Wow, VW hit SEMA really hard this year, especially with the Beetle. Pretty much every model of Beetle that was heading to SEMA – Rotiform Beetle, Beach-Battle Cruiser Beetle, and the Super Beetle – were all readily available with images, but the Chopped Beetle by Gaplin Auto Sports was not, for some reason.
Well, GAS has just released an image of this chop-top Beetle and some extra information. It is based on the 2013 VW Beetle Turbo, which means it features a 200-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and a 6-speed transmission. There’s no mention of any additions to the engine, so we assume that it remains bone stock.
On the outside, GAS doused it with an Onyx Black base coat and accented the sides with Candy Apple Red metal-flake paint, giving it an awesome look. GAS then took to the top of the Beetle, hacking 5.5 inches off of the A-pillar and 2.5 inches off of the B-pillar, giving it that classic chop-top look, while retaining the classic humped roofline.
Adding to its bespoke look, GAS deleted the rear windows and added in rear air scoops in their place. If you have seen rodded beetles that retain their rear-mounted engines, this is a very common modification to get a little more airflow to the engine. Given this is a front-mounted engine, it’s just there for show.
Adding to its style is a set of 20-inch, 3-piece Forgiattos handmade rims. GAS them topped off the outside by adding tint to the headlights and taillights, giving this already sinister- and vintage-looking Beetle a little more darkness.
On the inside, the vintage treatment continued, as GAS tossed in vintage-style black leather that features red accent stitching. The headliner is dyed to match the vintage cow hide on the rest of the interior. Wrapping the inside and outside together, GAS painted the interior trim panels and dashboard with the same Candy Apple Red metal flake that sets off the exterior. We are still awaiting images of the interior and we will get them to you ASAP.
Overall, we think this was well worth the delay in getting the images, we just wish it had a little something extra under the hood.
To your average car buyer, Koenigsegg may be nothing but gibberish, but to a car buff, it is one of the baddest car manufacturers on the planet. Founded in 1994 and having produced limited numbers of each of its production models – CC8S, CCR, CCX, CCXR, Trevita, Agera and Agera R – it has quickly become a unicorn in the hypercar realm. Unfortunately, the unquestioned leader of the hypercar realm, to date, has been Bugatti and its record-setting Veyron.
Well, Car and Driver Abroad got an invite to Sweden to come drive the Agera R around the Swedish automaker’s track in an attempt to prove that the Agera R is a different animal than the Bugatti Veyron. With this comes a fantastic video of Car and Driver whipping the Agera R around a windy track and really testing how well this hypercar can handle...and it performed admirably.
The in-car camera gives you a good listen to all of the cabin noise that is 5.0-liter, turbocharged V-8 engine creates, and there’s plenty. This is thanks to the 1,140-horsepower, V-8 engine being bolted directly to the chassis, allowing all of the vibration and ruckus to make its way into the cabin. Some people may find that obnoxious, but this is the type of car that is meant to be heard. That’s simply part of its charm. If you don’t like it, don’t buy a hypercar…
What Koenigsegg and Car and Driver really proved here is that the Agera R is no competition to the Veyron… Not because it’s not as fast or not as much fun as the Veyron, but because it is a completely different car. Sure, the Veyron will rip off your face, if you really want it to, but it is also refined and somewhat timid. The Agera R is sheer adrenaline and muscle all packed into a svelte 3,250-pound body with a chassis built to drive circles around the Veyron.
What an impressive car and what a very telling video.
Typically, when Jay Leno gets his hands on a car, it is all about horsepower and loud exhaust, but he does have his eco-friendly moments. This time around, Jay gets the best of both worlds, sans the loud exhaust, as Tesla stopped by to let him take the Model S on a drive. There is not an abundance of Model S driving footage available and certainly none to the degree that Jay Leno does it.
Jay gets us a good look inside the car and we even gets a nice idea of how the Model S’ driver information center – you know, the massive, iPad-looking deal in the center of the dash – works, and we are certainly impressed. It literally controls everything, taking the old days of buttons aplenty strewn up and down the center stack to a well-placed screen that offers up the same controls.
Then the part that we want to see: the drive. Jay takes it pretty easy on the main roads, as he focuses more on its economy and regenerative systems. He does manage to get into the Model S a little bit, but only in small doses. Well, at the end, we get exactly what we have all wanted to see: a Tesla Model S doing a burn out.
Good call, Jay. We bet that poor PR guy had to beg Mr. Musk to allow that one. Then again, that burn out likely sold a lot of `tweeners on this EV performance sedan.
The second entry in Scion’s FR-S tuner competition, which competitors have $15K to build the most bad-ass FR-S for a change to win $10K, is Chris Basselgia’s entrant “minty FReSh” – you see what he did there? This custom FR-S creation, much like the “Carbon Stealth” before it, takes a much calmer approach to tuning.
Much like his competitor, John Toca, Basselgia left off all of the gaudy bodywork and focused mainly on a clean design. That’s not to say that his “minty FReSh” concept is free of any additions to the body, he was simply more careful and calculated with where he placed them. This ultimately brings the focus to the performance interior styling and sound system in the “minty Fresh” FR-S.
So, is Chris’ “minty Fresh” Scion FR-S up to the challenge of beating out its other two competitors and taking home the top prize of $10K?
Click past the jump to read our full review and find out.
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Just recently, we announced that Scion was planning a friendly little competition for the 2012 SEMA Show. In this contest, Scion handed each of three tuners a 2013 Scion FR-S base model and a $15,000 budget. The task at hand: to build the most awesome FR-S inside of the $15K budget. For their work, Scion will hand over a $10,000 grand prize.
The unfortunate reality of this contest is that, like most SEMA cars, these three FR-S’ will likely be stripped and crushed just after the show, but we get to enjoy them for just a short amount of time. Scion has decided to let us in on the main specs of the three cars as we close in on the opening of SEMA, and one of these models is the “Carbon Stealth” FR-S by John Toca.
Scion’s release on this car indicates that John built this car to give you the practicality and enjoyment desired from a daily driver, but the ability to toss it around a track at the drop of a hat. So, is this custom-built Scion FR-S really up to snuff?
Click past the jump to find out.
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There had been some reports floating around that DRB-Hicom was seeking a strategic partnership from a Japanese automaker lately, and we just received word that a deal is now in place. Proton will be teaming up with Honda to develop technology enhancements and a new product lineup, as well as share platforms and facilities.
For the most part, Proton builds cheap econoboxes for the UK market, so the direct team up is really not too inspiring. However, peeling back the skin a little bit, you reveal that this deal will likely include its subsidiary, Lotus. While Lotus would benefit greatly from having the technology that Honda has to offer and some financial relief by building certain components together, we are mostly interested in what this deal could potentially bring Honda.
Honda really doesn’t need Proton, as its econobox lineup is stout, but it is lacking a sports car, ever since the S2000 fizzled out in a fit of torque-lacking rage. With Lotus’ expertise being in the lightweight sports car realm and both Honda and Lotus looking for ways to build sports cars without taking on 100 percent of the risk, a team up between the two would be equally beneficial.
We all heard rumors about the S3000 a few years ago, and Lotus has the perfect line of 3.5-liter, V-6 engines sitting in its Evora lineup. So why not team up on a shared model?
According to reports, DRB-Hicom will be laying out Proton’s business plan next month, which will likely include Lotus updates, so we will keep an eye out for this new business plan, and how Honda and Lotus are involved.
Earlier this month, we brought you an all-new video where Porsche actually gave Chris Harris an exclusive ride-along story on the not-yet-released 918 Spyder. That was a very impressive piece and really shows how much respect Harris has gained in the industry. Well, now Porsche is really pulling out all of the stops and entrusting Harris behind the wheel of its multi-million-dollar museum exhibit, the Porsche 962C.
Yeah, we’re talking about the 800 kg (1,763 lb.), 650-horsepower 962C that took home the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans title. The same Porsche 962C that you can walk into Porsche’s museum and look at but not touch. This guy got to sit in this legendary car’s driver’s seat and whip it around Porsche’s test track at 150 mph.
As always, Chris brought along his ride-along camera and gave us an in-car view of him carefully navigating this legend around the track. Before and after the drive, Chris also gets to interview the lead engineer on the 962 project and gets some insight on just how much planning went into this car, from its rear axle to the massive amounts of down-force the various parts of the body create.
In all, this is a downright awesome video and all of the noises that come from the engine are completely beautiful.
Enjoy!
We would have really loved seeing the faces of everyone after reading the title. We certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for being as shocked and dumbfounded as we were when we discovered Aston Martin’s intentions with their city car.
Sources say that Aston Martin has completed studies based on the possibility and feasibility of a V12 engine being fitted to the - wait for it - Cygnet, without extensive modifications. How is it possible? The car is only the size of a shoe with a tiny 1.3 liter 4-cylinder engine that develops 98bhp. Now imagine putting Aston Martin’s very own 6.0L V12 engine that produces at least 510bhp on a car that weighs 988kg. If our calculations are correct, the power to weight ratio of this car will not only put its bigger brothers to dismal shame, but most of the hypercars that we all enjoy drooling at as well. In layman’s terms, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Aston Martin says it will carry out significant upgrades for the Cygnet to handle the immense weight, horsepower, and torque. What kind of upgrades? How about multiple spoilers all over the car just to keep it planted on the ground.
If the project receives a green light from the board, it will enter a new segment called over-powered city cars that also includes the Nissan Juke-R.
That being said, Aston Martin will go ahead with the project only if there is sufficient customer demand. So, people who want to break records or experience crazy, visit your nearest Aston Martin Showroom and inquire about this project.
Do you think this is an upgrade that the Cygnet deserves or does it have disaster written all over? Let us know in the comments.
When Audi brought the TT to the U.S. back in the 2000 model year, it was not overly powerful or fast. Rather its 180-horsepower, turbocharged 1.8-liter engine produced adequate power combined with an agile chassis to make a complete sports coupe. As time went on, however, the TT became more powerful and firmly planted itself as one of the best sports cars on the market.
In the 2012 model year, Audi decided it was time to show exactly what the TT could do, given the right tuning. With this came the introduction of the 2012 Audi TT RS, which was a super-high-performance machine that left every other sports car in its wake – even some that were significantly more expensive.
In 2013, Audi will continue this high-performance variant of the TT and will, for the most part, carry the model over from the 2012 model year. So the question that begs to be answered is “can the TT RS continue to dominate with essentially the same setup as it had a year ago?”
Click past the jump to get the answer to that question in our full review of the 2013 Audi TT RS.
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When Hyundai and Kia strapped some boost to a 2.0-liter engine and bumped its output to over 270 horsepower, we took notice. Hyundai then released the all-new 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine and we thought, “What’s going on here?” Now Hyundai and Kia are working on yet another turbocharged engine and it’s likely to turn heads and twist faces.
According to reports, at Hyundai-Kia’s International Powertrain Conference, the automakers confirmed that they are currently working on a turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine. The likely recipient of this new boosted V-6 engine is the next-generation Genesis.
This engine is expected to feature direct fuel injection and at least 350 ponies. With the combination of a turbocharger, direct fuel injection, and other creative engineering, Hyundai-Kia expects this engine to get somewhere in the 33 mpg range. We’re not too sure which Genesis Hyundai is talking about, but we assume this would see use in the coupe model.
The existing Genesis 3.8 R-Spec uses a 3.8-liter V-6 that produces 348 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. With turbos being as effective as they are now, we would expect to see torque nearing 350 pound-feet at super-low rpm – maybe sub-2,000. That would make the Genesis quite the screamer. Given its existing 5.3-second sprint to 60 mph, we would anticipate that to drop near the 4.5-second range with the added horsepower and torque.
For now, this is all speculation and we don’t expect to see the next-gen Genesis Coupe until at least the 2016 model year, maybe even later. If Hyundai is planning on this engine going into the Genesis sedan, we could see it as early as 2014. That would be very upsetting to see this engine wasted in the sedan’s body…
