The Next Generation Bentley Continental Flying Spur Caught On Camera

It looks as if Bentley is working on a new Continental Flying Spur. Spy photographers recently spotted this machine out for a little testing. Look through the veil of Mercedes-Benz S-Class camouflage, and you can spot a new set of a headlamp arrays paired with an upright grille and more aggressive front fascia. New door handles sit lower on the body than before and designers have also rolled in reworked side mirrors. Otherwise, the design looks awfully familiar, though Bentley has been sure to underscore the next Flying Spur will be an all-new generation instead of a simple facelift. As before, we expect the Flying Spur to look like a four-door version of the Continental GT coupe, which got a fresh look and updates for 2012.
Bentley has kept its lips sealed on what sort of drivetrain advancements we can expect to see, though we wouldn't be surprised if the model bowed with the same twin-turbocharged V8 as the Conti GT complete with 500 horsepower on hand. If that's the case, buyers can expect to find an eight-speed automatic transmission handling shifting detail as well. The W12 will doubtlessly also continue, though, just as it has with the coupe.

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The Ultimate Rapper & Singing Sensation Akon Shows Off His Custom Spyker C8

While most rappers like and drive mostly mainstream brand cars, Akon wants to be different, and so, he has bought himself a Spyker C8 - a very rare car where craftsmanship, along with light weight and stunning performance are the main selling points.

However, being the internationally-known rap star that he is, Akon has bestowed his C8 with several custom features, including custom 20-inch Savini SV-29 Centerlock rims, painted the same special white tint as the bodywork. Also, to really set it apart, the calipers are painted yellow and look quite good, we must admit. Finishing off the list of exterior mods are the smoked tail lights which, frankly, we don’t really like very much on this particular car.

In-keeping with the exterior theme, the interior has also received the same yellow and white treatment, but this time it’s all done in leather. We applaud Akon for buying something truly unique and making it even more special.

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BEAUTIFUL!!!! Jaguar XKR Special Edition models launched in India at Rs 1.27 crore

 


On the inside, the Special Edition model's Artisan interior introduces the use of tactile 'scraffito' finished leather to the front seats, instrument binnacle, door and rear quarter casings. There is also new Poltrono Frau leather headlinings, which are finessed in rich Shawdow Walnut shade. The SE model also features 16×16 – way heated front-seats, a 525W Bowers & Wikins sound system with a 7-inch touch-screen, unique treadplates and stainless steel pedals. A new 20-inch Orona alloy wheel design completes the exterior changes.

Jaguar's design team, led by Director of Design Ian Callum, specified two exclusive Artisan interior colourways for the Special Edition models; Navy with Jet headlining and Truffle with Canvas headlining. Convertible hood colours have also been carefully selected and include Black, Blue, Grey and Brown.

An exterior paint palette of six colours includes the exclusive Special Edition colour of Celestial Black, with Crystal Blue, Lunar Grey, Polaris White, Rhodium Silver and Ultimate Black being the alternative options.

Jaguar's XKR range comes powered with a 5.0-litre direct injection V8 petrol engine that churns out 510PS of max power. The engine comes mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifts.

In terms of safety features, the XKR comes with Jaguar’s Adaptive Restraint Technology system to ensure driver and passenger protection, and a Pedestrian Contact Sensing system that raises the bonnet in the event of contact with a pedestrian to help prevent contact with hard points under the bonnet.

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The Big Chevy closeout deals have 2013 Malibu Eco sitting on lots in favor of 2012 models

First, the good news: The Chevrolet Malibu is selling at a great pace.

Now, the bad news: It's the wrong Malibu.

Dealer lots are filling up with 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco models as customers turn to the remaining 2012 models still there. After incentives are added up, the older Malibu costs about $6,000 less, Automotive Newsreported.

Through June, General Motors has sold about 7,000 mild-hybrid 2013 Ecos, which get 25 miles per gallon in the city and 37 mpg on the highway, since it launched in March. During the same time frame, Chevrolet has sold 100,000 2012 Malibus, which get 22 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway.

Price trumps mileage, is anyone surprised?

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The New 2012 Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost

 

Vital Stats

Engine:

Turbo 1.0L I3

Power:

123 HP / 125 LB-FT

Transmission:

6-Speed Manual

0-60 Time:

11 Seconds (est.)

Drivetrain:

Front-Wheel Drive

Curb Weight:

2,800 LBS (est.)

Seating:

2+3

Cargo:

23.8 CU-FT

MPG:

NA

MSRP:

NA

Remember the good old days, when compact cars were powered by six-cylinder engines? Yeah, neither do we.

It's been a long time since a mainstream brand offered anything other than a four-banger in its econoboxes, and for good reason. While a half-dozen cylinders might have been necessary to adequately motivate Ford Falcon, Dodge Dart and later ChevroletCavalier models, any carmaker will tell you that modern four cylinders make more than enough power to propel even today's jumbo-sized compacts.

But wait just a minute. What did we say? More than enough power.That sounds like an opportunity.

Indeed, Ford has announced it will soon be selling a three-cylinder engine, in a car, in the United States. But not just any triple – a turbocharged, direct-injected three-cylinder with independent variable cam timing wearing the EcoBoost moniker on its plastic engine cover. Making 123 horsepower and 125 lb-ft of torque, the 1.0-liter Ecoboost is already on sale in Europe, where it comes installed in mid-spec Focus models. By comparison, the direct-injected 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four in our domestic Focus makes 160 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque.

Sometime next year this engine will appear in a vehicle sold here.

The three cylinder was designed by Ford's U.K. operation to be efficient, full stop. It's made of cast iron instead of aluminum to avoid using cylinder liners and allow for having Siamesed bores, which helped shrink the engine small enough that Ford says the block can fit on a sheet of A4 paper. (That's the European size that's just slightly larger than our standard, 8½- by 11-inch letter.) Fully dressed, the engine weighs just 214 pounds. Ford opted to avoid using balance shafts, instead relying on an unbalanced flywheel and crank pulley and tuned engine mounts to counteract the inherent vibrations of the design.

Now Ford hasn't said for certain it's going to be putting the three-cylinder under the hood of the Focus, merely that sometime next year the engine will appear in a vehicle sold here. It could well be the Fiesta – it probably should be the Fiesta. But Ford did let us sample a European Focus here in the States for a few days to get a taste of its smallest powerplant. While we'll get to the details of how it drives soon enough, note that we're now some 400 words in and we've yet to make a Geo Metro joke.

The 1.0-liter Ecoboost was paired with a six-speed manual transmission rather than the U.S. model's five-speed.

For starters, this Focus is a real car. Rather than some bargain-basement stripper model, it was well equipped, though differently than the Focus Titanium we drove for comparison. While Ford didn't provide a detailed spec sheet for the European car, it had a start-stop system, active park assist, a blind spot warning system and a lane-keeping system. Even better, the 1.0-liter Ecoboost engine was paired with a six-speed manual transmission rather than the U.S. model's five-speed.

The six-speed wasn't quite everything we've wished for, but it was certainly preferable to our domestic tranny. Where the five-speed in the U.S. Focus feels like a transmission from a base model car, albeit a good one, the European six-speed has a better shift action, with a more precise feeling and engagement. But the throws are rather long, and this is far from a close-ratio box, having not one, but two overdrive gears.

It's quiet and comfortable, entirely free of the noise and vibration you might expect from a three-cylinder.

The clutch in the European car was nicely damped in both directions, but its friction point was occasionally hard to target, something that wasn't helped by the car's first gear ratio (3.73), which is numerically greater than the already steep U.S. car. But the deep first gear, the low 1,400-rpm torque peak of the turbo three and an overboost function that briefly allows the engine to make 148 lb-ft of torque helps the Euro Focus accelerate from a stop similarly to its larger-displacement sibling, at least initially.

After that, as long as you can keep the revs up, the 1.0-liter can hang with most traffic, though you will notice the 37-horsepower deficit compared to the 2.0-liter model. The three-cylinder forces you to be a better driver, and since you'll be constantly rowing through the gears, it's even quite a bit of fun. It's also quiet and comfortable, entirely free of the noise and vibration you might expect from a three-cylinder. Quick it is not, however, with Ford quoting an 11.3-second 0-62 mph time. But before you start to scoff, understand that even though that's slow, the car just doesn't feel that slow – at least not until you forget to downshift.

Where the European Focus really shows its mettle is its quicker turn-in and being more resistant to understeer.

Most of the enjoyment, of course, comes from how well the Euro Focus handles, which we found even better than the domestic-spec Focus Titanium. Steering in the Focus is universally excellent, quick and well weighted, with the sort of good feedback that we'd like to see in all electric power steering systems. While both cars allow some body motion during cornering and lane-changing maneuvers, it's more of a gentle reminder to keep you from doing something stupid than the wallowing you get in many compact cars. Where the European Focus really shows its mettle, however, is in effecting a quicker turn-in and being more resistant to understeer. While we're unsure of the comparative curb weights of the Euro Focus and the Platinum, we'd guess that the former was lighter by a passenger's worth.

For all the fun we had driving the three-cylinder Focus, however, our trips to the gas station were notable for their lack of post-fill-up excitement. The 1.0-liter EcoBoost Focus is good for 56.5 miles per Imperial gallon in European fuel economy testing, a number that means just as little as its £17,945 starting price. Just as you can't effectively plug the MSRP in British Pounds Sterling into a currency converter because U.K. car prices include various taxes and duties, the European fuel economy cycle cannot be cleanly converted to that of the U.S. EPA cycle.

In around-town driving we saw between 25-32 miles per gallon, while we managed only 35 mpg on the freeway.

Ford wouldn't speculate on potential fuel economy numbers were it to subject the 1.0-liter Focus to EPA scrutiny, and even as we hoped to calculate hybrid-like fuel economy in our own testing, we instead found the Focus rather, well, Focus-like. In around-town driving we saw between 25-32 miles per gallon, while we managed only 35 mpg from the 1.0-liter Ecoboost cruising between 70-75 mph on the freeway. While the city numbers were better than we'd experienced in the Focus Titanium, we wish we knew how much of that we could credit to the engine and how much came as a result of the start-stop system. On the highway, we just wish we had seen better fuel economy, period.

With an EPA rating of 30 mpg combined, a number that has proven fairly realistic, the five-speed Titanium's mileage isn't that different than what we saw from this European car. But the European Focus requires premium gasoline, leaving us unconvinced that its math could work well here in the U.S. We're similarly unsure how well the three-banger would fare when mated to Ford's notorious Powershift dual-clutch automatic, which we imagine would have to be offered to an American public that doesn't like shifting for themselves, certainly not in the volume required by the three-cylinder. All of which leaves us thinking that when we next see Ford's three-cylinder on American soil, it will be residing under the hood of the Fiesta

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The Porsche 918 Spyder prototype looks delicious in Martini livery

 

 







            


As much as Gulf Racing livery may be synonymous with the Porsche 917, Martini racing is an equally famous Porsche sponsor of years gone by. The livery has adorned both 911 and 917, and now, its graced upon the all-new 918 hybrid supercar.

We had seen spy shots of the 918 in classic race guise at the Nürburgring, but here are the first official photos from Porsche. With permission from Martini owner Bacardi & Company of Switzerland, the German automaker has grafted the iconic livery onto its high-performance green machine.

Martini has been involved with auto racing since as far back as 1968, sponsoring a Formula Two race at the Hockenheimring, and their first support of Porsche came in 1969, entering two 907s in several races. It was a Martini-liveried 917LH that won the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours, but it was not until 1973 that Martini became a factory partner of Porsche. That partnership lasted until 1978, and during that time, Martini-shod cars won the Targa Florio in '73, the Sports Car World Championship in '76, and Le Mans in '76 and '77.

The red, white and two-shades-of-blue could be found on almost every racing Porsche of the 70s, including the 908, 917, 935, 936 and 911 RS and RSR models.
Hopefully Porsche brings the 918, in standard or RSR form, to the motorsport world. If so, though, it's probably unlikely that the plug-in hybrid supercar will wear a livery as tied to the brand's heritage as a company that makes vermouth.

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The Chrysler posts Q2 profit of $436 million

 


Chrysler has posted a net profit of $346 million in the second fiscal quarter of 2012. The amount represents a big jump compared to the $370 million loss it posted for the same time period a year ago. The automaker had to pay of $551 in U.S. government loans in that quarter.

Revenue for Chrysler Group rose 23 percent during the second quarter – up to $16.8 million – while worldwide sales rose 20 percent to 582,000 units. Chrysler had $12.1 billion in cash on its books by the end of Q2, up from $11.3 billion at the end of June.

In addition to not having to pay any loans this quarter, the automaker has benefited from a strong portfolio of new and reworked vehicles, resulting in increased demand. Chrysler sold 1.23 million vehicles in the first half the first six months of 2012, which puts it on track to exceed its self-set goal of 2.4 million vehicles sold for this year.

The strong-selling Ram pickup line and the newly arriving Dodge Dart compact sedan should help the Auburn Hills-based automaker as it looks to surge in the second half of 2012, as well. Scroll down to view the official earnings press release

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Hyundai Veloster Turbo R-Spec in the cards?

Motor Authority has been apparently been exchanging whispers in the corner regarding the Veloster with someone from Hyundai, and has been told that there is "still left room in the lineup for a higher-performance variant" than the Veloster Turbo. The consensus in certain circles, including ours, is that the boosted version of the funky three-door is a healthy step above the base model but doesn't posses the true grit to joust with the segment's defining hot hatches.

Part of this could be considered intentional since, as we wrote in our review, "It is important to remember that the Veloster Turbo is every bit as much about sipping fuel as it is about performance." With the six-speed manual and regular unleaded you're going to get 26 miles per gallon city, 38 mpg highway. The best you'll get with a Volkswagen GTI is 21 city / 31 hwy, while the MazdaSpeed3 Touring checks in with 18 city / 25 hwy and those numbers for both cars are with premium gas.

A hypothetical "Veloster Turbo R-Spec" could be tweaked with more power and a retuned suspension to directly challenge other hot hatches. Also in its favor is that with an MSRP of $21,950 it's got pricing headroom between it and the $23,995 GTI and $24,000 MazdaSpeed3, even before factoring in Hyundai's propensity to load its offerings with extras. Nevertheless, let us stress the word "hypothetical" – this is speculation in the extreme. But now that we all know the potential is there, let us hope it's only a matter of time before it's realized.

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The New 2013 Lexus LS 460 goes more intense, more sporty and more luxurious

It's been leak city for the 2013 Lexus LS line, allowing us to catch the exteriors of the LS 460 L and LS 460 F Sport from practically every angle. The spindle grille might be the most prominent story of the refreshed LS – otherwise there are no monumental changes to the body, but plenty of details did decide to wait for the Lexus luxury flagship's official unveiling in San Francisco.

As we've stated, there are now four flavors of LS from which to choose: the LS 460, LS 460 L, LS 460 F Sport in either or rear- or all-wheel drive and the AWD LS 600hL hybrid. All of them are more rigid thanks to additional body reinforcements and laser screw welding.

Inside, a 12.3-inch nav screen with split-screen capability immediately gets the eye's attention, and surrounding it is something we've not yet encountered in the LS: what Lexus calls "a driver-focused interior." The Remote Touch system places the 'mouse' controller next to the shift level, and in conjunction with steering-wheel controls can operate many of the car's features, and up to five driving modes are possible if buyers choose the optional air suspension. Shock absorbers have been redesigned to improve pitch and bounce control, the variable ratio steering is said to improve accuracy and turn-in and the brakes have been adjusted to provide better power and pedal feel.

Passengers haven't been left out of the pampering, with the Lexus Climate Concierge controlling the ambient temperature, seat temperature and steering wheel temperature to comfort each occupant individually. Safety gets a boost with an available new Blind Spot Monitor, in operation from 10 mph and part of a system that can detect crossing traffic behind the car when reversing out of a spot. Convenience takes a step up with redesigned seats, more sound insulation "for an even quieter cabin," which we weren't sure was even possible, noise-reducing wheels, and an optional Ottoman Seating Package with Shiatsu Massage, because, well, why not.

The LS 460 F Sport is the halo range topper meant to give the whole line some additional cachet. Its F Sport tweaks outside and underneath include being lowered by almost half an inch, a sport-minded tune for the air suspension, 19-inch forged wheels hiding Brembo six-pot calipers up front, and a Torsen limited-slip differential on the RWD model. Inside it gets heavily bolstered seats, paddle shifters and aluminum trim.

While we're waiting for official pricing, there are more details in the press release below and three galleries with high-res views of every nook and cranny.

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