“I’m not a doctor, but I play one on television.” So went the script for countless television commercials of yore, featuring the stars of medical dramas capitalizing on their on-air personae to shill for pills, HMOs and what-have-you. But one television doctor didn’t hesitate to jump into action when duty called – medical training be damned.
That actor is one Patrick Dempsey, who most might recognize for his role as Dr. McDreamy on the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. He’s also a consummate race car driver – arguably today’s Steve McQueen or Paul Newman – competing in such events as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Baja 1000 rally raid. These seemingly disparate aspects of Dempsey’s life, however, converged when a kid flipped his in front of the actor’s house in Malibu last week.
Having rolled the three times, 17-year-old Weston Massett was trapped inside the wreckage when McDreamy came to the rescue, crowbar in hand, to get the kid out of the car, nursing him until the airlift arrived and following him to the hospital. Massett is expected to make a full recovery from the concussion and stretched optic nerve that were his only injuries to speak of. for the television report.
Is the driver of this driving under the influence? From the looks of this four-minute-long video where he or she pinballs repeatedly between ditch and center line and narrowly misses oncoming traffic, it certainly looks like the wheelman is soggy drunk.
This four-minute+ video catches all the stupidity from the first off-road foray at about 40 seconds all the way to an expertly executed nosedive into a ditch. The impromptu videographers do a a fine job commentating on every jerky move as they attempt to warn oncoming drivers.
There’s high drama at various points throughout the video, and in the end, the driver is lucky that the conclusion isn’t worse.
Before you ask, from the audio, it sounds like the videographers called the cops before starting his camera. We assume the authorities showed up soon after the truck’s violent sudden stop, and presumably hauled the driver off to either jail, hospital or morgue. Either way, watching the video is a sobering reminder of the stupidity of driving under the influence. Watch the video by , but bear in mind there is some foul language.
Automotive News reports plans to bring its recently unveiled Mirage to the Canadian market, and that the five-door hatch has a 50-percent chance of making it to U.S. buyers as well. Mitsubishi pulled the Mirage nameplate from the U.S. in 2002, but unveiled of the car in Thailand just last month. At a smidge over 146 inches long, the tiny hatch would be a suitable competitor for the likes of the Chevrolet Spark and give dealers a much-needed product infusion. The company the , Eclipse Spyder and the just recently and Mitsubishi showrooms are starting to look decidedly emaciated.
But Mitsubishi says it may not be as simple as dropping the new Mirage on U.S. soil and hoping for the best. The automaker has a reworked coming down the pike, and launching two models in close succession may make already scarce marketing dollars even harder to come by.
Then there’s the fact that the new Mirage is a no-nonsense, bare-bones creation designed to appeal to the budget-minded buyers of South Asia. Mitsubishi has some reservations about unleashing the model on content-hungry Americans. Even so, Mitsubishi says the company has yet to reach an official decision about a U.S. launch.
It takes a lot to stand apart at an exposition as jam-packed with glitzy treasure as the and impress the hordes of automotive journalists there assembled, but we were suitably impressed when we laid eyes upon the at the Messe this past September. The Croatian upstart put together a supercar of (figurative, if not literal) proportions, but instead of building it around a fossil-guzzling conventional powerplant, Rimac designed its hypercar with the equivalent of 1,088-horsepower worth of electric motors.
With a 92kW battery powering the electric motors at each wheel, the Rimac is said to be capable of rocketing to 62 from a standstill in just 2.8 seconds while traveling as far as 372 miles on a single charge. The team of former Pininfarina designers penned an attractive shape to go with it, the Bulgarian leathercrafters extraordinaires at Vilner were brought in to craft the interior, HRE developed a unique set of monoblock alloys and Vredestein debuted its new Ultrac Vorti tires designed by Giugiaro all for the Concept_One.
Impressive specs, all, but what’s most impressive is that the Concept_One is no mere concept – you can actually buy it, assuming you’ve got the scratch. Upon showcasing the electric supercar at Top Marques in Monaco, Rimac announced a limited run of 88 examples will be built, each fetching $980,000 – a price as princely as the regent who was on hand to check it out in Monte Carlo. Which only goes to prove that you can, indeed, have your cake and eat it too, but it’ll cost you dearly.
Take a closer look at the fresh crop of high-resolution images added to the gallery above and check out the bonus video of the car moving under its own power by .
has managed an impressive turnaround since the dark days of 2009. After carpet-bombing the market with a spate of new or refreshed models, the automaker saw its retail sales jump a whopping 43 percent in 2011, helping it report in the process. Chrysler even managed to pay out profit-sharing checks for the first time . According to Richard Cox, director of the Dodge brand, that trend hasn’t slacked up in 2012. Year-to-date in the neighborhood of 40 percent.
But those gains were made largely by fluffing the pillows on old platforms. New engines, new interiors and reworked sheetmetal aside, we’ve yet to see what “the new Chrysler” can pull off with a completely fresh model. At least, that was the case.
Behold the : the first serious small-car effort from the automaker since the Neon rolled off into the sunset in 2005. As the first completely new machine from Chrysler since the automaker’s bankruptcy and subsequent takeover by , there’s plenty riding on the new compact.
While technically based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, American engineers have drawn and quartered the chassis while also reworking the suspension to suit domestic tastes. With eye-catching styling, an à la carte option system and a range of fuel-efficient and powerful engines, the 2013 Dart isn’t just a step forward for , it might just be a step forward for the compact class.
A had three goals for his first Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway: to finish, to do it on the lead lap, and to do it . He achieved one of them, crossing the line in 22nd place – two laps down on winner Kurt Busch. His only real incident was getting busted for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped him further down the order.
Pastrana plans on and nine races in NASCAR’s lower-tier K&N Pro Series East. This one at Richmond will have been the hardest Nationwide event because it was the first, but having brought the car home at all will be a boost and should get him cleared by series officials to run the high-speed track at Charlotte on May 26.
This was Pastrana’s overdue intro to NASCAR after he broke his ankle at the X Games last year and had to abort his 2011 schedule. He pledged to stay off the bikes for two years to give stock car racing a real shot and said he wants to be in the top 20 this year, top ten next year, and fighting for wins the year after. As for that target he put on Danica Patrick’s back in Richmond, no doubt he got a good look at it since she finished a spot ahead of him in 21st. He’ll get another shot at the Nationwide race at Darlington on May 11th.
Borg-Warner makes the turbos for all three IndyCar engine suppliers, , and , but the engine makers provide two compressor shrouds of their own design for homolgation by the series. Honda’s singe-turbo engine is down on power compared to Chevrolet’s and Lotus’ twin-turbo motors, and Chevrolet has won all every race so far and taken all pole positions this season. Honda had a new shroud ready for the Long Beach GP and IndyCar allowed the change, but Chevy protested so Honda wasn’t permitted to make the switch.
A three-man panel was selected to hear Chevy’s appeal, and their verdict in favor of Honda means that the Japanese automaker was permitted to swap the shroud before this weekend’s São Paulo race. The new shroud is said to be worth 10 to 15 more horsepower, but in the end, Chevrolet-powered racers managed to finish in seven of the top 10 positions.
Chevy had been contesting the ability to make an engine change at this point in the season, when there are no constant-parity clauses in the regulations and IndyCar has for such alterations to create parity. Honda’s argument was that that was meant to prevent turbo wars does allow the change it sought to make. The panel of the parity argument.
Chevy has said the decision. Now it’s up to the Honda-powered drivers fitted with the new 0.74 A/R compressor cover to show they can do better than second place.
A Japanese motoring show, complete with titles in comic fonts, put three racing pilots behind the wheels of the , and (Toyota 86, in this case) for three laps of the 2.1-mile East Road Course at Twin Ring Motegi. Of course the segment producers know that putting the 167-horsepower roadster against the 200-hp coupes isn’t exactly fair, so they gave the Mazda a small head start of about three grid positions.
Ex-sports car racer Takayuki Kinoshita handles the Mazda, former open-wheel pilot Naoki Hattori drives the BRZ, and former Le Mans-class winner Keiichi Tsuchiya gets fast and loose in the FR-S. The drivers offer copious on-track commentary, but it’s in Japanese. That said, watching the MX-5 try to stay in front and watching Tsuchiya start drifting are universal gearhead languages. You’ll find the action .
We love action movies as much as the next guy, but sometimes the car stunts just look too ridiculous. Like when a cop car goes airborne during a chase scene after rear-ending a parked car. Or how about when a vehicle flips end over end upon impact. That never happens, right?
Well it apparently does in Russia, where, thanks to seemingly everyone in the country having a dash cam, you can watch video of a Land Rover Freelander 2 driving over a manhole cover and going Bourne Ultimatum.
What caused the cover to blow the way it did is not evident, though it’s interesting to note that in the aftermath (in the second video especially), you see that it’s not a plain, flat manhole cover that comes to rest near the car. It’s a cylindrical object with a square grate across the top. Lending credence to the whole thing not being a fake is that a second static security camera (or similar setup) pointed at the street also caught the whole episode.
was in the off-road business before the cult classic LM002, on a military vehicle concept dubbed in the mid-seventies that it hoped to sell to the U.S. armed forces. The 4,500-pound, fiberglass-bodied troop carrier used a 5.9-liter, 180-horsepower engine mounted in back. Hardly Cheetah-like, the vehicle delivered lackluster performance and didn’t handle well.
Even worse, it was a of a by another firm, which landed MTI and Lamborghini in court when the Cheetah was revealed at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show. The U.S. military tested the sole prototype and totaled it.
Perhaps this is the worst part: the Cheetah was such an expensive failure for Lamborghini that it was one of the reasons the company was unable to follow through on its commitment to BMW for the M1 project.
And with that history lesson digested, you’ll get even more wry satisfaction from the narrator’s dialogue in the Cheetah promo video, which you’ll find .
Ah, Catrinel Menghia. knows a good thing when it finds one, and so it’s no surprise to see a trio of new advertisements staring the Romanian-born and Italian-speaking model alongside the .
First up is a minute-long montage showing the Scorpion-addled Abarth flung around the desert while Catrinel… well, stands around looking beautiful. Next, the turbocharged 500 drives down the Las Vegas Strip while Ms. Menghia walks around looking beautiful. Notice a trend?
In the third video of this new series, Catrinel finally gets to drive the Abarth in a race against a lucky cameraman. Well, sort of. The two cars are actually piloted by “professional drivers on a closed course” – as you can see, they are wearing helmets. Catrinel and the cameraman, on the other hand, emerge from their black and white 500s with hair blowing in the wind.
No matter. Clearly these videos are meant to build upon the first extremely successful tie-up between the model and the Italian hatchback. We’ve gone ahead and included that initial commercial, along with the three new ones, . Enjoy!
If you are still stuck driving a prematurely rusty 2004 Ford Freestar or Mercury Monterey minivan, you have our deepest sympathies. But for all your suffering, you might still gain some small measure of satisfaction from .
Remember launched by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year? Well, the good news is that NHTSA has upgraded the issue to a full-fledged engineering analysis, according to The Detroit News. Specifically, the Feds are trying to figure out whether there’s any difference between the 2004 models, vehicles that have engendered 22 reports concerning rust in the rear wheel wells, and 2005-2007 models, for which there are no registered complaints. (A 2006 model is pictured above.)
More than 82,000 vehicles are potentially affected by the rust problems, according to the report, with symptoms including difficulty latching the rear seats and anchor plates that have detached from the vehicle.
Evo founder Harry Metcalfe somehow convinced Pagani to let him take the for a spin, and the result is just another day in the life of an Evo editorial director. The 760-horsepower customer special is, according to Metcalfe, for those who aren’t happy with the ‘regular’ Zonda’s 650 horsepower and really want a Zonda R for the road… plus 20 more horses.
We’d tell you more, but you really should get straight into the video. The details on the 760 RS are fantastic, but the engine note is, how you say, stupefecante. to enjoy.
When rolled out their outrageously styled three years ago, car buyers took notice. It’s eye-catching exterior styling, well-appointed interior and affordable price was just what a lot of family sedan buyers wanted.
Few will admit it, but carmakers sat up and paid attention, too. However, Andy Palmer, executive vice president for global planning, doesn’t mind telling the world that his company certainly saw the significance of the midsize Korean sedan. So much so that they briefly halted design work on the 2013 .
“We even delayed development by a short amount just to check that the (new Altima’s) proportions were right, the (package) was right (and that) the product overall was right,” Palmer tells Ward’s Auto. “I’d say they (Hyundai) are our major point of reference.”
But with the Altima as the second-best selling car in its segment, Nissan is focusing not on the Sonata, but on and the No. 1 best seller: .
“If you keep coming with better cars and better communications, telling better stories, over a period of time,” Palmer says. “I guarantee you’ll be talking about Toyota and Nissan.”
The new Opel minicar has been so long in gestation that it has worn three names (so far). From the Junior and Allegra, we are now being told that it will now be called the Opel Adam, no doubt a nod to company founder Adam Opel.
Still clothed in enough camo to hide a barn, we can’t tell much about how it looks, but with the latest spy shots we do know its sporting chops have been tested at the Nürburgring. That’s a necessity since a longer version of the Adam’s platform will go under the next Opel/Vauxhall Corsa. Beyond that, we aren’t sure what will power it at launch but three-cylinder engines co-developed with are . The electric version, however, .
At 3.70 meters, the Adam extends 15 cm beyond the Volkswagen Up! but is smaller than the Opel Agila. It is expected to go on sale in the Spring of 2013 for a base price of under €10,000 (Roughly $13,000 USD). If it does, that would be a turnabout from last year when former Opel chief Nick Reilly said the “Junior” and cost more than the larger Agila, which currently ($14k), but still wouldn’t to the .
Stay tuned, for those and other mysteries will begin to be solved on May 8, which is when Opel will officially announce the car. So the rumors say. The showcase reveal will come at this year’s .
We’ve had the good fortune of getting up close and personal with quite a few of Icon 4×4’s creations, from their off-road wares like the and to one-off restomod hot rods like their . While few people may be able to afford the company’s offerings, the creativity and thought that goes into each of their vehicles is something everyone can appreciate.
We have a particular affection for Icon and its latest project, the Bronco. We went for a brief drive in the very first example just before it made its debut at last year and fell in love with every detail of the modernized off-roader. Every trim piece on the car has been laser cut or machined from stainless steel. The unique gauge cluster is inspired by Bell & Ross watches. The interior aluminum is the same found on the inside of luxury skyscraper elevator doors. The Icon Bronco is capable of proving its worth both on and off-road too, thanks to an Art Morrison chassis, custom-built Dana 60 and 44 solid axle assemblies, and a 5.0-liter V8 under the hood.
Jonathan Ward, creator of Icon, recently invited a documentary filmmaker inside his facility to take a closer look at the Bronco. The resulting film will give you a better idea of what went into developing the Bronco as well what makes Ward tick as both a designer and a builder. If you’ve like any of Icon’s creations, it’s definitely worth a watch. Just and hit play.
Three years ago, released the documentary Truth in 24 highlighting its three-car effort at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite the Four Ring’s success at the race in the last decade, they were undoubtedly the underdogs to the much faster Peugeot teams that year, making for a Hollywood-like ending when Audi managed to take home the victory with teamwork and a little help from the weather.
The first film was such a success that Audi , once again featuring their three-car team battling Peugeot at the world’s most famous endurance race. We’re fully expecting the film to be packed with drama, as last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was one of the most action-packed and closest races of all time. Two bad crashes ended the race for two of the Audi teams, leaving a single R18 TDI to battle the Peugeots.
Sadly, with Peugeot having quite suddenly in January, it will also be the last such battle at Le Mans for the foreseeable future – all the more reason to watch the documentary when it comes out in a few weeks. For now we just have the trailer, which you can watch by .
It was only a matter of time, folks. As soon as finalized its of the brand, we knew to expect a slew of comparison tests pitting the German automaker’s finest wares against the two-wheeled exotica rolling out of Italy’s .
The scribes from Germany’s Auto Bild have indeed taken up the challenge. But what machinery to choose? Naturally, the mind first turns to the supercar and its -derived V10 engine, but, in reality, Audi officials have conceded to us that its 360-horsepower is actually quicker around most race tracks. So, the all-wheel-drive it is.
Holding the mantle for Ducati is none other than the 1199 Panigale – an easy choice, as this is the marque’s premier superbike for 2012. Sure, there was a replica MotoGP machine a few years back called the Desmosedici RR, but that bike is sold out and the Panigale is likely faster in the hands of all but the most talented riders anyway.
So, who wins? You’ll have to and watch the video to find out, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t even close.
Watching television news can be depressing. Between the political rancor of election season and the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality of most news directors, positive stories are scarce. But here’s one that should make any lover of fine automobiles pleased.
The story, as reported by CBS This Morning, starts when the owner of a Los Angeles-based rental car company that specializes in exotics and luxury cars noticed that one of his vehicles was uncharacteristically sitting still for a few days after being rented. The $2,000-per-day 2010 was equipped with a GPS tracking system, and the Italian Stallion’s lack of use made Eric Blumberg suspicious. So he notified the police, who eventually found the car – in Hong Kong. It had been shipped through the Port of Los Angeles, labeled as “used fitness equipment,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
It seems that the would-be joyrider who had “rented” the was part of an international crime syndicate worthy of a screenplay, according to the CBS report. When the police investigated further, they found between 15 and 20 other vehicles that were being loaded into shipping containers and exported to Asia, a total of $1.5 million worth of four-wheeled loot.
The investigators told CBS that the vehicles can command up to twice their value overseas. While no arrests have yet been made in the case, at least these cars now have a chance of being returned to their rightful owners.
Whenever Consumer Reports weighs in on the automotive landscape, we’re always eager to hear what its editors have to say. We value their opinions, not because we necessarily agree or disagree, but because CR plays it straight. And sometimes, amidst all the folderol spewed about new models in the pages of car magazines and on the myriad websites devoted to automotive minutiae, it helps to read someone write things like this:
Overall, CR’s testers found the is functional and easy to live with, if not particularly exciting to drive. The Touring… is more athletic and engaging to drive, thanks to its agile handling, taut cornering, and responsive steering.
Now this may strike most of you as nothing more than CR displaying its usually astute command of the obvious. But it reads that way for a reason – call it art imitating life. So when the mainstreamers read that the CR-V narrowly beat out the CX-5, it will not just reflect the reality of a market in which the brand lags well behind , but confirm their worldview. The Honda CR-V will continue to appear on the magazine’s “Recommended” list, while the jury will await reliability reports before nominating the Mazda CX-5.
The sun will rise in the east and set in the west.
To read CR’s full press release, which also spills the beans on the June issue’s head-to-head test between the and , as well as road tests of the hatchback and , . We also have the magazine’s video reviews of the crossover pair in video form, so .
