Ram Announces Natural-Gas-Powered 2500 HD Pickup

Ram Announces Natural-Gas-Powered 2500 HD Pickup:

Ram Truck has announced a factory-built Ram 2500 Heavy Duty pickup that will run on both compressed natural gas (CNG) and gasoline. (It’s natural-gas day here at Car and Driver!) The CNG-burning Ram will only be available as a Crew Cab 4×4 in two trim levels: ST or SLT. Pricing starts at $47,500, but the truck will be limited to fleet customers. If that’s you—or you have an addiction to vehicles you can’t buy—read on for more details.
The 2500 HD CNG will be powered by a specially modified 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 with redesigned cylinder heads, valves, and valve seats. CNG-specific fuel rails and injectors will be added in addition to the standard set, as well as a new set of spark plugs to improve combustion and durability. A new powertrain control module makes sure that the engine operates seamlessly regardless of the fuel source.
The truck features two fuel tanks: The CNG vessel holds the gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) of 18.2 gallons, while the gas tank will store eight gallons of backup fuel used only during startup and when the CNG tank is depleted. The CNG range is estimated at 255 miles but the gasoline tank bumps total roaming ability to 367 miles. The truck will compete with 2013 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 HD models that will also be offered with a natural-gas option.



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Will the Lotus Evora GTE Come to the U.S.? Maybe, But There Are a Few Hurdles

Will the Lotus Evora GTE Come to the U.S.? Maybe, But There Are a Few Hurdles:

After seeing the bare-carbon-fiber, special-edition Lotus F1 Team Evora GTE in person at the Geneva auto show, we wanted to know whether that car or the less-special but still-limited-edition GTE on which it’s based could come to the U.S. So we asked Lotus.
After Lotus unveiled the Evora GTE Road Car concept at last year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the company decided to produce 25 units with the intention of selling them in China. After Chinese customers ordered nearly five times that amount, the company began reevaluating the car’s prospects for other countries, including Europe and North America. Cool, right? Well, yes, but it turns out that there are a few hurdles to overcome before the car could be sold here.
We’re told work has begun to certify the GTE for sale in Europe; if its efforts are successful, it’s at this point that Lotus could begin the process to bring the car to North America. The biggest roadblock to our market involves the Evora’s 444-hp, supercharged V-6 engine, which would need to be certified with the EPA. (Because no chassis hard points differ from the Evora and Evora S sold here—the seats are similar, too—Lotus doesn’t expect it will need to crash-test the GTEs as part of its certification efforts.) But getting the engine to pass federal emissions requirements while also delivering the expected output would be a challenge, we’re told, and the cost to do so becomes critical considering that the sales volume would be extremely small. The numbers aren’t final, but only 100 or so cars would be slated for Europe and perhaps 30 at the most would be available in the U.S.; Lotus indicates that those totals would include both regular and F1 GTEs, although no breakdown was given.
As you’d expect, the Evora GTE wouldn’t be cheap, coming in somewhere between $160,000 and $200,000 here in the U.S. The company indicates that these highly theoretical prices could change depending on the actual certification costs and how much carbon fiber ultimately is utilized in a North American version of the GTE. (The existing cars use quite a bit of the expensive, lightweight material.) So while a final decision on whether to bring the awesome GTE to the U.S. has not been made, Lotus is at least working on getting the car to someone outside of China.


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Carbon Motors Denied Government Loan for Building Its E7 Police Car

Carbon Motors Denied Government Loan for Building Its E7 Police Car:

Carbon Motors, the company working on a very cool purpose-built police car, has been denied its request for $310 million in Department of Energy loans. Like Fisker Automotive, Carbon had applied under the DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, which was initiated under President George W. Bush.
When the DOE canceled Fisker’s loans, company boss Henrik Fisker said his firm was being used as a “political football” in an election year. That Carbon’s loan application was denied a week later just underscores the point. General Motors and Chrysler, as well as Aptera and several other startups, have also had their loan applications denied since a scandal broke with a DOE-funding solar energy company called Solyndra. Many members of Congress are eager to position themselves as fiscally responsible, and saying they are reducing the government’s expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars may impress their constituents.
We believe that Carbon Motors now is seeking private sources of funding so that it can proceed with plans to build the E7 police car. The company is prohibited by law from commenting on its fundraising efforts, but a statement posted on its web site said “Carbon Motors will continue the fight.”
This writer feels that these politicians are making an enormous mistake. Carbon and Fisker both presented solid business plans to produce new, fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S. A major percentage of research and development in many high-tech fields depends on government assistance—which, unlike these loans, often come in the form of grants—and the alternative-propulsion auto industry should be seen the same way. Carbon Motors makes a particularly compelling case, since the car it is planning to build will be sold exclusively to publicly funded police departments. If the E7 police car delivers on Carbon’s promises that it will be safer for police, have lower running costs, and last longer than converted passenger cars, it would result in bigger financial savings for taxpayers down the road.

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Lambo Releases Pseudo “Making of” Video Clip for the Aventador Jota

Lambo Releases Pseudo “Making of” Video Clip for the Aventador Jota:

Supercars are the quickest and often the most beautiful automotive creations on earth, which is why we love them so much. Whether such beasts are being built in some quantity or limited to just one, hyper-rare specimen, to reach the outer limits of what four-wheel transport is capable of requires careful, diligent engineering.
Wouldn’t you like to know about the hard work that went into creating, say, the one-off Lamborghini Aventador Jota? Of course you would. This Lambo-produced video doesn’t deliver much in the way of deep insight, however, favoring beauty shots of CAD rendering, stitching, wind-tunnel testing, etc., during the creation of the one-of-a-kind speedster. Still, anything involving the striking Jota is peachy by us, so check the clip below.


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Audi Celebrates the R8′s Fifth Birthday, Previews Refreshed Model with Video

Audi Celebrates the R8′s Fifth Birthday, Previews Refreshed Model with Video:

After five years on the market, the Audi R8 still looks pretty good. Every model from the original 4.2-liter V-8 coupe to the 5.2-liter V-10 Spyder has been stunning. And let’s not forget the R8 GT.
In honor of the car’s fifth anniversary, Audi put together a video that celebrates the many R8 derivatives that have popped up over the years and offers a glimpse of the face-lifted model, which will appear in 2012 as a 2013 model. It doesn’t look like much has changed, but why mess with a good thing? We’re expecting a new front-end treatment that borrows from the RS5 coupe, as well as new lighting elements for the front and rear ends. The updated R8 is expected to ditch the single-clutch R tronic transmission with a new S tronic dual-clutch automatic. It should debut by the Paris auto show in the fall, if not sooner.


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Rolls-Royce CEO: Electric 102EX is Dead, No SUV, Ghost Variations Likely Coming Soon

Rolls-Royce CEO: Electric 102EX is Dead, No SUV, Ghost Variations Likely Coming Soon:

We sat down recently with Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös, and the biggest news is this: The all-electric Rolls-Royce 102EX concept, which debuted at last year’s Geneva auto show, won’t reach production. The Phantom-based 102EX was built as a sort of market-research project, and more than 500 potential customers were given the chance to test it. “The results were ambivalent,” the CEO now admits. Its acceleration and utter silence were highly praised, but “on the other hand, the charging times are not acceptable, and the range is not acceptable,” says Müller-Ötvös. What about other alternative powertrains? “In the long run, I could imagine an alternative powertrain, but that technology would be different.” He explains that a plug-in hybrid could work as a solution that combines “the advantages of both worlds.”

In the nearer term, Müller-Ötvös aims to make the Ghost line incrementally more dynamic: “A Rolls-Royce can certainly not be sporty in the sense of an overly firm suspension, but it can certainly be more dynamic than it was in the past. The Ghost is definitely a driver’s car, with an 80 percent conquest rate. Those customers use their car every day.” When asked about sportier variations of the Ghost, Müller-Ötvös hints at the obvious coupe and convertible, as we’ve already seen with the Phantom Coupé and Drophead Coupé.
But there’s a limit: “You cannot change a brand overnight and build a true sports car, low and Ferrari-like. We wouldn’t do that.” And Müller-Ötvös also rules out adding an SUV, as Bentley intends to do: “Rolls-Royce stands for the best sedans in the world, magnificent coupes and convertibles, and we really would like to retain this identity. I have a difficult time imagining an SUV for our brand.” Moreover, he strictly dismisses the option of launching a car positioned below the Ghost.
Müller-Ötvös, however, would love to offer coachbuilding services and one-off derivatives, but wistfully says that “the hurdles to homologate such cars are gigantic. It is not a financially worthwhile business.” He also says that he welcomes more competition: “I believe this segment is strongly driven by supply. I don’t have a problem with more competition and new brands. I wonder how credible their heritage would be. But that is for [those brands] to answer.”


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Bentley May Rethink SUV Design After Negative Reactions to EXP 9 F Concept

Bentley May Rethink SUV Design After Negative Reactions to EXP 9 F Concept:

There are already rumors that Bentley is redesigning its future SUV, which was shown in prototype form as the EXP 9 F last week at the Geneva auto show.
Officially, EXP 9 F is a concept car, exhibited to get a reaction from the media and Bentley’s wealthy customers. The VW-owned British luxury-car company realized that there is, among traditionalists, resistance to the idea of a Bentley SUV, but it didn’t expect disapproval of the concept’s styling.
Media reaction was generally negative. “It looks like a van with a Mulsanne front,” said one seasoned observer. Rival SUV manufacturers smiled in satisfaction.
Franz-Josef Paefgen, who retired last year as chairman of Bentley (and was known to not favor it building an SUV), restricted his comments to “they have some more work to do.”
An executive from Rolls-Royce was one of the few to praise the EXP 9 F and said that he was sure that Bentley would have no trouble selling the planned 3500 annually, starting in 2015.

Work on a possible Bentley SUV accelerated when Wolfgang Dürheimer arrived from Porsche to take over as CEO. Dürheimer had overseen the development and introduction of the Cayenne, which became Porsche’s bestseller. His argument for a Bentley SUV was the same as it was at Porsche: Most owners of the existing models already had an SUV in their garage, so why shouldn’t that also be a Porsche—or a Bentley?
The styling of the EXP 9 F has the hallmark of Bentley design chief Dirk van Braeckel and is more closely associated with the exclusive Mulsanne sedan than the (slightly) less expensive Continental range. The industry had expected a Bentley SUV to have the more contemporary look of the Continentals with the high stance of a Land Rover Range Rover, the nearest current equivalent.
Whatever changes are made to its looks (and there is time to rethink the design), the as-yet-unnamed SUV will bring another shock to the traditionalists: Bentley’s first diesel engine.
The EXP 9 F concept has the latest version of the twin-turbocharged 6.o-liter W-12 engine, but the production model will offer a range of engines including the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 from the new Continental and a diesel derived from the Volkswagen Group’s TDI V-8. Again, Dürheimer has seen this before: “Porsche people didn’t like diesels, but we introduced one and it saved the Cayenne in the economic crisis.”
While there’s no knocking the business case—Bentley will sell as many SUVs as it cares to build, whatever it ends up looking like—we do hope the exterior styling gets some help.


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2013 Dodge Charger NASCAR Sprint Cup Car Unveiled

2013 Dodge Charger NASCAR Sprint Cup Car Unveiled:

With the Charger’s unveiling at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday morning, Dodge became the third of the four NASCAR Sprint Cup manufacturers to reveal its 2013 Cup car. The new car’s body shares far more with the roadgoing Charger that before; it’s part of bringing back the “brand identity” that both NASCAR and its involved manufacturers lost as the cars became increasingly identical in the interest of safety and racing parity.
Ford unveiled the 2013 Fusion Cup car at the NASCAR Media Tour at Charlotte Motor Speedway in January, then Toyota briefly showed an oddly disguised—with zebra-stripe camo—2013 Camry race car at the Daytona International Speedway just prior to the wild Daytona 500.
Two major questions remain. First, when will we see the 2013 Chevrolet Cup car? The program has reportedly suffered some delays, and a reveal date has not been announced. The nameplate is likewise unknown—all we can say is that it’s likely to be an SS version of either the 2013 Malibu or the redesigned 2014 Impala.

The second question: Who is going to race this new Dodge car next year? The central Dodge team, Penske Racing, has already announced that it will move to Ford next year, which puts Dodge in an uncomfortable position for several reasons— it needs to hunt for a new (and contending) team to lead the charge for 2013, and it now has to absorb future development for the 2013 Charger in-house, as Penske was doing the lion’s share of the work. Both Dodge and Penske insist that they will pull out all stops to win races in 2012, but you have to wonder if that truly will be the case, especially as the season nears its end. (Penske also is jumping from Honda to Chevrolet for the 2012 IndyCar season, indicative of the fact that Penske has probably brand-hopped as much or more than any major racing team.)

None of this reflects on the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Dodge Charger, which brings a genuinely compelling, familiar look to the brand’s Cup entries, much as the move last year to the Challenger did for the NASCAR Nationwide series cars. Dodge is, after all, the only NASCAR manufacturer to base its racer on a rear-drive vehicle with an optional V-8, which immediately puts its entries substantially closer to what folks drive on the street than those from Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet.




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2013 Porsche Boxster S First Drive: More Power and More Ability

2013 Porsche Boxster S First Drive: More Power and More Ability:

The Porsche Boxster really didn’t need a wholesale redesign. Since its introduction in 1997, Porsche tweaked, fiddled with, and upgraded the roadster nearly every year, keeping it feeling modern and fully competitive. Even in the outgoing generation’s final two model years, it remained the benchmark for its class, winning our Best-Handling-Cars Under $100K competition and taking home another couple of 10Best trophies. Despite the outgoing car’s inarguable excellence, the 2013 Boxster rides on a new platform.
Keep Reading: 2013 Porsche Boxster S – First Drive Review


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2013 Ford F-Series Super Duty Adds Platinum Model, MyFord Touch

2013 Ford F-Series Super Duty Adds Platinum Model, MyFord Touch:

For 2013, Ford will bestow Platinum status upon its Super Duty crew-cab lineup. The trim level, which will sit at the top of the range, was previously available only on F-150 pickups. Out of concern that the Super Duty King Ranch didn’t offer plush enough surroundings for the discriminating workingman, Ford has stirred in a bevy of convenience, styling, and luxury tweaks, as well as MyFord Touch, which also will be available on other Super Duty models.
In the appearance column, the Platinum scores its own satin-chrome grille with mesh inserts and an upsized Ford logo, shiny letters spelling out “Platinum” tacked onto the bed sides, a satin-chrome appliqué on the tailgate, and a chrome exhaust tip. The rest of the truck gets a monochrome effect, with painted bumpers. Twenty-inch polished aluminum wheels with black inserts are standard. The 2013 Platinum will be available in Ruby Red, Kodiak Brown, Tuxedo Black, Ingot Silver, and White Platinum. Another new exterior color, Blue Jean Metallic, will be available for non-Platinum Super Duty models.
A ten-way power-adjustable driver’s is included, and it and the other seating surfaces are covered in remarkably supple leather that Ford claims is as durable as it is soft. A heated, leather-trimmed steering wheel features real wood accents; the instrument panel, door trim, and center stack make do with Ford’s finest faux-grain finish yet. Interior color choices include Pecan and Midnight Black.

MyFord Grab
Perhaps the most significant development is the inclusion of a specially configured version of Sync with MyFord Touch that incorporates large tactile knobs and buttons on the center stack to ease operation for users wearing gloves. (Other MyFord Touch setups use touch-sensitive “buttons,” which aren’t glove-friendly.) The system, heretofore unavailable on Super Duty pickups, will be standard on the Platinum as well as 2013 King Ranch and Lariat trucks. Its 8.0-inch touch screen sits nearly vertical in the dash for better visibility in bright sunlight. A rearview camera, navigation, remote start, power-adjustable pedals and mirrors, and a universal garage-door opener all come standard on the Platinum. Atop the dash sits a “media bin” large enough to conceal two personal devices; it contains two USB inputs, RCA connections, a 12-volt outlet, and an SD-card slot for the nav data.
Engines choices for 2013 Super Duty trucks will again include the 6.2-liter gas V-8 and the 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel. Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of U.S. marketing, sales, and service, hinted at some powertrain changes on the horizon: “We’ll be making an announcement in the near future,” he said. We think that could mean another volley in the ongoing diesel torque wars.
We can be sure any engine changes Ford comes up with will be responded to in kind by the other American truckmakers. At the very least, it looks like the Platinum will give GMC’s high-zoot Denali HD pickup and the new Ram Laramie Limited some company in the shiny truck arena.

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