CARS COOPS DEVIANT ART: 2011

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Save of the Day: Russian Driver goes to Hell and Back

If there was ever a lucky driver, it’s the Russian owner of this compact-sized silver sedan, which may or may not be a Lada. The protagonist of the video clip shot from an in-car camera went to hell and back again, when he foolishly attempted to overtake a vehicle without taking into consideration the situation ahead of him.

What do you do to improve the image of a vehicle that looks like the BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo? Well, the painful answer to that question would be to head back to the drawing board. However, given that this is not an option for a model launched less than two years ago, BMW thought of spicing it up with the always welcome M Sports package.

Spied here in Germany, the prototype model of the 5-Series GT with the M Sports treatment gains new, lower front and rear bumpers, deeper side skirts and larger alloy wheels in a different design.

As is the case with all M Sports Packages, we can expect minor tweaks in the interior with a three-spoke steering wheel, sports seats, aluminum pedals and door sills, plus bespoke upholstery and headlining.

A couple of mishaps involving private supercars marked this past weekend’s 2011 SuperGT race at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

The first incident occurred on the tarmac during a parade of sports and super cars when an overly enthusiastic but sloppy driver of a winged Porsche Cayman rear-ended a Ferrari 360 as it slowed down in front of the crowd. The red Ferrari then bumped into a silver Ferrari California that was in front of it. You’ll have to jump 52 seconds into the first video to see the very expensive fender benders.

The second mishap took place outside the track as the supercars were leaving. It involved a kitted-out Lamborghini Murcielago and a BMW M5. An eyewitness told Jalopnik that he saw the Murcielago and an BMW M5 chasing each other before the crash. You can see what happened to the Lambo in the video after the break.

After Lotus, Italian supercar makers have another British contender challenging their supremacy. McLaren is the most successful team in Formula 1 after Ferrari, and yesterday opened its first dealership in the most prestigious part of London.

According to a news report from Bloomberg, the British automaker has much broader plans: its managing director, Antony Sheriff, revealed in an interview that McLaren Automotive intends to spend as much as $1 billion in developing and marketing costs to launch 13 new models and variants in the following years to challenge the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Volkswagen will participate with three 450-hp Golf24 cars in one of the most grueling endurance races in the world, the famed 24 hours of Nurburgring that will take place this weekend at the renowned German circuit. Read more »

Citroën Designers to Answer Questions about New DS5 on Facebook

Citroën is the latest carmaker to embrace the power of social media to communicate with its consumer base. The French company announced on Wednesday that it will host a live video web-chat on social networking site, Facebook, allowing the public to ask questions on its upcoming DS5 crossover.

The web-chat will Broadcast live from Citroën’s C_42 building on the Champs-Elysées in Paris between 12pm and 1pm (BST) on Friday, 24 June, with the panel including Pierre Monferrini (Project Manager for DS5), Andy Cowell (Citroën Design Manager) and Frédéric Soubirou (Designer of the Citroën DS5).

VW may have made some headlines with the 2012 Beetle’s appearance on Britney Spears’ latest music video, but when it comes to product placement, the Germans are no match to General Motors.

The General’s say (or is that pay?) is so strong in the movie industry that the Detroit company was able to convince the makers of the Transformers franchise to have a 2011 Chevy Camaro play the role of Bumblebee instead of the original VW Beetle.

The Australian pickup truck market will soon welcome a new player in the 1-tonne segment, courtesy of China’s ever-growing automotive industry. Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd, more commonly referred to as BFC or simply Foton, is a subsidiary of China’s more widely known BAIC and will be represented in the country by Sydney based Australian automotive distributor, WMC Group.

The WMC Group secured the rights to distribute the Foton range of 4x2 and 4x4 utility vehicles with plans for the first vehicles to go on sale in Australia early next year. The Sydney based distributor said Australian Design Rule compliance and testing is currently underway and is due to be finalized within the next two months.

Tuners are leaving no stones unturned to impress buyers willing to dig deep into their pockets. Even the almighty Porsche 911 GT3 can’t escape from their meddling hands. This here creation is named ‘Snowmobile’ for the choice of colors for the exterior and interior, and is the creative work of German audio-specialist Magnat. Read more »

Toyota Presents the Successor to Last Year’s MR2 Study with the New GRMN Sports Hybrid Concept II

At last year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota showcased a concept study of an all-wheel drive hybrid sports car (see here) loosely based on the now obsolete MR2 roadster, developed in partnership with Japan’s GAZOO Racing.

Now the time has come for Toyota to unwrap its successor in the form of the GRMN SPORTS HYBRID Concept II that will receive both its public and racing debut at this weekend’s highly anticipated 39th Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race in Germany.

The name “GRMN” stands for GAZOO Racing tuned by Meister of Nürburgring, in honor of the late Hiromu Naruse (1944-2010), the Toyota chief test driver and head of the GAZOO Racing team who died in an accident last summer driving a prototype of the Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition in Germany.

General Motors has released new information on its top-of-the-line 2012 Buick LaCrosse equipped with a new and more potent version of its direct-injected 3.6L V6 engine that joins the freshly released standard 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with eAssist, which we’ve already told you about in a previous article.

For the 2012 model year, the direct-injection 3.6-liter six-cylinder unit has been upgraded with several new features including a different cylinder head design, larger-diameter intake valves in the heads and new, longer-duration intake camshafts.

Ever since Hershey’s chocolates appeared in William A. Wellman’s 1927 Wings movie - the first and only silent film ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, the practice of product placement has become an every day part of our television and cinematic experience.

Volkswagen is one of the many automakers that has adopted this strategy spending millions of dollars each year to place its products not only in movies but in music videos as well. One of our eagle-eyed readers, Dallas Howell, noticed the product placement of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle in Britney Spears’ brand-new, paparazzi-bashing "I Wanna Go" music video.

The new high-riding Citroën DS4 has arrived in Britain and is available for pre-order now, with first deliveries to take place on July 4, 2011. The five-door crossover model is available with three trim-levels (DSign, DStyle and DSport) and a choice of five Euro 5 compliant engines, with on-the-road prices ranging from £18,150 to just under £24,000.

The range includes two diesels, HDi 110HP and HDi 160HP, and three 1.6-liter petrol units that were co-developed with BMW, the VTi 120HP, THP 155HP and a new THP 200HP.

The world’s toughest 24-hour race at the Nurburgring circuit this weekend will see Aston Martin entering a bevy of sports cars led by not one but two specially prepared racing examples of the freshly revealed V12 Zagato Concept.

Based on the existing V12 Vantage chassis, the concept model was designed by Italian coachbuilder Zagato to celebrate its partnership with Aston Martin in the 50th anniversary year of the DB4GT Zagato. The prototype received its public debut at the Concorso D’Eleganza at Villa D’Este in May this year, winning the Design award for Concepts and Prototypes.

Lotus has lofty aspirations for its all-new supercar, the Esprit, which was presented as a concept at last year’s Paris motor show along with four other concepts. According to the company’s CEO, Dany Bahar, the new supercar will be launched in 2013 and will offer a “more authentic driving experience than both the Ferrari 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4-12C”.

Bahar revealed that development of the the new Esprit is already under way, with prototypes up and running.

SCOOP: 2012 Mercedes-Benz B-Class MPV Caught…White-Handed

Our team of spy photographers have snagged the production version of the upcoming 2012 Mercedes-Benz B-Class dressed in a see-through plastic wrap as the car was being loaded off the transportation truck.

Clearly descended from the current-generation of Stuttgart’s mini-MPV model, the new B-Class follows a more conservative styling language than its smaller sibling, the 2012 A-Class, official patent images of which we showed you in May (see here).

The five-seat 2012 B-Class is based on an all-new front-wheel drive platform, dubbed MFA, which features a conventional unibody and replaces the sandwich structure used on the current A and B-Class models.

We’ve already shared initial information and a video on the Mugen-fettled CR-Z that Honda is about to launch at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, but today, the Japanese carmaker came out with all the juicy details, as well as more photos of the sporty hybrid concept.

According to company’s European division, the CR-Z Mugen sets out to prove that hybrid cars can be exciting to drive, with the one-off special producing “Civic Type R-like performance” while also remaining true to the original, eco-friendly character of the run-of-the-mill CR-Z.

Colin Whittamore from Mugen Euro explains the philosophy behind the creation of the CR-Z Mugen:

I want to live in a world designed by Beau Reid. The Floridian futurist and designer makes today’s cutting edge technology look old fashioned. Moreover, his name sounds like the alter ego of a Golden Age superhero. His latest automotive-themed creation is the GK2G (Go Kart 2 Go): a Formula 1-inspired, fold-able kart racer.

Weighing in at a lithe 65 pounds (30 kilograms) thanks to its all carbon fibre construction and lightweight lithium-ion batteries, the all electric concept has a theoretical top speed of 60 mph (100 km/h).

We can think of many things going wrong during a run in a dragster but having the steering wheel fall off together with the column after launch on such a powerful vehicle is perhaps one of the worst possible scenarios imaginable.

Yet, that is exactly what happened to Russ Parker during a race at an Oregon dragrstip last weekend. “I must say that we are laughing at it now, though at the time it was not so funny,” Parker wrote on his Youtube page.

Follow the break to watch the incident unfold from the in-car video footage.

From the moment BMW introduced the new 1 M Coupe, it was more than evident that the smallest member of the Bavarian firm’s M family would be compared with the brand’s most illustrious product, the M3 Coupe.

Automobile Magazine’s West Coast Editor Jason Cammisa voiced his thoughts on the 1 M Coupe versus M3 debate in a rather amusing way during his first drive of the sports car in California.

The skinny? “If you want an M badge, go ahead and buy an M3. If you want what an M3 could be, buy one of these things [the 1 M Coupe]”. Follow the break to watch the full video.

Not even Ferrari’s most recent models are exempt from the manic hands of tuners. What we have here are preliminary renderings of what could be the very first tuning job on the freshly revealed, all-wheel drive Ferrari FF supercar. Read more »

Multiple 2011MY Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep Vehicles Recalled to Fix Steering Columns

A dozen vehicles from the three core Chrysler brands covering more than half of the company’s 2011 models are being recalled in the United States to fix a potential problem with the steering column.

The recall covers 11,351 vehicles and affects certain 2011 model year Dodge Journey crossovers, Jeep Wranglers, Chrysler 200s, Chrysler 200 Convertibles, Dodge Avengers, Dodge Nitros, Jeep Liberty SUVs, Dodge Calibers, Jeep Compass crossovers, Jeep Patriots, Dodge Grand Caravans and Chrysler Town & Country minivans.

Say what you want about the Panamera, but fact is the sports saloon model has proved to be a hit for Porsche with the company having delivered close to 10,000 units in the first five months of the year alone.

The Panamera’s success has of course caught the attention of the aftermarket industry with more and more companies jumping on the tuning bandwagon. This here proposal comes courtesy of Afzal Kahn and his crew.

A pair of security cameras mounted inside and outside of a store allegedly located in Mexico (according to the Youtube poster), caught an accident involving a dangerously careless driver of a BMW 1-Series hatchback on film.

The video captured the middle-aged man in the BMW as he slowly entered the parking lot. For some unknown reason, he didn’t come to a stop and continued his way as if there was nothing in front of him.

Once inside the store, the reckless driver (20 seconds into the video) –get this- adjusts his exterior mirror as he puts the car in reverse to exit the shop and almost hits the cashier in the process! Amazingly, no one appears to have been injured. Watch the video footage after the jump.

Seems like the recession isn’t hitting just common people, but is also affecting the market for $200,000-plus supercars. One such example is the Rapide, Aston Martin’s sports sedan, whose sales are falling way off initial expectations.

According to media reports, the British carmaker is cutting back production of the Rapide to 25 cars per week, which translates to 1,250 per year, or 750 less than initial estimates.

With the fifth-generation of the BMW 7-Series limousine codenamed F01 entering its third year in production, it’s time for the Bavarian company to begin readying a mid-life facelift for its flagship model.

Our spies snagged a lightly camouflaged prototype of the 7-Series bearing the ActiveHybrid 7 badges while testing in Germany. Judging by the parts of the car hidden under masking tape, there should be some minor styling changes to the front and rear bumpers as well as to the headlamps and tail light graphics.

Sure, the new MINI Coupe is all the talk now and everyone is buzzing in his or her opinion on the two-seater model. However, if you really want a sporty coupe model that stands out from the crowd look no further than this creation from mother Russia.

Meet the ultimate Audi Coupe that blends an alarmingly shortened chassis and body from an Audi 80 with the front end of an A4 and the wider buttocks of a previous generation A6 sedan.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance is gradually expanding the availability of its Duster small SUV, originally branded as a Dacia, to more international markets. Following the recent presentation of the Renault Duster for the South American region at the Buenos Aires Motor Show, today, the French firm confirmed its launch in India.

To be sold under the Renault marque, the right-hand drive [RHD] version of the Duster will be fully produced at the Renault-Nissan Chennai plant in India and rolled out across the local market in the second half of 2012. The RHD Duster will also be available in the UK starting from next year.

The new two-seat Coupé from MINI has just landed on the internet, but the British firm is already pushing out its new marketing campaign with the release of the first promo clip.

The campaign builds around a new slogan titled “Another Day. Another Adventure.” with the film shot in the style of a movie trailer showcasing the Coupé in exotic locations, such as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Iceland and Hong Kong.

Yesterday, we told you about a recent Las Vegas incident involving the drivers of a Ferrari F430 Spider and a yellow taxicab. In our original story, we wrote that the cabbie “allegedly rear-ended” the Italian exotic. It turns out though that there was no collision between the two cars with the Ferrari driver exploding simply because the cabbie cut him off.

Patrick Fritz, the person who filmed the video outside of Fry's Electronics, came in contact with Carscoop and detailed the events that eventually led to the Ferrari driver punching the cabbie.

Here’s what Patrick told Carscoop:

“I saw this altercation from the very beginning. The Ferrari was trying to leave the Fry's Electronics parking lot as the Taxi driver pulled in front of him, cutting him off. The Ferrari driver was pissed that he got cut off. There was NO collision.
The Ferrari driver then peeled out as he drove up past the cab and stopped in front of him and began yelling at him for "driving like an a$$hole". Then the Ferrari driver got out of his vehicle and approached the cab driver. That's the beginning of the video.”

This first official promo of the new F10 BMW M5 attempts to give us a more dynamic view of the Bavarian sports saloon with scenes from the track. For some reason though, BMW has masked most of the video with a dramatic but redundant music soundtrack since most of us are interested in hearing the sounds of the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine. Read more »

Nissan Working on New Hybrid System for Front-Wheel Drive Models

Earlier this month, we reported on Nissan’s plans to drop the Altima Hybrid from its lineup at the end of the 2011 model year because of poor sales in the States as well as the fact that it uses a hybrid system borrowed from its chief Japanese rival, Toyota.

On Monday, Japanese business daily Nikkan Kogyo said that Nissan has already began work on a new hybrid system for front-wheel drive cars that will be based on the firm’s rear-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain that launched in the 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid.

New MINI Coupe Debuts in Production Trim: 65 High Res Photos and Pricing

No more hiding under conceptual suits and swirly camouflage for MINI’s all-new 2012 Coupé as the firm’s parent company, the BMW Group, officially lifted the veil off the production model on Monday. The sportiest-looking MINI to date is a coupe-flavored version of the hatchback with seating strictly for two.

The Coupé’s appearance was previewed by the 2009 concept car of the same name and is distinguished by the backwards “helmet roof” design and the more sharply raked A-pillars.

The first “three-box” MINI also sits 52mm or 2.05-inches lower than its three-door hatchback counterpart. Notably, it also features an active rear spoiler that extends automatically at 80 km/h (50 mph) to optimize airflow at highway speeds.

As time goes by, more and more people are uploading videos from the recent Vancouver riots. Perhaps one of the most shocking and appalling incidents was the one that involved the three young females defending their BMW M5 from the mob, and which we showed you earlier in the day.

However, we discovered yet another film of a woman trying to save her vehicle (it looks like an Audi, but we’re not sure). The only difference here is that unlike the BMW incident, some men actually intervened when one of the hooligans tried to take a swipe at her.

And they weren’t the only ones to take a stance against some of the more violent and foolish hockey fans; if you follow the jump, we have a few more clips of men trying to knock some sense (literally…) into the Vancouver rioters.

Last week, Renault upped the ante for front-wheel drive models by setting a new lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife with its more powerful Mégane Renaultsport Trophy.

The 265-horsepower strong special edition posted a lap time of 8 minutes and 7.97 seconds in the hands of Renault test driver Laurent Hurgon, smashing the previous record for a front-wheel drive model held by the older generation Mégane RS R26.R by nine seconds. Buckle up, sit tight and enjoy the record run in the video after the break.

Audi will double the number of SUVs in its range, which currently includes the recently announced Q3 (pictured in the above sketch), plus the Q5 and Q7, with the addition of three new models by 2016, according to a company insider cited by Autocar magazine. The new models will be named Q2, Q4 and Q6, and according to the magazine’s source, will enable the Ingolstadt-based carmaker to cover every niche of the popular SUV segment.

The first addition to Audi’s SUV line-up is said to be the Q4, which will be a sportier version of the existing Q5 designed to compete against Range Rover’s Evoque and to a lesser degree, sister company Porsche’s upcoming Cajun. It is expected to launch sometime in 2014 or 2015.

Argentina’s exports for imports saga continues, with South Korean carmaker Hyundai agreeing to export peanuts, wine, biodiesel and soy flour to offset the US$91 million (€64 million) it added to Argentina’s growing trade deficit in 2010. Partner company / subsidiary Kia has agreed export white goods and plastics for their contribution.

The South American nation’s US$6 billion (€4.19 billion) trade deficit has already led to one Porsche distributor agreeing to export wine and olive products, while similar deals have been struck with carmakers Chery, GM, Peugeot-Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Fiat and Ford.

British fans are getting ready for their National Motorsport Week, and two UK-based Formula 1 teams are each giving two members of the public the unique opportunity to join their pit crews for a day.

Mercedes Petronas GP will randomly select two winners from those who will enter an online competition. The window of opportunity opens today, Monday 20 June, and will close at midnight on Thursday 23 June.

An updated version of the Audi A1 1.6 TDI with increased fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions has been introduced into the British market. The Ingolstadt firm’s engineers optimized the 1.6-liter turbo diesel’s fuel system and engine management software, and as a result, reduced CO2 output from 105g/km to 99g/km, and boosted its combined economy figure from 70.6mpg UK to 74.3mpg UK (equal to 3.8 lt/100 km and 61.9mpg US).

Make no mistake; you can find hooligans in every country and in all sports. The colors and language may change, but there’s a common denominator that crosses all cultural lines: idiocy of the utmost degree and the complete lack of compassion towards fellow human beings.

The huge riots in Vancouver, Canada, after the Canucks' loss last week to the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup, are a prime example of this kind of ill mentality.

We saw several people injured, shops looted and properties destroyed, but this particular incident involving three young women and their BMW M5 sedan, stood out for a great number of reasons. The three women were hopelessly trying to fend off an army of male individuals from kicking, jumping, breaking and throwing whatever they could find on the previous-generation M5 saloon.

It’s one thing describing the incident and another watching these men (if you can call them that…) turning into animals just for the fun of it. And what is even more disturbing is the fact that from all these people surrounding the vehicle, not one person tried to intervene to help these women. Unbelievable…

At a recent event called “Charged 2011 – EV Symposium Silicon Valley”, General Motors’ western region group manager for environment and energy communications, Dave Barthmuss, told Brad Berman from Plugincars that the company may surprise us at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show with a new model, hinting at a plug-in hybrid crossover. Read more »

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