Travel on cars

Filed under: Coupes, Sports/GTs, Auction Action, Ford, Shelby

Click the image above for a high resolution gallery

What does it cost to be the King of the Road? Apparently $605,000 (after auction fees). That’s how much Ron Pratte, who seems to be buying just about every Shelby at Barrett-Jackson, paid for the right to own the very first 2008 Shelby GT500 KR Glass Roof. That will only last for a while, though, since at least 999 more KR’s will be built and are currently being assembled at the Shelby plant in Las Vegas. Numero uno features a black-on-black paint scheme that looks stunning in person, as well as a glass roof option that won’t be available for the rest of production. As usual, Carroll Shelby was on hand to send the car off, reminding buyers why they are paying this much money for a Mustang. All the proceeds from the sale went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, so it’s all for a good cause.

Filed under: Concept Cars, Time Warp, Coupes, Chevrolet

Click the image above for a high resolution gallery

Pininfarina, meet Corvette. Corvette, Pininfarina. This one-off 1963 concept car was created for the Paris Auto Show and has been stored at the Pininfarina museum since new. Chevrolet commissioned the design house to build the car, which is based on a 1963 Corvette chassis and has a 327cid/360-hp V8 under the hood. The car has a much more European feel, and features fixed headlights and a “swallow tail” rear end.

Once in the spotlight, the Rondine drew more attention than any car yet. Bidding for the car quickly skyrocketed past $1 million and was finally sold for of $1.6 million, with a final price tag of $1.76 million after auction fees. That’s quite a lot of change, but less money than desirable concept cars have sold for in past years.

Filed under: Motorsports, Mercedes Benz, Earnings/Financials

click above to view more high-res pics of the Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster

No comment. That’s what the Mercedes-Benz communications office had to say in response to rumors that the company is preparing to take over McLaren, the racing team and engineering firm of which Daimler already owns 40%. The report comes from Auto Motor und Sport and suggests not only that Mercedes is considering a buy-out of McLaren, but that the deal has essentially already been hammered out.

The remaining 60% is shared by team principal Ron Dennis and his Saudi business partner Mansour Ojjeh (at 15% each) and Bahraini holding company Mumtalakat, to which Dennis and Ojjeh sold 30% last year. Daimler therefore has the largest interest in McLaren, but if it wanted to take complete control it would have to negotiate with the three other shareholders, or else take controlling interest of 55 or 70% by buying out either Dennis, Ojjeh or the Bahraini partners.

McLaren currently produces the SLR supercar for Mercedes. Although Mercedes is reportedly turning to AMG spin-off HWA for its next supercar, McLaren is meanwhile proceeding with its own P11. Of course, McLaren also fields Mercedes-powered Formula One cars. If Daimler did buy out McLaren, as has long been rumored, it would effectively become the Mercedes factory works team, much like Honda bought BAR and BMW took over Sauber.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport via Autosport]

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Wagons/Estates, GM, Pontiac, Holden, Australia

click above for more high-res images of the Holden VE Sportwagon

Holden wasn’t sure if it was going to build a new VE Commodore Wagon when developing its new line of rear-wheel-drive Zeta-based sedans. Wagons are fleet darlings in Australia, and the new one from Holden was for some reason switched from the long-wheelbase Caprice and Statesman platform to the shorter Commodore platform. That reduced the wagon’s cargo capacity, which in turn threatened its very existence. But after hearing that its parent company, General Motors, was interested in importing the VE Sportwagon as a Pontiac G8 wagon, Holden gave the wagon a green light in good faith that there would be additional sales from exports to offset the loss of fleet sales. (more…)

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrids/Alternative, Sedans/Saloons, Green, Crossovers/CUVs, Ford, Mazda, Mercury

Ford’s been cranking out hybrid CUVs on the CD2 platform for four years now, and with over 40,000 produced, it’s gotten to be old hat. Since it started in 2004, Ford’s managed to make the Escape, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute 30-percent cheaper to build. That cost reduction, coupled with the pending introduction of the hybrid Fusion and Milan platform-mates, will allow Ford’s hybrid program to actually turn a profit for the first time in 2008. The Mariner and Escape hybrids find about 21,000 owners per year, and adding the hardware to the sedans could spur sales of Ford’s hybrid system, further reducing costs. We’re excited to try out the sedans with the hybrid system and the potential for a winner is there if Ford manages to deliver the goods at an attractive price. (more…)

Filed under: Trends, Trucks/Pickups, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

There’s the pickup truck market in the U.S. as a whole, and then there’s the pickup truck market in Texas where one in seven of all trucks in this country is sold. Aside from its gluttonous appetite for full-size trucks, Texas is also a symbolic battleground where domestic automakers have long been been waging war for the mindshare of good old boys who represent their typical truck buyer. Enter the new Toyota Tundra, which last year saw its sales in Texas climb by an impressive 79 percent in Texas, while sales of domestic pickups shrank by 5%. The Tundra’s increase even outpaced the truck’s performance on a national scale, where its sales rose by 54%. While we couldn’t find raw numbers for pickup sales in Texas last year and therefore can’t know if the Tundra climbed a few spots on the best-seller list, it no doubt stole a good chunk of buyers from its Detroit-based competition. (more…)

Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings, Marketing/Advertising

Single-engine jet-powered dragster seeking female companion for thrilling adventure across salt flats. Petite build. Background in motorsports or aviation. With sponsors. Interested parties please contact Eric Ahlstrom (eahlstrom@pyramid.net), program manager, Steve Fossett World Land Speed Racing Team.

It’s not exactly the kind of personal add you’d normally find in your local newspaper, but those are the criteria required by a team mounting the latest attempt at the land speed record. The 48-foot-long land-bound jet is powered by a 40,000-hp S&S LM-1500 turbine mounted in a sleek, aerodynamic body that is claimed to have less than a quarter the drag coefficient of the Trust SSC, the - ahem - “vehicle”, if you could call it that, which currently holds the record.

Unfortunately, the design of the jetmobile necessitated a tiny cockpit, so they need a tiny driver to operate the thing. The pilot will be involved in each step along the road to the record attempt, including feedback on developmental runs and system tests slated for the next couple of months before they finally make a run at the record. Anyone have Danica Patrick’s number? Oh wait, we do!

[Source: Inside Line]

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Trucks/Pickups, Videos, Ford

click above for more high-res images of the 2009 Ford F-150

The Ford F-Series has been the top-selling vehicle longer than most of us at Autoblog have been alive, and the Blue Oval designed the new 2009 F-150 to help keep that streak alive. In 2009, several new additions will be made to Ford’s best-seller, including an easy access step for the pickup bed, a flat-load back seat, an improved powertrain lineup, and a new frame that features more high-strength steel. The truck experts at PickupTruck.com spent a whole day with F-Series Chief Engineer Matt O’Leary and Design Director Pat Schiavone, and the fruit of their labor is eight videos that detail every square inch of Ford’s most important product. We’ve added a walk-through tour of the interior of the new F-150 Platinum after the jump, and you can click the Read link below to view videos ranging from tow information to design inspiration at PickupTruck.com. (more…)

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Renault

click above to view more images of Terry Grant’s world record J-Turn

Yesterday we told you about stunt driver Terry Grant setting a Guiness World Record by performing a J-Turn through a narrow gap of just 378 centimeters. A J-Turn is basically reversing a car in a straight line, throwing it into a 180-degree turn and driving away on the same same line. We bemoaned to ourselves that there was no video available at the time, but ask of the internet and ye shall receive. Watch Terry Grant’s world record J-Turn after the jump, and note that the diagonal length of the Twingo used by Terry Grant in the stunt is 370 centimeters, so at some point during his record there was just 4 centimeters between car and barrier on either side. (more…)

Filed under: Motorsports, Sedans/Saloons, Japan, Lexus, Toyota, Tokyo Auto Salon

click above for high-res images of the IS F Racing Concept from TAS

Lexus quietly trotted out its IS-F Racing Concept last week at the Tokyo Auto Salon, but despite the official unveiling, more questions than answers remain about the future of the DTM-inspired sedan. (more…)