Ferrari 599 goes hardcore with Expensive Additions

Ferrari will fight ebbing global demand for its most expensive metal by launching two new 599s at next week’s Geneva motor show.

The firm will announce specific details about the 599's Handling GT Evoluzione package (pictured here) on Tuesday. It’s expected to include new lightweight split-rim alloy wheels, shorter springs, higher-rate dampers and more track-oriented tyres than the standard model's. Changes to the steering, braking and transmission systems could also be included.

An ‘HGTE’-equipped 599 will be on show on Ferrari’s Geneva show stand, painted in a new triple-layer coat of Rosso paint.

Next to the 599 ‘HGTE’, the firm will give its new 599XX its world debut. It's a technical prototype of the V12-engined two-seater that will allow a select group of Ferrari customers to experience the firm’s very latest F1-derived engine, gearbox and chassis technology.

Following the lead of the Enzo-based FXX programme, examples of the 599XX are likely to be offered to a very limited number of clients, who will probably only ever drive them alongside Ferrari’s technicians at specially organised track days around Europe, experiencing the firm’s very latest technology, which will be fitted to their cars as it is developed.

The 599XX project cars probably won’t be road legal, and they are likely to be stored at Ferrari’s factory rather than retained by their owners between track sessions. However, those owners should gain an insight into the Prancing Horse’s newest technological breakthroughs, years before those systems are rolled out onto production models.

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Lamborghini gallardo Carbon Airbox and hose kit from fab speed

The tuning company Fabspeed has released a new airbox for the Lamborghini Gallardo. The carbon fiber unit combined with red silicone hoses work together to make the engine bay more aggressive and at the same time extract an additional 12 HP from the 5.0-liter or 5.2-liter (LP560-4) V10 engine

The aim of these products is to add maximum energy, aerodynamics and audio experience. The Fabspeed MAXFLO red silicone hoses enable a smoother airflow in contrast to the original black hoses.

The bright red color makes the engine section look enormous and makes the austere Gallardo engine bay even more striking. This upgrade will increase the power output of all Gallardo models and can be installed in less than 20 minutes. Fabspeed produces the world’s highest-quality "MAXFLO" exhaust systems made from T304 stainless steel, as well as carbon fiber high performance air intake systems for all top performance vehicles such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Masserati, and Porsche sportscars.

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Lumma clr x650 gt (modified x6)

When BMW released the X6 they created a new segment for automobiles, the Sports Activity Vehicle. Lumma Design have taken that idea to the extreme and are preparing the CLR X650 GT for Geneva. The vehicle has significant aerodynamic improvements as well as some refining touches to the interior.

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Kia MPV to debut on Geneva motor show

Kia has just announced the introduction of a new concept vehicle for the Geneva Motor Show. The Korean automaker was light on details, saying only that it will be “a great looking MPV” with a “unique glass roof treatment.”

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Toyota Losses deepens

Toyota expects to make an operating loss this year three times greater than initially thought, the company has announced.

The company has amended its turnover forecast for 2009, changing the 150 billion yen (£1.1bn) operating loss predicted in late December to 450 billion yen (£3.3bn).

The world’s biggest car manufacturer also has a growing problem of over capacity, and has slashed its vehicle output predictions for 2008/2009 by 1.55 million units since the start of the financial year.

Toyota now expects to produce 7.32 million vehicles by the end of March.

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China is now World biggest car market

China is poised to overtake the US as the world’s biggest car-market in 2009, according to estimates released by General Motors.

Based on January’s sales, China’s new car market is forecast to hit 10.7m units by the year’s end, versus 9.8m in the US.

If true, it will mark a further milestone in the meteoric growth of the Chinese new car market, which overtook Japan’s a couple of years ago.

With a population of at least one billion people, China has potentially four times more car buyers than either the US or EU, whose populations are around 240m each.

Today only 200m Chinese are ranked as ‘middle-class’, with a salary big enough to afford a new car, but that figure is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

GM estimates that new car sales in January in China reached 790,000 units. GM has to estimate the figures because official numbers take a long time to be collated. The equivalent figure for the US was 668,000.

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Bangle quits Auto manufacturer BMW

BMW’s design chief Chris Bangle is leaving the company and the car industry after 17 years at the firm, BMW has announced.

Bangle, who is known for his striking and controversial designs such as the BMW X6 and the previous-generation BMW 7-series, will be succeeded as the man in charge of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce design by Adrian van Hooydonk, currently BMW's head of design.

A BMW statement said Bangle, who was also responsible for Mini and Rolls-Royce designs, was leaving to “pursue his own design-related endeavours beyond the auto industry.”

"Christopher Bangle has had a lasting impact on the identity of BMW Group's brands,” said Klaus Draeger, BMW's development chief. “His contribution to the company's success has been decisive."

Although controversial, 52-year-old Bangle’s designs have been a commercial success and the flame-surfacing effect pioneered by his work on the Fiat Coupe and popularised by the BMW 5-series and Z4 have been widely imitated.

Van Hooydonk has been closely involved with the design of BMW's forthcoming Progressive Activity Sedan, a five-door hatch with styling halfway between a 5-series Touring and an X6. A PAS concept will be shown at next month's Geneva motor show.

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Maclaren P11 spy shots

After the first spy shot of the McLaren P11, the future supercar has been caught again. This time the P11 prototype was caught doing some cold weather testing in Sweden.

The P11 will go into production in 2010 and will compete with models like Ferrari F430. Rumors suggest the car will be powered by a 6.2-liter V8 engine that will deliver at least 500bhp. The body and chassis will both be made of lightweight carbon composites, so it should tip the scales at under 2500 lbs. The 0 to 60 mph sprint will be made in around 4 second and top speed should be around 200mph.

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Porsche working on Cayman clubsport

Now that Porsche has launched the refreshed Cayman, its time to start make some special editions. By October a lightweight Clubsport model will be the first version to be added to the new Cayman’s lineup.

The previous Cayman had an S Sport version that appeared earlier this year. Where that model was used to celebrate an anniversary and gave a 8 hp bump (303 in total), the Clubsport should be a focused racer. The Clubsport will go on a strict diet and remove unnecessary interior pieces and accessories, as well as utilize lighter body panels. The total weight savings should be about 220 lbs, which represents about seven percent of the car’s total mass.

The engine shouldn’t change from the Cayman S’s 320 hp 3.4-liter flat six with direct injection. A six-speed manual gearbox and limited-slip differential will be standard, should also be standard. The extra weight savings should shave off a few tenths off the Cayman S’s 0 to 60 time of 4.9 seconds.

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Bently Hunaudieres 1999

Bently Motor Cars revealed a dramatic concept car the Hunaudieres at 1999 Geneva Motor Show, one year after Volkswagen became the owner of Bentley company. This supercar project provides the debut of a new 16 cylinder engine developed to a specific brief to provide a technologically advanced power plant with unique Bentley characteristics.

It is powered by a W-16 engine, developed by VW, who actually combined two V-8 engines together at an angle of 72 degrees, a displacement of 8 litres and a total of 64 valves produced 623 Bhp at 6000 Rpm on all four-wheels. Each V-8 engine held two banks of 4 cylinders at 15 degrees, this way the massive engine was still quite compact considering the power output and a torque of 561 Lbs.Ft at only 4000 Rpm.

Specifications

• Wheelbase : 2650 mm
• Length : 4430 mm
• Width : 1980 mm
• Height : 1190 mm
• Track front : 1738 mm
• Track rear : 1645 mm
• Tires front : 265/30 ZR 20
• Tires rear : 335/30 ZR 20
• Engine type : DOHC W-16 mid mounted,
• Displacement : 8004 cc
• Max. power : 630 Bhp at 6000 rpm
• Max. Torque : 561 Lbs Ft. at 4000 rpm
• Top speed : electronically limited at 350 Km/h

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Ford 2009 Focus Rs

Thinking about a European vacation? Maybe this will help finish the deal: Ford started production of the Euro-only 2009 Focus RS today.

This hot hatch is now being build alongside its tamer siblings like the Focus 3- and 5-door hatchback, wagon and ST as well as the C-MAX and Kuga, all at Ford’s Saarlouis facility in Germany. The Focus RS uses a 2.5-liter turbo four-cylinder to make 300 hp and 302 lb-ft. of torque. The RS also gets new body parts to incorporate wider wheel arches and a wider track, deeper side rocker moldings, and unique front and rear bumpers.

Ford was kind enough to mention that the Focus RS will be available in more than 20 European countries, with the largest disbursements in the UK, Switzerland and Germany. So for those in the U.S., book your tickets there.

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Electric cars acquired by us army

Soldiers may soon get greener rides on-base, after the U.S. Army announced the acquisition of 4,000 neighborhood electric vehicles.

The plug-and-chug vehicles come in both sedan and light truck models, and can charge their batteries at any three-pronged household outlet. Estimates put the savings over a six-year service lifetime at 11 million gallons of fuel, not to mention 115,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

"We estimate the cost of charging an electric vehicle in a given year at $400, which is a substantial savings from the fuel that would be purchased for a petroleum vehicle," said Paul Bollinger, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Energy & Partnerships, during a Department of Defense bloggers roundtable on Monday.

Total savings on the vehicles: $45.8 million over six years.

This doesn't represent the first time that the Army has sunk substantial investment into energy-efficient vehicles – it has snapped up 40,000 alternative fuel vehicles to date. But a lack of alternative fueling stations led to the decision to skip over hybrids and go directly to electric.

The Army does not stand alone in deciding to jump to electric vehicles – Popular Science talked with U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk about his efforts with Tesla Motors to develop a viable electric car.

Six of the electric vehicles have arrived at Fort Myer, VA, to be followed by 800 more this year. More will continue to pour into Army bases over the next two years, courtesy of Chrysler subsidiary GEM and possibly some other car manufacturers.

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Limosine collections,pictures

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Mercedes benz split view

Mercedes-Benz Splitview: Mercedes-Benz will offer its new Splitview, a dashboard-mounted display screen that allows driver and passenger to view two different images simultaneously, on its flagship S-Class sedan in mid-2009. Mercedes-Benz

Picture this: You're motoring down the highway, following route guidance on the navigation screen, when the guy in the passenger seat decides he wants to watch Raising Arizona on DVD. Mercedes-Benz and Bosch jointly devised a novel gizmo can satisfy both viewing requests, without a sword and the smarts of Solomon. It's a dual-view LCD monitor system called, elegantly enough, Splitview.

Splitview is a dashboard-mounted display screen that allows driver and passenger to view two different images simultaneously. Here's how it works: The eight-inch active matrix, backlit color monitor nests a second image feed on adjacent pixels. A masking filter divides the combined image such that, depending on seating position, only one set of the pixels can be seen.

With Splitview, the driver has access to information from Mercedes's control and display system, called COMAND, on the display, while the front passenger can use a remote control to watch DVDs, TV channels or music videos, though the car's speakers or via headphones. Mercedes-Benz says it will introduce Splitview in the company's flagship S-Class sedan in mid 2009.

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Mitsubishi teams up with proton

Mitsubishi and Proton have previously worked in the past with Proton using Mitsubishi engines to power its cars, but last week the two companies signed another deal which will license Malaysia’s major automobile manufacturer, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd (PONSB) access to Mitsubishi technology and expertise for the development of an all new PROTON vehicle.

Furthermore Proton will be allowed to manufacture a new Mitsubishi vehicle “based” product.

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British Police Evolution

Swaying from the standard police issue diesel hatchback which the British public have become accustomed to, the South Yorkshire Police department has acquired its third consecutive Mitsubishi Evolution pursuit vehicle.

The Evolution X will serve as a Road Crime unit alongside the previous Evolution VIII and IX generation currently in service, dealing in cases involving drug dealers and grand theft auto.

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The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is a favoured pursuit vehicle due to its effortless handling and performance which minimises the risk of accidents.

With a trilogy of all-paw pursuit cars on offer, the South Yorkshire Police prefer to ‘hunt’ in packs of three, which, Inspector Slack explained is often enough of a deterrent that high-speed chases are avoided.

The sight of three Evolutions in the rear mirror creates such a strong visual impact that the vehicle being pursued will often simply give up the chase and pull over, knowing they won’t be able to out-run the RCU.

The cars also boast the latest in Police hardware and software, with an onboard Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system allowing officers to check who the vehicle is registered to and if there is anything remotely suspicious about the vehicle.

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Mercedes to use BMW engines

With BMW cleaning up International Engine of the Year awards in several categories, and for several years, it makes sense to profit from its experience in this field.

BMW’s head of development, Klaus Draeger, has been reported as saying that BMW is moving forward with plans to sell its engines to Mercedes, as well as other brands.

“We are ready in principle to sell our engines to a competitor. And yes, we are talking openly with Mercedes about several possibilities,” Draeger said.

Aston Martin was also another name specifically mentioned in discussion. BMW’s V12 is said to be one of the first engines to make the transition across brands.

If the components are the right price, it would make sense for Merc (and others) to take on the engines and concentrate on other areas of its cars.

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Citroen to use BMW engines

Peugeot has been using a range of BMW-sourced four-cylinder engines in its cars for years and now sister brand Citroen has confirmed its new models will also get the British-built engines. The engines come in several different flavours, including turbo and naturally aspirated versions, and range from 1.4 to 1.6L in displacement.

Peugeot uses the engines to power its 207 and 308 models but Citroen hasn’t confirmed which of its cars will use the BMW engines. According to WhatCar?, the new engines will likely debut in the Citroen C5 by the end of the decade. In the Mini, the engines produce outputs of 120,150 and 175hp, and includes direct-injection and variable valve timing technologies.

The key reason for the move is to allow Citroen to take advantage of BMW’s EfficientDynamics engine stop-start technology, which the French carmaker hopes to eventually roll out across its entire lineup. The system Citroen plans to use will be the same as the current design in the Mini, where the engine cuts out while stationary and restarts when the driver selects first gear.

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BMW 5-series PAS 2010

BMW will stir up a hornet's nest of controversy in 2009 when it launches the strange, niche-bending 5-series PAS. We don't yet know the full name of Munich's latest model, but we understand it will keep the 5-series badge and add a new moniker – like the Touring tag for BMW's estates.

What does PAS stand for? It's the working title of the new BMW 5-series spin-off and signifies this is the Progressive Activity Sedan. Read into that title what you will: CAR's view is that it mixes the best bits of saloons, estates and MPVs.

BMW PAS: Jack of all trades, master of none?

We're still struggling to see where the PAS fits in to BM's range, but we'll give Munich the benefit of the doubt until we see it. And this car will excel in many areas: those unusual proportions will afford a colossal amount of passenger space, the rear legroom said to exceed that available in the 7-series. Perfect for lanky basketball players, then.

And the PAS will mix in a high degree of practicality in other ways. It will be the first BMW to use a double-hinged boot like the Skoda Superb's, operating in saloon boot or hatchback modes.

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Honda Withdraws from Formula 1 racing

Honda Withdraws from Formula 1 racing

As the auto industry faces ever-increasing obstacles both in the United States and abroad, the repercussions are now beginning to affect various manufacturers’ motorsport programs. On the heels of Audi’s withdrawal from the 2009 American Le Mans Series comes news of Honda pulling out of Formula 1 for next year and putting its team up for sale in the process.

Alluding to the deteriorating global auto industry—and more specifically the problems facing the United States market—Honda’s President and CEO Takeo Fukui stated in a press release that in order for Honda to best protect its core interests, it must counter the negative influences. Having not seen a grand prix victory since 2006—and following B-team Super Aguri’s withdrawal from F1 earlier this year under similar circumstances—Honda’s decision to pull out of the 2009 season comes as little surprise.

Considering the team’s consistent finishes in the rear of the pack for 2008—beating out only Force India and Super Aguri in constructor-championship points—Honda Racing’s dropout should have little effect on the 2009 season.

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