Volkswagen Beetles are known for many things, one of them being a reason to punch your siblings while saying, “no punch backs.”
But they are not known for going fast, that is, unless you shoehorn something at the back in place of the Beetle’s simple four-banger. Many owners have done that, ranging from more modern Volkswagen engine transplants, to even full-fledged Chevy swaps.
This latest swap however is something that’s even more of an oddball–a rotary swapped Beetle, which Jay Leno gets a chance to try on his latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage.
Check it out after the jump.
– By: Chris Chin
Subaru has been assembling cars in America ever since their first US-based factory location opened up in Lafayette, IN in 1989.
The company has since expanded production at this location, which first started off as a joint-venture between Subaru and Isuzu. Over time, Subaru gained full rights to the factory location, taking ownership and eventually, this led to American production of the Legacy sedan and wagons, along with the Baja, Outback, and Tribeca crossover.
Just today, Subaru announced their celebration for having produced their third-millionth US-built vehicle on July 28.
The 3,000,000th American made Subaru: a shiny Lapis Blue Pearl Outback.
Due to increased demand for their cars, Subaru plans to expand the Lafayette plant in order to double the assembly line’s capacity from 218,000 cars a year, to 436,000 by March 2019. This will be accomplished by adding Impreza production along with the launch and production of the company’s new three-row crossover to replace the Tribeca.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Subaru
A leaked order catalog for the highly-anticipated 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 surfaced and AutoBlog caught a glimpse of it. Through the guide, which can be seen on Camaro6.com, the world was able to learn that the new Camaro ZL1 will have 650hp, quite a bit more than the previous model’s 580hp.
You can also imagine torque is up from the last car’s 556 lb-ft of torque rating, but that figure wasn’t specified in the leaked PDF.
This also means the new Camaro ZL1 is about 10 horses shy of one of GM’s other ultimate cars, the 640hp 2017 Cadillac CTS-V. But sadly, it still does trail behind the Dodge Challenger Hellcat’s 707hp.
As a refresher, the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was revealed at the 2016 New York International Auto Show a few months back with the all-new sixth-generation Camaro platform. Oomph is still supplied by a supercharged V8 6.2L LT4 V8.
– By: Chris Chin
2016 Photos Copyright © Adam Ismail for egmCarTech
It seems people aren’t really that scared of self-driving cars, particularly fear for autonomous driving vehicles was recently highlighted when a series of Tesla crashes happened, allegedly from faulting Autopilot systems.
But AutomotiveNews stumbled upon some studies conducted by the Boston Consulting Group and AlixPartners, who learned that the general public’s perception of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles hasn’t been negatively affected like you would think.
Despite the elevated fear of death looming over, 3,000 total Americans polled between both studies didn’t really feel phased by the recent accidents.
The Boston Consulting study even went as far as probing feedback in other countries like Germany and China. Overall, they reported a reduction in interest by only seven percent in their study pool, which is not much.
AlixPartners’ study on the other hand discovered that interest went up slightly for awareness of Tesla’s AutoPilot.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: AutomotiveNews
Over the past several years, during the production of the Bugatti Veyron, the company teased their strong interests in producing what was essentially going to be a sedan version of the Veyron. They even made a concept version to prove their seriousness towards the matter, called the Galibier.
However, due to delays, the fear of diluting the nameplate, and a lot of management issues at Bugatti’s corporate parent, Volkswagen, the Galibier prospect was troubled to begin with. This ultimately led Bugatti to shelve the idea for the foreseeable future. Recently though, Bugatti supposedly revisited the Galibier Concept and Drive says they could be ready to actually make it this time.
Click here for more news on the Bugatti Galibier.
Bugatti is currently dealing with the launch of their Veyron successor, the Chiron, but because the Chiron is the only car they make, there aren’t many opportunities for Bugatti to make money off of their products because of how exclusive and advanced they are. This could very well change since Bugatti’s currently researching ways to produce more income to guarantee more long-term sustainability.
This means a product lineup expansion is being considered and up to four new models could be launched by the company over the next few years.
A production Galibier sedan is slated to be one of those cars up for consideration, Bugatti’s CEO, Wolfgang Durheimer hinted to Drive. He also admitted his love for the Galibier sedan, a tell-tale sign that there could be a pretty big glimpse of hope for the Bugatti sedan with a W16 and over 1,000hp, as originally intended.
Considerably, with the premium luxury automarket growing, Bugatti’s finding less reasons to not compete.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Drive.com.au
Infiniti’s absolutely stunning Q60 sports coupe just recieved its final MSRP sticker, and you’ll need to set aside $39,855 or plan to pay that amount over a certain amount of time in order to land one in your driveway.
The Q60 was revealed at Detroit in 2015 as a Concept and was later showcased this past January in production form as a replacement for the old, former G Coupe.
Designed to compete more closely with the BMW 4-Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe, the new Q60 comes with a choice of an all-new 2.0L turbocharged four-banger, with an optional 3.0L twin-turbo V6.
The four is good for 208hp and 258 lb-ft of torque while the V6, which comes in two versions, produces either 300hp or 400hp, depending on which one is opted for.
Check out the full price list after the jump.
The Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Prices* (MSRP) for the 2017 INFINITI Q60 are:
Model Engine/Drive MSRP Q60 2.0t 2.0L I4 Turbo / RWD $38,950 USD Q60 2.0t AWD 2.0L I4 Turbo / AWD $40,950 USD Q60 2.0t Premium 2.0L I4 Turbo / RWD $41,300 USD Q60 2.0t Premium AWD 2.0L I4 Turbo / AWD $43,300 USD Q60 3.0t Premium 3.0-liter V6 Twin Turbo 300 hp / RWD $44,300 USD Q60 3.0t Premium AWD 3.0-liter V6 Twin Turbo 300 hp / AWD $46,300 USD
– By: Chris Chin
