Throughout France on New Year's Eve, 1,147 cars met crispy deaths at the hands of arsonists. That's almost 300 cars more than the previous year. Lighting cars on fire as a form of protest has been a habit among youth in France since the 70s, but ever since the protests of 2005, after two boys were killed in an electrical station while hiding from police, burning cars has become a go-to political statement. But if you think 1,147 cars in one night is bad -- and as car lovers, we're not saying it isn't -- in 2007, 43,000 cars were burned, and through November of 2008, 36,700 cars were burned. That's more than 100 cars getting flambeed every single day. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has told police to show the youth no mercy, but they apparently only make up 80% of the offenders. The other 20% of arsonists is suspected to be owners committing insurance fraud on a night that provides a great alibi.
Thanks to a company called fahrmitgas ("go with gas", get it?), our European readers will soon be able to cut their fuel costs to the low, low price of €3 (about $4.20 USD) for every 100 km of driving. Of course, they'll need need to be driving a converted Chevrolet (nee, Daewoo) Matiz converted to LPG, but on the other hand... that's just €3 to go 100 kilometers. The fahrmitgas Matiz LPG Concept has been put through a suite of bench-tested enhancements in order to be so frugal. Since fahrmitgas is a supplier to Chevrolet, it has intimate knowledge of the Matiz's systems. After installation of the LPG unit and some engine tuning for mid-range power, the company added stop/start, lowered the car a whopping 30 mm, and fitted it with ultra low rolling resistance Hankook Optima 4S tires. A shift light on the center console helps the driver get the most of from his or her LPG. A liter of gas in Germany is about €1 (@ $1.40 USD), meaning 3 liters/100 km for the LPG Matiz, instead of 5.2 liters/100 km for the petrol Matiz. fahmitgas is looking at a production run, but no timetable or prices have been announced. In the meantime.
Lawrence Tomlinson bought historic British car maker Ginetta in 2005, and in just three years his team has hit it over the wall with the maker's first car under his tenure: the Ginetta G50, has taken Autosport's number one slot in its Top 10 Cars of the Year. The G50's attractions are obvious: It is light (1,750 lbs), powerful (300 horsepower six-cylinder), and relatively inexpensive (£35,000-or around $51,000 USD). It comes in three flavors for now: Roadgoing coupe, G50 Cup Car, and a GT4 model for the FIA GT4 series. The Cup Car had its own one-make race series in Britain, and that was so successful it also won an award in Motorsport News. Coming in 2009 for Ginetta: a G50Z for GT3 competition, an electric Ginetta G50, and expansion onto the Continent with a one-make series in Spain fielding the Ginetta G20.
"Have fun with KITT," sniffed some AMG engineers when a group of Norwegians showed up at Germany's Papenburg test track with a 1987 Trans Am. The smug smiles were quickly wiped off the faces of the Mercedes tuner crew when the ancient Pontiac's practice laps were as fast as the AMG cars, and the F-Body wasn't even working hard. Once warmed up, the 8.9-liter V8 unleashed all of its 1400 horsepower on the circuit, delivering a startling 407 kph (252 mph) also known as Bugatti Veyron fast. Better still, unlike the Bug, the Pontiac's lap is official. Needless to say, there's not much stock underneath the skin on this particular Trans Am. The car is the work of Polly Motorsport of Norway, and there's a wealth of top tuner expertise beneath the mostly stock exterior. We're sure even in its heightened state of tune, the Polly Trans Am is infinitely less expensive than the $1.6 million you'd have to cough up for a Veyron, and its creators say it's still street legal. Hit this link for some videos, which would be even more entertaining if we could understand what they were saying.
The 2009 Focus Rallye Sport has a price: £24,995 when it goes on sale in the UK in March. That will put you about £4,000 over a Focus ST3, but for that extra money you get a car that could be much closer to Ford's WRC competitor than it is to its ST3 sibling. The 300 horses and 325 ft-lbs is channeled through a six-speed manual to the front wheels, and a wider track joins beefier driveshafts, thicker anti-roll bars, tuned springs and uprated dampers. The car comes with a bodykit that only an RS could wear, as well as things like heated door mirrors and windshield, xenon headlights, Recaros, and Ford's Easy Fill fueling system. Only a few options are available, the ritziest one being the Luxury Pack that will give you things like automatic climate control and rear parking sensors. Thankfully, based on how popular these cars are among the five-finger set, an alarm is also standard.
What Car is reporting that the European Parliament has graciously agreed to allow Britain to continue using the mile a bit longer. How nice of them. The EU has just passed a broad measure that allows shops to continue to display imperial and metric measures, thus keeping Britain from having to switch their speedometers and road signs to kilometers. The governing body had previously asked for firm dates from Britain and Ireland to make the switch and stop using Imperial measures, and though their neighbors in Ireland have already made the change, Britain remains noncommittal. We sympathize with our British brethren. If the EU could just walk 1.609344 km in our shoes, they'd know that switching to the metric system would wreak havoc on poetry and songwriting as we know it. Smiles would no longer be the longest word. There would be no more Mile High Club. Denver would lose its Mile High Stadium. Eminem would be crushed upon losing 8 Mile Road. Miles Davis would have to change his name to Kilometers Davis. It would be the end of the world as we know it.
Early last year, Acura announced that we would see a 2.2-liter diesel in its lineup in the 2009 model year with a V6 diesel expected to follow in 2010. According to a conversation with AutoblogGreen yesterday, Acura's diesel program has been put on hold – indefinitely. Honda of America spokesperson Sage Marie said the program is in "wait and see" mode due to commercial, not technical, reasons (it was just two months ago that the program was rumored to be shelved when the engine couldn't pass emissions). Honda says a combination of factors, including plummeting car sales and the high cost of diesel fuel (especially now that gasoline is down below $2/gallon) are solely to blame. While the 2.2-liter diesel is already available in Europe (in the Euro Honda Accord – our Acura TSX), the Acura diesel is expected to be a low-volume model on our shores. With that in mind, the automaker has decided to re-evaluate where the market is heading before making a significant investment in oil-burners for this country.
Nissan giveth, and Nissan taketh away. Although next year's Nissan GT-R will reportedly (maybe) lose launch control, it will get five more horsepower after a few electronics tweaks, going from 480 PS (473 hp) to 485 PS (478 hp), according to an official statement from Nissan UK. It will also be stickier thanks to the stock fitment of Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tires – the same troublesome rubber that earned the GT-R its 7:29 'Ring time and the continued public complaints of Porsche – and altered spring rate settings. Aesthetically, the Premium Edition GT-R gets rims in Gun Metal Grey, and the Black Edition wears the same wheels in black. And in a development straight out of a marketing roundtable, Pearl White simply wasn't cutting it as an exterior color, so it's been replaced by a "deep" white called "Storm." Of course, all of this will cost you more and you'll have to wait longer: the base GT-R jumps 3.8-percent in price up to £56,795, and you can tack on £1,300 more for a Premium Edition or £2,600 for the Black Edition. And then you can wait until 2010 for your car to arrive.
Carlos Ghosn for President! Well, President of The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA. The head man at the Nissan/Renault has been elected by the ACEA to act as its very own Knight in Shining Armor starting on January 1, 2009.
Ghosn will replace Christian Streiff, CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën, and will begin his duties at a rather difficult time for the industry. Not only are the automakers smack dab in the midst of a major fuel-saving model makeover, but the global economy is tanking at the same time. Because the ACEA sets the standards that the European automakers will be expected to adhere to, Ghosn will work hand-in-hand with the European Union on future laws, especially on such issues as carbon emissions and for national financial incentives to help the struggling automakers.
Europeans will get another premium compact car not bound for U.S. shores and this time it comes courtesy of Lexus. The automaker is targeting the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3, vehicles that its rivals have offered in the United States market. Lexus, though, only plans the vehicle for markets outside the U.S. where sales of smaller cars outpace their larger siblings. Apparently, Lexus has set a goal to sell 150,000 vehicles in Europe by 2015 and believes the new model is necessary to meet that number. At this point, we have no idea what platform the compact car would be based on, but Toyota certainly has a number of options, most notably the Auris, which is offered in the European market in hatchback form. There is also the possibility that the new entry-level Lexus could be based on an upcoming small hybrid model from Toyota that would slot beneath the Prius, a version of which the automaker plans to debut in the Lexus line.
