Behold, the . The Japanese automaker will officially unveil the limited-production under the lights of the 2012 Chicago Auto Show later today, featuring new goodies like a contrasting black retractable hard top and 17-inch gunmetal wheels.
This is the first time in the vehicle’s history that the MX-5 Miata has been available with a non-matching hard top in the States. will only produce 450 units, and each one carries black leather heated seats with contrasting stitching as well as piano black trim panels indoors. Outside, buyers can choose between two exclusive colors: Velocity Red and Crystal White Pearl.
If you want one as badly as we do, Mazda will kindly ask you to hand over $31,225 for models boasting a six-speed manual transmission or $31,675 if you want the automatic (you don’t). That cash will buy you a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine good for 158 horsepower pushing a 2,593-pound vehicle and all of the niceties that come with Grand Touring trim. for the full press release.
wants its to dominate the C segment, and that means in all body styles. The is set to battle the and hatchbacks, and this new Elantra Coupe clearly has the two-door in its sights.
The four-door already wears pretty rakish sheetmetal that carries over nicely to the Coupe, which is actually half an inch longer than the sedan (173.8 inches versus 173.3 inches). The other dimensions are identical to the sedan, and Hyundai cites greater interior room as one of the Coupe’s advantages over its competition. By contrast, the Honda Civic Coupe is 0.3 inches shorter than the Elantra Coupe, and the Honda rides on a three-inch shorter wheelbase.
The Elantra Coupe has more power than the Honda Civic Coupe and the manual should get 1 mpg more in the city and 4 more mpg on the highway
Hyundai’s new two-door gets the same 1.8-liter inline four-cylinder being liberally spread across the line, with the same 148 horsepower and 131 pound-feet as the Elantra GT and the same pair of six-speed manual and automatic transmissions. Mileage is estimated to be 29 city/40 highway for the manual and 28 city/39 highway for auto. This means the Elantra Coupe has more power than the Honda Civic Coupe and, if the fuel economy numbers hold true, the manual would get 1 mpg more in the city and 4 more mpg on the highway, but both slushbox cars would be dead even.
There will be two Elantra Coupe trims: base GS or top-spec SE. Both have been tuned for extra sportiness versus the sedan and, as we’ve come to expect, while Hyundai throws plenty at the GS, the SE gets the truly sporty goods. The SE swaps the 16-inch standard rims for 17-inchers, gets a rear “lip spoiler design element,” even more suspension tuning for its lower-profile tires, and only it offers the option of touchscreennavigation and a rear-view camera. Both models, however, will get seven exterior colors, three of them Coupe-only, but inside it’s nothing but black or grey.
Pricing should come soon, but for now, enjoy the press release and the high-res gallery of images. Stay tuned for more impressions live from the floor.
When you intend to go up against cars like the , and , it doesn’t matter how softly or loudly you speak, your stick had better be impressive. believes it has just the thing in the 2013 GT, which is the updated moniker for the (and a throwback to ).
The GT is the U.S. version of the , and it’s quite a looker if you’re a fan of Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture design language. Under the hood, you’ll find the same 1.8-liter inline four-cylinder as the sedan, sending 148 horsepower and 131 pound-feet of torque to the ground via either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. That puts it in the thick of a competitive set that, for Hyundai, also includes the and , but gives it the best power-to-weight ratio of them all. That’s because the Elantra GT is 57 percent ultra high- and high-tensile steel, which helps keep its weight down to a lightest-in-segment 2,784 pounds when equipped with the automatic transmission.
Fuel economy is the beneficiary, with the automaker estimating an EPA rating of 28 miles per gallon in the city and 39 mpg on the highway (32 combined). Hyundai says this is good for a cruising range up to 448 miles.
Driving pleasure will be attended to with a sport-tuned suspension that uses MacPherson struts up front aided by a stabilizer bar, and a torsion bar setup out back. The real pleasures, though, are claimed on the inside, where the Elantra GT is said to provide more cargo room than the aforementioned competition and even the . The mod-cons are prodigious and include, as standard, a cooled glovebox, heated front seats, 10-way power driver’s seat, leather seating surfaces, automatic headlights, Bluetooth and seven airbags.
The 2013 Elantra GT goes on sale this summer. Have a read of the press release and stay tuned for live pics from our team at the .
Twenty years ago, debuted the 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra at the and , known as SVT or Special Vehicle Team.
Today, Ford celebrates SVT’s platinum anniversary the only way it knows how: with another variant. And as suspected, it comes in the form of .
Just as a refresher, at the 1992 show in Chicago the SVT Cobra put out 235 horsepower from its Vanilla Ice-approved 5.0-liter V8. Twenty years later, displacement has grown by less than a liter, but thanks to some 21st century tech and a massive supercharger, the 5.8-liter V8 in the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible makes the same 650 hp (and 600 pound-feet of torque) as , laying claim to the most powerful production V8 in the world.
In addition to the carbon fiber driveshaft, upgraded clutch, transmission, camshafts and cross-drilled block and heads, SVT fitted its own specially developed Bilstein electronic adjustable dampers, along with six-piston Brembo calipers squeezing massive discs up front.
Like the coupe, the Bilstein setup is part of the Performance Package (why it’s not included as standard is beyond us) and Ford will also offer a Track Pack that includes an external oil cooler, differential cooler and transmission cooler to keep temps in check when flogging the drop top around the tarmac.
And before you ask: No, the GT500 coupe’s 200 mph top speed doesn’t carry over to the Convertible. In a rare moment of sanity, Ford’s engineers saw fit to limit the GT500 ‘vert to 155 mph – like the rest of the roofless Mustangs. for the full details.
Literally two days after about our , I found myself trudging through a snowstorm at 30 miles per hour on Interstate 94 along Michigan’s west coast. I guess Mother Nature had heard my cries about not being able to test our in the snow, and decided to reward me with super slippery roads and poor visibility for two and a half hours straight. Lovely.
Mile after mile, the Mini dutifully carried on while I watched large SUVs and a host of mid-size sedans slide off into the ditches on either side of I-94. I’ve lived in southeast Michigan my entire life, and I know how to drive in the slushy, slick stuff, but there’s nothing quite like the combination of all-wheel drive and proper winter tires for times like this – it not only helps with driver confidence, but makes the whole process of safely navigating through a snowstorm much less fatiguing. Mini’s All4 all-wheel-drive system made sure power was being sent to exactly which wheels needed it most, and our car’s winter tires provided by the folks at kept the rollers from slipping during acceleration or skidding during braking.
After using the Mini to schlep many an Autoblog staff member to and from various happenings, I handed the Countryman off to executive editor Chris Paukert, who turned it back over praising the All4 system and snow tires’ handling on split-mu surfaces – even with the driver’s side tires on wet asphalt and the passenger-side wheels trudging through ice and slush, the Mini remained confident and steady despite times when traction coefficients differed at every corner.
The Countryman now resides in Cleveland, Ohio, where it will be under Editor-in-Chief John Neff’s care for the next month. We haven’t had any snow to speak of since sending the Mini to Ohio, but I’m sure if Neff complains enough, Mother Nature will reward him with a big ol’ lake-effect dumping to the Lake Erie coast so he can see just how good our All4/Blizzak combo is.
Keep your eyes locked on the official for the majority of our updates, as well as the official Autoblog Twitter account (, look for the hashtag).
When spending big dollars on a Super Bowl ad buy, companies would do themselves well to remember that the successful spots aren’t just the ones being talked about the next day. The ads that more eyeballs actually saw while watching the game were also worth their weight in focus groups.
For the second year in a row, General Motors is claiming that it aired the most watched ad during the most watched event in U.S. TV history. We are speaking of the 30-second spot entitled “” featuring the that aired during the game’s most tense moments, right after the official two-minute warning was reached. The time was 9:37 PM EST and, according to analysis by Kantar Media, more people were watching NBC’s broadcast at that time than any other.
And since this year’s Super Bowl was again viewed by another record audience – 111.3 million viewers in the U.S., not to mention over a billion worldwide – the ATS ad therefore becomes the most watched advertisement on television in U.S. history.
We said this is the second time that GM has claimed this crown. The first was To see the two most watched spots in U.S. television history back-to-back, just .
News on the next-generation 2015 has been spilling forth for a bit now, but a report in Autocar has begun to put them into a single package. We knew that next R8 wouldn’t offer , only a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, and that the monocoque would be a lighter, . Audi has apparently pegged a target weight of under 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds), meaning it will shed more than 135 kg (305 lbs.) versus today’s 4.2-liter V8 manual.
That will make the two engines in the next car – refined versions of the current naturally aspirated V8 and V10 – even more potent. Autocar didn’t mention an increase in displacement, but horsepower bumps were rated at 20 hp for the V8, to 450 hp, and 25 hp for the V10, to 550 hp. The GT will also benefit from 20 additional horses, getting 580 hp. More interestingly, neither mill will benefit from forced induction as Audi wants to maintain “the throttle response, the soaring nature of the delivery and the inherent sound.”
The evolution or disappearance of the sideblades on the “clean-sheet design” also wasn’t broached, but the trademark signifiers don’t appear in Autocar’s rendering. The report states that it will take cues from the R8 e-tron (pictured), but they see intakes at the door shut-line, which feature very MP4-12C-like dual strakes. It’s only a rendering, but if sideblades are what you’re after then the future doesn’t look bright. We’ll see the sibling replacement next year, a year before the R8 is shown in 2014.
The world doesn’t need another automaker claiming to have cracked the code for a fun-to-drive hybrid. The concept hasn’t worked particularly well in any application. Just ask Lexus. And . Twice.
Granted, we don’t know how plans to pitch the when it goes on sale this fall. We didn’t get a two-hour long marketing presentation and associated PowerPoint. Instead, we snagged the keys while an executive-level engineer droned on about next-gen modular EGR systems and EU4-compliant oxidation catalytic converters.
We needed an escape and the Jetta Hybrid was it.
So maybe it was the sub-zero temps outside the VW pavilion in Wolfsburg, Germany or the chance to do something – anything – to combat the effects of three hours of sleep in 36 hours. But what we found during our all-too-brief drive of the Jetta Hybrid wasn’t a cynical engineering-meets-marketing stop-gap, but instead the first compelling alternative to the .
Much as we love the and its rear-hinged, passenger-side door, this would be an incredibly stupid idea. Functionality is one thing, but ruining the design of the fetching would be a downright shame.
Nevertheless, Autocar reports that a rear-hinged door could be in store for the next . A recent set of spy shots showed a Cooper hardtop prototype with an unusually short driver door with what appears to be a small suicide door behind it. Our best guess? This could just be Mini playing with door configurations, since the automaker received quite a bit of criticism for the placement of the Clubman’s rear door in right-hand-drive markets.
Mini is keen on the rear-hinged door idea, though. Autocar states that the next-generation Clubman is expected to get a door on either side instead of just one, and that rear-hinged doors will be found on the -based coupe, as well. Fine by us, but please, leave them off the original hardtop.
According to a number of reports, has given up on diesel power for the in the United States. Why would BMW turn its back on the torquey and efficient 335d? The reason is supposedly two-fold. It’s no secret the automaker is bringing an to market in the fall of this year. Given America’s insatiable, if not illogical, thirst for hybrids, reason would have us believe BMW has switched sides in the diesel versus fight. Then there’s the fact that the turbo four-cylinder gasoline engine in F30 328i now in both efficiency and power. Those circumstances seem to be a curtain call for any return of the 335d in America.
When we spoke to BMW about the supposed demise of the 335d, the automaker made it clear the ActiveHybrid 3 Series is in no way meant to replace the diesel. While the automaker doesn’t plan to release a new 335d during 2012, the company is currently evaluating the case for a successor. Odds are, that means finding a way to make the vehicle a worthwhile investment for both consumers and the automaker.
When asked if that meant a turbo 2.0-liter diesel was an option, Tom Plucinsky, BMW product communications manager, said, “The F30 328i has the same EPA rating as the 335d. We need to up our game if we’re going to continue to offer a 3 Series diesel in the U.S. It’s a possibility.”
So, don’t go throwing dirt on the 3 Series diesel’s coffin just yet.
If you were watching the news out of Wörthersee last year, you may recall the pictured above. The show car debuted at the annual fan-fest in Austria, alongside an even hotter and a whole mess of other machinery from the burgeoning German auto empire. But that was the last we heard of it … until now.
Reports coming in from across the pond indicate that Volkswagen is planning to actually build the GTI Cabrio, and that it will unveil the production version at the upcoming next month. Although Volkswagen has offered the GTI’s engine in versions of the and in some markets, this would only be the second time that a full-on GTI convertible will be offered from the factory, complete with the suspension and other bits that go along with it.
Word has it that the GTI Cabrio would be the final swan song for the current sixth-generation Golf before it’s replaced next year. But if that’s not enough, VW is also tipped to be preparing the hotter 268-horsepower, all-wheel-drive Cabrio for production as well. Chances that either of these would be offered on this side of the Atlantic, however, don’t look good.
While we’ve already , there’s no way their on-track training could prepare them for the the 24 Hours of LeMons.
This relatively recent phenomenon of endurance racing with $500 beater cars has grown into a 20-race season for 2012 that, as the , is “Inexplicably Presented by Car and Driver.” It’s legit racing with a laugh track, yet requires the same dedication to win, or even finish, as any real racing endeavor.
Jessi and Patrick caught up with the 24 Hours of LeMons at Buttonwillow Raceway near Los Angeles, California where we got them rides with a team full of masochists who field only tiny British cars. What could possibly go wrong?
to watch them check off “Race in the 24 Hours of LeMons” from The List.
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has found itself in a bit of tangle with the company’s Super Bowl ad featuring Clint Eastwood. In it, Eastwood speaks to viewers about “Halftime in America,” specifically referring to Chrysler’s recovery while drawing parallels with Detroit’s own resurrection.
If Chrysler was hoping to put its weight behind a second term for President Obama, it chose an odd spokesperson in Eastwood.
Republicans like Karl Rove have come out in opposition of the ad, saying the spot was overtly political. It doesn’t take massive leaps to see a potential correlation between the tagline “Halftime in America,” itself a play on Ronald Reagan’s famous “It’s morning in America” line, and the current election season. Yet, in a radio interview yesterday, Chrysler Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne denied the advertisement was meant to do anything but stoke positive feelings toward the car company.
If Chrysler was hoping to put its weight behind a second term for President Obama, it chose an odd spokesperson in Eastwood. The actor has publicly spoken out against the auto bailouts in the past and even served as the Republican mayor of Carmel, California in the ’80s. Hardly seems like the guy for pro-Obama flag waiving. A representative from Eastwood’s production company told the Detroit Free Press, “The ad is not intended to have a political message, but rather one of American pride and job growth.”
As if stepping into the pre-election mess weren’t bad enough for Chrysler, the automaker also found itself in the midst of a copyright spat with NFL over the ad that saw the video yanked from YouTube just as it could have drawn the most traffic. The video later appeared on a separate channel. to watch the spot one more time.
President George W. Bush recently spoke to a gathering of auto dealers in Las Vegas, saying that while he believes in the free market under normal conditions, he doesn’t regret the $700 billion bailout fund used to rescue General Motors and from the brink of collapse. Bush was quoted as saying he’d do it again, and that he didn’t want there to be a 21 percent unemployment rate. The former leader avoided addressing remarks from the current gaggle of Republican presidential candidates who have criticized his decision to lend a hand to banks, insurers and automakers.
“If you make a bad decision, you ought to pay,” Bush said. “Sometimes circumstances get in the way of philosophy.”
Bush championed a $17.4 billion bailout for the two automakers in December of 2008 as part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said both Bush and current President Barack Obama were mistaken in bailing out the auto industry. Instead, Romney believes GM and Chrysler should have been allowed to go into a controlled bankruptcy from the start.
What’s in a name? That depends who you ask. For the folks at , a name matters a great deal. That’s why it fought so hard to regain control of its brand from the team now known as Caterham, and why it is launching racing programs in top series around the world under that same name. For the F1 team that has most recently adopted it, however, the name is less relevant than the winning form to which it hopes to return.
The outfit has won championships under the Benetton banner with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel, and as Renault with Fernando Alonso driving. Its track record has fallen off considerably since then, but this year it’s back with new owners, new drivers and this, its new car.
Wearing the same black and gold livery as the R31 campaigned last year under the transitional Lotus Renault GP handle, the new car bears that same stepped nose employed by most of the teams on the grid so far to make the most of the latest technical regulations. In a nod towards continuity, the car is dubbed the E20 – as the 20th car to be built by the Enstone-based team – rather than starting from scratch with a new nomenclature.
The team’s former owners at Renault continue to provide the engine that will power 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen in his the long-awaited return to F1 and his junior team-mate Romain Grosjean in his second stab at F1 after dominating the GP2 series, with former HRT race driver Jerome D’Ambrosio joining as test driver. Check out their new ride in the high-res image gallery above and the .
doesn’t compete in Formula One. It doesn’t field a top-tier LMP1 team at Le Mans. It doesn’t race in NASCAR, IndyCar or the World Rally Championship. Yet the Japanese automaker doesn’t have to stretch all that far to make the association between its brand and racing. It does, after all, offer competition versions of its and for use in a number of sportscar racing series around the world. But where it really shines is in the LMP2 category.
Slotting just below LMP1s like the Audi R18, new Toyota TS030 and the lamentably departed Peugeot 908, LMP2 racers are purpose-built for endurance racing at Le Mans and related events, but tend to be fielded by privateer teams. And the vast majority of them opt for Nissan engines.
In fact, 11 out of the 18 LMP2 cars that will be on the grid at this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will powered by the 3.4-liter VK-series V8 engine which Nismo (the company’s motorsport division) developed specifically for this application. And in the broader FIA World Endurance Championship (running for the first time this year), six out of nine will be powered by Nissan – the rest using , Judd or -prepared engines.
With those kinds of odds, our money’s on Nissan taking the prize once again. for the press release.
It might have seemed like a joke when an energy drink company bought the first of two F1 teams in 2004, but eight years and two world titles later, the only ones laughing are those inside the team. For 2012, Red Bull Racing returns as the force to be reckoned with as it aims to make it three in a row, and this is the car in which it aims to get there.
Red Bull hasn’t released much in the way of details on how the RB8 differs from the hugely successful RB7 it replaces, but the most obvious change is the stepped nose design that is unfortunately becoming the defining trait of the 2012 grid. The engine is once again furnished by Renault, with KERS and DRS in place to help Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber get to the front of the field… and stay there. Sebastien Buemi joins the team this season as its official test driver, having been jettisoned from Scuderia Toro Rosso.
for a rather bizarre video clip of the RB8’s online launch, check out the only two images released thus far in the gallery below, and watch this space for more as the pretenders to Red Bull’s throne present their latest machinery.
has officially dropped new teaser for its -bound Track’Ster concept. Word has it the new hatch will be based largely on the company’s five-door, though with a few . For starters, designers scrapped the rear doors for more of a hot hatch look. A new front fascia looks to be part of the recipe as well, and odds are the Track’Ster will rock suitably outrageous wheels befitting a true concept.
But will it come to production? It’s hard telling. As you may recall, the Soul has been a go-to favorite as a concept platform in the past. Kia showed off the beach-going at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, and while the vehicle generated enormous buzz, the economic slowdown put a stop to any production plans. Still, with corporate cousin rocking the , there may be room in the Kia stable for a performance hatch.
The Track’Ster Concept will make its official debut later this week.
The gritty Super Bowl commercial starring Clint Eastwood may not have been as much of a shock – or as universally well-regarded – as , but it’s certainly going to have cube-dwellers trawling YouTube to catch another viewing. Problem is, ran into some problems this morning. Viewers attempting to watch the commercial instead got a message saying “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by NFL Properties LLC.”
When we reached Chrysler spokeswoman Diana Gutierrez earlier today, she could only say, “We are investigating right now.”
The video did become available on the Chrsyler YouTube channel by 11:00 AM Eastern time, though we are awaiting some explanation of what happened from Chrysler’s PR team. As a stopgap measure while the Chrysler channel was still down, the ad was posted to another Chrysler YouTube page, PentastarVideo. Still, Chrysler’s problems during a high-traffic part of the day means it must have missed plenty of eyeballs.
is headed to the Geneva Motor Show in March with a brand new hatchback concept. Called Invitation, this five-door should give us an idea of what the Japanese manufacturer has planned for its next B-segment contender. The concept borrows a bit from the likes of the , though that’s no bad thing. With a clean, athletic design, the Invitation is a refreshing break from some of the automaker’s more questionable exteriors.
Nissan hasn’t divulged any drivetrain details as of yet, though the company has said each of the Invitation derivatives will be eligible to wear the company’s Pure Drive badge. That means the production-version Invitation will be among the most efficient and economical vehicles Nissan produces. We do know the hatch will boast the ever-cool around-view monitor system along with a full slate of tech goodies. Hit the jump for the and be sure to keep an eye open for our Geneva show coverage of the concept’s official unveiling.
