Spied! Mid-Engine Corvette Caught on Car of the Year Test Loop
The mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette has been spotted dozens of times over the past two years, but it’s almost always caught testing near GM’s Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan. It appears the C8 is now starting to venture farther from home, as this prototype caught by our own senior features editor Christian Seabaugh shows. What’s perhaps most interesting about this chance encounter is where the mid-engine Corvette was caught: running the same test loop MotorTrend uses for our Car of the Year program.
The upcoming Chevy sports car was captured on our Tehachapi test loop near the Hyundai-Kia Proving Ground in California City, California. Automakers routinely test in California’s Mojave Desert for its reliably dry, warm climate (though it happened to rain today), but we can’t help but wonder if the Corvette team is here practicing for one specific test. Namely, ours.
Our Tehachapi loop is well known to manufacturers, and it’s not uncommon to spot prototypes running the route in advance of Car of the Year testing. If Chevy is prepping for COTY consideration, then that means the mid-engine Corvette will start around or below our price cutoff. To be eligible for Car of the Year, a vehicle can cost no more than four times the average transaction price of a new car, which means the cutoff is about $144,000 this year. Pricing for the mid-engine Corvette remains unknown, but for reference, the range-topping C7 Corvette ZR1 starts at $122,095.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about the mid-engine Corvette, but we do know a few things. We recently got to see the car’s upscale interior, which features a unique single-file button layout on the center console. We also saw its key fob in leaked images, which could hint at a power retractable Targa roof option. Drivetrain choices are still unknown, but a pair of dual-overhead-cam V-8 engines has been rumored.
Is it presumptuous of us to think that Chevy is running the mid-engine Corvette on this remote desert road in preparation for Car of the Year? Perhaps. But if the mid-engine Corvette team was gunning for the Golden Calipers, this is how it would study for the test.
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TVR Griffith Production Pushed Back Until 2020
If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the U.K.’s newest sports car, the TVR Griffith, we have some bad news. There’s been another delay. Originally set to go on sale in 2017, the delivery date was pushed back to early 2019. And now it’s been pushed back to 2020.
AutoRAI confirmed the delay after speaking with Paul Thompson, TVR’s Heritage Director. According to Thompson, European regulations are to blame. “It takes more time than we expected to start production, thanks to the rules of the European Union,” Thompson told the Dutch outlet. “We are now aiming for a market launch in the course of 2020.”
Perhaps surprisingly, one thing that hasn’t been an issue for TVR is finding customers for its initial 500-unit run. “We already have buyers for all these cars,” said Thompson. “We expect to be able to build the first 500 copies in twelve to fourteen months. That comes down to about ten cars a week. The production rate is later increased. That is quite possible because there is a lot of stretch in the production capacity. We can even build up to 1,500 to 2,000 cars on an annual basis.”
Even though it’s an obscure, low-volume product that’s unlikely to ever be sold in the U.S., the Griffith is a car we can’t help cheering for. TVR claims it weighs only 2,756 pounds and uses a 5.0-liter Cosworth-tuned V-8 that makes 500 hp. With a six-speed manual transmission, it’s said to hit 60 mph in less than four seconds and top out north of 200 mph. And as you can see in the video below, the Griffith uses Gordon Murray’s innovative iStream carbon-fiber production process.
Source: AutoRAI
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FCA Crushed a Real 1963 Jeep Gladiator for its Super Bowl Ad
Super Bowl LIII is just days away, and that means you can expect many companies to debut multi-million-dollar commercials during the big game. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will be one of those companies, and it’ll run five ads for an audience of 100 million-plus viewers. But why wait until Sunday to watch them? Check out all five TV spots below.
Jeep “Crusher”
This ad for the 2020 Jeep Gladiator evokes mixed feelings. We get to see the new JL Wrangler-based Jeep Gladiator pickup truck on television, but not before we see an original Gladiator partially crushed. Just when it looks like the 1960s-era truck is going to be completely flattened, one of the headlights flickers on and the body panels begin reinflating and transforming into those of the new Gladiator, resisting the jaws of the crusher and eventually breaking its hydraulics. It’s a cool effect, but the sacrifice of an early Jeep truck is hard to watch. The crushing sequence looks pretty real, and that’s because it is. When asked for comment about the vintage truck in the ad, an FCA spokeswoman said, “The inoperable 1963 Jeep Gladiator depicted was sourced via an online scrap sales site. We wish we could have driven it while it was still alive!”
The drivetrain may have been shot, but that body looked pretty straight to us…
Dodge “Georgia”
The big game commercial for the Dodge brand follows roughly the same formula as past ads narrated by Vin Diesel, but this time it’s more tailored for the Super Bowl’s host city and state, and there’s no Dominic Toretto. A cover of the classic country song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” serves as the soundtrack, and is appropriate considering two of the three cars featured are Hellcat models. The third vehicle is the Durango SRT. Between shots of the V-8-powered Dodges racing past various Atlanta landmarks, we see a marching band performing on a football field, presumably in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Super Bowl takes place this year.
Ram “Can’t Remember”
This super-meta TV spot features two cowboys reminiscing about past Super Bowl commercials, and both remark that they can never remember what their favorite ads were advertising. The spot ends with one of the cowboys saying “they need to just show you what they’re selling,” followed by 10 seconds of uninterrupted slow-panning footage of the new 2019 Ram HD.
Ram “Make Sure of It” and Jeep “More Than Just Words”
Contradicting the idea proposed in the last ad, these two commercials barely include any vehicles at all. Ram’s “Make Sure of It” ad features Jeremy Renner talking about gender equality issues and parental responsibilities, while Jeep’s 2-minute “More Than Just Words” spot is a montage of American life and achievements cut to a mostly-instrumental cover of “The Star Spangled Banner” by OneRepublic. U-S-A! And by association, J-E-E-P?
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Maserati Making Big Changes in an Effort to Improve Sales
Whether you’re talking about a 458-swapped Scion FR-S or the Maserati Levante Trofeo, if you put a Ferrari-sourced engine in a car, it’s going to sound good. Guaranteed. But with questionable material quality and lots of parts sharing, it feels like Maserati lost its way over the last few years. The good news is, it sounds like Fiat Chrysler is ready to change that.
Autocar reports that with both sales and profits down over the last year, FCA CEO Mike Manley wants to take Maserati in a new direction. He recently put Harald Wester, who headed up Maserati from 2008 to 2016, back in charge of the brand, and he’s reportedly tasked him with bringing in a new management team. Once the new team is in place, it will be time to develop a plan to turn Maserati around.
Manley hasn’t been quiet about his desire to shake things up at Maserati. At an investor conference last year, he said, “With hindsight, when we put Maserati and Alfa together, it did two things. Firstly, it reduced the focus on Maserati the brand. Secondly, Maserati was treated for a period of time almost as if it were a mass-market brand, which it isn’t and shouldn’t be treated that way.”
And while it will take time to bring new products to market, it sounds like Manley expects to start moving quickly. “It will take at least two quarters to sort through some of the channel issues, but I’m expecting Harald and his team to make some significant progress beginning in the second half of 2019,” he said.
It’s not clear at the moment what Wester’s new plan will look like, but hopefully, we hear more by the end of the year.
Source: Autocar
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VW Says its Customers in Germany Are Returning to Diesel
Volkswagen has made a massive push toward electric vehicles in the years following its diesel cheating scandal. But it isn’t giving up on diesel. In fact, diesels are making up an increasing portion of the vehicles that the VW brand sells in Germany.
The share of incoming orders for diesel vehicles increased from 39 percent in 2017 to 43 percent last year in Germany, the automaker reported. Among private consumers, the jump was even bigger, rising from 15 percent in 2017 to 27 percent in 2018.
“In Germany, the diesel debate is emotionally charged—and frequently strays from the facts,” said Volkswagen Brand Board Member for Sales, Jurgen Stackmann, in a statement. “Given its high efficiency and its performance and in light of climate change, the diesel engine will remain an important technology for years to come, especially for those who travel long distances.”
Still, VW hasn’t completely recovered from the dieselgate fiasco. As CNN points out, diesels made up about 49 percent of all Volkswagen car sales in Germany in 2015.
Early last year, then-Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Mueller predicted a diesel “renaissance” was on the way. “Diesel will see a renaissance in the not-too-distant future because people who drove diesels will realize that it was a very comfortable drive concept,” he said, reports Bloomberg.
But diesel probably won’t be an important part of the VW lineup forever. Bloomberg recently reported that the Volkswagen Group will introduce a new generation of gas and diesel cars beginning in 2026, and after that, it will phase out internal combustion engines altogether.
Source: Volkswagen, CNN, Bloomberg
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2020 Subaru Legacy Redesigned with a Large Touchscreen
The 2020 Subaru Legacy will make its official debut at the Chicago Auto Show on February 7. Ahead of the reveal, Subaru is showing off the car’s new touchscreen.
The iPad-like screen features large icons for the infotainment system on top and climate control icons at the bottom. On either side of the screen, there are physical knobs to control volume and tune through radio stations. Below the knobs, you’ll find physical buttons for climate control should you want to adjust the temperature manually.
The new screen is a departure from the current model’s optional 8-inch unit that is oriented horizontally. We have found Subaru’s latest infotainment technology to be very responsive to touch, so we have high hopes for this new system.
As the Legacy enters its seventh generation, expect it to sit on the new Subaru Global Platform. That should translate to improvements in ride quality, although the current Legacy already rides comfortably. Engines are unknown at this point, but it’s likely Subaru will ditch the optional 3.6-liter boxer-six. If so, Subaru could replace it with a 2.4-liter turbocharged boxer-four like the one on the Ascent.
The new Legacy arrives at a time when some automakers are trimming sedans in favor of crossovers. The Legacy isn’t a big seller by any means, but we aren’t surprised Subaru is keeping it in the lineup. We learned last year that the automaker is committed to sedans and traditional cars since gas prices can fluctuate.
Pictured below is the 2019 Subaru Legacy.
Source: Subaru
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