Here’s the official teaser video from Audi promoting their electric-powered urban concept. It’s a 1+1 seater designed to make city commuting a breeze. This clip was filmed in central Berlin and truth be told two clips from a random spotter featured in our previous post captured more than this clip gives us (see here). Audi will show us the full monty in Frankfurt next month.
Last month we brought word that Porsche is considering the re-introduction of a 928-style GT sportscar. The discussion centred around drawings of this spectacular 929 design study.
The concept was created by design student Julliana Cho who is in her final year at the Royal College of Art in London. Cho is being sponsored by Porsche and is making herself known following internships with Honda and Kia.
Talking about her work Cho says, “The reason why I am fascinated by vehicle design is because such opposite things can be combined beautifully into it.
“Creating ideas for a mechanical object with a different approach, such as architecture, fashion, sculpture or eco-friendly products, makes me motivated and passionate.
“My aim is always focused on ‘How to create the perfect balance between the message and the object?’”
Progress on a Porsche pavilion at Volkswagen’s Autosadt in Wolfsburg has just commenced and has a target opening in the first half of 2012. It’s a sign that the Volkswagen–Porsche merger is working reasonably well.
The Porsche Museum in Stuttgart will still be the best place to see the best the company has to offer. Although we expect the addition of a Porsche pavilion will certainly add to the experience at the Autostadt. It will join existing displays at the theme park which include Volkswagen Group car brands Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen.
Advertising standards and equality for the sexes have come along way in the last four decades. To see just how far, check out the ad for Goodyear Polyglas tyres after the jump.
In the meekest of defences for the copywriting, the ad was reportedly shown during the broadcast for the NFL’s first ever Monday night game in 1970. So it was intended for a largely male audience. Watch the clip to see how flimsy that defence really is.
[Thanks to Simone for the tip]
Throughout his career Mark Webber has shown he’s quite prepared to push himself way beyond accepted limits. On track, or perhaps that should be off track, we’ve seen Mark flipping race cars. His most notable examples of that were at Valencia last year and Le Mans in 1999. Webber has also pushed past the acceptable with his ad for Canberra Milk. Now, thanks to his connection with Red Bull, he has flipped and rolled a helicopter too.
If you know your BMW nomenclature then a car badged as an ‘M550dX’ will most likely make you stop in your tracks and ask, “Would they really do that?”
The ‘M’ means go fast, of course. In the good old days ‘550’ would have told you the model was a 5 Series powered by a 5.0 litre engine. Today, all it tells you is it will be a model close to the top of the 5 Series tree.
Now, here’s where it starts to get interesting: ‘d’ indicates the car is diesel powered and ‘X’ tells you that power is delivered to all four wheels.
So what are we left with? An all-wheel drive, diesel powered M5 in effect.
This is the hot tip as we near the Frankfurt Motor Show. At the very least we’ll be seeing the first of BMW’s tri-turbo madness when they bolt three turbochargers to a six clyinder diesel engine in time for the show.
The all-wheel drive M5 rumour has been around for a while now. But a diesel M5: would they really do that?
[Source: Autoblog]
Volkswagen is expected to name drivers for the development of its Polo R WRC program before the end of this year. That will allow the team to start testing in January. Dual-world rally champ and 2010 Dakar winner Carlos Sainz says experience is key. But with VW not actually starting competitive racing until 2013 that might be a tricky situation.
“It is important to get someone who has experience—the more experience the driver has the better it is for us,†Sainz explained to Motorsport News.
“It’s not just about getting lots of testing kilometres, they need to be quality kilometres. The problem is most drivers want to race so it’s not easy to find somebody who wants to take a whole year off to do some testing,†he said.
If you’re a young rally driver with sights on the WRC, don’t fret, Volkswagen might still have a spot for you too. “We have to make sure whoever we get is the best possible option for the team. Getting two drivers with experience will be our top priority, but we will plan for taking on at least one young driver,†said Sainz.
[Source: WRC]
This is a prototype model of the next BMW M3. While the test mule is a four-door sedan it’s understood the next M3 will be offered initially a traditional two-door coupé layout only. Slow sales of the current M3 sedan have made BMW think twice about repeating the experiment. It’s not been scrapped officially as best we can tell, but perhaps the next time we see four doors on an M3 it might be a fancy ‘coupé’ body style.
However, it’s so early in the development cycle that BMW doesn’t even have an F32 coupé mule to test with. Part of the reason for starting to push the M3 prematurely is the fact it looks likely it will be powered by a tri-turbo engine. That’s right, three turbochargers. Starting to look a bit like men’s razors where marketing teams add more and more blades by the day.
The base engine will be the familiar N5x 3.0 litre six cylinder twin-turbo, but in this more extreme state of tune, with the third turbo to be electrically powered, power numbers as high as 335kW (450hp) are being touted. That’s an impressive 85kW (115hp) increase on the numbers produced by the awesome 1M.
We thank F30post for the image and we recommend you follow the source link below for lots more.
[Source: F30post]
“If Bentley were able to sell an SUV with the same level of craftsmanship as a Continental or Mulsanne, we could have an interesting success on our hands.
“I believe our version of the Cayenne could become our biggest selling vehicle… With an SUV, Porsche doubled in size.”
They are the harrowing words of Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer. The worst part is, he is bloody right, too.
Yep, by 2014 the Volkswagen Group will have another marque flogging off an overpriced, underused SUV.
The irrepressible onslaught of the urban behemoths carries on. Nothing, it would seem, can be done to stop this progression of unnecessary excess. Peak oil? No. Global Financial Crisis? No. Sales just keep on climbing. Manufacturers keep on indulging our demands.
Sure they’re actually not too bad to drive. And in the small percentage of cases a luxo-SUV is actually fit for purpose it can be quite a rewarding experience. But, most are just a big hunk of metal that scream, “I’m loaded, now piss off!”
As a learned friend of AUSmotive has described this latest talk from Crewe like this, “The Bentley SUV is a Volkswagen Touareg with £100K of mesh on the front.”
[Source: Car | Thanks to Mark and Matt for the tips]
Imagine you are buying a BMW and you had the chance to take delivery of your new car direct from the factory in Munich. The opportunity to drive your pride and joy on some of the world’s greatest roads would be hard to pass up.
Strictly speaking, European Delivery is not something normally available to Australian customers. However, to see what we’re missing out on here’s a nicely made amateur video showing the roads that can be experienced.
From the YouTube description:
1100 miles of driving bliss through the Alps. Gliding through few of the world’s best roads with breathtaking views via Grossglockner Pass, St. Gotthard Pass, San Bernardino Pass, Flüela Pass, Munt La Schera, Umbrail Pass, Stelvio Pass to name a few.
After the break, the technically and gadget minded can see the camera set-up used to produce the clip.
[Source: E90post]
A total of 80,991 new vehicles were sold last month according to official VFACTS numbers. That represents a small drop of 1.7% compared to July 2010.
Steve Payne, FCAI Acting Chief Executive, explains the year-long trend is lower again, “While the drop in sales in July is small compared to the same month last year, the overall drop in sales for the year to date of 5.9% indicates that consumers are continuing to delay new vehicle purchases.”
The apparently unstoppable growth in SUV sales continues, with the segment up 1.8% against July last year. While the luxury end of the SUV market is up 17.4% on year-to-date figures.
Toyota returns to top the charts for the month (12,980 sales), with Holden (10,819) in second and Ford (7769) holding off Mazda and Hyundai.
A little while back BMW held a special event at its Nürburgring test centre to offer a closer look at its new V8-powered M5. Luckily for those of us who weren’t there, BMW allowed filming and photography. After the break you’ll see three videos from the preview.
Doing the talking are Albert Biermann, Head of BMW M engineering, and Bernd Limmer, engineer and test driver at M. Two pretty good hosts that know this car inside out.
The quality of the clips, especially the audio, is not fantastic, but for a first hand account of Munich’s new über saloon they will certainly satisfy your inner anorak.