Friday, December 31, 2010

Shooting Brake Ferrari For Geneva?

According to Autoexpress Ferrari might release a shooting brake version based on the 612 Scaglietti in Geneva.

The descendent of the 330 GT Vignale will have a V12 under the hood, and probably heralding the replacement of the 612. So stay tuned.

Source Images

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Chevrolet Iroc Concept California - 1989

Text: Howstuffworks
While most concept cars never reach real-life proportions, every once in a while, a concept car with real-life possibilities tours the auto-show circuit. The Chevrolet California IROC Camaro concept car, built for the 1989 show audience, ranked as one of the most promising concept cars. During its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January of that year, it attracted plenty of attention from Californians and visitors alike.

And why not? The Chevrolet California IROC Camaro was a curvaceously fluid vision of tomorrow, bound to excite both long-standing Camaro fans and people who had never experienced the rush of exhilaration a sporty 2+2 coupe can deliver.

Just a glance at the amount of glass revealed the car's California influence and the attempt to lure the eyes of western-state motorists, in particular. No surprise, then, that the design emerged from the General Motors Advanced Design Concept Center at Newbury Park, California. Center director John Schinella described the Chevrolet California IROC Camaro's form as "smooth, rounded-yet aggressive" and ready to "take in the California sunshine." You had to look pretty hard to find any angles or sharp edges in the shapely profile, which rode a wheelbase some three inches longer than the contemporary Camaro, though it was almost half a foot shorter from stem to stern.

Most striking of the design features -- beyond the dramatically flamboyant glass, which wrapped around most of the roof -- was the aggressively pointy (if rounded) dip-down nose. Viewed in conjunction with the elongated headlight housings, the wide air intake slot above the integrated bumper made Camaro's front end look like the grin of a hungry, yet patient, fish. The sloping hood swooped into a sharply raked windshield, creating a streamlined look that almost made the attractive contemporary Camaro seem stodgy by comparison.

Tall, rounded wheel wells surrounded the front and rear tires, while the inwardly-curved, lower bodysides rode close to the ground. Flush-mounted side glass and mirrors hovering at the end of elongated, integrated nacelles completed the startling aero appearance. Even though the side pillars weren't exactly tiny, they were barely noticed because of the fluidity of the Chevrolet California IROC Camaro's packaging.

While the car displayed a distinct forward rake, the back end wasn't as tall as some -- it didn't look like it was about to dive head first into the ground. Slimly tapered tail lamps and a sliver of spoiler blended neatly into the rear flanks. The glass hatchback opened fully, all the way down to the bulky, integrated bumper, revealing a sizable luggage compartment.

1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro Concept Car Design

The design of the 1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro concept car offered a number of surprises to Camaro fans who had thought they knew the car inside and out.

The concept Camaro was given quasi-gull-wing doors that pulled upward, and hauled part of the glass roofline along with them. They also shifted forward at a 45-degree angle, so you didn't have to be a contortionist to slip into the driver or passenger seat. Seating was 2+2, just like the contemporary Camaro, and more than likely was just as cramped in the back, though the three-inch stretch in wheelbase helped some.

Once inside, the driver faced a full set of analog instruments (and a digital speedometer) in a cockpit that felt more like that of an airplane than an automobile. In fact, the layout of the Chevrolet California IROC Camaro was inspired by Formula One racers. Just in case you forgot where to sit, the swiveling driver's seat was red upholstery while the passengers rested on black.

The red seat could even be custom-fitted to a single driver -- which might have caused a bit of discomfort and irritation when the spouse or youngsters took the car out for an evening. Maybe not, though, because the interior was designed to offer a precise relationship between arms, legs, steering wheel, and pedals -- handling a broad variety of (human) body types and sizes. So maybe everybody would be relatively comfy.

That same precise relationship extended to the nearby, high-mounted gearshift lever, which traveled from one ratio to the next with a mercifully short throw. No need to reach halfway across the front passenger to snick into top gear. Performance fans loved it.

Nobody liked to settle their designer jeans onto dusty upholstery, so Chevrolet thoughtfully included a little vacuum cleaner in the console, with the urging that the driver better wait until standstill, for safety's sake, before switching on the suction.

With both Camaro and IROC monikers attached to the car, it was a sure bet that performance wouldn't be ignored, though the folks at GM weren't ready for some time to name a specific powertrain for any production version. However, the prototype carried a dual over-head cam V-6, leading observers to believe that if a readable version of the California Camaro were to appear, horsepower might run in the neighborhood of 250.

All Camaros in the past had come with a choice of engines, so at least one smaller powerplant was sure to be offered. Not every customer demanded the sensation of being rudely shoved back when tromping hard on the gas pedal. Thankfully, hefty 17-inch tires (P235/50R17 at the prototype's rear) handled the top end of the engine spectrum without flinching.

1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro Concept Car Development

The 1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro concept car development incorporated practical, as well as visionary, ideas. For example, there was not much chance that the future Camaro would give up its traditional rear-wheel drive. Anti-lock braking, evident in the show car, would likely appear on a production Camaro as well, since it was fast gaining popularity with motorists, and insurance companies alike, as a "must have" safety feature.

Following early directions from GM's design chief, Charles Jordan, a 50-person team handled the creative duties in California to make this "tomorrow" Chevrolet California IROC Camaro a potential reality. Amazingly, they went from a scale model to a full-size metal prototype in just six months. Yes, that's a metal body, not fiberglass or composite -- quite a surprise for such a shapely form, created in so little time.

Even if it had no other virtues, the car would demonstrate what can be accomplished using ordinary rather than exotic construction materials. Out of a half-dozen reduced-size, clay models, the California design team chose one body style and sent it to a California prototype builder to be turned into sheet metal.

Observers wondered whether this roundish, nearly roly-poly shape could actually be the next F-body Camaro. A lot of experts, inside and outside of Chevrolet, thought so. Or more likely, they believed that certain parts of the overall design could have found themselves on the production Camaro of 1992 or 1993. That would have put an all-new Camaro for the 1990s onto the market just in time for the marque's 25th anniversary.

Few doubted that the Chevrolet California IROC Camaro concept car would, at the very least, influence the ultimate design, even if most of the individual elements disappeared in the process -- giving way to conventionality and practicality.

Most believed that details such as the pointy nose, for instance, or the non-traditional doors, might fade away sometime during the race toward the marketplace.

Nevertheless, neither the California nor the related Pontiac Banshee were likely to be consigned to the dustbin when the time came for a final rendering of the next generation 2+2 coupe.

1989 chevrolet california iroc camaro concept car side view

1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro Concept Car Specifications

The 1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro was unique in that it wasn't just a dream car -- it was a dream car with real-world possibilities. Nothing makes this clearer than a quick glance at the Chevrolet California IROC Camaro specifications listed below.

Manufacturer: Chevrolet Motor Division, Warren, MI and GM Advanced Design Concept Center, Newbury Park, CA
Body design: 2+2-passenger, 2-door coupe; steel body, steel frame
Powertrain layout: front-engine, rear-wheel drive
Wheelbase: 104.0 inches
Overall length: 186.4 inches
Overall width: 73.0 inches
Overall height: 48.8 inches
Track, front: 60.5 inches
Track, rear: 60.5 inches
Weight: not available
Approximate price: not available
Engine type: dohc V-6 (24-valve)
Displacement (liters/cu. in.): not available
Horsepower @ rpm: not available
Torque (lbs./ft.) @ rpm: not available
Fuel delivery: not available
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Suspension, front: MacPherson struts
Suspension, rear: independent
Brakes: front/rear discs

1989 Chevrolet California IROC Camaro Concept Car Performance

Top speed: not available
0-60 mph: not available
Quarter-mile: not available
mph @ quarter-mile: not available

Source

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

2012 C63 AMG Facelift Photos Leaked

2012 Mercedes SL R231

New infos have emerged about the new SL set to debut in January of 2012. According to several sources the range will kick off with a 306 hp, 3.5-liter V-6. Then there will be the 435-hp SL500 equipped with a twin-turbo 4.6-liter V-8. Then the pair of AMGs. Like the S63 and CL63 AMG, the SL63 AMG will shed its 6.2-liter V-8 in favor of an even more potent 5.5-liter bi-turbo model with 571 hp. The mighty 6.0-liter V-12 survives in the SL65 AMG, and will see its output bumped to 612 hp, and will finally be paired with a seven-speed automatic in place of the old five-speed.

"We push forward what we have"

Regarding the design, the front will be more muscular, it will stir powerful emotions. The overall shape will be typical SL class. As we can see on these illustrations, the car will keep its classic Mercedes look.
source

Monday, December 27, 2010

2014 Lotus Elite: The hybrid convertible supercar

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento In Detail

Alfa Romeo Pandion

Are You The Surprise Porsche?

The German Bild magazine claims this is the first photo, but it looks to me as a 911 Turbo based photoshop. They further mention 600 horses and a bi-turbo V8 and all wheel drive. The entire structure is carbon based, therefore very light, top speed over 300Kmh, zero to 60 around 4 secs. You know, something is telling me, they underestimated the firm from Zuffenhausen.

Press release

Stuttgart. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is starting 2011 with an important show debut in its largest market, the USA. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (January 10 to 23) Porsche will be giving a new model its world debut – and various other models their first showing in the USA. The premieres will be broadcast live on the Porsche website www.porsche.com/detroit as webcasts.

The show in the traditional venue of Detroit, nicknamed "Motor City", is regarded as a leading international marketplace and forum for trends and opinions that is particularly relevant for the North American market. Porsche has been experiencing rapidly growing demand among its US customers over the past few months, especially for the new Panamera car line and the new generation of the Cayenne sporty off-roader.

Another Porsche info is that the German magazine Autobild has reported new details on the upcoming 2012 Porsche 911 in its print edition. According to the report, there are more changes coming to the 911 than initially expected.

First off are the new dimensions of the next 911. From the spy shots we could spot that the model has been stretched but Autobild now has the exact numbers.

The next-generation 911 will be 56 mm longer than the current one and measure 4.49 meters in length. The wheelbase has also been extended by 10 mm and the car will stand 11 mm shorter.
The standard 911's width remains the same but the Carrera variant will feature a 60 mm wider rear end.
A completely new rear axle has been developed for the next 911 too and its engines have been revised for improved performance and fuel-economy.

The entry-level 3.6 liter Boxer engine gets shrunk down to 3.4 liters and produces 350 PS (257 kW / 345 bhp) for a 0 to 100 km/h sprint time of 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 289 km/h (180 mph). Fuel-economy is down 13 percent to 8.5 liters/100 km (27.7 mpg-US).

For the Carrera S, a revised 3.8 liter unit will come with 400 PS (294 kW / 395 bhp) and feature a 0 to 100 km/h sprint time of 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 302 km/h (188 mph). Fuel-economy is reduced by 14 percent to 9.1 liters/100 km (25.8 mpg-US).

The next 911 will weigh about 20 kg less than the current one in base-model configuration and will come with 19-inch wheels. The Carrera S model gets 20-inch wheels as standard.
The 2012 Porsche 911 will debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2011.

Source: Porsche, Autoblild, Worldcarfans

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Dodge Charger III 1968

The Most Beautiful Cars Of All Time - No Comment

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Keats

A recent survey of 20 of the world's top car designers including the greatest living practitioner, Giorgetto Giugiaro, rated the world's most beautiful car.

1. Citroën DS 2. Jaguar XK120 3. Ferrari 275GTB 4. Cord 810/812 5. Ferrari 250GT Lusso 6. Ferrari 250GT Short-wheelbase 7. Jaguar E-type 8. Lamborghini Miura 9. Lotus Elan 10. Lotus Elite (1957)

Source: Classic & Sports Car magazine (UK)

Well...we all know beauty is subjective. However...