Autoblog: News Thread

[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Renault takes the Clio Cup to the high street

Filed under: Motorsports, Euro, Hatchbacks, Renault

Volkswagen, Honda, Peugeot... they can all try to make hot hatches, and they may even turn out to be smashingly good. But Renault will always be the king of the hot hatches. The latest from Renaultsport, the French automaker's competition division, is the Clio Cup. It's essentially a beefed-up and stripped-down version of the critically-acclaimed Renaultsport Clio 197. (Think Clio Superleggera, or Clio Scuderia.)
Although the Clio Cup has already been available for a while now, it was originally intended for the company's one-make racing series in the UK (pictured above), supporting events for the British Touring Car Championship. Despite the Clio Cup series limiting entries to 38 cars per race, Renault has sold over 60 in the UK as buyers have been snatching them up for track use, evidently prompting Renault to change its strategy.
Now available for public consumption and use on the road, the Clio Cup is virtually identical to its track-bound counterpart: power is boosted to 205 hp from the standard 197, the suspension is tightened up and extra weight has been stripped out. It's being certified for road use in the UK under Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) tests, mandating the fitment of regular seat-belts and bigger side-view mirrors as the only modifications required for its streetability. While prices haven't yet been announced, the track version sells for £22,500, prompting an anticipated MSRP in the neighborhood of £27k.
[Source: What Car?]

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Left Out: UPS software minimizes left turns

Filed under: Etc.

What can Brown do for you? Not make left turns, for a start.
UPS uses proprietary software it calls "package flow" to increase efficiency in its logistical operations, including mapping out routes for each of its 95,000 delivery trucks. According to UPS, the software has already cut out some 28.5 million miles, 3 million gallons of fuel and 31,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide by optimizing the most efficient routes for delivery. The next step is to minimize the number of left-hand turns its trucks have to make.
Hanging a left entails more waiting at traffic lights and for circulation to clear at intersections than taking right turns, so UPS is reprogramming Package Flow to favor right turns instead. Naturally, it won't send its trucks around in circles if a left turn is in order, but seeing a big brown truck turn left could become a rarer sight from now on.
[Source: The New York Times Magazine via Winding Road]

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Spyker courts European investors

Filed under: Euro, Earnings/Financials, Spyker

If you're a regular reader here on Autoblog, it should come as no surprise that Spyker is in deep financial trouble. The exotic Dutch carmaker was forced to sell off its F1 team, cancel the production of the C12 Zagato supercar and even mortgage its own name.
Never content to go quietly into the night, however, Spyker is on a campaign to raise funds. The latest endeavor has been to court European investors, but negotiations with Lichtenstein-based ACI recently fell through after an initial agreement was signed.
According to reports, Spyker is now in negotiations with Snoras Group, a Lithuanian bank, to fund and potentially acquire stake in the Dutch automaker. Spyker says it has a few other possibilities on tap, and hopefully one of them will come through to rescue the company and its beautifully quirky automobiles.
[Source: Motor Authority]

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: 2007 Holiday Sweepstakes Day 4: Set of Kumho ECSTA DX Aroma tires

Filed under: Contests


The holidays have a lot to do with smells: the musty scent of the tree after it's been trimmed, the taste of turkey in your nose after it's been set on the table, and the fresh lavender smell of your tires after driving over the river and through the woods to get to Grandmother's house. That's right, the prize for Day 4 of Autoblog's Holiday Sweepstakes is a set of Ultra High Performance Kumho ECSTA DX Aroma tires. Not only does this rolling rubber offer better grip than your standard fare from the factory, but special oils in the tread compound release a pleasant lavender scent after they've been warmed up. After getting a whiff of these, Grandma will want you to do burnouts in her driveway this year.

Keep in mind these tires are made in general for high-end luxury sedans, but Kumho will help determine what size it offers best suits your car.

How to Enter: Just leave a single comment on this post (if you leave two or more, all will be disqualified).Simple Rules:

• 1 winner will be randomly selected at 12:00PM EST Friday, 12/14/07
• You may enter today's sweepstakes only once
• Only residents of the United States are eligible
• You must be at least 18 to enter

Click here to view official rules and come back every day this week around noon to see what else we're giving away. Happy Holidays from your friendly neighborhood Autoblog!

NOTE: We have already randomly chosen 1 winner for yesterday's sweepstakes and will be in contact shortly. Feel free to enter today's sweepstakes if you're eligible, and if you happen to be a previous Holiday Sweepstakes winner, your entry in today's sweepstakes will automatically not count.
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Chrysler says it will meet new CAFE standards

Filed under: Green, Chrysler, Earnings/Financials


Detroit's sharp intake of breath over the very real possibility of increased federal fuel economy standards apparently doesn't include Chrysler's voice. CEO Robert Nardelli has told The Car Connection that rather than waste lots of time and energy opposing the likely increase to a 35 mpg fleet average, Chrysler will put its head down and get it done. Attaining the goal will not be without pain, however. Cuts will be made, and the books are still in the red.

There is hope, though, if Chrysler and parent Cerberus Capital can stick it out. A new contract with the UAW eases some of the automaker's financial burden, allowing that money to be plowed into development of more fuel efficient vehicles. There's a new two-mode hybrid system, co-developed with Daimler, GM, and BMW, which should help lift the fleet average without Chrysler abandoning their bread and butter moneymakers. With a lineup heavy in less-frugal vehicles like SUVs, trucks, and minivans, Chrysler's acknowledged the holes in their product mix and will set about plugging product into the voids. First up is the new Journey, the company's first crossover vehicle. The CUV segment is red-hot right now, so having a model to sell is a plus. Having a good model that will continue to sell well is an even bigger plus. At this point, Chrysler's facing an uphill climb.

[Source: TCC]


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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Land Rover LRX unveiled, courtesy of Auto Motor und Sport

Filed under: Concept Cars, Detroit Auto Show, SUVs, Land Rover

Click image for photo gallery

The Land Rover LRX is set for a big Detroit debut next month, but you can see it now thanks to German enthusiast mag Auto Motor und Sport. They have thoughtfully posted a full photo gallery of the shortened, lowered Freelander-based Land Rover coupe concept, and thanks to the broken English provided by Google Translate, we can report some of the highlights, as well. The compact SUV boasts long doors and an athletic stance accentuated by a sloping roof, 20" wheels, and a somewhat sinister looking front fascia. The cabin takes on a 2+2 configuration, decorated in typical never-see-production concept trim. The shifter is mounted at the top part of the center console, with a fancy metal central controller for the four-wheel-drive positioned further down.

The attached photos show red ambient lighting in the cabin. That indicates that the car is in sport driving mode. Based on the Auto Motor und Sport piece, our understanding is that the same lighting glows green during off-road use and blue in normal mode. Technical and powertrain details aren't spelled out clearly, but the final paragraph of the translated article mentions (we think) that if the LRX were to make the transition to production, it would likely be built atop the Focus architecture and incorporate a hybrid drivertrain with an electric motor on the rear axle. If you can read German and are able to clarify exactly what the article says, please feel free to do so in the comments.

(Gallery note: the images will be artificially enlarged when you first open them. Click them as if to view in high-res and they'll shrink to the undistorted 450-pixel size like the one shown above.)

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport]
Gallery: Land Rover LRX Concept


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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Pics Aplenty: More pics of Knight Rider's new Fordified KITT

Filed under: Etc.

click above for more images, including a desktop-wallpaper of above shot

We'd be proud too if we were Ford. Somehow the Blue Oval managed to convince NBC that the voice of Will Arnett and its Shelby GT500KR would make a perfect fit for an updated KITT on the boob tube. Today we found a couple new pics of the Fordified KITT and higher-resolution versions of the ones we showed yesterday on Ford's media site. To recap, there will three versions of KITT in the new Knight Rider TV show: a standard KITT Hero car, a more combative and winged KITT Attack (shown above), and KITT Remote for when the protagonist whispers into his Seiko watch, "KITT, I need help."

We think KITT being a Shelby GT500KR is quite the coup for Ford. The upcoming Chevy Camaro seemed like a better fit, if for no other reason than Pontiac doesn't have a car that would fit the role and the original KITT was at least an F-body. Regardless, we're excited to see the new KITT when the TV show kicks off with a 2-hour Knight Rider movie on February 17th, and while we don't expect it to be, you know, good, we'll tune in to see if the GT500KR has got any acting chops.

[Source: Ford]

UPDATE: Ford's official press release added after jump.Continue reading Pics Aplenty: More pics of Knight Rider's new Fordified KITT

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Let there be light - Visualeyes Rayzer rethinks auxiliary lamps

Filed under: Aftermarket, Gadgets, SEMA, Safety
Vehicular lighting is a crapshoot. Some vehicles offer a great swath of even coverage from their headlamps, while others make you feel like you're squinting through welding goggles at night. I went through the trouble to retrofit one of my cars with Cibi&eacute; lamps running overwattage H4 bulbs. That effort required a couple hundred dollars of parts, a good amount of labor to wire up relays and triggers, and not everyone is willing to expend such time and money, even if it means you won't overdrive your lights so easily. Sweden's Visualeyes has trotted out the Rayzer, an auxiliary lighting system that mounts from the inside and projects a beam through the windshield. We're taking the product's SEMA appearance as an indication of legality in the US. From the amount of end-user modifications we see on a daily basis, nobody's enforcing the rules on lights, anyway. The system has been patented and was developed by former race car driver Lars Svelander after a close call with a deer.

The line-of-sight position is purported to be more effective and has the benefit of leaving the outward appearance unmarred. We'd be worried about throwing light spill onto the hood, or too close to the front of the car, for that matter. Too much light in the wrong place is a detriment to night vision, but putting more lumens down the road could improve your chances of not overdoing it. The Rayzer uses a pair of HID bulbs and is wired into the car's lighting system to illuminate when the high beams are in use. There's also a fail-safe circuit that will shut the Rayzer off if oncoming vehicles are detected - a good thing when you're blasting light through your windshield. No price has been announced, but trading the hours of cutting, crimping, and snaking wires for the ease of a 15-minute installation by a non professional sounds good to us, especially if it works as well as the pictures make it appear.

Thanks for the tip, Andreas!

[Source: Visualeyes]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Energy Bill fails again in Senate by one vote, new vote set for later today

Filed under: Government/Legal, Green
Earlier today, the U.S. Senate voted on the new Energy Bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives before failing to get enough votes on the Senate floor its first time around. Today the bill again failed to pass in the Senate's hallowed hall by a single vote. The end tally was 59-40, which means Democrats much have changed a few minds since the first vote was 53-42.

But all hope is not lost for the Senators who want to get this bill passed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said that $21.8 billion in new taxes will be removed from the bill and another vote will take place later today. The hope is that by dropping the taxes, the bill will curry favor with at least one more politician who was previously unwilling to vote for it before. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has already confirmed that House would pass a new version of the bill sans the $21.8 million in taxes, which tells you just how much Democrats want this bill to land on the President's desk.

So what gets left behind in order to get the new Energy Bill passed? The Detroit News reports that the revised bill will not include $1 billion in consumer tax credits for buying plug-in hybrids, and will nix a 20% tax credit for people who convert their vehicles into plug-in hybrids. What remains of the bill, however, is its core piece of legislation that will raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020. The White House has repeatedly stated, however, that it plans to veto the bill if it passes both houses of Congress. And the saga continues...

[Source: The Detroit News]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Possible KITT reject? Wald Mercedes-Benz CL

Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupes, Mercedes Benz

click above image for high-res gallery

With news of the Ford Shelby GT500KR being plucked from obscurity to play the role of KITT in the TV revival of Knight Rider, it makes you wonder what cars might have been passed up to play the part. Surely this one got called back for a couple rereads. It's a Mercedes-Benz CL-Class wearing the new tuning package from Wald. Sporting an all-black exterior, the Wald CL gets a number of aerodynamic add-ons including new front and rear aprons, new side skirts, a new rear spoiler, vents aplenty (check out the ones atop the front fenders and behind the front wheels) and jet black rims. We're not sure, however, if the voice of Will Arnett would sound right emanating from the dash of the Wald CL. Perhaps James Earl Jones? Yeah, you feel me.

[Source: eMercedesBenz]

Gallery: Mercedes-Benz CL-Class by Wald


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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Chevy Lumina SS named Middle East's "Sports Saloon of the Year"

Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Sports/GTs, Chevrolet, GM

Click image for high-res gallery

The motorheads at CAR Middle East have named the Chevy Lumina SS their 2007 Sports Saloon of the Year. The Lumina SS, as you're well aware by now, is simply a rebadged Holden Commodore SS, the same way that the forthcoming Pontiac G8 GT is. 360 horses and 390 lb-ft of torque must make for plenty of fun on those long roads cutting through the desert. The front end looks rightly spiffy wearing that Bowtie, too. You may recall that Middle Eastern markets also just got a rebadged version of the HSV Clubsport R8 called the CSV CR8. We're banking on that becoming the still-unannounced G8 GXP that GM folks just smile about when you ask them what the deal is. Zetas for everyone!

[Source: GM]
Gallery: 2008 Chevy Lumina SS (Middle East)

Continue reading Chevy Lumina SS named Middle East's "Sports Saloon of the Year"

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: California seeing Green: Judge throws out lawsuit, Quebec adopts same emiss

Filed under: Government/Legal, Green

Some big news has happened on the green movement front over the past two days, beginning with a federal judge who has decided to throw out the lawsuit filed by automakers against California that challenges the state's authority to set its own emissions standards. Automakers would obviously prefer a unified federal emissions standard that allows them to sell the same car in every state, but the ruling yesterday means that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is allowed to set its own, stricter standards that automakers have to meet if they want to sell cars in the Golden State, or any of the other U.S. states that have adopted the same standards.

But now automakers won't just have to consider U.S. states with stricter emissions standards when developing their new cars. The Canadian province of Quebec has also recently decided to adopt the same standards as California, making it the first territory outside of the U.S. to do so. While there are some hoops through which this legislation needs to jump in Canadian politics before it becomes law in Quebec, automakers may soon have to decide whether to develop all of their vehicles to meet CARB's standards (not likely), or continue developing a second version of their cars to be sold just in these states (and provinces). The third option is to not sell anything in these areas, but the West Coast market is not one any automaker wishes to give up.

Thanks for the tip, Horatio!

[Source: The Globe and Mail, AutoblogGreen]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Chrysler following GM and Ford's lead - cutting NA production

Filed under: Minivans/MPVs, SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, UAW/Unions
The 2009 Dodge Ram can't come soon enough. Chrysler, along with GM and Ford, will be turning out the lights in its Warren Truck Assembly Plant for a few weeks as of this month. The Jefferson North Assembly and Windsor Assembly plants will also be shut down.

The Warren plant that assembles the Dodge Ram and Dakota pickups will be closed the longest, from December 21 to February 4. Jefferson North, which builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander SUVs, will close for three weeks as of January 4, 2008. That plant will also lose 911 workers, and will lose its second shift as of February 4. The Windsor plant, in Ontario, Canada, which builds the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, will go silent on January 14 for two weeks.

The acronym to describe it is "volume-related downtime," which is yet another painful step that needs to be taken to right the domestic ships. Dealers lament that not enough of the buying public is buying enough products to keep production going. But dealers must also be happy that they themselves won't have to be the involuntary recipients of more product they can't sell.

[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Spy Shots: HUMMER H2 SUT, or is it?

Filed under: Spy Photos, Trucks/Pickups, HUMMER
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/2010_HUMMER_H2_SUT_Spied'; Well looky, looky. KGP Photography has caught a lengthened HUMMER H2 SUT out testing in full military apparel, complete with a white star! Looking something out of a G.I. Joe play set, this tester has got a lot of extra inches added behind the B-pillar creating a bed much longer the standard H2 SUT. So what's going on here? Glenn Paulina from KGB surmises that this HUMMER H2 SUT may be riding on the GMT900 platform that's also used by the Suburban and the General's half-ton pickups. The current H2 SUT rides on an older GMT820 platform, according to Winding Road. This suggests that the H2 SUT may be maturing into a bonafide truck of trucks, with the intent of further distinguishing itself from the upcoming H3T. If this is true, it's also possible that HUMMER could be considering a lengthened version of the HUMMER H2 SUV itself, creating a kind of Suburban HUMMER. With the H1 officially gone, there's certainly no chance of cannibalizing your own sales, though that doesn't address the question of whether consumers want an even bigger HUMMER SUV or truck at the moment.

[Source: The Car Connection, Winding Road]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Lutz not leaving the building: GM head has no plans to retire in 2010

Filed under: Etc., Hirings/Firings, GM
In an interview with WunderBob Lutz, the Associated Press reported that "he wants to retire from General Motors Corp. after the company brings a plug-in electric car to market, possibly sometime in 2010." After what must have been enough phone calls and e-mails to bust a switchboard, Lutz has clarified the AP story with a resounding "I'm not thinking retirement."

The AP stands by its story, which it said was a story about retirement. The confusion perhaps came from Lutz saying he wanted to retire after a plug-in electric comes out, and the AP writing that he could "possibly" retire immediately after it came out.

Lutz also said, "Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted as a statement that I would retire at the end of 2010. While this remains a possibility, it is not 'a plan'! We'll just take it a year at a time!" Of course, the furor also points out just how important Bob Lutz is to GM. The General said that whenever the time comes, a replacement will be found, but come on -- a guy called "Maximum Bob" will probably be difficult to replace.

[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Tesla may begin delivering Roadsters with temporary transmissions

Filed under: Convertibles, Hybrids/Alternative, Green


If you plunked down six figures and expected to be motoring around in your emissions-free Tesla Roadster by now, chances are there might be a few ants in your pants. The all-EV Tesla Roadster has hit a few speed bumps on its road to production, and in order to address these concerns, the fledgling automaker held a town hall meeting in San Carlos yesterday that was available to anyone who made a deposit for a car via conference call.

The skinny is that Tesla is having a difficult time developing a transmission strong enough to "survive the process of shifting gears while the motor remains at full torque", according to our own Sam Abuelsamid who has been following the Roadster's development from Day 1 and has actually rode shotgun in it. Two suppliers are currently working simultaneously to find a solution. Meanwhile, the company has gone ahead and built the first production model at the Lotus factory in Hethel, England. The first car belongs to Elon Musk, Chairman of the company and one of its initial investors. His car is fitted, however, with a transmission that he knows will fail in a few thousand miles.

Tesla also revealed that it is considering shipping some preordered Roadsters to customers early with similar transmissions that will be temporary and later replaced with the stronger transmission once it's developed. For those really eager to own a Tesla Roadster, this might be an option, but would you want to drive around a car with a gearbox that was guaranteed to fail after a few thousand miles?

Also of note is that the Tesla Roadster's range estimate has fallen a bit again from a previously reported range of 245 miles to something in the 220- to 230-mile range. Still impressive, but let's hope it doesn't fall any further.

Click here to read more about the town hall meeting over at AutoblogGreen.

[Source: AutoblogGreen]

Gallery: Riding in the Tesla Roadster

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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: VIDEO: The six-wheeled, Porsche 928-amino

Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Porsche

Just when you think you've seen all manner of cars turned into trucks, something no one could have predicted pops up: a Porsche 928 with a bed, and three axles.

Harry Thoma says on the video that he had Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc., but that he wanted something no one could just go out and buy. So he built his Porsche 928-amino. Apparently not once during the two years it took to build this, uh, creation, did anyone put forth enough effort to stop Thoma, even though he says the first cut was rather painful.

An extra axle, and what looks to be diamond plate in the bed added serious weight, so Thoma increased the Porsche's engine from 5.4 to 6.1 liters, which gave the car 40 more horses for a total of 390. He claims the car's performance is therefore retained. The German DOT didn't know if, how or why to certify the car for its roads, so Porsche officials kindly helped get the car an official state blessing.

Thoma says through a translator, "Looking at the final result now, you can see something was accomplished." We sure can't disagree with that.

[Source: Autoblog.nl]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Man busts a cap in red light cam that busted him

Filed under: Etc.
A Knoxville man caught blowing a red light by a traffic camera attempted to cover his tracks later that day by returning to the scene of the infraction and putting three .30-06 slugs in the ever-watchful device. Local police charged one Clifford E. Clark, III with felony vandalism and reckless endangerment for the act, which was allegedly committed early in the morning of November 25. The prior evening, Clark had run the red light at Broadway and I-640 in Knoxville. Officers heard the shots and apprehended Mr. Clark leaving a parking lot in the area. After stopping him, they found the rifle on the floor of his vehicle. The rationale for his actions wasn't discovered until a few days later, when, during the normal processing of tickets generated by the camera, authorities saw that he was snagged by its electric eye. As blogger Michael Silence puts it, maybe Mr. Clark saw this as an act of self-defense.

[Source: Knoxville News via Instapundit]
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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: Mitsubishi prices Lancer EVO X GSR from $34,000

Filed under: Car Buying, Sedans/Saloons, Sports/GTs, Mitsubishi

click above image for high-res gallery

I've recently had the misfortune of driving a new base-model Mitsubishi Lancer ES and was disappointed to discover that the materials and fit and finish inside have barely improved over the last generation model. The base Lancer is an inexpensive economy car, however, while the Lancer Evolution is its more mature and expensive big brother. How expensive? Well Mitsubishi has announced that it will be pricing the latest iteration of the Lancer Evolution from $34,000, which will get you the GSR model with a five-speed manual. The top-o-da-line Lancer Evo MR that comes equipped with Mitsu's new six-speed dual clutch cog swapper will base at... gulp... $39,000. Inside Line reminds us that the previous Lancer Evo IX started at $28,679, which is a long way away from the new model's base price. Hopefully all that extra cash goes into making the Evo's interior better than the base Lancer's. Keep in mind, this is preliminary pricing, and Mitsubishi says that it hopes to reduce the price of each model by around $1,000 before they go on sale.

Speaking of which, Mitsubishi also announced that the GSR model will be available to purchase next February, while the MR should arrive before the summer. Finally, the EVO has also received its official EPA ratings for fuel economy, which are 16/22 for the GSR and 17/22 for the MR.

[Source: Inside Line]

Gallery: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X


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[monkeyboy]

Autoblog: How about a Republican debate at the Detroit Auto Show?

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Etc.


Looks like the '08 Detroit Show could be a lot more interesting than normal, as the Michigan GOP is working to have NAIAS be the venue for (yet another) presidential debate, this one featuring the Republican candidates, obviously. The idea would be to highlight the Detroit automakers and to have the debate take a decidedly Michigan-oriented focus. Have there been too many debates already? Yes, for both sides. It's ridiculous, and they seem to get progressively worse with each new one. That said, if this actually does go down the way the Michigan Republicans want it to, we plan on being part of the attendant media circus.

[Source: The Detroit News, photo by Joe Raedle/Newsmakers/Getty]
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