupe hasn’t gotten past the idea stage, or that GM is still working hard at bringing us a two-door version of Caddy’s fighter.
“On either end of the spectrum the reporting is inaccurate,” Caldwell said, referring to those who have opined that sedan that comes to market later this year, including a coupe, a convertible, a wagon, and a shooting brake.
“We do plan to do ,” Caldwell told us. “We haven’t yet called our shot of how we’re going to execute that.”
So what do we make of all this? We’re pretty sure that we’ll still see an sedan, and perhaps that could be it for ATS models if the standard sedan is not well received. If sales take off, however, don’t be surprised if Cadillac does move forward with at least one new bodystyle.
Click to watch the premiere episode of “Wide Open Throttle.”
has announced plans to enter the FIA with this, a hot new racer based on the newly redesigned (well, the European five-door, anyway). Details are slim about the new touring car racer, but the automaker has released a statement confirming that the Civic will be powered by a bespoke 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four, developed by Honda R&D in accordance with FIA’s Super 2000 regulations. Honda has also formed a joint partnership with Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport to develop the new Civic.
So, how soon will we get to watch the new hatchback swap paint with other WTCC racers? Honda hopes to officially join WTCC this season, with some inaugural rounds possibly held in Japan, China and Macau. Following that, a two-car team will be entered into every race in the 2013 championship. for the full details.
is a lot of fun – trust us on this – but this video is headache inducing. And scary. Seems like the pit crew on hand at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi was so concerned with starting the camera and setting its white balance that they didn’t bother checking to see whether the passenger’s safety harness was tight enough. And it clearly wasn’t.
You’ll notice in the screenshot above that the passenger’s helmet appears to be striking the bulkhead in front of her, which is definitely not supposed to happen. Indeed, she gets thrown around something fierce as the two-seater F1 car corners and brakes. So let this serve as a lesson to those of you who might embark on your first hot lap on a race track: Tighten up those belts until they are truly snug.
has had its share of drivers who knew their way around a snowy rally course. Gilles Villeneuve, for example, was famous for the drifting techniques he picked up racing snowmobiles in his native Quebec. And Kimi Raikkonen, for another, left the Scuderia for the World Rally Championship where he exercised his Finnish roots. Thing is, both of these top drivers were gone from the Ferrari roster long before the company introduced the as its first all-wheel-drive car.
That’s where Markku Alen comes in. The former World Rally Champion took the FF up to the Arjeplog track in the north of his native Sweden, just an hour’s drive south of the Arctic Circle, to stretch it out in the snow. Fortunately, he also brought a film crew along. While Ferrari’s shot footage of the FF playing in the snow before, none of it came out quite as majestic as this clip. to check it out.
Our sister site follows up on its with a new episode this week. This one is a smorgasbord of automotive tech, including a spin on the Solowheel, a mobility device that’s sort of like half a Segway.
The Translogic crew also talks to the chief technology officer at Panasonic, who draws some interesting comparisons between electric cars and refrigerators. shows off a new gesture-based, heads-up display. announces a new version of its and shows it off in some concepts.
Forget about all the talk, about the contracts and the lawsuits. The real sign of the Formula One season gearing up to start is when each team unveils its new car. As you may already know, unlike most other series, each team in F1 is not really considered a team. They’re called “constructors”. Each is responsible for designing and crafting the cars they’ll be fielding in the championship.
That process got under way last week when Caterham beat all the others to the punch by unveiling its new Renault-powered . And that’s all well and fine, but we all know that the Caterham is far more likely to finish last than finish first. What you’re bound to see taking checkered flags is the car you see here: the new McLaren MP4-27.
McLaren, you see, is the winningest team on the grid this side of . And with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – both world champions – performing the driving duties, the British squad is hard at work on closing that gap. The more immediate challenge, however, is overcoming Red Bull, which returns as reigning champion once again and to which McLaren finished second last season.
The MP4-27 you see here is the car with which McLaren hopes to seize the lead. Although the design looks rather similar to the 2011-spec it replaces, McLaren insists it represents a comprehensive redesign. Fortunately that does not include the stepped platypus nose already shown on the Caterham and which is expected to proliferate across a good part of the grid. Power once again comes from , a relationship that McLaren it is not about to terminate in favor of another supplier or building its own engines in-house.
We’ll have to wait and see as the season gets underway to see if the MP4-27 will be a winner for McLaren, but for now you can check out the high-resolution images from the launch in the gallery above, and for the full press release and the sound file of the Mercedes-Benz V8 cranking over.
After the culture clash between the Americans at and the Germans at Daimler during the bad old DCX days, there has been concern that the latest European occupation of Auburn Hills could lead to similar friction. Granted, is not , but Italian sensibilities can be quite dissimilar from those of most Detroiters.
So count us doubly impressed to happen upon this video, featuring an Alfa Romeo “playing hockey.” Never mind that it was Alfa’s U.K. group that put together this amusing video to highlight the Giulietta’s All Weather traction mode. We’d like to think that somebody from Hockeytown weighed in with some encouragement for the idea.
In fact, now that we think about it, maybe this whole hockey-playing-car thing could be the next extension of Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” campaign. The new is all Giulietta underneath, and the would make one heck of a goon…
