Some companies, when they stick with fundamentally only one design scheme, end up with a whole line of ugly cars. Others, when they have the same mindset but choose a good design, end up with a line of good to very good looking cars.

Case in point: BMW’s new 7 and 3 Series are still fugly, while this concept from Audi looks fantastic. And, remember, the BMWs have powerful engines and respectable performance, while the A1 Sportback Concept is a sub-compact hybrid. In essence, it is an econo-car. And yet it is still hotter: proof that fuel-efficient cars can be very cool.

It is a five-door four seater, boasting a very impressive design. Now this is no sports sedan, but the styling is clean and classy, yet very modern and technical at the same time. Audi would like to direct your attention to the headlights and taillights, which are all LEDs, and, if you would notice, all incorporated into one setup. The interior is nothing spectacular, but you can expect all the Audi values of quality and durability.

Another picture, more info, and the press release after the jump: Continue Reading…

Now this is rather bizarre. Bizarre and interesting.

There has been a respectable amount of online hype for Citroen’s concept GT (yes, the official name is GTbyCitroen), and from the looks of things, it deserves it. This has got to be the wildest car Citroen ever penned, and perhaps the wildest at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. It is the product of a partnership between Citroen and Polyphony, the designers of the Gran Turismo 5 game. Apparently, this is the first time a full size version of a video game car has been built, by the company of the car.

In case you are wondering, this car will not hit the streets. It can’t even rightly be called a concept, as the GT is purely a show car. In the game though (only for Play Station 3, by the way), the car has an electric drive train and is powered by a fuel cell. And according to Autoblog, it features the following: 3.6 seconds to reach 60 mph and 646 horsepower.

Now about the design… the whole idea was to create the feeling of movement. The long rear supposedly creates “retinal persistence”. The white to gray graduation is a sneaky design feature that makes the car look fast, and there are a whole bunch more little tricks that you can find in the press release. As for the front, I keep on thinking of some kind of animal, I just don’t know what it is. Whale shark? Catfish? A rabid squirrel? Maybe even an odd interpretation of some kind of cat?

The gull wing doors are pretty sick though.

More pictures and press release after the jump. Continue Reading…

This is interesting, not to mention rather clever.

So you know that Lamborghini has released a grand total of three teaser photos of a new model that is to be debuted at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The shots are of the exhaust, a taillight, and the front wheel.

A clever blogger at the LamboPower forums called “a007apl” has used those images and pieced together a rather convincing and seemingly accurate photo of the Lamborghini’s rear.

What can I say: it looks good. No details have been released yet on the new car, but I have been hearing some un-godly rumors about it being a four dour sports sedan.

All I can say is…please Lamborghini. Please don’t. Please retain at least some small portion of your self-respect. Trust me, making a sedan will only cast you even further behind Ferrari than you already are.

Well, looks like Mercedes is going at it again.

The SLR McLaren is a fantastic supercar, combining the luxury, quality, and technical precision of Mercedes with the performance prowess of McLaren. The car can hit 208 mph, accelerates from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, has 617 horses and 575 pound-feet of torque. That all sounds good, until you hit the price tag of around $500,000. Sales never matched expectations, and have been steadly dropping off.

To remedy that, Merc has been releasing several variants of the SLR (e.g. 722 Edition and the Roadster), but sales haven’t started the climb up. It looks like they are going to give it one last try, in the most hardcore version yet.

What you see above is artist Jon Sibal’s impression of what the SLR “Speedster” (not official name) looks like. This was the result of his prodigious artistic talent when applied to deciphering a series of camouflaged spy shots. I can’t vouch for the accuracy, but it looks pretty darn good to me. No official specs yet, but if Sibal’s picture is any indication, it’ll be just beastly (check out the wider and more aggressive bodywork, the roof (or lack of) and those extreme side exhaust vents).

(Image Courtesy of Motor Trend)

I don’t like Porsches. Never have. The ugly headlights, the ugly nose, the ridiculous spoilers. To me, they are tasteless little wannabe Lamborghini/Ferraris. And whenever my feelings for Porsche start to get milder, some new mistake sends it right back on track.

The mistake in question here is the upcoming Porsche Panamera. It’s supposed to be a “four door coupe“, a new term that has somehow popped up among the more pathetic car manufacturers. The term itself is contradicting. A coupe has two doors. A four door automobile is a sedan. The two are NOT the same. It’s just a lame attempt by some companies to sell their non-sporty cars as sporty.

Anyway, the entire idea of Porsche making a sedan just doesn’t seem right to me. They make the majority of their sales from their coupes, because that is what a Porsche is. A Porsche is supposed to be a fast, little, comfortable, and somewhat expensive two door sports car. When Porsche introduced the Cayenne SUV, it did very little to improve sales, and it smudged the company name. If you all remember, they got a lot of flak for trying to advertise an SUV as a sports automobile. Now, for some reason, they’re diverging from the brand again, this time in the form of a sedan. Continue Reading…

(click image for detail)

Lamborghini sent out a press release today stating that they will be unveiling their latest supercar at the 2008 Paris Motor Show in October. The release included only that information and the above image, which is a very vague preview of the center-mounted exhaust. More information will be available on October 1st. Stay tuned…