When Evo magazine’s founder and Editorial Director Harry Metcalfe says a machine is “the most amazing vehicle you’ve ever seen,” you know you’re in for a treat. After all, Metcalfe has been at the head of the British magazine since its first issue in 1998 and has owned or driven nearly every vehicle you can imagine.
The amazing machine that’s netted such admiration from Metcalfe? The Scamander, a truly all-terrain vehicle designed and built by Peter Wheeler, the man who owned British boutique automaker for 23 years. With its 300-horsepower V6 engine, the Scamander is reportedly capable of hitting 60 miles per hour in about eight seconds and can hit a top speed of 120 mph.
On land, that is…
You see, there’s also a impeller out back, meaning this crazy floating contraption can also take to the water. Sadly, Wheeler died before seeing this project to completion, but his wife and a team of engineers made sure that the Scamander finally saw the light of day in fully finished form. to see Metcalfe take the Scamander over land and sea.
Every year at every auto show we see concept cars that envision replacing the rearview mirrors with digital cameras. They’re usually the exterior mirrors and not the central one above the windshield, but whatever the case, and however much sense they seem to make, government regulations prevent them from being put into production. But has found another use for the idea: its racing cars.
The latest R18 Le Mans prototype features, among other more considerable advancements, an AMOLED screen in the closed cockpit that’s hooked up to a video camera, housed in carbon fiber and protruding ever so slightly from the tail fin. The system allows the drivers – who are put under enormous strain over the course of an endurance race – to clearly see the traffic coming up behind (or that they’ve just passed), which is apparently of great benefit considering that these mid-engined, closed-cockpit LMPs have no room for a rear window through which a conventional mirror would peer.
While they were at it, Audi moved the gear indicator, some warning lights and the tire slip gauge to the high-mounted central display. The side mirrors are still there on the outside, so the system doesn’t eliminate that drag (for now), but it operates independent of the sight-limiting vibrations that can occur at the high speeds an LMP can reach, and of the weather conditions that can cause reduced visibility from spray in the wet.
Though it may take some time, if Audi wins on Sunday, it could end up selling this technology in its road cars on Monday.
The passing of automotive legend Carroll Shelby has led to an , including a replay of a toe-tapping melody from country music great Mac Davis. Davis has enjoyed a long and successful career as both a performer and songwriter, with several number one songs including three written for Elvis Presley.
If you watch Mac’s tribute to the one and only Carroll Shelby, you’ll see his talent on display. Davis took the time to sing his Shelby song that he’d written years before, and you can view it yourself by . The lyrics are pretty amazing, and they can be a bit of an elaborated history lesson for enthusiasts who thought Shelby’s fame is relegated to a few models.
The 70s were a definitive decade for music and movies. Fashion and cars, not so much. The 80s corrected one of those oversights, an era of ethereal supercars like the 959, game-changing exotics like the Testarossa, and, best of all, everday cannons that offered mortals a generous portion of lairy thrills, such as Chris Harris’ 1986 e28 .
In 1986, a 3,100-pound, 286-horsepower luxury sedan straight from the factory that could also handle was as rare as a goose with lips. Sure, there was a more powerful AMG but it didn’t want to get into a lengthy conversation about handling, and there was the AMG Hammer, but that was a terrifically expensive tuner special. The M5 weighed the same as the 1986 and had 225-section rear tires just like the ‘Vette, but the M5 had 36 more horsepower. And it had four, leather-covered seats. And it could corner.
All of which has to do with why Drive’s Chris Harris spends eight minutes explaining, and showing, why he loves his personal M5 so much. to learn about the sedan that compels him to say “it’s the best money I’ve ever spent on a car.”
Renault has officially released details on its Alpine A110-50 Concept. Designed to pay homage to the original Alpine A110, the machine wears a body crafted from carbon fiber and dipped in a shade of the same iconic Alpine Blue we all know and love. Up front, designers worked in a set of half-ring yellow LED lights reminiscent of the hood-mounted fog lights found on the original. That’s pretty much where the similarities end, however. Based loosely on the crushingly-sexy Renault Dezir Concept, the new machine boasts proud fender arches, a wild split-wing rear spoiler and scissor doors.
As we’d heard before, the A110-50 Concept rolls on the same chassis as the Megane Trophy, complete with adjustable Sachs dampers, 21-inch wheels and the notable absences of on-board nannies like ABS or traction control. Hefty 14-inch front brake discs are pressed by six-piston calipers, while the 13-inch discs out back make due with four-piston units.
Renault placed a 3.5-liter V6 mid-ship with a full 400 horsepower on hand. A roof mounted-intake funnels air from outside the engine bay into the machine’s carbon-fiber intake. Meanwhile, a dual-clutch six-speed gearbox allows the driver the choice of disengaging the transmission via a floor-mounted clutch pedal or shifting via steering-wheel mounted paddles.
the full press release as well as a couple videos.
The Middle East is an enormously vital market for McLaren, and not just because its oil barons have the cash to buy as many MP4-12C supercars as they and every member of their family could possibly want. While the team has only won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix once and has yet to do the same at the Bahrain Grand Prix – the only two in the region (discounting Turkey), the company is part owned by Saudi businessman Mansour Ojjeh, and another part by the royal family of Bahrain.
Little wonder, then, that the upstart McLaren Automotive is setting up no fewer than six dealerships in the Middle East, the first of which has just opened its doors. To mark the occasion, McLaren took its new MP4-12C to the dunes of Abu Dhabi and around the Yas Island Marina Circuit and brought a camera crew – armed with a RED video camera and Canon’s new 1DX – along for the ride. The resulting high-resolution images and footage are worth a glance, so check ‘em out in the gallery below, the that and the press release below them both.
is moving to make its Easy Fill Tire Alert system standard equipment on its 2013 model year vehicles. Taking the tire pressure monitoring system to the next logical step, the Nissan system honks the car’s horn when you’ve inflated your tires to the correct pressure. No more reading the tire pressure placard on the door jamb and hunting around in the glovebox for a pressure gauge.
While Nissan actually introduced this feature beginning with the 2011 minivan, its proliferation throughout the lineup makes sense. After all, it’s a good idea, and , despite its importance for both fuel economy and on-road safety. If Nissan’s system can actually encourage a few of those disinterested drivers to maintain proper tire inflation pressures, it’s a win for all.
to watch a Nissan-produced video demonstrating the feature on the company’s and read the press release.
If you’re wondering what the has to do with techno music… well, join the club – we have no idea. We’ll defer to an expert, musician Joshua Harrison:
“Techno music, by its nature, is very similar to the makeup of a car… In both cases, there are lots of little pieces mechanically put together. Just like a car, a Techno song has many elements that serve their own small purpose, and the masters of the craft are those who can put it all together and make everything work as one solid piece.”
Who are we to argue?
In any case, has used an old trick in a somewhat new way in conscripting artists to create techno tracks using sounds made by its Fusion, in this case a 2.0-liter Hybrid model. Listen to the three resulting tracks, then to watch a video explaining the process and showing the musicians working their magic.
Even if you don’t like techno, it’s at least interesting to hear how each track is so wildly different from the other two. And if you do like what you hear, maybe you should consider attending the in Detroit, May 26-28.
Renault has turned over a few more photos of its all-new ahead of the machine’s at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. The new shots show off the sports car’s rear end for the first time. The total package looks more than a little like the Renault DeZir concept, though we’re told the chassis is borrowed almost entirely from the company’s Megane Trophy.
If the two machines share more than bones, that means we can expect to see a 3.5-liter V6 engine mounted mid-ship. The powerplant churns out 360 horsepower in standard guise, though the A110-50 is said to clear over 400 horsepower.
In addition to the few photos, Renault also served up a brief teaser video showing the covered machine as it is being unloaded from a transport. for yourself, and stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
We feel there’s no shame in admitting we would have more than a little hesitation about jumping into rush-hour traffic in China, but that’s exactly what one three-year-old boy did. A grandmother in China had a scare after she turned around to find her grandson missing. The toddler had managed to hop on his toy motorcycle and head for the horizon. Unfortunately, his path took him directly into the middle of a busy intersection during rush-hour traffic.
Despite buses and cars hurling past in every direction, the child seemed unphased, and the drivers on the road managed to keep away long enough for a police officer to spirit the child to safety. No one was harmed in the incident. Check out the for yourself.
There’s something about the boffins over at – particularly those working at its racing headquarters in the UK. We’re not quite sure what it is. Oh, right: they’re bonkers. Absolutely off their rockers, in the best way possible. How else would you explain the decision to take an entry-level crossover and swap out its powertrain for that of a supercar?
We’re talking, of course, about the Juke-R, the 480-horsepower demon cockroach from hell. After , Nissan has taken the Juke-R to a decidedly different setting – an ice track near the former Winter Olympics site in Lillehammer, Norway – and set it loose.
And if that wasn’t quite enough, the Japanese automaker didn’t put it in the hands of an veteran ice racer – say, the four-time Formula One World Champion who drives for its sister company in the Andros Trophy, they gave it over to its gamer-turned-racer Lucas Ordonez who, being from Spain, had never driven on ice before. Sounds sane to us. to see the results in the brief video clip.
We love four-door convertibles, reciprocating saws and watching other people make bad decisions, so the video seen here is a bit like our perfect YouTube cocktail. In it, the owner of a slammed decides he’s had enough of living under the oppressive shadow of his sedan’s roof. While at StanceWars Belgium 2012, he decides to fire up a generator, plug in his trusty sawzall and go to town. Not surprisingly, the sheetmetal on the roof gives up quickly, and the whole extraction takes less than eight minutes from start to finish.
Hilariously enough, it starts raining just as the owner makes the final cut. How’s that for a sign from the universe? to check out the carnage… just be prepared for the painful sound of shredded metal.
If you’ve ever sunk a Saturday afternoon watching a Wheeler Dealers marathon on BBC America, we don’t need to tell you the show is plenty addictive. A tag team salesman and mechanic snag slightly run-down cars and SUVs, fix a few simple problems and flip them for a profit in the UK.
Now it looks as if the Discovery Channel is set to unleash an Americanized version of the show. Fast N’ Loud follows a shop as they seek out classic cars and trucks, customize them and work to sell them at a profit. It looks a bit like American Pickers met Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin in a bar bathroom and this is the fruit of their rendezvous.
We will, of course, tune in if for no other reason than the guys look to have gotten their hands on an early ’50s Coupe. That’s one of our favorites. The show premiers on Wednesday, June 6 at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Discovery Channel. for yourself.
Renault has confirmed the unveiling of an Alpine concept at this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix de Monaco, but as we get closer there are new details alongisde new questions. Just yesterday came the called the A110-50C, heavily based on the , that could turn out to be the thing itself or pure Photoshop fancy. French press is reporting that that a 400-horsepower concept will appear that “could be homologated and on the road in the future,” and it will take a lap of the Monaco course.
Another story in the French press has a picture of a vintage Alpine 110 racer – the car that all this hubbub is about, an example of which is pictured above. It was taken in mid-April for German GQ magazine at the Barcelona F1 circuit. Vettel and Tavares will supposedly be presenting the concept, but that report indicates the car is called the ZAR and suspects the first letter is for “zero emissions,” the second for Alpine, the third perhaps for Renault. A also claims for the concept, allowing that the meaning of the acronym can only be supposition for now. True, the DeZir was an all-electric concept, so either the A110-50C/ZAR has 400 electric horsepower and there isn’t any mid-mounted 3.5-liter Nissan V6, or Renault has found a way to break every single law of internal combustion… or we just don’t know what’s really in there.
We’ll should know all come Friday .
* UPDATE: The leaked image (inset) is the real deal. Renault has released some and a video, and the reveal will happen on French Yahoo! Autos on Friday at 1:01 p.m. Monaco time. to watch the teaser vid.
and its AMG division wanted to thank the two million viewers of its various videos, so it dropped a at the top of the Corkscrew at and . The treat was wasn’t as sweet as it should have been due to an editor who got a bit too happy with the “Cut” button, and watchers said as much.
So, in a nice bit of “Here, let’s fix that,” AMG has uploaded aerial footage of the uncut drift. Now that we know AMG takes requests, feel free to leave them in the Comments section. On your way there, to check out the new vid.
releases even more drift-happy C63 AMG footage from Laguna Seca
The Men in Black duo have upgraded their machinery for the third installment of the franchise, adding traffic-crushing monocycles, jet packs and a blacked-out to their transportation arsenal.
is making the most of its hottest full-size sedan joining one of the summer’s hottest blockbusters, airing a 30-second spot with footage from the film that will air during American Idol. But since much of the movie takes place in 1969, we’ll be just as interested to see Josh Brolin’s blacked-out ’60s Ford sedan that has a few tricks it could teach the SHO.
to see some videos, the first with SHO cameos, the second a movie clip entitled “Have these in the future?”
There’s the right way to tackle the infamous Corkscrew at Laguna Seca and then there’s the way that puts your into the catch fence and on its roof. Ryan Ockey recently gave the latter option a shot during the Ferrari Challenge at Mazda Raceway with predictable results. All of the safety equipment both in the car and at the track worked as intended, however, and the driver walked away with little more than a bruised ego. There are no solid reports as to what caused the flying , but rumor has it there may have been a brake failure.
Unfortunately, the 458 Italia had to be pulled from the gravel trap by a tow truck, which meant a long, painful slog downhill on the Italian exotic’s roof. Check out and the rescue to see what we mean. Jump forward to two minutes in on the second clip to see things go downhill for Ockey.
While there are some specialty machines that are capable of relatively high velocity, your average run-of-the-mill helicopter can’t sustain speeds much higher than 100 miles per hour. That said, because of the heli’s ability to climb high into the air with cameramen packing extreme telephoto lenses, actually managing to trick a chopper pilot into losing you – in scenes sure to be played out monthly on national news channels – is another matter entirely.
So, what would it take to actually outrun a helicopter? As demonstrated by professional racer Guy Martin in the video , a modern superbike has more than enough speed to do the trick. In the case of Martin’s modified Suzuki GSX-R1000, which boasts a terminal velocity in excess of 200 mph, all you’d need is a road straight enough to pin the throttle for a dozen seconds or so…
All of which brings us to the Isle of Man, nestled away in the Irish Sea. Every year, legions of racers and fans line the 38-mile-long Snaefell Mountain Course to watch racers like Guy Martin test the depths of insanity as they seek to outpace their rivals on what basically amounts to closed surface streets. See what it looks like as a helicopter does its best to follow the action in the video pasted .
has finally wrapped up work on its crowd-sourced project . The company put the sports car on a dyno for final tuning and wound up with somewhere around 504 horsepower. That’s not too shabby given the jump in gusto was gleaned from a few bolt-on parts.
Nissan then set about fitting the steering wheel and shift nob as chosen by the teaming internet masses. A set of custom Recaro seats also replaced factory buckets. With the interior squared away, the company turned its eye toward ironing out the exterior.
A set of lightweight forged Volk wheels took the place of the factory rollers, and a new matte grey vinyl wrap took care of the standard yellow paint. Nissan debuted its creation at Z Dayz last weekend. for a look at the video for yourself.
The day has finally arrived. cars have returned to the Forza Motorsport series on XBox 360 with the of the Porsche Expansion Pack for Forza Motorsport 4. Pony up 1600 Microsoft Points ($19.99 in real world money) and you’ll get 30 new cars, 20 new events, 10 new achievements and a Porsche-only Rivals Mode. Developer Turn 10 says that seven of the cars ( for a full list) are all-new to the Forza series, which brings the game’s fourth installment – including all of the vehicles released via downloadable content – to a grand total of 625 cars.
We know what you’re thinking. Twenty bones is a lot to drop on a single chunk of downloadable content when you’ve already paid $60 for the game itself and another $30 for the Season Pass, the latter of which has already filled your virtual garage with dozens and dozens of extra cars to drive. That’s all true, and no one would blame you for passing on this Porsche DLC, especially considering that Porsches were included with the price of the game in Forza 1, 2 and 3.
Consider this: 959, 962, 911 Sport Classic, GT2 RS … Those are just four of the thirty cars from Stuttgart that you’ll be passing up the opportunity to drive (digitally) if you say no to the Porsche Expansion Pack. So now that you’re armed with all of the info, you can make the decision that’s right for you while we go download our decision.
to check out the official gameplay trailer that shows all 30 vehicles in action, as well as the full list of all 30 vehicles included in the Porsche Expansion Pack.
![3a291 renalpzar Followup: Renault confirms 400 HP Alpine concept debuting on Friday *UPDATE [w/video]](http://theautoblog.ru/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/3a291_renalpzar.jpg "Followup: Renault confirms 400 HP Alpine concept debuting on Friday *UPDATE [w/video]")
