Having given away a vehicle here on Autoblog, we have first hand knowledge of how much crap is involved in such an endeavor. Before our sweepstakes could happen, dozens of lawyers were called in to comb the official rules and inspect the wording of every mention we made. They were searching for mistakes that an enterprising entrant could use to “get us”.
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Filed under: Tuners, SUVs, Land Rover
Click on the image above to view in our gallery
While the little green angel on our right shoulder prompts us to applaud cars that get good fuel economy, the Italian-racing-red devil on the left whispers how cool it is to waste gallons of irreplaceable fossil fuels on things like supercharged Land Rovers. Truth be told, we like giving in to the red one. We just feel guilty about it the next morning. And just in case the force-fed Range Rover Sport from the factory wasn’t enough, along comes something that makes us forget all about the letters HSE.
What you see here is a circa-1950’s Defender Series I, the original Land Rover that has crossed continents countless times. But in case it didn’t get from coast to coast quite fast enough, some blessed soul has dropped in a supercharged Ford V8 kicking out around 800 horsepower. In its current state, though, we doubt it’ll be fording any rivers - unless they’ve already dried up. Check out the images for yourself in the gallery below.
[Source: Chromjuwelen via CarScoop]
Gallery: Land Rover Defender I dragster
Filed under: Spy Photos, Trucks/Pickups, Ford
Click above for more shots of the Ford F150 “Raptor”
We’ve got to give the folks at Ford credit for the camoflague (or lack thereof) they’ve used to conceal the newest mule for the F150-based “Raptor” pickup. Despite the artfully placed stickers on the windows and bumper, nothing can draw attention away from the massively flared wheel arches and lifted ride-height of the off-road mule. Read the rest of this entry →
Filed under: Supercars, Ferrari
Click above to view the video of the Ferrari P4/5 in Florida.
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten an update on the Ferrari P4/5, but Matt Farah of New York Motor Club fame spent some time with the always affable James Glickenhaus at the Palm Beach Supercar Weekend to see how things are going with the man’s bespoke-bodied Enzo. Aside from getting to see the P4/5 from a series of angles, Farah gets into some of the details that Glickenhaus has added after fleshing out the hyper car over the course of its life. The new exhaust tips were one topic of conversation. Based off the 2003 Ferrari F1 car’s exhaust setup, they actually provide more downforce as exhaust gases are expelled onto the rear wing. There’s plenty of other technical tidbits to be had, so hit the jump to watch the video.
Continue reading VIDEO: Garage419 spends time with the Ferrari P4/5
Filed under: Government/Legal, Earnings/Financials, Driving, UK
We report this unfortunate development in solidarity with our British comrades. As if it weren’t hard enough living in London - already one of the most expensive cities in the world - Mayor Ken Livingstone has drastically increased the congestion charge for cars entering the city. The fine, originally instituted in 2003 at 5, will jump exponentially to 25 per day for every vehicle entering downtown London. The news follows last week’s announcement that the charge for commercial vehicles increased to a whopping 200. City officials claim the 30-50 million it will raise from the added tax revenues each year will be invested into public transportation. Conservative MP (and noted car nut) Boris Johnson calls the charge a “stealth tax” on families requiring larger cars.
As before, low-emissions cars are exempt from paying the fee. Not to worry, though: for drivers who have yet to trade in their secure Range Rovers for an unsafe G-Wiz, the now even-further reviled “Red Ken” Livingstone has a plan: 6,000 rental bicycles to be made available around London by 2010, which should pose no problem for commuters in rain-swept England.
[Source: Bloomberg Europe via Winding Road]
Filed under: Motorsports, Euro, Government/Legal, Videos, Ford, Citroen, Celebrities
It’s pretty straightforward for most of us: drive above the speed limit and risk getting in trouble with the fuzz. Racing drivers usually get away with it - if only because they’re on closed circuits - which makes it all the more interesting when the same fate befalls them as applies to the rest of us. Although nothing seems to have come out of Schumacher’s now-famous cab-driving incident, for example, Lewis Hamilton can’t drive anymore on French roads. Now, after having almost run down a police officer on his way to a record fifth consecutive victory in Monte Carlo, we’ve got video footage of incumbent rally champion Sebastien Loeb getting pulled over by Swedish police in his Citroen C4 rally car.
In the video after the jump, you can clearly see the same ticked-off look the rest of us get while receiving a ticket. But the discernible exasperation could be more from the results of that weekend’s rally, where mechanical problems forced Loeb to retire as Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala became the youngest ever rally winner at 22, topping a Ford- dominated podium at the 2008 Swedish Rally.
[Source: Autosport and YouTube]
Continue reading VIDEO: Rally champ Sebastien Loeb gets speeding ticket at Swedish Rally
Filed under: Convertibles, Sports/GTs, Cadillac
Click image for photo gallery
The Corvette-based XLR was supposed to be Cadillac’s flagship. So how come we’d rather have the new CTS-V, and why did Eli choose the upcoming Escalade Hybrid as his Super Bowl MVP prize? If the rumors are to be believed, Cadillac hopes to correct that with an updated version of the top-of-the-line roadster this summer.
The production XLR made quite a splash with its EVOQ-ative, edgy styling at the 2003 Detroit show, and it’s been on the road essentially unchanged since its introduction in 2004, which would make it just about due for a facelift. We’d expect a revised XLR - and accompanying facelift for the supercharged XLR-V (above) - to get a bigger mouth as the most prominent of the styling updates.
Photos Copyright (C)2007 Alex N
Filed under: Economy, Etc., Hatchbacks, Ford
For over three years, US car buyers have soldiered on with variations on the aged first-generation Ford Focus architecture while Europeans have moved on to enjoy the much better-looking and more refined gen-two model. Ford CEO Allan Mulally has officially confirmed that the upcoming 2010 Focus will be global, meaning that our interest in the Ford compact should grow considerably. The web scribes at FoMoCo News have popped up a possible sketch of the next Focus (source unknown, so take with a grain of salt), and the three-door rendering shares a lot of design elements with its smaller sibling, the Verve (shown at right). The taut, flowing headlamps and aggressive fender bulges are similar, as is the trapezoidal theme for the lower intake. The contour of the two vehicles is also a near perfect match, with the hatch and rear windows receiving very similar angles. The Focus sketch has more pronounced side panels with a flare that stretches from behind the front wheel well all the way to the hatch, giving the larger three-door a more athletic appearance. Read the rest of this entry →
Filed under: Sports/GTs, Nissan
Pre-orders for the 2009 Nissan GT-R have already begun, with 691 certified dealers across the US ready to service the new offering. The expected sales volume is in the range of 2,500 vehicles for the first year and 1,500 anually after that. Do the math and you’ll see the equation adds up to limited consumer availability. Mix that with high demand and you know that markups follow. Eager enthusiasts are up in arms over the possibility that their greatest desire might he priced out of reach as a result. Even Nissan expects to see its dealers make an attempt to cash in. Read the rest of this entry →
Filed under: Coupes, Sports/GTs, Videos, Ford, Shelby, Celebrities
One week from today, we’ll be watching Knight Rider, the 2-hour telemovie that resurrects KITT as a new car (Mustang) with a new voice (Val Kilmer), a new driver (Mike Traceur, son of Michael Knight), and, if ratings are good enough, a probable weekly gig in primetime next Fall. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Before that can happen, the pilot needs to be a success, and we’re as interested as everyone else in seeing what the network and executive producer Doug Liman have cooked up. Liman’s body of work as a director and producer is so money that despite our fears, the Knight Rider reboot could actually work. Read the rest of this entry →
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