2011 Audi Q7 - Official Photos and Info

Just as it followed the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne into the marketplace, the Audi Q7 now will be following their lead on engine downsizing. While its recently updated exterior remains unchanged, the 2011 Q7 loses both of its current gasoline engines, the 280-hp, 3.6-liter V-6 and the 350-hp, 4.2-liter V-8. They get replaced by two variations of the supercharged TFSI 3.0-liter V-6 found in the A6, S4, and S5.
In the Q7, the entry-level 3.0 TFSI makes 272 hp and produces 295 lb-ft of torque—down eight horses but up 29 lb-ft from the 3.6-liter's 266. The stronger Q7’s 3.0 makes 333 hp and produces 325 lb-ft of torque, a 17-hp deficit compared to the outgoing V-8 but matching it in the torque column. Top speed with the new engines is 140 and 152 mph, respectively.
While we don't have U.S. fuel-economy figures yet, Q7’s mileage will improve markedly. In Europe, the entry-level model improves by 12 percent, and the stronger motor tops the V-8 by 16 percent. That's partly thanks to the new engines and partly thanks to the eight-speed automatic that replaces the current six-speed box across the board.
Clean-Diesel Madness
The 3.0-liter TDI turbo-diesel is back and also will benefit from the eight-speed transmission. While it will be the U.S.’s only diesel option, Europeans who find its 225 hp and 406 lb-ft inadequate will still be able to choose the 340-hp, 4.2 V-8 TDI and the absolutely insane 500-hp, 6.0-liter V-12 TDI, which punishes its four wheels with 738 lb-ft of pulverizing twist.
The Q7's new engines will be available here by mid-2010 for the 2011 model year. If you must have a V-8, now is the time to try getting a deal on one. But if it's efficiency you’re looking for, our experience in other cars suggests the supercharged engines will be well worth the wait.
If customers clamor sufficiently, more options could materialize. The Q7's engine compartment would hold the full gas-electric system of the Cayenne and Touareg hybrids, which use an Audi TFSI engine anyway. And an upcoming, 400-hp-plus turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 would fit beautifully. Wait some more, perhaps?

by caranddriver.com

2011 Audi TT and TTS - Official Photos and Info

How do the Germans update an icon? Gradually, of course. Although it hasn’t quite achieved the level of, say, Porsche’s 911 or the VW Beetle, the Audi TT is a design icon nonetheless—just a bit younger. As a style-first, sport-infused incarnation of the Audi A3/VW GTI platform, the TT would be no more remarkable if not for its rounded overhang areas, Bauhaus-inspired geometry, and chopped roofline.
Although the TT dons fresh duds for 2011, none of its essential characteristics change. Heck, nothing changes much at all. What has changed are the headlamps of base TT 2.0 TFSI coupes and roadsters, which now adopt the winged-detail, LED-underscored headlamps first seen on the more potent TTS model, which was introduced last year. The lower air intakes have become more squared-off and three-dimensional in form, but the single-frame grille remains, albeit with glossy horizontal vanes. Out back is a new rear valance with two round exhaust tips but little else we haven’t seen before. Minor changes of even less note have been made inside the TT—just some new aluminum trim on the steering wheel and center console and a few piano-black pieces elsewhere. What you can’t see is the fact that the sport button will now modify both the steering assist and exhaust note for a meatier feel and sound.
TTS Torque For All
Under the skin, the TT 2.0 TFSI now comes with a zestier turbocharged 2.0-liter four-banger with 211 hp (up from 201) and a very potent 258 lb-ft of torque (up from 207), mated exclusively to Audi’s S tronic dual-clutch automated manual and Quattro all-wheel-drive system. Gone are the front-wheel-drive TT and the manual transmission. We have high hopes for the base TT, which arrives in the first quarter of 2011. A TT 2.0T Quattro coupe we tested last year hit 60 mph in a surprisingly swift 5.7 seconds. And we expect that, with the 25-percent bump in torque, the 2011 will be even quicker.
Should the TT 2.0 TFSI get a lot quicker, it may become harder for Audi to charge a chunky premium for the impressive but pricey TTS (base price: $46,725), which has a big 265 hp but the same 258 lb-ft of torque as the new 2.0 TFSI. At 4.8 seconds to 60 mph, the TTS currently has an advantage of nearly a second over the base car. The TTS reserves performance brakes for itself, although its standard magnetorheological shocks will be optional on the base TT in 2011. And when the 2011 TTS arrives this fall, it likely will retain its advantage in the curb-appeal department thanks to some additional chrome trim in the outboard intakes and grille, and its sexy 18-inch wheels.
Sadly, the best TT, the hi-po TT RS, is still not planned for the U.S. market, in spite of our most ardent implores. With its chunky-chic aero mods, slammed suspension, and 340-hp turbocharged five-cylinder, it could help boost the TT’s standing within the hard-core sports-car set. But alas, we wait still—and likely will keep waiting until the economy makes some marked improvements.
While the TT always has been and likely will always remain based on wide, sturdy passenger-car (vs. low-slung sports-car) architecture, with each evolution, it becomes ever more credible as a sports car. We’re not sure its corporate cousin, the Porsche Boxster, has much to worry about at track days, but the TT’s 2011 changes, in concert with its carry-over combination of comfort, efficiency, and style, ought to boost the little Audi’s appeal even further.

2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Mule Spy Photos - Future Cars review and news

 
America’s sports car. A brutally effective track weapon. A favorite of hairy-chested, gold-chain-wearing old dudes. Or simply one of the world’s best dollar-for-dollar performance bargains. The Corvette is at least a little of all of those, and that’s why any word of a major overhaul sets the enthusiast world on fire. Going beyond gearheads, it’s also one of the few cars on which everyone has an opinion.
We’ve just spotted the first physical evidence of the next-generation C7: Two mules, a convertible and a coupe, caught testing on public roads while wearing current C6 bodies. While the pictures themselves don’t tell us much, we have some good ideas about what you’ll find in the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette.
Do the Evolution
The current C6 Corvette underpinnings are pretty ancient by automotive standards. Introduced in 2004 as a 2005 model, it was only a small evolution of the previous C5. The C6 is an extremely capable machine, but the C7 won’t receive the dramatic shift to a mid-engine layout many predicted. (That could be in the cards for C8, however; GM commenced work on such a platform, although it was put on hold during the company’s bankruptcy brouhaha.) The front-engine layout will carry over—as will the rear transaxle, helping to retain optimum weight balance—and we believe the current suspension, transverse leaf springs and all, will appear on the 2014 model. We also don’t expect any drastic dimensional changes; while the mules here appear to have a narrower track, their bodies were donated by C6 Grand Sports, which have wider fenders and tracks than do base Corvettes. Besides, it wouldn’t be logical for the Corvette to get narrower without a commensurate shrinkage in overall length and wheelbase. The C7 is likely to shed some mass, which will yield a better power-to-weight ratio.
The engine room, however, should see more-significant changes. GM already has invested nearly $1 billion in the American plants that produce its small-block V-8, and the fifth-generation of the powerplant should appear in the C7. Downsizing is almost a given for efficiency reasons, so expect a naturally aspirated 5.5-liter in place of the current 6.2 in the base model. (As for the oft-rumored twin-turbo V-6? We’re thinking C8.) The 5.5 will continue to use an aluminum block and should make roughly the same 430 hp as the current 6.2, however, with a higher compression ratio and direct fuel injection. The V-8 also may get cylinder deactivation, variable-valve timing, and could even have stop-start functionality—the latter not exactly ideal for stoplight tête-à-têtes. GM has already announced that its next-gen small block would have an “all-new advanced combustion system,” which we take to mean it will feature Viper-esque ‘cam-within-a-cam’ variable valve timing. Finally, the Z06 and ZR1 models—with their larger and supercharged eights, respectively—should return.
A Radical New Look?
In the looks department, we hear that CEO Dan Akerson and design chief Ed Welburn are in agreement that the current Vette’s rear is simply too wide, and so you can expect the C7 to get slimmer and tauter there. A split-window treatment may also be offered as an option, paying homage to the ’63 Sting Ray coupe. The cabin is expected to be of a similar size and layout, and we’re optimistic that it will make use of higher-quality materials. Interiors across the rest of the Chevy lineup have steadily improved of late, so the company has shown that it has the know-how.
Chevrolet is keeping a very tight lid on all things Corvette, but the C7 ought to debut sometime in late 2012 or early 2013, with sales commencing in the first quarter of 2013. Prices shouldn’t change much from current levels, with the base car starting in the neighborhood of $50,000. We’ll undoubtedly learn more about the C7 as development progresses, so stay tuned to this space.
  by caranddriver.com

2012 Hyundai Veloster - Short Take Road Test review and news

Expectations are a bitch. If it weren’t for people’s pesky hopes, the 2012 Hyundai Veloster could totter onto the new-car market as a simple and oddly endearing little nugget of a dressed-up economy car.
But, no. On the back of this little three-door (four-door, if you count the hatch) meatball ride the hopes of enthusiasts who loved the old Honda CRX Si, who still love the Honda CRX Si, or who at least think they remember loving the CRX Si. And since Honda resolutely refuses to re-create one of its great ideas, the opportunity has fallen to the only car company that appears to have any interest in a similar concept: Hyundai.
Now, let’s get one thing straight: Hyundai never explicitly said that its four-seat Veloster was the spiritual replacement for the two-seat CRX Si. But given its size and shape, people have been drawing the comparison ever since the Veloster concept first appeared, and the company sure didn’t discourage the impression. Now that we’ve driven the production version over hill and dale, we can say, in our snappiest Lloyd Bentsen impersonation, that we worked with the CRX Si, we knew the CRX Si, the CRX Si was a friend of ours. Veloster, you’re no CRX Si.
Is This Progress?
The 1985 CRX Si, pumping 91 hp from its 1.5-liter engine, could only get to 60 mph in 9.1 seconds. The Veloster’s 1.6-liter four-cylinder makes 138 hp, giving it a 0-to-60 run of, well, about half a second less slow than the CRX. And forget the CRX for a moment; the Veloster is taller and wider than Honda’s Accord of that era. The Veloster also rides on a longer wheelbase and weighs something like 300 more pounds than an ’85 Accord. It’s nearly 1000 pounds weightier than the CRX.
But it’s not door count or horsepower or weight that disqualifies the Veloster from second-coming-of-CRX status. It’s that the Veloster just isn’t that much fun to drive. It feels heavier than its roughly 2700-pound curb weight suggests. And its feel-free steering, although accurate, brings no joy. The steering happens to have the least amount of self-centering that we’ve felt in some time. After a turn, the wheel is apparently content to lie on its side, lifeless, instead of preparing for its next assignment.
That’s a shame, because the chassis it commands is competent. Maybe not spritely, but at least the MacPherson-strut-front and torsion-beam-rear suspension does an admirable job of snubbing roll without beating the driver senseless. The Veloster circled our skidpad at a mediocre 0.82 g. The Scion tC, which Hyundai lists as a Veloster competitor, returns 0.86 g of grip. It’s a nice middle-ground tuning that should satisfy those looking for an economy car wearing a snazzy outfit.
Smooth Out That Shar Pei
And snazzy it is. The front and the flanks mimic other recent Hyundais, most notably the Elantra. Its face is pulled back tightly, similar to what we imagine a dog would look like with an aggressive face lift. The Veloster’s sides are deeply sculpted. That’s all pretty much standard-issue new-Hyundai oddness, though. The real weirdness is the doors, or rather the asymmetry of the doors. We watched as a couple stopped dead in their tracks on seeing the Veloster sitting in a parking lot. The man approached it first from the driver’s side, cocked his head, shuffled closer, and peeked inside; then, without taking his eyes off the thing, he skirted around the Veloster’s chunky rear until he got to the passenger side. He stood staring for a moment and then squinted, thrust his head forward, and raised his eyebrows. He scooted back to the driver’s side, as if he believed that if he moved quickly enough he might surprise the driver’s side and catch it having two doors. No dice.
In its three-door-ness, the Veloster is like the Saturn coupe (SC) with the three-door option. Or the Mini Clubman, which also has a rear-hinged, door-opening extender added aft of a conventional door. But instead of a silly half-door, the Hyundai has a proper front-hinged rear door that is at least three-quarters as useful as a proper port. And not only can it be opened independently of the front door, but the Veloster’s rear door is also mounted to the passenger side instead of the driver’s.
This is useful for two reasons—one obvious and one we hadn’t anticipated. First, the passenger side is the curbside. So it is the safer of the two from which to disgorge rear passengers, which, given the Veloster’s tight rear quarters, are likely to be children or people you don’t like all that much. The other critical benefit of fitting the rear door to the passenger side is that it allows the driver’s door to be longer, keeping the B-pillar from impeding peripheral vision.
Gamma for Your Gramma
We only drove the Veloster with a six-speed manual, but it’s available with a new-for-Hyundai six-speed dual-clutch automatic. The shifter is perfectly pleasant to use, and the clutch takeup is smooth. But it’s not your left leg you’ll be worrying about. It’s your right leg that will be tired at the end of a drive, what with you trying to cram the accelerator through the floorboards. The so-called Gamma 1.6-liter direct-injection engine is a kindly enough motor, but it’s small and has low peak torque—123 lb-ft—at a high 4850 rpm. You have to work it over to make decent progress, and in our testing, the car needed 8.5 seconds to get to 60 mph. That’s more than 1.5 seconds slower to 60 mph than the Scion. The Veloster trundled through the quarter-mile in 16.7 seconds at 84 mph. A turbo is on the way within a year’s time.
On the upside, when you’re not beating on the Veloster, the EPA reckons it will return 28 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway when equipped with the manual. With the dual-clutch tranny, the Veloster is predicted to return 29/38 mpg. In an attempt to keep things fun, our foot-to-the-floor driving style yielded a not-very-impressive 25 mpg average.
How To: Make Your Veloster Look Like the Concept
Perhaps we’ve been a bit tough on the Veloster. It starts at $18,060 for a manual version. The dual-clutch adds $1250. The example we drove came with both of the major option packages. The $2000 Style package mostly keeps the Veloster from looking like a cheap car. It brings 18-inch wheels, chrome trim, piano-black interior and exterior trim, front fog lights, an eight-speaker stereo, “leatherette” seats and door inserts, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, aluminum pedals, and an auto-up driver’s window. But it’s the panoramic sunroof that comes with the Style package that gives the Veloster its signature look, with glass panels butted up against each other for an almost continuous sweep of glass from the base of the windshield all the way over the top of the roof and down to the rear bumper. It certainly makes the interior airy and is one of the more distinct similarities to the concept Veloster. But having one of the highest glass-to-metal ratios of any car on the market doesn’t do much for structural integrity.
The other available option grouping is the Tech package. It requires the Style package and then adds another $2000 of goodies like wheels with painted inserts intended to make them look like the Veloster concept’s. It also ropes in parking-distance sensors in the back, a rearview camera, a navigation system, automatic headlamps, and pushbutton start. Throw in floor mats ($95), and a loaded manual Veloster lists for $22,155.
Hyundai gives this youth-oriented model standard Bluetooth with voice recognition, auxiliary and USB inputs, and the capability for video (or video-game) playback via an RCA cable. Furthermore, the car comes standard with Pandora internet-radio capability via iPhone. Not enough for you? How about a built-in video game that scores you on your eco-driving prowess? The CRX never had that, did it?

 

by caranddriver.com

2012 Toyota Camry SE V6 - Short Take Road Test

Like the late Rodney Dangerfield, the Toyota Camry could reasonably complain that it don’t get no respect.
Never mind that it’s been America’s bestselling passenger car in 13 of the past 14 years—the past nine consecutively—and appears to be headed for another sales title this year. Never mind that a financial or marketing exec might observe that those numbers are the only kind of respect that really matters. The Camry don’t get no respect at Car and Driver, and it has only rarely over that entire run. But the 2012 Camry, due in showrooms in October, could end—or at least moderate—our disdain.
All-New, Selectively
This is the Camry’s seventh generation—the first appeared in 1983—and inevitably the words “all-new” appear in the accompanying publicity materials. As usual, that description is open to interpretation and/or explanation. Considered in terms of the specifications, all-new is hard to see here. The body dimensions are identical to those of the gen-six car. So are the particulars of the 3.5-liter DOHC 24-valve V-6 that towed our SE test car—same bore, same stroke, same port fuel injection (no direction injection yet), same output: 268 hp, 248 lb-ft of torque.
The only powertrain changes, aimed at improving fuel economy, are subtle: lower-viscosity engine oil (0W-20 versus 5W-30), a transmission-oil warmer to achieve operating temps a little faster, and a higher (numerically lower) final-drive ratio of 3.46:1 versus 3.69:1. The net, according to the EPA, is a gain of 1 mpg in city and highway modes, for a rating of 21/30. We averaged 25 mpg.
New Where It Counts
Although changes to the basic unibody are mostly cosmetic—the seventh-generation sheetmetal, although not exactly head turning, looks contemporary and continues to be commendably slick with a 0.28 Cd—the really significant newness lies within. Without altering exterior dimensions, Toyota’s design team rearranged the Camry’s furniture to create more space for folks inhabiting the rear seats. Key elements: The accelerator pedal and the front-seat rails have sneaked slightly forward, and the backs of the front seats have been scooped out, yielding a rear-seat knee-room gain of 1.8 inches, according to the company.
Expanded roominess is always welcome in a family sedan, and in the new Camry, it’s enhanced by a center rear position that’s habitable for more than a run to the mall. Even more welcome, though, is the upgrade in the materials, including lots of soft-touch surfaces that give the interior an aura of comfort and quality distinctly absent in the last couple generations. The pseudo-suede center inserts in our test car’s optional leather-trimmed front buckets lend a soupçon of luxury, as well as a little grip to keep the driver centered in rapid transitions (not that many of those are likely), and slimmer A-pillar trim yields better forward sightlines.
Hold the Excitement
Assessed as a device with which to satisfy your inner Sebastian Vettel, the new Camry is pretty similar to its predecessor, which is to say essentially bland. Our test car was an SE model, nominally sportier than the rest of the lineup, but the suspension tuning is still skewed strongly toward the comfort side of the chart. There’s considerable body roll in hard cornering, obstinate understeer progresses to absolute, and as is common nowadays, a new electric-assist power-steering system substitutes weight for tactile information. This string of criticisms would add up to “fuhgedaboudit” if the Camry had sports-sedan pretensions. But it doesn’t, and its dynamic virtues are on target for its family-sedan mission.
And let us not neglect the power component. The Camry’s optional V-6 may be basically unchanged, but it delivers respectable hustle—0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, the quarter-mile in 14.3 at 101 mph, 50 to 70 in 3.7. Those times are brisk for this class and would have been tops in our recent sedan comparison involving the Honda Accord EX-L V-6, Hyundai Sonata 2.0T Limited, and Volkswagen Passat 3.6 SEL. Chalk it up in part to a curb weight—3407 pounds—100 pounds wispier than that of the lightest car in that group. Similarly, our test Camry’s 0.83-g skidpad performance would have topped those charts, and its 70-to-0-mph braking distance—173 feet—would have been 15 feet better than the comparo’s best stopper.
Respectability Returns
All in all, what Toyota has achieved with the latest Camry makeover is a return to the traits that put this car at the top of so many families’ shopping lists. An aggressive pricing schedule can’t hurt, either. The base price for most models is down versus 2011’s by as much as 7.5 percent, and the base for our test car—$27,400, less than any of the comparo trio previously cited—is unchanged from the previous generation.
Although well equipped in basic trim, our SE had a substantial inventory of optional equipment: the Leather package (seats, door trim, heated front seats, $1050); a power sunroof ($915); and navigation with Entune, Toyota’s infotainment system ($1550). The latter package also included a rearview camera, an auto-dimming rearview mirror with digital compass, an anti-theft alarm, and JBL audio with Bluetooth and voice recognition. The nav system is one of the most cooperative we’ve ever encountered, and we were similarly pleased with the JBL audio system. The bottom line as tested: $30,935.
This still isn’t the kind of car that raises pulse rates. But it is competent in everything, just right for a driver who doesn’t want to be involved any more than is absolutely necessary. As the Camry’s phenomenal sales record shows, there are a lot of those drivers out there. The new Camry should make them happier than they’ve been in a long time.