MINI is making a comeback on the international rally circuit. From 2011, the brand will compete at selected rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and will go on to contest the entire season from 2012 onwards. This involvement is planned for several years.
Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you’ve been in seclusion for the past 24 hours, you know Ford officially unveiled the 2011 Explorer yesterday. (Be sure to read Part One and Part Two of our deep dive for the full details.) The new Explorer is a pretty drastic departure from the generations preceding it – Ford has opted to use a unibody construction and a car-based platform rather than a traditional body-on-frame SUV, and naturally aspirated V8 power has been ditched in favor of more fuel-efficient four- and six-cylinder powerplants.
Read the rest of this entry »

In an appearance more akin to UFO footage, one quick cameraphone-wielding shooter has caught a couple of seconds of a Ferrari mule doing a drive-by.

Read the rest of this entry »

The first official images of the all new Audi A7 Sportback are making the internet rounds today ahead of the sport saloon’s debut on Monday. These photos, which were sent our way by Carscoop reader Enrico, prove that the production car has stayed remarkably true to the 2009 Detroit Show concept’s appearance. Read the rest of this entry »

If your BMW 5-Series GT has covered several hundred miles since you last filled up and the fuel gauge needle hasn’t moved a bit from ‘Full’, it isn’t because of your eco-driving skills nor the car’s extreme fuel efficiency. More than 6,000 owners of certain 2010 and 2011 model year BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo fastbacks manufactured from January 12 through July 1, 2010, are being cautioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about a problem concerning their car’s fuel gauge. Read the rest of this entry »

The Volkswagen scientists at MTE recently decided that their Golf R32 BiTurbo just wasn’t quite up to snuff. While the company had already managed to drag staggering amounts of power out of the little German hatch, the project simply lacked that certain muchness that a true tuner purebred needs in order to stand out of the crowd. The solution? Yank 785 horsepower and 586 lb-ft of torque from the car – a 55 horse jump over the previous iteration of the project.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the grand scale of automotive existence, Audi hasn’t been selling vehicles in the U.S. for that long. The company first landed on our shores in 1970 with the introduction of cars like the Super 90 and 100, which means that chances are some of you out there have socks older than Audi USA. Flash forward 40 years to present day, and the company is celebrating its 2 millionth vehicle sold in the United States. The lucky car just happened to be a new A3 TDI – a fine choice if we do say so ourselves – and was sold through Keyes Audi in Van Nuys, California.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following decades of absence, French racing enthusiasts were suitably enthused by the return of the Gordini line. Whether the cosmetic packages that have heralded its comeback are up to snuff is another matter, but according to reports from across the ocean, a couple more are on their way.

Read the rest of this entry »

When Porsche’s designers were trying to make a five-door liftback out of the Beetle, Maserati already had one of best looking proposals in the sports saloon segment; the Quattroporte. And while neither the 430HP Quattroporte S or its 440HP Sport GT S brethren are underpowered, the German tuner of all things Italian, Novitec, has come up with a package of upgrades for both versions of the saloon, including a significant power bump and some styling enhancements. Read the rest of this entry »

Up until the last few years, Honda was known for being one of the most engineering driven companies in the world. Soichiro Honda instilled a remarkable spirit of innovation in his staff, driving the company to spawn amazing ideas like the CVCC engines of the mid-1970s, the oval-piston NR750 race bike and the fuel cell powered FCX Clarity. As of late, though, the Japanese automaker has been looking a bit ‘behind the curve’ with models like the Insight, Accord Crosstour  and CR-Z lacking the cleverness, spark, and class-leading competence that made past Honda models so iconic.

Read the rest of this entry »