2013 Los Angeles Auto Show
Nov 22, 2013
-
- Image Credit: Autoblog
This car is the Jaguar F-Type coupe, which got rave reviews all around. AOL Autos Editor in Chief David Kiley said he was surprised at how much he liked he coupe, especially since he'd already spent some time driving the convertible version of the car. "The coupe improves on the F-Type roadster like a beautiful Dior gown improves the look and visual impact of an already beautiful fashion model," he wrote.
Read on for more impressions from the auto show. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
2014 Mini Hardtop
The new Mini is as cute as ever, but the Autoblog guys say they just can't quite warm up to its face – or that huge front overhang. They argue that the car simply looks like a frightened goldfish.
The car should be nice to drive, though, with the base Cooper using a new turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine good for 134 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. Friskier Cooper S models get a healthy power increase, their 2.0-liter turbo engines putting out a full 189 hp and 207 lb-ft, with both engines are mated to either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission.
The 2015 Cooper also marks the first use of Mini's new Dynamic Damper Control, with two different damper settings (comfort and sport, basically). There are also three different driving modes – Mid, Sport and Green. Mid is the standard setting, and as for the Sport/Green modes, well, you can probably figure out how they function. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
2014 Chevy Colorado
The Colorado marks the return of the midsize pickup truck for an American automaker, since GM backed out in 2012.
It's a good-looking truck, with nice proportions and a certain muscular tautness that the boxy first-gen model could never hope to replicate.
Under the new Colorado's hood sits a standard 2.5-liter, four-cylinder engine making 193 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. Chevy is promising that peak torque in the 2.5 will be available between 2,000 and 6,000 rpm, although that number will likely have nothing on the promised 2.8-liter, turbodiesel four-cylinder promised for 2016. If outright power is your top priority, a 3.6-liter V6, complete with 302 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque, will be an optional extra. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
2014 Subaru WRX
The totally redesigned Subaru WRX is more powerful, more fuel efficient (with the right transmission), better looking and more intelligently designed than the car it's replacing.
A new 2.0-liter, direct-injected, turbocharged flat-four sits thumping away under the hood, its top-mount intercooler getting force-fed air by a rather prominent hood scoop. Power output sits at 268 ponies and 258 pound-feet of torque, accessible between 2,000 and 5,000 rpm. While the new car only has a three-horsepower advantage on the current Impreza WRX, it delivers 14 more pound-feet of torque and delivers peak output across a much wider swath of the rev range (the old car netted 244 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm).
This is a car that drivers love to drive. We're excited to test drive this as soon as possible. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
Honda FCEV concept
This amazing spaceship-like car hints at what Honda will produce in just two short years as a hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle, coming to the U.S. and Japan in 2015. Although the actual production car won't look like this (it would be ridiculously expensive to produce a car that looks like this), Honda says the concept is a nod to "a potential styling direction."
The FCEV has a range of more than 300 miles will be possible from a 100kW hydrogen fuel cell stack that has a power density of 3kW/L, which is an upgrade from the FCX Clarity which is already on the road. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
Youbian Puma
We don't normally choose car photos that include some random dude in the background, but we picked this one to give you a little perspective on how gigantic this one-off custom car is. It's like what would happen if a Matchbox car fell into a pile of nuclear waste and then got bitten by a radioactive spider. The next day it would wake up, gigantic, roaring and almost 6 feet tall.
We sat around the press room playing "Guess how much this car costs?" Everyone figured somewhere around six figures. We were all wrong. The weird-looking, four-seat convertible is a full 242 inches long, 93 inches wide and 72 inches tall, riding on a 163.5-inch wheelbase, and goes for $1.1 million.
Or, you could buy five Bentley Flying Spurs. Your call. -
- Image Credit: Autoblog
Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo Concept
This is, quite simply, a show stopper. It looks like it stepped out from a superhero cartoon. It looks like it could transform, mid-air (defying the laws of gravity, natch) and turn into a roaring winged silver beast.
Sadly, this concept car doesn't actually have a powertrain. It has a little electric motor that helps get it around showroom floors. It was designed as a virtual supercar for Sony's Gran Turismo 6 racing simulation for Playstation 3 at the request of the game's creator, Kazunori Yamauchi.
In the game, the AMG Vision GT has a 577-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8 that pumps out 590 pound-feet of torque - quite enough power to propel the 3,053-pound coupe very quickly. The weight distribution is 46 percent front and 54 percent rear, which should endow it with good traction out of turns and sharp transitional handling.
