Auto Show 2014: October 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

2013 Geneva Show: Alfa Romeo 4C

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The Alfa Romeo 4C will be launched at the next year Geneva Motor Show on March 2013. The car will then go on sale in Europe sometime later in the year.

The 4C will be powered by a new aluminium version of Alfa’s 1742cc turbocharged petrol engine, producing around 300bhp. A claimed kerb weight of less than 1000kg will give the mid-engined 4C one of the best power-to-weight ratios in its class — one of the key targets of the project.

The 4C will run with a 1.8-liter turbocharged engine, and weigh around 1,980 lbs, giving it a 0-60 mph sprint time of just 4.5 seconds. The power will be translated using a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

The car should be offered to U.S. buyers as soon as the brand relaunches, likely to be sometime in 2013 or 2014. A drop-top should follow sometime later, likely by 2015.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New Nissan Concept Teased in Sao Paulo

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Nissan will unveiled a new genre-defining concept at the 2012 Sao Paulo International Auto Show, the model is being placed into the spotlights once again, this time with the Japanese based automaker releasing the first teaser image with the vehicle in question.

The concept will introduce a unique new genre to the automotive world and is made with the cooperation of Brazilian designers and built in the country.

The new concept looks to be a two-door sports compact - possibly a roadster - inspired by the likes of the Juke crossover and the hero GT-R coupe.

The Sao Paulo Motor Show opens on October 24th,

Press Release

NISSAN SHOWCAR PROMISES YOUR ADMIRATION FOR DESIGN AT SAO PAULO MOTOR SHOW

SAO PAULO, Brazil (15 October, 2012) - Bold, vibrant, passionate... and that's just the color!

Be prepared for some real drama from Nissan when Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd reveals a new concept car at the 27th Sao Paulo International Motor Show (24 October - 4 November).

The high-character concept, which will introduce a unique new genre to the automotive world, has not only been created specifically for the Sao Paulo show, it has also been created by the cooperation with Brazilian designers, built in the country and underlines the strategic importance of Brazil for Nissan's growth plans.

Nissan doubled its sales to claim almost two per cent of the Brazilian market in 2011 and aims to account for more than five per cent of new car sales in the country by 2016. This is backed by a new manufacturing facility, currently under construction, in Resende which will produce up to 200,000 units when operations start in 2014.

"The showcar will dazzle on two counts," said Shiro Nakamura. "It is a genuinely new and exciting concept, and it will explode with energetic design and impressive color that fully express our impression toward the country."

"When our designers arrived in Brazil to start work on the project, they loved the vibrancy and passion of the country but were a little surprised in the rather conservative colors of the cars on the streets... they all seemed to be monochrome - silver or black."

"Finally, they've made sure our showcar might have a color as lively as the country."

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Scoop: All-New 2014 Subaru Forester Busted Out in the Open!

While Subaru put up a shadowy teaser of the next iteration of the Forester on its Japanese website, and not too long after we shared scans from the car's Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) brochure, the first real-life images of the compact crossover hit the net.

It’s not hard to see that Subaru didn't want to alienate buyers of one of its most popular global models when it came to design, as the new Forester looks like a more modern, or evolutionary, if you prefer, interpretation of the current model.

Besides the more forceful face incorporating Subaru's latest grille design, the high-riding, station wagon gains some new styling cues, the most notable of which concern the more prominent wheel arches and heavily sculpted door sills, the addition of a small quarter window up front and new door mounted mirrors.

Its official designation was the OV-105, but the world came to know it as the Endeavour Space Shuttle. It was built from spare parts to replace the Challenger, which tragically disintegrated a mere 73 minutes after launch from the Kennedy Space Center on January 28, 1986.

Along with the Discovery and Atlantis, which took part in the STS (Space Transportation system) missions, and the Enterprise that was used for initial testing, the Endeavour is (after a second tragedy struck in 2003 when Columbia exploded on re-entry) what remains of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, which was terminated last year after three decades and 135 missions.

Only a day after we showed you a video of BMW's "super" SUV doing the rounds on the Nürburgring, our man with the photographic lens caught another prototype affording us a motionless view of the next X5 M.

But how do we know for sure that this is indeed the "M" model and not one of the lower powered versions of the F15 (that's BMW's internal code for the next X5)?

Well, the large alloy wheels draped in extra beefy low profile tires, along with the huge brake discs and mainly, the twin tailpipes on both corners of the rear diffuser, are all typical traits of BMW's M series of models.

We've already shown you the painful consequences of flipping off a Russian driving instructor, so how about we see what happens when you perform the same gesture to a truck driver in the world's largest country that covers more than an eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area?

The incident begins with an obnoxious driver of an older Audi A6 sedan illegally and dangerously overtaking a truck and then being a -insert whatever word works for you here- constantly slamming on the brakes.

True, we have seen sports and luxury cars go pink before, sometimes for noble purposes and other times for vanity, but a limited run supercar in this flushing shade is bound to capture our attention, which is what its inventors intended in the first place. Read more »

Top Gear Promotes New Limited Edition Lego Stig Keyring with Stop-Motion Ad

Some say Top Gear is the coolest TV show on planet Earth bar none and the best thing to happen to humanity since sliced bread.

Some also say that JC (Jeremy Clarkson's initials) is an overrated, grossly overpaid and obnoxious bloke who has insulted almost every ethnicity and minority one can think of, and then some, but in spite of all this, he has made a fortune out of being… well, obnoxious (and, obviously, very smart).

The performance crew over at Mopar may have revealed a selection of customized cars such as the V10-powered Dodge Charger Juiced, the Fiat 500 Beach Cruiser and the Urban Ram concepts in the flesh and in advance of the SEMA Show on October 30, but the Chrysler Group's tuning arm is keeping several more projects under wraps.

Among the dozen or so SEMA show-bound Chrysler cars that have no yet been unveiled in the flesh are the "Moparized" 2013 SRT Viper and the Jeep Wrangler Sand Trooper, both of which were teased through renderings.

For the upcoming SEMA show in Las Vegas, the Chrysler Group's Mopar division has prepared the Urban Ram study based on the revised 2013 Ram 1500.

Chrysler's in-house tuner dropped a 392 (6.4-liter) HEMI V8 engine into the Ram but it didn't stop there performing a series of go-fast and styling upgrades to the customized pickup truck.

Opel has been bleeding money for the past 12 years and analysts predict that it will post a total of US$1billion operating losses annually until 2021. General Motors wants to restructure the ailing carmaker and turn it around. This, however, involves not only collaborating with PSA Peugeot Citroen, but some serious cost cutting as well.

Industriegewerkschaft Metall, the Industrial Union of Metalworkers that is (thankfully…) more commonly known as simply IG Metall, is the most prominent union in Germany and has some really serious clout with both manufacturers and the government.

We will admit that the Porsche Cayenne is pretty good at a lot of things but a real, capable off-roader or "4x4" it is not.

Nevertheless, we believe that even the Cayenne could have navigated through this flooded underpass if the driver had taken a more cautious approach entering at a low speed instead of slamming the pedal to the metal disturbing the water in front of him.

McLaren Unleashes 72 Photos and Full Specs of New MP4-12C Spider

Following the posh reveal of the MP4-12C Spider at the Pebble Beach weekend in California at the end of August, McLaren has now come out with a fresh gallery of images and detailed specifications of the open top model.

The big difference over the tweaked 2013 model year fixed-roof coupé version of the MP4-12C series is, of course, the Spider's Retractable Hard Top (RHT) with a fully automatic two-piece design that can be raised or lowered in under 17 seconds at speeds of up to 30 km/h (19 mph).

German sports and luxury car tuner DMC wants to cater to the needs of those who prefer to see its products on film and at least in some sort of action, with a new video for its rather colorful Lamborghini Aventador Molto Veloce LP900.

We do have to admit, though, the clip has far more music going on for it than what we would have preferred, especially given the Aventador's wonderful V12 music track and which is said to be further enhanced by DMC's titanium exhaust system that weighs only 1/10th of the stock unit (34kg).

If there's one thing Mopar's people like doing to Chrysler Group cars more than anything else, it is to shoehorn the brand's gargantuan V10 powerplant under their hoods.

For this year's SEMA Show, they had the opportunity to do it again, this time with the latest iteration of the Dodge Charger sports sedan that gets a Viper 8.4-liter V10 Mopar crate engine, good enough for 650-horsepower, or 10hp more than the new 2013 SRT Viper sports coupe.

With the aftermarket party that is the SEMA Show in Las Vegas approaching our way, the Chrysler Group wanted to give us an early look at some of the cars its Mopar division has prepared for the event.

Following the unveiling of the Fiat 500 Beach Cruiser Concept earlier today, the automaker continued the presentations with the 2013 Dodge Dart Carbon Fire prototype.

The charcoal grey colored Dart sedan has been dressed up appropriately for SEMA with a selection of production and prototype Mopar parts, highlighted by a full carbon fiber hood with a hood scoop that is said to offer significant weight savings, but which is not yet commercially available.

Just as suddenly as it entered the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) after a decades-long hiatus in 2011, the BMW Group's MINI brand is abandoning the sport.

On Friday afternoon, the British carmaker announced that it will terminate its works involvement in the WRC at the end of the 2012 season by withdrawing its financial support for "WRC Team Mini Portugal".

The bad news came from Kay Segler, Senior Vice President MINI Business Coordination and Brand Management.

What could be more frustrating for Batman than his archenemy, the psychopathic clown, The Joker?

Well, how about trying to navigate through the dark streets of Gotham city on the Batpod, all while using the Apple iPhone 5's botched maps service app to reach and save the life of his beloved Rachel?

Naturally, this never happened in the movie but some creative folks over at YouTube made a funny parody of Apple's iPhone 5 map debacle using scenes from the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster "The Dark Knight".

About a month ago, the Chrysler Group announced plans to display more than 20 Mopar-prepped Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Fiat and SRT brand concept vehicles and project cars at the 2012 SEMA aftermarket show, which takes place from October 30 through November 2 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Today, we get our first glimpse of one of those models and in particular, the Fiat 500 Beach Cruiser that was revealed during a special event at Mopar’s Accessory and Performance Lab in Michigan.

Thanks to CarScoop reader and Nürburgring dweller Timo S., we now have the first ever action footage of Rolls Royce's upcoming Ghost-based coupe, the production name of which, remains a tightly guarded secret for now.

The spy video affords us a look at how Goodwood's new Flying Lady tackles the corners and straights of the Nürburgring Nordschleife track at speeds and angles you don't normally see a Rolls Royce model.

When it comes to tuners and photo shoots with pretty ladies, 99.9 percent of the times, the girls are professional models who have nothing to do with the cars that they are posing together.

Nevertheless, there's always that one exception to the rule, which brings us to German aftermarket and racing tuner BBM Motorsport and Andrea Friedrich.

Apart from being a qualified real estate agent [sic] and having won the Miss Yamaha 2012 and Monster Energy Girl titles, the 23-year-old woman has also obtained an "A" racing license and will participate at events such as the Nürburgring-based VLN and GLP series.

Porsche's New 911 Carrera S Goes "Head 2 Head" with Nissan's 2013 GT-R

Throw us the keys to any one of these two sports cars, and we will gladly take them for a very, very long spin without a second thought. And all for good reason.

While the GT-R has entered its fifth year in production, it doesn’t realty show its age in any other departments than the styling and the interior, which to be honest, wasn't anything special to begin with.

In many ways, the GT-R was years ahead of the competition when it debuted in 2007, and let's not forget, Nissan has been religiously tweaking and upgrading it every year.

Another day, another new edition from Porsche, with the Stuttgart-based sportscar maker now presenting a new flagship model for its Cayenne series in the guise of the Turbo S.

Much like the Panamera Turbo S, with which it shares the same twin turbocharged V8 engine, the Cayenne Turbo S comes with more grunt under the hood and some bespoke styling cues that attempt to separate it from the regular Turbo model.

After Porsche engineers fitted titanium-aluminium turbine wheels to the turbochargers and reprogrammed the engine control management, the 4.8-liter gasoline unit gains an extra 49hp (50PS) and 50Nm (37 lb-ft) pushing output to 542hp (550PS) and peak torque to 750Nm (553 lb-ft).

As a result of these upgrades, the Cayenne Turbo S completes the standard 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint 0.2 seconds faster than the standard Turbo model at 4.5 seconds and has a 5km/h (3mph) higher top speed at 283km/h (176mph).

There's a lot we know about Ferrari's next hypercar, but there's also a lot we don't. If we are to believe a report from Inside Line, then we can add the venue where the unveiling of the car we've come to call the F70 (even though the name has not been confirmed yet) will take place to the list of things we know.

The news site said the Ferrari F70's world premiere in front of a public audience will be held at the 2013 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit next January.

If true, then it’s more likely than not that Ferrari will give us our first online look of the hypercar towards the end of this year.

VW’s Chairman Ferdinand Piech and Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, two of the European automotive industry’s most prominent executives, have presumably read Sun Tzu’s Art of War and are aware of this excerpt:

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

The two groups are currently involved, if not in war, then certainly in a peculiar game of strategy and tactics – and there is no way of knowing who will come up trumps.

Here's one incident that could have easily led to a horrific crash with multiple fatalities, but which, thanks to a little bit of luck and a cool-headed reaction from the driver of the car with the dashboard camera, was luckily evaded.

The driver of a white Lada Samara hatchback grossly underestimated the speeding capabilities of his car and foolishly attempted to overtake a bus on a two lane (one for each direction) road.

The camera-equipped vehicle passed right in between the Lada and the Samara without touching any of the two.

The ongoing European debt crisis was bound to touch even Germany's finest in one way or another. While Europe's biggest carmaker, the Volkswagen Group, doesn't have a problem yet, the company's decision makers believe it's wise to prepare for the worst and save some cash aside by putting on hold certain projects.

Inside sources told Autonews and Reuters that VW officials might delay the introductions of two new SUVs from Bentley and Lamborghini, among other vehicles.

A few years before the almighty Volkswagen Group came into the picture, the Bugatti brand was brought back to life after nearly four decades of hibernation by Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli who acquired the rights to the name in 1987.

Four years later, Bugatti presented its first modern day car, the EB110 powered by a 60-valve, quad-turbocharged V12 with 553hp (561PS) turning all four wheels through a six-speed stick shift.

The performance edition of BMW's new 6-Series Gran Coupe has been captured "naked" in the Bavarian firm's factory while the car was on a lift for service. The photo was posted on Twitter by a Dutch BMW dealer called "BMW De Beier"

From this angle, we can see the new M6 Gran Coupe's large alloy wheels with brake discs to match along with other traditional "M" cues such as the mirrors, sculpted side skirts and fender vents.

If we're not mistaken, there's also another M6 Gran Coupe finished in black parked behind the silver car on the hoist.

Thanks to an EPA certified EPA-certified 108 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) in the city, Ford's new C-MAX Energi has been afforded the title of America’s most fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid.

The compact minivan that shares most of its parts with the regular 47 mpg C-MAX Hybrid adding plug-in capability, also returns 100 MPGe on the combined cycle.

It takes a lot of work and many dedicated people to create any type of vehicle that is to be sold to the public, but trying out some cars can be a little bit more enjoying than others, even if we are talking about an SUV.

Unlike their arbeitskolleges at Mercedes-Benz's AMG department who had an unfortunate mishap earlier today with the SLS GT AMG…Toast Edition, BMW's M people were able to keep the upcoming X5 M under control while pushing the performance crossover to its limits on the Nordschleife.

A year ago, Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche sent a letter to his employees claiming that the three-point star brand must regain the top spot that it lost in 2005 in the premium segment.

“We are Daimler – we should be ahead of the pack!” proclaimed Zetsche who added at the time that in no way should they “be content with a solid second or even third place”.

Unfortunately, Mercedes’ global domination plan doesn’t seem to bear fruit. If anything, the company has fallen even further behind BMW and Audi, which are the number one and two premium carmakers in the world respectively.

If you were to begin viewing this video from the 20-second mark and on, you would be excused to think that the driver and his passenger simply parked their beaten up Lada Riva Estate (VAZ-2107) in the middle of the road and left to go on to their work or wherever else they were heading to.

Watch the clip from the start, though, and you will be surprised to learn that a couple of seconds earlier, they had just smashed into the black Toyota Land Cruiser you see sitting behind the Lada!

What could have been a follow up on Monday's news on the sighting of another prototype of Mercedes-Benz's SLS AMG Black Series Edition took a…toastier twist today as the German firm's test car ended up on a guardrail while running on the Nürburgring race track and burned to the ground.

There's not a lot of information about the incident at this time, though, we do know that both the driver and his passenger abandoned the vehicle uninjured before it was engulfed in flames.

The bits and pieces of the SLS AMG Black Series Edition that are scatted on the ground along with the positioning of the car suggest that drive may have lost control smashing into the guardrail with the Gullwing coupe's rear end.

The world's fastest man, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, is putting his name on one of the fastest production cars available today, the Nissan GT-R.

As part of an extended partnership with Nissan, Bolt helped develop a one-off GT-R painted in a gold color embossed with his signature and featuring interior fittings finished in real gold.

Even though Suzuki has already presented a spicy concept of the Swift Sport at the 2011 Geneva Salon, as well as the toned-down, final production model powered by a 1.6-liter petrol engine delivering 134hp (100kW / 136PS), the Japanese marque has prepared another study for the 2012 Australian International Motor Show in Sydney next week (October 19 to 28).

Suzuki tells us that the Swift Sport is a one-off concept designed by the brand's chief engineer Naoyuki Takeuchi.

If anything, Sergio Marchionne is a man who speaks his mind – a bit too often, some might say. Still, the CEO of the Fiat-Chrysler group is deeply concerned about the drop in European car sales and he thinks something should be done about it.

Marchionne, who is also the head of ACEA, the European auto manufacturers’ association, is strongly endorsing the idea that there should be a European Union-led coordinated strategy if the industry is to survive.

“I am concerned that if we don’t find a collective will to resolve this at a European level, it is going to become a permanent crisis”, he said on Wednesday, October 10.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012