Porsche are not new to creating outstanding advertising for their cars. The Panamera family tree TVC from last year is proof of that. Now, they’ve released another top shelf piece promoting their history in racing. Take the jump and see this awesome ad for yourself.
As most readers will know Top Gear recently embarked on its latest world tour with their Live show. But, if the Mail Online is to be believed Top Gear will soon be setting off another global challenge. This time, though, it won’t be broadcast on your television screens. No, apparently, Top Gear have plans to make a full length feature film. The flick has already been anointed with the working title of “Around the world in 80 cars”.
The premise of the movie challenge will see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May circumnavigate the globe in the cheapest and most unreliable cars available.
A Top Gear source has been quoted as saying, “Jeremy and the boys have become increasingly involved in outrageous stunts – but this will be their toughest. Driving around the world in different clapped-out cars will be no mean feat and should make the perfect road movie.”
In a move sure to raise the ire of recent critic Jeremy Bass, the source continued, “A feature-length film of the boys’ adventures is something that can be released in cinemas all over the world. It will also be a guaranteed big-seller on DVD when it is released, and that is a growing market.”
Given Jeremy Clarkson’s role in Love the beast, one wonders if the Top Gear leading man was inspired by Eric Bana’s foray into feature length car movie making.
Whether this rumour proves true or not may be another thing altogether. Filming a movie-length challenge that takes in numerous continents will place huge time demands on the stars and crew. Can they find the time? And, more importantly, can they make it work?
UPDATE 11 January: It appears as though the Top Gear movie plans may have been the fantasy of a Daily Mail reporter. At least, that’s what the chaps at Final Gear are speculating. The link below is now dead, so it may be safe to assume the worldwide special plans are now bunk.
[Source: Mail Online]
BMW hopes to broaden the appeal of its volume selling 3 Series platform by adding a new Gran Turismo iteration. It was rumoured early last year that such a car might have debuted at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. But the closest we’ve come is recent reports of the 3 Series GT being spied in testing (follow link below).
Inspired by BMW’s own 5 Series Gran Turismo the 3 GT’s closest rival will be Audi’s A5 Sportback. The timing of BMW’s latest GT is uncertain, but expect sometime in 2012.
[Source: Autocar]
That’s the word on the tweet according to Jonny Smith. You’ll remember Jonny has already given us this potential scoop late year. This news follows reports from October last year confirming the show had been axed. Now, it looks as though Fifth Gear is about to take a leading role in Lazarus: The Auto Show. More news as it comes to hand…
UPDATE: Since this article was first posted Jonny Smith has tweeted, “we all know there’s room for 2 car TV shows. FG will simply be a reviews based visual car magazine.”
Tiff Needell has also confirmed via Twitter that Fifth Gear will be returning: “Home to the news that, after much negotiatiing Fifth Gear looks like it will after all be returning to your screens sometime in the Spring!”
It looks like Mercedes-Benz is all set to tackle the Audi A7 and BMW 5 Series GT with a production version of the 2008 ConceptFASCINATION. Understood to be based on the next CLS platform the Estate version is rumoured to debut at the Paris Motor Show in October.
Autocar reports the CLS Estate production will commence at the Sindelfingen facility in Germany by 2012 and will be powered by a range of V6 and V8 engines. A mix of turbocharging and direct injection will be employed to improve efficiency.
Apparently a CLS Estate was all set to debut at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show, but for some reason Benz got cold feet and ushered in a lightly disguised production CLS instead.
More pics of the ConceptFASCINATION can be viewed after the break.
[Source: Autocar & The Motor Report]
Volkswagen are happy on two counts as far as the 2010 Dakar Rally goes. Firstly, approaching half race distance Carlos Sainz currently leads the rally in his Race Touareg. However, of more importance to Volkswagen’s production vehicles is the debut of the new Amarok which is being used as a support vehicle during the event.
There are 35 Amaroks on duty during Dakar, with 20 for the Volkswagen race team, and a further 15 used by race officials. The Amarok is being built in Argentina, and the SUV has just gone on sale in South America. Australian deliveries are due towards the end of this year.
As you would expect, VW’s top brass are not missing the promotional opportunities presented by the Amarok’s Dakar role, “We are thrilled to put the new Amarok through its paces as part of this long distance challenge, the world’s toughest, before its official launch,” said Stephan Schaller, CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
If you want to find out more on the Amarok, including updates from Dakar, then check out Volkswagen’s special microsite. For more on the progress of the Race Touaregs at the rally take a peek at Volkswagen’s Dakar iPhone app.
Set me free, why don’t you babe. Get out my life, why don’t you babe. ‘Cause you don’t really love me. You just keep me hangin’ on. You don’t really need me. But you keep me hangin’ on…
Yep, you guessed it, despite yet another deadline passing and a reported four bids received there is still noone behind the wheel at Saab. It is understood GM is allowing an extra 24 hours for Spyker to secure funding to finalise their latest offer for the Swedish car brand.
Other interest is reported to have come from Genii Capital, for those playing at home you may remember these are the same guys that forked out some cash to keep Renault F1 afloat. Now, if you’re really paying attention you’ll know it was Koenigsegg that kicked off this whole Saab buying malarkey. Supposedly, Genii’s bid is effectively the Koenigsegg bid in new clothing. Although, this deal gets more intriguing when you realise the Genii in the bottle is none other than F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. That’s right, Bernie is part of the Genii Capital bid for Saab.
A Genii spokesman reckons Saab are ripe for the picking and can’t understand why people aren’t banging down the door at GM with wads of cash, “It is a true opportunity and we’re surprised that more investors haven’t identified this opportunity,†he added, “Saab is a strong brand on the same level as Porsche and BMW.â€
Unidentified bids from two Swedish business groups are also expected to be lodged with GM.
For their part GM just wants to get over Saab and start afresh. “Just show up with the money and you can have it [Saab], but nobody’s showing up with the money,†says GM CEO Ed Whitacre. Maybe the readers of AUSmotive can help Ed come to a conclusion—Kim Wilde or The Supremes?
[Source: Autocar & SaabsUnited]
PerthNow brings us the absurd story of a Lamborghini Gallardo impounded under WA hoon laws. It has been alleged that the car was bring driven at speeds of up to 160km/h along the Reid Highway in Balcatta, Western Australia.
Not so much absurd about this story then, until you realise the driver of the car is not the owner. The Gallardo wasn’t stolen, either. The owner of the car had left it with his mechanic who it would now appear was unable to resist temptation while taking the 520hp supercar on a test drive.
As a result the car has been locked up for 28 days and WA Police say legislation prevents the car from being released, even though the car’s owner was not involved in the alleged offence. New anti-hooning laws came into play on new year’s day and these prevent release of impounded cars impounded unless they were stolen, are a hire car, were impounded unlawfully or if the car is needed by the owner for medical emergencies.
The owner of the Lamborghini has applied to have the car released, but it seems as though he will have a fight on his hands. WA Police Minister, Rob Johnson, has explained it is incumbent on car owners to know and trust who has access to their vehicle.
If we accept this story on face value, then these anti-hoon laws are a load of crap. If Minister Johnson has any semblance of justice he will be instructing his staff to amend the relevant Act as soon as possible.
UPDATE 8 January: The Herald Sun brings good news to Dr Patrick Nugawela, owner of the impounded Lamborghini Gallardo. Minister Rob Johnson has allowed Dr Nugawela’s car to be released saying, “You can never foresee every eventuality. I’ve listened to the community … I’ve listened to the talk back (radio).” Mr Johnson continued, “At the end of the day I want the community to support these anti-hoon laws. They are meant to protect people and save lives.”
[Source: PerthNow | Thanks to Dylan for the tip]
Flavio Briatore, named conspirator in the Renault F1 “Crashgate” scandal, has had his name cleared (sort of) thanks to a French court ruling. The finding states that the FIA’s decision to give Briatore a lifetime ban contained “irregularites” and therefore it “ruled the sanction illegal”. The court also told the FIA they had no right to ban the Flav because he was not an FIA licence holder.
As you can imagine after hearing this news the funny looking man with a Playboy lifestyle was ready to hit the dancefloor saying, “I would like to express my great joy.”
Great, he can now rejoin his beloved Mark Webber in a pitlane embrace, then?
Not so fast Flavio, the FIA are still gunning for you. They say “the FIA intends to consider appropriate actions to ensure that no persons who would engage, or who have engaged, in such dangerous activities or acts of intentional cheating will be allowed to participate in Formula One in the future.” Guess what Flav, that means you!
Imagine a 640hp V8 coupled to a chassis weighing some 200kg less than your average mid size hatchback. Reckon you might be interested? Thought so.
Welcome to Fenix Automotive, the latest motoring incarnation of Lee Noble. Yes, that knockabout Brit who loves strapping big motors to lightweight bodies. Having sold off his Noble Automotive outfit, Lee has embarked on a new challenge.
To begin that challenge Fenix have released these two renderings of their new supercar-with-no-name. Like previous Noble cars Fenix will build their bodies in South Africa, where testing is currently underway.
Lee Noble is excited, and looking forward to driving the car on familiar roads, “Our first prototype is now in build and development will start in around one month’s time,†said Lee. “We’ll be hot-weather testing the first prototype on the mountain roads around Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where the car will be manufactured. But I’m itching to get the car back to the UK where I can set it up on roads I know well.â€
That 640hp, well 638hp to be precise, will be delivered courtesy of the 6.2-litre supercharged LS9 V8 found inside a Corvette ZR1. If that all sounds a bit too much to handle, then you can also opt for a 480hp version from the LS3 V8.
With a target kerb weight of 1200kg Lee Noble says his latest weapon should reach 0-160km/h in less than seven seconds. Blimey, that’s quick!
While there’s just these two images and some big horsepower claims to go on right now, I have to say, this is one very tasty looking supercar. Let’s just hope the invitation to view the company website which, at the time of writing, does not work isn’t a sign of things to come.
There’s an interesting interview with WRC-bound Kimi Raikkonen over at The Red Bulletin website. Despite claiming he could return to F1 at a time of his choosing Kimi gives the indication his WRC debut cannot come soon enough.
“It’s definitely the biggest challenge yet. I’ve got to learn everything from scratch. But I want the challenge. I have to get to know the car, the rallies, how to work with my co-driver [Kai Lindström], everything. I’m looking forward to it,” Raikkonen continued, “I’m finding a bit of the young Kimi in me again.”
With rumours that Raikkonen’s new found connections with Red Bull could spell doom and gloom for Mark Webber, the following comments won’t exactly put Webber’s mind at ease, but they won’t have him trembling with fear either, “I could get an F1 drive again any time, but lots of bad things are happening in F1. Manufacturers are pulling out. Let’s have the same conversation in a year’s time. Let’s look way into the future.”
The article is definitely worth checking out as Kimi covers a number of topics, including his first rallying experience, a startling inability to name one F1 highlight (“I’d find it difficult to pick a single moment from the last nine years”) and much more.
[Source: The Red Bulletin]
Following the reveal of the F10 BMW 5 Series last November comes this artist’s rendering of an Estate version. There’s not much else to report, other than the Estate version should be released by BMW later this year.
For more on BMW’s new 5 Series click here.
[Source: Auto Evolution]