Archives: June 2006 - Newswheel.com

Jaguar XKR: image and tech spec frenzy

Newswheel staff :: 30 June 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Coupe, Jaguar, Jaguar XKR, Europe & UK, US

With three weeks to go until its first public outing at the British Motor Show, Jaguar has pulled the trigger on the all-new XKR. On paper, Jag’s new flagship GT (available from launch as both a coupe and cabriolet) doesn’t deliver many surprises. But there’s plenty of power courtesy of a mildly fettled version of the trusty AJ-V8. And with significantly less poundage to drag around thanks to that all-aluminium construction, the latest XKR should be fairly nippy…

Honda Civic three-door unveiled

Newswheel staff :: 29 June 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Honda, Honda Civic, Europe & UK

In keeping with the current tradition of robbing motor show debutants of any real surprise factor, Honda has lifted the lid on the new three-door Civic. Scheduled to be unveiled at the British International Motor Show next month, the new model gets a sportier chassis than its five-door sibling and goes on sale in January 2007. Meanwhile, Honda has also dished out preliminary tech specs for the Civic Type-R…

Lamborghini update: No new models?

Newswheel staff :: 27 June 2006 :: Filed under Four-door coupe, SUV, Lamborghini, Lamborghini Espada, Lamborghini LM 00x, Europe & UK, US

Trust UK rag AutoExpress to fan the flames of speculation regarding the future of Lamborghini. Following recent rumours that parent company VW is considering offloading the Italian supercar outfit comes news that Lamborghini has shelved plans for a pair of new models - a reborn LM 002 off-roader and a spiritual successor to the Espada…

Caparo T1 gets Goodwood outing

Newswheel staff :: 27 June 2006

Supercar start up Caparo will show off its F1-car-for-the-road at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next month. But the 1,000bhp-per-tonne T1 won’t be taking on the Festival’s hill climb – until 2007…

First drive: Alfa Spider

Newswheel staff :: 26 June 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo Spider, Europe & UK,

When Alfa Romeo launched its inordinately sassy, Pininfarina-designed Duetto Spider at the Geneva Show back in 1966 it made something of a rod for it’s own back. Such was that car’s timeless beauty that an all-new Spider didn’t appear until the mid-1990s, some three decades later. Although the most recent model’s wedge-shaped styling certainly held its head above water, it lacked the almost incomparable visual appeal of the original. Ten years on and we find ourselves at the Sicily-based press launch of the newest Spider. Now you’ll have to trust us on this, but roof either up or down, this Brera-based Spider looks even better in the metal than it does in photos…

Merc comes clean on CL coupe

Newswheel staff :: 26 June 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes Benz CL coupe, Europe & UK, US

Just days after images leaked onto the web, Mercedes has gone official with the new CL coupe. So what’s new? Well, the CL is bigger in every dimension than its predecessor and predictably packs more electrickery than you can shake a distronic parking sensor at. The new model is also surely a stylistic step forward over the faintly chintzy outgoing model. Not that M-B has completely managed to shake off its current tendency towards niggling naffness. With no less than seven “V12” badges scattered liberally inside and out, including a quartet of extremely dubious plaques sown into the seat backs (classy!) and a particularly nasty exampled bolted front and centre to the dashboard, an exercise in subtle superiority the tip top CL 600 model is most definitely not…

Lotus maps out future, again

Newswheel staff :: 23 June 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Front engine sportscar, Mid / rear engine sportscar, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Europe & UK, US

Not another five-year plan, surely? What with the Stalinist connotations and Lotus’s track-record for the unceremonious defenestration of said far-reaching future formulations, you might expect the Hethel-based sports car maker to steer well clear. Nope. This week’s Autocar Magazine has an interview with new Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley (if the name is familiar the reason is simple: this is Kimberly’s second innings at the helm of Lotus) in which the company’s new model roadmap is divulged in (not a great deal of) detail…

Land Rover officially reveals Freelander 2

Newswheel staff :: 23 June 2006 :: Filed under SUV, Land Rover, Land Rover Freelander / LR2, Europe & UK, US

And so it came to pass that on this 23rd day of June, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Six, Land Rover did verily dish out full details of the new Freelander 2 SUV. And there was a modicum of rejoicing. But not much by way of surprises (thanks to a litany of pre-launch leaking). Technical details are largely as per our previous stories, with the range-topping Freelander i6 packing a 230bhp 3.2-litre straight-six and a derv-drinking option offering 158bhp and 295lb/ft from a 2.2-litre four-pot unit. Still, LR’s press release bumpf does fill out a few of the finer details…

Chrysler to launch Sebring saloon at London show

Newswheel staff :: 22 June 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, Chrysler, Chrysler Sebring, Europe & UK, US

Chrysler’s new Sebring saloon will get its Euro debut at the London motor show in July. Design-wise, the latest Sebring is inspired by the Airflite show car of 2003. But let’s be frank, folks. This is no Audi TT-esque concept-car-for-the-road. Indeed, it’s not a patch on Chrysler’s own fabulously funky 300C full-sized four-door, either. The reality is a conventional four-door barge plastered in fussy styling cues. More’s the pity, for if nothing else the Sebring offers a few interesting technical twists…

Premature pics: Mercedes CL images appear online

Newswheel staff :: 22 June 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes Benz CL coupe, Europe & UK, US

Another day, another premature image exposé. Today’s victim is none other than that titanic Teuton of motor manufacturing, Mercedes-Benz. Of course, it’s possible that M-B has indulged in a spot of guerrilla marketing for the new CL coupe with an intentional image leak. Whatever the truth, these apparently official images confirm that recent spyshots and cg renders in the usual German car rags were indeed accurate. Merc’s range topping uber-coupe is a significant stylistic departure from the S-Class limo, with which it shares a chassis, oily bits and electric gizmos…

London show shindig for M6 Convertible

Newswheel staff :: 21 June 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Front engine sportscar, BMW, BMW M6, Europe & UK, US,

To a list of world debuts that already includes the Jag XKR, Civic three-door and Freelander 2, may we add BMW’s M6 Convertible. Granted, the British International Motor Show won’t exactly be worrying the organisers of the Geneva and Frankfurt shindigs. But for an event that was near-as-dammit dead just a few years ago, the London show is looking distinctly healthy. Indeed, the M6’s British blow off is a first for any BMW…

Official Freelander 2 snaps and deets

Newswheel staff :: 21 June 2006 :: Filed under SUV, Land Rover, Land Rover Freelander / LR2, Europe & UK, US

More PR snaps of the upcoming second-gen Freelander are floating around the wibbly wobbly web. Following a private preview session for customers in the UK, detailed specifications also appear to have leaked from the Land Rover mothership…

Mazda bolts folding hardtop onto MX-5

Newswheel staff :: 21 June 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Front engine sportscar, Mazda MX-5, Europe & UK, US

In an unusual move for an established drop-top, Mazda has retro-fitted a folding hardtop to the MX-5 roadster. To be known in the UK as the Mazda MX-5 Roadster Coupe, the new variant will be publicly unveiled at the British International Motor Show in London next month. Whether this qualifies as good news for a compact, lightweight sports car that majors on responsive driving dynamics ain’t exactly obvious…

Porsche drops Cayman engines into Boxster

Newswheel staff :: 20 June 2006 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Mid / rear engine sportscar, Porsche, Porsche Boxster, Europe & UK, US

Porsche’s pricing structure has just gone from perplexing to downright preposterous. The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer has announced plans to upgrade the Boxster rag-top with engines from its tin-top sibling, the Cayman coupe. The result? Porsche is now asking customers to fork out a £6,000 premium for an open-top 911 at the same time as flogging Boxsters for thousands less than fixed-roof Caymans…

Scirocco silly season

Newswheel staff :: 15 June 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Hatchback, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Scirocco, Europe & UK

Beat us wafer thin with a steak tenderiser if we’re wrong. But the original VW Scirocco was a rather unprepossessing little hatchback. A Golf with a chopped roof and not much by way of dynamic addendum pretty much sums it up. So, quite why the prospect of an all-new Scirocco has inspired an army of Photoshop-addicted rumour mongers to crank out a seemingly infinite catalogue of rum renderings, we know not. Especially since it’s the Corrado, not the Scirocco, that many still regard as one of the finest-handling front-drive cars of all time. Whatever, the latest riff on the ongoing Scirocco saga comes courtesy of US rag Autoweek, which weaves a tale of internal squabbles and design disagreements at VW headquarters…

Astra goes Panoramic

Newswheel staff :: 15 June 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Opel / Vauxhall, Vauxhall, Vauxhall Astra,

With its Sport Hatch moniker and arching window line, the Vauxhall / Opel Astra three-door is a bit of a try hard. By most measures, of course, it’s a distinctly plain Jane mass market hatchback. But it now has at least one USP to separate it from the Euro hordes – a panoramic extended windscreen, known imaginatively as the, er, Panoramic windscreen. And the best news is that Vauxhall will hand you a fiver to give it a try…

New S-Class crushes the opposition

Newswheel staff :: 14 June 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes Benz S-Class, Europe & UK, US

Reluctant though we are to pass on press release-propogated tidings of sales joy, we’ll allow MB its moment of glory. Eight months in and 50,000 units sold worldwide, Mercedes’ new S-Class is already slapping the opposition around with a large stick. “The car’s innovations in particular have been groundbreaking for the automotive industry, and they are the primary reason why the S-Class has maintained a unique status within the luxury segment for decades,” gushed spokesMerc Dr. Klaus Maier. Of course, the fact that the S-Class no longer looks like some kind of Ssangyong-built simulacrum probably doesn’t hurt…

DSG to replace slushboxes on all VW Group cars

Newswheel staff :: 14 June 2006 :: Filed under Audi, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen, Europe & UK

Of all the robot-controlled manual gearboxes, VW’s DSG dual-clutch box is by far the finest. Thanks to a pair of clutches (one clutch for odd-numbered gears and one for even gears) DSG offers the kind of smooth and seamless gear changes that other paddle-flipping boxes can only dream of. And now Wolfgang Bernhard, VW’s product bigwig, has announced that the DSG box will replace conventional torque-converter automatic gearboxes on all VW group cars with transverse engine installations within five years…

London launch for three-door Civic

Newswheel staff :: 13 June 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Honda, Honda Civic, Europe & UK

A litany of new car launches at a British motor show? Who’d a thunk it. Joining the list of London debutants is the new British-built three-door Civic. The new model, including the rev-tastic Type-R hot hatch, will be shown alongside the recently released five-door variant and the new Legend luxo barge. For now, Honda is keeping the standard three-door Civic under wraps. But since the Type-R concept displayed at the Geneva show earlier this year uses the three-door shell, there won’t be many surprises when the wraps come off next month…

BMW’s matte paint project

Newswheel staff :: 13 June 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, BMW, BMW Z4, Europe & UK, US

Ever wondered why lacquered, glossy paint is the only option on mass-produced motor vehicles? Neither had we. Until now: BMW is hoping to be the first mainstream motor manufacturer to offer a matte paint finish. First shown on the Z4 coupe concept last year, it seems enough punters have had their interest piqued to convince the Bavarians to develop the new paint for production…

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