Autoblog

While Ford keeps on cranking out newer, faster versions of the Mustang for American customers, Ford of Europe is preparing new packages for the Fiesta ST and Focus ST hot-hatches to do the same thing.

The £950 package for the diminutive Fiesta ST pushes power up to 185 hp from its 2-liter four, which is expected to come from upgraded engine management, cylinder heads, a new camshaft and exhaust. All that adds an extra 37 hp to the standard Fiesta ST's 148, dropping a sprint to 60 down half a second to eight flat.

Meanwhile, the larger, more powerful Focus ST gets treated to a similar upgrade, worth about £1,500. This package is tipped to include a new air filter, ECU and exhaust, amounting to a similar 38-horsepower increase in power for a total of 260 that drops the 0-60 blitz down to 5.5 seconds. Thank heavens Ford sells a version of the Focus here that's just as fast. Oh, wait...

Get this: current ST owners in Europe can also get this package retrofitted to currently-owned cars, along with a full-factory warranty on the parts. Europeans, then, will just have to make do with these hot hatch packages a while longer before the 300+ horsepower Focus RS arrives in 2009, at which point Blue Oval fanboys from the U.S. will invade your countries with the intent to drive.

[Source: Auto Express]

JE Design has gone and messed with the Audi TT. The changes are subtle, which is good, because it's hard to improve upon the TT's form. The JE kit will surely draw mixed reviews, though we like that their kit still lets what's good about the car shine. There's new pieces for the chin spoiler in front, adding strange little vents at the leading edge of the wheel opening. We can't imagine that they actually serve any purpose – perhaps they vent heat from the foglamps? We're sure that's a common problem. The requisite overly-large, overly-low-profile tires are there, but the benefit of the bigger rolling stock is left unrealized. We see puny (puny's such a relative term) brakes hiding out behind the wheels. The only functional point behind ultra-low profile rubber and rims beyond 17" is to fit as much brake rotor diameter as possible under there, and what we're seeing is plenty of extra clearance around everything. And apparently twin exhaust outlets do not a fast car make; they've been superceded by quad tips. The smooth rear decklid has had a lip spoiler applied to add some downforce. What the spoiler really does is add a pimple to the ass of an otherwise smooth form. The stock pop-up spoiler gets in the game to add downforce, and when it's retracted, you're not going fast enough to need any extra drag. It'll look real racy in traffic at an average speed of 15mph, though.

[Source: JE Design]

I remember as a young child visiting the local British car dealership while my dad inked the deal on a new Jag (which I dearly miss to this day). I was busy checking out a big red Land Rover Defender 90. Sitting there next to the polished Bentleys, Rollers, Jags and Range Rovers, the Defender stood out in its primitive, bare-bones essence, the inside of its doors exposed so you could see the latch cable and its fenders covered in industrial diamond-plating. That's the same basic experience people have been enjoying for nearly sixty years, that's how long the Defender has been in production. Every so often, Land Rover gives it some new features, but the outer extremity of the utility off-road market is the one place left in the industry where you don't mess with success: nearly two million Defenders have been sold to date, despite the tiny market of off-road enthusiasts that would even consider buying one.

The 2007 model is about to hit the market in the UK, and comes with a new list of equipment. There's a new 2.4-liter common-rail diesel driving all four wheels through a revised six-speed with taller ratios. The new engine is rounded out by an integrated front fascia, new seating setup and an improved A/C system.

Even before specially-built versions like ambulances and airport fire trucks are taken into account, the Defender is offered in no less than 14 distinct body-styles, including various configurations of the Defender 90, 110 and 130, all produced on the same assembly line. Among its varied customer base, NGOs love the Defender, despite the atrocious carbon emissions levels, for which a unique tax is applied in the UK. The Defender starts at £18,645 and ranges all the way up to £26,605, and that's before any special equipment is added into the mix.

The "updated" Defender hits the road – and the road less traveled – as a reminder of a time when SUVs were mud-playing beasts, like when the Defender first hit the market, or like when I was a little boy. And, the occasional minor tweak notwithstanding, I (for one) hope it stays just as it is.

Follow the jump for the press release.

[Source: Land Rover UK]

The C-class is the entry-level Benz in the North American market. As such, every nouveau riche new graduate seemingly goes out and treats themselves to a slice of flashy bourgeois pie. That can be alarming for the Euro-car fan, as you risk being lumped into that precocious category along with Johnny Overachiever from down the block. There's no denying that the Stuttgart Swabians build nice vehicles, and we've certainly considered parking one in our driveway. We wouldn't want to deny ourselves the pleasure just to avoid being lumped in with a group of lecherous climbers, either. Lorinser has given the C-class a once-over and made it possible for true car-guys to have their Mercedes pleasure while standing apart from the schmuck brigade.

We love the look of the cosmetic upgrades. The turbine-style wheels look like impellers from a turbocharger with a wacky pituitary gland, and we wonder if they can slice, dice and julienne at speed. We're not normally fans of unnecessary extra ventilation, but the revised front quarter panels have gained a nice pair of extractors. We do find the "gills" in the lower rocker covers sorta strange, and they don't appear to have any purpose other than serving as a visual element. The front airdam has also received some tasteful attention, and Lorinser offers performance upgrades to back up the high-powered looks. Unlike some of the entry-level MBZ crowd, we'd rather the car be the high-powered one in a zoot suit.


[Source: World Car Fans]

click the image above for the gallery

Here's Top Gear's cure for their idiot dyno test that proved nothing. As much as we love Top Gear, their derision of the GT500 for producing a "mere" 447 horespower on a chassis dyno is pure BS. A 10-percent loss through the drivetrain is stellar, yet the spin from our snarky British friends was that it was somehow subpar. Kenne Bell has the antidote, and it's available in several stages of tune, from streetable to antisocial.

Since the GT500 is factory-equipped with a supercharger, the engine internals have been beefed up for boost, and a water to air intercooler is in place. The Kenne Bell system replaces the stock Eaton blower with its trademark Twin Screw system. The throttle body is also upsized to 75 millimeters versus the stock 60, but the rest of the intake tract remains stock. Rounding out the Stage 1 tuning is an ECU flash, and the end result is 606 horsepower at the rear wheels. Take that, Hamster and Clarkson! Changing out a few other intake components and fiddling with the drive pulley's diameter will net you Stage 2 or 3 tuning, delivering up to 692 horsepower on the rollers. Maybe this kit will serve to quiet some of the carping from the Top Gear pundits, but we think they just don't understand muscle cars. It's a different flavor of performance, that's for sure, and the Kenne Bell upgrades add even more spice.

Thanks for the tip, Drew

[Source: Mustang Life]

Fiat just unveiled the new Bravo hatchback, but it's not about the sit back and watch its new global Focus/Golf/etc.-fighter sink or swim. Newly incorporated separately from its sister brands, Fiat has big plans for the Bravo line-up, which, following the immense success of the Grande Punto below it, is vital to the company's continued growth.

Fiat is looking about three years down the road. That's not a very long lifecycle for a car, but Fiat plans to launch a facelifted Bravo in 2010. Planned alongside the updated hatchback are an extended wagon version plus a high-performance Bravo Abarth. Although it's becoming common practice for automakers to blur the line between large hatchbacks and sportswagons, Fiat evidently sees the addition of a distinct wagon as essential to certain key markets.

It's too early to tell at this point what kind of spice Fiat will be throwing into the facelifted Bravo to make it hot, but the company's got big plans for the Abarth brand. The badge was once an independent automaker until, as was the fate of nearly every other Italian automaker, it was bought up by Fiat, who later transformed it into its own in-house performance tuner. Now it's planning an Abarth revival. The production schedule leaked in November has a Grande Punto Abarth scheduled for release sometime this year alongside the highly-anticipated 500, which will get its own Abarth version next year. Reports now suggest that the Bravo Abarth will hit the market in 2010 alongside the wagon when the Bravo gets its facelift.

Follow the jump for new driving footage of the Fiat Bravo, courtesy of our Fiat and our friends at WorldCarFans.com.

[Source: Autovisie via Motor Authority]

After dedicating the last several years to the pursuit of power and handling, we're finally putting forth an effort to slow down our car. Consider this to be an indicaton of hard-earned maturity (as opposed to our receding hairlines, which are just signs of getting old).

Our new parts showed up in the second installment of this write-up, and after leaving them out in the barn for several months, we finally found some time to improve the stopping ability of our 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS. With improved stopping ability only a few simple steps away, we'll be able to hit future autocrosses and open-track days with more confidence.

GM Performance Parts announced yesterday the availability of two performance upgrade kits for the supercharged 2.0L Ecotec engine found in the Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged and Saturn Ion Redline. The Stage 1 kit retails for $500 and adds 31 hp to the engine’s base 205-hp through higher-flow injectors and a new ECU calibration. The Stage 2 kit goes for $750 and includes both components of the Stage 1 kit and adds a smaller supercharger pulley and drive belt to fatten up the powerband’s midsection and increase power to 241 hp and 218 ft-lbs. of torque. Both kits require premium fuel and are available now at all GM dealerships.

[Source: GM]