World Concept Cars

The trickle of photos on the Toyota FT-86 Concept continues as the Japanese firm's European Design and Development (ED2) center in Nice, France, which is responsible for the coupe's styling, released a fresh batch of pictures and a short video of the rear-wheel drive sports car.

In a couple of shots, Toyota remembers its sporty past depicting the FT-86 alongside the Corolla AE86, Celica and Supra coupes. The updated gallery also includes some of the original sketches from the ED2 center.

During the company's press conference at the Geneva Show earlier this month, Andrea Formica, Senior Vice-President of Toyota Motor Europe, noted that the FT-86 would reach showrooms in early 2012.

While Toyota is holding back on most of the details on the production model, it is believed that at launch, the FT-86 (or whatever name the company chooses for the car) will be offered with a Subaru-derived 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine.

Source: Carscoop

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Lexus feels the need to release a sub-model of its LFA. As if the car needs any more attention drummed up; enough people are drooling over this piece of engineering arrogance as it is.

Officially referenced as the SPECIAL EDITION (and not Nurburgring Edition) in the press release , it'll be available in Black, Matte Black, "Whitest White", or Orange.

The LFA SE will come with canards and a fixed wing in CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer); you know, to make it more unique than the other $375,000 Lexus down the street. Also, they'll apparently help at the track aerodynamically.

Power is said to get a boost from 560 to 570 horsepower (ECU work, most likely), and the suspension is "high-power-only", whatever that means. The Special Edition's SWs (special wheels) will be shod in grippy rubber (Haiguripputaiya), which should help get the power to the ground through the re-calibrated transmission.

Whereas a regular LFA's shift speed on a track day would be around 0.2 seconds, an SE owner's rack day will get done just a hair quicker at 0.15 seconds.

There's no word yet on pricing...this is the point where clever people would usually put "If you have to ask...", but I'm not clever, I'm realistic. You just can't afford it. That, or you don't live in the right area with the right roads.

Source: Carscoop

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The Cadillac Converj is still just a concept. Even though I'm far from the only motor journalist to have gushed over the star of the North American International Auto Show, General Motors' brass hasn't given a production version the green light. To refresh your memory, the Converj is a sexy 2+2 coupe riding on a version of the Chevrolet Volt's Voltec platform, powered by a 16 kW set of lithium-ion batteries with a 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine for recharging purposes only. We'll have more details in an upcoming issue of Motor Trend magazine and of course here at MT.com.

One obvious issue regarding its green light: the Converj is a two-door coupe. My kind of car. And the kind of car designers love to draw.

Designers, working for GM as well as its competitors, haven't drawn many coupes in recent years because two-door models are tough to sell. Auto marketing executives consider them too "fashionable": they sell well in their first year of production, then drop off too quickly for the remaining three to five years of their lifecycle.

So GM management is considering a four-door version of the Converj concept for production, which wouldn't be earlier than about 2013, in order to make a more solid business case for the car. Vice chairman Bob Lutz says a production Converj would be as different from the concept model as the production Chevy Camaro is to its concept -- there aren't many differences.

The Converj sedan's rear doors would probably have hidden door handles, and the rakish roofline would remain intact, creating a "four-door coupe" like the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, Audi A7 (Sportback concept) and others.

GM will show these options to clinics in order to help make a decision on the car. So, we thought, why not conduct a clinic of our own? Which do you prefer? Cadillac Converj two-door coupe, or four-door? More importantly, which one would you buy?

Tell us what you think and we may include your comments in that upcoming issue of Motor Trend.

Source: Motortrend.com

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Italdesign Giugiaro's latest design study is a three-car plug-in collection debuting under the name EMAS, which stands for Eco Mobility Advanced Solutions (Emas also means "gold" in Malay). Built in collaboration with Proton and Lotus Engineering, their goal is to showcase variable-design mini-sized cars that provide the interior space of mid-sizers.

For reference, the silver 5-door is the Emas Comfort, the orange one is the Emas Country, and the white 3-door is the Emas3 City.

The shared platform was designed in-house by Italdesign Giugiaro, and with its hybrid system's layout the seating position the Emas family retains a crossover-ish ride height. Thanks to their nifty packaging, interior space is at a maximum.

The Comfort can carry 320 liters and features 4 "business class" seats inside. The Country, an "urban SUV", can seat five and can carry from 390 liters (seats up) to 780 liters seats down.

The Emas3 City's seating gets switched around due to the shortened wheelbase and is now called 3+1 Plus, because "the passenger seated behind the driver has less leg-room but there is still enough space even for an adult."

Power for all three comes from a 45 kW (75kW peak power) electric motor that is recharged by a 1.2 liter 3-cylinder engine. The hybrid plug-in drive system has been developed entirely by Lotus.

0-100km/h (62mph) surges by in 14 seconds, top speed is a hairy 170 km/h or 105 mph, and the electric range is 50 km or 31 miles. Currently the City's numbers are "being assessed", but for stylish EREV city cars there's no denying the stated numbers are good. Small, Giuguaro-designed economobiles? The Japanese need to get on this while it's hot.

Source: Carscoop

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The more we see of the Bugatti 16C Galibier, the higher the chances that the VW Group will green light the super saloon for production - that is, if the Germans haven't signed it off already.

In this new batch of photos that were released after a special media presentation at the Volkswagen Group Evening on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show, Bugatti included pictures of the 16C Galibier in a black-only finish.

As a reminder, the almost production ready 16C Galibier gets an 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine lifted from the Veyron supercar. Changes include the replacement of the Veyron's four turbochargers with two-stage supercharging and flex-fuel capability. The 16C Galibier also features four-wheel drive, specially developed ceramic brakes and a new suspension design.

Source: Carscoop

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If anyone thought Ford was going to simply kill off its Crown Victoria and walk away from the position it has held for decades as the primary supplier of cop cars, you had better look in your rear view, because the 2012 Ford Taurus Police Interceptor is coming up fast.

Without a doubt, Ford's new Interceptor is a clean break from the decades-old body-on-frame, V-8-powered, rear-wheel-drive Crown Vic formula. Although Ford was once rumored to be modifying its rear-drive Australian Falcon platform for police use, Ford instead went to its American-built Taurus sedan for the new car.

As is the case with the consumer model, police departments will have their choice of two different powertrains in the Police Interceptor. The 265 hp, normally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 is standard, and sends its power to the front wheels only. Those looking for a veritable pursuit special will likely opt for the other driveline, which is ripped straight from the Taurus SHO. Ford's EcoBoost twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 provides "at least" 365 hp, which is channeled to all four wheels. While power looks to be on par with a standard Taurus, Ford engineers did upgrade the Police Interceptor's brakes -- something we'd love to see transition to the SHO.

Like the Crown Vic, the Taurus Police Interceptor has been designed to pass 75-mph rear-end crash testing, and a heavy-duty alternator and an enlarged radiator have been added. In addition, the car has also undergone certification testing designed by the Michigan State Police and the L.A. County Sheriff's Departments to emulate the rigorous duty police officers will no doubt put the car through.

Source: Motortrend.com

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In what could go down in history as the shortest automotive stillbirth, the right-hand drive version of the Chevrolet Camaro has been canned just six weeks after it got the go-ahead. This version of the Camaro was supposed to be exported the UK, Japan and Australia (where it was largely developed), but has been pushed down the priority list as General Motors focuses on hybrid and electric cars.

At the 2010 Detroit auto show, GM's vice chairman, product development, Bob Lutz, told a room of international media, including a group from Australia: "I think you can pretty much count on a right-hand drive Camaro. The Camaro at some point will be factory right-hand drive...built in the plant in Canada and shipped to right-hand drive markets from Canada."

But at the Geneva motor show last week, when asked by an Australian journalist how the right-hand-drive Camaro was tracking, Lutz said: "Not good. It's been pushed back, perhaps indefinitely." Lutz confirmed a right-hand drive Camaro was not that high on GM's priority list.

"No matter which car company you work for, there's never enough engineering money, talent and capital to do everything you want to do," said Lutz. "So when we looked at the hybrids that we have to do, and the plug-ins that we have to do, we just had to priority rank it and I couldn't argue with the priorities."

Weak projected sales numbers from the key right-hand drive countries were the problem, Lutz said. "Unfortunately all of the markets came in with relatively low volume estimates. "The UK was low, and...frankly I think Australia could have stepped up to the plate with some more. But when we finally looked at it there weren't enough units to justify after all what is a fairly large investment.

"I am always personally sad when we create an exciting car and there's demand for it in an interesting country like Australia, and we can't afford it. It seems particularly ironic since all of the chassis development and the engineering was done there.

"If there is a country in the world that deserves to have the Camaro, it's Australia."

The Camaro may still make it to the UK and Japan in limited numbers because left-hand drive cars are allowed to be driven on public roads in those countries, but Australians who want a Camaro can only buy one through private importers who convert the cars locally to right-hand drive and sell them for as much as $140,000.

Source: Motortrend.com

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This is the all-new Kia Magentis, revealed by the Korean company ahead of the official launch on 1 April at the 2010 New York motor show.

The Kia Magentis looks pretty good!

It does indeed. Saloons below the likes of the Aston Martin Rapide are rarely beautiful, and although we're not saying the Magentis is a stunner, it is definitely a decent step forward for Kia. 'It’s a car that people will simply not expect from Kia – and that’s exactly what we set out to achieve,' says Kia's desgin boss Peter Schreyer.

Kia is keen to highlight the car’s European roots - the exterior was designed in Frankfurt whilst the interior was drawn up in California. 'For this car we started with a clean sheet and worked to achieve an exterior design with a European feeling and stance,' says chief designer of Kia Europe Gregory Guillaume.

And that's all Kia has to say about the new Magentis so far - there are no interior pictures or technical details of the Mondeo-challenger yet.

When will the Magentis go on sale?

Kia says the new car will launch in the UK in 2011, and the usual Kia perks like low pricing and a hefty warranty will sweeten the deal.

Source: Carmagazine.co.uk

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The EYE is a conceptual study by Italy's IED Turin in collaboration with Tesla Motors for a sporty C-segment hatchback model with an all-electric drivetrain. Designed with European and Asian consumers in mind, the EYE will have its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show on March 2.

The futuristic looking concept is the product of the work of eleven Master Course students at the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED), coordinated by Luca Borgogno, senior designer with Pininfarina and by Andrea Militello, Senior FIAT designer.

Measuring 4,250 mm in length, 1,800 mm in width, 1,360 mm in height and with a wheel base of 2,650 mm, the 2+2 seater hatchback model is similar in size to a VW Golf. More details about the car will be released at the official presentation in Geneva, but for now, hit the jump to watch a video of the EYE.

Source: Carscoop

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