Sibling Rivalry: Ampera Vs. Volt

Thingsare looking up for the 2012 European Car of the year, Despite Delays theChevrolet Volt’s Sister Car the Opel Ampera is selling pretty well, themajority of current owners have traded in higher end cars like BMWs, Audis andBenzes, and this year’s Ampera orders have already come very close the numberof Volts sold in America last year, with over 7,000. And with 8 months left inthe year it seems very likely that the Ampera will at least meet the new salesgoal of 10,000 units. This could be because Europeans are more open to the Ideaof an electric car, but I think styling could play a bigger factor in thesales. The Volt and the Ampera are somewhat pricey, and rightfully so, they areboth engineering masterpieces, but the Ampera’s styling is considerably bolder,a further departure from the ICE cars, which is a very good thing in myopinion, because the people with money to spare who are looking into, say anAudi, might find the bolder look more appealing and may be more inclined topurchase an Ampera, than say a Volt, because it has the distinctive look of a car that doesn’t use gasoline. So bring on the ELR!

Just thought I’d put thatout there, It could also be that they don’t have politicians attacking it, anddestroying their own industry, but Volt sales here are slowly picking up aswell, what do you all think? Let me know in the comments.

Citroen DS9 Spotted Naked!

With all these teasers and leaks in such a short period of time did anyone actually expect the Citroen DS9 would wait for its official unveiling before it ended its three day long striptease? Journalists from the French magazine L’Automobile have managed to capture the first fully unveiled images of the new halo car at a photo-shoot.

The DS9 looks very muscular, it’s beautiful, quirky and Unique in its concept form, representing Citroen’s lineup in a very good way. The Car has sort of a sedan body with a hatch roofline, if that makes sense, I really like how the whole body is sculpted, giving it sort of a windswept look that suggests constant motion. it definitely has a strong presence from its heavily Chromed front end which reminds me just a little bit of the Acura NSX, to its shapely rear that evokes the rest of the DS lineup, especially the DS5. I’m not normally a fan of purple, except on the Pontiac Firebird, but it looks pretty good on this car. The Journalists present claim the DS9 fills a similar footprint to that of the Metropolis, this is kind of surprising, but I was guessing around 12-14 feet long, so I wasn’t that far off.

Head over to L'Automobile to see the rest of the photos http://www.automobile-magazine.fr/actualites/scoops/citroen/citroen_ds_numero_9&usg=ALkJrhilflp7OGVxPgWOBkSNnl8ekMhBzg

Citroen DS9

The Metropolis will officially be using the DS9 Moniker, conspicuously leaving room between it and the DS5 nameplate. The Model will be China Only and the rest of the DS range will accompany it overseas. The first live photo of the DS9 was captured the other day during a photoshoot, and though it is mostly covered, we can tell that the car keeps allot of the Metropolis’s lines, but there are also quite a few borrowed from the GQ Concept.

The Original concept was 17 feet long, but thanks to this photo we can tell that the DS9 is a fair amount shorter, the average height for a man in France is 5’ 8.5” so I took this man’s height, which is represented by the red bar and rotated it to line up next to the car, now because this is not a complete profile, and the car itself is at an angle, we cannot make anywhere near exact measurements, but it is obvious that the car is not 17’

2013 Opel Astra MCE

Recent spy shots have given us a strong hint as to what Opel has in store for us in the upcoming Astra refresh.

The Astra will get a new Corsa inspires front fascia with a larger smile, new projector style foglamps sporting chrome accents, a new grille with a slimmer chrome bar that curls up at each end. The bumper itself is much less defined, and while it looks a great deal more like the Corsa, which I think is a very smart looking subcompact, I think I actually prefer the old Astra’s muscular creases.
The new rear bumper actually looks less like the Corsa, the license plate cove is redesigned to have more harmony with the lower bodywork, and a chrome spear has been affixed to the body crease.
You don’t really notice these changes until the cars are next to eachother, and it really doesn’t make too much of a difference to me anyway. If it ever does come to the US the front end at least would most likely be completely redesigned, which brings me to the same rant I give every time I talk about the Astra, Dear GM let us buy this car! You already build a version in China, the Buick Excelle Xt, and we have the Astra’s Sedan Counterpart here already, and sales of the Verano have been great so why not capitalize on that and add variants, I would love to be able to buy one of these, give Buick a competitor to the high end golfs GTIs, it makes perfect sense, yet we still can’t get it here. Head over to World Car Fans to see the Photos!
http://www.worldcarfans.com/112031942525/2013-opel-astra-facelift-spied-undisguised/photos

Hello Again, Remember Me?

Nissan's plan to resurrect the Datsun nameplate as an entry level brand for emerging markets. Nissan's third brand will likely be nothing more than rebadged Dacias, and thankfully, will never reach our shores, where enthusiasts still remember the Datsun marquee fondly.

Lexus LS

Lexus may have teased the all new LS in an introduction video for the refreshed RX, we can tell that like the rest of the Lexus line the car will get the new spindle grill, though on the LS it will be surrounded by heavy chrome trim, and very detailed angular headlamps with multiple projectors, and on this particular model, very unique brightwork accents.

John Z. Delorean's Forgotten Dreams

On March 16^th 2005 the world lost one of car design’s greats, John Z. DeLorean. Delorean is best known for cars Like the GTO, or the Firebird, and who could forget the DMC 12, but we are going to be discussing Four cars designed by DeLorean that never made the production line.

The first of the four is the DMC – 80 as DMC began running into financial troubles DeLorean looked into various options that could help keep the company afloat, one of these options was commercial busses. Presumably busses would have sold better than sports cars, and so the DMC-80 was born. The Bus would have been American built, with three options of water cooled 6 cyl powerplants, and two options for transmissions. Development was fairly far along and brochures had been printed by the time the project was killed.

The Second car was the 1984 DeLorean Sedan, a four seat Delorean with an uncanny resemblance to the Lancia Medusa. The car was a joint venture between DeLorean and Guigario, it is unclear how far it got, the initial intent was to build 10,000 a year, the only physical evidence we have ever seen is drawings, but contracts state that a working prototype had been built in 1981. Four types of doors were considered, traditional Gullwings, Front Gullwings with standard doors in the rear, four standard doors, or extra large gullwings.

Here’s where things start to get confusing we know that in the late 1990s and early 2000s DeLorean was working on two new models, the DMC2 and the Firestar, to fund the models he started DeLorean Time a watch brand that manufactured $3000 injected stainless steel watches, the purchase of one meant the owner had the opportunity to purchase one of the first new DMC vehicles when they reached production. Details of the two cars are very hush hush, and because of the secrecy surrounding the projects the known information about the two has blurred and it becomes hard to identify which specs belong to which model.

We know the Firestar would have been based on the original DMC 12, but it would shed its stainless steel panels in favor of Carbon Fiber ones which would have shaved the weight down to, believe it or not, just over 1,500lbs, it would have been larger as well, and had a wing of super bird proportions sprouting out of the tail. It was confirmed that the Firestar would have kept the DMC12’s Iconic doors, The Original DeLorean’s weak engine would have been replaced with a ford sourced 500HP V8 that would have pushed the DeLorean from 0-60 in 3.2, so good news for Marty because 88mph would not have been a problem at all, as the car would have had a top speed of 215MPH. A working prototype was built and a few grainy photos exist of it today.

The DMC2 is much less documented, reports exist that it would have been based on a Ferrari Chassis, Delorean Himself said it was a mid engine 13L V12 mill, it was also said to be extremely aerodynamic. The DMC2 was reportedly Developed in Texas, and nearing completion when it was killed. No photos exist of this car the pictures to the left were believed to be the DMC2 but are in fact it’s the Norwood A12.

Delorean passed away in 2005 taking his plans along with him, but his legacy lives on in DMC, the company that won’t Die, after considering using the Pontiac Solstice to make a Comeback DMC will be manufacturing Electric Sports cars, John Z. DeLorean’s Iconic cars and the tragic scandal associated with them have outlived him.