As we edge closer to the Paris Motor Show, more information seems to be seeping out of the web. The newest addition to the Jaguar family, the F-Type has been revealed in all its glory on a spy photographer’s page on Facebook. The F-Type draws inspiration heavily from the C-X16 concept. The F-Type will be powered by Jaguar’s latest 3.0-litre V6 S/C engine, in its 380PS form.The F-TYPE will join Jaguar’s existing range of cars – the XF saloon and Sportbrake, XJ saloon and XK coupe/convertible.

The 3.0 V6 S/C produces almost 127PS per litre – the highest specific output of any Jaguar engine. The 3.0 V6 also makes 460Nm of maximum torque.The 3.0 V6 S/C will be available with Jaguar’s Intelligent Stop-Start system.

It is worth a mention that the same 3.0 litre supercharged V6 is also available in the 340PS/450Nm guise in the XF and the XJ.

The F-Type is expected to go on sale in mid 2013.

Source: Autoblog

The C-X16 Concept

ŠKODA AUTO India has announced two new variants to the Rapid model range : Ambition Plus and Active plus. The Plus packages will come with additional features offering convenience to the customer.

Active Plus

A step up from the ‘Active’variant, the most affordable Skoda Rapid, the Active Plus offers Remote control locking and unlocking of doors and boot lid. The remote control of course comes with the foldable key. The external mirrors are now electrically adjustable.

Ambition Plus

The Ambition Plus adds a couple of features to the mid-variant ‘Ambition’. You get SKODA’s 2-DIN audio player, with front and rear speakers, auxiliary audio input for portable media players and SD/MMC data card reader. Not unlike Skoda’s Engine immobiliser with floating code system, Skoda also offers a security code for the audio player to ensure the player is as good as a brick once stolen. Electrically adjustable external mirrors, a feature you could avail only on the Elegance variant is now available in the Ambition Plus variant. Chrome trim on air conditioning vents and duct sliders adds to the premium feel. The windows can be operated with a single touch. The Ambition Plus also gets child-proof rear window locking with pinch protection. You can now control opening and closing of windows with the remote, a feature reserved for the Elegance model until today.

Climate Control, alloys, leather wrapped gear knob, steering wheel, front passenger airbag and MFD are some of the features that separate the Ambition Plus from the Elegance variant.

McLaren steps out of the oval track, snubs all other automakers with a hypercar to their name, says the P1 won’t just be about absolute top speed, but ‘the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit’. The McLaren P1 wants to be the best driver’s car in the world on road and track. If the MP4-12C is any indication of what McLaren is capable of, rest assured the P1 will take you round the world lightning quick, without rattling your spine.

At the Paris Motor Show, Mondial de l’Automobile 2012, McLaren will preview the P1, as a design study. The production version will hit McLaren showroom in a years duration. The Paris Motor Show is also McLaren’s first international motor show appearance.

‘The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage,’ says McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman Ron Dennis. ‘Twenty years ago we raised the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1 and our goal with the McLaren P1 is to redefine it once again.’

Details are scarce, but more will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show. When the McLaren P1 goes into production later next year, it will displace the MP4-12C as the flagship McLaren, in terms of both price and performance.

‘Our aim is not necessarily to be the fastest in absolute top speed but to be the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit,’ says McLaren Automotive Managing Director Antony Sheriff. ‘It is the true test of a supercar’s all round ability and a much more important technical statement. Our goal is to make the McLaren P1 the most exciting, most capable, most technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made.’

McLaren says it was able to bring the performance of £500,000 cars to market at a third of the price thanks to the unique one-piece moulded carbon chassis, drawing from their Formula 1 experience. ‘All future McLarens will continue the themes presented by the 12C: innovation, integration of Formula 1 technology, and ultimate performance’, adds McLaren. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to assume the P1 will have at its core a moulded carbon chassis.

Two variants of the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, B 180 and the B 180 Sport, have been launched in India at prices starting from Rs 21.49 (ex showroom Mumbai) lakhs and going up to Rs 24.87 Lakhs for the Sport variant. Mercedes-Benz has launched the B-Class with the brand new 1.8 L OM651/D18 diesel engine used in other markets abroad. Brownie points for you Mercedes-Benz India. The new four-cylinder diesel engine is a further development of the OM651 deployed in the C- to the S-Class, a common rail direct-injection engine of the third generation. With its displacement scaled down to 1.8 litres and various other optimzations, this is the first time that the compression-ignition engine has been mounted transversely in a Mercedes-Benz car. The B 180 CDI generates 109hp/90kW with a maximum torque of 250 Nm is available from 1400 rpm.

Mr. Debashis Mitra, Director, Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India: “We are extremely excited with the initial response of the B-Class in India. Our Strategy of introducing the segment & then launching the car has been well received by our customers. The huge response only demonstrates that the Three Pointed Star is easily the most aspired brand in India and kicks off a beginning of our product offensive in next couple of year in India.”

Mercedes-Benz India adds,

Globally, the B-Class has been a run-away success with over 75000 units sold within the first few months of its launch. It is a path breaking product in every sense of the term: it is the first of Mercedes-Benz’s premium compact cars, and boasts the extremely sporty design coupled with 7G-DCT, Dual Clutch Transmission with paddle shift which is normally found in high end sports cars like the SLS AMG. The core Mercedes-Benz values of safety and reliability have been taken to new levels with the car having 7 airbags including a knee airbag – A first for any car in this segment. Also, features like Attention Assist, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), Acceleration Skid Control (ASR), Brake Assist System (BAS) and a tyre pressure loss warning indicator makes it one of the safest Sports Tourer available anywhere in the world.

The sporty appeal of the B-Class is further complemented by its panoramic sunroof, a sports package and aggressive body styling, dual exhaust, perforated disc brakes, Bi Xenons and special alloy wheels which are seen for the first time in a car of this segment in India. The “Vario seat” concept makes the space in the new B-Class equivalent to many SUV’s & a fuel efficiency of 14.81 KMPL (As per ARAI) makes it one of the most fuel efficient cars in the segment.

For a more detailed look at the interiors and other features on the Mercedes-Benz B-Class head to our Design Story here.

Nothing like a good measure of creativity in a teaser! McLaren’s P12 or whatever it will be called, McLaren’s next flagship and successor to the legendary McLaren F1 will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show on September 27. Current rumours indicate that the P12 has already been unveiled to select group of people at a private event in Pebble Beach. The P12 is said to be powered by the MP4-12C’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, but churning out an earth shattering 800 bhp which coupled with the KERS system will add another 200 bhp to the mix.

The P12 will not be a 3-seater like the F1, but a two seater. A wider carbon fibre monocoque than found in the MP4-12C will be used. The design is said to be spectacular.

This will be McLaren’s first participation in the Paris Motor Show, and what a debut this will be!

2013 is a big year for Volvo. The major upgrades to product lineup, which have already begun rolling out will all be implemented next year. Volvo Cars says this is a development project which to a certain extent has been carried out by technical consultants employed by Volvo Car Corporation on temporary contracts. With the completion of this project, the company will phase out 300-400 consultancy contracts during the remainder of 2012.

“By using highly skilled technical consultants in our engineering operations we have the flexibility to tailor the workforce to short-term needs in our car projects. This flexibility is vital to Volvo Car Corporation as a small car manufacturer,” says Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Volvo Car Corporation. “We have now completed a development phase for upgrading major parts of our product portfolio which will be launched next year. We will therefore carry out a planned adaptation of the size of our organisation.”

The changes of the consultancy workforce will have no impact on Volvo Car Corporation’s product cycle plan which includes the introduction of the all-new SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) platform in 2014.

With this phase out, Volvo Car Corporation will reduce the number of technical consultants employed from approximately 1,200 to 800-900.

Tata Motors launched the ‘Nano Student of the Year’ contest, for college students in India with the winner being awarded a Rs. 3 lakh scholarship. The Tata Nano is the on ground promotion partner for ‘Student of the Year’, a Karan Johar movie. The first runner-up will get a Tata Nano and the second runner-up will receive a Macbook Pro.

All students, above 18 years, can register for the Nano Student of the Year contest on the website, www.nanostudentoftheyear.com, to compete for the Nano Student of the Year title. Entries for registration have started today and will close on September 28, 2012.

In the first round, students will be judged on 4 parameters – Academics, Culture, Sports, Social life. The top 8 finalists will be declared on the website on October 2, 2012. The top 8 finalists will compete for the ‘Nano Student of the Year’ title and will perform 6 tasks. Viewers & Tata Nano fans can vote for their favourite student on the website. The student with the highest number of votes will be bestowed with the title.

Hush, all you unwavering disciples of the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’. There isn’t another way out. Mercedes A and B Class cars bring the brand closer to a wider segment of the market, and BMW can no longer just sit and watch. The premium compact segment is to grow by 5% every year in the future. The longitudinally mounted engine is now transverse and drives the front wheel instead of the rear. The Concept Active Tourer is an indication of the future of the production version of this concept which is rumoured to carry the 1 Series GT badge.

In addition to the transverse 1.5-litre BMW TwinPower Turbo engine, the Concept Active Tourer’s rear wheels are driven by an electric motor. The eDrive concept that we’ve seen from the BMW i8 makes an appearance for the first time in a core BMW product. eDrive is BMW’s terminology that covers all components of the electric drive, the electric motor developed by BMW, the lithium-ion battery and the intelligent engine control unit.

The new BMW TwinPower Turbo 3-cylinder offers character-specific benefits: running smoothness, revving power, spontaneous response and a dynamic, sporty sound. BMW says in a 3 cylinder there are no first and second-order inertia forces and thus reduced levels of noise and vibration. The level of roll torque is lower than that of a 4-cylinder and is compensated for by a single counterbalance shaft. This helps keep the engine extremely smooth-running in the low engine speed range too.

The BMW Concept Active Tourer makes a healthy 140 kW/190 bhp with a combination of combustion engine and electric motor. The BMW Concept Active Tourer accelerates in less than eight seconds from standing to 100 km/h and can go all the way upto 200 kph. In spite of these impressive performance figures, the average fuel consumption is less than 2.5 litres per 100 kilometres, with a CO2 emissions level of less than 60 g/km. BMW Concept Active Tourer has a maximum range of over 30 kilometres when running on electric power alone.

A long wheelbase of 2,670 millimetres, a high roof line and a compact transverse engine with front-wheel drive make it possible to create a generously sized interior.

Interior

The upper and low decor surfaces of the instrument panel appear to be connected with open-pore laminated wood milled from a single block. The door trim panels and seats are covered in light, velvety soft full-grain leather and smooth leather, making the interior a place you wouldn’t want to step out of. Contrasting orange seams drop a hint at the supposed sporty nature of the vehicle.

Panorama Sunroof

If the white leather and the orange seams weren’t enough for you to fall in love with the interiors, how about the play of light thanks to the sunroof? The composite glass roof with innovative Suspended Particle Device (SPD) technology that lets you control the brightness or temperature . The special lighting effect can be achieved by manually adding a large-area leaf structure design to the glass roof. Not unlike the Mercedes Benz’s Magic Sky Control, electrical impulses cause the molecular structure of the glass to change at continuously varying levels between light and dark according to preference.

Travel & Comfort System

In addition to the highly flexible rear seat configurations, a centrally located vertical metal track is integrated in the back of the front seats, as part of BMW’s Travel & Comfort System. This innovative clip-on track system allows folding tables offering a range of convenient adjustment options to be attached by means of a quick fastener, and additional storage bags can also be suspended. You can use your iPads, Galaxy Tabs or if the production version takes time to get to the showroom, probably the Microsoft Surface! Tablets can fixed to the clip-on track system in either portrait or landscape format.

“Seismic Surf” app

Oh BMW, aren’t you clever. BMW addresses a wide spectrum of family-in-car problems with this app. Rear passengers (read Twin Turbocharged uncontrollable kids) in the BMW Concept Active Tourer can play “Seismic Surf”, a racing game which draws on the acceleration figures, engine speed and other data supplied continuously by the BMW Concept Active Tourer. Each real-life driving situation is interpreted and used to generate an infinite variety of new challenges in the computer game. The aim of the game is to collect as many points as possible along a virtual route and record the most efficient driving style. The driver, (read Dad) can directly influence the level of difficulty. Anticipatory driving simplifies the game, while a sporty driving style creates a winding and more difficult virtual route in the game. Only perfect interaction between a fuel-efficient driver and a skilful player at the rear can maximise the point score and achieve a podium position in the BMW games universe. Dad gets fantastic fuel efficiency, kids stay glued to the screens, all ending in a safe, eco friendly drive, BMW scores. Wait, are we still talking about the Ultimate Driving Machine?