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Cassandra Watch: Autoblog Edition

October 31, 2008

While TTAC’s been busy chronicling the fall and fall of American automakers’ 100-year hegemony over the domestic auto industry, Autoblog’s been keeping its audience appraised of the latest modded cars, Mustangs and SEMA showpieces. Fair enough. We’re proud to be able to relieve AB of their obligation to blog hard news.  But every now and [...]

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Inaugural Enderle Concours features Pininfarina designer, classics

October 31, 2008

Filed under: Etc., Bentley, BMW, Jaguar, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Misc. Auto Shows, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo

Click above for high-res gallery courtesy our friends at Speed and Motion
Long known amongst car people around southern California for its fine dining, upscale boutiques and most importantly its twice-monthly collector car breakfast cruises, the Enderle Center in Tustin, California decided to do something a little different to celebrate its 30th Anniversary: host a Classic European Concours. For this inaugural event they even flew in Pininfarina designer Maurizio Corbi who answered questions and sketched dream cars for the crowd. When someone groaned after hearing Corbi was partly responsible for the new Ferrari California’s form, he quickly pointed out he did the front, which brought relieved laughter. Local collector Dick Marconi brought several cars from his nearby Marconi Automotive Museum, which supports the Marconi Foundation for Kids. Several of Dick’s artworks were also displayed in the [...]

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Question of the Day: Do Live Axles get a Bum Rap?

October 31, 2008

I know Farago’s answer, but hear me out. As I mentioned when I reviewed the Bullitt, I’ve driven many Mustangs. And do you want to know the truth? The fact they all have live axles… really doesn’t make any difference. Like, let’s get real here. None. As far as I can tell, the only time [...]

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VW discusses New Midsize Sedan to be built in Chattanooga

October 31, 2008

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Videos, Chrysler, LLC., Volkswagen
Volkswagen has so far been pretty sketchy about what will be built at its new Chattanooga plant. About all they’ve said is that it will be a brand new mid-size sedan model specifically for the U.S. market.
Chattanooga’s NBC affiliate, WRCB, attended a VW reception last week in Berlin where they discovered a few more details about the car. A very few. First, the car is referred to by VW insiders as the NMS, an acronym for the uncreative name, “New Midsize Sedan.” VW plans for the car to offer a TDI diesel as well as double clutch transmissions. Which all sounds very Jetta-like.
Also revealed in the WRCB video is that the NMS will have a “large trunk” and “spacious legroom.” Thank goodness. We really can’t stand sedans with tiny trunks and less legroom than economy on a domestic flight. And, despite WRCB’s Web [...]

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Jeff Gordon on Sprint Cup pole at Texas:

October 31, 2008

Texas Motor Speedway was among a handful of tracks where Jeff Gordon had never won a Sprint Cup race or a Sprint Cup pole. He took care of the “pole” part of that dubious record on Friday by winning the pole for Sunday afternoon’s Dickies 500.

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The story of the Vantage that crossed Asia finally finished

October 31, 2008

Filed under: Etc., Aston Martin, Lifestyle

Click above for gallery of shots from the book Driven Together
Driving an Aston Martin V8 Vantage over the Asian Highway to promote highway safety strikes us as, if not the least safe thing we can think of, certainly dubious. Yet the Project 30,000 car piloted by Britons Richard Meredith and Phil Colley made the trek safely, albeit with quite a few adventures along the way: a cattle stampede, border hassles in Turkmenistan, and a sandstorm in China. And that road you see in the picture above is apparently what they call a “detour” in certain parts of the world. Yeah. The book of the journey, Driven Together, will come out late next month. To whet your appetite, check out the gallery of photos below, or if you can’t wait, head over to Mercury Books now and pre-order a copy at a discount.

Gallery: Driven Together Book

[Source: [...]

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A model of things to come: Mad Max diorama

October 31, 2008

Filed under: Gadgets, Time Warp, Etc., Toys

We may or may not have already passed peak oil. All we know is that the post-apocalyptic vision wrought in Mad Max films may someday become reality, and then we’re all gonna wish we had Interceptors. AutoArt Models recently came out with a 1:18 die cast Interceptor model recently, but it doesn’t come filthy enough for some fans. Detail-man extrodinaire Paul Miller decided to do something about it and built his own insanely detailed diorama complete with lots of dirt and dust (and some fuel drips!), Max himself, and other well chosen accessories for the scene. We’re way behind building our own Edsel model for the Autoblog Garage, but Paul’s work is at a level we’ll never achieve. We’re inspired to try, though, after seeing his work! Paul will also build you a custom model or diorama with this insane level of detail, provided [...]

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Surprised? Treasury doesn’t want to lend GM $10 billion to buy Chrysler

October 31, 2008

DETROIT - The story broke Friday morning that the treasury department turned away General Motors on its widely reported, not very substantiated deal to buy Chrysler with $10 billion in federal bailout money. (I write “buy…

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Nissan cuts profit forecast by 66%, will cut workforce

October 31, 2008

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Nissan, Earnings/Financials
The entire auto industry is hurting right now, and financial news from Nissan today is the latest evidence to support that overused statement. Nissan announced that it’s shifting profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 down by 65.9% (!) to $2.62 billion. To keep inventory in line with reduced demand, Nissan is also cutting its annual production forecast by 200,000 units and will shed 3,500 jobs. The U.S. job losses will come from a previously announced voluntary buyout program and 1,000 jobs will be shed in Japan where layoffs are much less frequent. The automaker’s new global sales goal for the year is 3.77 million units, which is down from the latest estimates of 3.9 million cars and trucks and about even with last year’s sales. Nissan is far from alone in its current struggle, as Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Mazda are also [...]

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If the Merger Lives, Chrysler Dies; If the Merger Dies, Chrysler Dies

October 31, 2008

Automotive News [sub] has the latest in a stream of consultant reports on the on-again-off-again merger between Chrysler and GM. And things do not look good for Chrysler (duh). Remember back when we got all riled about the projected 70k job losses? The report from Grant Thornton LLP says we can actually expect between 100k [...]

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