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Is El Camino back?

According to the website pickuptruck.com, GM will revive the El Camino model in a few years. Last year, in an interview with Autoweek, the GM product guru Bob Lutz said he would “love to do another El Camino but the grownups amongst us don’t share that way of thinking”.
One year later, it has been reported that GM is considering to import the Australian Holden Ute onto the American market. The Ute is more famous for its performance than its capacity towing. In the last generation, it had the cheek to offer a 6.0 litre V8 engine that produces 349 bhp/354 hp at 5600 rpm and a torque of 376 lb-ft/510 Nm at 4400 rpm. Surely, the future El Camino would inherit the V8 engine to appeal to customers.
Based on the Zeta platform like the future Camaro, GM could build it in the same factory. Compared to the Camaro, the Chevrolet Ute would be very similar to its Australian cousin. The front and rear faces will be different in order to be recognized as a Chevrolet but from the B-pillar, the rest of the car’s panels will be identical. The underpinnings will also be similar, meaning a 2915mm wheelbase, strut front suspension, and multi-link rear suspension.
July 9, 2007
Bristol presses stolen

The legendary British carmaker Bristol had the unpleasant surprise last Monday when it discovered that thieves had broken into its factory and, rather than stealing the cars, had stolen the company’s presses. The presses were used to build body panels for the Blenheim coupes.
Thanks to its low volume production of about 150 cars per year, Bristol has enough body panels for the coming months. Executives are nonetheless expecting a slowdown in the future.
Bristol is a new victim in the metal madness where scrap prices are motivating thieves. Since 2005, metal prices have risen by 95% according to Barclay’s base metals index. AT&T has lost £1.5 Million in copper wiring to thieves since January. In 2006 more than 24,000 manhole covers were stolen from the streets of Shanghai.
July 9, 2007
Rolls-Royce bought at auction for £800,000

Like Ford that auctioned a Ford GT for a charity one year ago, Rolls Royce auctioned the Phantom Drophead Coupé at the 9th Annual White Tie and Tiara Ball held to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. A private buyer bought the spectacular coupé for £800,000.
The British carmaker released the Phantom Drophead Coupé at the last Detroit motor show. It is the production interpretation of the 100EX concept car revealed at the Geneva motor show in 2004. It is powered by the 6.75 litre V12 engine that produces 447 bhp/453 hp and a torque of 513 lb-ft/696 Nm at 3500 rpm.
July 9, 2007
Next Mercedes A-Class based on the new Mini?

According to the German car magazine Autobild, Mercedes could use the new Mini platform for their next A-Class.
It is very likely that the next A-Class will lose its innovative platform. Dubbed “Sandwich“, the platform enables the engine and the transmission to slide underneath the floor below the pedals rather than entering the passenger compartment in the event of a violent frontal impact. Unfortunately, this platform is very expensive to make and is not as flexible as other platforms. Even though Mercedes succeeded in extracting the B-Class from it, deriving a roadster variant would be close to impossible.
In order to reduce cost and to compete equally with the Audi A3 and BMW 1-Series, Mercedes decided to reuse the C-Class platform for the future B Class and the hypothetical baby roadster. This will enable the compact MPV model to be fitted with a bigger engine and adopt the RWD scheme, as well as comply more closely with the Mercedes brand image. However, using the C-Class platform for the A-Class would increase the size of the baby Benz and Mercedes would lose current customers to the competition.
Basing the future A-Class on the Mini platform would make sense for Mercedes as it would share costs with BMW. The latter would be able to use its assembly lines in the Oxford plant and would increase the profit margin made on the Mini.
July 9, 2007
No Cadillac Sixteen

Bob Lutz announced recently that plans to produce the Cadillac Sixteen have been shelved. Lutz cites GM’s will to meet the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.
The Cadillac Sixteen was a concept car displayed at the 2003 Detroit motor show. With this car, Cadillac wanted to mix its current edgy design theme with cues from iconic past models such as the 1967 Eldorado and the Cadillac V16. It took inspiration from the latter for the engine. The Sixteen was equipped with a giant V16 displacing 13.6 litres. No official power figures were given but it was said to produce over 1000 bhp and have a torque of 1000 ft·lb/1350 Nm.
Although the Sixteen will not reach the production stage, Cadillac is still looking for a super-saloon.
July 9, 2007
Let’s start the week with a video

Let us start the last day of the working week by watching a video featuring Captain Slow and the first supercar, the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing.
July 9, 2007
Close-up pictures of Nissan GT-R

The British weekly car magazine Autocar has released close-up pictures of the long-awaited Nissan GT-R that will be officially launched at the next Tokyo motor show in October. Nissan had the audacity to show a disguised GT-R at Goodwood Festival of Speed officialy sponsored by none other than Toyota.
Thanks to Autocar we can have a look on the inside. Do not expect any fun from this interior. Like its predecessors, the GT-R is best described as a body around a terrific engine sitting on a very efficient platform. The only thing unusual about the car’s interior is the speedometer’s needle, which starts on the right. On it, the speed limit is displayed as 211mph/340 km/h. Like its target competitor, the Porsche 911 Turbo, a large rev counter dominates the instrument panel.
According to the Japanese car magazine Best Car, customers will have a choice of three versions which will all share the same engine: a turbocharged version of Nissan’s new 3.7-litre V6. The standard version will have around 450 bhp and will cost £27,700/€41,000/$56,000 on the Japanese market; the V Spec will get 480 bhp and will cost around £33,800/€50,000/$68,000; the most powerful, called Evolution, will be sold at £50,700/€75,000/$102,300 and will offer 530 bhp like the Porsche 911 GT2.

Click here to see all the pictures
July 5, 2007
Mazda 2 MPS

MPS is for Mazda what AMG is for Mercedes: a label for sporty models. It is thus no surprise that Mazda engineers are currently working on a Mazda 2 MPS. The current biggest engine, 1.5 litres, will be replaced by a turbocharged 2 litre. The power output will be 230 bhp and torque will reach 231 lb-ft.
Being sold from today in Japan, the carmaker has big expectations for its new baby that will share the global platform B2e with the next Ford Fiesta. It expects to sell 130,000 cars per year, of which 60,000 wil be sold in Japan.
The cumulative sales for the previous model launched in 1996 and redesigned in 2002 reached 1.04 million units.
July 5, 2007
Peugeot comes back to the USA?

The success of the C-Crosser on the British market has caused the media to speculate on further cooperations between Mitsubishi and PSA. While some rumours concern a Citroën pick up based on the Mitsubishi L200, other insiders report the possible return of Peugeot saloons on the American market thanks to Mitsubishi’s presence there.
This is not the first time that such a rumour has circulated. In 2000, it was said that Peugeot was thinking of exporting the Peugeot 607 onto American soil. Even though Jean-Martin Folz, PSA CEO denied the rumour at the time, Peugeot was conducting many surveys on how and what to launch in the USA. In 2004 Peugeot took a further step by launching a redesigned 607 that satisfied American regulations.
The first car that could be launched is the future 408 that will succeed the current 407 around 2011-2012. The saloon could be produced in the Mitsubishi’s Illinois plant but only sold in South America according to insiders. This is hard to believe when Peugeot already has a plant in Argentina. It makes sense to sell the future 408 in the USA if the car is being built there.
However, instead of the Peugeot cars PSA should sell Citroën, which still has a strong brand image thanks to iconic models like the DS or SM. The Citroën even won a design award in New York in 2005.
Insiders also say that PSA is reluctant to enter the US market due to the poor image of France in America, linked to the former’s refusal to support the US-led invasion of Iraq.
July 5, 2007
C63 AMG: it is official.

Here are the first official picture of the C63 AMG and the least you can say is that it is a naughty car! With the C Class, Mercedes makes its revolution, more so than with any past models. The C63 AMG is aggressive and straight to the point, making use of the V8 6.2 litre already used in the bigger AMGs.

But, like good German girl, the C 63 AMG respects the hierarchy and offers less power than her elder sisters. Instead of 500 bhp/507 hp, the atmospheric engine produces 450 bhp/457 hp at 6800 rpm. That is still 30 bhp/30 hp more than the Audi RS4 and Bmw M3. The torque is in the same vein with 442 lb ft/600 Nm at 6000 rpm.

With such an engine, the C63 AMG runs 0-60mph in 4.5s, 0.3s less than its rivals but like them is still limited at 155 mph. The eight-cylinder is coupled with a seven speed automatic gearbox, dubbed AMG Speedshift Plus 7G-Tronic. The gearbox has three driving modes: Sport, Comfort and Manual.
Other photos
July 5, 2007