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Quick Spin: 2013 Mercedes A45 AMG 4Matic [w/video]

Filed under: Performance, Europe, Videos, Hatchback, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury, Quick Spins

United States customers desiring one of the new smaller AMG models from Mercedes-Benz will really enjoy their 2014 CLA45. It’s swift, authoritative, more alive in your hands than any other AMG model has ever been, and it’s the only compact practical AMG you’ll ever be able to get anyway.

Little ghost-like leaks keep on happening from some apparent “source” in Germany, telling young cub reporters from the US that the A-Class hatchback range is also coming to the land of hashbrowns. The way we read it, the A-Class, however, will never come to the States, folks, at least not in this decade, anyway.

More’s the pity, because, as we and all others noticed at the recent drive event in Germany, for both the A45 and the CLA45, it’s the hatch that truly pulls no punches on dynamism. The CLA has clearly been massaged to be just a touch to be more civil than the excitingly bratty A45.

Driving Notes

As we said in the recent First Drive for the CLA45, the A45 is a decidedly different concoction from the usual straight-line marauders of the AMG lineup. The chassis is dramatically more alive and communicative, and we really like it.
From now on, AMG is putting some form of 4Matic traction under every car. That means some compromises – good and not so – will happen. In this case, the hang-on all-wheel-drive unit creates a much more capable sporting drive versus a straight front-wheel-drive setup.
That said, some people who talk like they’ve driven the car will shower both the A45 and CLA45 with their prejudiced derision. They’ll proclaim – no matter what we say – that these are cheapo overpriced front-drive Euro econoboxes. It also means that there’ll be more of these great cars for those of us who dig ’em.
While we dashed around on roads and Autobahn, our track time for this event was relegated to AMG Performance chassis-prepped A45 AMG Edition 1 units, a limited-run setup for Europe that pimps the ride out to around €57,000 base price (roughly $75,000 due to exhilarating European taxation policies and an overvalued Euro). Ride along for a spot of this action, in the video below.
Realistically, an A45 would need to start at around $45k in the US. The fully tricked Edition 1 as at this track, however, would bring about $60k for starters. Enough to make American blog comments go ballistic.
The optional matte Mountain Grey Designo exterior paint and darkened multitudinous-spoked 19-inch AMG wheelset of our street-tester A45, go together like ham and eggs. This unit had everything on it apart from the Edition 1 trickery and overly excited aero bits, and we think it’s all the better for it.
The experts on hand at this drive event finally admitted that the ratings of the elasto-kinematics fore and aft of the suspension were, in fact, different for the A45 versus the CLA45. The handling that is possible with the hatch is pure premium hot and it’s a sensation we’ve never had before in an AMG.
Mercedes conservatively claims a 0-62 miles per hour acceleration time of 4.6 seconds for the A45, but we’re certain a 4.2 will be possible and repeatable.
This M133 2.0-liter motor is a remarkable piece of work, and it meshes really well with the seven-speed AMG dual-clutch, with shift action that is equal to that in the SLS AMG GT. A manual six with good heel-and-toe pedal placement would have been entertaining, but the automated DCT is hot stuff.

The 2013 Mercedes A45 AMG has already gone on sale in its initial markets in Europe and it is bound to be a popular with compact-performance addicted Europeans. People can say whatever they want about the front-drive chassis, but in Europe, this is how compact sportsters roll, and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this exact car on the World Rally Championship circuit by next year. The hang-on 4Matic unit is a solid solution for this niche-monger car, and we regret only that we will never drive it on our favorite Stateside highways and byways.

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2013 Mercedes A45 AMG 4Matic [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Drive: 2014 Audi RS7 [w/video]

Filed under: Performance, Hatchback, Audi, First Drives, Luxury

Stunning Sportback Gets The Performance To Match

2014 Audi RS7

Saying the 2014 Audi RS7 Sportback is not as good as the not-for-North-America Audi RS6 Avant we recently tested is a bit like saying one more strip of crispy bacon would make our Waffle House All-Star Special breakfast even more special. The RS7 goes to ten while the RS6 goes to eleven, maybe, but they both rock our world. The RS7 is meant for the far wider buying audience worldwide, not just for western European family bombing runs, as with the RS6 Avant.

But, hey, this RS7 simply hurtles down the road in a singularly sexy way. And if you really want this bodystyle – and who could blame you? – the RS6 Avant doesn’t really even matter anyway. After a full day on perfect dry and warm Swabian two-lanes driving this Audi very hard, we barely thought about it at all.

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2014 Audi RS7 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Drive: 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class [w/video]

Filed under: Sedan, Technology, Videos, Mercedes-Benz, First Drives, Luxury

Technology Meets Magic In The New Standard Bearer

If you’re like us, you’ve been eagerly awaiting this car for the better part of 10 years. No, not the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class specifically, but rather the technology underneath it. Perhaps you remember the Bose active suspension system? Yes, Bose – a company better known for overpriced audio equipment – revealed an amazingly sophisticated automotive suspension system about a decade ago, demonstrating it via a pair of 1994 Lexus LS luxury sedans. One LS was fitted with the system, and the other went without. The two could be seen on split-screen video performing a battery of ride and handling exercises, with the Bose car experiencing remarkably little body roll and head toss thanks to its network of electromagnetic motors and microprocessors. It was as if the car looked at the road ahead and the suspension used that data to actively counter inputs and keep the chassis level and drama-free. Bose revealed the technology back in 2004, but it had been working on the technology since the Carter Administration. We’ve seen active suspensions before and since, but even now, the Bose’s performance seems positively next-level, with body control that boggles the mind. And that’s before the jump at the end of the video presentation.

As it turns out, the Bose demonstrator car was keyed to the course it ran in the video – it wasn’t examining the road at all, it was preprogrammed to expect those surface conditions. This might explain why a decade on, we still haven’t been able to buy such a system in a production car. It’s that missing anticipatory quality – the road scanning – that hasn’t happened. Until now. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class features just this sort of technology, though the suspension itself shares nothing with Bose’s architecture. Daimler’s so-called Magic Body Control combines the S-Class’ hydraulic Active Body Control (ABC) suspension with stereoscopic twin cameras mounted ahead of the rearview mirror to scan ahead and relax or firm up the suspension in preparation for the road surfaces ahead. Hitting your first speed bump with the system activated is nothing short of spooky – the Michelins feel for all the world like they’re sluicing through the traffic-calming nuisance as if it’s made of room-temperature brie. Like it isn’t even there. You’ll laugh and clap – we did.

The Michelins sluice through the traffic-calming nuisance as if it’s made of room-temperature brie.

Yet this brand of Magic has its limitations: it only works during the day, foul weather can cause the system to pack up (if the camera gets blocked by snow, for instance) and it’s really most effective over large disturbances like the aforementioned speed bump, as it’s not yet quick-witted enough to catch subtler potholes and such. Oddly, it also only works with ABC set to Comfort Mode – if you choose Sport you’re on your own. Most of the time, the system feels like a conventional luxury car, which is to say very well behaved, but not entirely sporty. The world’s wealthy who toil in city centers where speed bumps are all too common will have cause for rejoice, but this is not yet the revolution the Bose presentation conditioned us to expect all those years ago.

So, on some level, Magic Body Control falls short of what we imagined, but the same can’t be said for the rest of this W222-Series Benz. While it shares the basic powertrain and similar dimensions of its predecessor, this S-Class couldn’t feel more new. That fact was rammed home by my 250-mile drive from Greater Detroit to the car’s international launch in Toronto in the outgoing 2013 S550. A perfectly fine luxury sedan and not the segment’s perennial volume leader by accident, the W221 nonetheless feels positively antiquated in the face of this new generation.

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2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Mississippi man under fire for fixing potholes using city’s supplies [w/video]

Filed under: Government/Legal, Videos

Potholes, also known as the bane of every motorist’s existence, are a huge problem in many cities. One resident in Jackson, Mississippi got fed up with the constant bumps and craters in his city’s roads, and took matters into his own hands.

The self-proclaimed Pothole Patchman, the secret identity of one Ron Chane, appropriated city asphalt to repair 100 of the city’s potholes over the course of five evenings.

Naturally, the government isn’t pleased with this, but only because Chane took the city’s asphalt without “going through the proper legal channels,” Mayor Chokwe Lumumba said in a press release. As Chane sees it, he’s putting the asphalt “back where it belongs.”

Asked by The Clarion-Ledger about the Pothole Patchman, many residents saluted an average citizen taking municipal matters into his own hands. After each repair, Chane tagged the potholes as “Citizen Fixed.” But because he’s taking city resources without permission, the Patchman recognizes the trouble he could be in saying, “Some people say I could be arrested.” Here’s hoping cooler heads prevail… Scroll down to see the news report.

Continue reading Mississippi man under fire for fixing potholes using city’s supplies [w/video]

Mississippi man under fire for fixing potholes using city’s supplies [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Toyota brings TRD Griffon GT86 to Goodwood [w/video]

Filed under: Concept Cars, Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, Toyota, UK

In the midst of the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, there’s a particularly special Toyota running up the hill. This special entry is a GT86 (the cousin to our Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ) that’s been poked, prodded, and tweaked by the minds at Toyota Racing Development. The result of TRD’s fettling is a nearly race-ready car.

Starting with the body, the hood, doors, trunk lid, and wings are all made of carbon fiber. The lightweight treatment doesn’t end there, though. The bumpers, fenders, and diffuser all feature carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, while the windows are now made of polycarbonate plastic.

Under the hood sits the same 2.0-liter boxer engine found in the standard GT86, but its six-speed manual gearbox features a shorter final drive ratio for improved acceleration. The coilover suspension has been firmed up, and a TRD mechanical limited-slip differential replaces the Torsen unit. The TRD Griffon rides on TWS 18-inch wheels and Yokohama Advan tires. To bring proceedings to a stop, TRD has fitted its own mono-block caliper kit, complete with more robust racing pads.

Finally, the cabin features a TRD seat, shift knob, ignition button, auxiliary gauges, and a Momo steering wheel. A Takata harness keeps the driver in place.

To see what all that looks like on the move, Toyota has produced a rather stylish video.

Continue reading Toyota brings TRD Griffon GT86 to Goodwood [w/video]

Toyota brings TRD Griffon GT86 to Goodwood [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Jul 2013 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Bentley releases official Continental GT3 details [w/video]

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Bentley, Racing

It’s been almost a year since we first laid eyes on the Bentley Continental GT3, but this race-bred Continental GT is finally ready to show off its moves. After debuting last year at the Paris Motor Show, the Continental GT3 makes its racing debut today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed before competing in the FIA Blancpain Series next year.

While Bentley released some of the car’s details last month, we now have all we need to know about this car such as its curb weight of less than 2,866 pounds, its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 packing 600 horsepower and four-way adjustable suspension dampers. The exterior of the car stays true to the design of the Continental GT but has been given a once over to improve aero, and the interior has been stripped down to the bare essentials for racing. This doesn’t mean that all luxury was thrown out the window, though, as the Continental GT3’s steering wheel, door pulls and seat are all covered in hand-stitched leather. Scroll down for the official press release as well as a video showing the car in action.

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Bentley releases official Continental GT3 details [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Jul 2013 13:29:00 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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Review: Grid 2 [w/video]

Filed under: Toys/Games

Shut Up And Drive The Car

Grid 2 - screencap

Grid 2 for XBox 360 - commercial packaging Codemasters’ Grid 2 was waiting for me at home when I returned to Ann Arbor from Los Angeles, after attending my first ever E3 this year. I was worried.

Of course I’d been thrilled weeks before when I’d gotten confirmation that I’d receive a loaner copy of the game to take out for a spin, and I’d certainly been stoked to play it since I’d first started seeing preview trailers and teasers show up on YouTube. But, having just spent a few days driving the newest and hottest upcoming racing games on a pair of next-generation consoles that I was sampling for the first time, my concern was that my expectations would be off for the Grid 2 experience on my lowly Xbox 360.

The truth is that developers are still squeezing more and more performance out of current gaming platforms, and this Codemasters effort oozes good design and nuanced graphical work, despite being behind the frames-per-second and ultra-detail pace set by upcoming Xbox One and Playstation 4 titles. And, because gameplay is satisfying just as soon as one boots up Grid 2, the demos and delights of E3 were quickly in my rearview.

Grid 2 is clearly standing on the shoulders of some great work from one of the studio’s big releases from last year, F1 2012. Influence from the racing title can be seen in the elegant and easy-to-navigate menu design, loading screens enriched with live-updated player stats (kilometers raced, average finishing position, top speed achieved, etc.), and most prominently with the in-game environments. From breezy and sun-soaked coastal roads to the million-points-of-light nighttime races at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit, G2 has created some of the best lighting design I’ve ever encountered in a racing game. (For a sample, scroll down to the bottom of the article for some game play video from our friends at Joystiq.) Overall detail for the tracks and surrounding worlds is not as dense or pixel-perfect as other top-tier racing games, but Grid 2‘s flowing, rich style is sometimes more attractive (especially when seen at speed during a race) in the same way that an oil painting is often more interesting to look at than a photograph.

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Grid 2 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video]

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, TV/Movies

With the advent of the DVR and streaming videos, companies are no longer able to rely on commercials to get their products in front of television viewers. Many companies, including automakers, have found an easy way to get around this by using product integrations. While product placement can be as subtle as a car used in a scene or in the backdrop of the show, product integration is essentially a mini commercial built into show’s script.

According to a new report by Automotive News, these integrations can command millions of dollars for the right television show or movie, and while these practices can be very hush-hush with few details ever being announced, the trend is definitely growing. Take the USA Network show Burn Notice, for example. The video posted below shows a Hyundai Genesis Coupe having some of its highlights broken down during a scene of the show. Many other popular shows use such ad strategies including Modern Family with Toyota and Glee with Chevrolet (the latter of which spawned a Super Bowl commercial), to say nothing of more overt sponsorship arrangements like American Idol and its long-running deal with Ford. Scroll below for a couple examples of these product integration deals.

Continue reading Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video]

Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla loan payoff opens up takeover scenario, is Google interested? [w/video]

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors

‘Tesla needs to prove success is sustainable and that it is based on a solid financial foundation. If they do, they should be an appealing takeover target.’

Buried in the loan agreement text between Tesla Motors and the US Department of Energy were restrictions on the automaker’s ability to offer itself for sale. Now that the loan has been paid back early, speculation is ramping up that the company will get snagged by a bigger fish through a sale or a takeover. Bloomberg, in fact, is wondering aloud if Google will take the bait.

Now, before anyone gets all excited that the giant touchscreen in the Model S will get a clever logo redesign every holiday, we’ve heard unlikely rumors about other companies buying Tesla before (for example, Google’s competition, Apple) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said repeatedly that he isn’t going to step down any time soon. In fact, he told Bloomberg last month, “I’ve said from the very beginning, from the creation of Tesla, that our goal is to create a compelling mass-market car. I would not consider stepping away from Tesla until we’re there. We’re several years away obviously.”

Right now might be a bad time to buy the company anyway, given TSLA stock’s high value (over $100 today). In fact, Bloomberg has calculated that Tesla is trading for 816 times(!) its estimated 2013 earnings. If things continue to go well, money-laden companies like Google or another automaker might be interested in the EV builder. The former deputy CEO of Chrysler and onetime Toyota dealer body guru, Jim Press, told Bloomberg that, “Tesla has developed an appealing and credible product with game-changing technology. They need to prove their success is sustainable for the long term and that it is based on a solid financial foundation. If they do, they should be an appealing takeover target.”

Currently, Musk controls about 24-percent of Tesla shares. There are more details in the Bloomberg article here and there’s a video bit of speculation below.

Continue reading Tesla loan payoff opens up takeover scenario, is Google interested? [w/video]

Tesla loan payoff opens up takeover scenario, is Google interested? [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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