Car News

Update: The R8-RS won’t be fitted with the RS6’s twin-turbo units because of heating problems, which caused several prototypes to catch on fire during testing. According to Quattro GmbH director Werner Frowein, the car will instead run a naturally aspirated V10 engine with around 500hp...

The Opel GT (Saturn Sky) platform is one the most stylish roadsters on the market despite its budget connotations and combined with a turbocharged powerplant you’d think it would be one of the most popular tuner cars around. Surprisingly, tuner kits for the GT are few and far between, but one...

One of the tuners at this year’s Essen Motor Show is Italy’s TRC-Marangoni, which has modified Fiat’s stylish 500 minicar and changed its name to the ‘5-0-0 Super’. The car has been given a striking red paint finish and a contrasting black hood to mimic Fiat’s...

Volkswagen will be going on a huge spending spree in coming years to help reach its target of ten million vehicle sales by 2018. Already we’ve reported about the carmaker’s strategy to reduce its vehicle architectures to four main platforms, and now we have news of a €9.5 billion...

SUVs have traditionally fared poorly in safety tests but a majority of the new-generation compact soft-roaders have scored at least four stars in the Euro NCAP tests, with a few, like the Volkswagen Tiguan and Land Rover Freelander/LR2, even getting the coveted five star rating. In its latest round...

Everybody knows Ferrari’s FXX supercar is a testbed for the carmaker’s upcoming technologies, both for the racetrack and the road, but the prototype’s 6.2L V12 engine may soon be a thing of the past. Ferrari is considering using a more efficient twin-turbo V8 engine for the...

In a recent announcement Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that Renault has plans to begin production of electric cars in Israel by 2012. Now word has come out that Renault may be teaming up with Shai Agassi’s Project Better Place to help build the infrastructure necessary to make electric...

On paper, the 255hp (190kW) AWD Mazda6 MPS (MazdaSpeed) appears to have what it takes to be a class leader in the performance midsized sedan segment, but in the real world the turbocharged ‘6 fails to excite. The engine doesn’t have the satisfying turbo rush of some of its rivals, the...

The automotive industry has come a long way since Francois Isaac de Rivaz designed the first internal combustion engine in 1806. Already advances such as power steering, ABS brakes and stability control are standard options on most cars sold today, but what next? We take a look at the next set of...

Slated to be available in time for the Beijing Olympics, which start in August, the new car is likely part of China’s plan to clean up their image - and their emissions - in anticipation of the arrival of all the athletes. Earlier this year Beijing began its clean-up efforts by banning nearly...

German racing car company HWA has denied reports that it is likely to enter formula one in 2007. The German news magazine Focus last week claimed that the company, which since 2000 has built Mercedes-Benz’s cars for the DTM series, could become involved in the current McLaren collaboration...

Last week the ongoing talks between Volkswagen and Proton came to an end, leaving the door open for GM to step in and pick up where it left off. GM, as well as PSA Peugeot-Citroen, was initially in talks with Proton but VW quickly emerged as the most likely company to form an alliance with the...

Earlier this month an Audi R8 driven by a 27-year old man from Gummersbach, Germany, spun out of control and eventually crashed into a barrier, killing the driver. According to police, the man behind the wheel was not wearing his seatbelt but there was no evidence that he was excessively speeding...

The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is an annual event run by the French tire company, aimed at promoting the development of sustainable mobility. At this year’s event in Shanghai Audi’s A5 3.0L TDI managed to take top honors, finishing first in the prototype vehicles category. Audi in fact...

A Ferrari test driver has backed Fernando Alonso’s apparent plan to join the Maranello based team in the future. But despite speculation to the contrary, Marc Gene, also a Spaniard, says he can not envisage the 26-year-old double world champion in a Ferrari as early as 2009. It is rumored...

Today marked the beginning of a crucial period for Jaguar as the first XF saloon rolled off the production line at the carmaker’s Castle Bromwich plant. The XF is described as a ‘make-or-break’ model for Jaguar and could potentially be the last car ever to carry the Jaguar title...

German racing car company HWA is reportedly likely to enter formula one in 2009. The news magazine Focus reports that the outfit, which since 2000 has built Mercedes-Benz’s cars for the DTM series, could become involved in the current McLaren-Mercedes collaboration. It was reported in June...

This is the episode of Top Gear we’ve all been waiting for, the one where Jeremy Clarkson takes the new Aston Martin DBS coupe for a spin.

To reach its targeted production rate of ten million vehicles per year by 2018 Volkswagen will be implementing several major revisions to its current platform designs to help reduce development costs. VW is developing four new architectures that will eventually spawn vehicles for most of the VW...

Hoping to achieve a truly global platform, General Motors is developing a new front-drive compact architecture to extend over a variety of models. Vehicle line executive for the architecture Peter Mertens said, “we are doing a completely new platform that has a huge bandwidth.” The new...