2009 LA Auto Show Coverage by Autoblog

Jonathon Ramsey

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Which iPhone navigation app should you buy? This'll help

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 27th, 2009 at 1:57PM



The season of hitting the roads to places you don't really want to go, so that you can give gifts you didn't really want to buy and eat food you don't really like has begun. Naturally, a lot more people on the road means a lot more folks getting lost. Fear not, you invincible iPhone-equipped holiday travelers: Appcast has ranked the created a list of navigation apps taking into account 31 different features and metrics.

With all the measuring they've done, they leave the decision of which one is best up to you. But with factors such as coverage area, traffic and speed camera notifications, demo routes, and even text-to-speech (including how the application handles voice instructions when the phone is playing music), you should have plenty of tools to make the best choice for your tastes.

There are seven apps tested, starting at $29.99. One of them could help make your holiday treks that much more manageable -- but they still won't eat fruitcake.

[Source: Appcast]

Spy Shots: Elise, Exige, Esprit? Lotus tests new model

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 27th, 2009 at 1:03PM Spy Shots

When it comes to the successor to the Lotus Esprit, the specs -- and even the name -- are still up in the air. There is, however, a mule undergoing testing on the ground. Autocar has pics of an Exige with a seriously modified rear end, leading to speculation that the new Esprit's powertrain lives underneath.

This time engine talk centers on "a version of" the Lexus lump in the IS F, but with 275-325 bhp per ton as the goal, that could mean an engine which is quite close or quite far from its source material. Knowing Lotus, we won't doubt the power -- what we really can't wait to see are the looks. The Esprit V8 was the last of the gee-willikers rip-snorters from the house of Chapman, but it was the design of the earlier s4s that made us go "Oh yeah." Please, Lotus, give us that lovin' feelin' again...

[Source: Autocar]

VIDEO: Titan trailer celebrates the glory that is the Nürburgring

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 27th, 2009 at 12:59PM

Titan movie teaser – Click above to watch video

As any parent knows, when a child finds a video he likes he can watch it a kabillion jillion times with undiminished joy. That's exactly the kid we turn into any time you cut up race footage and set it to classical music and exhaust notes. This time it's the preview of the movie Titan, by French director Stephane Benini, which strings together action from the 1000 KM of the Nürburgring and features modern and vintage racers and motorcycles.

The movie has its own Facebook page if you really want to declare your love, or you can do the secret admirer thing and just enjoy the 6-minute HD clip from YouTube after the jump. The sound of the GT2 Corvette and DB9R is nothing short of knee-trembling. Follow the jump for the clip, and try not to spill your pureed peas...

[Source: Clash Productions]

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Nissan's self-healing Scratch Shield paint to be applied to mobile phones

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 27th, 2009 at 8:59AM



A while back, Nissan scientists helped to develop a paint clearcoat called Scratch Shield that can self-repair light scratches overnight or over the course of a week.

Now the Japanese automaker is spreading the love, licensing the technology to Japan's largest wireless company, NTT DoCoMo. The clearcoat uses a special top layer of highly elastic resin that gives the coating a 'flexibility' that reportedly means that it can prevent or "heal" 80% of surface marks. The coating itself is also tougher, so it is less susceptible to marks in the first place. Official press release after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]

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VIDEO: Audi tracks down the last Horch... in Texas?

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 26th, 2009 at 8:19PM

The search for the last Horch -- Click above to watch video

You have August Horch to thank for Audi. A former engineer for Karl Benz, Horch started the second oldest company of the original four companies that merged to form Auto Union (the first was Wanderer). But it was Horch whose name, translated into Latin, became "Audi."

The last Horch was built in Ingolstadt in 1953, and Audi wanted to find it. They put their vintage car locator, Ralph Hornung, on the case and he ended up in a field in West Texas. Follow the jump to view a video explaining the search and how the once mighty V8 found its way to a lonely Lone Star pasture. And on a side note, Hornung has a most awesome job... Thanks for the tip, Alex!

[Source: Audi TV via YouTube]

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Review: 2009 Audi A8L - requiem for a heavyweight

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 25th, 2009 at 12:10PM Review

2009 Audi A8L – Click above for high-res gallery

We come not to bury the A8L, but to praise it. Next week the newest generation of Audi's aluminum spaceframe panzer will greet the world in Miami, and we expect it to be a leap through a wormhole compared to today's car. After a week with the current model at the end of its six-year run, we walked away from a saloon that still has us smitten. What we didn't expect was that, even though we didn't come to bury the thing, we would end up throwing quite a bit of dirt on it.

That might make the Audi A8 the Megan Fox of automobiles.
A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing the 2009 Audi A8L: we discovered ourselves writing compromising things about the four-ringed flagship. This is a sedan that we adore mightily, and having thought it over, we might even say unreasonably. It became the girl you're dating that you first describe as "She's great!" just before divulging a list of mildly unseemly behaviors that you'd never considered all at once, ending with, "Wow... I really do like her, but come to think of it... she's a little kooky." That might make the Audi A8 the Megan Fox of automobiles.

We drove the A8L W12 a couple of years ago, and it was possessed of so much battleship-gray girth we wanted to call it the Bismarck and park it in a Norwegian fjord for safety. Yet and still, it was glorious: an exterior awash in pulchritude, an interior so beautiful we wish we had gotten its autograph, and it gulped miles, and gas, like cognac. Since we didn't write about it, we didn't give it the philosopher's thought, and we walked away from it with only roses, no thorns. But now...


Gallery: Review: 2009 Audi A8 L


Photos copyright ©2009 Jonathon Ramsey / Weblogs, Inc.

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REPORT: China's Changan delays plan to enter North American auto market

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 25th, 2009 at 8:44AM



Changan is coming to America, just not yet. Aiming to establish a base in Mexico with which to move into the U.S. market, the Chinese automaker signed a deal last year to build a plant south of the border. The familiar story of planetary financial catastrophe has encouraged Changan to tap the brakes on its plans, however.

Said the company's R&D head to Reuters, "We are still doing market research there. There won't be any big investment for the time being." As if the crisis weren't enough, Changan, like other Chinese makers, is also looking at getting into the luxury market with a vehicle developed in-house, and that will divert potential resources from overseas expansion. That means we Americans won't get to sample MPVs like the Changan Joice (shown above) for a while longer.

[Source: Reuters]

REPORT: New Chinese-market Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT to debut in Guangzhou

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 24th, 2009 at 3:59PM



General Motors' China's sales are up 60 percent year-on-year, and The General wants to keep the momentum going at its Chinese outpost. Automotive News China reports that the Guangzhou Auto Show will play host to the unveiling of the market-specific Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT, the latter described as a four-door "coupé-like sedan."

The Excelle XT will take a place between the Excelle and the new Regal. The Cadillac gets 3.0-liter and 3.6-liter engines with GM's SIDI technology that also grace Australia's new Holden Commodores. The luxury sedan, a lengthened version of our STS with a superior interior, will also be China's introduction to OnStar.


[Source: Automotive News China - Sub. Req.]

REPORT: Electric Infiniti will stay true to brand's performance roots?

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 24th, 2009 at 10:30AM



After spending a product cycle honing its image, Infiniti doesn't want to to compromise it's standing in the luxury automobile set -- not even for its electric vehicles. That is why the "compact, high-performance, four-seat luxury Infiniti with zero emissions" that Carlos Ghosn announced at the Tokyo Auto Show will not alter what people have come to expect from Nissan's upmarket brand. If a VP in Infiniti's Business Unit, Ben Poore, is to be believed, it will enhance it.

"The model will fit perfectly with the performance standards that we've set for the brand," Poore said. We don't imagine it will be too difficult for Infiniti to simply electrify one of their vehicles and make it worthy -- we'd hop in an electric G37 in a second. The real challenge will be livability and longevity. Those challenges could be what Infiniti has in mind in not giving its electric car a release date, because they'll want to get it right... and maybe they want that time to perfect a four-door, electric Essence. Let the dreaming begin in three, two...

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

The Baja 1000 - and Hummer vs. Toyota - has been decided

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Nov 24th, 2009 at 8:59AM



The 672.85-mile-long Baja 1000 race is over, and 328 starters were boiled down to just a handful of winners in various classes. The premier events were taken by Andy and Scott McMillin in the trophy truck category, in a modded Chevrolet Silverado. Andy won the race three years ago as a year ago as Robby Gordon's co-driver, but this year beat the NASCAR pilot by three places. The motorcycle category went to the three-way team of Kendall Norman, Timmy Weigand, and Quinn Cody, who crossed the line about 45 minutes before the McMillin's did.

Behind them, two legends of the race practically had the Stock Mini class to themselves: 20-time winner Rod Hall, along with Emily Miller, and Mike Winkel in a Hummer H3 took on Robert Ditner, Joe Nolan, Kez Ziesemer, and three-time winner Ivan Stewart in a 2010 Toyota 4Runner. Of three starters in the class, these two vehicles were the only ones to finish, and the issue came down to the last few miles: Hall's Hummer suffered a long repair stop at mile 40 and he only passed Stewart's 4Runner for first place just thirty miles from the finish.

While Stewart settles for second – and Hall gets his record-setting 21st class win – it's a triumph for the truck and drivers to have finished the race at all. Congratulations to all involved

[Source: SCORE]

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Autoblog Podcast #154: Gobbling up the News

Chris, Sam, and Dan kick out a podcast just in time for the long holiday drive.

 
 

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