Sunday, March 28, 2010

From Concept to Reality: Jaguar XK


The XK series of 'grand tourers' is a successor to Jaguar's original XK sports cars. Resurrected in 1996, the XK replaced the aged XJS luxury coupe with a car more fitting of the XK nameplate: a pretty coupe or convertible with (optional) big engines driving the rear wheels.

Ten years after its revival, Jaguar brought fans of the XK8 and XKR a new, high-tech take on the XK, proving that they can keep a good thing going.

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Ford Seals Deal with China's Geely, Sells Volvo for $1.8 Billion


For better or for worse, Ford Motor Company has finalized a deal to sell Volvo Cars and related assists (primarily intellectual property) to Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited for US$1.8 billion (€1.35 billion at today's exchange rates).

The Detroit company said that the transaction will be made in the form of a note in the amount of US$200 million and the remainder in cash.

It's worth noting that Geely has acquired Volvo at a fraction of what Ford paid for the Swedish automaker at $6.5 billion in 1999.

Ford said that even though Geely owns 100 percent of Volvo, due to the fact that the Swedish automaker's cars share core components and technologies with its own vehicles, it will continue to supply the company with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components for an undefined period.

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Saturday, March 27, 2010

My Two Dents on Mitsubishi's Poor Planning and Marketing


I always liked the idea of the FTO, a small, stylish coupe that could fit in below the Eclipse in Mitsubishi's lineup. For some reason, seeing this video today reminded me of the triple-diamond's good old days; you know, back when they put out cars like the twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive 3000GT VR-4 and the turbocharged GS-T and GS-X Eclipses.

They even teased fans with the turbo'd, AWD Eclipse Ralliart concept back in 2006; for some reason, nothing came of it. Who WOULDN'T buy a coupe-ified Evo?

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2011 Bentley Continental GT Coupe Fuzzily Spied


These here are spy shots of the redesigned 2011 Bentley Continental GT coupe. The pictures are a tad grainy and admittedly not of the best quality, but they do give us a glimpse of the cosmetic changes Bentley is readying for its luxurious coupe model.

From what we can tell, the front-end of the refreshed Continental GT takes some styling cues from the new Mulsanne such as the big round inner headlights flanked by off-set smaller ones.

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Friday, March 26, 2010

Fastest Ever Seat, the 265HP Leon Cupra R, Arrives in Britain


The most powerful and quickest-accelerating production Seat to date, the new 265-horsepower Leon Cupra R, will carry a price tag of £25,205 when the orders books open at the firm's UK dealers on Thursday 1 April.

The Cupra R is powered by a VW Group-sourced 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot delivering a maximum output of 265HP and a peak torque of 350 Nm at 2,500 rpm that drive the front-wheels through a revised six-speed manual gearbox.

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Efficient Dynamics, Meet Pod Racer: BMW Sequence GT Concept


The BMW Sequence GT is the brainchild of Seungmo Lim, a graduate student at Pforzheim University in Germany.

Lim explains that the "Electric Gran Turismo Sequence" project started out with two questions: 1) "How important is the appearance of green cars?", and 2) "What is 'Efficient dynamics'?"

"In other words these two questions mean, 'What kind of qualification does a blue or green car have to have in order to get a BMW badge in the future?'"

I've got no idea, so it's good that he came up with an answer: Combining "driving pleasure with blue architecture."

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Senner Tuning's Audi S5 'White Beast' Does its best Wendigo impression


Senner Tuning has released its take on Audi's S5 Coupe. The call it the White Beast - apparently the Germans learned their "lesson" after last year's "White Power" RS6...

It wears a wide-inlet front fascia, while the rear apron comes from Rieger (done in "carbon look", something I wouldn't want on a Jetta, let alone an S5).

Can you guess what's coming next? Yup, there's also a lip spoiler on the trunk and LED tail lights. "But this is still not enough. As the name "White Beast" implies, not only the optics but also the engine power have been upgraded." And away we go.

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