Our favourite television show now has an official YouTube presence. Epic! Thing is though, this will be excellent when you need a helping hand to get your motoring related fix across the line. Watch the intro clip above explaining what to expect. And on that bombshell…
Source: CarAdvice
Although not officially confirmed, it is believed that Volkswagen Australia will soon have a limited edition Golf GTI Pirelli in a showroom near you. The GTI Pirelli was first announced at the Wörthersee show in 2007, and launched for UK sales in April this year. The model features a distinctive body kit and reworked 2-litre TFSI engine, yielding figures of 169kW, up 22kW from the regular GTI, and torque has been bumped 20Nm to 300Nm. The Pirelli GTI also features model specific 18″ five spoke ‘P’ alloys, wearing Pirelli P-Zero rubber, of course. The wheels hark back to the original 1983 Mk1 GTI Pirelli, with its ‘P-slot’ wheels. Styling tweaks continue inside with yellow stitching and some choice tyre tread patterned seats. Okay, then. Not such a successful addition. Never mind.
So how much will all this Pirelli bling cost you? Expect pricing to be around $47,500 for the 3 door and $49,000 for the 5 door, offset by the fact only 300 will be delivered to Australia, all fitted with DSG transmissions. Thankfully, other colours will be available in addition to the unique Sunflower yellow featured in these pictures. The extra colours are Diamond Black (or possibly Black Magic as is currently available), Blue Graphite and Reflex Silver, the latter two being familiar to the usual GTI palette.
Look out for an announcement at the Sydney Motor Show in October, in the meantime check out the original European press releases and more pics below. Or you can just muck around with the configurator on Volkswagen’s UK website.
So the next episode of Fifth Gear has been and gone and if you can’t wait for it to air on Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel, here’s a quick recap. Tiff brings back the shoot-out, starting with Mazda’s revised RX-8 up against Nissan’s 350Z. Whoa, that beeping rev limiter on the RX-8 is just daft. Just as well the Zed is quicker, then. Tim Shaw—epic fail. ‘Nuff said. Vicki spent a day with Lewis Hamilton to see if she could find someone who loves Lewis more than James Allan. Jonny flashed £3K around to see what would be the best used motor on offer. He started with an E34 BMW M5, then toyed a Ford SportKa before deciding to keep half his money and buy a first gen Mazda MX-5. Plato fangs about in a new Porsche 911 GT2. Very tidy. Tom is let out in a Benz SL63 AMG and reckons the old one was better. The show ends with a Fifth Gear crash test. They used a Peugeot 306 Cabrio … it was ugly! The crash results, not the car.
Remember your old summer holidays, with a long family drive in scorching heat. Your dad’s big 308 would scream past the semis on the highway and you just knew when you grew up you wanted a a beefy 308 too! Well son, I’m sorry to tell you, things have changed a bit. Holden doesn’t make a 308 any more, it has turned into a 427—stone the flamin’ crows, that’s 7 litres—and you need to be a Russian oligarch to afford its fuel bill. Fear not, because Peugeot shared your dream and they have already given us a new worldy, grain-fed 308. Yes, a small European hatchback is now what the kids of today dream of, and their memories of summer holidays will not be of long highway drives, but trips to the solarium or to the latest organically approved market to pick up some lima bean fed yak milk, or something. And, as if it couldn’t get any better, Peugeot Australia, in a fit of family fury, has just announced their 308 Touring range. So you see, your 308 dream car can come alive once again. This time with as many as five are-we-nearly-there-yets in the back. Seven seats in all. Happy days indeed!
Never heard of Dynolicious before? It’s an accelerometer-based performance meter that can measure your car’s 0-100 and quarter mile times, as well as make a reasonable guestimate at your car’s power if you punch in an accurate weight. It’s kind of like a G-Tech Pro, which retails for several hundred dollars. But, here’s the killer, Dynolicious is a piece of software that costs just AU$15.99, available through iTunes for use on your iPhone 3G or iPod Touch. If you already have the hardware then you’re miles in front compared to the G-Tech setup. But costing less than a lobster is Dynolicious any bloody good? US outfit Garage419 tested their R56 MINI Cooper S on a real dyno and then did a few runs at their local drag strip. Watch the clip above and see how the iPhone App fared.
Source: MotoringFile
According to a drive.com.au article the answer is yes! Porsche Cars Australia spokesman Paul Ellis was quoted as saying, “My understanding is that the car, from a performance point of view, has an issue in that it is almost too good … it has exceeded the benchmarks.” The iconic 911 must remain as the Porsche hero car, so will the first Porsche four door saloon have to be brought back a peg or two?
The Panamera is due for release at next year’s Geneva Motor Show and has been scheduled for Australian delivery in the latter half of 2009. Read the drive article in full by clicking HERE.
Audi have just unleashed the RS6 sedan. With the same 5-litre V10 twin turbo from the Avant, the engine produces a mammoth 426kW (580bhp) and this is one car that sure needs reigning in. Let’s not forget the 650Nm or torque, available from as low as 1500rpm. Epic! Australia’s first taste of this rocket ship is just weeks away with RS6 Avant deliveries expected in September, while the sedan will be in showrooms from the first quarter of 2009. The Avant has a list price of $259,000 and pricing for the sedan will be announced closer to local release.
Full release below, including more images.
NextAutos is reporting sightings of an Audi R8 Spider on roads near Germany’s famed Nürburgring. The Spider—although naming has not been confirmed—is believed to be available with the existing 4.2 litre V8 engine as well as the 5.0 litre V10, as the large tailpipes on these shots would indicate. The familiar side blades of the R8 hard top have been removed in the conversion to the soft top roof, but this certainly hasn’t lessened the eye candy appeal of the stunning R8. Expect to see an official release from Audi at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2009. Make sure you follow the link below to the NextAutos article, which has more images for your visual pleasure!
BMW’s most important model, the 3 Series, has recently been given a bit of a spring clean. And look at that, the lads in Munich still had a few extra crease lines in the back of their cupboards that needed some air. Good thing then, that, despite negative hype, BMW actually do know how to design a car. This mid cycle refresh has kept the 3 Series looking sharp, both figuratively and literally.
Other more obvious exterior changes included a revised headlight cluster, now with LED turn signals. The famous BMW kidney grille has been enlarged and better suits the reskinned bonnet lines. The lighting changes continue at the back, too, with a more L shaped design employed, fitting into a restyled boot detail.
Inside there is a reworked iDrive system, an 80GB hard drive for music storage, and perhaps more importantly, it can also be used for map storage to aid navigation capabilities. A few other minor cosmetic tweaks have been made, including a repositioning of window switchgear.
More detail can be read below in BMW Australia’s press release, including a full suite of photos. You’ll be able to see the new 3 Series range in Australia in early 2009.
Fifth Gear is back on UK screens and Episode 1 of Series 14 saw the debut of a new presenter, Tim Shaw. No, not the Demtel man, but someone possibly as, erm, loveable. We also saw Snooker legend and resident bad boy Ronnie O’Sullivan get some advice on how to blow his Crucible winnings. He took his pick from a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, a BMW M3 Convertible and a Mitsubishi Evo X. Speaking of the Evo, Jason and Tiff put the Mitsubishi Evo X and the new-ish Subaru Impreza WRX STi to the test to determine which was the best track day weapon. Jonny showed that scrap metal is not always worth more than the sum of its parts. Tom tried to see if the Ford Kuga was a stick in the mud, and, well, it was, even if he reckons it’s otherwise okay. Cast your mind back the the slick Roger Moore James Bond era and you’ll see exactly where Rinspeed’s inspiration for the sQuba came from (pictured above).
See you next week.
MINI has just launched a limited release zero emissions Clubman Rickshaw model on the streets of Beijing. At a time when the 2008 Olympic Games in China are under the spotlight due to the host city’s pollution this pedal powered MINI is just what the doctor ordered. The mobile Clubman is able to power through Beijing’s contested city streets like few other vehicles can.
Indeed the PR blurb states, “the MINI Rickshaw perfectly captures Beijing’s dynamic combination of tradition and progress, coupled with a touch of fantasy and individuality—as only MINI can do. The real Chinese lucky charms and talismen on the bicycle and in the inside of the vehicle are intended not only to bring the passenger luck, but also, of course, to release positive energy for the entire Olympic Games.”
If you’re on your way to the Chinese capital you’ll find the MINI Clubman Rickshaw in trendy club and scene districts such as the old Beijing quarter of Hu Tong.
Okay so the video itself may not be the sharpest clip you’ll see, but these guys have driven the stunning Audi TTS and I haven’t!