We may have to wait a while for to release a Polo R – in fact it may never reach American showrooms at all – but as a stopgap measure VW has released a pair of R-Line packages for its diminutive hatchback that at least make it look the part.
The exterior R-Line trim package comes with wider wheels in either 16-inch diameter or 17, new bumpers front and rear, rear spoiler and diffuser, chrome exhaust tips, side skirts, fog lamps and gloss black grille. The interior package, meanwhile, gives the cabin Alcantara or leather trim, sport buckets, black headliner, a new steering wheel, piano-lacquer trim and aluminum pedals. Both kits can be fitted to either the Comfortline or Highline trim levels, and appear, for the time being, to be limited to the German market.
At the same time Volkswagen has rolled out a new Exclusive edition of the , incorporating 18-inch wheels, a lowered suspension, chocolate brown Nappa leather trim with white top-stitching and wood and aluminum trim. Since this trim level is fitted on the sedan or wagon versions of the European-market Passat – an entirely different vehicle from the one we get here – we wouldn’t hold our breath on this one making it to U.S. dealerships, either. But you can check ‘em both out in the high-res image gallery for a closer look.
Contrary to rumors and reports circulating the internets, will, in fact, bring the next wagon to the U.S. But it’s still a ways out.
According to Autoblog sources, the touring variant of the F30 3 Series will likely land on European shores within the next year, with the coupe and convertible versions arriving in late 2013. All four models – sedan, coupe, convertible and wagon – will be available in the U.S. when they arrive, but for the time being, the two-door and five-door versions of the E90/E92 will soldier on until their respective replacements arrive. And yes, a diesel version of the should make it Stateside, as well.
Cars keep getting heavier. It’s an unfortunate trend, but one that we’ve grudgingly come to accept. But the next-generation is tipped to buck the trend.
According to reports quoting Audi’s chief engineer Michael Dick, the 2014 R8 will undercut the current model’s weight by some 100 kilograms (220 lbs), while increasing torsional rigidity by 30%. That’s no mean feat, and to get there, Audi will reportedly build the chassis out of a combination of aluminum and carbon fiber.
That last bit may benefit from the advanced carbon construction methods being developed by sister-company , which Audi owes to a large degree for the existence of the R8 altogether.
Will that mean the next-gen R8 will shoot up in price, or are we looking at one of the most accessible carbon-fiber supercars in a field populated by exotics three to ten times the price? We’ll have to wait and see, but we’re expecting a facelifted version of the current model before the all-new one arrives in 2014.
Episode #252 of the is here, with Chris, Zach, Dan, and Executive Editor Chris Paukert serving as this week’s crew. Topics include the tragic crash at the Las Vegas Indy 300, the 2012 BMW 3 Series, the Chevrolet Spark EV and a discussion about whether or not the Tata Nano has succeeded. Your questions and comments power the last 33% 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 #252:
In the Autoblog Garage
2011 Infiniti G37S Journey Special Edition
2012 Audi TT RS
2011 BMW 135i
2012 Nissan Versa SV
Hosts: , , , Runtime: 01:19:50
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We hear it all the time when we’re out test-driving any of the current crop of subcompacts: “Is that little car safe?” Well, if it’s a , our answer should be affirmative, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The venerable independent testing agency has issued a Top Safety Pick award to the diminutive Italian cutemobile, which joins the as the only minicars to earn such praise.
The only caveat is that IIHS has specifically excluded 500’s that were built before August 2011. According to the group, the driver’s seat structure was modified to improve safety, and those cars without the improved seat were judged only “marginal” in the frontal offset test. The new seats help the 500 to score “Good” in that test, a rating the car also achieved in side impact tests and roof strength.
in the U.S., so perhaps this news might help turn things around. At the very least, it will give owners a good answer to “What’s going to happen if I hit you with my F-150?”
Our scum-of-the-Earth scale has a special slot near the top for parents who mistreat their children. We aren’t interested in the psychology behind decisions like placing your nine-year-old daughter behind the wheel of your full-size van for a 3 a.m. run to the local convenience store. We just know the behavior is beyond unacceptable. That didn’t stop one Detroit-area father from doing just that. The man was recorded bragging that he had been drinking and that his daughter had served as his designated driver for the trip to the store. He then said he was leaving and that his daughter would once again drive him home.
Surprisingly enough, no one at the convenience store bothered to try and stop the man.
Police later received a call from a concerned driver who spotted the youngster at the van’s controls. An officer stopped the van, but the father refused a breathalyzer at the time. He has since been charged with second- and fourth-degree child abuse. The bottom line here is that what you do with your own life is your concern, but endangering a child with your own stupidity is the sort of act that deserves far worse than incarceration. to see an AP report on the incident.
It appears that Roding has been hard at work on developing the company’s Roadster prototype. Spy photographers managed to click a few photos of a new version of the vehicle out for laps at the Nürburgring, and the latest iteration is a massive leap forward from the old fin-laden mule we first saw this time last year. Whereas the first version looked as if it was the product of an electric shaver and an Audi R8, the newest version actually looks plenty becoming. While some of the original angles remain, the carbon fiber bodywork now wears a more proportioned appearance.
There’s no word as to what’s under the hood, but we’re guessing the machine still relies on the same turbocharged six cylinder as its predecessor. That means buyers can expect around 300 horsepower, which should be enough to get the 2,100-pound lightweight to speed in a hurry. Last we heard, Roding planned to unveil a production version of the car this year, but it’s beginning to look as if we won’t see the final version until 2012 at the earliest.
In Which We Fight The Urge To Name It “World’s Best Car”
When looking for exotic sports car thrills on public roads in the summer, it simply doesn’t get any better than the . How nice, too, that Italy’s summer has gone on and on this year – it thoughtfully didn’t end until the evening after our epic drive through the Apennine mountains. Our mostly sun-drenched route started at around 500 feet above sea level in Maranello, climbing to near 3,200 feet over Passo della Cisa, finishing the outbound portion on a deserted sandy beach in northernmost Tuscany. Then, instead of taking the suggested direct route back along the three-lane autostrade, we chose to retrace our steps over Passo della Cisa on the amazing S 62 two-lane highway where Enzo Ferrari competed in his very first road race back in 1919. It was a very appropriate 300 miles in paradise.
The all-aluminum 2012 Ferrari 458 Spider is built primarily at the Scaglietti facility in Modena, and the rakish drophead is scheduled to arrive in North America by mid-February carrying a base price of $257,000. Rather surprisingly, our mountain hop reveals that the Spider possesses perhaps an even better sum of its parts than does the . Certainly, either body configuration fairly thrashes anything the old F430 lineup was ever capable of.
To be fair, when compared side by side with the coupe, the Spider weighs some 110 pounds more at 3,384 lbs., and its overall structure is said to be 30 percent less rigid. Regardless, just as we have shamed the Italia’s estimated 3.3-second run from 0-60 by recording our own 3.0-second zap, the Spider loses practically nothing to the coupe, and we’re quite sure of being able to punch through to a 3.1-second time despite cheeky estimates of “<3.3″.
The upcoming Toyota Prius C has been , caught wearing and maybe (Aqua). But that doesn’t mean we’re not still interested in what will be the smallest and cheapest model in the Prius family when it arrives in 2012. Thankfully, CarScoop is here to help. A reader sent in a leaked brochure featuring what appears to be the production version of the little hybrid. The scans show off the C so nakedly we want to give it a modesty slip. Almost.
The production version of the Prius C – if that’s indeed what we’re looking at – loses a lot of the angular, sporty style of the concept, but it still carries a welcome refinement of the traditional Prius wedge. The biggest different is at the front end: the concept’s striking headlights have been eliminated in favor of smaller versions of the Prius Liftback’s instantly-identifiable lights. The rear end now blends the look of a standard Prius with a .
We like most everything about the concept better (see also: the wheels), but if Toyota can hit the speculated numbers – around 60 miles per gallon for around $20,000 – we’ll take the highly efficient baby Prius no matter what it looks like. See more scans in our gallery or check out the whole brochure over on CarScoop.
Next year, every driver in the IndyCar Series will be driving the new Dallara chassis. But one pilot already had a wealth of experience in the new car: the Dan Wheldon.
The two-time , who died Sunday from head injuries sustained in a at the season finale race in Las Vegas, was Dallara’s first choice for an experienced driver to perform the development work on its new chassis. So it only seems fitting that the car he helped create, Indy’s next-generation car, is named in his honor.
Dallara has yet to reveal exactly how the late champion’s name will figure in the car’s final designation, but one likely candidate is DW 001. Sounds like a fitting tribute to us, but like most fans, we would have rather seen Wheldon driving the car himself next year than his name on it.
When BlackBerry servers crashed between Tuesday and Thursday last week, owners of the popular business phones were left without a tool they’ve come to rely on. At the same time, the server crash could have made roads in the Middle East that much safer.
The National reports that traffic accidents in Dubai dropped 20 percent compared to historical averages during the blackout. In Abu Dhabi, accidents dropped by 40 percent, and there were zero fatalities. If you’re thinking that this isn’t a significant enough sample to show that smart phones and distracted driving are inexorably linked, consider this: There is an accident in Dubai every three minutes.
Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim pointed out to The National that the accidents resulting from distracted driving “range between minor and moderate ones, but at times they are deadly.” Officer Al Harethi took it a step farther, adding “the roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working.”
While the loss of BlackBerry service was no doubt a major inconvenience, these real-life statistics once again show that smart phones and driving just don’t mix.
It appears that Ducati riders in Ecuador respond to different stimuli than riders in North America. This shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise – we’re used to ‘Ooooooh’-ing at primetime commercials from other lands that could barely get past Cinemax censors here. In the case of four ads from the Italian firm’s Ecuadorian agency, though, the response might less “Ooooh” and more, “Oh.”
The four single panels are apparently from April 2011, and in just two lines and a simple drawing present four hypothetical people, their intriguing powers, and their brand of bike. When it was thought that these were Ducati North America efforts, the and said they might be spec creative. But it turns out they’re real ads, and a few clicks on Uncle Google reveals that some folks like them.
Check them out in the gallery and see what you think – good for us, or best for others?
If you’re going to sign a new sponsorship deal with a racing team, you might want to do so before the team wins the championship, not after. But seems to have a different idea. ’s luxury division signed on as a sponsor for the Red Bull Racing team after it won the championship last season, and now that it’s secured both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles again, the two have announced an extension of their arrangement.
When the deal was first announced, speculation ran rampant that it would extend to Infiniti “supplying” engines to the team. You see, Red Bull’s cars get their power from engines made by Renault, which is part of the same corporate alliance as Infiniti. And since most automakers that get involved in F1 either start or buy their own teams or supply engines to existing ones, logic dictated that the deal between Infiniti and Red Bull would see Renault’s engines rebranded, thereby making the team’s official name Red Bull-Infiniti.
The rebranding arrangement wouldn’t be unprecedented. McLaren, for example, once ran engines rebranded as TAG. Sauber did the same with Petronas-branded engines. Cosworth engines have at times been branded as , Fondmetal or European, while engines are actually made by Ilmor, which supplied F1 engines under its own name in the early 90s before Benz bought out their F1 operations.
That apparently won’t be the case with Red Bull and Infiniti, however. At least not for another year to come. Instead, the deal between the two outfits will see Infiniti’s logos grow in size and placement on next year’s cars and other team gear, as Infiniti works to leverage the cooperation in new ways. Official announcement .
If you’re looking at the new 2012 Fiat Ducato and thinking it looks a lot like the 2011 model, well, you’re right. That’s because, though ’s commercial vehicles division has carried out enough revisions of its prolific workhorse to call it a new model, the exterior has stayed the same.
Most of the refinements have been performed on the vehicle’s interior, which is said to be considerably more car-like than the outgoing model. That includes such niceties as an onboard refrigerator, chrome accents and a TomTom nav system featuring Blue&Me functionality developed with Microsoft.
A new roster of MultiJet engine options range from 110 horsepower to 177 and are earmarked to be cheaper to run while complying with Euro 5 emissions regulations. Between the powertrain and the various body-styles, Fiat says there are some 2,000 different configurations that can be ordered.
The question is if and when the Ducato will port over as a new model. (After all, it already sounds a lot like …) In the meantime, we’ll just have to suffice with the press release and the high-res images in the fresh gallery.
We tend to keep our one-wheeled shenanigans pretty simple. Blame it on an old bike or anatomical deficiencies all you like, but the truth is, getting one wheel in the air on asphalt is a nerve-racking proposition. So when we see skills like those in the video , we can’t help but fire up a round of the old slow clap. The clip shows one talented individual with a bike’s nose in the air for a solid minute and a half, and he could clearly ride it much longer if he wanted. Now, this isn’t a plain vanilla wheelie. Oh no. This rider takes the time to exit the freeway, make a right through an intersection and change lanes all while on the rear tire.
This is typically where we say something along the lines of “don’t try this at home.” And this case is really no different… so, don’t try this at home. And if you do, just make sure you’re wearing the proper gear when you get the itch to point your motorcycle toward the sky. to check out the clip for yourself.
French automaker Peugeot has had an interesting back and forth lately when it comes to its flagship model. The big 607 sedan was discontinued a couple of years back due to lackluster sales, replaced by the new 508 that also succeeded the smaller 407 sedan. Then began sprouting up that the Lion marque was planning on turning that into a crossover wagon similar to the approach taken by with the A6 Allroad or with the .
We figured that’s what we were looking at when the company unveiled the in , but at the same time Peugeot also showcased the – a sort of luxury crossover that was more similar in concept to the than the Audi Allroad.
Now the rumormill suggests that Peugeot could put the HX1 into production as its new flagship model, sitting above the 508 and its high-riding RXH counterpart. PSA’s adaptable Hybrid 4 drivetrain could offer nearly 300 horsepower driving all four wheels through a combination of internal-combustion and electric motors. And while we’re just spitballing here, if sister-company Citroën moves ahead with , parent company PSA could have a business case on its hands.
has a longer history of racing – and winning – at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca than perhaps any other car company. At the legendary track’s very first race in October of 1957, a Porsche 550 RS Spyder took the overall win of the SCCA National Laguna Seca Championship. Since then, dozens of Porsches have competed in and won races at the track, piloted by some of the most famous drivers in the world.
Porsche’s racing history at Laguna Seca is perhaps why the fourth edition of the Rennsport Reunion is the best yet. The five historic racing classes are packed with legendary race cars and drivers. Watching a trio of 935s spiral through the corkscrew makes you feel like you’ve gone back in time to the 1970s, or watching a 962 blast down the front straight transports you directly to the 1980s.
There were plenty of examples of Porsche’s modern race car on track at Rennsport, as well. Dozens of cars competed in the Cayman Interseries, 911 Invitational, 911 Cup and PCA races, and Porsche’s recently retired racing prototype, the RS Spyder, was also on track. The RS Spyder has a history at Laguna Seca as well, winning the LMP2 class in its debut at the track in 2005.
Whether it’s the vintage racers of the 1950s or ’60s, the flamboyant 935s and prototypes of the 1970s and ’80s, or the modern race cars, there was something for every Porsche fan at Rennsport IV. Click through our gallery above to see a sample of what was on track at Laguna Seca this past weekend.
and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have announced an investigation into certain models after reports of engine fires on at least 12 vehicles, five of which resulted in a total loss. Interestingly enough, Bloomberg reports that in eight of those cases, the fires occurred while the vehicles were parked and turned off.
At this point, the investigation covers around 36,000 2007 and 2008 model year Mini Cooper S models. A spokesperson with NHTSA said that the complaints indicate a growing trend and that most of the reports have occurred within the last year.
Neither Mini nor the automaker’s parent company, , have commented on the investigation at this time.
If there was anything Bijan Pakzad loved more than clothing A-list celebrities and heads of state, it was creating the most luxurious automobiles around. The Persian fashion designer (commonly known by his first name alone) owned a one-of-a-kind custom yellow , and before he died, he in his trademark color.
He was also for a limited run of special , but while he may have passed before his time, his successors are evidently keen to keep his legacy alive with this special-edition .
Decked out in Bijan yellow from the body (including hood, window frame, mirrors and wheels) to the interior, the special DHC has Bijan signature touches all around, including a diamond-pavé watch embedded in the dashboard and a picnic set (complete with crystal stemware) in the trunk.
A limited quantity of these unique and extroverted convertibles will be made available at a price reported as high as $1.6 million, and are sure to be snapped up by the same Middle Eastern sheikhs who draped themselves in Bijan’s luxurious suits.
If you’re a fan, there were enough precious metals at this weekend’s Rennsport Reunion IV to put a flutter of butterflies in the sturdiest of stomachs. The company naturally made sure to capture the moment, and just as naturally, it wasn’t any mere point-and-shoot affair.
For a gorgeous time-lapse look at how 40 vintage Porsche racers (including 911s, 935s, 917s, 962s and 956s) posed for the camera in the California sun, the rest of the story is in the video .
