The boxy van (and cult surfer favorite) appears to be headed to that great junkyard in the sky: Autoblog reports that Dodge will stop making the Sprinter by 2011. It's a casualty of the recent Chrysler-Nissan partnership; expect a reworked Nissan van to hit streets in about three years. Too bad—the spacious interior was great for customizing, and the diesel engine made it a (relatively) eco-friendly ride.
Meaning a car with a green paint job, and not, say, a Prius. That's the news according to CNW Marketing Research, who just released a survey about how choice of car color reflects drivers' attitudes toward life. Turns out the Batmobile's hue isn't a coincidence—sad sacks like Bruce Wayne are most likely to drive something noir. Full results are below:
-Emerald green: Drivers have 5.5 percent above average confidence
...update it incrementally. That's the logic, at least, behind Royal Enfield's 2008 motorcycle collection. The flagship is the Bullet 500 Classic (pictured), which has had more or less the same design since 1955, when it was first manufactured in India. (The bike's named after a product the company no longer makes: rifle cartridges.) This year, however, the brand has given it an all-new four-stroke engine from Austrian engineering firm AVL, good for a whopping 70 mpg on the open road. Think of it as a hog Al Gore could love.
$5,095, enfieldmotorcycles.com
Some of the first and finest Ferraris ever produced will go on sale at the marque's Maranello factory on May 18. The star of RM Auctions' Ferrari: Leggenda e Passione is a 1961 250 GT SWB Spyder California (pictured) that belonged to tough-guy actor James Coburn. Estimated at $4.6 to $5.9 million, it's considered one of the most beautiful and valuable Ferraris ever made. (Coburn used to race it around the Hollywood Hills with his pal Steve McQueen.) Also on offer: a 1951 Inter Coupe PF 512 that director Roberto Rossellini bought as an anniversary present for his wife, Ingrid Bergman ($1-$1.3 million); and, on the more modern end, a 2004 Enzo made for a member of a Middle Eastern royal family—the only example ever produced in gray ($1.2-$1.5 million). If that's a little out of your range, there's also plenty of Ferrari memorabilia on offer, from blueprints to carburetors. Can't wait until Sunday? The house is taking bids now.
The pop-art provocateur died last night at age 82. In his honor, we present this video of him working on a 1986 Art Car for BMW, the sixth in the carmaker's pioneering series of artist collaborations. (It later inspired his six-part Beamer film series.) Check it out below—and dig those vertical stripes:
From now until October, Ferrari is unveiling its new GT online, piece by piece. Up first? The sound of the engine. That's right—as of now, the entire Web site is devoted to four audio files of the GT revving up. Fortunately, the lads at TopGear are giving it a proper send-up with a quasi-tongue-in-cheek contest: Readers submit their design ideas (based on sound alone), with prizes awarded for best, worst, and "most outrageous." Sadly, this is already taken.
While not as limited as, say, Codatronca's Batmobile, this version of Mercedes-Benz's 2009 SL63 AMG roadster isn't exactly going to be available to the masses, either. The company will only produce 200, each of which will feature a new white paint job (in a shade called "designo mango Kashmir") and the requisite 525 horses under the hood. The price is still TBD, but as a bonus purchase incentive, they're throwing in a limited-edition timepiece from Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen, just in case you were looking to kill two birds with one stone.
James Bond may be returning in the forthcoming novel Devil May Care, but his Aston Martin isn't. Instead, 007 will be tooling around in a custom Bentley R-type Continental convertible, as he did in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (Guess that wreck got to him, too.) To celebrate, Penguin Books commissioned Bentley to design a limited leather-bound edition of the book, complete with a matching pewter die-cast model. Salivating Bond fanatics can place orders at penguin007.com, but be warned: Hot Wheels prices these aren't. It will cost about $1,400 to buy the pleasure of making vroom-vroom noises with the tiny replica—around the price, we're guessing, of an evening's rental of a real one.
Bentley Devil May Care limited edition available May 28 at penguin007.com
On eBay today: the Batmobile used in the 1989 Keaton/Nicholson version of Batman. It's a sweet ride, to be sure, though it comes with a ho-hum 5.7-liter Chevy engine under the hood. (And who'd have thought the Dark Knight would drive an automatic?) It's expected to fetch at least 500k, but if you miss out, take heart: You can save a hundred grand by picking up that Batmobile-style TS Codatronca we mentioned yesterday.
[Autoblog]
Last week, BMW unveiled the M1 Homage, amid rumors that the carmaker is updating the late-seventies original for an all-new supercar. Then Fresh Tarmac added to the fervor by posting this picture of an M1 prototype, allegedly spied in Spain. Turns out it's just an amateur rendering (based on this pic), which is too bad—this version looked promising. We'll keep you posted.
[via Autoblog]
SpadaConcept's Turismo Sportivo Codatronca (pictured) piqued the auto world's interest a year ago when designs first hit the Internet and again late last month when the Italian studio announced that the car had actually gone into production. What's new? Its price. The car will sell for around $394,000—about what you'd expect for a vehicle that goes from 0 to 60 in under three seconds, tops out at 211 miles per hour, and takes its aesthetic cues from Corvette (and, judging by appearances, the Batmobile). Act quickly: The company's only manufacturing 20.
Offering industrial retail design (think poured-concrete floors and exposed beams), Tesla's first dealership opened in L.A. last night. The 10,000-square-foot space features the company's Roadster, a 100-percent-electric car that goes from 0 to 60 in under four seconds and gets about 221 miles of driving per charge. It also has the benefit of not looking like that other rechargeable vehicle—the golf cart.
Tesla flagship store, 11163 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, (310) 473-8337, teslamotors.com
If you want to match your lighting equipment to your Modenese sedan (and, hey, who doesn't?), Italian lighting designers Lumina have created a lamp (pictured) inspired by the grille of the Maserati Quattroporte. It even includes the brand's trident badge, but fear not: It's officially licensed.
Something tells us the same can't be said for this new pair of Nike Dunk-inspired sneaks that (finally!) detect if a live Wi-Fi signal is nearby.
Swiss automaker Weber Sportscars unveiled the "Faster One," a street-legal vehicle that can hit speeds over 248 mph (similar to another make we took for a spin). What else do you get for $1.5 million? All-wheel drive, for starters—not to mention 900 horses under the hood, an ultralight carbon chassis, and an aesthetic that appears to have been lifted directly out of Akira. The jury's out on whether you have to be a cartoon to drive it.
The New York Times has a solid investigative piece today on the cars congressional representatives lease on Uncle Sam's dime. (True to character, Charlie Rangel has a 17-foot Caddy DeVille he says is "like an airplane.") But what really, er, drives the point home is this chart, which compares the rides by make, fuel efficiency, and monthly cost. It also has us wondering: What's with the America-hater who leases a Nissan and a BMW?
We've already told you what we think of the Bugatti Veyron, but next year you'll be able to feel how 1,001 horsepower feels with the wind in your hair: Left Lane News reports the automaker is releasing an open-air version. The extra cost of removing that pesky roof? A mere $117,000.
And look out, Autoblog: Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters just started a blog, Welcome to the Fast Lane.
Smart's tiny, green-minded Fortwo is arguably the most anticipated automotive import of the year, and it's not hard to see why: It gets a ridiculous 40 mpg. Still, I felt a little silly squeezing my 6'2" frame behind the wheel for a test drive, but my legs stretched out to comfy cruising length once I got the seat back and the top down. Yes, the dorky eco-friendly machine is also a convertible.
The car itself sits low, but the seats are high—helpful when trying to see around a semi, and also in case said semi should come crashing into you. (Toward that end, it's also made from triple-reinforced steel, which sounds more reassuring on paper than when you're behind the wheel.) And make no mistake: It has some hop. While its 71-horsepower, three-cylinder engine is nothing next to, say, the Bugatti Veyron's, it felt super-responsive, picking up at the flick of an ankle. I'm told it can hit 90 on the highway, but the company wouldn't let me test it outside of Manhattan. That's probably for the better: The Fortwo was designed for city traffic, where it zips and dives like a city bike with a roof.
The biggest surprise? When I finally got to parallel park (a satisfying experience in and of itself), a couple of attractive, fashionable Chelsea women in high heels smiled and waved at me. Maybe size doesn't matter after all.
The hype's been irritating, but Grand Theft Auto IV, out today, lives up to it. Its 60-plus hours of game-play revolve around organized crime in the trashy but gorgeously rendered Liberty City—the nom de game of NYC. Once inside, you're inundated with media: TV, in-game Internet, radio (including DJ Karl Lagerfeld), even comedy clubs.
But, as with the other titles in the 11-year-old series, the real draw is the lawbreaking. As former Serb soldier Niko Bellic, you're charged with stealing and killing your way to the top, a satisfying experience that's enhanced by a bevy of new features. (One rather realistically simulates drunk-driving—who says gaming's bad for kids?) The game's claim on instant-classic stature is sealed by the sophisticated plot; kill someone and you might just regret it later. Think of it as the new morality.
Grand Theft Auto IV, $60, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, rockstargames.com/IV
Meet the Uno, a new motorized unicycle—just the thing for when your Segway's in the shop. That it actually has two wheels only deepens the mystery.
The Nissan GT-R (a.k.a. Godzilla) finally comes stateside this year, and (of course) Jay Leno has already managed to snag one. Below, a clip of the comic grilling the company's product planner, John Weiner, before taking the coupe for a test spin. (Also: Looks like Jay could use Style Guy Glenn O'Brien's advice on how to wear denim on denim.)
[Autoblog]
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the coolest BMW ever made (which we featured prominently in this story), BMW has just unveiled the M1 Homage, an aptly named...tribute to the Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed original. Unfortunately, it's just a concept, but the carmaker is rumored to be planning a new supercar (dubbed the M10). Whether that, too, will be an homage remains to be seen.
We'll say this about the holiest of all fake holidays: It sure does create a lot of inbox pollution. We've cut through the clutter to find a few developments that are actually worth a call-out—and you'll be happy to know none involve wearing hemp.
Oh, and please think twice before printing this blog post.
• Bamford & Sons have been going green for a while now, but today they've introduced a new line of organic tees (pictured) to help benefit the Lady Bamford Charitable Trust. They're available here.
• Already certified carbon neutral since last summer, watchmaker IWC just announced they'll be sponsoring David de Rothschild's upcoming Plastiki Expedition to the Eastern Garbage Patch, an "island" of waste in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
• While we're on the topic of the aforementioned Patch, allow us to recommend the latest episode of VBS' Garbage Island. Fascinating (by which we mean utterly depressing) stuff.
• Remember that T-shirt recycling program from Loomstate and Barneys we told you about? Well, they're having an official party tonight at the NYC store. Kate Nash is set to perform; as for getting in, you're on your own.
• While not technically pegged to Earth Day, this video of cyclists blowing by cars in L.A.'s largest parking lot (a.k.a. the 405 northbound) offers yet another reason to think twice about driving.
Daniel Craig has already admitted to destroying 40 bespoke Tom Ford suits during the filming of Quantum of Solace. And now an Aston Martin DBS is no more: A stuntman driving the car recently plunged into Lake Garda in northern Italy, an unplanned real-life stunt that left the driver unhurt and the car headed for the scrap heap. The obvious lesson: You can't take 007 anywhere.
[Autoblog]
Now available, with deep backstory: this 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II, up for auction on eBay with a starting bid of $1.1 million. The drop-top ride was commissioned by Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton—the Blair Waldorf of her day—for Alexis Mdivani, the Georgian prince and Hutton's first husband. Mdivani was killed in France while driving it shortly after their divorce; his passenger, Maude von Thyssen, Salvador Dali's lover, was injured but emerged from the wreck alive. The car was restored by the original designer and is currently in storage in North Carolina. If the vehicle's history and design aren't enough to entice, consider its odometer—after 75 years, it's only racked up 9,999 miles.
Late last year, BMW opened the Welt (as in "BMW World"), a new showroom-cum-museum in Munich. Designed by Viennese provocateur Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au, the €100 million behemoth is fronted by a vortex of entwined steel and glass called the Double Cone. The structure seems to literally suck visitors inside, and a new book about the building's creation is equally irresistible. BMW Welt: From Vision to Reality includes 256 pages of photos, which document the construction of the 1,000-room edifice from start to finish. The pictures are as gritty and raw as the building is clean and polished. Better yet, at $125, the book's a lot cheaper than the latest M3—or a trip to Munich.
You won't be reading the highlights of Beijing's auto show here, because most of the cars are, well, pretty dull. (Though if you can't resist, hit up: Autoblog China—and good luck with the translation.) In fact, most of the designs are from just one company: Geely, China's top automaker. (Guess that explains why no communist country has ever produced a cool car.) Of the 20 or so (!) new models the brand unveiled, its designers let loose exactly once, on the Geely Tiger GT coupe concept. It has an unmistakably (if unlikely) Italian spirit, tempered by an aggressive, even masklike grille. Of course, given it has just a 225-horsepower engine, this Tiger's got more bark than bite.
[Autoblog]
Score one for BMW in the eco-one-upmanship game: The company just started parading around a new version of its Hydrogen 7, a 7-series sedan with a V-12 that burns only liquid hydrogen. (The previous one was a bi-fuel model that slurped gasoline as well.) But here's the really trick part: The car's engine actually cleans the environment—the exhaust has lower amounts of non-methane organic gases (NMOGs) and carbon monoxide than regular air. Good news for the earth, but bad news for depressed Detroit auto execs: Should a car like this ever make it into production, their tried-and-true method of ending it all—closing the garage door with the motor running—will simply result in a breath of fresh air.
