Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery of awesome rally shots

After all the trials and tribulations, the first event in the Central Europe Rally took place this past weekend and Carlos Sainz took the overall win behind the wheel of a heavily prepped Volkswagen Touareg 2, while NASCAR driver Robby Gordon's team finished 10th.

The race, which spanned some 1,670 miles across Hungary and Romania, took Sainz and his co-pilot, Michel Perin, 11 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds to traverse, followed by the team of Stephane Perhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret driving a Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, while Dieter Depping and Timo Gotschalk came in third, behind the wheel of another Touareg 2.

Gordon, whose total time was 1 hour, 25 minutes and 38 seconds behind Sainz, completed the race with the help of a HUMMER H2 and Andy Grider at his side. The full race results can be viewed after the jump, and we've assembled a gallery of some seriously awesome shots from the Central Europe Rally below.


[Source: Rallysportmag]

In Dallas, a businessman has spent half a million dollars to install nine pumps that dispense E85, E10, and biodiesel. The catch: the businessman is a HUMMER dealer, and the pumps are next to his dealership. The station is called Classic Clean Fuels, and it is intended to make a statement for next year's H2 and H2 SUT, which will be the first production models to be Flex-fuel capable.

You won't need to drive a HUMMER to get E85 at the station. The pumps are open to the public, a first for a dealer-owned gas station. By 2010, GM has said all HUMMERs will be biofuel-capable. GM plans to market 15 Flexfuel models next year, but only one percent of the country's service stations sell E85. GM is using that as an opportunity to open the public's (and dealers') minds to putting alternative fuel stations in alternative places.

Said GM's Larry Burns, "Down the road we may even want to consider hydrogen dispensers at dealerships."

[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it's probably not a good idea to hide the spare keys for your first and second car inside your... uh, car. Perhaps you can already tell where we're going with this... for the sake of the story, though, we'll continue. What might happen if your car were stolen? You'd be giving a thief keys to the car they just stole, plus, as a bonus, the keys to your other car.

Unfortunately for at least one man, the scenario in the preceding paragraph is a true story. "We believe the keys for both vehicles may have been inside the initial vehicle that was stolen," said Cornwall police spokesman Blake Paquin, who added, "We never recommend hiding keys in a vehicle." The spare keys for the man's 2002 BMW 325 were hidden in his 2003 Hummer H2, which led to the theft of both vehicles... within the same hour. Doh!

[Source: Andrew Seymour / Ottawa Citizen]

Among the many ills plaguing automakers, and General Motors in particular, is an excessive amount of dealers selling their wares through competing outlets. GM has decided to rectify the matter by combining its top three "luxury" marques – Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab – into megastores that aim to provide consumers with a variety of choice without watering down each brand's distinct niche.

The plan involves consolidating the 1,400 Cadillac dealerships with the 238 Saab and 170 HUMMER outlets to form a one-stop shop for all things at the high-end of the General's spectrum. There have already been a few cases where GM has helped larger dealers buyout Mom and Pop operations that weren't willing to expand or were looking to get out of the retail game entirely. While the move has the potential to make it easier for consumers to get everything they want under one roof, the amount of capital GM might need to enable larger to dealerships to consume their smaller competitors could prove to be pricey. Plus, it's going to take a top-notch interior designer to combine the Quonset hut theme of HUMMER with the Kenny G stylings of Saab into a cohesive environment.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

Now that the Hummer -- the original Hummer H1 -- is distinctly out of flavor, the U.S. armed services are busy looking for its replacement. Having put out a request for proposals, one of the supposed leading candidates is this: a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle developed by Navistar and BAE Systems, Inc, a British defense industry firm. The two together already provide the H1's temporary replacement, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle.

The Mad Max monstrosity has the same track as the H1, but that's about all they have in common. Built of many off-the-shelf components from Navistar's parts bin, the truck's modular build configuration makes an easier job of modifying it for different missions and repairing. It's shaped to disperse charges from roadside bombs, the armor is an inch thick, it has a flat floor to allow exit from either side of the vehicle, and it can escape a battle without a wheel and without engine cooling. Not bad. Follow the link to get the full specs on the military's potential new charge. But if they want something even more brutish, they could always go for this.

You may also remember that the producer of the original H1, AM General, is also working on its own candidate for the next Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which we've yet to see.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Our friend Mike Levine, proprietor of PickupTruck.com, was trying out the new H3T pickup out in Moab, Utah this week and learned that the H3 will finally lose its hoary old five-cylinder base engine in favor of something a little more modern. A new flex fuel-capable direct-injected 3.6L V6 like the one used in the HX concept will become the new base powerplant for the H3 by 2010. The last remaining question is, will the H3 get a diesel? The answer is yes... eventually. We spoke with HUMMER's Martin Walsh at the New York Auto Show this week and a diesel is in the cards for the H3, and it will be different than the diesel six-cylinder being used in Europe. Since the 4.5L fits in anything that GM's small-block V8 does, the European diesel six is possible, but a smaller diesel seems more likely. To that end, we've heard rumors since last spring of a new diesel V6 being developed for use in the H3. We don't know when it's ultimately going to arrive, but it will, and change is clearly afoot on the powertrain side at HUMMER.

[Source: PickupTruck.com, Photo: Alex Núñez]

Click above for more high-res pics of the R/C HUMMER H3

When I was a yungin', there was no better way to approximate the thrill of actually driving a car than terrorizing my backyard with a Tamiya Blackfoot. The Blackfoot was a 1:10 scale Ford F-150 monster truck with four independent shocks, two-wheel drive and a plastic flareside body. Fast forward to 2008, and it's not uncommon to see Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters piloting full-size rocket cars from a helicopter using an R/C controller similar to the one I used back in the day. Perhaps that's why the sight of a full-size, right-hand-drive, radio-controlled HUMMER H3 doesn't shock us much, but we still have to give mad props to engineer Dr. James Brighton from Cranfield University for creating an R/C car that rivals my Blackfoot. GM says the remote-controlled HUMMER can climb a 407mm vertical wall, traverse a 40% side slope and run through 610mm of water. Yeah, but can it jump two tree branches? I thought not. Blackfoot FTW.


[Source: GM]





[Source: GM via Zerc Customs]

include press release from Zerc after jump and make gallery of pics

HUMMER's image has always been one of excessive excess. While much of that portrayal is due to GM's own marketing, the people who purchase the imposing 'utes – be they high-profile celebs or well-to-do suburbanites – have done more to define the brand than GM's marketing boffins ever could. But the General wants to change all that.

Mark LaNeve, GM's North American veep of sales, service and marketing, is spearheading a campaign that's trying to show HUMMERs in a different light; specifically vehicles to get a particular job done. "No one criticizes a bulldozer for its gas mileage. That's because it's built to do a job," laments LaNeve in a USAToday interview. Fair enough Mark, but a bulldozer has a single-minded purpose – moving earth – whereas HUMMERs aren't always being used to plug mud and move boats. They've become lifestyle vehicles that are often not used for their intended purpose – just like the majority of SUVs on the road.

Regardless, GM's recent ad campaigns attempt to show the HUMMER in a more functional light, depicting the overblown SUV hauling firefighting gear and helping out with natural disaster relief. "Purpose Built" is the new tagline, but at the end of the day, no amount of PR will help HUMMER if people continue to see them parked outside the local Starbucks.

[Source: USAToday via Winding Road]

click above for more high-res shots of the 2009 HUMMER H3T

You've got to feel a little bad for the HUMMER H3T. While the rest of the crowd at GM's press conference had their focus set on the unveiling of the 2009 Chevy Traverse, the 2009 HUMMER H3T sat in the corner, all but ignored by camera-toting journos. We, however, know a good thing when we see it (though many of you might disagree). And considering how the H3T is sporting an elongated wheelbase and a five-foot long bed, it remains one of a few significant unveilings here in Chi-town.

Just as a refresher, the H3T gets power from either the anemic 3.7-liter five-cylinder mill we've come to know and loathe or a 5.3-liter V8 when equipped in the top-level Alpha trim. Towing capacity is 5,900 pounds, which should be plenty for a family of four with dirt bikes in tow.

Check out our high-res gallery of live and press shots below and head on over to our original post for all the details on the new HUMMER H3T.

The HUMMER H3T has been much in the news lately, now we finally have some press coverage that doesn't involve broken embargoes. After a few days in the High Sierras putting pre-production versions through boulder-strewn paces, the words from HMR magazine are: it's good!

Once past the marketing-speak -- like "With its unique size and HUMMER traits, the H3T is ideal for the customer who works hard and plays harder" -- the H3T with the Adventure Package put in a proper HUMMER showing: the 5-foot bed hasn't killed the truck's departure angle, the length hasn't ruined its agility, and it even got in the obligatory Jeep smackdown encounter. The H3T also has 160 official aftermarket partners creating a glutton's range of branded accessories.

The public will find out if it's really the lion's roar when it shows up on dealer lots in September. Until then, click the link to get the full review, and Autoblog will bring up the up-close and personal from its debut at next week's Chicago Auto Show.

[Source: PickupTruck.com]