After the resounding/inexplicable success of the last installment of the Fast & Furious series, work has now started in earnest on yet another chapter in the lucrative franchise.
Care to guess the plotline?
IL News: Fast & Furious Five Starts Pre-Production
Next summer's Concourso Italiano held during the Pebble Beach weekend in August will feature a gathering of Ferrari F40s to celebrate 20 years in the U.S. There's actually a Ferrari F40 Reunion Group and it's aiming to attract as many as, wait for it, 40 F40s to the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch on August 13th.
Yesterday's marathon Chrysler-Fiat press conference/coming-out party wasn't entirely about EBITA and acknowledging the shortcomings of the Sebring.
Ralph Gilles, the Dodge brand's new boss, laid an Easter egg hunt on the assembled dealers, bankers and journalists. What you see above is a shot of the 2012 Dodge Charger that appeared briefly on the screen during Gilles' talk.
Gilles provided no details on the upcoming full-size rear-drive sedan, but it's obvious from the photo above that the next Charger will be a more expressive, sculpted design that draws inspiration from its historic namesake. Of course, the Charger will still be a four-door, but the sharp-edged line, rising from the front door to the tip of he rear is, well, Charger-esque. It looks a little like the four-door Charger concept vehicle of several years ago--at least from this angle.
What do we know about the platform? Only that it's an update of the existing LX platform that, if we remember correctly, Sergio Marchionne said cost so much to create that it would "shock your pants off." So there's that.
The new Pentastar 3.6-liter engine, which debuts in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee in the middle of next year, will be the volume engine, with a Hemi V8 as the upgrade. Something tells us it won't be offered with the Fiat 500's 1.4 Multiair mill.
Reporting by Dan Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
This is yet another attempt to bring back the Trans Am glory days. It has the name and a big 455 V8 up front, but the Lingenfelter 455 T/A just doesn't look right.
Essentially a new Camaro with a heavy makeover, the LPE 455 T/A's proportions are all wrong. If anything, this vehicle highlights the size differences between the new Camaro and the first-generation version. Add on all the Trans Am bodywork and it only gets worse.
At least there's some real muscle under the hood. Lingenfelter built an all-aluminum 455 that the company claims makes 655 horsepower and 610 pound-feet of torque. There's a heavy-duty clutch setup and reinforced half shafts that feed the power to 20-inch honeycomb wheels with 315/35ZR20 tires.
This is something cool I came across in Ford's SEMA booth. It's called the Mustang Dream Giveaway and it's a sweepstakes to benefit the Healing Heroes Network, an organization dedicated to assembling a network of health providers willing to donate services to treat injured American soldiers.
So, it's a good cause and the prizes are these two awesome Mustangs. The one on the left is a 1967 Shelby GT500 with a 428 cubic inch engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. And the one on the right is a 2010 Shelby GT500 called the Patriot Edition. It's the only 2010 Shelby to be painted Wimbleton White with guardsman blue stripes. That's right, it's one of one and it can be yours.
One ticket is just $3 (but they'll sell you as many tickets as you want) and can be purchased at winthemustang.com/sema or call toll free 877-700-8946. They even take credit cards.
The winner of these two incredible Mustangs will be announced on July 4th, 2010. Good luck.
More than a few of us on the Inside Line staff have a jones for a built first-gen Miata. We keep thinking about making one a project car/used long-termer, sort of like we did with the Ferrari 308, the E46 M3 and the Evo GSR all rolled into one. Only the Miata is dirt cheap. If you do much of the work yourself and live without a few luxuries, total cost to build one into a little Japanese Cobra could be well under $10,000 (including the car with hardtop).
The gang at Mike Burlas Design Inc. (www.mikeburlas.com) out of Rialto, CA understand what I'm talking about. They built this clean and simple wide body Miata I came across today at the SEMA show. It's powered by a turbo rotary engine, wears a fastback-style carbon roof and it sits just like it should. That, my friends, is stance. Mike, just lose the big rear wing and the car is right on.
And so now my Miata jones is like really off the chart. Thanks, Mike.
So what do you think? Should we do it?
Continue reading Turbo Rotary Mazda Miata Attacks SEMA.
Before there was Grave Digger, Speed Channel and Monster Jam, there was Bigfoot, the original Monster Truck. And now it has become an American legend, perhaps the world's most reconizable truck.
Thirty-five years ago (that's 1974) Bob Chandler built the first of several dozen Bigfoots and as the sign says on the next page, it first hit the SEMA Show in 1977 and it crushed its first car in 1981.
To celebrate the truck's birthday, Chandler and the boys have even reskinned a modern Bigfoot to look like the original (pictured). In other words they built the monster truck version of the restomod. And this year the two Bigfoots are displayed at SEMA side-by-side. Pretty cool.
Oh, and just in case you're too young to remember, those are two Predator carburetors sticking through Bigfoot's hood. And it just didn't get any cooler than that in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading Bigfoot Sighting At SEMA.
That's the provocative headline of a recent story published by Slate.com. It sounds like some screed by a coal industry lobbyist, but the gist of the article is slightly more logical.
Author Joe Eaton, a self-described hot rodder who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, makes the case that collector cars are great, as long as you balance their use out with some form of public transportation.
He claims that the day he sold his car and started using all public transit was also the day he started a Porsche fund with the money he saved on gas, insurance, etc. He would take trains to work during the week and tool around in a late 60s 911 on the weekends he figured.
Sounds sensible enough actually, although the fact that he lives in Baltimore and commutes to D.C. makes the whole idea a little easier. Probably wouldn't work so well in the other 90% of the country.
Still, any kind of logical argument for preserving collector vehicles seems worth discussing, if only to keep the conversation off the idea of getting rid of "those old gas guzzlers" entirely.
Slate: How a Porsche can be better for the environment than a Prius
Here's the ultimate Dodge Challenger drag machine as envisioned by Mopar, or maybe you already guessed that from the name.
You may have seen some of these before. Rich guys like to show off you know. Regardless, these ultimate garages still stir the soul in a way only serious car enthusiasts can truly appreciate. There's a 25 page string on Luxury4play.com if you want to see more.
Just in case you're trying to keep track of the thousand or so Camaros and Corvettes headed to this year's SEMA show, GM has so graciously provided a teaser video of its handful of in-house project vehicles. Do you like green Camaros and Grand Sport 'Vettes? Well then, General Motors has you covered.
Looks like Ford has discovered turbocharging and it's bringing the innovative new technology to SEMA next week. We're currently searching our archives to see if this is the first ever SEMA Show hot rod powered by a turbocharged V6 engine, but until then, feast your eyes on this six-barreled beast and enjoy.
This past Monday Top Gear's James May (That's the slow one with the funny hair.) wrote his column for the Telegraph.co.uk about it being the right time for him and everyone else to run out and buy a Ferrari 308.
"I've decided it's time to be a modernist; time to view motoring in a progressive light, which means, if my contentions of last week are correct, I should have a supercar," wrote May. "Clearly I can't put my name down for a new Ferrari 458 Italia or a Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni, so it will have to be something old with the spirit of a supercar, if not the actual trousers to live up to the name these days."
"And after quite a bit of thought I've settled on the GRP-bodied Ferrari 308."
And we agree with every word. Trouble is, Mr. May is more than a year late with this revelation. You see Inside Line bought a 308 during the summer of 2007 and we drove it, loved it and reported on it for 12 months. In fact, that's me in the photo enjoying our 1984 308 QV on the famed Mulholland Hwy.
So Mr. May, please get off of our bandwagon. Or at least give us a shout out.
The tidal wave of aftermarket parts for the new Camaro is finally starting to roll in, and this time the upgrades come from a familiar name in the F-body community.
SLP Performance Parts is now offering what it calls the ZL575 package. Like most Camaro upgrade kits today, the SLP package uses a supercharger to crank up the horsepower along with a cold air induction induction system and a revised cat-back exhaust. The result is, you guessed it, 575-horsepower. SLP says it's good for a 11.6-second quarter mile sprint. We'll see about that.
To assure that your newly invigorated Camaro can contain all that power, the SLP package also includes a sport spring kit that lowers the car an inch for better handling. A redesigned set of 20-inch wheels is also included along with a cowl induction hood and what SLP calls a "functional rear spoiler." There are various badges and trim pieces included as well and all for the small sum of $22,995.
Sounds a bit steep, yes, but SLP points out that the ZL575's performance numbers match up favorably with big dollar sedans and sports cars like the Cadillac CTS-V and Shelby GT500.
Still a nearly $60,000 Camaro is a tough sell these days, but if you want one you can order the SLP package through any Chevrolet dealer.
Pre-Production Underway on Fast & Furious 5
November 6, 2009 9:38 AM
2010 Concorso Italiano To Host Gathering of Ferrari F40s
November 6, 2009 8:20 AM
2012 Dodge Charger Teased During Chrysler Press Conference
November 5, 2009 9:51 AM
Lingenfelter 455 TA Revealed at SEMA
November 4, 2009 1:11 PM
Win Two Shelby GT500s and Help Our Troops (SEMA)
November 3, 2009 4:52 PM