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| Ronn Scorpion hydrogen-hybrid to debut at SEMA Posted: 05 Aug 2008 08:31 AM CDT  RMC claims that the car will be able to deliver fuel economy ratings better than 40mpg. Like we said, this is not a hydrogen car, but a hydrogen-hybrid, which means that it will still use a traditional petrol engine, which has been converted to run on a mix of hydrogen and petrol, in a way similar to BMW’s Hydrogen7. The engine used is a 3.5 liter V6 from Honda, mated to a six-speed manual transmission (with an automatic one coming next year). However, what I really find interesting is the way the hydrogen is created. The RMC engineers designed an on-board hydrogen system which uses power from the car’s alternator to fracture water molecules drawn from a small on board water tank. This way, you get your hydrogen without having to store the volatile fuel or stop at hydrogen fueling stations. That’s cool, because actually, all you need is water and regular petrol. Besides that, the car emits only small quantities of CO2 and very little NOx (oxides of nitrogen). The Ronn Scorpion production has already started, but the official unveiling will take place at this year’s SEMA Show in Vegas, in November and the company announced that sales will start in the United States by the end of this year.  | ||||
| Tesla Motors ’steals’ Mazda’s head of design Posted: 05 Aug 2008 06:58 AM CDT  At Tesla Motors, he will be in charge with two new projects, the Tesla Model S (a $60,000 electric sedan) and a new affordable electric car, priced below $30,000. The decision to hire von Holzhausen is a part of Tesla’s plan to move design in house (the Tesla Roadster was designed by Lotus). Franz told CarDesignNews that "It's going to be an exciting adventure […] I'm looking forward to working at a new startup company that doesn't have the confines of a large OEM."
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| Renault F1 employee commits suicide Posted: 05 Aug 2008 06:29 AM CDT  Last week, a tragic event took place at Renault F1’s Enstone headquarters. One of the engineers, 53-yo William Millar shot himself in the head. He was found dead on Wednesday on a footpath outside the team’s UK base. Everyone is shocked, including us, and can’t imagine what made this man, who has been with Renault for 27 years, take his own life. Police are not treating the death as suspicious and a Renault spokesman said that “Everyone at the team is deeply shocked to lose such a valued member of staff who had been with the team for 27 years”. Our regrets go to his family and friends. Rest in peace!  | ||||
| Bye-bye Alfa Romeo 159, Hello Giulia! Posted: 05 Aug 2008 06:16 AM CDT  The Alfa Romeo 159 is one good looking mid-size sedan, but the Italians have decided that its days will be numbered. According to italian magazine Quattroruote, the model that will replace the 159 is going to be quite revolutionary, taking the famous name Giulia and marking the change in Alfa’s model naming strategy, replacing the numbers with names. The Alfa Romeo Giulia was quite a car, but Alfa won’t borrow anything else than the name, as the new one will be built on the common platform with Fiat Bravo or Lancia Delta. The influence of the 8C Competizione will reflect on the front end of this car, as it did with the Mi.To. Tehnical details are really scarce, the only thing that is certain is that it will be available with front wheel drive of all wheel drive. Sources also report that this model will be unveilled around 2011. Scans of the magazine can be found below.
 Source: Quattroroute (Via CarScoop)  | ||||
| 2010 Chevrolet Cruze interior spied Posted: 04 Aug 2008 04:13 PM CDT  The 2010 Chevrolet Cruze global small car is scheduled to debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show in October. Meanwhile, we’ve got this interior photo of the car and we must say that we’re really impressed. The center console looks very ergonomical, while the whole interior looks quality stuff. We noticed the Daewoo badge on the steering wheel, so we assume this will probably be the Nubira replacement. The Cruze is based on the Delta 2 platform (GM’s first car to use this platform) and is a part of GM’s plans to turn things around after the recent terrible results. The car wants to be an attractive, efficient and affordable car, and will be the starting point for many GM cars replacements like the HHR, the Cobalt and Opel's Zafira. Power for the U.S. version is expected to come from a 1.4L turbo four-cylinder that is expected to get a fuel economy of 40 mpg (5.88 litres/100km) on the highway and around 30mpg (7.8L/100km) in city use. The Chevrolet Cruze is scheduled to enter production in the U.S. in mid-2010 as a 2011 model.
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| Posted: 04 Aug 2008 03:48 PM CDT  We have no idea how this beautiful Ferrari Testarossa ended up like this, but anyway you look at it, it still breaks our hearts to see the car like this (remember the spanish one?). All we know is that this happened in The Hague, Netherlands and there were no serious injuries (except for the car’s). Check out one more photo after the jump.
 Via Dumpert  | ||||
| Porsche Unleashed: Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2 and Cayman S Sport unveiled Posted: 04 Aug 2008 03:24 PM CDT  Looks like the people over at Porsche were a little eager and besides the Porsche Cayman S Sport (which we were already expecting), they’ve also announced the Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2. Both cars come with the 3.4 litres engine that develop 303 bhp (223 kW), 8 hp more than the S models and both come with a wide range of exclusive equipment. The Cayman S Sport comes as standard in the GT3 colours Orange and Green (Black, Indian Red, Speed Yellow, Carrara White and Arctic Silver Metallic are also available at extra cost), black rims, black interior design package, 19-inch SportDesign wheels, bi-xenon headlights, the Sports Chrono Package and sports seats. The car also comes with sports exhaust system together with a twin-chamber exhaust tailpipe, alcantara finish on the gearshift lever, the handbrake, and the rim of the GT3 steering wheel. With the Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2, Porsche hopes to have the same success as with the Cayman S Porsche Design Edition 1 and the Boxster RS 60 Spyder special series which now are completely sold out. The car comes in Carrara White finish, 19 inch star-spoke wheels, side air intakes, centre console and the dials finished in white, sporting grey stripes extending lengthwise along the body and an unique accessory, the Porsche Design Edition 2 Chronograph men's wristwatch from the Dashboard Collection which features a white face and was developed especially for this very special Boxster. These upgraded versions of the Boxster S and Cayman S are limited to an exclusive series proudly bearing out their edition number on a placard on the glove box. The Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2 production will amount to 500 units at a starting price of 65,539 Euros in Germany, while the production of the Cayman S Sport will be limited to 700 units at a price of 69,942 Euros. Both cars will be available at the dealership as of early September. Check out more photos after the jump.
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| BMW Progressive Activity Sedan (PAS) spied Posted: 04 Aug 2008 02:59 PM CDT  BMW is once again spied in the American desert. This time, the target was the new PAS, or V-series or RFK as this model has had different names circulating around it. Hevily masked, there is not much to say about the exterior design. But, we can clarify that we are not talking about a van (R-class competitor) as some rumored, and it is a rather sedan-coupe shape with frameless windows. It could be aimed at Mercedes’s CLS coupe. A final version is set to be unveiled at the 2009 IAA Frankfurt motorshow.
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| Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport spied Posted: 04 Aug 2008 02:54 PM CDT  Last week we wrote about the highly anticipated Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport (I’m sure everyone in Dubai started writing checks already) and now we have the first spy photos of the car, caught by autogespot and autojunk readers. The car was in Corsica, probably out for a photoshoot for the official press release and, like we also saw in the first press photos released, there are no major changes, except a subtle redesign of the frontlights. Like we said in the previous post, the convertible Veyron will make it’s debut at during the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California, on August 16.   | ||||
| Posted: 04 Aug 2008 12:39 PM CDT It seems that the BMW marketing team is doing a great job, because we’re getting a lot of cool BMW ads lately. Remember the BMW M5 one? This time we’ve got one for BMW Used Cars. I think the tagline, “You know you’re not the first” says it all. Nice, huh?   |
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