2013 Audi A3 Three-Door Hatch Photos and Info: Trickle-Down Gadgetnomics

2013 Audi A3 Three-Door Hatch Photos and Info: Trickle-Down Gadgetnomics:

Perhaps the quintessential example of a premium compact, the Audi A3 has been completely redesigned for the 2013 model year. The car debuts at the 2012 Geneva auto show as a three-door hatchback, which we likely won’t get in the U.S. It does, however, provide a good preview of the sedan that will arrive here as a 2014 model. This third-generation car will compete directly with the all-new Mercedes-Benz A-class, the BMW 1-series, and the upcoming Volvo V40.

Keep Reading: 2013 Audi A3 three-Door Hatchback – Official Photos and Info

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World-famous 1972 Dodge Sportsman “MELVAN” Featuring Kurt Cobain Artwork for Sale on eBay

World-famous 1972 Dodge Sportsman “MELVAN” Featuring Kurt Cobain Artwork for Sale on eBay:

Long before the Ford E-series became the de facto transport for the punk nation, the venerable Dodge D-series/Sportsman (and, to a lesser extent, its Plymouth Voyager sibling) was the chariot of choice for transporting people, gear, and pompous arrogance cross-country in search of like-minded nonconformists hellbent on coloring outside the lines of society. Minor Threat, Negative Approach, the Misfits, and the Necros were but a few of the angry young groups to rely on Mopar power (the van used by Dead Kennedys had a camper-top conversion) for their initial forays into the alternate universe generally known as “Rock Band on Tour.”

But of all the derelict vans laid to waste by nascent hard-core, er, musicians, very few (Mike Watt’s million-mile E-350 a notable exception) can lay claim to genuine rock-star provenance. Here is an exception: Presenting the Melvan, an example of rolling art whose lineage is indelibly linked to not only to the Northwest’s most prolific purveyors of elegant bombast, the Melvins, but also Kurt Donald Cobain. You probably recognize the latter as the Nirvana front man whose hauntingly wounded yet melodic voice spoke to untold numbers of alienated youth and turned the music industry on its ear in the early 1990s.

Listed in the “Art > Art from Dealers & Resellers> Drawings” eBay category, it’s clear the seller, Ben Berg, realizes the value here is not in simple transportation but pedigree, validated in part by a “Kiss Mural on the (Van’s) side hand-drawn by Kurt Cobain using sharpie markers shoplifted from the Thriftway grocery store in Montesano, Washington. (Former employer of King Buzzo [of the Melvins]).” One of the first mentions of Cobain’s Kiss doodle appears in the Nirvana history, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

Two registrations are included with the van: one in the name of Roger Osborne, (Buzz of the Melvins); the second in the name of Matt Lukin, the original Melvins bass player who went on to form Mudhoney with the members of Green River who didn’t end up in Pearl Jam. Berg, a longtime Melvins/Nirvana fan, was gifted the van by Lukin’s mother as a surprise after receiving his driver’s license. Berg states that the odometer “shows 12,000 and some change,” and that he believes “it has been over more than once.” The van was last driven in 1998, and its plates expired in April 1994—how’s that for a coincidence?

As of this posting, the current high bid was $7300, although it’s been steadily climbing toward an unspecified reserve. It’s going to be very interesting to see how high this one goes.

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2013 SRT Viper Potentially Previewed by a Toy, Again [New York Auto Show]

2013 SRT Viper Potentially Previewed by a Toy, Again [New York Auto Show]:

A few weeks ago, the internet lit up with what was claimed to be the first image of the highly anticipated 2013 SRT Viper. There was one big caveat: That first glimpse of the new Viper came by way of a blurry rendering of a future Hot Wheels car. Hardly concrete stuff. Now, the first (not blurry) photos of the actual toy Viper have surfaced.

We’re as excited to see the new Viper as anyone, but we’re not quite ready to consider the sports car’s final look “leaked.” As we said when we covered the Hot Wheels rendering: The photo you see above is of a tiny-scale toy car, not an exact replica of the 2013 Viper. It appears similar to what we expect the Viper to look like, but we won’t know for sure until we see the full-scale car at the New York auto show in April. Or pictures of the real thing leak. Whichever comes first.

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The Continental: Yes to an Audi Rally Icon, No Thanks to a Dumb Number, Maybe to Tri-Turbos at Porsche

The Continental: Yes to an Audi Rally Icon, No Thanks to a Dumb Number, Maybe to Tri-Turbos at Porsche:

Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

There are great moments in the life of a motor journalist. For me, one of the best was driving a historic Sport Quattro that Audi brought along to the launch of the A1 Quattro in Sweden. Its short wheelbase and long overhangs look rather awkward, and in fact cutting the wheelbase by 12 inches was a half-baked attempt to counter the mid-engined, all-wheel-drive rally cars like the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 and the Lancia Delta S4 that began to appear as a response to the original Audi Quattro.

In roadgoing trim—Audi built a little over 200 street cars for homologation purposes—the Sport Quattro is powered by a 306-hp variation of its legendary 2.1-liter inline-five. The car feels ultra-fast in a straight line, and the second wind above 3500 rpm—when the turbo hits full boost—would be impressive even in a modern sports car. But in corners, this car’s evil nature breaks through. The Sport Quattro has a tendency to understeer, but load changes will make the rear step out in an instant. It’s not a friendly car to drive quickly, and rally drivers like Walter Röhrl and Stig Blomqvist unequivocally state that Audi would have been better off refining the Rallye Quattro with the regular wheelbase. Nevertheless, the Sport Quattro, with its kevlar and fiberglass body, is an icon. It was an extraordinary experience to push it to the limits.

Audi claims the A1 Quattro is inspired by the Sport Quattro, and we agree it looks similarly wild, although graced with more digestible proportions. There is one detail I loathed: the plaque that says “1 of 333″ instead of disclosing the car’s actual production number. Obviously Audi wants to spare its sales and distribution channels having to deal with touchy customers throwing a fit when they don’t get their desired number. AMG started the annoying uniformity with its special editions years ago. I’d take any individual number over “one of the collective.”

A few kilometers south of Ingolstadt, BMW is launching its M Performance line with derivatives of the 5-series, the X5, and the X6. In the M550d xDrive and its SUV sister models, BMW’s 3.0-liter straight-six diesel is boosted by a Borg Warner–supplied tri-turbo unit: the package includes two small VTG high-pressure turbos and one large low-pressure turbo. The result is 376 hp from 4000 to 4400 rpm and 546 lb-ft of torque from 2000 3000 rpm. Thus equipped, the portly 5-series reaches 62 mph in a claimed 4.7 seconds and tops out at a governed 155 mph.

The M Performance line is targeting Audi’s S models, and keeps a repectful distance to the true M cars. The diesels won’t come to the U.S., but we will see gasoline-powered M Performance cars in the future. The Z4 sDrive 35is would probably be an M Performance model now, and a similar derivative of the 3-series is likely. Moreover, a derivative of the 7-series would finally provide BMW with a true S -lass AMG and Audi S8 fighter.

While BMW is launching tri-turbos in the diesel-powered M Performance cars, I hear that Porsche is getting a tri-turbo ready for an upcoming gasoline engine. Meanwhile, an Ingolstadt engineer probably exaggerated only slightly when he joked that the complexity makes hybridization look like a low-cost proposition.

Last week, I drove the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack near Kitzbühel, Austria. It’s a crossover based on the front- and all-wheel-drive European Passat station wagon, but the changes to the car go slightly beyond the usual cosmetics. It sits higher, and there is an “Off Road” button that helps you keep any speed between 1.2 and 19 mph when going downhill—if traction permits. When stepping off uphill, simply mash the gas pedal; the computer will select ideal revs. The electronic limited-slip function and the dual-clutch transmission are manipulated for better off-road performance as well. Lacking a low-range transfer case, the Passat Alltrack won’t get as far as a true off-roader, but it will hold its ground against most modern SUVs. I liked it.

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LeMons Southern Discomfort Day One: rbankracing.com Saab 9-3 Leads, Silver Errors 190E 2.3-16 in Second

LeMons Southern Discomfort Day One: rbankracing.com Saab 9-3 Leads, Silver Errors 190E 2.3-16 in Second:

With the Midwest tornadoes putting the concept of “bad weather” into perspective, the Southern Discomfort LeMons racers took a rainy green flag at Carolina Motorsports Park with nary a complaint. The downpours, however, did encourage a healthy amount of spinnin,’ slidin,’ and drivin’ full speed into ta’dirt in your Monte Carlo. Of course, this event marked the first time the LeMons has run the longer, trickier, and much faster full-length CMP configuration. With the soggy weather and higher-speed layout, even the best-handling cars struggled to keep all the wheels pointing the right way. (Monte Carlos didn’t stand a chance.)

As is often the case, however, such conditions don’t seem to affect the frontrunners nearly as much as the lower ranks–by the time the checkered flag fell on Saturday’s session, the top spots were filled with familiar faces.

With once-proud Saab quickly slipping into oblivion, the race-leading 9-3 sedan of rbankracing.com is providing a pinpoint of light for the vegetative automaker. Or it’s possible that this Saab-centric team’s consistently excellent LeMons performances pushed the Swedish brand off the cliff more quickly. In any case, the 9-3′s turbocharged speed and clean-driving pilots will be difficult to beat on Sunday.

The Ziegel Scheißhaus Racing squad—competing this time under the Silver Errors banner—managed to score a genuine Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 for LeMons money. Before you cry foul, remember this: Any Gordon Gekko wannabe worth his Rolex Submariner would have dumped his 2.3-16 at the first signs of trouble—which likely happened for every example right around the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall. A ragtag bunch of careless owners likely followed, culminating in a lien sale from a 17-year-old owner who got sent to juvie after going DTM down Maple Street. That’s just one possibility, of course, but one thing is clear: Not all 2.3-16s are classics. The ZSR LeMons entry certainly isn’t a museum piece, but it’s DTM impression is halfway decent: Second place overall is a good result regardless of pedigree.

Holding down the third spot is one of the most successful LeMons teams of all time, Hong Norrth. In fact, the team’s trusty Mazda MX3 has won the last five races it’s entered, so it’s way too early to count them out.

NSF Racing is rolling proof that LeMons is highly unpredictable. After this very blog predicted an early demise for the team’s factory-turbo Cordia, this example of a seldom-seen Mitsubishi soldiered (slowly) through day one with no terminal issues. Through the first half of the day, NSF held a lead over a handful of other teams with which they had friendly pre-race wagers. The cars in on the bet? The Cordia, a Ford LTD, a ’67 Galaxie, and the first-ever LeMons AMC Pacer.

But after spending the second half of day one battling a self-lowering redline, the Cordia crew finally had to break out the wrenches. The culprit—which we’ll charitably call “fuel contamination”—was eventually identified and remedied. The Cordia rejoined the track as the session was near its end, promptly setting NSF Racing’s (still glacially slow) fastest lap of the race.

With the Cordia taking a short vacation on pit road, the hulking Ford LTD of the LeMons-veteran Tunachuckers team surged ahead in the aforementioned unofficial race-within-a race. With the big Ford clicking off consistently quicker lap times than the Cordia, the Mitsubishi team will need an LTD problem on Sunday to retake the lead. Just by taking a quick glance at this rolling oil derrick, we’d say a problem is pretty likely.

Check back tomorrow for the race winners, and, as always, LeMons news, updates, race schedules, and more are available here.

LeMons Hong Norrth Mazda MX3

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Volkswagen Cross Coupé Concept Is Back, Goes Diesel Hybrid

Volkswagen Cross Coupé Concept Is Back, Goes Diesel Hybrid:

When Volkswagen’s Cross Coupé Concept debuted in Tokyo last December, our curiosity was piqued by a theoretical powertrain that incorporated a four-cylinder gasoline engine and two electric motors. Now, just a few months later, the Cross Coupé takes the stage again, this time in Geneva. Although the exterior hasn’t changed, the innards have. VW was kind enough to paint it red so we could tell the difference.

Keep Reading: Volkswagen Cross Coupé TDI Hybrid Concept – Auto Shows

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RSMP Daily Image #164

RSMP Daily Image #164:

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RSMP Daily Image #163

RSMP Daily Image #163:

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Lightroom for Photographers

Lightroom for Photographers:

I realize every photographer has their own, unique workflow and way of accomplishing tasks when it comes time to wrangle images on the ‘ol computer, but i’m sure I am not alone when I say that it’s almost hard to remember what that workflow was like before Adobe came out with Lightroom. Personally, I admit to being skeptical and nervous about embracing it when it first stepped on the scene. Now, I actually get excited to sit down at my computer to simply look through images or to perform semi-extensive edits to a file or group of files. Lightroom simply makes working with your images enjoyable. In case you missed it earlier in the week, Forest Chaput de Saintonge posted a really good overview of his digital imaging workflow. You can read it here.

RMSP offers a workshop that is ideal for anyone interested in harnessing the full capabilities that Lightroom has to offer. Aptly titled, our Lightroom for Photographers workshops are led by longtime instructor and Adobe Certified Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom Expert David Marx, and Forest Chaput de Saintonge, who also recently became an Adobe Certified Expert. Offered six times in 2012, this four-day course teaches you to organize your images and develop a structured workflow from import to enhancement to final export. Along the way you’ll learn to label, rate, keyword, sort and browse your images effortlessly.

Consider joining David or Forest for an insightful Lightroom experience in one of these cities in 2012:

Sacramento, California – April 26-29 (7 seats available as of 2-29)

Minneapolis, Minnesota – May 17-20 (3 seats available as of 2-29)

Billings, Montana – June 21-24 (10 seats available as of 2-29)

Seattle, Washington – July 26-29 (11 seats available as of 2-29)

Overland Park, Kansas – August 16-19 (15 seats available as of 2-29)

Missoula, Montana – August 23-26 (13 seats available as of 2-29)

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Birmingham Assignment Result … and a slight change.

Birmingham Assignment Result … and a slight change.:

Let’s hear it for Birmingham Weekend participant Ron Clemmons for turning in his “homework” from the assignment given at the weekend. Ron, you definitely get an A+ … not just for contributing … but for sharing such a beautiful image with our blog readers. Love the shallow depth of field, the composition and the pop of color. Nice job Ron! (continue reading below the photo)

© Ron Clemmons

And now I need to call your attention to the:

GREAT PHOTO WEEKENDS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT SWITCH-A-ROO OF 2012!

I am changing the “rules” a bit for these assignments given at our Photo Weekends events. Since the goal of these assignments were to highlight images from our participants, I think it makes sense to cut the strings on the due date. It’s come to my attention that submitting images by Thursday following a weekend is too soon.

So, here’s the deal. If you have taken a Photo Weekend with us in 2012 and want to share a few images, GO FOR IT! Submit images inspired by a course you took at the Photo Weekend event, identify which Photo Weekend you attended, and I will get them posted here on the ‘ol blog.

After all, photographs are meant to be shared and seen!!!

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