So yeah i’m still gushing about my new car, every day I drive it, i love it even more. A couple of days ago, I realised that I hadn’t actually seen what the headlights and taillights looked like at night, so i got out of the car and looked. The attention to detail is beautiful. The headlights have LED lighting across the top, angling down—with bi-xenon primary headlights. The look is just evil! The taillights, are using piped LED tubes—which lead to quite a dramatic effect.
Sometimes i just stand in my garage…..wait i’m lying—-i go to the garage A LOT these days just to hang out and catch a nice view! I can’t help it.
and i think they just ruined the front end a little bit. That being said, i’ll have to see one on the road to cast my final judgements—-because as i recall when the original A5 was introduced—pictures never really do the car justice. For me, the front end looks less aggressive now, and a bit too busy…
The big news here though, is that the S5 will now get the 3.0 Supercharged V6 that is currently in the S4—-a lighter, more fuel economical engine with plenty of useability as compared to the old lump that was the 4.2L V8 previously.
original:
NEW:
WTF are Alfa Romeo thinking? This car is an insult to such a great marque…
VIA: http://www.socialnetwall.alfaromeo.com/c/alfa-romeo-4c/alfa-romeo-4c—shoo/7400
what in the world have you done to the 1-series? Those headlights look like the eyes of a strange animal. RIP BMW design—–you need to be resurrected. Badly. What is that shape?
source: Autoblog
JUST GOT UGLIER!
my purpose for this post is a sinister one.
A) i want this photo to become the #1 google image result for the Toyota Prius
B) i want ‘prospective’ Toyota Prius buyers to come here, and understand that they look like idiots driving around in their ugly box of batteries and electronic wankery
C) i want these US buyers to consider buying a clean diesel VW Golf TDI or Jetta TDI—which get similar MPG performance—-and save the world the horror of seeing this ugly Prius monstrosity on our streets. Think of the children, people!!!
I loved the latest Alfa Giulietta when i was in Italy last week—it is beautiful and probably the best looking hatchback i’ve seen in recent memory….far better in person than any photo can do it justice. Found this pic scattered across the web; obviously a low likelihood for ‘the truth’ since Autoxpress, the fine purveyors of automotive lying are behind it—–however it is an interesting rendering, and I think it looks quite nice. As I mentioned in my post-Italy post….i think the Alfa 159 is a thing of utter beauty, so it is difficult to follow it up, but I think if the Giulia looked anything like this, it might be possible.
These are pretty shady ‘spy pics’ by Autoexpress—but i love sketchy looking pics. The Alfa 4c is very weird looking—-part of me loves it, and part of me is reminded of the…errr…last Ford Probe. HOWEVER, it is supposed to be mid-engined (i’m not sure how true this is…), rwd, and going to be priced in Cayman territory.
I will not judge the design til the final photos……however it seems that the whole thing could go either way (favourable/unfavourable). Supposedly this car will be released this week at the Geneva Auto Show—-and has tightly been kept under wraps for a while.
i should have known not to trust Autoxpress!!!!
There’s no point in posting the ‘exterior’ of the new Lancia Ypsilon—because it is about as attractive as a pimple on a toad. After seeing the photo of the interior, however—i was reminded of something. But i couldn’t quite figure it out! I have never seen such an awkward pattern on the seats of a car….and then i remembered what it reminded me of! Surely the target audience has now been figured out.
BTW, this horrendous little car will be coming to the US as a Chrysler soon; not much of a surprise, i suppose. What an embarassing end stage to a great marque..
I remember hearing this new A3 Sedan, which has specifically been designed for the US market (the hatchback resistant market) is roughly the size of the B3/B4 80/90/4000—which to me is THE perfect size for a sedan. I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with…..if it is anything like this sketch, it will be a huge success i’m sure.
How in the world can the car blogs and their respective commenters think that this VW Beetle mule is the actual production ready concept? CLEARLY it is not…..i’m dissappointed in the petrolhead communities. You guys gotta start THINKING!! VW is not dumb enough to plop the same bumpers as the outgoing model on top of a lower roofline. See the magnified pics for evidence of these being simply skins…i’m picking on Autoblog today, because i just so happened to see them carelessly assume this is the production version…
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/27/spy-shots-2012-volkswagen-new-new-beetle-caught-undisguised/
As i’ve found, the Alfa Romeo Brera is reaching the end of its production. It was a beautiful original concept design, pretty much ruined for production (however STILL much better looking, even in ruined form, than most other cars out there), which never really translated into a glorious return to form for Alfa. The Brera Spider was even a bigger fail; floppy, slow, and completely failure of a drive!
How did Alfa Romeo ruin the Brera? I don’t know, but they really did.
So i’m guessing this 2010 Pininfarina Spider Concept introduced last year will somehow find its way in as the next Alfa Romeo Spider. I love the design, and i would LOVE to see a Coupe version of it……i think it would be a fitting successor to the design of the Brera.
I got this monstrosity of a photoshop from a blog known as Fiat Returns To America
To my friends over at that blog (nice blog, by the way), I think you have the right intent, and i applaud your appeal to resurrect the Alfa Romeo Montreal nameplate; HOWEVER good god not on a Challenger body! Have you guys seen the size of a Challenger? It is monstrous large….have you seen a Montreal in real life? it’s pretty damn small.
i do thank you for the entertainment! It would be great to see an Alfa Montreal resurrected….just not this!
Thanks to Brad (Automobiliac) for pointing me towards this post on Jalopnik, where they show real life pics of the quattro concept in Malibu, California! The best new design of 2010 looks even better in the real world! WOW! DO WANT.
Just debut’d at the LA auto show, although the photos i’m seeing of the actual car are pissing me off as they have ‘polished lip’ wheels; which, for me, ruin everything.
But i’m digging the idea and the car. 330hp. lighter. cooler interior. better exterior. $66k. sweet! it’s like a pocket sized GT3.
more pics and info here: http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1051594_2012-porsche-cayman-r-first-look
1981 Audi urquattro and 2010 Audi RS5
What a fantastic set of pictures….here are just 4 of them. Click on the link to read the full article, and to see the full set of 40+ photos! beautiful photos of 2 stunning cars separated by a good 30 years.
LINK TO MORE PICS AND ARTICLE:
http://www.insideline.com/audi/rs5/2011/2011-audi-rs5-vs-1981-audi-coupe-quattro.html
BUILD IT! put me on the list!
“Describing the new two-door as more than just a one-off show car, Stefan Reil, head of development at Audi’s Quattro Gmbh division, confirmed plans for a limited production run were fairly advanced. “We are rethinking standard processes to make it possible,” he said. “We know how to engineer it already.”
more info at Autocar:
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Audi-Concepts/253226/
Well this is a hell of a rumour, that has been getting louder and louder over the past few months. Fiat has been whining about Alfa Romeo not making any money for the company for a LONG time now….and according to several articles I have been reading as of late, it seems that Walter De Silva (ex-Alfa Romeo design chief, now VW/Audi design chief) has been urging Martin Winterkorn to really go after buying Alfa Romeo should Fiat decide to sell the brand. Walter De Silva is so excited about this all, that according to one article i found, it states: “Given what is assumingly the passion for Alfa design, de Silva has in thoughts already about 8 models for Alfa, along with designs as well as drawings.” Easy boy!
To be honest, as someone who is REALLY into Audis and their philosophy, I have been seeing Audi as the new Alfa Romeo for the past few years…..they’re making the cars that Alfa should be making….and the Volkswagen group buying Alfa Romeo could REALLY rejuvenate the brand.
Is there any truth to this? we’ll have to see! It could just be substance-less, gossip…..or it could be the real thing. Knowing the way Volkswagen works, i wouldn’t doubt they are after the brand.
here are some articles about it:
that’s what Italiaspeed is reporting, after these weird spy pics of a Stratos testing at a FIAT test track in June. I just hope it doesn’t come to america as the Chrysler Conquest or something…
CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY FOTOS
Well i gotta give it to Audi, not just because they are my favourite car company, but because they are the only company I can think of who are currently designing cars which will look classic in 10, 20, or 30 years from now (pardon me Alfa Romeo, but you’re kinda losing it). They are the only company I can think of who have attention to detail. The evidence for this is in the brand new Audi A7 introduced this past week in Germany. The rear end of the new A7 has been getting under my skin since the introduction….and now i know why.
The back end flows inwards, going back towards the body. Sure there is a bumper, however this inward flow hasn’t been used in many modern cars….until now. They have brought back the inward flow of the rear end! I know Alfa Romeo have used this ‘inward flow’ (as i refer to it) in their 8c Competizione, however it was a bit overdone with the weird round tail light, but i’m not complaining! The 8c was a stunningly designed car. I think Corvettes and special edition cars like the Ford GT also used this, but when have you recently seen it on a production sedan? i can’t remember any car in the last 10 or 20 years with this….production sedan, shall is say.
Alfa Romeo has a long history of sports cars with this inward flow, I generally recollect one of my favourite Alfa Romeos, the superb Montreal:
Audi claims their inspiration for the new style rear-end comes from them analyzing the 1970s Audi 100 Coupes and i can definitely see what they were looking at…..in fact, i think this new car has more similarity to that design than any other current Audi.
Apparently, this was a very conscious effort to consider ‘older’ designs when designing the A7. Check out this drawing that Audi issued to the press about the influences of the A7 design.
It seems though, that Lamborghini has been flirting with this idea for a while! Well at least in concept form. Check out the Lamborghini Estoque Concept and the Lamborghini Miura Concept from the past several years. Same indented inward flow rear end. Lamborghini, however, is a company essentially operated by Audi, so this isn’t surprising at all….
So what do you guys think about this? will this set a trend and bring this design sense back into the currently lackluster japanese & korean-influenced automotive design world? Can Audi influence other car makers to bring something new & old back into design? Alfa Romeo from a few years ago (2000-2007) really influenced alot of automotive design, however it didn’t last…..but I feel that Audi has already caused all these companies to use “big grilles”….can they get the rest of the industry to throw a bit of retro in the game? I hope so.
(click to enlarge)
Found out some info on the TT-RS:
$65-68k, 300-350 cars coming to the US market, all coupes, all manual transmission (unofficial estimates, taken from a couple sources IEDEI has spoken with)
The sound of the 2.5L turbo 5 is amazing. I saw this car today at Waterfest (VW/Audi gathering in held in New Jersey every year). It was brought there by the Fourtitude guys and was provided to them by Audi. It is the only TT-RS in the USA at the moment. I didn’t get any chance to drive it or drive in it…however the exhaust note is simply animal…love it.
some more pics (sorry about the crappy quality…forgot my camera and took cell phone pics!):
IEDEI 
