This is the production version of the Ford Fiesta ST, and except for the fact that it’s missing a couple of doors, it looks just like the we saw at the last year. Of course, the two-door version is cooler, which should be all the clue you need that we won’t be getting it in America. Ford is, however, “open to the idea” of bringing it here.
The specs match the concept: 1.6-litre EcoBoost with 177 horsepower and a top speed beyond 125 miles per hour, along with torque vectoring, three ESP stages and Ford’ MyKey – all of which should make it a fabulously good time when it goes on sale in Europe in 2013.
A “pre-production” example will get a showing at the tomorrow, and we’ll have a fuller report on it then, but there’s a with more details. Perhaps between the show and 2013, Ford can be convinced to ship it this way when it decides to “say more about our plans for other markets.”
Not to spoil the rest of this article, but the number one thing that the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth has going for it is its styling. That isn’t to say the rest of the car isn’t worth writing home about – quite the contrary, actually – but if there’s one driving factor that makes you want to run to the dealership and spend your hard-earned dollars on an Abarth, it’s how it looks. You’ll read a vast variety of opinions across this great big Interweb about the 500 Abarth’s driving dynamics, interior refinement and value, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one critic who considers the Abarth anything less than molto bella.
Smart, then, that the Chrysler Group chose to employ European goddess supermodel Catrinel Menghia for its starring the 500 Abarth, ending the 60-second commercial with the phrase, “You’ll never forget the first time you see one.”
So three months after we first met the North American-spec 500 Abarth in person at the , we finally got the chance to see if our lust for the cute little Italian runs more than skin-deep. On Fiat’s invitation we hit the roads – and track – around Las Vegas to see exactly how powerful the scorpion’s sting really is.
Brabus has taken the time to work over the new in the company’s trademark over-the-top style. The result is the Brabus Bullit Coupe, which is headed for a debut at the Geneva Motor Show this week, complete with an 800-horsepower version of the same V12 found under the hood of the . That kind of craziness is so beautiful, it almost brings a tear to our eye.
The engineers at Brabus bored out the block to 6.3 liters of displacement, up from 5.5 liters in factory form. Throw in a pair of turbos and you have a vehicle capable of dumping a staggering 1,047 pound-feet of torque on the rear tires.
Or at least you would if Brabus didn’t have to electronically limit final output to 811 lb-ft of torque. The company says there simply isn’t a transmission out there capable of standing up to that kind of twist. Even with the limited grunt, the Bullit Coupe can pop off a 0-62 mph run in 3.7 seconds on its way to a top speed of 229 mph. Pure brilliance.
In grand tradition, is producing another Grand Edition. This time they’re taking the already high-end, high-price, high-style coupe and making something God himself might be seen driving. If he could afford it. And if he were European because we Yanks probably won’t get the chance to buy one.
Creation of the opulent CL Grand Edition probably takes Mercedes much longer than six days since “handcrafted” and “hand-finished” are used to describe the transformation a CL coupe (either the 550 or 600) undergoes to get the Grand Edition badge. This package is more than just a badge. There’s also the choice of three “designo paint finishes” of platinum black metallic, mocha black metallic and for an extra $2,000 the matte magno cashmere white. AMG furnishes front, rear and side sill panels to give it that high-paid sports star look.
Inside, the handcrafted is available in black, porcelain and armagnac to go with the CL’s standard burl walnut or black ash trim.
Underhood is the CL’s bi-turbo 4.6 liter V8 gushing out 435 hp or the CL600’s 5.5 liter, bi-turbo V12 with 517 hp. With that kind of power, will never fail you.
If the Grand Edition were available in the States, all the extra luxury would add about $6,400 to the price, not including that unshiny white paint. A wise man might say it’s a true bargain considering the special edition only adds about 5% to the base $115,000 price tag.
The has officially dropped the “Concept” portion of its name. Making the most of the rear quarters in the , the boffins at have installed power-folding wood veneer picnic tables that are topped by iPads and Bluetooth wireless keyboards, additionally controlled by Apple’s Magic trackpads. In the armrest are a telephone and a Tibaldi pen, and in the trunk is a Mac Mini computer.
None of that counts the eight-inch screens in the headrests or the 15.6-inch screen that drops from the roof. Those are controlled by the Bentley app installed on the iPads, with listening handled by Bluetooth headphones.
It takes 170 hours for the craftsmen to complete the work of installation, and if you need to ask how much their time adds to the cost of a Mulsanne, then you already know the answer. More details in the press release .
We got a look at a short time ago. It’s a looker that’s got a whole lotta BMW going on. We still don’t know anything definitive about its internals other than that the big is the BH platform-mate of the and .
It’s also been caught on South Korean highways from just about every angle. Check it out in the videos and see what you think.
The sedan is still in search of a name, too. Among those suggested by Kia fans are Sleek, Majestic, Amanti, Prime, Cerulean and Tempest. Check in at Kia’s page to throw your own naming ideas into the mix.
The party can’t really begin until Mansory shows up, and here they are with a McLaren MP4-12C that has been turned into “a work of art.” Since Mansory makes most of its paintings in carbon fiber, that means new hood, roof, rear wing and mirror housings as well as wider fenders that stretch the car by 60 mm. Let’s not forget the unique daytime driving lights, either. Mansory touts its work as being not only beautiful but better for acceleration, braking and fuel economy.
Final touches include a new ECU and high-performance exhaust, which bumps horsepower by 68 and torque by three pound-feet, boosting top speed to nearly 219 mph. The wheels are Mansory two-piece lightweight forged numbers measuring 20 inches up front and 21 inches at the back.
There’s an official info sheet after the jump and you know we’ll get a closer look at it on the Geneva floor.
In die cast form, anyway, you’re looking at the next . In the tiny-car world, there’s as much fanaticism about keeping the scaled-down versions of the latest and greatest under tight wraps, while also being the first to hit the shelves when the real deal hits the streets. A preview of what would be great to see as the next Viper has hit the internet by way of a few images of a toy even grown adults will covet in lieu of the real thing.
The hood looks like what we’ve seen in , which lends credence to the rest of the accuracy of the overall shape. Significantly, this is the first time we’ve gotten much of a glance at the rear of what could be the 2013 Viper. We’ll find out soon how accurate this sporty plaything is, and we’ll pass those days hoping it’s pretty much spot-on.
Roger Penske has run a NASCAR operation off and on since 1972, and continuously since 1991. In that time his drivers have piloted cars from AMC, , , , and, for the last nine years, . Penske announced this week, though, that 2012 would be his team’s last year with Dodge and that 2013 would inaugurate a new partnership with Ford. There’s another Dodge in the Sprint Cup field driven by Robby Gordon, but Penske has been .
Autoweek reports that the move isn’t over money, but Penske’s desire against some same-brand competition, and that the association with Ford would make that possible. To us that sounds like excessive chivalry. Had Penske Racing been winning with Dodge, would it really swap makers just to make closer comparisons? In the last eight years Penske took the Nationwide series in 2010 with Brad Keselowski, but in the Sprint Cup, the team has won just 18 times in 764 starts.
The 2013 Sprint Cup car is set to be revealed next week at the race in Las Vegas. The question now is, who will run the new car?
Both Penske and SRT CEO Ralph Gilles say they’re focused on winning this year, and in a statement Gilles added, “We do value our NASCAR program and will be evaluating the opportunities available moving forward.”
Follow the jump for the press releases from Dodge and Ford on the latest events.
A Chinese driver is in trouble for using toothpaste to avoid the law. The owner used the cavity-preventing goo to change the 1s on his license plates to 7s. This ended up attracting the attention of Qingdao police, who thought the 7s didn’t look right.
The owner will be able to reflect on his mistake over some long walks: he was fined 2,200 yuan ($349 USD) and got six points taken off his licence. Since he only had six points left to give, he won’t be driving for a while.
NBA basketball fans who watched last year’s slam dunk contest on All-Star Weekend saw a by Blake Griffin over a , with an assist from former teammate Baron Davis, who passed Griffin the ball through the sedan’s moonroof.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the dunk, commissioned a spoof of the dunk for Funny or Die. The spot features Griffin and Jeff Goldblum, plus a “high-flying” Optima.
Will the Optima make the dunk over the 6′10 Griffin? Well, there’s a reason Blake’s calling for a timeout in the screengrab above. to watch.
Back in January we caught wind of a special edition McLaren MP4-12C dubbed the . A project of , the High Sport benefits from aerodynamic enhancements developed for the MP4-12C GT3 race car and features a new front end and rear bumper, larger vents and diffuser, a modified rear wing and unique wheels. Topping it all off, McLaren has boosted the twin-turbo 3.8L V8 by 75 horsepower, further increasing performance. Just five will be produced in total, all of which have already been spoken for.
At the time of our initial report, only a single low resolution photo and amateur video were available for the special edition McLaren. Thankfully that has been remedied, as the official photographer for McLaren Special Operations has sent us a stunning gallery that includes all five MP4-12C High Sport examples. You can see the entire set of photos in all its glory in the gallery above.
Rubens Barrichello may be down, but he most definitely is not out.
The Brazilian driver – a longtime teammate of Michael Schumacher in the glory days – has been on the Formula One grid since his fallen countryman Ayrton Senna was still with us, but in the end, he was replaced at Williams by Ayrton’s nephew Bruno, effectively ending his F1 career. But while his grand prix racing days may be behind him, Rubinho still has too much talent to simply vanish into retirement.
So where is he going? To IndyCar, following a similar path taken by former masters like Mansell, Fittipaldi and Andretti, but also by contemporary pilots Takuma Sato, Sebastien Bourdais and Jean Alesi. We’ve been the move since January when Barrichello was lining up for a test drive with KV Racing, and now the two racing stalwarts have reportedly sealed the deal.
While Rubens had previously considered racing just the road course and street circuit races on the Indy calendar in deference to his wife’s reported concerns over oval-track safety, he will, in the end, contest all sixteen races this year, including the Indianapolis 500 and the four other speedways on what was once a calendar dominated by oval racing.
The signing of a multiple grand prix winner like Barrichello stands as a coup for American open-wheel racing, which has been clawing its way back into relevance after the rift between CART and Indy was repaired, attracting more automakers to supply engines for a new Dallara chassis. Rubens will be partnered at KV Racing – the team owned by former Champ Car chief Kevin Kalkhoven and former Indy champion Jimmy Vasser – by longtime friend and race winner Tony Kanaan (with whom he is pictured above at the press conference) and Venezuelan driver EJ Viso. for the official announcement.
While the headline might seem shocking, given the circumstances of the 2009 global economic meltdown, it only makes sense. Ford’s dealings with two of its biggest competitors were centered around mutual self-preservation in the form of trying to keep a beleaguered supplier base afloat, according to The Detroit News. According to the report, , and cooperated to buy from common suppliers in a bid to keep those parts-makers from going under, which would have threatened the automakers’ viability. That revelation comes courtesy of a new book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman.
The auto industry is far more complex than many people realize, especially in this modern era, with ever-more demanding regulations and brutal competition from all corners of the globe. Tier One suppliers, as the biggest parts companies are known, have assumed much of the engineering and product testing and development work for new vehicles, even including big chunks of assembly.
When times get tough, as they most certainly did in late 2008, . At least 27 automotive suppliers filed for Chapter 11 in 2009, meaning that Ford had good reason for taking such precautions, referred to as “Project Quark” internally, according to the report.
Interestingly enough, General Motors and , the pair that eventually sought bankruptcy, chose not to participate in the alliance, with GM allegedly expressing concerns over the legality of such a maneuver. The book says Ford’s antitrust attorneys were careful to avoid setting foot on the wrong side of such laws, which prohibit collusion on pricing, among other restrictions on cooperative behavior by competitors.
There are quite a few other interesting anecdotes in Hoffman’s book, including between Mark Fields, Ford’s President of the Americas (now said to be in line to succeed CEO Alan Mulally), and Don Leclair, the company’s then chief financial officer. According to Automotive News, a passage in the book declares that Leclair suggested that Fields cut the advertising budget for Ford’s Bold Moves campaign in 2006. This led to heated argument, that ended up with Fields making a move toward Leclair while spouting some choice four-letter words. The altercation was broken up by none other than Bill Ford Jr.
Italian Firm’s Turbine-Powered Calling Card For A New Era
The global meltdown that boiled to the surface in 2008 was really hard on a lot of car companies, but it was categorically horrendous for the tradition of Italian car craftsmanship out of Turin.
Of the three big players left in the traditional Italian design mecca – Italdesign Giugiaro, Bertone and Pininfarina – only Giugiaro has managed to avoid administrative takeover of its debts and assets by working out a major deal with longtime allies to sell them 90.1 percent of the firm. Both Bertone and Pininfarina are currently trusted to oversee their own operations but are nonetheless bonded to pay off significant operational debts to Italian banks after having hammered out merciful sweetheart low-interest deals. Neither has succeeded in closing mutually agreeable VW-style takeover bids, but both would probably prefer not doing so anyway.
The has been treated as Italy’s (and my) hometown gig ever since the once wonderful Turin auto show fizzled away in 2002. One of the great spectacles of the Swiss salon is seeing the three major houses unveil their trinkets to the press, their stands traditionally placed side-by-side for maximum effect. This year, Italdesign Giugiaro will naturally show off some Volkswagen conceptual thinking, while Bertone has once again chosen a whimsical dream showcar approach with its 1970 Stratos-inspired meant to commemorate Corrozzeria Bertone’s centenary.
But the Pininfarina stand will most likely steal the attention of showgoers. How can you lose with a spanking new and hot and a concept that seems to hint at a future replacement for the ?
Coming soon to select dealers, at least , is the most efficient five-passenger car in America, the 2012 Electric, which the EPA has certified gets 105 miles per gallon equivalent, combined. This is better than what the Blue Oval was estimating publicly in December, when it said the all-electric Focus . The Focus EV is also rated for 110 MPGe in the city and 99 MPGe on the highway. As you can read in the press release , Ford is using the official numbers to go after the for the all-electric passenger car market. Ford says its new electric car:
… achieves a combined rating of 105 MPGe, topping Nissan Leaf by 6 MPGe while also offering more motor power, passenger room and standard features. Customers can make more use of this efficiency with Ford’s faster charging technology that can recharge Focus Electric in about half the time of Nissan Leaf.
To compare with some other combined MPGe ratings for plug-in vehicles on the market or coming soon: the 2012 gets 94 MPGe (one better than ), the Plug-In Hybrid gets , the gets , the is rated at , and the current champion, the 2.0, officially gets .
The EPA also says the Focus EV will have a range of 76 miles. As Ford is quick to point out, again, that’s three miles more than the Leaf. Given the variances of EV ranges based on driving style and outside influences, those three miles won’t make all that much real-world difference to most people, but it does give the engineering team one more thing to brag about.
For all the comparisons that Ford makes in today’s announcement, it does leave one thing out: the Leaf’s one big numerical advantage. The 2012 Leaf , while the Focus EV .
Electric officially rated at 105 MPGe with a 76-mile range
Japan’s Nikkei news service is reporting that is dusting the cobwebs off its Datsun brand, dropped back in 1986, and preparing it for a return in 2014. Loyalists will be disappointed to learn that the “new” Datsun badge won’t be riveted to the nose of any upcoming Fairlady Z in the near future – it probably isn’t even coming to North America. Instead, the report indicates that Nissan will use Datsun as a backup brand for low-priced vehicles manufactured and sold in emerging Asian markets. According to the Nikkei, Datsun-branded vehicles will be priced about 500,000 yen ($6,200 USD) with annual sales goals of about 300,000 units.
have been circulating for years. But only now, with Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn pushing to expand the brand into new markets (e.g., Russia, India, Brazil and China), does it really start to make sense as way to protect the upmarket corporate Nissan identity from being associated with low-cost entry-level vehicles.
The return of Datsun is interesting, but a two-tier strategy is hardly new. For example, uses its entry-level SEAT and Skoda brands to capture the low-cost market (though the two have moved upscale), while (working with SAIC) Baojun to target first-time buyers in China. According to TheDetroitBureau.com, the Nikkei also notes that Nissan officials have not commented on the report.
Order a new and you’ll be presented with what may seem like an endless list of options. But the one we’re looking at today isn’t an interior piece covered in leather or the color of the brake calipers. It’s European delivery.
European delivery is available from a number of German and Swedish automakers, and allows customers to fly in and pick up their car right off the assembly line (or at the factory, anyway) instead of waiting for their new car to arrive at the dealership. Porsche has just tweaked its program, making it that much more enticing.
By opting for European delivery, buyers of a new Porsche can opt to pick up at one of two Porsche assembly plants: Zuffenhausen (where the , and are built) or Leipzig (home of the and ). Regardless of the model, buyers can choose either location, and each offers its own benefits. Both include a factory tour, but Zuffenhausen includes the , while Leipzig includes the opportunity to lap the test track or take a Cayenne off-road.
Porsche can also schedule a photo session on the grounds of either factory, and will arrange for temporary insurance and plates – and even winter tires if needed – allowing its customers to spend a couple weeks in Europe getting to know their new car. Once the honeymoon is over, Porsche will ship the car to the U.S.
While these programs don’t offer the cost savings they once did, they still provide the unique opportunity of turning an acquisition into an experience that makes us wonder why anyone with the means and the time wouldn’t take advantage. for the full press release.
What do you do when you want to cast your cute little city car as a truly bad ass performance machine? How about hiring an infamous drug enthusiast actor, a guy who insists he has “tiger blood” flowing through his veins?
Yes, that’s right, has enlisted none other than Charlie Sheen to promote its here in the States. Sheen’s appearance in the commercial is brief, portraying himself hot-shoeing the small car around a palatial home – indoors, during a party, mind you – while under “house arrest.” Sheen, of course, is the former star of Two and a Half Men, who was reportedly the highest-paid actor on television before being fired for badmouthing the show’s creator last year. Sheen’s antics also included demanding a 50 percent raise and threatening a lawsuit against his employers, despite being hospitalized for substance abuse-related issues at least three times.
The Abarth goes on sale this spring, while Sheen’s new FX series, Anger Management, premieres on Thursday, June 28 at 9 p.m.
The BBC reports that British authorities are studying whether or not lighting along major roadways should be dimmed or even turned off to save the government money and curb carbon emissions.
According to the report, The Highways Agency is investigating lowering lighting levels at night, but only when traffic levels are “very low” to ensure safety is maintained. The study, to be carried out in 2012 and 2013, will include consulting the UK’s Institution of Lighting Professionals while still vowing to stay in accord with “internationally agreed standards.”
At this time, there are no public estimates on how much the UK could save on power and lighting maintenance by turning the lights down, or what sort of carbon footprint reduction could be expected. However, we imagine that if the initiative moves forward, British authorities will be keen to point out the savings. Now, about dimming costly light flashing on all those speed cameras…
