Author: autoevolution

On July 21, the UK will host the fifth annual Salon Prive, the country’s luxury supercar display & concours d’elegance, which promises to be the best edition to date, through the presence of multiple top supercar and premium vehicle producers.

One of the brands that will have the most impressive displays at the show is Jaguar. The carmaker will celebrate its 75th anniversary at the event, showcasing its current vehicle line-up and presenting an elitist group of Jaguar Heritage Collection cars… (read more)

After Fernando Alonso, Ferrari’s CEO Luca di Montezemolo also calls for great humility from his Scuderia ahead of the second round of the 2010 season, the Australian Grand Prix. According to the Italian official, Ferrari’s 1-2 in Bahrain should be forgotten right away, with the team focusing full-time on starting from zero in Melbourne.

We need some great humility in this race. We know that we have to work and there is still lots to be improved, such as performance and reliability: it’s impor… (read more)

Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Obama administration’s special master for compensation, decided yesterday to limit salaries for 119 executives from 5 of the firms bailed out by the federal government last year. Out of the five companies, four are related to the auto industry: GM, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial. The fifth firm is AIG.

According to Feinberg, cash payments to the top 25 executives at each of the companies will be reduced by 33 percent compared to 2009 levels. Overall, the total … (read more)

Heading to his home race this weekend, Australian driver Mark Webber admitted that he will be keeping an eye on at least 4 drivers for the Sunday action. First he has his teammate Sebastian Vettel to take care of, as the German admitted he’ll be looking for some sweet revenge following Webber’s win at the Nurburgring last year.

More importantly though, Webber reckoned that the two Ferrari drivers and Lewis Hamilton will be very tough to beat in Melbourne, based on their overall performance du… (read more)

Last year, Peugeot introduced the Mu mobility program, a system that allows French users to access instant transportation solutions, including multiple vehicles, scooters and accessories, by using a rechargeable account.

Now, the French carmaker is introducing an iPhone application that allows Mu users to monitor and perform transactions directly on their iPhone, thus making the service even more accessible and reducing the duration of Mu operations.

Around 2,000 people have created a Mu a… (read more)

Following the announcement made by German carmaker BMW that it will debut the new generation 5 Series Touring at the 2010 Auto Mobil International (AMI) show in Leipzig, two more German carmakers hint to some premieres taking place in their stands at the respective show.

According to rumors surfacing this week, Audi and Volkswagen will have their own debuts. Volkswagen will bring to AMI the new family-aimed Touran, while its subsidiary, Audi, will unveil the sporty facelift for the TT.

In… (read more)

The first ever Taiwanese auto brand, Luxgen, proved itself to other automobile manufacturers, shortly after it has made an outstanding international debut at the Dubai Motor show. In its home market of Taiwan, Luxgen even surpassed the overall sales volume of the entire Hyundai vehicle line-up with just a single MPV model, the Luxgen7.

The unexpected, yet welcomed success of Luxgen finds it roots in the company’s Think+ system, which combines HTC smart technology and Windows CE Automotive int… (read more)

The Eastern European countries seem ready to fuel the international racing stage with more and more drivers as years go by. After Vitaly Petrov became the first Russian driver to ever set foot in Formula One, it has now been confirmed that Bulgaria will have their first GP2 driver in history, in the person of Vladimir Arabadzhiev.

Having already debuted in the GP2 Asia Series with Piquet GP and Rapax teams, the 26-year old driver inked a one-year deal in the Main Series with Italian team Colo… (read more)

During an unscheduled visit to the European division of his company, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda announced the appointment of Didier Leroy as Chief Quality Officer for Europe. Leroy, who is executive vice president for Toyota Motor Europe, will take the role immediately and will try, as Toyoda said, to regain customer confidence.

"I have learned a lot from the quality problems we experienced," Toyoda said in Europe. "As you all know, ensuring our customers’ safety is Toyota’s highe… (read more)

Japanese carmaker Mazda announced today it has released a special edition Mazda Axela Sport (also known as Mazda3 hatchback in overseas markets) to mark its 90th anniversary. Outfitted with performance accessories, the Mazda Axela Sport 1.5 S Style went on sale today at all Mazda, Mazda Anfini and Mazda Autozam dealerships throughout Japan.
 
The new special edition anniversary model, which reportedly offers attractive eco-friendly and safety features, is priced between 1,760,000 – 1,850,000 y… (read more)

Lewis Hamilton insisted that his returning to the scene of the crime in Australia will hardly be an emotional one. Looking back at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, when the lie-gate in which he was involved with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli brought him some serious image damages, Hamilton insisted he has nothing but positive thoughts of the Melbourne race.

I’ve always had great experiences here and I don’t look at last year’s experience as a bad one. I look at it as a stepping stone in my life and so… (read more)

Bridgestone seem to have done their homework for the early stages of the 2010 Formula One season, as the Japanese manufacturer today confirmed the tire compounds they’ll bring to the upcoming 5 races of the current campaign.

Having already announced that they’ll bring the soft and hard compound for the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, Bridgestone’s head of motorsport tire development, Hirohide Hamashima today went on to announce the allocation for the Malaysian, Chinese, Spanish, Turkish … (read more)

The German tuning company B&B offers a technical tuning kit for the top of the range version of the Volkswagen Scirocco.

The tuning house has developed a three-stage program that enables the 265 hp turbocharged 2.0 liter unit on the Scirocco R to deliver 310, 324 or 362 hp.

The top version of the tuned creation shaves 0.8 second off the standard car’s 0 to 100 km/h sprint time, managing to complete this in 4.9 seconds. While the production Scirocco R has an electronically limited top speed… (read more)

As the Toyota recall mystery still shrouds the US automotive industry, more and more "specialists" join the fight and begin theorizing on what may really hide behind the sudden acceleration issues in Toyota vehicles. In what tends to become the "conspiracy theory" of the year, a new possible cause for the faults begins to pick up speed.

According to the theory, to blame is not the floor mat; nor the accelerator pedals; nor the drivers for that matter. To blame is, experts… (read more)

Ford’s SYNC system seems is enjoying a great deal of success among the American manufacturer’s customers, as it has been installed on more than 2 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles so far. Aside from providing a voice-controlled communications and infotainment system, the Ford SYNC is also boosting the vehicle’s resale value.

Data analysis conducted by Ford that SYNC-equipped models of the 2008 Focus are worth more than those without SYNC. The added value is due to the fact that Ford … (read more)

It seems that the South American continent is set to become the continuous host of the Dakar Rally, as the Argentine Secretary of State for Tourism Enrique Meyer officially confirmed that the 2011 edition of the event will be hosted by his country – alongside Chile – for the 3rd year in a row.

Being able to count on the Dakar again is a dream come true for Argentina. For the last two years, in addition to the sporting aspect, we have displayed to the whole wide world (more than 190 countries)… (read more)

Karun Chandhok may be the only Indian out there with the potential to become a strong Formula One driver – something that he is yet to prove in the series – but the 26-year old’s situation a few years ago was certainly not that colorful. According to Chandhok himself, his racing career was close to being over more than 3 years ago, when competing in the GP2 Series.

And it was Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone who saved his career at the end of that year, as the 79-year old Brit managed to… (read more)

AC Schnitzer sure knows how to tease auto enthusiasts: the tuner announced that it is developing an upgrade package for the new BMW 5 series, but didn’t just send a dull press release – the company took the time to equip the F10 5 series with a new set or rims and tires and released a set of images aiming to capture our imagination.

AC Schnitzer is offering three rim models that can be ordered in a 19 or 20 inch size: the Type IV wheels, which can come in a bi-color or silver finish, the Type… (read more)

Just as promised, names of the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race host ports from around the world keep pouring in, placing Brazil for the sixth time on the event’s map. The city of Itajaí, located in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina will play host to the race, which will start in Alicante in the autumn of 2011.

"It’s an honour for our city to host such a glorious sailing event in our waters and represent Santa Catarina and Brazil in the Volvo Ocean Race, the most important ocean sailing… (read more)

It seems that a lot of the reliability problems experienced by the new teams of Formula One are linked with their transmission. As many of you know by now, Newbury based Xtrac company is currently supplying some of the new teams with the gearbox units for the 2010 F1 season, but their experience in the series is not that vast.

Xtrac hasn’t produced F1 transmissions since more than a decade – 1996 to be more exact – meaning their reliability is questionable to say the least. The teams that are… (read more)