According to our sources at Suzuki America, the long-awaited SX4 sedan is set to debut at the New York Auto Show on April 5. While no firm details are available yet, company officials insist that the car will be available in front-drive form—currently all U.S. SX4 hatchbacks are all-wheel drive only. We hope the automaker will continue to offer AWD in the sedan variant, as it’s a fantastic unique selling point, especially in colder climes.
For our part, we’ve had Suzuki’s charismatic little SX4 hatch in our fleet a couple of times now, and greatly enjoyed it its unconventional blend of traction at all fours, communicative steering, shrunken crossover styling, and ultra-low price point quite a bit. Admittedly, we were stung by its rather feeble fuel economy, but we attribute that to the excess weight and parasitic drag of the more complex driveline system. Look for the front-drive sedan to put up some better EPA numbers.
Either way, we’re looking forward to seeing whether the styling and driving fun translate to the SX4, regardless of which wheels its engine turns. Be sure to click on the link below for a recap of the SX4 prototype we captured way back in August of last year.
It’s widely understood that General Motors is planning on unveiling a pair of special edition Chevrolet Corvette models at next week’s Chicago Auto Show, but they’re not talking. According to an in-the-know Amherst, Ohio dealer, one of them will definitely be a special Ron Fellows edition Z06.
Fellows, as you may recall, is a factory C6.R driver, and he was instrumental in the creation of the current Z06. It’s apt that GM would name a special edition after Fellows, he was the lead high-performance development driver for the most recent Z06. In between races in the 2004 ALMS season, Fellows flew back and forth to various race tracks along with Dave Hill’s Corvette engineering team. They traded ideas and the Canadian provided his input. It was that input which helped to make the Z06 the superstar it is today.
So… what will the special edition car feature? According to CorvetteConti.com, enthusiasts will be looking at an appearance package that includes highly polished wheels, a fender stripe (with Ron Fellows’ signature), and a large racing-style spoiler. Unlike the Atomic Orange model seen above, all of the special Vettes are expected to be painted Arctic White with a Cobalt Red interior (not unlike the Canadian flag), and include a windshield banner and carbon-fiber commemoration plate. White is not a color currently available on the 2007 Z06.
Speculation has it that fewer than 400 such Corvettes will be built, including a handful that are earmarked for Europe.
(Click through to the link for more details, along with some additional images)
According to a print-only report in the January 24 issue of UK publication Autocar, Volvo is reportedly mulling a new flagship – a Mercedes-Benz R-Class style luxury cruiser designed to expand the company’s presence and profitability in the U.S. and Far East.
The magazine quotes Volvo product strategy guru Lex Kerssemakers as saying that a flagship wouldn’t take the form of a sedan, as Volvo views making another five-meter car as “irresponsible.” Thus, in order to maximize passenger space while minimizing the vehicle’s road footprint, a more vertical configuration (like a minivan-cum-crossover) is likely.
No timetable has been set, but it’s believed that vehicles in the vein of 2003’s VCC (Versatility Concept Car) are on the table.
The move seems decidedly plausible, as it would seem that parent Ford would consider leveraging a very similar architecture to that underpinning the Blue Oval’s upcoming Fairlane people mover.
(Click through to the jump for more images of Volvo’s VCC)
Daihatsu showed off its redesigned Move and Move Custom kei cars last October, and it only took a few months for the folks at DAMD to customize it in a not-dissimilar fashion to the Suzuki That’s Mini-Escalade mash-up we showed you earlier this week.
This time, however, DAMD has mined the grille styling from another icon of American car design, the Chrysler 300C. Instead of the standard eggcrate grille, the Japanese company has gone with a chrome mesh insert similar to those popular in the U.S. aftermarket,
applying it to the bluff nose of their Concept B Mono.
(Click through to the jump for more details and views)
Fancy buying your own British luxury marque? If you’ve been pining for Aston-Martin, bidding closed Tuesday, but Ford expects to see some revised offers today in excess of £450 million.
Those that appear close on the deal would include Canadian partsmaker Magna, a Syrian tycoon by the name of Simon Halabi, and Doughty Hanson & Co., a private equity group.
Other reports have pegged Aston’s value at closer to £550 million, and some have estimated that the storied automaker could go for as much as £1 billion, but fears of high pension commitments and other financial obligations are expected to curtail the value down to £450 million.
Stick and move seems to be the strategy for driving in Iraq. In this video clip, which was recorded in the front seat of a Humvee, we get a taste of the traffic conditions that our soldiers face. As the clip’s notes mention, soldiers have learned to drive this way in order to avoid stopping, which would leave them vulnerable to attacks.
Stories of driving in Iraq have been documented over the web for years, from soldiers’ own blogs to reports in national media.
Editor’s Note: The audiophiles over at our sister publication, The Absolute Sound, were quite taken with Jaguar’s C-XF concept, though perhaps for different reasons than a typical WINDING ROAD reader. They were fixated upon the Detroit show star because of the concept’s high-end Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) audio system, about which they filed this report:
We learned at press time that Jaguar has chosen Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) to create an advanced automotive audio system for Jaguar’s C-XF concept car, unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in early January. This alliance suggests that Bowers & Wilkins will supply premium audio systems in Jaguar production vehicles. This move is a logical step in the trend of audio companies developing branded, premium audio systems for luxury cars (Lexus and Mark Levinson, Aston Martin and Linn, Audi and Bang & Olufson, and Mercedes and Harman-Kardon).
(Click through to the jump for more, including a brace of images and official B&W materials)
General Motors is teaming up with singer Jon Bon Jovi to create a one-of-a-kind Strange Bedfellows Edition Philadelphia Soul Special Edition Saturn Aura. The car will be unveiled by Jon Bon and Saturn’s GM Jill Lajdziak at the Philadelphia International Auto Show, and subsequently auctioned off to help restore some historically significant row homes in North Central Philly. Apparently, despite his well-publicized ties to New Jersey, the popular singer is co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul, an Arena Football League franchise, hence the co-branding opportunity.
Lamentably, no press photos have been released yet, the one-off Aura features team colors and badges, as well as a chromed shifter surround signed by Bon Jovi and NFL great Ron Jaworski, along with embroidered floor mats, headrests, and a plaque.
(Click through to the jump for GM’s press release and a link)
There’s an interesting and in-depth article in today’s Detroit Free Press centering on the back story behind the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
According to the story, General Motors’ Vice Chairman Bob Lutz gathered up some top execs, calling upon them to develop a plug-in electric car within one year, in hopes of finding some much-needed buzz as a technological and environmental innovator. Code named the “iCar” (reportedly “for its potential to do in the auto industry what the iPod had done for music and video”), the Volt’s North American Auto Show debut has generated a wellspring of positive ink for the embattled automaker.
(Click through to the link for the complete story)
We’re not sure what the current production status of this car is, but as this is the first time we’ve happened upon the Australian-built Devaux Coupe, we couldn’t help but pass it on to you.
Clearly modeled after European cars of the 1930s (think: Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, Talbot-Lago T 150C SS, Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Lungo), the voluptuously styled coupe is built on a 92-inch wheelbase steel chassis, and clothed in fiberglass body panels. We can only imagine how it must feel to look out through the split windshield and over that vast hood and bulbous fenders. Judging by the sheer length of the front end, we can only imagine it would like driving from the back seat… of the car behind!
It would appear that only a handful of these cars have been built since 2001, but we wouldn’t mind seeing one of these aluminum- and chrome-laden throwbacks on the road, even if not everyone finds them to be to their tastes. Judging by photos alone, we can’t really tell what the built quality is like on these things, but it looks several cuts above the average, and its interior doesn’t look too shabby, what with its period-look Moto-lita wheel and center-mount gauges.
(Click through to the jump for more musings and images inside-and-out)
This clip from Eurosport (YouTube archive) shows world champion Damon Hill in qualifying for the 1996 British GP. Hill was quite fast in his Williams that year and ended up taking eight wins and never qualified outside of second position. He won the championship, too.
In this event, Hill took the pole with a time of 1:26.875. He retired on the 26th lap after one of the car’s lugnuts came loose and he went off into a spin at Copse, ending up in a sand pit.
New York City is getting its first robotic parking structure next month in Chinatown. The high-tech garage utilizes a series of elevators, turn tables, lasers, and conveyors to park 67 vehicles into a space where a normal garage could only accommodate 24.
Designed by Automotion Parking Systems, the entire garage will only have one attendant, and that’s just for people who can’t figure out how to use the fully automated system. It being in New York, parking isn’t exactly inexpensive, running between $25/day and $400/month.
The Chinatown facility is the first of six Automotion garages that are being planned for NYC, including a trio in Brooklyn. America’s only other such computer-controlled system is in Hoboken, New Jersey, and it’s been operating for some time now. That said, the Robotic Parking Systems garage has had its fair share of drops—including dropping a couple of vehicles from up to six stories high.
It’s worth noting that such systems (and slightly more traditional human-operated Ferris-wheel-style platform parking garages) have been in use abroad for quite some time, including in Japan, China, Australia and Germany.
+ Journaltimes.com: Robot Parking Garage to Open in New York
New York City is getting its first robotic parking structure next month in Chinatown. The high-tech garage utilizes a series of elevators, turn tables, lasers, and conveyors to park 67 vehicles into a space where a normal garage could only accommodate 24.
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