I recently had the opportunity to spend some time driving Ford’s modern day interpretation of the Mustang Bullitt and came away wanting one in the worst way. It’s true that the late model Mustang has issues, but no other car is able to channel that much soul, charisma and character through its steering column. The only thing better would be an actual 1968 Mustang GT 350 Fastback like the one Steve McQueen actually drove in the film. Fans of the car and McQueen are one step closer to realizing this dream thanks to the McQueen estate, which has authorized the building of official replica Bullit Mustangs in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary. Ownership of the Bullit name is shared by the McQueen family and Warner Bros., so we’re not sure who would actually build these replica Bullitts, but we’ll be first in line when they eventually surface.

[Source: AutoBlog]

In Europe, budget-minded pistonheads have a treasure trove of hot hatches to choose from, and SEAT will be adding another model to the mix later this year.

The Ibiza Cupra will be officially unveiled in Paris, but Seat has dropped the first few images and a handful of specs ahead of its official unveiling in the City of Light this October. The Cupra is packing a twin-turbocharged, 1.4-liter TSI four underhood, sending 178 hp to the front wheels through a seven-speed DSG gearbox. Traction control and ESP are part of the package, along with a stiffer suspension, 17-inch wheels and bolstered buckets. The exterior benefits from a new fascia incorporating massive grilles and tiny fog lamps, side skirts and a new rear bumper.

Prices and performance stats haven’t been released yet, but the Renaultsport Clio 197 competitor should be priced around £16,000 when it hits dealers in Europe in December.

[Source: AutoBlog]

Design student Miguel Ángel Iranzo Sánchez created the vehicle you see above, and he describes it as “a mix between a[n] SUV and a sportscar infused with Nissan brand DNA.” For his efforts, which took an entire summer, he won a scholarship to get his Masters in Car Design in Valencia, and — put on your Price is Right voice for this — a brand new car! A Nissan Note, to be exact.

Billed as 100-percent all-terrain, ecological, sporty, and Nissan, we admit it’s interesting. The doors are gullwing, and the interior is terrific concept car simplicity. And our guess is that the purple glassworks have to do with the purple drink after which the car is named. But that vastly arcing front end that descends to the windshield… well, that just reminds us of a moose. Bullwinkle, to be exact. And the rear end reminds us of something that… excretes things. But have a look at the gallery of hi-res images below, and let us know what you think. While the Shiraz isn’t exactly us, with the Seat Brisa on the other hand, now we’re getting somewhere… Thanks for the tip, Yogesh!

[Source:Autoblog]

Just last week we revealed official images and specifications for the updated 2009 Honda Civic in sedan and hybrid body styles. Lest you coupe fans feel left out, we’ve finally found information on Honda’s newish two-door in DX, LX, EX/EX-L and Si levels from a PDF brochure and the brand’s U.S. website. As with the sedan, the front and rear of the Civic Coupe see the most change, though it’ll take a trained eye to spot the differences out back. The front grille, though, looks more aggressive and sports a new honeycomb pattern, and the lower bumper has been redesigned with new air intakes. We likey. Also of note are the new clear turn signal lenses. On the inside, the available navigation system flips down to reveal a slot-loading CD player and inputs for digital audio cards, whatever those are. There’s also a new USB music interface in the center console so you can just plug a flash drive full of tunes into the dash. A 140-hp, 1.8-Liter i-VTEC® engine powers the standard coupe and offers up to 36 highway mpg. Honda hasn’t released any of this information through its media website, and the consumer website still isn’t showing any 2009 Si models, so expect the big H to release more information on its ‘09 coupes in the coming weeks. In the meantime, take a look through our gallery below to chart all the changes. Thanks for the tip, Ricky!

[Source:Autoblog]

Autoblog reader Michael C has a knack for seeing things we miss. In 2006, he noticed that an image of Bob Lutz lifting the veil on one corner of the yet-to-be-released 2008 Cadillac CTS could be easily manipulated in Photoshop to reveal the car’s entire front end. GM recently gave us a similar peek of the production Chevy Volt on a segment that aired on ABC News, and Michael C has once again used Photoshop to give us a very clear view of the production Volt’s front end.

Yesterday, of course, we got our fill of the production Chevy Volt when video of it on the set of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen hit the web and a spy shot of the car’s iPod-like interior surfaced. While screen grabs from that video showed us an overall view of the Volt from a distance, this is the first time we have an idea of what the car looks like from point blank range. The front end is ultra slippery, a far cry from the concept’s unaerodynamic face, but the general look is similar. We’re not too far off from GM’s official reveal of the production Volt, which could happen as soon as the Paris Motor Show in October. Check out a higher-res version by clicking the pic above, along with all the images we’ve collected of the production Chevy Volt so far. Thanks for the pic, Michael!

[Source:Autoblog]

NISMO has finally released all the details on its line of upgrades for the R35 Nissan GT-R, and per usual, there’s good news and bad news.

On the positive side, the parts are the typical blend of OEM quality and fitment, with a focus on tighter handling and weight reduction. The Club Sport tuning package includes the Chassis pack made up of race-tuned Bilstein Damptronic adjustable dampers sheathed in 18.5kg/mm (front) and 9.6 kg/mm (rear) springs. The combination of rock-hard coils and adjustable damping at both low and high speeds should make the GT-R stickier in the corners and more stable while bombing through a fast sweeper. Rounding out the handling package is a set of Rays forged aluminum wheels, sized 20×9.5-inches in front (+45mm offset) and 20×10.5-inches (+25mm offset) in the rear, and wrapped in Bridgestone RE070R run-flats, sized 225/40 and 285/35, front and rear. These are rumored to be the same rollers we’ll see on the Spec-V when it’s unveiled in Paris this October.

The rest of the parts focus on weight reduction, beginning with a lightweight axle-back exhaust that drops 11 pounds from the GT-R’s curb weight, along with a carbon fiber undertray that reduces air turbulence and parasitic drag. Upgraded carbon-fiber backed and leather-trimmed seats are also part of the package, which retains the side airbags but nixes the electronic controls, reducing weight by another 13 pounds total. Naturally, some NISMO badging rounds out the upgrades.

Now here’s the bad news: the parts are only available in Japan as a package, can only be installed by 12 NISMO-authorized shops and come in at a whopping ¥5,460,000 (over $50,000). However, some U.S. importers have already worked out a distribution deal with NISMO, but for those of us in the States, we don’t get the added benefit of the three-year/60,000 km warranty.

[Source:Autoblog]

This is the kind of computerized world we can get behind — not the kind that drives for you whether you like it or not, but the one that allows you to do your human thing even better. Futuremark has created a concept instrument and dash cluster for Audi that is rendered entirely in 3D graphics. In the Nissan GT-R, you can change the center console screen to show or highlight the gauges you want. With Futuremark’s dashboard, you can create any kind of dashboard layout, color scheme, gauge look… you name it… that you want.

Using its Open GL ES engine (that’s Open Graphics Library for Embedded Systems) for the API (that’s Application Program Interface), Futuremark wants to show what’s coming — or at least, what’s possible — for in-car information and entertainment systems. We’re not really worried about the acronyms; as far as we’re concerned, we’re talking about the tweakability of video games brought to life in hot cars. Amen to that. The system will be on display at the NVISION in San Jose. Follow the jump for the full press release, and a word for Audi: yes.

PRESS RELEASE

San Jose, California – Aug. 25th, 2008 – Futuremark, creators of the industry standard benchmarking software for graphics performance for OpenGL ES and DirectX APIs, has created a demonstration for Audi’s In-Car Graphics System future concept to be shown for the first time at NVISION in San Jose. It delivers a fully rendered car dashboard and all instruments shown in a 3D view, including 3D navigation using stunning and realistic effects and viewsas well as a 3D car infotainment system with vehicle info and cool 3D environmental controls rendered in real-time for on-road Automotive usage.

“We are delighted to work with Audi due to their professional expertise in the car industry,” said Petri Talala, Vice President and General Manager of the Handheld and Embedded Group at Futuremark Oy., “Audi is a leader in this field with sophisticated, real-time rendered and high quality content available for future infotainment systems, and being able to have our graphics engine experts and artists contribute to this effort is very special for Futuremark.”

In-Car graphics systems are evolving rapidly with an increasing amount of digital instrumentation used inside of automotive designs. Khronos APIs such as OpenGL and OpenGL ES will be widely adopted for rendering backend of digital instrumentation. With this new automotive demo, Futuremark is showing the flexibility of both its OpenGL ES engines and its art pipelines that were used to deliver this project on an entirely new platform to Audi’s delight. The Engines and Pipeline Tools used to create the demo are all available for licensing directly from Futuremark. Also offered are custom demo services for Automotive companies who want to show off tomorrows User Interface and Digital 3D designs for Automobiles today. Futuremark’s has an upcoming automotive benchmark that is in development which will utilize real-world use cases such as car dashboard, info-system, and navigation workloads based on OpenGL ES 1.x and ES 2.0.

For more information on having Futuremark create your Automotive vision or for more information concerning Futuremark’s Mobile and Embedded products, in Europe and Asia, contact Petri Talala. In North America contact Oliver Baltuch at the contact information below.

About Futuremark Corporation Futuremark Corporation serves the mobile industry with professional application performance analysis tools and workloads. Our world renowned product portfolio includes 3DMark®Mobile for OpenGL ES 1.x and OpenGL ES 2.0, VGMark™ for OpenVG 1.x, and SPMark™ for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux and mobile Java. In addition, we license digital content creation tool chain middleware to 3D application developers, chip vendors and handset manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.futuremark.com

© 2008 Futuremark® Corporation. 3DMark®, PCMark®, SPMark™, VGMark™ and YouGamers™ trademarks and logos, Futuremark® character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation.

[Source:Autoblog]

If you have a 2009 Jaguar XF, you should hop down to your dealer to have the rear safety belt assembly looked at. Jaguar is recalling 7,900 of the ‘09 cars because in an accident the rear occupants might not be properly restrained. To find out more you can call Jaguar at 1-800-452-4827, or make an appointment at your local Jaguar dealer.

[Source :Autoblog]

Giveth, and taketh away, isn’t that always the story? On the taketh away side, GM has recently lost a serious chunk of change. On the giveth side, The General received a $56 milion package of tax credits and grants to keep an SUV factory open in Ohio. It has also just received another package of tax credits from the city of Flint, Michigan to aid its investment in a factory that will build engines for the new Volt and Chevy Cruze. Approved over some constituent disapproval by the Flint City Council, getting GM to build the factory there will keep 300 jobs in the city. GM is now looking to the state of Michigan for more tax incentives.

[Source:Autoblog]

The blokes at Car say they’ve got the scoop on the upcoming Audi A7, including a convertible version depicted in the rendering on the right. Power is rumored to start with six cylinders across the range, with a V10-powered S7 and a twin-turbo V10-motivated RS7. Expect a variety of transmissions to be on offer as well, including manuals, automatics and dual-clutch gearboxes with six or seven speeds, along with the availability of quattro all-wheel-drive.

Sources have suggested that, while Audi will be behind the game in bringing a four-door coupe in the Mercedes CLS mold to market in the first half of 2010, it’s got another segment-busting trick up it’s sleeve: a full four-door convertible. And according to Car’s illustrators, the A7 cabrio will feature a full retractable hard-top. Many have toyed with the idea of a four-door convertible – most recently arch-rival Mercedes with the Ocean Drive concept from Detroit ‘07 – but Audi may be the ones to actually revive the long-lost segment. Parade detail, here we come.

[Source:Autoblog]