We imagine that many a Russian Lada has been compared to a ticking time bomb – which is not to say that there aren’t any good Ladas out in the wild, of course – but the example you’ll see in the video pasted below takes the cake. It is, quite literally, an Improvised Explosive Device.
If an exploding Lada alone isn’t enough reason for you to watch, perhaps the reaction of the passengers is more of a draw. Their reaction to the impending doom is so quick that it’s almost as if the two occupants were just waiting for the engine of this poor machine to reach its glorious and destructive demise.
See what we’re talking about in the video pasted .
The Italian city of Modena stands as a veritable mecca for automobile enthusiasts. Not only does it serve as the home of both and Pagani, but it was also the birthplace of one Enzo . While the automaker and racing team that carry his name are situated in nearby Maranello, where the company also operates its own museum, a new foundation has started up in Modena, dedicated to preserving the memory of the legendary industrialist and racer.
That organization is the Fondazione Casa Natale Enzo Ferrari, which has acquired the house where Ferrari was raised, turning it into a museum of its own. Although Enzo himself sold his childhood home to finance his aspirations, the foundation has recently reacquired it, transforming it and the adjacent garage where his father worked into a cultural center and expanding on the original buildings with a modern structure.
Designed by Czech architect Jan Kaplicky and carried to completion after his death by his protege Andrea Morgante, the yellow-roofed building – painted the color of the Ferrari logo and designed to evoke the hood on one of his iconic sportscars – incorporates an art exhibit, a multimedia experience, a rotating display of Ferrari road and race cars borrowed from independent collectors, and a collection of Enzo’s own artifacts.
The grounds also house education and conference centers, a book shop, cafeteria and the offices of the foundation itself. If you’re planning a pilgrimage to the area, it strikes us as an experience not to be missed. But if your travel plans don’t extend to the Modena area, you can check out the gallery of high-resolution images we’ve compiled for your virtual tourism pleasure.
The partnership beween and is , yet in that time, more acrimony and court proceedings have been created than jointly developed products – not hard to do when that product number is zero. Continent-crossing accusations have included Suzuki being upset at and that VW hasn’t shared its technology, while the German automaker has been miffed at from .
Suzuki filed for arbitration in London and hopes to compel VW to sell back the 19.9-percent stake it took in Suzuki in 2009. A line in VW’s annual report, however, reads that it “considers the claims to be unfounded and has itself filed counterclaims.” VW doesn’t expect a court decision on Suzuki’s arbitration to come before 2013. We know they say it’s always darkest before the dawn, but we have a feeling the sun won’t be rising on this union for quite some time.
We haven’t heard much about Perana in quite some time, but not nearly as long as it’s been since the name AC last came up on our radar screen. The progenitor of the iconic Shelby Cobra, AC Cars is one of those great many British sportscar manufacturers that has long since disappeared into obscurity. There has been talk here and there of reviving the marque with a new model, but none of that seems to have materialized. Until now. Sort of.
Perana, as you may recall, is (or was) the name of an upstart automaker producing a devastatingly beautiful sportscar called the Z-One penned by no less accomplished a design house than Zagato. Now, the design (or, at least, what appears to be the same design) has resurfaced under the AC badge.
Called the 378 GT Zagato, the AC-ified Z-One is apparently being produced on the same line in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where the Perana was, and where, incidentally, some Noble models are, as well. The numeric nameplate is taken from the cubic-inch displacement of the 6.2-liter V8 engine.
It’s certainly not the first time Zagato has designed for an established British marque, the production version of the V12 Zagato it designed for having been unveiled as this one was being announced at the other end of the Palexpo. AC and Zagato also collaborated on a one-off Bristol variant back in 1957, a model that is scheduled to be showcased alongside the new 378 GT at Pebble Beach later this year where AC will be the featured marque two years after the Z-One made its U.S. debut on the very same manicured lawns.
That’s not where the collaboration is expected to end, however, as a roadster based on the same platform but featuring more Cobra-like bodywork is next in the pipeline. We’re not sure where that leaves Perana, but we’ll be watching to see where this goes. In the meantime you can see the full press release and spec sheet below, with high-res images (including some deliciously retro color schemes) in the gallery above.
When it comes to handing out awards, nobody works harder than J.D. Power. With surveys concocted to measure , , , , and , we sometimes wonder whether the company’s plaudits aren’t becoming a little like “participant” medals awarded at the end of kids’ sports seasons.
This latest J.D. Power survey, the 2012 , measures service satisfaction at dealerships. The most interesting find is that overall satisfaction at dealers is nearly four percent greater than at independent repair facilities. Visits to dealers among owners of vehicles less than three years old are up as well.
Of course, the numbers that people will be most interested in relate to how each brand fared in the survey. J.D. Power ranks each marque on a 1,000-point scale, “based on dealer service performance during the first three years of new-vehicle ownership, which typically represents the majority of the vehicle warranty period. Five measures are examined to determine overall customer satisfaction with dealer service (listed in order of importance): service quality; service initiation; service advisor; service facility; and vehicle pick-up.”
The brands are broken into either luxury or mainstream categories, and the top performers in each list are clustered fairly close together. scored 861 points, followed by (852) and (849) on the luxury side. The mass market competitors finished even closer, with leading at 809 points, followed closely by three General Motors brands: (805), (803) and (801).
for the full press release.
, Mini take home dealer satisfaction laurels in latest J.D. Power survey
Imagine you just bought the fastest, most powerful road-legal ever. Your has 740 horses and does 0-62 mph in just over three seconds. You’re on top of the world!
Enjoy your seat at the pinnacle of Maranello motoring while you can, because you’ll soon be relegated to the slow lane. There’s a bigger, badder Ferrari in the works. And if you already own a Berlinetta, chances are good you’ll be invited sometime before the end of 2012 to a private showing of Ferrari’s replacement for the legendary Enzo.
Ferrari Chairman tells Automotive News Europe that their next supercar will not be called Enzo, but will be worthy successor that packs a carbon fiber body and a big ol’ V12.
“The F12 Berlinetta delivers 740 hp and today’s Formula One cars have between 740 hp and 750 hp,” Montezemolo said. “Thus we are offering F1 power in a road car.”
the neo-Enzo have as much as 920 horsepower. Not too many other details were revealed in the interview except for…
“We want to surprise people not just in terms of price but also with the car itself,” Montezemolo said. Which we take to mean the next ultimate Ferrari will be free. But probably not.
The general public will probably get its first glimpse of the Enzo replacement either at next January’s or the 2013 next March. Oh, the anticipation!
Now that UK is finished with the for the Nissan Juke-R, it’s free to do what we’ve all been waiting for: hand it over to The Fourth Estate for proper testing. AutoExpress was the first in line, and they didn’t waste the chance, pitting Faust’s CUV against the car that made it possible, the , around the circuit.
We could tell you more, but this isn’t the time for words – the long-awaited action is in the video . Still want more? There’s an article to go with it over on AutoExpress.
Even as in their opposition to the auto industry bailout, new polling indicates that the American public has changed its attitude about the $80 billion spent to help both and General Motors restructure. According to The New York Times, a poll conducted in February shows the gap between those who approve of the measures and those who remain opposed has shrunk, while a different, more recent poll shows a slim majority of Americans now support the bailout. In the midst of the 2008-2009 crisis, polls suggested that three out of four people were against government intervention.
The New York Times suggests the post-bailout success of the automakers is the most likely driver of the change in attitude, citing the return to profitability of both Chrysler and GM. That success has resulted in real job creation, with some 126,500 positions in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry added, according to the report. , including $385 million at its Romulus, MI, engine plant pictured above.
That by more than 80 percent, to $14 billion, has likely played a part in public perception as well.
has put a halt to all development of future models. The news comes after the Malaysian government sold its controlling stake in Lotus parent company Proton. According to EVO, the company’s takeover regulations require all involved parties to enter into a “lockdown” wherein anything outside of normal business is brought to a halt. For Lotus, that means stalling development for 60 days and pushing back launch dates for vehicles like the Exige S, Evora GTE and the upcoming Esprit successor. Lotus CEO Dany Bahar is currently engaged in talks with DRB-Hicom, Proton’s new owner, in an attempt to ensure the industrial conglomerate holds onto the sports car maker.
Odds are we won’t know what the future has in store for Lotus until after the due diligence period comes to a close. In the mean time, Lotus will continue to build and sell cars as well as engage motorsports efforts. It will also be the featured marque at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Looks like and can breathe a corporate sigh of relief. The has into both companies without issuing fines or ordering a recall.
The government safety agency said it had reviewed 43 reports of engine fires in 2001-2007 VW models. The turbocharged four cylinder’s ignition coils apparently were the source of the blazes. We reported on the initial investigation .
After a 19-month study, NHTSA said, “The fires observed were contained in the engine compartment and did not reach into the passenger compartment. There were no reports of crashes or personal injury in this examination. A safety-related defect has not been identified at this time.”
“Safety-related defect” or not, that hardly sounds comforting for Passat owners. Might want to get that ignition coil checked out.
GM got the all clear after the NHTSA checked into cracked cooling fans on the series of trucks, which includes , and 4500 and 5000 models. NHTSA said it “remains concerned about the potential for injury,” but basically couldn’t find the “root cause” and that the number of complaints seems to be “small and diminishing.”
Hmmm. Might want to get those fans checked, too.
Check out the full PR text to read the NHTSA report on the Passat.
Although may not be racing all that much these days, motorsport competition was an integral part to forming its identity decades ago. And it’s that legacy that Jaguar aims to tap into with its latest development.
The British auto marque has of late been participating in numerous classic racing events, but is now intensifying and organizing its efforts under the Jaguar Heritage Racing banner. Managed for the factory by specialist firm JD Classics of Essex, the program will see the C-Type and D-Type (click on the image above to enlarge the two classic cats) challenging revival events at venues as varied as , the and the , where the initiative will make its first appearance this May.
Although limited in scope to classic racing events, the renewed effort will see the factory getting back onto the track in an arguably more substantial way than it has with the Jaguar RSR XKR GT2, retapping the racing spirit not seen in Coventry since winning Le Mans with the XJR-12 in 1990 and selling its F1 team in 2004 – but which could, if come to fruition, resurface again with a new LMP1 in the near future. In the meantime you can read more about the Jaguar Heritage Racing program in the press release .
According to , the 2013 Sprint Cup Series will kick off without an on the starting grid. That’s news itself, considering how intertwined the Impala is with Chevy’s NASCAR presence, earning 70 wins since 2007.
Even more intriguing, though, is that Chevy says it “will be racing a vehicle based on a new nameplate to the brand’s lineup.” That means the 2013 racer won’t be a or . Whatever it may be, Chevrolet says that both the race version and the production version will be debuted “in the coming year.”
As far as speculation goes, it’s hard not to point a finger in the direction of the , which is currently available in the United States for duty only. Will everyday consumers finally get another crack at a high-performance rear-wheel-drive Chevy sports sedan? If so, what will it be called, and will it wear the coveted SS nomenclature?
We have no idea. What we do know, however, is that Jim Campbell, vice president of Chevrolet Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, says the automaker is testing camouflaged vehicles and that the production version will be “just like” the race car. We’ll just have to wait and see about that… In the meantime, see the complete press release .
This year’s Geneva Motor Show served up a scintillating buffet of vehicles, but the Lamborghini Aventador J may very well have been our favorite. With no roof, no windshield and all of the insane running gear of the standard , the roadster is the embodiment of exotic. But according to Top Gear, the car went from design sketch to reality in record time. Designer Filippo Perini told TG he first sketched up the Aventador J in mid-January after CEO Stephan Winkelmann asked his crew to to come up with something special for Geneva.
Despite the apparent similarities between the Aventador and the new Aventador J, the two models share only a handful of body components, including the front hood, fenders, headlights and rear fenders. Everything else is bespoke just for the concept.
If you like what you see as much as we do and want to take one home, too bad. The world’s only Aventador J is already sold to an unnamed collector for the lofty sum of $2.74 million at current conversion rates.
Robots have been a part of every automaker’s manufacturing arsenal for three decades now, but that doesn’t make this latest effort at improving plant automation any less cool. While most factory robots are neither humanoid nor particularly interesting, the only thing more exciting than this pseudo-cyborg hand for rivetheads is ordering up the entire run of The Six Million Dollar Man from Netflix.
While General Motors clearly doesn’t have the cash or inclination to turn each of its roughly 50,000 United Auto Workers employees into Colonel Steve Austin, the new Robo-Glove would allow its wearer to have super hand strength. GM says the force required to grasp tools could be reduced by a third to a half for those wearing the special gloves, which are operated by a standard lithium-ion battery like the ones used to power cordless hand tools. The gloves would allow workers to hold their tools comfortably for longer periods of time and possibly reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury.
The gloves were an outgrowth of GM’s partnership with NASA in developing the Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot to be launched into space when . GM developed the first prototype gloves in March 2011, while the second generation was completed three months later. They weigh about a pound each and contain all the electronics, actuators and a small display.
Click to read the full press release, plus watch a video demonstration.
Episode #273 of the is here, and this week, Dan hosts and is joined by Autoblog Executive Editor Chris Paukert and Zach Bowman. Topics range far and wide around our recap of the . Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #273:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:21:01
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has loosed the hounds of advertising on behalf of its new three-row, seven-seat crossover, the . The four spots, set to run throughout NCAA March Madness, are focused on features like a novel Backup Collision Intervention System, live personal assistant and tri-zone entertainment. They aren’t the most creative spots we’ve ever seen, but they do a good job of showing a number of the CUV’s unique features while placing the vehicle in a luxury context.
Infiniti also teamed with GILT yesterday, the same luxury-minded e-tailer that for a day back in 2010. This time, there was only one loaded JX35 up for grabs, but the lucky buyer got the luxury ute for half price: $27,425. to watch the ads and check out the press release.
Residents of Amish communities famously eschew almost all trappings of modernity. No TV, no telephones, limited use of electricity, and, gasp, no Autoblog! But there comes a in a young Amish person’s life when they’re allowed to go out and taste the world. And sometimes alcohol.
Case in point: Sunday evening, police in Sherman, N.Y. were of a group of young Amish having a “buggy party.” Before they could get there, though, another buggy carrying four Amish allegedly switched lanes abruptly and collided with the patrol car.
The buggy flipped, injuring one of the passengers and, we imagine, spilling what police say was the fruits of a beer run.
The crash must have been loud enough for the partygoers to hear, because when the cops finally showed up, several buggies were observed fleeing the scene.
The four passengers of the bashed-up buggy are charged with underage possession of alcohol. The driver, 20, faces additional charges since police say he admitted to being the host of the party.
And, by the way, the horse is fine. Police say it, wisely, fled the scene and took shelter in a nearby barn.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began an investigation of the 2003 and 2004 late last year , and now that probe has resulted in an official recall. The culprit has been identified as a faulty circuit board that causes the gauge to register more fuel in the tank than the car actually has.
According to NHTSA, will begin notifying owners in mid-April, at which time they can take their sport sedans to the dealer to be replaced free of charge. for the official word from NHTSA with more details.
The project now has two major corporate backers and, more importantly, an engine. and Michelin have signed on of designer Ben Bowlby, Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers and Don Panoz. Now called the Nissan DeltaWing, the Japanese firm will provide a turbocharged, direct-injected 1.6-liter, four-cylinder with an output of around 300 horsepower. Known as DIG-T, the powerplant shares the same roots as the engine in the .
That’s about 200 hp down on the 510 horsepower developed by the diesel V6 in the and about half the horsepower developed by other LMP1 racers. However, Nissan says the engine is half the weight of a typical LMP1 motor, and paired with the DeltaWing’s minimal aerodynamic drag, the lap times are said to be somewhere between those of the LMP1 and LMP2 classes. Why does this matter? Because Nissan and Co. are taking this needle-nosed baby to Le Mans.
Of call cars and classes, Nissan says this strangest looking effort is one that will “showcase the pioneering technology that will show one potential direction for the future of motorsport and will feed into the research and development of future technologies, that filter down to Nissan’s road car product range.”
The Nissan DeltaWing will be allowed to run in the 24 Hours of Le Mans following a special dispensation for an experimental car that doesn’t follow any technical guidelines offered by ACO, the organizer of Le Mans. It will use Garage 56, it will wear Number 0, and won’t be classified in the results. Even so, we’ll be watching closely. for a video of the racecar’s development and a press release detailing Nissan’s involvement.
If you have your heart set on picking up a new , you better get moving. Car and Driver reports the automaker is only shipping 6,000 of the coupes to the U.S. for the 2013 model year. The news reportedly surfaced via a dealer. While the automaker hasn’t officially announced exactly how many 2013 BRZ Coupe models will be allocated for American buyers, it has said the vehicle will arrive in “extremely limited quantities” in the past.
The news dovetails with earlier reports, which indicated the company would need to sell somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 units at $25,000 a piece to break even, though at the time, no one mentioned Subaru wouldn’t bump up production if there was demand.
We’ve reached out to the automaker for comment and will keep you posted on any forthcoming information. In the mean time, we’ll leave you to pour over your finances to figure out how to bring one of these fine-handling machines home before there are none left. Word has it Subaru is already accepting pre-orders.
