Coupes auto news

Followup: Renault confirms 400-HP Alpine concept debuting on Friday *UPDATE [w/video]

Renault has confirmed the unveiling of an Alpine concept at this weekend's Formula One Grand Prix de Monaco, but as we get closer there are new details alongisde new questions. Just yesterday came the leaked image of a concept called the A110-50C, heavily based on the Renault DeZir concept, that could turn out to be the thing itself or pure Photoshop fancy. French press is reporting that Renault COO Carlos Tavares has confirmed that a 400-horsepower concept will appear that "could be homologated and on the road in the future," and it will take a lap of the Monaco course.

Another story in the French press has a picture of Sebastian Vettel sitting inside a vintage Alpine 110 racer - the car that all this hubbub is about, an example of which is pictured above. It was taken in mid-April for German GQ magazine at the Barcelona F1 circuit. Vettel and Tavares will supposedly be presenting the concept, but that report indicates the car is called the ZAR and suspects the first letter is for "zero emissions," the second for Alpine, the third perhaps for Renault. A report in CNET France also claims the ZAR appellation for the concept, allowing that the meaning of the acronym can only be supposition for now. True, the DeZir was an all-electric concept, so either the A110-50C/ZAR has 400 electric horsepower and there isn't any mid-mounted 3.5-liter Nissan V6, or Renault has found a way to break every single law of internal combustion... or we just don't know what's really in there.

We'll should know all come Friday at 1:00 PM local time.

* UPDATE: The leaked image (inset) is the real deal. Renault has released some teaser photos and a video, and the reveal will happen on French Yahoo! Autos on Friday at 1:01 p.m. Monaco time. Scroll down to watch the teaser vid.

Continue reading Renault confirms 400-HP Alpine concept debuting on Friday *UPDATE [w/video]

Video: Fast N' Loud is Wheeler Dealers, American style

If you've ever sunk a Saturday afternoon watching a Wheeler Dealers marathon on BBC America, we don't need to tell you the show is plenty addictive. A tag team salesman and mechanic snag slightly run-down cars and SUVs, fix a few simple problems and flip them for a profit in the UK.

Now it looks as if the Discovery Channel is set to unleash an Americanized version of the show. Fast N' Loud follows a shop as they seek out classic cars and trucks, customize them and work to sell them at a profit. It looks a bit like American Pickers met Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin in a bar bathroom and this is the fruit of their rendezvous.

We will, of course, tune in if for no other reason than the guys look to have gotten their hands on an early '50s Oldsmobile Coupe. That's one of our favorites. The show premiers on Wednesday, June 6 at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Discovery Channel. Scroll down to check out the teaser for yourself.

Continue reading Fast N' Loud is Wheeler Dealers, American style

Video: Mercedes releases even more drift-happy C63 AMG footage from Laguna Seca

Mercedes-Benz and its AMG division wanted to thank the two million viewers of its various videos, so it dropped a C63 AMG at the top of the Corkscrew at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and recorded it drifting down. The treat was wasn't as sweet as it should have been due to an editor who got a bit too happy with the "Cut" button, and watchers said as much.

So, in a nice bit of "Here, let's fix that," AMG has uploaded aerial footage of the uncut drift. Now that we know AMG takes requests, feel free to leave them in the Comments section. On your way there, scroll down to check out the new vid.

Continue reading Mercedes releases even more drift-happy C63 AMG footage from Laguna Seca

Followup: Renault confirms 400-HP Alpine concept debuting on Friday

Renault has confirmed the unveiling of an Alpine concept at this weekend's Formula One Grand Prix de Monaco, but as we get closer there are new details alongisde new questions. Just yesterday came the leaked image of a concept called the A110-50C, heavily based on the Renault DeZir concept, that could turn out to be the thing itself or pure Photoshop fancy. French press is reporting that Renault COO Carlos Tavares has confirmed that a 400-horsepower concept will appear that "could be homologated and on the road in the future," and it will take a lap of the Monaco course.

Another story in the French press has a picture of Sebastian Vettel sitting inside a vintage Alpine 110 racer - the car that all this hubbub is about, an example of which is pictured above. It was taken in mid-April for German GQ magazine at the Barcelona F1 circuit. Vettel and Tavares will supposedly be presenting the concept, but that report indicates the car is called the ZAR and suspects the first letter is for "zero emissions," the second for Alpine, the third perhaps for Renault. A report in CNET France also claims the ZAR appellation for the concept, allowing that the meaning of the acronym can only be supposition for now. True, the DeZir was an all-electric concept, so either the A110-50C/ZAR has 400 electric horsepower and there isn't any mid-mounted 3.5-liter Nissan V6, or Renault has found a way to break every single law of internal combustion... or we just don't know what's really in there.

We'll should know all come Friday at 1:00 PM local time.

Report: Arrinera supercar born out of Polish Lamborghini replica? [UPDATE]

If you thought it seemed a little odd that Poland - a country without much of a history of producing exportable cars - would suddenly come out with a high-performance supercar, well... we're afraid you may be right. Because the latest reports out of the Eastern European country suggest that the Arrinera project is nothing more than a reclothed replicar.

Arrinera, as you may recall, is a project to build a supercar in Poland. Specifications recently hit the interwebs, indicating a $160,000 list price and a 6.2-liter V8 with 650 horsepower driving the rear wheels through a Graziano gearbox for a 3.2-second sprint to 62 and a 211 mph top end.

Now reports coming out of Poland - citing a certain Jacek Balkan who seems to be the Slavic version of Jeremy Clarkson - are calling the whole project into question. According to the word on the Warsaw boulevard, the people at Arrinera took a Lamborghini replica made by another Polish outfit called Bojar Tuning and gave it a new skin. Interior components were reportedly borrowed from the Opel Corsa and late-90s Audi A6, all in an effort to raise funds on the stock market.

The question we're left with is, if the project started as a replica but now has its own design and identity, should its humbler beginnings matter? If the specs are right and legendary chassis tuner Lee Noble is involved, the Arrinera could still emerge as a winner. Of course, we'd have to drive it in order to tell for sure, but we've got some openings in our calendar coming up...

UPDATE: Arrinera has hit back with a itemized denial of Jacek Balkan's reported allegations. It insists that its product is not, in fact, based on the Lamborghini replica made by Bojar, and that it does not borrow any more components from production vehicles than you'd expect to find in other supercars made by small companies like Pagani, Wiessmann, Noble, Artega or Gumpert. For a translated version of the full legal document, click here.

Video: Ferrari 458 Italia flips at Laguna Seca

There's the right way to tackle the infamous Corkscrew at Laguna Seca and then there's the way that puts your Ferrari 458 Italia into the catch fence and on its roof. Ryan Ockey recently gave the latter option a shot during the Ferrari Challenge at Mazda Raceway with predictable results. All of the safety equipment both in the car and at the track worked as intended, however, and the driver walked away with little more than a bruised ego. There are no solid reports as to what caused the flying Ferrari, but rumor has it there may have been a brake failure.

Unfortunately, the 458 Italia had to be pulled from the gravel trap by a tow truck, which meant a long, painful slog downhill on the Italian exotic's roof. Check out two videos of the carnage and the rescue to see what we mean. Jump forward to two minutes in on the second clip to see things go downhill for Ockey.

Continue reading Ferrari 458 Italia flips at Laguna Seca

Review: 2012 Mini John Cooper Works Coupe

The six basic building blocks of life are sulfur, phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen. Arrange those in any number of ways and you can get either a single-celled paramecium or Angelina Jolie. The Mini brand works much the same way. Take the same group of engines, interior bits and exterior design elements, combine them in various ways and you get everything from a three-door hatchback to a five-door crossover.

It all started with the three-door hatchback, but Mini kept reconfiguring its basic elements to create a full range of automobiles that now includes the Convertible, Clubman wagon, Countryman CUV, a new Roadster, and this little guy: the 2012 Mini Coupe, available for our test purposes with the aggressive John Cooper Works package. All members of the Mini clan, however, share the same DNA and do little to hide their lineage.

Truth be told, just the idea of the Mini Coupe has few fans around the Autoblog offices. What point is there to a Mini that's smaller, heavier and more expensive than the standard hatchback? It seems to some that the Coupe exists just because it's an easy and obvious way to configure those basic Mini building blocks. But just because one can build something doesn't always mean one should. There's got to be a reason.

Does the Mini Coupe have a reason for being? Or is its existence owed simply to the fact that it could be made, so it was?

Continue reading 2012 Mini John Cooper Works Coupe

Report: Arrinera supercar born out of Polish Lamborghini replica?

If you thought it seemed a little odd that Poland - a country without much of a history of producing exportable cars - would suddenly come out with a high-performance supercar, well... we're afraid you may be right. Because the latest reports out of the Eastern European country suggest that the Arrinera project is nothing more than a reclothed replicar.

Arrinera, as you may recall, is a project to build a supercar in Poland. Specifications recently hit the interwebs, indicating a $160,000 list price and a 6.2-liter V8 with 650 horsepower driving the rear wheels through a Graziano gearbox for a 3.2-second sprint to 62 and a 211 mph top end.

Now reports coming out of Poland - citing a certain Jacek Balkan who seems to be the Slavic version of Jeremy Clarkson - are calling the whole project into question. According to the word on the Warsaw boulevard, the people at Arrinera took a Lamborghini replica made by another Polish outfit called Bojar Tuning and gave it a new skin. Interior components were reportedly borrowed from the Opel Corsa and late-90s Audi A6, all in an effort to raise funds on the stock market.

The question we're left with is, if the project started as a replica but now has its own design and identity, should its humbler beginnings matter? If the specs are right and legendary chassis tuner Lee Noble is involved, the Arrinera could still emerge as a winner. Of course, we'd have to drive it in order to tell for sure, but we've got some openings in our calendar coming up...

Video: Nissan crowd-sourced Project 370Z moves to stage two

Nissan has finally wrapped up work on its crowd-sourced project 370Z. The company put the sports car on a dyno for final tuning and wound up with somewhere around 504 horsepower. That's not too shabby given the jump in gusto was gleaned from a few bolt-on parts.

Nissan then set about fitting the steering wheel and shift nob as chosen by the teaming internet masses. A set of custom Recaro seats also replaced factory buckets. With the interior squared away, the company turned its eye toward ironing out the exterior.

A set of lightweight forged Volk wheels took the place of the factory rollers, and a new matte grey vinyl wrap took care of the standard yellow paint. Nissan debuted its creation at Z Dayz last weekend. Scroll down for a look at the video for yourself.

Continue reading Nissan crowd-sourced Project 370Z moves to stage two

Spy Shots: Audi R8 facelift comes into focus

These are spy shots of the facelifted Audi R8 that we expect to see later this year. You'll need to look very closely at the front to see where the lifting and tucking has been done: new LED headlights inside a slightly reworked grille. Around back are round tailpipes like those on the R8 GT.

This is a refreshed model that will hold us until the 2015 Audi R8 arrives - the one with the carbon and aluminum chassis, more power and no manual transmission on offer. That last fact is tragic enough because we still love sports cars with sticks, but descends into the catastrophic since the six-speed manual available now is outstanding. We're sure the next-gen coupe will be awesome, but we'll enjoy this one while we have it. Check it out in the high-res gallery of spy shots above.