The Obama administration proposed on Monday two alternatives to the window stickers in new vehicles, including one that would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. Read more.
Machete star Danny Trejo and world-renowned visual artist David Choe get together to create original poster art based on Machete as a tribute. SA Studios was there to capture the unique pairing.
David Choe paints poster of Danny Trejo aka Machete from SA Studios Global on Vimeo.
We used to wonder how many licks it would take to get to the center of Tootsie-Pop. Today, we know how much heat it would take to get to the center of a Ferrari 458. “A warm day, a warm road, and a very hot car,” as told by Ferrari spokespersons. We also know how many disasters it would take to get Ferrari off their duff and do something about the 11 Ferrari 458 Italia’s that have either crashed or burned up in the past few months.
Over $300 million dollars worth of 458 Italia’s are scheduled to go in for recall servicing to remove glue on the heat shield, located on the rear wheel-arches. In total, that’s around 1250 Ferrari’s worth about $256,000 a piece. Ferrari claims the glue is the primary cause of at least five of the fires that have been reported.
What happens, is the combination of a warm day, warm road, and hot car melts this glue, causing the wheel-arch to droop low enough to come into contact with the exhaust pipe. Once that happens, you might as well grab some shrimp and sirloin, because the wheel-arch will be the first to ignite into flames, followed by the entire outer aluminum shell.
The fix involves removing the glue on heat shield, replacing it with metal rivets. All this will be free of charge to the customer (of course), and for those who are stuck with a smoldering pile in their driveway, if they can prove the fire was caused by fault of the wheel-arch, they will be treated to a brand new 458 Italia.
I guess all’s well that ends well!
(Story via MailOnline, Photo via AutoGeSpot)
We don’t usually expect news out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to wake us up a bit. But this…
This has promise.
General Motors has filed a trademark application for the word “Stingray,” used as the name of a car. We know the Corvette’s 60th anniversary is coming up soon. We know the current, seventh-generation ‘Vette, brilliant as it is, has been with us a little too long.
Could the eighth generation be a revival of the classic split-window Stingray?
Cross your fingers. Jalopnik is reporting that Corvette PR rep Dave Caldwell is denying any intent to build a new Stingray. But GM apparently wants to reserve the right. That can’t be a bad thing. (Oh, and don’t get too excited by the photo. That’s a concept from a few years back. Still, we can dream…)
This is, perhaps, the most pointless car ever designed. It is a car from one of the most respected sports car manufacturers in the world…that might do zero-to-sixty in four tries, if you gave it a push and a little bit of a downhill course. It’s a car from one of the world’s most respected engine builders….with a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine.
It is an Aston Martin…built by Toyota.
Whatever. We’re apparently getting it here.
The Aston Martin Cygnet, designed as a runabout for Aston owners who don’t want to take their Vantage to 7-11 for a case of beer, is coming to the United States. That’s the word from the respected industry rag Automotive News.
The Cygnet is built off the tiny Toyota iQ platform, a competitor for the Smart Fortwo overseas. It seats two, makes 100 horsepower under ideal conditions, and yes, has an interior hand-constructed from the finest materials by Aston Martin designers. It also wears that aggressive Aston grille…on it’s tiny, punched-pug face.
No word yet on pricing. Which means there’s still time for them to come to their senses about this.
It has been said that we know only 5 percent of what we will know by the year 2050, and that includes the many ways we could be transporting humans and goods. Let’s look at some of the popular predictions of how transportation may change over the next 30 years. (More after the jump)
Dr. Kay Segler, President of BMW M, slowly peels the slick, black, vinyl covering off his newest BMW 1-Series M Coupe for members of the BMW Blog to see. While this is more of a quarter-monty than the full-monty, we’ll take what we can get.
You know how manufacturers like to drag out their unveiling’s like a Las Vegas burlesque show, and the BMW 1-Series M Coupe has hiked up a good portion of her skirt, revealing a set of ‘M’ Division alloy rims, a new body kit, and a set of quad exhaust tips (shown in video). (More after the jump)
We’ve got some behind-the-scenes shots of Nelly at his “Like A Dream” music video shoot. His 2011 DUB Edition Ford 5.0 Mustang GT makes a cameo in the video! Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton also stopped by to say hi. Be on the look out for the video coming out soon! Gallery after the jump.
The L.A. premiere of Machete all went down in downtown L.A. on Wednesday, August 25 at the historic Orpheum Theatre, with a special parade of 20 lowriders from Lifestyle Car Club, all handpicked by Mister Cartoon. Machete star Danny Trejo led the procession on a custom motorcycle. Co-stars Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez seemed right at home riding shotgun in classic cars, waving to fans while paparazzi snapped photos. Director Robert Rodriguez was on hand to introduce, while Don Johnson and Cheech Marin, members of the film’s supporting cast, were also there in support of the film. Check out more coverage at jaebueno.wordpress.com
Labor Day weekend is almost here and consumers are getting their boats and trailers ready for one last summer weekend. GMC’s lead trailering engineer, Robert Krouse, offers the top five mistakes consumers make while trailering, and how they can avoid these mistakes.
The next Bentley Continental GT will make its first appearance at the Paris Motor Show soon, but Bentley has announced plans to reveal the car early on the Net.
Starting Tuesday, Sept. 7, visitors to ContinentalGT.com will be able to watch a slow, week-long unveiling of the car. Bentley says that virtual tours will be offered daily.
Spy shots have given us a few clues on what to expect — a more aggressively sloped rear, new LEDs and a more rounded front fascia — but the mechanical details remain a mystery…at least until we log in with the rest of you on the seventh.
We’ve got a short list of cars that would look unimaginably beautiful as roadsters. By now, manufacturers have gotten to most of them. But the Ferrari 599 is still available in coupe form only…which is tragic. Its gorgeous lines have been begging for a wind-in-your-hair drop-top version since we first laid eyes on them.
But a select few, we’ve learned, actually have seen a topless 599.
Letters leaked onto the net confirm that Ferrari invited a small group of owners to view, and comment on a 599 roadster at an invitation-only event in Monterey, California during Pebble Beach Week earlier this month. Attendees had to sign away their right to comment to the media. Cameras were politely confiscated.
But a few have revealed the car’s existence, anyway. They say it barely had a roof — more of a temporary shade than something structural, much like the Porsche 918 — but Ferrari designers claim it weighs no more than the Coupe version. We can’t wait for this thing to break cover.
Out at the edge of automotive design, there are a few cars so stripped down, so basic, so fundamental that they defy belief. You wonder if they should be called cars at all. Almost go-karts, they are track-only beasts — frames, engines, transmissions, and little else. They lack niceties like air conditioning and sound systems. Some even lack windshields. But we promise — they are faster than imagination.
There’s a new one.
The Donto Motors P1 is the latest overgrown kart to hit track day. Argentina-based Donto motors is behind this thing. They’ve mounted a 1.8-liter turbo’d four from Audi in the back of an FIA-approved racing chassis. This is the engine from the Audi A4, but mounted in a kart-like whippet that weighs under 1,500 pounds.
Performance figures aren’t yet available (this is just a prototype), but Donto says they’re aimed for the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow, two little rockets that get from zero to sixty in under four seconds (in the Atom’s case, 2.7. Yeah, read it twice. You saw it right the first time, didn’t you?)
Donto’s car might be a bit slower, thanks to the fact that it has an actual roof and seats two. But we’re betting it will still outrun a 911 without breaking a sweat…and all for about $55k.
Rides Like an Audi…and it’s Priced Like One, Too
You buy this one for the sound it makes. A guttural roar that seems to rumble up from the Earth itself, at the command of your right foot. It’s somehow brutal and subtle at the same time. It sounds like a demon in a finely tailored suit. It sounds like the anger of a patient man.
The 2010 Volkswagen Touareg, in its last year before a redesign, is still a little bit of an enigma. It’s the most expensive thing Volkswagen sells in the United States. Since VW has its own luxury marque — Audi — the Touareg’s price is confusing. Our fully-equipped TDI model carries a sticker price of $59,850 – a lot to pay for a VW. But it’s a lot of car.
V-Dub engineers worked hard tuning the pipes, and they got that much right. After a week in the Touareg, we are happy to report, they got a lot right. But at that price, they have to. Can it hold its own against luxury competition? Click through for the details.
