Category: Auto Industry

Spy Shots: Next Mercedes C-Class sedan shows its face

Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury

Although our recent spy shots of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class revealed a mostly uncovered look at the sedan’s profile, these latest images give us our best look yet at its front end. Caught performing some hot-weather tests, this sedan is devoid of any major camouflage obscuring the fascia, grille and headlights, showing off what is clearly an E-Class-inspired face.

With its two-bar grille and massive lower intakes – similar to what we’ve already seen on the 2014 E-Class with Sport Styling Package – we wonder if Mercedes is planning to offer the new C-Class with two distinct visual packages. As a refresher, expect to see the redesigned C-Class sedan make its debut at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, followed shortly thereafter by wagon, coupe and convertible variants.

Next Mercedes C-Class sedan shows its face originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jun 2013 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorsports: 24 Hours of Le Mans ends with broken records [spoilers]

Filed under: Motorsports

24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2013 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has come to an end, and the results require the use of an eraser on the old record books. If you don’t want to know how it ended, now would be the time to stop reading, because the results are just below.

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24 Hours of Le Mans ends with broken records [spoilers] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jun 2013 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorsports: Overnight action from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Filed under: Motorsports, Europe, Aston Martin, Audi, Chevrolet, Porsche, Ferrari, Racing

Audi R18 E-tron Quattro at Le Mans 2013

We won’t go into a recap here, but there are still leading positions being fought for in all classes – it’s so close that leads are changing when a car goes into the pits. We’ll let the recap wait until the end of the race, so for now enjoy some shots from last night’s action at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Overnight action from the 24 Hours of Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jun 2013 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Backup camera rule pushed to 2015

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Technology

Once again, the federal mandate for backup cameras has been delayed. According to Automotive News, the rule requiring backup cameras in new cars is being pushed back to 2015, reportedly because regulators are now considering giving safety rating incentives to vehicles equipped with this new technology.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who will be stepping down from his role once a successor is confirmed, said that more analysis of the rule’s cost to the auto industry as a whole is necessary before the mandate is officially issued, Automotive News reports. NHTSA has said that that the cost would be roughly $2.7 billion, or as much as $18 million per life saved.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration delayed its backup camera rules earlier this year (on top of several other setbacks), even though the original plan was to require automakers to outfit at least 10 percent of their cars with this technology by 2012. From there, that number was scheduled to rise to 40 percent by 2013 and 100 percent by 2014.

Backup camera rule pushed to 2015 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jun 2013 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Toyota investing $200M in Southern manufacturing

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota

Over the past two years, Toyota has invested more than $2 billion at its North American production facilities, and it apparently doesn’t plan on stopping there. To keep up with recent strong sales, Toyota is investing an additional $200 million at its engine plants in the Southern US to increase production capacity of its V6 engines.

The bulk of this money ($150 million) will go to expand Toyota’s engine plant in Huntsville, AL, which is currently responsible for supplying engines – four-cylinder, V6 and V8 – to eight of Toyota’s 12 domestically produced vehicles. That includes the best-selling Toyota Camry (shown above).

Toyota didn’t say exactly what improvements are being made to the plant, but this follows last year’s $80 million investment in the plant that is set to be completed by next year raising the engine capacity to 750,000 annual units including 362,000 V6s. The remaining $50 million will go to the casting plants of Toyota-owned Bodine Aluminum in Missouri and Tennessee, which supply engine blocks and cylinder heads to the Huntsville engine plant as well as others in Kentucky and West Virginia. Scroll down below for the official press release.

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Toyota investing $200M in Southern manufacturing originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorsports: The pre-race and first in-race report from Le Mans

Filed under: Motorsports, Europe, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, Racing

The 2013, 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun, tragedy marking the opening laps with the death of Allan Simonsen. We’re at the track now as a guest of Audi and plan to stay through the evening, and even we haven’t been able to find out what caused the accident – the only video is from just after the incident, and beyond the statement from ACO there’s been no more news. The Aston Martin in the LM GTE Am class and its all-Danish drivers had taken pole in its class and was one of the favorites to win.

The pre-race report will come first, and even thought we can’t spoil the race because we’re only five hours into it at the time of writing, we’ll put all of the news at the end in case you don’t even want the updates.

Or you can go straight to the high-res galleries above.

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The pre-race and first in-race report from Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Watch this tuned VW van break Sabine Schmitz’s record

Filed under: Motorsports, Minivan/Van, Videos, Diesel, Racing

We tend to get hot and bothered when a production car sets a newly minted lap record around the incomparable Nürburgring Nordshleife, but records for other types of vehicles tend to fly beneath the radar. Thank God then that we’ve got the Germans to pay attention to these things on our behalf.

Volkswagen tuning outfit Revo had such a record in mind when it started to hot-up a VW T5 2.0 turbo diesel van to make a record ‘Ring run. The target was a lap turned in by none other than the Queen of the Ring herself, Sabine Schmitz – a 10:08-lap done in a Ford Transit van for the guffawing audience of Top Gear.

Revo changed the stock ECU map on the T5, fitted a custom exhaust and an uprated intercooler and oil cooler, underpinned the whole deal with a Bilstein coilover kit and set to racing. The final product was just racy enough, in the capable hands of veteran driver Dale Lomas, to finish its lap some 11 seconds quicker than the former record. Circumnavigating the Nordshleife in under 10 minutes in a commercial diesel van is, of course, bonkers, which is as good a reason as any to watch the video of the run below.

Continue reading Watch this tuned VW van break Sabine Schmitz’s record

Watch this tuned VW van break Sabine Schmitz’s record originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 19:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumormill: Jaguar working on 700-hp, 200-mph hybrid F-Type?

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Hybrid, Performance, Jaguar, Rumormill

2013 Jaguar F-Type - front three-quarter view

After first driving the 2014 Jaguar F-Type in Spain this spring, we came away mighty impressed. Of course, if you had to pin us down for a top three wish list of what improvements we’d like to see, we’d probably hit you with something like: 1) Less weight. 2) Less weight and 3) Less weight. Oh, and if we’re feeling presumptuous, maybe some additional transmission choices.

Despite leveraging aluminum for the body and chassis, this Jaguar is still a bit of a fat cat compared to its rival models from Porsche. We never felt like it was lacking for power in any of its three supercharged trims, least of them the 495-horsepower V8 S, which is a genuine madman. We knew the variants would come, though – a quick look at the rest of Jag’s lineup provides all the evidence you need of that. And so we’re not surprised to see word of a hyper-powered F-Type on the horizon, an R-S version. What is surprising, however, is a new report that put its motivation at over 700 horsepower and its top speed at 200+ mph. Us? We’re just hoping the latter figure comes at least partially as a result of a hardcore diet.

This F-Type R-S news comes according to the rumormongers at AutoExpress, who expect the high-power Brit to come in coupe form, at least initially. We still haven’t seen the debut of the fixed-head F, but plenty of spy shots suggest its arrival is imminent. Wildly, AE posits that Jag won’t look for more displacement to gain power, it will instead radically downsize by using a 1.6-liter turbo- and supercharged four-cylinder and an array of electric motors. If that sounds familiar, that’s because AE suggests the high-tech powertrain will be scavenged from the defunct C-X75 supercar program (interestingly, earlier reports suggested this combination would only deliver about 500 horsepower).

AutoExpress says we’re in for a bit of a wait before the F-Type R-S checks in, likely 2016 or later. Intriguing as it all sounds, we won’t exactly be holding our breath…

Jaguar working on 700-hp, 200-mph hybrid F-Type? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Self-transforming Camaro robot unveiled at Tokyo Toy Show

Filed under: Japan, Videos, Chevrolet, Toys/Games

Never doubt the ingenuity of toy makers. Unveiled at the 2013 Tokyo Toy Show, toy-maker Takara Tomy has created a real-life transforming Chevrolet Camaro, although it isn’t named Bumblebee. Along with Hasbro, Takara Tomy created the Transformers toys from decades past, and we can only imagine how much cooler our childhoods could have been if the Transformers we owned back then could have actually transformed on their own.

According to Gizmag, this Transformer is controlled using an iPhone, and it can switch from a Camaro – albeit not the prettiest we’ve ever seen – to a robot using “more than a dozen” servos. It looks like the car is able to drive, but the transformed robot is unable to walk or move. No word yet as to when this toy will go on sale or how much it will cost, but you can watch the transformation take place in the video posted below.

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Self-transforming Camaro robot unveiled at Tokyo Toy Show originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorsports: Allan Simonsen dies after crashing in fourth lap at Le Mans

Filed under: Motorsports, Aston Martin

Allen Simonsen Aston Martin at Le Mans

Allan Simonsen - Le Mans driver killed in 2013 raceDanish racing driver Allan Simonsen has died as a result of injuries sustained during a crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. According to race officials, the 34-year-old was in serious condition after the accident and was immediately rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly thereafter.

The incident took place on the fourth lap of the race. Simonsen, a seven-year veteran of Le Mans racing, spun about 10-minutes into the race, hitting safety barriers at the Tertre Rouge bend.

The No. 95 Aston Martin that Simonsen co-drove along with teammates Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen has officially retired from the race. Our condolences to all those close to Simonsen.

A video showing the first 10 minutes of the race can be found below, though be advised that it ends with the Simonsen’s accident, along with an official statement from race’s governing authority, Automobile Club de l’Ouest.

Continue reading Allan Simonsen dies after crashing in fourth lap at Le Mans

Allan Simonsen dies after crashing in fourth lap at Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jun 2013 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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