Autos News

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Late last month, Carroll Shelby posted on his Facebook page that he “resting comfortably with family and working on getting better” while battling a bout of pneumonia at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. That statement from the man himself was in response to rumors of his death last month but sadly, today’s brand new releases has hit the world hard, backed by a press release from the company which shares the legend’s name (Carroll Shelby International, Inc). The cause of his death was undisclosed but we can surmise that Mr. Shelby may have lost the battle to the pneumonia that he was battling last month. In his passing, the automotive industry has lost a man who has done as much for the progression of high performance as any individual since the automobile was invented.

“We are all deeply saddened, and feel a tremendous sense of loss for Carroll’s family, ourselves and the entire automotive industry,” told Joe Conway, president of Carroll Shelby International, Inc. and board member. “There has been no one like Carroll Shelby and never will be. However, we promised Carroll we would bring on, and he put the team, the products and the vision in place to do just that.”

Carroll Shelby had an impact on the automotive scene – especially in the United States – like few other individuals in history. While the Shelby name has recently become better known for the Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang and the Shelby American brand that turns out high performance Ford Mustang models near Las Vegas – Carroll Shelby’s legacy will forever be secured by his creation of the Shelby Cobra in the mid 1960s. That car combined the compact chassis of British sports car builder AC Cars with a high performance Ford V8 and the result was one of the highest performance American production cars of all time…a vehicle that will forever stand atop the list of the greatest American performance cars.

Carroll Shelby also had a heavy hand in the original engineering design of the Dodge Viper along with helping to lend his expertise (and his name) to a popular group of turbocharged compact models that included vehicles like the Dodge Charger Shelby, the Dodge Omni GLHS, the Dodge Daytona Shelby Z, and the Dodge Shadow-based Shelby CSX-T. These compact cars packed incredible Strength for the time – essentially offering a high performance sport compact before the thought of a Honda Civic Si or Neon SRT4 was ever considered.

Mr Shelby considered his most essential accomplishment to be the creation of the Carroll Shelby Foundation – a charity which gives medical services for those in need. The charities gives medical assistance for children and adults as well as also providing educational opportunities for those interested in the automotive industry and other skilled trades. Click here for more information on the Carroll Shelby Foundation.

In his passing, Carroll Shelby is survived by his wife Cleo and his three children Patrick, Michael and Sharon. Our deepest sympathies go out to the Shelby family in their time of loss.

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Volkswagen has made it very clear that they want to be the number one automaker in the world by 2018. In 2011, they sold 8.3 million vehicles for the first time and are well on their way to meeting their stated goal. It looks like Audi, who is owned by Volkswagen, has plans to be the largest luxury brand in the world.

According to Auto Guide, Audi has recently filed papers with the European trademark office to protect seven brand new release car names. The seven names Audi protected are: Q6, Q8, R6, S2, S9, RS1 and RS8. While the Q6 is already known to exist and is still in the testing stages, the other models will likely be seen on future models. The S9 is a brand new release name that hasn’t even been known until now.

Reports say the the Q6 and Q8 models will be Audi’s brand new releaseest SUV crossovers with the Q6 being the brands answer to the BMW X6. The Q8 would likely be the biggest SUV and would be the luxury flagship in Audi’s lineup. The R6 could be a smaller version of Audi’s R8 supercar with a mid-engine design and would have a more affordcapable sticker price.

It’s not certain if Audi will have a brand new release luxury model that would slot above the current A8 luxury flagship, but the name S9 suggests that the brand will be introducing another brand new release model called the A9 into the lineup with the S9 being the performance model. The A2 could be another brand new release model with the S2 possibly being a brand new release exciting performance oriented coupe. The RS1 has been seen in spy photos and is a small hatchback, but it may not have a sport performance variant offered.

It looks like Audi has plans to stay on top of the luxury car market and is investing in the future in a big way. They are developing brand new release technologies like the Traffic Jam Assistant. The idea behind this technology is, instead of constantly crawling and braking in extreme rush hour traffic, you can sit back and let the car do the driving for you.

Audi also brought on 3,500 brand new release employees last year, breaking their own hiring record. This year, Audi plans to bring on another 1,200 specialists to the team. The German company also has plans to invest more money in expanding the infrastructure of the company with brand new release property, equipment and plant acquisitions between now and 2016. There is also a strong emphasis on investing in brand new release technologies like electric and hybrid drive.

We can expect to see some exiting brand new release models coming from Audi as they plan on becoming the number one luxury carmaker in the world.

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The BMW 1-Series will bring a brand new release front end design (shown in the gallery thumbnails on the right, click to enlarge) with a brand new release 5-door design taking the place of the coupe and convertible availcapable as 2012 model year 1-Series vehicles. When the 2013 1-Series designed debuted last year, it became a common expectation that the 2-door models sporting this brand new release look would bring about the introduction of the brand new release BMW 2-Series and according to Car, the 2014 BMW 2-Series will debut as a convertible. This comes to Car from sources inside of BMW.

The 2014 BMW 2-Series Convertible will likely ride on the same platform as the 2013 BMW 1-Series and we can expect that at least some of the drivetrain options (if not all) will be shared as well. The most noticecapable difference between the two will be the slightly smaller overall dimensions and the difference in swapping from a 5-door hatchback to a 2-door convertible. This will include some slightly different taillights, a brand new release rear interior layout and – of course – a trunk instead of the cargo area of a hatch. Luckily, the shape of the taillights might work well with a sweeping trunkline broken up by an integrated rear spoiler.

If the BMW 2-Series does indeed debut for the 2014 model year as a convertible, we would expect to see a hard topped coupe version – lest BMW go the route of other retractcapable hardtop models and make the 2-Series a coupe with a hard removcapable roof. That sounds cool but those are often heavy, hindering performance in a variety of ways and vastly diminishing cargo space.

We must be also keep in mind that BMW has trademarked the M2 name after announcing that the BMW 1 Series M Coupe would only be built for one year. At first, we were all disappointed that the awesome entry level M sports car would be gone after a year but instead, it looks like there is a good chance that the same basic design could exist under the name M2. BMW used the name 1-Series M Coupe for the recent compact sports car to pay homage to the incredible BMW M1 supercar of the late 1970s. must be the brand new release compact 2-door sports car be based on the 2014 BMW 2-Series, it somewhat confirms that there is a brand new release high performance model coming that follows in the traditional naming process of the M high performance lineup with the 2014 M2.

In addition to the 2-door version of the BMW 1-Series shifting to the brand new release 2-Series nameplate, it is expected that the 2-door versions of the BMW 3-Series architecture will also receive a brand new release name with the introduction of the BMW 4-Series. That portion is still speculation but must be the topless compact BMW meet the world as the 2014 BMW 2-Series; it will add an extra measure of support to the future existence of a BMW 4-Series. Following in the same train of thought for the BMW M2, many speculate that the future high performance coupe models based on the BMW 3-Series sedans will bring the name M4.

In any case, with a likely model year of 2014 for the brand new release BMW 2-Series, the company must be be introducing this brand new release model within the next 6 to 8 months.

Source: Car

Images: BMW

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In a first ever test of its kind, Hyundai took their i30 hatchack (the Elantra GT here in the U.S.) into the Knowsley Safari Park in the UK for an incredible durability test. Hyundai decided that there is no better way to test the durability of the brand new release hatchback. They drove the five-door compact car into the baboon habitat, opened the doors and stood back and let 20 monkeys do whatever they wanted with the car.

As visitors enter the baboon habitat, they are greeted with a warning that says “You enter at your own risk. Baboons can damage your car. We advise you to keep moving in this area.” After you watch the video, you will see why. The monkeys leave nothing untouched and left the car a filthy mess.

Felicity Wood, who is the i30 Product Manager in the UK, was a little nervous with the experiment and didn’t really know what to expect when the baboons were let loose on the car. She found out that the monkeys may have done a bit more to the car than they had anticipated.

David Ross, who is the General Manager of the Knowsley Safari Park, told the baboons pulled off the windshield wipers, mirrors, windshield washer jets, and even the door trim. Ross told they also pulled off the door sill plates and used them like skate boards as they ran down the road with them under their front feet. Ross told, “For a baboon, to have a car to play with for a whole day is manna from heaven!”

Hyundai Motor Group is one of the most innovative car companies on the planet, and this shows just how far they will go to prove it. Felicity Wood, added, “At Hyundai we believe in brand new release thinking, which is why we decided to take a brand new release approach with this durability test. You have to be pretty brave to subject a car to the most rigorous quality testers in the world, and the monkeys certainly gave our brand new release Generation i30 a thorough examination! The fact that it survived with only a few scrapes is testament to the way a modern Hyundai is designed and engineered. We really do care about building tough cars!”

Hyundai sells the same car in the U.S. and is badged the 2013 Elantra GT. The five-door hatchback made its North American debut at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this year. The car is slated to hit showrooms in the U.S. sometime this summer.

Check out the durability test video below.

Image source: Hyundai via Auto Guide

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Before getting into what it could mean for General Motors to be reserving the Riviera name, I must be point out that in the automotive world, there are a great many names trademarked that never appear on a vehicle – be it production or concept. Companies frequently trademark names without any intention of every using them on a vehicle to preserve the historical value of the name by protecting it from use by other companies and in some cases, a name is trademarked is earmarked for a project that doesn’t see the light of day. In other words, GM may have trademarked the Riviera name “just because” and it could mean nothing.

That being told, there have long been rumors that General Motors was considering a brand new release Buick coupe – rumors that are given credence by the 2007 Buick Riviera Concept. This concept was a super sleek 2 door coupe based on GM’s Epsilon II platform and while a bit too futuristic across the front end for a production vehicle, the 2007 Riviera concept was nice looking car. The problem as we see it is that GM did produce a Buick on the Epsilon II platform and they still do…the current Buick Regal. If GM was going to build a front wheel drive coupe on the Epsilon II undercarriage, why not call it the Regal Coupe? The Regal is certainly the sportier of the two nameplates and with GM’s preference for offering 2- and 4-door versions of similar nameplates, a front wheel drive Regal would make much more sense than a Riviera on the same platform.

The other possibility is that the brand new release Buick Riviera could be based on a larger rear wheel drive platform – specifically the Alpha platform on which the 2013 Cadillac ATS rides. While this platform currently serves as the base of the sporty brand new release Caddy BMW 3-Series fighting sedan, GM could modify it to make for a slightly larger rear wheel drive coupe. With this idea, there wouldn’t be any concern of the Riviera taking any sales from the ATS thanks to the different body configurations. The ATS chassis and suspension have been tuned on some of the most intense race tracks on the world so 2-door Buick Riviera based on the ATS underpinnings could put Buick back into the affordcapable sports car race in a big way. The Buick Riviera has always been a roomy, plush coupe and the midsized sedan platform from the Cadillac ATS could allow the brand new release Riviera to combine sporty driving characteristics with an interior that offers lots of room and lots of amenities.

Again, there is a chance that General Motors has trademarked the Riviera name to protect it “just in case” but with a 2007 Buick coupe concept and gobs of rumors about a future 2-door Buick – perhaps the Riviera will arrive as a brand new release concept or future production vehicle in the near future.

Source: GM Inside brand new releases

Image: GM

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