Category: Auto Industry

Video: VW Golf GTI wrung out by Chris Harris

Filed under: Performance, Europe, Videos, Hatchback, Volkswagen, Celebrities

Chris Harris with Mk VII Volkswagen GTI - video screencap

Enthusiasts like nothing more than to crucify modern interpretations of their favorite performance models for failing to live up to some imagined ethos. Even the Volkswagen GTI has suffered its fair share of slings and arrows for growing in size and curb weight. Chris Harris recently spent some time with the all-new MK VII GTI to find out if growing up means giving up on what makes the machine so special.

Judging by his comments, Harris certainly doesn’t think so. Yes, the new GTI is considerably more comfortable than its predecessors, but that’s hardly a bad thing. The multitude of driving modes actually seem to add depth to the car rather than simply try to force one tool to do many jobs, and Harris even finds the machine’s electronic power steering tolerable. As a result, Harris goes so far as to call the Volkswagen GTI “one of the best cars to actually own.” How’s that for high praise? You can watch the video for yourself by scrolling below.

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VW Golf GTI wrung out by Chris Harris originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: The Homer to contest 24 Hours of LeMons

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Videos, BMW, Humor, Racing

The Homer 24 Hours of Lemons racer - video screencap

It’s finally happened. A 24 Hours of LeMons team has built the definitive interpretation of The Homer from The Simpsons for competition in an upcoming race. As you may recollect, The Homer is the fictional car designed by Homer Simpson for his brother’s car company. Designed with a separate compartment for screaming children and other Homer-centric goodies, the animated machine bankrupted its parent company and put Homer’s brother out of a job. Now we get to watch it race other crap cans as it tackles Southern California’s Buttonwillow Raceway on June 29. Scott Chamberlain, Kris Linquist, Reid Conti, Ben Reilly and Mike Yepes will helm the machine, and Jeff Herman serves as the team’s creative director.

The racer is the latest incarnation of a well-abused BMW 3 Series. The team campaigned the same E30 under the “Prickstine” banner as a Chrysler Imperial tribute and “Porcubimmer,” the latter being a riff on the ever-popular joke about the difference between porcupines and BMW models. Never gets old. You can check out a video of the finished Homer below, and be sure to like the team on Facebook to see updates from the race. Now, about that Canyonero…

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The Homer to contest 24 Hours of LeMons originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NYC says taxi drivers can choose hybrids over Nissan ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’

Filed under: Nissan, Legislation and Policy

Right about now, Nissan must be wishing it had a baked-in a shorter development time for its NV200 hybrid. Nissan started production on the taxi version of the NV200 about a year ago and has previously stated it will offer a hybrid version out by 2015.

But that’s late enough that the Japanese automaker’s foothold on future New York City taxi sales is looser than it otherwise would have been. Last week, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to allow cab drivers to buy their own hybrids as an alternative to the NV200 minivan cab, the New York Daily News reports. Two years ago, the gas-powered NV200 was named by the city government as NYC’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” because of features including available features like a glass roof and on-board cell-phone rechargers, not to mention its roominess and relative fuel efficiency.

The city was set to start pushing for the taxi-fleet switchover in October but has faced legal opposition in recent months from the state’s Supreme Court, which now says the city’s mandate is unenforceable, in part because it doesn’t offer fleet owners a hybrid alternative.

NYC says taxi drivers can choose hybrids over Nissan ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Peugeot family to cede control to GM?

Filed under: Europe, Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Earnings/Financials, Opel, Peugeot

Peugeot Onyx wheel detail

It’s doom and gloom time, folks – PSA Peugeot-Citroën is seriously on the ropes. According to a report from Reuters, citing those ever-so-mysterious “people familiar with the matter,” suggests that the Peugeot family, which currently owns a 25.4-percent stake in the eponymous automaker and 38.1 percent of voting rights, “has now accepted that they will lose control” of the company. The rumormill churns with the possibility that control of Peugeot and Citroen will be handed over to General Motors, which spent $423 million to obtain seven percent of Peugeot last year.

If GM doesn’t accept control of Peugeot, which would require a cash outlay that GM has already said it isn’t going to spend (at least not without assurances that it will be allowed to shutter factories and lay off workers in France and Germany), analysts predict Peugeot will run out of cash before the end of 2013. Peugeot had previously turned to Dongfeng, a Chinese company it has allied with in the industrial sector, for assistance, but those talks have apparently stalled.

What would GM do with Peugeot if it were to make an additional investment? The answer is murky at best, but previous speculation had pinned a slew of shared platforms between the French automaker and GM’s European arm, Opel, along with the consolidation of workforce and manufacturing capabilities. In other words, plant shutdowns, laid-off workers and the expected monetary savings those actions would bring.

The problem with the above scenario, though, is that the French government, which made a controversial investment of 7 billion euros ($9 billion USD) in the automaker’s finance arm to guarantee its loans, is likely to resist large-scale workforce reductions and plant closures within its borders. Doom and gloom, indeed…

Peugeot family to cede control to GM? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: How Fast and Furious 6 should have ended

Filed under: Videos, Celebrities, Humor

Fast and Furious 6 - How It Should Have Ended cartoon parody - screencap

If you’re unfamiliar with HISHE, a.k.a How It Should Have Ended, then bid the rest of your day a fond farewell. HISHE is a popular YouTube channel that produces animated videos depicting how certain movies, well, should have ended. They like to take the logical outcomes that most movies ignore in their plots and follow them to a more humorous end. Their latest subject: Fast and Furious 6.

Available to watch below, the HISHE take on FF6 is the first time this talented team of animators has taken on driving scenes, and while the animation’s level of quality and complexity is purposely on par with something like South Park, we think they lampooned the movie’s biggest plot holes perfectly. World’s longest runway? Check. A bunch of cars versus a tank? Check. Indestructible Dom? Check. They even joke about the backwards timeline, where FF6 technically takes place before the franchise’s third film, Tokyo Drift.

And just to make sure you’re an HISHE fan for life, be sure to check out any of their videos on superhero movies, particularly Batman, and the Super Cafe. Speaking of which, the next movie getting the HISHE treatment is this summer’s blockbuster Man of Steel.

Continue reading How Fast and Furious 6 should have ended

How Fast and Furious 6 should have ended originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Read This: Jeep Cherokee name revival reignites question of cultural insensitivity [w/poll]

Filed under: SUV, Marketing/Advertising, Jeep, Off-Road

2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk - front three-quarter view

The New York Times has published a new story that tackles the issue of ethnically charged product naming, this time in the auto industry. The paper dusts off the discourse because Chrysler has resurrected the Jeep Cherokee moniker for its latest model. Writer Glenn Collins uses the new Jeep as a jumping off point for a merry stroll through the auto industry’s history of culturally insensitive and/or politically incorrect names and advertising.

In the piece, Chrysler representatives say that reusing the Cherokee name isn’t meant to offend anyone, noting that the company hasn’t received any feedback about the name being disparaging. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has said that the group opposes stereotypes and applauds sports teams and schools for dropping offensive mascots, but has stopped short of criticizing the Jeep Cherokee based on its name. Officially, the Cherokee Nation has no stance on the matter, but spokesman Amanda Clinton says “it would have been nice for them to have consulted us in the very least.”

It’s worth noting that “Cherokee” has been an active Jeep product name for decades now (through its more upscale Grand Cherokee range), and the company has long shied away from the sort of imagery and caricatures that have come under fire in the sporting world and elsewhere (e.g. Major League Baseball’s Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians). Here on Autoblog, when the new Cherokee was revealed, many commenters openly groused about the name choice – but not because of its Native American ties. The issue for many, it would seem, is that this new model represents such a radical departure from the long-serving, much-loved XJ generation, that it has been deemed to not be an appropriate fit.

Do you have a problem with Jeep bringing back the Cherokee name because you think it’s culturally insensitive, or is this much ado about nothing? Head over to The New York Times to read the piece for yourself, then vote in our poll below.

View Poll

Jeep Cherokee name revival reignites question of cultural insensitivity [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What an Atlas-based Ford F-150 might look like

Filed under: Concept Cars, Truck, Ford, Design/Style, Off-Road

2015 Ford F-150 rendering

Ford Atlas Concept - dead on front end closeup Just ahead of January’s Detroit Auto Show, surprising rumors pegged Ford as revealing some sort of F-150 concept, perhaps as a hurried effort to deflate some of the buzz building around General Motors’ new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra twins, which were also making their auto show debut. Those rumblings turned out to be true, as Ford rolled into the Motor City with its Atlas concept (inset, right), touting the truck’s bold styling as a precursor to the next-generation F-Series.

The show truck featured all kinds of clever details, including active wheel shutters and a front air dam that raised and lowered to improve aerodynamics while preserving off-road ability. It also had a genuinely snarly face. And it’s that pugnacious snout that may well be on its way to production. The good folks at TopSpeed have worked up the plausible-looking artist’s rendering above by cross-referencing the Atlas concept with what little has been revealed from recent spy shots. The look is toned-down pretty dramatically from the concept truck, but its Atlas roots are clear, with a massive three-bar grille and bracket-shaped headlamps hiding a next-generation EcoBoost engine. In the rendering, the show truck’s deeply contoured hood and roofline have been ditched and larger, more traditional side mirrors have been fitted – all likely concessions in the move to production sheetmetal.

While Ford has yet to officially announce when it will unveil the 2015 F-150, all signs point to next year’s Detroit Auto Show – one year after the Atlas shrugged off GM’s new pickups.

What an Atlas-based Ford F-150 might look like originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quick Spin: Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Special ride-along [w/video]

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Truck, Quick Spins, Racing

Mike Ryan's Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Special drifting on track

It seems as if every type of powered vehicle is attacking the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb these days, each in search of a new record as they climb the 12.42-mile road course to its finish at a gasping 14,110-foot elevation. While the “anything goes” Unlimited class provides plenty of powerful eye candy, the Open class is where we find Mike Ryan and his new Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Special.

Last year at Pikes Peak, the professional stunt driver campaigned a Freightliner and set his seventh record; that time climbing to the top in 12 minutes and 38 seconds. This year, he is back with a big rig that is significantly quicker – and “significantly” just may be an understatement.

We caught up with Ryan at Southern California’s Irwindale Speedway late last week as he was putting his latest creation through shakedown testing for this week’s event. When he offered us a ride, we had no hesitation.

Riding Notes

  • The Pikes Peak Freightliner is nothing like its cross-country load-hauling cousins. Rather, it is a purpose-built beast featuring a custom aluminum-rail frame and carbon-fiber and fiberglass body panels. Even so, it weighs a whopping 10,200 pounds wet.
  • Power comes by the way of a turbocharged 14.0-liter inline-six Detroit Series 60 marine diesel. The seven-foot long engine makes 825 horsepower in stock form, but the team at Gale Banks Engineering have fitted it with an 8.3-liter supercharger in addition to a 110-mm turbocharger (Banks calls it a “Super-Turbo”). But that wasn’t all, as the guys also added a methanol injection system to improve combustion and an intercooler spray system to reduce the intake temperatures. The modified engine, sitting a foot lower and six feet further rearward than stock, now delivers 2,400 horsepower and 5,000 pound-feet of torque – while burning No. 2 pump diesel fuel!
  • The transmission is a five-speed road racing automatic sending its power rearward to a Detroit locker limited-slip differential (permanently locked, so the rear wheels always scrub). The steering rack is from Howe Performance, designed for a Baja Trophy Truck, while the tires are custom-compound sticky racing rubber molded by Michelin to look like stock truck tires.
  • In addition to the 12-gallon diesel tank, there are five other tanks of fluid including 14 gallons of water/methanol for the engine, 7 gallons of water for the intercooler spray and 14 gallons of water to fog the brake rotors for additional cooling – yes, the brakes are water cooled.
  • Climbing into the cab requires a bit of gymnastic ability, and the seating position is startlingly high off the ground if you’re not used to a big rig. Ryan faces a thin plastic steering wheel and a custom aluminum dash chock full of temperature/pressure gauges and switches. Primary instrumentation is a Racepack digital cluster. The transmission control lever, and a separate handbrake just for the rear wheels, sits high between the two bucket seats.
  • The blown diesel engine is startling loud, even at idle, and full throttle (redline is 2,700 rpm) sends it into a whining frenzy. Despite its prodigious power output (weight to horsepower ratio of 4.25:1), acceleration is strong rather than truly brisk. Nevertheless, the two rear wheels have a very difficult time maintaining traction. The throttle response is slightly delayed as the boost builds, but once everything is pressurized, nothing holds it back. Shifting through the gears is surprisingly smooth, mainly because the rear tires had trouble maintaining contact with the track. The throttle response reminds me of a powerful off-shore power boat – a slight delay followed by incredibly strong thrust.
  • Oddly enough, especially after looking at the pictures, the truck doesn’t feel top heavy or unstable. However, Ryan would later run me around the oval at high speed, and the Freightliner fought all of the steering inputs as he attempted directional changes (the locked rear axle caused plenty of scrub/understeer on the front tires). His solution was to break the rear tires free, set the five-ton truck adrift and then point the nose in his desired direction.
  • I found myself hanging on to the cage with white knuckles as the semi floated on self-made molten rubber sliding sideways around the track (scroll down to watch the video). Thick, acrid smoke filled the cabin, making it hard to see, and I was thrown hard against my five-point harness straps (the most violent maneuvers were side-to-side as the tires gained and lost grip as the surface changed). It was crazy fun, but I constantly reminded myself that I was a passenger on a very safe and contained track. Doing the same thing on the treacherous Pikes Peak circuit, with sheer cliffs on each side, feels like it’s bordering on lunacy.

Mike Ryan and his Banks-tuned Freightliner, attack the mountain this week – best of luck to the team.

Continue reading Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Special ride-along [w/video]

Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Special ride-along [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pro-Tesla Motors petition asks White House for direct-sales permission

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Tesla Motors, Legislation and Policy

Tesla store with Model S on display

In what could be an important step in taking Tesla Motors’ fight with various state auto dealer organizations nationwide, a grassroots petition is calling on the White House to let Tesla Motors sell cars directly to customers. The petition was started by a “K.S.” in Stow, MA (CNET identifies him as a fan named Ken). The petition says “state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition,” and that Tesla offers that competition, “which is good for consumers.”

While dealer groups in New York, North Carolina and Massachusetts have suffered setbacks in their attempts to stop Tesla, Texas does prohibit the electric vehicle automaker from offering test drives of vehicle deliveries in that state because all new vehicles there need to be sold through a licensed third-party.

So far, over 18,500 people have signed the petition, but the target is 100,000 by July 5 to force the White House to respond. You can read the petition text below and decide whether or not you wish to sign over at the We The People site. If the petition gets attention from the Obama administration, that still doesn’t mean Tesla will be in the clear, since dealer organizations have decades of experience influencing local governments. As CNBC says, “For many legislators, the message is clear: protect the local auto dealers, and you protect the economy in your district.”

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Pro-Tesla Motors petition asks White House for direct-sales permission originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spy Shots: Porsche 911 GT2 caught testing, is super bad

Filed under: Spy Photos, Performance, Europe, Crossover, Porsche, Luxury

Look what spy photographers have spotted sprinting around the Nürburgring. Our shooters nabbed a few photos of the all-new Porsche 911 GT2 in its native habitat without any of the bulky camouflage or cladding we’re used to seeing. The result is our first truly clear view at the upcoming successor to the GT2 throne. From the looks of it, the new model will boast wider fender arches front and rear, and hefty air intakes set into the machine’s hips should help feed a beastly 3.8-liter flat six-cylinder engine. Early guesses put the engine output somewhere around 560 horsepower.

Mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the engine should propel this rear-engined heathen to 62 miles per hour in under three seconds. Top speed? Try somewhere around 200 mph. If that’s true, the next-generation 911 GT2 will be the fastest 911 in Porsche history.

Porsche 911 GT2 caught testing, is super bad originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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