| Name That Shifter, No. 163 |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to present this week’s shifter. You’ll have until mid-day Wednesday to identify the make and model of the vehicle whence this shifter came. The first person to respond correctly in the Backfires section below will win a Save the Manuals button and sticker.* Good luck! (* Offer open [...]
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| Infiniti and Daimler to Expand Tech Partnership, Co-Develop Platform |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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In the past two years, Renault-Nissan has been expanding a “technology partnership” with Daimler, resulting in a new turbo four for the Infiniti Q50, as well as Daimler gifting Nissan’s luxury brand with the compact Mercedes A-class (CLA) platform. Now, a report from the Washington Post indicates Infiniti and Daimler’s relationship could get far cozier [...]
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| 400-Horse, Carry-on-Size Turbo Three-Cylinder to Power Nissan ZEOD RC Le Mans Racer |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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What’s bigger than a breadbox, smaller than a suitcase, and has a better power-to-weight ratio than the engine out of Formula 1 car? The Nissan DIG-T R, a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder that measures 19.7 inches tall, 15.7 inches long, and 7.8 inches wide. The Mighty Mouse motor weighs a mere 88 pounds, revs to 7500 [...]
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| The Continental: Mexican Goodness, a Better Nissan, and a Mercedes-Benz Pickup? |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental. Around the same time the 2014 Detroit auto show was soaking in the spotlight, Volkswagen started [...]
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| Pertinent Prius Particulars Pried; Details of Toyota’s Fourth-Gen Prius Emerge |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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Toyota’s Prius hybrid might be a snore to drive, but it is wondrous from a technical point of view, and with each new generation of the car since its introduction in 1997, it has gotten more and more advanced. Now, the fourth-generation Prius is on its way, due out in 2015, and Automotive News was [...]
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| Odd-Box Comparison Test: 2014 Fiat 500L Battles 2014 Kia Soul at IKEA |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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Lately, the car market’s bottom end has been growing faster than a pregnant Kardashian’s. In the past decade, cars sized tiny and tinier have increased their share of the market by some 50 percent. Fierce competition in the cheap seats has fostered a boom in innovation and variety, including a new subset that we think [...]
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| GTEcstasy: Volkswagen to Introduce Sporty Plug-In Golf to Complement GTI, GTD |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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Europe’s challenging fuel-economy requirements are pushing the Continent’s automakers down the route of electrification. The first we’ll see of Audi’s approach to this strategy will come in the A3 e-tron, powered by a 204-hp plug-in hybrid powertrain. According to Autocar and confirmed by our sources in Wolfsburg, that same component set will be shared with [...]
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| Rolex 24, Day 2: After 24 Hours, It All Came Down to Just 1.46 Seconds |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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There were plenty of bleary-eyed spectators and the distinct aroma of campfire smoke early on Sunday at Daytona, but on-track it was high-speed business as usual. Some evening aspirations had been shattered, many of them originating in Detroit, as had some bodywork. As the morning moved on, the Ford EcoBoost–powered cars weren’t in contention for [...]
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| Rolex 24, Day 1: Corvettes Impress, Scary Crash Red Flags Race for 1.5 Hours |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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It’s a glorious sight. Sixty-seven race cars of various breeds creep off the last turn at the Daytona International Speedway, only for the decibel level to skyrocket as the green flag drops. Cars twitch as they try to squeeze into the funnel-shaped first turn. The field made it all the way to the Horseshoe before [...]
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| BMW Starts the 2014 Continental Series With a Pair of Wins in Daytona |
Jan 29th, 2014 |
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The big news at the 2014 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race series at Daytona was the debut of Chevrolet’s Camaro Z/28.R. Now that it’s arrived, the bow-tie brand can really duke it out with Ford’s Mustang Boss 302R, providing shades of the original Trans-Am series. These days, however, there’s a factor that wasn’t around [...]
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