Fotos: Los Angeles 2012

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Official Lamborghini Urus SUV Images Leak Onto The Web

From all of the previous circulating rumors of Lamborghini birthing a new SUV, it was only a matter of time that we would get a glimpse at official images from the Italian Bull maker. After-all, the internet waits for no one.

What is to be called the Urus, is Lamborghini’s newest vehicle added to the lineup and very first SUV. For obvious reasons, the Lamborghini Urus will compete head-to-head with the likings of the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, BMW X5M/X6M, Bentley’s upcoming SUV and any other premium brand sport-utes to hit the market.

Powering the new Lamborghini Urus SUV will be the company’s well-endowed 5.2-liter V10 engine producing 584 horsepower for the riding-high Bull. Additional details are expected to be released when Lamborghini officially unveils the Urus at the Beijing Motor Show. For now, enjoy the leaked official images of the Lamborghini Urus SUV below. Read more…

Big Muscle Runs To The Coast: Video

The very spirit of hot rodding is this: take what you have, and make it faster. When you’re done, drive it like you stole it, preferably in competition against other similarly-built cars. That formula has been the basis of street racing for nearly 100 years; what’s changed in recent years is that hot rodding, at least with big American cars, has become respectable.

Instead of running light-to-light on the street, endangering both your license and other drivers, events like the American Street Car Series’ Run To The Coast allow builders to run their cars in a series of events, ranging from autocross to drag race to road course competition. The variety of cars entered is impressive, and Big Muscle host Mike Musto points out everything from a Sunbeam Tiger through a vintage Ford pickup built up from a wrecked Mercury Marauder.

Musto knows a thing or two about driving, as well. He drove his own “Mr. Angry” 1968 Dodge Charger, the same car used to run One Lap Of America, in this year’s Run To The Coast. While a eighteen-foot long, two-ton car may not be nimble enough to do well in the autocross, it is capable of impressive burnouts.

Jaguar Launches Two New Engine Options In Beijing

For those keeping score at home, we’ll make things simple: forced-induction six-cylinder engines are the new V-8s, and forced-induction fours are the new six cylinder engines. Need examples? Look at the EcoBoost V-6 offered by Ford in its F-150 pickup and Taurus SHO; from behind the wheel, they drive an awful lot like a V-8. As for turbocharged fours replacing sixes, BMW’s dropping of two cylinders in the latest 3-Series hasn’t hurt sales one bit.

The reasons why are easy to understand: smaller displacement engines are generally lighter, and under normal driving conditions return better fuel economy. Every single mainstream automaker, from Acura through Volkswagen, is doing all it can to increase fuel economy throughout its product mix. Luxury marque Jaguar is no exception to this rule, and it really was just a matter of time before it downsized engines, too.

Breaking cover that this week’s Beijing Auto Show are a pair of new Jaguar engines. The first is a supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 that will be available in versions rated at 375 horsepower (for use in the upcoming Jaguar F-Type roadster) and 335 horsepower (for use in XF and XJ models). The engine benefits from Jaguar’s extensive experience with supercharging, and comes with direct injection, dual independent cam timing, a compression ratio of 10.5:1 and sparkplugs that are oriented to maximize combustion efficiency. In 375 horsepower trim, the engine produces the highest specific output of any engine in the Jaguar range. Read more…

Conheça a nova Ferrari F12berlinetta

A belezura que ilustra este post é a mais nova Ferrari. O nome dela é esse mesmo do título, por extenso, F12berlinetta, e ela é a Ferrari mais rápida já construída.

Ela foi revelada oficialmente no próprio site da Ferrari, e conta com um motor V12 de mais de 700 cavalos e um torque de 81,6kgfm a um RPM de 8700. Toda essa potência é controlada por uma caixa de dupla embreagem vinda da própria F1.

Além disso, os freios são de cerâmica de carbono e o sistema de controle de suspensão é o que há de mais atualizado no meio. A Berlinetta consegue atingir seus 100km/h em apenas 3,1 segundos.

Abaixo você conta com várias fotos e vídeos de apresentação da nova Ferrari F12. Read more…

Ford F-750 Medium-Duty Plug-In Hybrid Truck

Ford F-750 medium-duty truck will make sense for many customers. Ford just marketed 5,700 F-750s in 2011. The new plug-in hybrid of F-750 is taken from Odyne, that provides a range of plug-in hybrid conversions intended for additional huge industrial vehicles. Ford F-750 a lithium-ion battery pack in 2 parts over the frame rails, providing either 14.2-kilowatt-hours.

The cells originate from Johnson Controls, this pack is liquid cooled to maintain it on maximum operating temp. The Ford F-750 engine is a Cummins 6.7 litre turbodiesel V-8. Remy electric motor is pushed by the power take-off for the diesel.

The battery pack recharges from the electric motor once performing a generator. Most critical to work truck customers, battery pack minimizes the period of diesel engine stays idling.

To Lease or To Buy

To lease or to buy:  that is the question often asked by people in the market for a new car. Which is the better choice? It all depends on a variety of factors and circumstances. Read on to find out which option is best for you.

Leasing a Car

When leasing a car what you, the lessee, are financing is not the car itself, but the use of the car. There are several things a lessee pays for including:

• A portion of the car’s cost:  Because all cars depreciate (lose value) over time, in a lease you will only be paying for the value of the car during the time that you are leasing it. This is often considered half the total value of the car. Read more…

Will Oil Hit $200 Per Barrel? Some Say Yes

Oil is currently trading at $123.61 per barrel for Brent crude, which is part of the reason why gas prices have been creeping skywards over the past few months. While the factors determining the cost of a barrel of oil are remarkably complex, this much is easy to understand: pricing is still very much a matter of supply and demand. Reduce supply, and prices go up. Increase demand, and the same thing happens.

Although current global output is up, so is global demand. Put another way, gas is expensive in Ohio because more people in Beijing are driving cars. That’s not likely to change any time soon, so unless worldwide oil production skyrockets, the price of gas isn’t likely to get significantly lower. Even tapping into the strategic petroleum reserves held by the U.S. (a tactic tried last June) will only have a minor impact on pricing; last year, it lowered prices for a few days, but they spiked higher less than a month later. Read more…

2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Pricing Posted

Ford’s 2013 Mustang Shelby GT500 promises to deliver a mind-warping 650 horsepower and a 200 mph top speed, both in stock form. You can’t take delivery of one just yet, but now we know what the pricing on Ford’s latest uber-Mustang will be. The Shelby GT500 coupe will start at $54,995, including the required $795 destination charge, while the Shelby GT500 convertible is priced from $59,995, including the same destination charge.

Ford’s configurator for the new Shelby models is up, too, allowing you to build the GT500 of your dreams. Major option packaged include the $3,495 SVT Performance Package, which gives you a Torsen limited-slip differential, adjustable Bilstein dampers, unique rear springs, unique wheels and a few interior upgrades. If you want navigation, you’ll need to add the $2,340 Electronics Package, which also gives you HD Radio and dual-zone climate control. Get crazy checking option boxes, and you can add about $10k to the base price of a Shelby GT500. Read more…

Corsa Most Popular Car with British Motorists

The Vauxhall Corsa is the most popular car with British motorists according to research by car insurance comparison website MoneySupermarket; beating its long running rival Ford with their Fiesta model which came in 2nd. MoneySupermarket has calculated this by looking at the number of car insurance searches which have been completed over the past year on each model of car available in the UK, giving an accurate representation of the most popular models with British drivers.  This signals a major victory for Vauxhall and potentially also indicates the changing preference of motorists in recent years, who are increasingly opting for smaller vehicles due to the fact that they are often cheaper to insure and fuel.

Key findings
Ford and Vauxhall absolutely dominated the list, with their vehicles occupying the top four positions. Interestingly not only is Vauxhall beating Ford on the small car stakes, with the Corsa attracting over 150,000 more searches than the Fiesta; but Vauxhall’s Astra model also beat the Ford Focus to 3rd place on the list, attracting 90,000 more searches. This proves the enduring popularity of these brands and is perhaps indicative of the brand loyalty of British consumers who are not willing to take a risk on vehicles produced by other manufacturers.

Perhaps one of surprising failures on this list is Japanese manufacturers. Honda is the most successful Japanese manufacturer according to the statistics, with the Civic just managing to sneak into the top 10 with 402,000 searches. However, despite Toyota being the best-selling car manufacturer worldwide, they have failed to get a single model into the top 10 in the UK; with the most popular Toyota vehicle being the Yaris which came in on 22nd with just 185,000 searches- about 900,000 less than the Corsa. Read more…