Carscoop Wrote:A new and rather aggressive advertising campaign regarding the Nissan 370Z and GT-R sports cars has kicked off in Britain. The company launched a series of poster and print adverts highlighting the fact that both sports cars are better in terms of performance yet cost less than their equivalent German rivals.

And mind you, Nissan isn't being polite as the automaker is using tongue-in-cheek phrases in the ads such as "The Winner Hans Down," "The Germans Came Off Wurst," "Kaisers Chiefed" and "Deutschland Deutschland Über-Rated".

To further frustrate its German adversaries, the Japanese company took an Audi TTS bearing the slogan "More expensive, slower and less powerful than a Nissan 370Z" around the streets of London. It was joined by a Porsche Cayman adorned with the words "I dream of being as fast as a Nissan 370Z". Ouch...

"It simply challenges the convention of German sportscars being the only benchmark for performance and quality," says Steve McLennan, Nissan Marketing Director.

"Nissan is confident in the ability of 370Z and GT-R to eclipse our comparable German rivals in terms of outright performance and accessibility and it's now time to shout about it."

We still haven't seen the ads on the GT-R, but the 370Z print campaign, which will appear in key men's lifestyle and motoring magazines, plus outdoor poster sites across the UK over the next six months, includes other cars as well such as the BMW Z4 and the Porsche Boxster.

The first outdoor poster concerning the 370Z went on display on the huge 360-degree 47ft tall BFI IMAX billboard at Waterloo, London.

And just in case you're not aware of the 370Z's performance specs and how it compares against the German competition, below are two charts with the basic details, courtesy of Nissan.

Quote:I’m pretty sure no one ever expected to see a Lexus LS 400 painted up like this:


This is the General Lee(xus), and it has quite an interesting story — turns out this old LS is an entry into Bangers4BEN, a charity event in the UK for “helping the automotive and related industries provide care and support for employees and their dependants in times of need”.

Brett Berk Wrote:

MINI COOPER/DORMOUSE

Big-eyed, fleet-footed, and able to fit between or under anything, this cute micro makes whizzing through city traffic feel like you’re little Jerry out-running that chronic underperformer, Tom the cat.



CITICAR/YELLOW-EYED OWL

One is a glorified golf cart that may be the most-produced all-electric car in American history. The other is a carnivorous raptor that subsists on baby bunnies. Both move about with a stealthy silence that belies their size and insane appearance.



MITSUBISHI LANCER RALLIART/DOBERMAN PINSCHER

That whole bark/bite dichotomy is negated by this pair, as the boisterous Lancer sinks its teeth into the pavement in much the same way a yelping pinscher chomps a poodle, or a mail carrier’s calf.



Like a battery-powered roadster, these industrious little burrowers are good for the environment, loosening compacted soil and channeling rain water with their tunnels. Both specialize in fast drives through the desert, though you need to harness at least 11 dozen prairie dogs to really get going, while it takes only one Tesla.



HYUNDAI GENESIS COUPE/RED PANDA

These maroon tree-dwelling mammals are not found in Korea, unlike their vehicular counterparts, which hail from the peninsula’s southern half. However, both feature startling rotational tenacity, squishy interiors, and a dorky-sinister smile.



LINCOLN MKS/WALRUS

The walrus is famous for being immense, powerful, and oddly lugubrious, and for having a mouth that looks like Wilford Brimley after nine hours of cunnilingus. Ditto the Lincoln.



NISSAN CUBE/BULLDOG

This is sort of a cheap shot, as the Nissan designers claimed that their inspiration for the Cube’s design was “a bulldog wearing sunglasses.” But since I have no idea what that’s meant to imply, I thought it was O.K. to go literal here.



MORGAN AERO 8/RACCOON

I had a neighbor who’d converted his old Morgan to run on natural gas, which happens to be a byproduct of the decomposing trash upon which raccoons feed. If that’s not enough of a connection, both have serial-killer faces.



VOLVO C30/CLIFFORD

Volvos are inherently correlated with educated Northeastern liberals, as is PBS, home of a cartoon concerning the life of this giant, moronic red dog. Neither has anything to do with Laura Bush.



FORD FLEX/RIGHT WHALE

Either of these blunt-nosed behemoths would work as a decent carrier for all your kids and crap if you’re too “butch” to be caught driving a minivan, but the Flex is slightly easier to navigate around the parking lot at Target. (The whale is better at consuming copepods and krill.)

World Car Fans Wrote:RSL has unveiled a new styling package for the facelifted Volkswagen T5.

To give the van an aggressive appearance, the company offers a front spoiler (€299), aerodynamic side skirts (€358 to €429) and rear bumper trim (€170). Other goodies include a roof-mounted spoiler (€295), 20-inch alloy wheels (€400), LED daytime running lights, chrome mirror caps, a sport exhaust system, and lowering springs (€298) which reduce the ride height 50mm.

All parts are TÜV approved (or registration free) in Germany and come with mounting hardware. More importantly, the body components are easy to install and ready for immediate painting.

Quote:In this case, the customer wanted his BMW 3.0 CSi of 1972 transformed into a perfect state. He also asked for its four-speed manual gearbox to be converted into an automatic, something that had previously been done only with two prototypes of the BMW 3.0 CSi. Based on close collaboration with the BMW Group Archive, which provided the relevant documentation, the “large Coupé” underwent an authentic conversion process. It was fitted with an automatic transmission from a BMW 2.8 CS. The refit and complete overhaul of the vehicle required months of research and countless hours of manual labour. The experts at the BMW Classic Center not only had to repair substantial bodywork damage, but also iron out technical and electronic defects as well as thoroughly overhaul the interior fittings. The vehicle is now in A1 condition.

Autoblog Wrote:Blue Oval execs rolled out the red carpet for Taurus SHO owners last week in Dearborn, MI to welcome 100 privately owned examples and many more enthusiasts to town for the 19th annual national Taurus SHO convention. Ford would love nothing more than to win the approval of the already rabid SHO enthusiast community, many of whom appreciate the performance potential of two turbos and all-wheel drive but aren't necessarily on board with the new super-sized model. To that end, Ford dropped some not-so-subtle hints on what could be in store for the next SHO, a model rumored to be on deck for 2013.

"365 horsepower is good. 400 is better."
"The SHO is at the top [of Ford's performance sedan lineup] and we're going to keep it there," said Steve Ling, Ford's North American car marketing manager during a Tuesday lunch presentation at Ford World Headquarters. "365 horsepower is good. 400 is better."

Advanced Engine Design and Development Engineer Brett Hinds spoke at length about the EcoBoost V6 during the Tuesday presentation, noting that the 3.5-liter engine had the potential for considerably more power, as we'll likely see later this year between the fenders of the F-150. That version of the EcoBoost will definitely produce more torque than the SHO's mill, but if the rumors of 400 horsepower for the F-150 are true, a more muscular SHO could indeed be just around the corner.

Quote:



While turbo cars had been built by Oldsmobile and BMW, it was only with the Saab 99 Turbo in 1978 that turbocharging became a viable, mainstream performance option. But boy oh boy, did the Japanese take to turbos in a big way. Because over the next five years, almost all Japanese manufacturers (with the exception of Honda) would make turbo a mainstream performance option.

Then the story of the Nissan Skyline. When Prince Motors introduced the Skyline in 1957 and the Gloria in 1959, it would be a big step forward for the fledgling Japanese car industry. These cars may have looked like Chevrolet-clones, but they were contemporary cars with some avantgarde engineering like De Dion rear suspension. The next generation Skyline and Gloria confirmed the progress of Prince Motors as one of Japan's most accomplished of the time, before merging with Nissan in 1966. The progress made by the Japanese car industry during the first half of the 1960s was truly remarkable.

Nissan introduced a turbo option with the 430 series Cedric in 1979, Japan's first. But the following year, the smaller and lighter C210 series Skyline got the L20ET motor. Typical of Japanese manufacturers of the time, they were generous with regards to availability- so it came in 4-door sedan and 2-door hardtop with a number of trim levels, topped off by the flagship GT-EX. The power rating was 145hp- and keep in mind that this is 5hp less than the original VW 1.8T. Of course, there's the weight difference between a C210 Skyline and, say, a B5 Passat...

The other, less glamorous but still worthy addition to the C210 Skyline lineup that year was a diesel motor, the six-cylinder LD28. Its modest 91hp wasn't bad considering this was a bit more than a Mercedes-Benz 300D, and a Skyline diesel was consequently one of the few non-turbo diesels that could do 100mph or so. A pity they never turbocharged the Nissan diesel six for passenger cars. (The turbo diesel revolution was also beginning, and it too would reach Japan before long.)



The 910 series Bluebird, last of the RWD Bluebirds and in fact the most successful Bluebird in Japan since the legendary 510 (the 910 was a segment leader throughout its life), also received the turbo treatment in 1980. This isn't a pic of a turbo Bluebird, but the Bluebird SSS turbo had the Z18ET with 135hp. So you were treated in the early 80s to a choice of RWD turbo sedans in the form of Bluebird, Skyline and Laurel, with independent rear suspension and lots of luxury goodies coming with them too. Guess the Europeans and Japanese had things rather better than Americans in those testing times for the car industry!

EVO Wrote:What are they?

Three hot hatches. Not quite enough information? Well, we wanted to find out what sort of hot hatch the new Alfa Giulietta Cloverleaf is, and getting it together with a couple of likely rivals seemed the best way to go about it. So step forward the £24,250 VW Golf GTI and £21,300 SEAT Leon Cupra to do battle with the £24,495 Italian.

Technical highlights?

Let’s go for the engines – even if they’re not exactly cutting edge. You see the Giulietta Cloverleaf doesn’t have the Multiair technology that features on lesser engines, but still manages to generate 232bhp from just 1.7 litres. It’s turbocharged of course. So are both the Golf and Leon, which have near-identical 2.0-litre engines and develop 207bhp and 237bhp respectively.

So which is fastest?

The Leon and by a noticeable margin. It feels good for its claimed 6.4sec dash to 60mph, while the Alfa (6.8sec) and Golf (6.9sec) are very closely matched. All are modern hot hatches, which is to say that they have grunty bottom ends (fnar, fnar) and haul through the mid-range with real vigour.

The SEAT is particularly vivid and both it and the Golf sound halfway decent too as they punch happily to limiters just beyond 7000rpm. The trouble for the Alfa is that it’s engine simply isn’t very exciting to use. A good hot hatch, even a turbocharged one, needs a decent top end, but the Cloverleaf nuzzles up against its soft limiter at 6400rpm, having wound itself down for much of the last 1000rpm. It’s not much to listen to either.

What are they like to drive?

The fact we didn’t take a Focus RS or Megane 250 along to meet the Giulietta tells you most of what you need to know. The Cloverleaf is a bit of a softy. Let’s call it an everyday hot hatch – that’s been the secret of the Golf’s success lately: fun to drive, but also practical and socially mature.

The Golf we’ve got here is a good one, in relatively basic trim (three door, cloth seats, manual gearbox) compared to the group test car we featured a few months back. It came across as keener and edgier than that car and compared well against the Leon, too. I think it might have something to do with exactly where you’re positioned in the car, but in the GTI it feels like your sat slightly further back in the car, so you’re more aware of what the back axle is up to. The Leon always feels slightly nose heavy compared to the Golf, and doesn’t have such well weighted steering either.

And what of the Giulietta?

A good hot hatch is characterized by its energy and enthusiasm, a willingness to work hard and have fun. Not the Alfa. Throttle response is too soft, the engine has too much flywheel effect when you lift off and the steering doesn’t give you the weighty confidence of the Golf’s.

Stick it into Dynamic mode (via the ghastly DNA switch) and things improve markedly, but it’s still no fire-cracker. Once settled into a corner it holds a line nicely and the chassis does a reasonable job of communicating available grip, allowing it to carry a good bit of speed. It’s neat and tidy, and the suspension is much better controlled than the MiTo Cloverleaf’s. But there’s no escaping the fact the Golf is more precise, more accurate and faithful in its responses.

Anything else I need to know?

Alfa has made a valiant effort at upping interior quality, design and ergonomics, but it’s still no Golf. The chairs are too flat and unsupportive with not enough shape to the backrest, the pedals are low to the floor, so you find yourself pressing them with the underneath of your foot rather than the ball, and the Giulietta is simply not as satisfying to cruise around in as the GTI. At least it’s got the Leon licked for material quality.

On another note I also drove the 167bhp 1.4-litre Multiair which was a better car: delightful turbo hiss and a more natural feel to it. Really rather likeable in fact.

So what’s the verdict?

Golf first, Leon second (but easily the best value), Giulietta third. Pity, but there it is. This is new Alfa: better built, more mainstream and easier to live with, but in chasing the Golf GTI so assiduously, Alfa has lost sight of the bigger picture: it’s forgotten to inject the stuff that makes us love Italian cars unconditionally. So what we’ve ended up with is an Italian car that lacks the flair, vigour and passion of a German car. It’s an Alfa, but not as we know it.

Autocar Wrote:BMW X4 - don't rule it out

Greg Kable

Got talking to a number of senior BMW officials this week at the launch of the new Mini Countryman. As we were sitting around in a sweltering Hamburg hotel bar devoid of air conditioning, chat turned to developments in the four-wheel drive ranks, and not surprisingly the subject of the X6 came up.

Criticized at launch for being neither a true off-roader nor a true sportscar, the X6 has now surpassed 80,000 sales worldwide since its launch at the back end of 2008 – and if current sales trends continue it’ll likely end up with over 100,000 by the end of the year.

That’s significantly more than the more conventional 6-series has achieved in the same period. Not bad for a car that many automotive industry analysis said would never sell in great numbers. BMW’s original sales target, by the way, was less than 20,000 per year.

Thing is, the unexpected showroom success of the X6 has left BMW high ups wondering whether they should push ahead with a smaller, more affordable X4 model that has apparently been on the drawing board in Munich for some time now. The BMW officials in Hamburg weren’t saying as much. But reading between the lines, it was clear they were fishing for thoughts on whether such a car warranted inclusion in the company’s future model line-up.

BMW considering new 'X4'

Having now seen the conservative route BMW has taken with the second-generation X3, it appears there could be scope for a more sporting X4 derivative off the same four-wheel drive platform – BMW’s answer to the three-door Range Rover Evoque if you will.

Suffice to say, it would provide BMW with the perfect basis for a X4 M model powered, perhaps, by the upcoming 1-series M Coupe’s 350bhp twin-turbo 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine mated to an eight speed automatic – a combination what would likely be a big hit in the US, if nowhere else, admits one BMW manager I spoke to.

Having now concentrated production of the X3, X5 and X6 in the same factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the logistics involved in a possible X4 model don’t appear to be a limiting factor.

Most interesting of all, BMW will not deny an X4 is on the way.

Autocar Wrote:These are the first spy pictures of the new Mercedes SLK AMG in action.

Codenamed R172, the new SLK is being brought into line with Mercedes’ future styling direction, recently introduced by new design chief Gorden Wagener.

See the first spy pics of the Mercedes SLK in action

This car’s relatively light disguise cannot hide the switch to a large, trapezoidal front grille, as seen on the recently launched SLS AMG supercar and the F800 Style Geneva motor show concept.

The rear spoiler is similar in style to that on the SLS. And the rectangular patch just behind the front wheel arch probably covers a side vent, another cue from the range-topper.

The larger wheels and brakes, more aggressive air intake on the front spoiler and the quad-exhaust tips at the rear give this model’s identity as the AMG variant away.

Merc SLK heads sports car blitz

New Mercedes SLK in detail

The cars the new Merc SLK must beat

The successor to the current SLK55 is likely to use the same V8 powerplant as the C63 AMG, with 457bhp — but a new 3.5-litre direct-injection V6 petrol’s, which will make its debut in the S-class this autumn, modular design would allow twin-turbocharging, potentially freeing up similar power levels as the V8 but with lower emissions.

Our spy photographer claimed the model spied here had the engine note of a V8.

Whatever its engine, the AMG variant will take the SLK to almost £60,000, around the same as the base specification of the next-generation, aluminium-construction SL.

Pics: CarPix