Autoblog

First art imitates life and now video games do the same, with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan having joined forces to create the GT Academy. Over the course of eight months, the academy culled a group of wannabe racers from a field of entrants who posted the best lap times in GT5 Prologue. Then, for five days at Silverstone, the finalists competed in the game and on the actual track, watched by ex-F1 racer Johnny Herbert and a panel of five judges.

The two winners were just announced, and Top Gun status went to Lars Schlomer and Luis Ordonez. Schlomer is a taxi driver in Bonn, Germany; Ordonez is an MBA student from Spain. Now that they've won, they'll be thrown into boot camp for four months to learn to how to race for real silver: in four months, they'll have to earn their racing licenses and get ready to drive a factory-backed Nissan 350Z in the 24 Hours of Dubai this coming January.The rest of us will have to be content with GT5 Prologue for now...

[Source: Sony]

What if in an alternate universe Bugatti says, "We're not going out of business, we're doing a new model in the same market as the Veyron," but it doesn't know what that model will be? There's another luxury car company in the family called Porsche that's looking to get into the 4-door game. So Bugatti says, "Hey, we did this design study of a 4-door wagon-y thing a while back, have a look," and Porsche takes a peek and says, "Hey, maybe we can work with this," and then Bugatti says, "If it all works out, maybe, you know, since you own us now we can share things and stuff and stop losing so much money on each car," and Porsche says, "Be quiet, we're working..." and, well, you get the picture.

There's no reason to think Porsche had the EB112 concept in mind when it penned the Panamera. But if Porsche did happen to be inspired by Bugatti's long gone concept, it would provide some sort of rationale for why the Panamera looks like it does. And that would be a start, no? For more of your own comparisons, EB112 vs Panamera. Thanks for the tip, Mike S.!

The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong bought 13 Rolls-Royce Phantoms for shuttling guests around the city. The Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo has purchased just one car, and will leave the guest to drive himself. That car is an R8, finished in the hotel's trademark Brewster Green, with a gold Peninsula logo outside, and cognac leather inside. To avail yourself of it -- once you've gotten to Tokyo -- you'll need to book the Peninsula Suite, which goes for the ho-hum figure of ¥850,000 per night. That $8,000 U.S. every day to burble at single-digit speeds in Tokyo traffic, although you are allowed to take it outside of Tokyo. Come to think of it, the speeds probably don't matter -- if you have that kind of money, there's a good chance you've got an R8 or better in your own garage already...

[Source: Asahi via German Car Blog]

Click above for more images of the Bentley luggage collection by Dunhill

Dunhill, the English leather goods maker, has worked with then Bentley Design Team to create a five-piece luggage set. Huzzah! Not only does the fluting on the bags echo the fluting on your Arnage's seats, but the luggage trim is done in knurled aluminum. The entire set consists of a briefcase, large and small suitcases, a washbag, and a weekend bag. You can expect to pay £4,300, before options. But then, if you're an Arnage owner, you're probably more concerned with finding out if you can get leather to match your seats. Check out the gallery below for more photos.


[Source: Sybarites]

Motive has the skinny on what you should know if you need to crash -- for a few weeks, that is -- in your car. Of course, the first advice is to get a minivan or SUV with tinted windows. However, if things have come to the point where reclining seats are your bed, you probably aren't in a position to double-down on a Vanagon. Some of the tips you might have guessed: get earplugs, don't subsist on the McDonald's dollar menu, and don't bathe in fountains. Others you might not have expected: put fabric softener sheets under the seats, park in Wal-Mart lots overnight if you need, and Panera Bread and Dunkin' Donuts have free wi-fi. And no matter what, don't try to hide your keys somewhere on the car and then think you can get blasted on two-buck-chuck inside the car. That's called Operating Under the Influence. Click the link for the other tips in a thoroughly entertaining read that you will hopefully never need to take advantage of.

[Source: Motive]

Click above to view video after the jump

The trailer for Need for Speed: Undercover is out, and it is 60 straight seconds of "We want." The in-game texture looks primo and the storyline sections are a nice mix full-motion and rendered video. We have no idea what the game involves yet, so we can only hope that EA has restored some of the buck-wild madness that was missing from Need for Speed: ProStreet. We do know, however, that not only have police chases returned, but the boys in blue appear to be driving... R34 Nissan GT-Rs. So if as the sultry voiceover in the trailers says, "This is all going to come crashing down," it looks like you'll have a whole lot of fun making rubble. Follow the jump for the video, and check out the Need for Speed site for a couple more. Thanks for the tip, catgirlshyla!

[Source: EA]

Hyundai swung with the Genesis and connected big time. But even though the Korean automaker wants to take its public perception upward, that doesn't mean it plans to keep releasing big, luxury sedans. For the six new and redesigned models that will appear by 2011, Hyundai America's product development chief says "We're looking at small, fuel-efficient cars." The company will also be giving buyers the option of putting smaller engines in some of their vehicles.

The i10, only on sale in India right now, is being considered for America (or not). And if the fortwo does well, Hyundai could invest in giving the i10 the safety and engine changes it would need to make it Stateside. A four-pot Genesis Coupe will available for the low twenties. Hyundai's first hybrid will be installed on the redesigned Sonata, which gets redesigned in 2011, and the reworked Tucson will get four-cylinder engines only, along with the Santa Fe. And when the Tiburon goes bye-bye in 2011, it could be replaced by a small, FWD coupe based on the Veloster concept.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]

So the Kia VG mule that has kept spy photographers busy the last few weeks has now been given a computer animated face and body. It's a nice looking ride, though has a surprising amount in common with the Hyundai Genesis... which means we also see, well, a lot of other cars in it. But that's not a bad thing, really, because the result is a tasty little creation, especially coming from Kia. The lines are a touch more forceful than those on the Genesis, which goes along with Kia being the sporting brand, or so they say. If the final version looks even close to this rendering, and they give it performance to match... well, then Kia will have taken a giant leap forward. Thanks for the tip, miha!

[Source: Kia World]

When the land was flowing with milk and honey, GM didn't get medieval on folks who took just a little more than their fair share. Now that GM's diet has been pared back to a few nuts and the occasional berry... well, every nut counts. So when The General performed a random audit and found that employees had allegedly been sharing their employee discounts with ineligible buyers, instead of a big "whatever," GM initiated lawsuits.

Based on the known records, GM is trying to recoup $450,000 plus court costs and attorney's fees from at least nine court cases. In addition to offering the discounts to those who shouldn't have had access to them, GM said the the employees were using the discounts "for their own financial gain."

Some of the employees being sued no longer work for GM. Attorneys for the defendants have suggested that shady dealers simply used the employees' information to give the discounts to other buyers without the employees' knowledge or consent. At this point, no dealers are named in the lawsuits, so it's up to the employees in question to prove their innocence. And for now, when it comes to pennywise, GM isn't playing around...

[Source: Detroit News]

Trevor Creed resigned from the position of Chrysler's head of design, and as of today is succeeded by Ralph Gilles, the man who designed the 300C. Since every change at the top comes with a "new sheriff in town" speech -- or at least one-liner -- this is what Gilles had to say: "It's definitely time for a new aesthetic at Chrysler. ... We're done with the 'edge' look."

Gilles says he wants the Pentastar's cars to look more "organic." This being art, however, that could really mean anything. For concrete examples and practical considerations he mentioned the Dodge Zeo and Chrysler Ecovoyager, and said that he wants to design "sexy" cars that will appeal around the world. Intriguing statements from the gent known for a car that epitomizes the American muscle sedan, but we are all in favor, and we say "aye." The only question is how soon will they start the redesign, and what will organic look like?

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]