This unholy marriage of a Rolls-Royce and possibly a Jeepster is the product of Swiss mad-scientist Franco Sbarro. Apparently, it was commissioned by an Arab sheik (natch) who was a huge fan of falconry. While the chassis and amenities remain, the doors have been removed, the windshield drops down to give a clear view of the road ahead, and a special falconer's platform has been built into the trunk area that extends out to provide an elevated place to stand on.
What started out as a 1978 Rolls-Royce Camargue, has turned into a butch Fiat Jolly in 1980. Dubbed the "Rolls-Royce Camargue Custom Falconry Sporting Vehicle," it is also referred to as "Hunting Car of His Royal High Ness," or just "Hunting Car" or "Falconry sporting vehicle." The price of the conversion was about twice what it cost new (£83,122), so figure around $400,000 in 1980 prices, for this one-off Roller.
J.D. Power and Associates, the influential industry tracking firm, warned that the global auto market may "outright collapse" due to the lack of available credit and the general global economic conditions in 2009. According to the company, credit market restructuring, fewer leasing options, and declining owner equity are adding additional stress to an already burdened market. Don't turn to the automotive markets in China, Europe, or India either -- they are expected to slow next year as well. Much of the domestic sales decline is attributed to consumers delaying vehicle purchases (their studies indicate people are keeping their vehicles four months longer in 2008, compared to 2007). Other contributing factors are the drop in leasing activity, and the loss of fleet sales (down to 2.8 million from 3.3 million last year). While the automotive sales decline over the summer made this a buyer's market, willing consumers who venture into showrooms today are finding dealerships eager to sell, but banks aversive about lending.
The Ford Falcon is all Australian. It has always been driven by the rear wheels, and it has always been designed, engineered, and built Down Under. The automotive world is rapidly changing, though, and Ford is one of many OEMs that are driving towards global vehicle architectures and a less diversified corporate parts bin. What does that mean for the Falcon? Nothing for quite a while, as the once hot-selling Aussie special just received major rework in April, and another redesign is many years away. When it does go under the engineering knife it will likely have more in common with the Ford Taurus than anything native to the Outback.
Ford product chief Derrick Kuzak is working towards what the Blue Oval calls "One Ford." That means, for example, that there will be only one C-segment platform for like-sized crossovers, wagons, hatchbacks, coupes, and sedans, and that platform would be used in all regions around the globe. Ford will still have a rear-drive platform for performance vehicles, but the rabid push for fuel efficiency and weight reductions means that the chance of future Falcons being motivated by the rear wheels is slim. Plenty can change between now and 2015, so we'll keep our dimming hopes for a RWD Falcon for all alive, but the prospects look less rosy by the day.
We're nearly a year from the big screen debut of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but that hasn't stopped us from devouring every bit of early information that we can about the new Micheal Bay action flick. There is an early video taken from the first day of filming which features a few of the things that we're expecting to see front and center in this movie: cars, motorcycles and explosions. While the video is pretty short and doesn't reveal all that much, it still has us psyched about the movie and we will surely continue to watch as more filming documentaries are released. We've pasted the YouTube version after the break, but you might want to check it out on Walmart's site for a clearer version. You'll need the following code: AllSpark62609. There is one more video from Industrial Light and Magic. It's called Creating Transformers and it details what it takes to animate a Transforming robot on-screen with live actors through some of the best scenes from the first movie. Yeah, we're officially excited.
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This shot of the Corvette Centennial Concept comes courtesy of our friends over at Jalopnik who have a few more in their own gallery. For those of you living under a rock, the Corvette Centennial Concept is both a tribute to General Motors' 100-year history and a budding young actor on the Hollywood stage with a bit part in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. It is not, we repeat not, a production car, a concept intended to hint at the future design direction of the Corvette or any such thing, at least as far as we know. Being a flight of fancy concept, however, doesn't take away from its inherent coolness. The view from the rear is particularly mind blowing as you can see the split rear window, incredibly sculpted rear fenders and nuevo Sting Ray badge. We're not sure when the actual car will be revealed, but GM is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this month. Then again, the official debut might also coincide with the release of the Transformers sequel in 2009. We'll have to wait and see.
It didn't start off as a way for readers of England's Telegraph newspaper to engage in the popular pastime of bashing American cars, but it wound up that way. To be fair, there are plenty of odd and ugly vehicles from all over the place on the Telegraph's list of the 100 ugliest cars of all time, and the voters didn't beat up on the colonies too badly. With so much homegrown hideousness to choose from, we can see how they'd be reluctant to throw stones. The usual suspects are accounted for, of course. The Pacer is there, as are the Cayenne, BMW's 1 and 7 Series, though we thought the Rolls Royce Camargue was conspicuously low on the list. C'mon, guys, stop going easy on it just because you've got hometown pride. The Camargue really was horrid, no matter how well it sold. There are also vehicles that don't belong; cars that aren't even remotely ugly. The Boxster, XJS, TR7, and Chrysler 300 don't strike us as repulsive. The readers were almost spot-on, though, voting the Fiat Multipla into the second place slot. Number one is a car that everyone loves to hate, but it doesn't strike us as uglier than the Multipla. That vehicle? Aztek. Seriously.
Michael Bay's first attempt at bringing the Autobots into the real world, the 2007 live action Transformers film, has been all over HBO lately. When looking for HD programming to justify the expense of a flat screen and DirecTV to the Mrs., this movie really hits the spot. So in addition to once in the theater, I've seen it about 10 more times at home. Suffice it to say, I'm ready for T2: Revenge of the Fallen. While we've seen plenty of shots from filming and learned that the once mysterious addition to the Autobots is in fact the Corvette Centennial concept, we haven't had so much as a teaser trailer yet to wet our whistle. The video after the jump is a mere sip, but it will have to do for now. Thought to be shot in Long Beach, CA where filming has moved, it features a caravan of Autobots obeying the most famous of all Optimus Prime orders: Roll Out! The group includes Optimus, of course, and Bumblebee and Ironhide, as well as the Chevy Beat and Trax concepts and the Corvette Centennial concept. There's no sign of any Decepticons yet, but you just wait. Follow the jump to watch the video in high-res for yourself.
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"You guys are obsessed with rear wheel drive," Alan Mulally mused to the Australian press after a browbeating about which pair of wheels might propel the Falcon into the future. Try as they might, the Ford Chief would not be pinned down about the chassis architecture of future Falcons, saying only that the choice would be customer driven, and plugging front and all-wheel drive vehicles as "pretty spectacular." Mulally is right that Ford's global push to put exceptional small cars in showrooms is what the automaker's focus is and should be. The Falcon has long fallen off its sales peak from the halcyon days of two decades ago, and while Mulally agrees that it's "an absolutely dynamite vehicle," small cars in the future will prop up the more niche-y vehicles like the FG Falcon. Mulally went on to say that Australia will serve as an engineering and product development outpost for Ford, and the big-vehicle prowess in Oz will be useful regardless of layout. As Ford pulls its global platforms together, the Ranger and Focus will come at us from Australia, too. While we all wish we could fill our driveways with an FPV GT sporting Paul Stanley eye makeup and Boss V8 motivation, we're not holding our breath. Ford doesn't appear to be following GMs lead bringing its Australian cars stateside, and the V8s days may be numbered. Mulally acknowledged that fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions are going to be tremendously important going forward, which will likely spur a shift to smaller four- and six-cylinder powerplants with forced induction serving as the performance option. An FG FPV with an Ecoboost four underhood? Heck, we'd still take it - it's bound to be better than the mush-tastic fleet-only Crown Victoria.
Someone slipped Jalopnik a new pair of shots of the mysterious Corvette concept that's appearing in next year's Transformers sequel. So far, we've seen good views of the car from the front and side, but rear-end shots had yet to surface. Well, that's over. The concept -- now a confirmed product of the GM Design studios (note the plate in back), has large ducts in back that mimic the openings in front and presumably also hide the car's taillamps. Four big centrally-mounted exhaust outlets poke through the bodywork as well. Frankly, the rear view is the car's least appealing, with that chunky boattail mixed in with all those sharp angles. There's also a new detail shot of the front quarter, which focuses on that very traditional Corvette fender shape. Is it just a movie character or also a concept that GM's going to drop on us somewhere along the line? Your guess is as good as ours, and the trickle of spy shots is probably far from over.
The upcoming Transformers sequel, which is known as Revenge of the Fallen, is shaping up to be chock-full of new characters and, therefore, vehicles. The GM love fest continues with new cast members like the Chevy Beat and Trax siblings, a mystery Corvette and even the Chevy Volt. With all of these new additions, along with what appears to be the entire cast from the first edition, keeping up is proving a bit difficult. With that in mind, those of you who don't mind viewing a few spoilers before actually seeing the flick, check out the ongoing and recently updated character guide over at FiLM Grenade.
Still can't get enough Transformers action? Check out some conceptual art done by Tim Flattery. Though these particular drawings were made for the first film, the characters didn't make it into the movie. Some sources are claiming that we could see them appear in the upcoming sequel.
