Today hasn’t been a particularly taxing day, but damn if it hasn’t felt like a Friday. I thought it was just me, but no, my whole family agrees. So, with that in mind, we’ll do Video Friday 24 hours early. This is six minutes of the glory days of DTM, featuring E30 M3s and Mercedes 190Es in all their boxy glory.
[Source: Jalopnik]
Just as the 2012 Mini Countryman prepares for launch, Mini has announced that they’re going to start work on a three-door version of the small crossover. BMW is hinting that they could aim the Countryman three-door squarely at the 2012 Land Rover Evoq.
If you’re going to build the Countryman, we have to say we like the idea of a three-door version. Having essentially a Mini Cooper S that you could throw at a bumpy gravel road sounds like a hell of a plan to us.
[Source: AutoCar]
Land Rover has already committed to building the 2014 Land Rover Defender and keeping the Defender name plate, but they’re getting down to the wire in terms of putting out some prototypes. You’d think re-doing the Defender would be pretty easy. Couple big boxed frame rails, two live axles, engine choices from four-pot diesel to small V8, big diff and transfer case and done. Apparently, it’s not that simple.
First, LR can’t quite decide on a platform for the new beast. Originally it was going to sit on JLR’s steel T5 frame rails, but now they’ve decided those are too heavy. On top of that, they aren’t sure whether their trick electric rear end really fits the Defender bill. Oh yeah, and they can’t figure out how it’s gonna look, either. Two things they’re sure about: it will be called the Defender and LR is going to start scaling back its involvement with building military vehicles.
[Source: Autoblog]
As the original E83 BMW X3 ceased production in Germany, the new, improved F25 BMW X3 entered production in Spartanburg, SC. The 2011 BMW X3 will be put on sale November 20 in Germany, and will follow here shortly thereafter. Though the original X3 was pretty cool, it isn’t half as gorgeous as the new version.
As always, the second-gen car is a little bigger and a little heavier, but it packs the power to pull the extra weight and should have the same crisp handling the badge is known for. Too bad the dynamics will be lost on doctors’ wives and soccer moms cruising through suburbia.
[Source: BimmerFile]
Sure there are some people who would like to see a new El Camino or a new Ranchero be brought to market by Chevy and Ford, but the sad fact is, they would sell about as many units as a station wagon, less than 5000 units in a year. Like the station wagon the “Ute” as the Aussie’s call them are the dream and desire of auto journalists, one in particular, but for most of America, they’d pass.
Ad to that as well that they would have to be imported from Australia, since the volume would be way to low to produce in a North American plant, between shipping, crash and emissions regulations and currency exchange, it falls solidly into the notgoingtohappen.com category. If you want to drive a Ute, you will have to take a trip to Australia and hope that you can rent one.
So the Ford Performance Vehicles GS Boss 5.0 315 Ute comes about from the new 5.0 four cam Ford motor that has been massaged with different cam timing, a lowered compression ratio and the addition of a Eaton Supercharger. This is a different supercharging unit than the just announced Ford dealer installed unit. The Ute will have two power levels, a base unit that outs out out 428 horsepower (315 kW, hence the name Boss 315) and 402 ft/lb of torque, the higher output engines gets 456 hp and 421 ft/lb of torque.
Get it while you can down under, because as Alan Mullaly announced at the NAIAS in January, the “One Ford Strategy” will see the phase out of the Falcon rear drive platform down under in 2015, after that the Falcon will be based on the front drive Taurus platform. The Aussie’s, who really do like their V8′s will be none to happy about that.
[Source: PickupTrucks.com]
A 3D model of the new F1 track in Austin, Texas was revealed yesterday, and if you were expecting the usual goat fornication effort from Herman Tilke, you won’t be too disappointed. While he has borrowed some section from famous tracks, Silverstone, Hockenheim, you can still see the expected non-flowing nature of his designs in two thirds of the track.
The 3.4 mile track will have 20 turns and 133 feet of elevation changes, including a dramatic climb to turn one. From the apex of turn one through turn six the track looks like it has a nice rhythm, but after that most of the corners are very jagged, and after the back straight it’s very stop and start. Lets hope that it’s better in reality than it is on paper.
A bit of good news for the motorcycle crowd is that 1993 500GP champion Kevin Schwantz is a consultant to the track and is trying to make sure that there is enough run off room on the track so that bikes can be safe there. The rumor is that in 2012, the second US MotoGP round will move from Indy to Austin.
[Source: Autoblog]
We are beginning to hear more and more about Mazda’s next generation of four cylinder engines, the Sky-G (gasoline) and the Sky-D (diesel). Said to have a minor drop off in power for a major improvement in economy, the Sky-G will be the first implementation of an HCCI combustion process that we know of in a major production car that we know of. HCCI promises diesel like mileage while burning gasoline.
It’s a fairly complex bit of engineering which includes running a compression ratio of 13:1 for U.S. engines and 14:1 for Japan and the EU. All of this means that the Mazda3 should get 30mpg city and 40mpg highway, or about what the diesel VW Golf and Jetta get. It’s also the same mileage as the new Ford Fiesta, yet it’s the same size at the 2012 Focus.
The Sky-D boosts fuel economy by 20 percent over the current, 2.2 liter diesel and meets Euro 6 and U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions standards without using any NOx aftertreatment such as urea injection. The good news in all of that is the U.S. part in that Mazda designed and built be be able to sell in the U.S. beginning in 2012. Since Mazda doesn’t have anything in the pipeline for hybrids or plug-ins, diesels are going to be their strategy to boost mileage to meet future CAFE regulations. The first application for the Sky-D will be a refreshed Mazda6, and Mazda are talking fuel economy numbers of 31-33 city and 43 highway. Output for the diesel is more than gas engine in both power and torque, 173 hp at 4500 rpm and 310 lb/ft at 2000.
[Source: Car & Driver]
When we posted how bad the Top Gear USA looked and that we didn’t hold high hopes for the show, there were three responses, (a) you are correct, (b) Top Gear wasn’t that good it’s first couple years, (c) you think you can do better?
To answer (b) first, I have every show of every season of Top Gear on my hard drive, and while the first season wasn’t what we know Top Gear to be today, it was still very solid. As to (c), why yes, I know I can, where do you want me to send my demo reel to!
The second clip to be put out by The History Channel doesn’t make me think much different. In fact, it makes me more pessimistic. There are multiple people in the comments thread talking about how they never thought a review of three Lamborghini‘s could be boring.
As always, we’ll post the video after the jump, and let us know what you think in our comments section.
[Source: Inside Line]
Apparently Tata Motors has adopted Jaguar’s peevish policy of rendering, showing off and not building a seriously sexy sports car concept every few months. We aren’t complaining too much, given Jaguar’s propensity for churning out some real-life sexy sports cars. Still, we really wish they’d let us have some version of this coupe-now-roadster-now-coupe-again concept, which has come and gone since 1998.
The latest iteration is a slick-looking fast back, which would do nicely as the aging Jaguar XK’s replacement, which is promising, we guess. One of these days, they’ll get the bug up their behind and build one of these suckers, and we’ll all be grateful. Patience is a virtue.
[Source: PistonHeads]
Just as we get news that the 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia has to be recalled on the flimsy pretext that, you know, they catch fire all the time. Hopefully they’ll have that little nastiness figured out by the time this rumored beauty drops. Right on the heels of the 2011 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano Roadster rumor comes the 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia GTS.
Like the 308 GTS and 355 GTS, the rumored Ferrari 458 Italia GTS will be a targa-style removable hard top. As far as we’re concerned, this thing is way sexier than the 599 drop top, thought that car has been all but confirmed, and this one is still a photoshop hack job. Still, in the world of high-end supercars, vicious rumors have been known to come true.
[Source: Axis of Oversteer]
