Archives > November 2006 >>
Newswheel staff :: 28 November 2006 :: Filed under Audi, Bugatti, Porsche, Volkswagen, Europe & UK, US
What to make of the Volkswagen Group’s current predicament? Well, it’s certainly interesting times, what with head honcho Bernd Pischetsrieder recently given the chop, a business model currently buckling under the strain of fratricidal brand proliferation and Porsche slowly but surely sinking in its claws. Indeed, it’s the latter that’s at the centre of the latest news concerning the future of the most elevated badge in the VW empire. Reportedly, Bugatti’s plans for a new entry level model have been torched by Porsche…
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Newswheel staff :: 24 November 2006 :: Filed under Electric, Saloon, Tesla, Europe & UK, US
Tesla’s 250bhp electric sports car doesn’t officially go on sale Stateside until next summer. But the Californian electric vehicle outfit is already prepping a follow up model: A four-door, four-seat saloon using the same basic drivetrain as seen on the Lotus Elise-chassised Roadster…
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24 November 2006 :: Filed under SUV, Volkswagen Toureg, Europe & UK
Transparent publicity stunt alert? Yup, but it does communicate the torque-tastic capability of the Toureg’s V10 diesel lump rather nicely. Earlier this week, a VW Toureg V10 TDI repeatedly dragged a 155 tonne 747-200 passenger jet down a runway at Dunsfold Aerodrome, 40 miles south west of London. Neither the Toureg nor the 747 achieved escape velocity…
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Tom Stewart :: 23 November 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Peugeot, Peugeot 207, Europe & UK
The original eighties Golf GTi spawned the cult of the hot hatch. On that we can surely all agree. But it was Peugeot’s 1.6 and 1.9 205 GTIs which came to define the genre. Cat-flap-in-a-tornado build quality aside, the 205 GTI remains one of the great drives. Not something you can say about the manifestly mundane 206, a car which tore up the rally scene but never came close to the impact or status of its 205 predecessor on Real Street. What hope, therefore for the 207? Well, the hottest 207 has yet to be released. But warmed-over new 207 GT has arrived…
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Newswheel staff :: 22 November 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Maserati Quattroporte, Europe & UK, US
Alfa Romeo’s recent history is a litany of false dawns and aborted rebirths. So, we’re loathe to predict a real renaissance for the beleaguered Italian brand. And yet the evidence is beginning to mount up. Most tangibly, of course, Alfa officially launched the productionised 8C Competizione super coupé at the Paris show in September. Now comes a very plausible story regarding a rehashed Alfa variant of Maserati’s Quattroporte uber saloon…
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Newswheel staff :: 21 November 2006 :: Filed under Mid / rear engine sportscar, Porsche, Porsche Boxster, Europe & UK, US
Porsche, if you’ve somehow failed to notice, is in rude health. The latest symptom of the German sports car outfit’s magnificent malaise is the announcement that the 200,000th Boxster roadster has rolled off the production line. The company is currently knocking them out at a rate of around 27,000 a year, significantly up on the 15,000 unit volume Porsche had originally hoped for way back in 1996 when the Boxster was launched…
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Newswheel staff :: 21 November 2006 :: Filed under Mid / rear engine sportscar, Porsche, Porsche 911, Europe & UK
Amazing what you can get away with by virtue of being a Porsche. Arbitrary alphanumeric model designations, dayglow orange paint, cheesy stickers down the side and an enormous plank-like rear wing are just a few of the features of the 911 GT3 RS that would be considered borderline criminal on any other car. But on the RS, it’s all part of the mystique. Whatever, Porsche HQ has knocked up a new promotional video of its most focused model undergoing a carefully orchestrated ragging around the Spa circuit in Belgium. Enjoy…
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Newswheel staff :: 19 November 2006 :: Filed under Estate/Wagon, Saloon, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Passat, Europe & UK
Volkswagen has taken the wraps off a new high performance variant of the mid-sized Passat saloon. The Passat R36 packs 296bhp from a new 3.6-litre FSI V6. That’s enough to ensure this is not only the quickest Passat ever, but also the fastest estate car the company has ever wheeled out. OK, the historical competition isn’t exactly hot on either count. But with a zero-to-62mph capability of 5.6 clicks, the R36 certainly shifts. But perhaps more intriguingly, it opens the way for a 300-brake TT R36…
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Newswheel staff :: 17 November 2006 :: Filed under Aston Martin, Aston Martin DBS
What to make of the latest Bond flick, Casino Royale, which opened yesterday at cinemas across the UK? With the usual broadsheet, tv-based and online suspects already on record with a largely uniform line of raised thumbs, and with the prospect of plenty of Aston Martin-branded car porn, Newswheel tooled into town with high hopes. Gritty, emotional, gripping, even realistic. 007 for grown ups, in other words, was the pre-show buzz.
Of course, the usual format for a film review typically involves carefully crafted prose, peppered with witty and insightful observations and building inexorably to a subtly argued conclusion. But frankly, this gruesome movie doesn’t deserve that sort of treatment. The high profile critics couldn’t have got it more wrong. Casino Royale is garish, boring, loud, stupid, excessively lengthy, clunky, cheesy, incompetent, crass, disjointed, cynical, mercenary, misguided, amateurish, clichéd and formulaic. And contrary to expectation, it’s recognisably Bond. But for all the wrong reasons. If you must know why, read on…
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Newswheel staff :: 15 November 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Roadster, Aston Martin, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Europe & UK, US
Enjoy the ineffable beauty of the new V8 Vantage Roadster, revealed yesterday, while the honeymoon lasts, folks. For it will soon be a pestilence upon the humble roads of west London – when the Roadster arrives, Aston Martin will surely be beating well-heeled customers out of showrooms with a shitty stick. Well, so long as the boutique British sports car brand survives the process of being defenestrated from the Ford empire…
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Newswheel staff :: 14 November 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, BMW, BMW 5 Series, Europe & UK
Last week, we reported BMW’s official announcement of the widely anticipated and long overdue manual gearbox option for the M5 saloon. Yesterday, BMW confirmed to Newswheel that the company has “no plans” to bring manual versions of either the M5 or the M6 to the UK. In the words of the great Kevin Kline, disappointed!
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Newswheel staff :: 14 November 2006 :: Filed under Mid / rear engine sportscar, Audi, Europe & UK
Not exactly. For months, rumours have been circulating regarding a possible tag team twixt Audi and Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM. The general gist was a light weight sports car powered by the VW group’s blown four-pot and in many regards picking up where VW’s stillborn EcoRacer left off. More recently, KTM’s head honcho, Stefan Pierer, dished a few official details on the project and now further factoids are appearing on the web…
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Newswheel staff :: 08 November 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, BMW, BMW M5, US
It should have been this way from the beginning. But BMW has
finally caved in to customer demand and announced a manual transmission for the
M5 saloon. The irony, of course, is that it’s customer demand in the slushbox-loving
US of A that has forced BMW’s hand…
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Newswheel staff :: 08 November 2006 :: Filed under Volkswagen, Europe & UK
VW’s head honcho and former BMW bod Bernd Pischetsrieder has been given the chop. Despite Pischetsrieder’s contract being renewed as recently as May this year (in a deal which supposedly secured his tenure through to 2012), the bearded one will be defenestrated on December 31st. And his successor? None other than Audi supremo Martin Winterkorn…
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Tom Stewart :: 07 November 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Mini, Europe & UK,
Do not adjust your browser. This really is the new MINI Cooper S v.2. As we discovered at the Paris motor show in September, every exterior panel along with the entire interior is new, despite the deeply familiar overall vibe. Likewise, there’s an all-new engine, much more sophisticated than the Chrysler-sourced lump of old, punchier to the tune of 5bhp and (more for reasons of fuel frugality than power) fed by turbocharger rather than supercharger forced induction…
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Neville Contractor :: 06 November 2006 :: Filed under Front engine sportscar, Toniq R, Europe & UK
There’s a staggering arsenal of trackday weaponry on the market,
aujourd’hui. And yet, in the no frills, roofless, track-focused sector,
Caterham still operates a quasi monopoly. But what if you don’t fancy
the mesolithic whiff of Lotus Seven that Caterhams excrete and perhaps
find the various low volume alternatives too, er, Radical? Well, allow
us to present the new Toniq-R. A hyper-contemporised, Caterham-stylee
trackday tool seemingly beamed in from another planet but actually
hailing from good old Huddersfield…
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Newswheel staff :: 01 November 2006 :: Filed under TVR, Europe & UK
They’re angry and they’re not going to take it anymore. Disugusted, disgruntled and dejected (pick a d-word) TVR owners are planning to descend on the company’s Blackpool facility this Friday to demonstrate their support for TVR’s soon-to-be-redundant workforce and their opposition to plans to move manufacturing of the hairy British sports cars to Italy…
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