took the new DeltaWing racer out for a quick parade lap at Sebring last week. The funky-looking car wasn’t exactly tackling each apex at competition speeds, but the demonstration suggests development is on the right path. Nissan says the design weighs half as much as a typical competition vehicle and has half the aerodynamic drag as well, making it far more efficient. Likewise, the car requires less power to maintain the same level of performance (Nissan has fitted the DeltaWing with a turbocharged, direct-injection 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine). Despite the way it looks, it even appears to go around corners.
According to the press release that accompanies the footage , the DeltaWing won’t run as a classified entrant in this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but will be present as a demonstration of what the design has to offer the world’s race teams. for a look at two videos; one (sadly audio-free) clip from the public display at Sebring and another look from testing at another facility from inside the car.
Just over one year ago, we heard reports suggesting that Volkswagen would of its concept for limited consumption. And while the skeptics among us were quick to dismiss these reports with a resounding “yeah, right,” this latest set of spy shots show that is indeed making progress on an honest-to-goodness road-going model of its 1.0-liter fuel economy warrior.
It’s still unclear exactly what will power the production XL1, though the concept car featured a two-cylinder TDI diesel paired with an electric motor, lithium-ion battery pack and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. All in, this is said to be good for an astonishing 235 miles per gallon. It might look big and sleek, but the XL1 is about as long and wide as a Volkswagen Polo. It should be ultra-light, too – the concept version tipped the scales at just 1,753 pounds.
The XL1 might look sleek and sporty, but performance will be anything but. The latest reports state that the production car will be limited to a stop speed of about 75 miles per hour, and that it’ll take 32(!) seconds to shoot from a stand-still to 50 mph.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for future XL1 prototypes as development continues, but for now, scroll through our attached high-res image gallery to see the space-age VW for yourself.
The inaugural 12 Hours of Sebring was held 60 years ago in 1952. was the first to build a dynasty of overall wins, followed by , then , then , and today we live in the era of . With its main rival, Peugeot, having this year, the only manufacturer that could prevent Audi from claiming its tenth overall victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring was Audi itself.
That was unlikely to happen, especially considering that Audi chose to field three teams, each driving the very capable R18 in the car’s last appearance before being replaced by the R18 Ultra and . Yes, the result in the fastest LMP1 class was a forgone conclusion, and Audi delivered, claiming the first and second steps of the podium. The winning R18 was car #2 driven by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. Kristensen, who holds the record for most overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, also now has a record six overall victories at Sebring. It was Capello’s fifth win at Sebring and McNish’s fourth. The team of veterans completed 301 laps of the 5.4-mile track and amazingly finished with no evidence of body contact with another car.
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 happen to have a stale laying around, Reifen Koch may be able to spice it up for you. For €8,000 (a shave over $10,500 at current conversion rates), the company will slap on a Cervini body kit, composed of a revised front fascia, sills and the tail treatment seen above. The “Konquistador” package also includes a side-exit exhaust system, a full KW coilover kit and a hydraulic axle-lift system to help owners overcome pesky speed bumps and other obstacles, though it would seem those bits will cost you extra.
There’s no word on whether the system can help you overcome the crippling knowledge that your pony remains powered by the stock boat-anchor 4.6-liter V8, however. For reasons that remain unclear, Reifen Koch left the lump untouched, meaning the kitted Mustang is still left with a comparatively anemic 315 horsepower. For reference, the 2013 Mustang GT pours 420 ponies to the back tires.
Speaking of rubber, the tuner seems to believe a smart set of wheels and tires are a suitable substitution for performance, saying their Mustang boasts “one of the greatest combinations of wheels and tires.” Behold, the Ford Mustang Hyperbole Edition. Hit the jump for the full press blast.
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.
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 .
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 .
What do you do to celebrate the ‘Vette’s 60th? Well, if you’re , you crank out one more model year of the C6 before showing off your . And apparently, you make cute YouTube videos.
This one features the special blowing out its candles in a fashion that’s entirely apropos. And while we’re making wishes, here’s to hoping the next Corvette gets the interior overhaul it’s deserved for about 15 years.
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.
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.
The 2013 has an appointment for some cosmetic surgery, according to a report in Car & Driver. The restyle will be minimal, with detail changes around the fascia going just far enough to let other 7 Series owners know that you have the latest model.
A more substantive change could occur under the skin of the ActiveHybrid 7, however. It’s nearly $13,000 more expensive than it’s non-hybrid counterparts but doesn’t make an equally hard-to-ignore case for efficiency: the ActiveHybrid 750i has 55 more horsepower than the standard car, but is rated at 17 city / 26 highway versus 15 city / 22 highway. Speculation is that the ActiveHybrid 7 could get the six-cylinder powertrain from the to improve its green credentials.
As we said when we first drove the Blue-e-motion, is . Given the tremendous ups and downs that electric vehicles and EV start-up companies are going through, maybe making sure you have a car where everything is working smoothly – to say nothing about - isn’t such a bad idea. And it now seems like VW is confident enough in its Golf EV, which is , to push up its estimated release date from 2014 to late 2013.
Sure, technically, that could be a difference of just one day, but we don’t think that’s what VW of America president Jonathan Browning meant when he confirmed next year’s U.S. release date with Automotive News. Late 2013 is also when the car will go on sale in Europe. A .
Even though VW is getting ready to move into electric vehicle territory, it is well behind other automakers. Perhaps that’s why it is also a bit less optimistic about the potential success of plug-ins. The automaker expects just three percent of its new vehicles to be EVs or hybrids by 2018. You can .
So where are we at with the 2013 ? We’ve seen , along with . We’ve seen a shot of the car , and of course, in a conventional disguise, but got a good look at its interior in the process.
Now comes with this, a brief video that shows off the Altima’s new hind end. Like most every sedan on the market these days, it looks like the will be getting a bit of a Bangle butt. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) We do get the first really good view of the Altima’s taillights, which have a bit of spindle thing going on.
We’ll have to wait until the on April 4-5 to see the full reveal, though we wouldn’t put it past Nissan to eke out another shot or two of the car before then.
Click on the image above to enlarge, then feel free to see the very brief video yourself .
Those interested in getting their 650-horsepower kicks in the form of a can now at least partly satiate their longing with an online configurator. And, as you can see above, you are free to deck your favorite ‘Stang in any number of classic racing colors… or even in Superman-spec red and blue.
Outlandish color choices aside, there are plenty of interesting options for the fastest factory ever created, including the expected Sync infotainment technologies, a voice-activated navigation system and a three-subwoofer Shaker Pro audio system. Those looking for some added sportiness inside the cabin can opt for a color-coordinated pair (black and blue in the case of our config) of front Recaro seats for an extra $1,595. Sounds like money well-spent.
For those wishing to check every option available for the car, including a Shelby-branded car cover, the most-expensive 2013 Shelby GT500 hardtop will waltz off the factory floor with a $66,485 window sticker. On the other side of the equation, even a base $54,200 (*plus $795 for destination) car will come equipped with the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 capable of hurtling the GT500 to a terminal velocity of a bit over 200 miles per hour. Performance bargain, anyone?
Feel free to build your own 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 , and share your favorite config in the Comments. Ready, set… go!
While the ink has barely dried on our , the automaker has reportedly just divulged the roadster’s official lap time around the famed Nürburgring circuit in Germany – the grueling racetrack that serves as a benchmark test for today’s sports cars. According to , its new two-seat convertible crossed the start/finish line after delivering a 7:58 lap.
That time may seem a bit off the pace when compared to heavy-hitters like the 911 GT2 RS (7:18), (7:19) and (7:24), but it is plenty quick among its peers in the same horsepower range (the ‘13 Boxster features a 3.4-liter flat-six rated at 315 horsepower) and strong enough to take the checkered flag away from the and . Much of the credit goes to Porsche’s commitment to keeping weight off the roadster (its curb weight is just 2,910 pounds), widening its track and fitting the redesigned vehicle with its capable torque-vectoring system.
There’s an almost infinite amount to love about the line. In or coupe form, X or S guise, the vehicles deliver that difficult-to-attain blend of rear-wheel-biased performance, content and refinement with a manageable price tag. With the excellent VQ37 3.7-liter V6 engine pounding under the hood and the buyer’s choice of manual or automatic gearboxes pushing power to the rear or all four wheels, the G37 family is one of the market’s best arguments against sliding behind the wheel of a . That is, unless you wanted a truly serious performance machine.
German titans like and have been lapping European racetracks under their M and AMG banners for decades, honing performance hardware that customers would merrily plop down fat stacks of cash for later. While Japanese luxury automakers have been somewhat slow to embrace performance sub-brands, recent years have seen an explosion of consonant-laced badging stuck to sharper machinery. Among Japanese automakers, first dipped a toe in those waters with the company’s F-Sport goods, and has risen to the challenge with its new Infiniti Performance Line. By gracing the G37 Coupe with more horsepower, a sharper suspension, larger brakes and unique interior appointments, Infiniti has taken a first step into a world dominated by some of the world’s most storied badges.
But is the IPL G37 a serious performance contender or simply a bolt-on queen with delusions of grandeur?
may be one of the smallest auto manufacturers, but it’s on its game when it comes to safety. The compact crossover joins Mitsubishi’s on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety list of Top Safety Picks.
The designation applies only to 2012 models, as Mitsubishi made changes to the roof design this year that helped the Outlander Sport score a “Good” rating on the roof strength test. It also earned “Good” marks on frontal offset and side impact tests, and with standard stability control it met all the criteria for the IIHS award.
Automakers are always attempting to show how popular their new vehicle is, but there are only two ways to truly prove a smashing hit. One is to deliver outstanding sales numbers, and the other is to experience demand so strong that new employees must be hired to help assemble them.
Land Rover is experiencing just such a success with its sexy new line, as evidenced by its latest press release. The Tata Motors owned luxury marque announced that it is hiring an additional 1,000 workers at its Halewood plant to bolster production. The facility, which currently builds the Evoque and the Freelander 2 (a.k.a. ), will now employ 4,500 workers, or three times the number it did in 2009.
With those new hires, the Halewood plant will now be running at or near full capacity, with three full eight-hour shifts. Hit the jump to read over the Land Rover press release which includes details of some of the positions needed at the plant.
