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Volvo XC60 (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 February 2008 12:10 Volvo has finally sanctioned official shots of the XC60 – a junior version of the XC90 SUV that has helped turn around the fortunes of the Swedish company. Yes, it’s another crossover entering an increasingly congested marketplace, but Volvo hopes this one will appeal to buyers wanting the versatility of a 4x4 without the heft. Key points worth noticing are the Swedes’ gently evolving design – this is the first model developed under Steve Mattin’s watch as design director.

Kia Soul concepts

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 February 2008 15:46 Kia will show a glimpse of its new Soul soft-roader at the Geneva Motor Show on 4 March 2008, previewed in this teaser shot. The Soul is a departure for Kia in the same mould as the Fiat Sedici/Suzuki SX4 soft-roaders. Naturally, Kia says it ‘doesn’t fit into the usual motor industry brackets’, but we’d say they’re deluding themselves.

Alfa Romeo 8C Spider (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 February 2008 17:01 Drool on. Alfa Romeo will formally unveil the production version of the 8C Spider – a limited run of 500 soft-tops – at this spring’s Geneva Motor Show. It’s powered by the same 4.7-litre V8 producing 444bhp as the 8C coupe that so entranced CAR on our recent road trip from Monaco to Modena.Prospective buyers will face a long wait for the Spider, however.

Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe (2008): first official pictures

By Mark Nichol First Official Pictures 17 February 2008 00:01 BMW continues to stretch the Rolls-Royce range every which way (have they confused it with the 3-series famiy?) and today it unveils the new  Phantom Coupe. Think of it as a two-door gentleman’s express built for the mega-rich to waft unscathed through the credit crunch. You won't confuse its lineage, that's for sure.

Art Center BMW/Exa project

There's a new sponsored project that is just getting under way at Art Center College of Design, the likes of which hasn't been seen in a very long time - if at all. The school's Transportation Design department has helped bring together BMW with Exa Corporation, a Boston-based virtual aerodynamic simulation company, and has tasked the students to re-design the current BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle with the hope of dramatically increasing its aerodynamic efficiency while still retaining the BMW flagship SAV design language. This brief is quite timely in the context of the industry's ongoing focus with sustainability and strikes at the core of the BMW Group's long term energy strategy known as the concept of Efficient Dynamics.

Ford Fiesta (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 15 February 2008 00:01 You’re looking at Ford’s new Fiesta. The new supermini shares around half its parts with the Mazda 2 – which means the newcomer is the same size as today’s Fiesta but slightly lighter. Its diet will pay dividends in sensible things like emissions and fuel economy, but should also make it fun to drive.After months of speculation, we can finally see how closely the Fiesta has followed the Verve concept car, shown at numerous international motor shows.

Italian supercar cartoon

By Tim Pollard Motoring Issues 15 February 2008 08:01 CAR Online reader Tim Hiscocks so enjoyed our recent Italian supercar adventure to Monaco (CAR Magazine, January 2008), he drew up a cartoon of the road trip featuring the Alfa Romeo 8C, Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Maserati Granturismo. You can check out his drawing full size by clicking on the image to the right. We’ve recently upgraded our picture switcher, which now lets you enlarge each image without taking you to a different page.

Vauxhall Zafira (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 15 February 2008 15:14 Vauxhall is about to give its Zafira MPV – Britain’s best-selling people carrier – a spruce-up. The facelifted model arrives in time for the new March 2008 ‘08’ number plate, but buyers will be hard pressed to notice the changes: new chrome detailing on the grille, different foglight surrounds, and redesigned lights front and rear give the game away. Other changes include curtain airbags made standard on all models and… actually, there’s not much else new.

Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 13 February 2008 11:42 Porsche today unveils a new, more powerful version of its 911 racer. The GT3 RSR competes in GT2 long-distance races, including Le Mans, Spa and the 24-hour Nurburgring event and will benefit from new aero aids and engineering tweaks. Additional front ‘flicks’ spoilers are added to the front apron and extra air ducts pepper the steel bodywork, while the huge rear wing is carried over from last year’s racer.

Toyota iQ and Urban Cruiser (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 13 February 2008 12:28 Toyota hasn’t bottled it, thank goodness. This first photograph of the iQ shows that the production version of this fascinating mini has kept all the cheeky charm of last year’s show car, which won CAR’s concept car of the year gong. The iQ at 2007’s Frankfurt Motor Show wowed us for its fresh design, its simplicity and its back-to-basics overhaul of how a small car could be engineered.

March 2008 wallpapers

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 13 February 2008 17:52 We've added eleven new images to our Wallpaper gallery from the March 2008 edition of CAR Magazine. Click here to see the new wallpapers. CAR Magazine has the best photographs of the world's most amazing cars.

Car Designers Blackmailed

A London court has found former design student Guy Lloyd-Parker guilty of blackmailing US car designers. The London College of Fashion graduate had claimed that 95 car design sketches were stolen from him by two college lecturers in 1994, eventually resurfacing as final designs in the form of the Audi TT, BMW Z3, Mazda RX-8 and the Volvo XC90. Lloyd-Parker, having failed to successfully sue the college, began sending menacing letters to California-based Volvo Design Director Geza Loczi, former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, and ex-Mazda designer Tsutomu Matano demanding £90,000.

Honda Accord (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 11 February 2008 07:00 Stop peering in disbelief – this is the new Honda Accord. Yes, it’s an all-new model that looks suspiciously like the old one. Even Honda calls it ‘an evolution of the current model’ and it’s the big news on the company’s stand at the Geneva Motor Show next month.

BMW M3 race car (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 11 February 2008 09:18 Porsche and Ferrari watch out. BMW is returning to the American Le Mans Series in 2009 with the M3. And it’s going to be quick.

Renault Koleos (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 11 February 2008 10:01 Renault’s first proper 4x4 is here. After the disappointment of Scenics clad in black 'off-road' plastic, we finally have the Koleos SUV, unveiled today. It's the fruit of a surprisingly mixed relationship: Renault did the design, Nissan developed it and it’ll be built in the Renault Samsung plant in Korea.

Mercedes SL63 and SL65 AMG (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 08 February 2008 10:44 SL63 AMG. Remember the name, because it’s what Lewis Hamilton will be looking at all year. Mercedes has let its in-house tuners AMG loose on the recently facelifted SL, and the result is not one but two supercar baiters.

BMW and Merc to join forces

By Georg Kacher Motor Industry 08 February 2008 13:03 CAR Online today reveals the extent to which BMW and Mercedes are plotting to cooperate on future models. In a wide-ranging plan, the two German premium marques could join forces to take on the might of Audi, with its backing and economies of scale of the whole Volkswagen group and, increasingly, Porsche. BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer and his counterpart at Daimler, Dieter Zetsche, are coming to the conclusion that the two brands – for so long, fierce rivals – should work together rather than fight against each other.

Hummer H3T (2008): first official pictures

By George Chapman First Official Pictures 07 February 2008 14:31 The new Hummer H3T will boast a five foot long flatbed rear. Shown at the recent Chicago Auto Show, this revised version is heavily based on the existing H3 and will be sold in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Unmistakably Hummer, the flagship H3T Alpha is powered by the same GM-sourced 300bhp 5.3-litre V8 that has proved so popular, albeit with an aluminium block to improve weight distribution.

Volkswagen Routan (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 07 February 2008 14:38 Volkswagen’s Routan minivan is here, with European-inspired style for the US masses. Based on a Chrysler Grand Voyager the Routan is over five metres long and will use the American car’s engines. In standard form the Routan will be powered by a 3.8-litre 194bhp V6, mated to a six speed automatic ‘box.

Dodge Challenger SRT-8 (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 07 February 2008 14:53 Finally the Dodge Challenger SRT-8 is here. Unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show this week the striped orange muscle car is running a Hemi V8. That means 425bhp and 420lb ft from 6.1-litres.

Audi Snook at the 2008 Michelin Challenge Design

German design student Tilmann Schlootz has been named one of the winners in the 2008 Michelin Challenge Design competition for his Audi Snook project. Selected for special exhibition at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit by a jury of professional designers and educators, the Snook scale model concept answered a design brief entitled: 'Sharing the Road - Big Safety/Small Vehicles', which called for enhanced real and perceived safety for smaller vehicles through design innovation. The visionary concept vehicle, which rides on a mono-sphere wheel, is heralded as a new vehicle category, implementing the principles of agility through instability learned from aerospace technology.

Lancia Delta (2008): first official pictures

By George Chapman First Official Pictures 05 February 2008 15:50 This is the car that will relaunch Lancia in the UK market – after an absence of 14 years. The new, more upmarket Delta hatchback, unveiled today, is designed to overcome memories of catastrophic rust, reliability and aftersales problems. The new Delta is based on Fiat Bravo underpinnings stretched to a wheelbase of 2700mm.

Design Review: Mercedes-Benz CLC

The Mercedes brand tends to evoke images of wealth and prestige. It is also a company with quite a bit of heritage under its belt, with founder Karl Benz having built the first motorized vehicle back in 1886. So the image of prestige is well deserved, especially when you consider the illustrious designs the car maker put on the road in the last half century: the 1952 300Sc, the iconic 300SL 'Gullwing' from the 1950s and the 230SL 'Pagode' from 1964.

131 new cars for 2008

By Georg Kacher Motor Industry 31 January 2008 14:30 Will 2008 be a good year for new cars? You bet. Our European editor Georg Kacher has the lowdown on all the new metal due this year and we can spill the beans on all 131 new cars.

Renault Twingo Renaultsport (2008): first official pictures

By Tom Clarkson First Official Pictures 31 January 2008 18:17 Renault today unveiled its new 133bhp Twingo RS in Paris - with a little help from F1 stars Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jnr, who were in town for the launch of their R28 F1 car. The Twingo RS has a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre engine that produces 20bhp more than the 1.2-litre turbo of the Twingo GT. There are cosmetic differences between the two cars as well, such as extended front and rear wings, a rear spoiler and a lower front bumper on the RS.

'Ford shouldn't sell Jaguar/Land Rover'

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 30 January 2008 15:01 A majority of CAR Magazine Online users reckon that Ford is making a mistake by selling Jaguar and Land Rover. Nearly 60 percent of our website users say the Blue Oval shouldn’t flog its premium-badged crown jewels, according to our exclusive online poll. Ford is poised to announce the sell-off in the next few weeks; a decision is currently tipped for the end of February 2008, according to chief executive Alan Mulally, although deals of this epic scale can sometimes drag on for even longer.

Record British car exports

By Ben Oliver Motor Industry 29 January 2008 11:27 Britain exported more cars in 2007 than in any previous year, with total production up six percent to over 1.5 million. A record 1.18m cars, or 77 percent of production, were sent overseas. Britain’s record year for car production was 1972, when 1.9m cars were produced.

Mitsubishi Prototype-S sketches

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 28 January 2008 10:13 Fancy a cut-price Mondeo? Mitsubishi is readying a hatchback version of its Lancer family car for launch later this year – and will drop a few clues with this Prototype-S at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2008. Called Lancer Sportback, the production car will be a classic five-door, although you can bank on removing the wilder excesses of the side sills, aggressive snout spoiler and bonnet air vents on bread-and-butter models.

Mercedes CLC (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 27 January 2008 18:00 This is Mercedes’ new CLC, only it's not quite so new. Underneath it’s really the old Sports Coupe with a nose from the C-class grafted on to give it more modern engines and help it pass the latest crash regulations. In fact, the new CLC has exactly the same wheelbase (2715mm) as the old Sports Coupe, and the same size boot. Money.

Honda Accord Tourer (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 24 January 2008 11:05 Honda has released the first pictures and video of the new Accord, but while the photos only offer us a tantalising glimpse, the accompanying short film shows nearly every exterior detail of the new Accord Tourer (nee estate). The Tourer appears to have changed little from the concept that was shown at Frankfurt in 2007. The profile remains the same, and apart from a switch to production lights, wheels, grille, mirrors and door handles the exterior has kept most of the concept’s flavour.