We found some new intel about the upcoming VW Lupo aka VW up!. A must read!
It’s only a year to go until Volkswagen launches its new Up! microcar family. The Up! is due on sale in summer 2011 and will eventually be available in three sizes, as part of VW’s New Small Family (NSF) generation of city cars. Although the Lupo name was tipped to make a comeback, that’s now very unlikely. Expect this to be called Up! in production – complete with annoying exclamation mark that’ll surely rank alongside the Kia Cee’d’s linguistic graffiti.
We hear the new VW Up range will make its debut in August 2011, one year from now. The total output of phase one from VW’s Bratislava plant is geared for 600,000 sales per year. Initially, there will only be two bodystyles to choose from: a three- and five-door hatchback. Still to come are the Space Up! microvan and Audi’s forthcoming A2, which will use the same basic matrix, sources say.
Interesting first drive report here with the Bentley Continental GT.
Despite boasting all-new sheetmetal thanks in part to its “Superformed” aluminum fenders, hood and trunk lid, the 2011 Continental GT is clearly a measured update of the outgoing car. This has been done on purpose, as the exit car’s fluid styling was arguably the single attribute that owners most wanted to protect. To that end, Bentley’s designers have done a bang-up job subtly but completely reworking the coupe’s shape without corrupting the original’s design’s ethos.
Admittedly, much of the GT’s predecessor’s organic Rubenesque form has given way to crisper edges, and with a 41 mm wider track at the front and 48 mm wider rump, the car definitely looks broader and a bit flatter – especially with its more vertical grille. We have to admit that the GT’s changes didn’t strike us as terribly attractive when we first saw early photos of the car, but upon viewing it in the metal under Oman’s harshly omnipresent sun, it’s quite handsome and markedly more aggressive than its predecessor. We’re still not quite sold on the ‘bigs and littles’ headlight treatment – particularly when viewed from certain off-center angles – but it’s still a good-looking piece, and with a smoother underbelly, it looks better to the wind, too, registering a cD of .33. Overall, despite a wholesale change in sheetmetal, there’s no mistaking this for anything but a Continental.
Great news here as VW has announced the worldwide introduction of a 3.0-liter TSI supercharged V6 hybrid for the VW Touareg.
For 2011, the Touareg is available with a 3.0-liter V6 TDI clean diesel that makes 225 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque, a 3.6.-liter FSI V6 gasoline engine making 280 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque, or the 3.0-liter TSI supercharged V6 hybrid that pairs the engine with an electric motor and a nickel-metal-hydride battery pack. The Touareg can go up to 30 mph on electric power alone. The hybrid engine offers combined horsepower of 380 hp and 428 lb-ft of torque — as VW puts it, “V8 power with better fuel efficiency than a V6.” All three engine choices are combined with an eight-speed transmission and 4MOTION all-wheel drive.
Appearance-wise, the 2011 Touareg is shorter and wider, with a longer wheelbase for more cabin space. More curves, fender flares, a chrome accent strip and shaped chrome exhaust tips are among the exterior changes for what VW calls a more “muscular” appearance. The Touareg also gets LED running lights and bi-xenon headlamps.
Bentley has launched a very stylish visualiser for the new Bentley Continental GT. Try it!
Classing up the usual configurator with Bentley style, the Visualiser (note the British spelling) for the new 2011 Continental GT. Gear up your best champagne wishes and caviar dreams, and hit up the site to build your own dream Bentley.
Well, you can style your Bentley, but you can’t really build it. With a whole host of color choices and a trio of 20- and 21-inch wheels, there’s a look for almost anybody. We found it particularly interesting to see which aspects of the car are most accented by each different color.
Street word has it that VW is working on a VW Touareg R which is targeting the BMW X5M and BMW X6M. According to the rumored specs, this might not be far off.
Apparently, the Volkswagen Touareg R will use a new V8 engine developing 500 hp. This is 55 hp less than the bimmers. But this is not the end of the story. The Volkswagen Touareg R will actually be a hybrid and it will also have an electric motor developing an additional 47 hp. The total? 547 hp! Now the Volkswagen Touareg R is just 8 hp shy of an X6M. How about that?
Bentley has confirmed to be working on a 4-door rival of the Aston Martin Rapide. Expect nothing short of eye candy!
Speaking exclusively to us at the Paris Motor Show, Bentley boss Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen confirmed that the firm wants to introduce a “third-generation model”. And the all-new car is expected to sit below the Continental and Mulsanne.
It will be pitched at the Rapide, Maserati Quattroporte and Porsche Panamera, and will also offer customers a more upmarket alternative to the Mercedes CLS and forthcoming four-door BMW 6-Series. While the Rapide is priced at £140,000, the Bentley could cost from around £85,000.
Here are more spy shots of the upcoming next-generation VW Passat Station Wagon aka VW Passat Variant.
VW is classing the Passat as a new model, but essentially it will be a thorough re-style and re-engineering job in the same mould as the shift from the Mk5 to the current Mk6 Golf.
It will use the same platform and body as the current Passat, although there will be substantial changes to the front and rear ends, and the car will grow slightly in size as a result.
At the front, there will be a stylish, new four-bar grille and a new bonnet, while a Golf-style full-width lower air-intake gives the car a much wider and lower stance. Squarer headlights will also feature at the front, while there will also be changes to the rear light clusters and bumper designs, as well as trim changes.
This video of the Bentley “Mavis” will make your day if you are into big, really big engines. Enjoy!
Click on “source” above to see another movie.
Some 10 minutes after driving Chris Williams’s Packard-engined Behemoth my hands were still shaking, my voice was croaking and the cool autumn wind was chilling my sweaty overalls.
My face was cherry red from the infernal heat of the engine and my eyebrows singed from its 24 flaming exhaust stubs. In my entire career I have never driven anything as visceral, as physical or as sheer bloody terrifying as Mavis, the 42-litre Packard-engined Bentley.
Williams built Mavis at weekends and evenings over the last seven years using a Bentley 8-litre chassis, with specially fabricated parts and a V12 Packard engine from an American Second World War motor torpedo boat.
VW is planning a radical new VW Beetle. Bring it on!
The all-new VW Beetle, due to launch at next year’s Detroit motor show, will be a “radical design”, according to company sources.
This gives the Beetle a reworked chassis with wider tracks and a longer wheelbase than today’s model. Insiders are confident it will better the current Beetle’s dynamics, with a more compliant ride.
The Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible has made its public driving debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The ‘drophead’ put on a show for the spectators under the piloting expertise of former racer Derek Bell, flexing its torque-abundant muscle up the circuit’s famous hill climb. The Continental Supersports Convertible can do up to 202 mph (325 km/h) and has a 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) sprint time of just 3.9 seconds.
We found some awesome spy shots of the upcoming VW up! aka VW Lupo from Death Valley. A must see!
The first prototypes of the Volkswagen Up! minicar have arrived in Death Valley today. Although they’re draped in some pretty heavy camouflage, it’s clear that the production Up! will be very similar to the concept.
Volkswagen has already announced that it is preparing to start production of the Up! next year at its plant in Slovakia. The lineup will include this two-door coupe as well as the larger Space Up! and Space Up! Blue, both of which were unveiled as concepts several years ago.
Nice review here of the Bentley Mulsanne by the Los Angeles Times.
Had the valet spent a weekend behind the wheel of this prestigious beauty, as I did, he would’ve learned there’s far more to admire about the Mulsanne than its price, which is merely the result of a custom sedan designed, engineered and handcrafted from scratch. The most exclusive Bentley, no more than 800 of these “ultra-luxury” cars will be made annually. Each takes nine weeks to build.
The 2011 Mulsanne marks a return to classic Bentley, with its archetypical and torque-y 6.75-liter V-8 engine, corner-friendly rear-wheel drive and a resurrected namesake that connects Bentley’s racing past to the present. Mulsanne is a famous straightaway on the LeMans course in France. What this all means for buyers: drivable Dom Perignon.
With its Mulsanne, Bentley truly does break out the bubbly. It’s a celebration of the marque’s liberation from Rolls-Royce as much as it’s a car. Bentley spent 67 of its 91 years run by the similarly British-born but now German-owned Rolls-Royce.
Bentley, which is currently owned by Volkswagen, is trumpeting its Mulsanne as the first “true” Bentley in 80 years. Engineered and built in Crewe, England, by Bentley engineers and coach builders, the Mulsanne is at once an over-the-top yet understated model that delivers impeccable five-star service.
