frozenphil posted:

I get marginally outperforms the Mustang because the GTS has 30hp more than the Mustang and weighs almost the same as the Mustang.

rscott posted:

What the hell is up with rear windows?

Swordfish posted:

Why exactly do they do this?

echoplex posted:

Yeah, they tried doing something interesting and then no-one bought them, so lesson learned there.

squirrelBitten posted:

Also introduced at Detroit: the new A6, which looks like every other Audi today. Except for the rear. Dear god that rear. What the hell were Audi designers thinking?

Click here for the full 1280x853 image.

Click here for the full 1280x852 image.

heat posted:

Well now I'm intrigued, can you elaborate? I googled quickly but all I found was this sweet kinect hack that turns you into the Predator

kimbo305 posted:

The whole greenhouse is awfully 2nd-gen Probe looking, which might be turning off some. I don't mind that, either.

quote:

According to Inside Line, the head honchos at the Japanese automaker have instructed the company's engineers to strip a whopping 720 pounds from the vehicles already comparably light 2,480-pound curb weight. If successful, that would put the new comer into the feathery 1,760-pound range, which is 400 pounds less than the first-generation roadster.

...

The report claims that the engineers at Mazda aren't entirely sure they can hit the weight target, but the vehicle will be much closer to the waif-like 2,178-lb 1989 Miata than the heftier 2011 model.

davebo posted:

This crazy 4-gullwing door plug-in hybrid Ford EVOS will never be remotely like the concept if it ever sees production, but I'd be very interested in it either way. Real funky looking backside though.

A5H posted:

Oh poo poo! NSX successor?!

REDjackeT posted:

Man, does that look really really really good.


Everything I see for the 2010 is a bit under 3500 lbs. 3000 lbs and 640 hp seems... excessive and therefore probably right.

quote:

In fact, the 2013 SRT Viper's 4.9 pounds per horsepower puts it just behind the Bugatti Veyron and Ferrari F12 and ahead of such performance stalwarts as the Lamborghini Aventador and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

quote:

When Ford announced that the 2013 Shelby GT500 would be punishing the pavement with 650 horses, the world stood up and took notice. Remember, though, these were just estimated figures, as the car had not yet been SAE certified. If reports from the Team Shelby message board prove accurate, the 2013 GT500 has finally gotten its official figures.

How's about 662 horsepower and 630 pound-feet of torque?

Throatwarbler posted:

Just to be clear, you really want a MINI that has been raised and turned into an SUV, then had the rear doors taken off and turned into a SUV Coupe, then lowered again (the JCW has lower suspension) to improve on road performance while sacrificing off-road pretensions.

I don't understand people.

quote:

Smart just announced pricing for the latest version of its all-electric minicar. The starting price for the ForTwo ED Coupe will be $25,000 (*plus delivery fees), making it the lowest price electric vehicle in the U.S. from a mainstream automaker – and that doesn't even include the available $7,500 federal tax credit.

With the tax credit figured in, the starting price works out to $17,500. Add in the required $825 destination charge and up to $2,200 for a home charger, and the 2013 ForTwo ED Coupe will essentially start at just $20,525 – $1,100 cheaper than the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

Cream_Filling posted:

The term "ED Coupe" is kind of funny.

But I suppose there's a lot of ED coupes out there, if you know what I mean.

autoblog posted:

Compared to the last version we used to slalom around New York City's finest potholes (which was rated at 27 horsepower constant output and 40 hp maximum output), this new plug-in electricity-fueled ForTwo has a constant cruising output of 47 hp and a peaky max output of 74 hp. It's tangibly twice the car. Acceleration to 37 mph (i.e. 60 kmh) was 6.5 seconds, but is now 4.8 seconds. The shocker stat, though, is acceleration to 62 mph (100 kmh): it was 26.7 seconds for the prior car. Stop laughing; Now the time is down to an actually useful and comparatively spirited 11.5 seconds. V-max arrives at a tick over 78 mph.

Throatwarbler posted:

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne [...]
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2011/02/10/qa-sergio-marchionne/

quote:

Forbes: Tell me about your plans for Alfa Romeo in the U.S.

Look, I’ve been in this business now – in Fiat — for seven years. Every time I talk to somebody they tell me, you know, Alfa is just a wonderful brand. Well, Alfa’s been a money loser inside Fiat now since I’ve been around. They’re exactly the opposite of what we are institutionally; they over-promise and under-deliver every year. And the problem is it’s a great brand with a long history. I’m not sure if it ever really made any money. Even before Fiat ownership I’m not sure it was a great deal. But it always had this sexy – it raced Formula One — I mean it’s got this incredible appeal which goes back, you know, to the time they used to be on the racetrack, and it’s the embodiment of a lot of things which are typically Italian; sportiness, lightweight, and everything else. And what happened is that when Fiat bought them back in the end of ’86 we Fiatized Alfa. Fiat was front-wheel drive; Alfa was rear wheel drive. So now all the Alfas are front-wheel drive. And we put Fiat engines inside the Alfas, and Alfa started losing more and more of its DNA as a car company.

KozmoNaut posted:

I really want some mad as a hatter company to make a rear-engined FWD car someday, just to mess with people.

Spiffness posted:

I'd love to hear more about why Hennessy is an rear end in a top hat

autoblog posted:

Not content to let Volkswagen have all of the fun with its GTI and Golf R, Audi is rebooting its five-door S3 Sportback with rather monstrous power. Headed for an official unveil at this year's Geneva Motor Show, the new S3 rolls out with a 300-horsepower, 280-pound-feet of torque turbocharged 2.0-liter TFSI engine under the hood. The four-cylinder powerplant is strong enough to shove the Sportback to 62 miles per hour in just 5.0 seconds when connected to the optional S-Tronic gearbox, or 5.5 seconds with the traditional manual transmission. Top speed is said to be an electronically governed 155 mph. Almost as impressive as those performance figures are the fuel economy ratings: the S- S3 is said to average 34 miles per gallon.

All S3 Sportback models offer Quattro all-wheel drive, ride on a sport-tuned suspension tuned to a lower ride height (about one inch) versus the standard Audi A3. 18-inch wheels with 225-section tires are standard equipment, and 13.39-inch front brakes should offer serious stopping ability.

Audi has done a lot of work shedding pounds from this latest MQB-architecture S3, as well. The car has a curb weight of roughly 3,186 pounds, or some 154 pounds less than the outgoing model. 11 of those pounds were cut via weight-saving measures in the 2.0-liter engine.

The last generation S3 was never shipped to the US for sale, and Audi has given us no indication thus far that this one will be. We'll expect to pin down a firm answer to that when we see the S3 Sportback roll onto stage at in Geneva.

Weinertron posted:

What's the highest torque application we've seen dual-clutch transmissions in, though? Is there a DSG out there that can handle Z06 levels of torque, let alone the 600+ ft-lbs in a ZR1? I haven't heard of any diesel trucks using dual-clutch transmissions yet, and it's really hard to hold gigantic torque with conventional manual transmissions, let alone newer tech.

Throatwarbler posted:

Puddin posted:

I could have missed it but has this been posted yet?




Looks pretty nice. I wonder what kind of weight this adds to the car.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2013/02/toyota-gt-86-convertible-leaked-ahead-of-geneva-motor-show-debut.html

kimbo305 posted:

e: in an example of not great product placement, a Hyundai Tucson got stuck in a small mud puddle in the Walking Dead.

D C posted:

Temp and blower control should be on knobs/switches, Volume and channel select should be knobs or buttons as well, and none of those take up much space.

Most other stuff can put on a touch screen I guess.