Audi RS7

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Do you remember what Audi used to do with its sporty line until the early 2000s? The only odd-numbered vehicle was A3 which, in turn, was also one of the Germans’ three “exceptions”: A2 never achieved success and TT seemed to be enough among the sports cars, so the several S-number were only sedans and wagons and there was only one RS at a time. The current market has brought enormous changes to this brand’s showroom, though, and one way of illustrating this event is presenting this article’s vehicle.

There’s no argument that Audi can create really good cars, but this one can also be seen as a very accurate example of how the automakers are always getting divided into two groups: it starts when someone comes up with some kind of innovation, whether in luxury, mechanics or even a whole car concept. If it obtains good acceptation, this brand can enjoy some months of excellent sales exclusively for itself, but soon all its competitors start to release their versions of the same idea. Some better than the original and some worse, but all with the same essence, which leads to divide the customers once again. This is what Audi has been doing with its cars for some years, in fact. They’ve followed BMW and Porsche with a luxury crossover and later with creating smaller sizes of it, and also Mercedes-Benz with both the four-door coupes and its own supersports line. Besides, after A7 received the always-expected S7 trim, now it’s time to copy every single urban Audi but A8 and release a RS7. Sports versions are always great, but the problem with this one is that Audi is decharacterizing it. The original strategy was always to give huge powertrain upgrades with slightly visual changes to its urban cars but as the S version, leaving RS as one single very special car like RS2, the very first of them. However, since today almost every Audi offers both sporty versions, they both seem pointless.

After all, the customers who look for high performance cars at Audi’s price range wouldn’t take the “second best” trim only to avoid the price difference in favor of S. On the other side, there are so many RS cars that they’ve lost that uniqueness which in 1994 made that wagon worldwide famous. In other words, it would make much more sense to go back to offering only one line… just like BMW M or Mercedes AMG, by the way. Strategy issues aside, RS7 is the very latest Audi to receive the best performance upgrades these Germans offer. This aggressive design packed with beautiful 20” wheels really go much better with the casual very-high-end Audi than with its sedan sibling A8, also because now there’s a competitor for CLS 63 AMG and the recent M6 Gran Coupé. The driving can be customized with optional air suspension, sports rear differential and variable-ratio steering, stability control with sport option and “off” button and many others, making an already indefectible driving more suitable to each driver’s style. The common item is the twin-turbo V8 4.0L shared with RS6 Avant, delivering here 560-hp power and 516-lb-ft torque commanded by ZF’s eight-speed automatic transmission and quattro AWD system – this car goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3s9. The top speed, in turn, varies with the optional item packages which bring several improvements in style, handling and aerodynamics… and take the car from the 155-mph top speed to 174 mph or 190 mph.

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Cadillac ELR

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Multiuse platforms must’ve become one of the best strategies ever created by the car industry in the last years. The idea of not having to start every project from scratch was always a temptation in many aspects, but the biggest barrier was finding the right “tune” between saving money by sharing and giving project freedom for each car. After decades of many GM experiments, this coupé’s proportions now arrive to prove that car-wise, there has never been a Cadillac like ELR efficiency-wise, technology-wise or otherwise-wise!

The first picture’s contrast between the writing style of brand and model’s names is a great example of what Cadillac has done in the last decades to stay successful and profitable. That excessively extravagant style from the 1950s could have been beautiful and irresistible (for many people it still is, in fact), but it wasn’t hard to expect it wouldn’t last long. Not only because of the plain time passage, events like the oil crises and the technology advances had a huge influence at the very concept of an automobile, which demanded a huge attention from the involved companies to keep offering something the customers would be willing to buy. This was a very important point specifically for GM’s luxury marque because after the drastic changes performed during the 1970s and the 1980s, their cars survived the following decade pretty much adrift. That’s why the 2000s seen such a revolution created by Cadillac: the whole new design language came with replacing the older projects with not only up-to-date ones but also shared with GM’s other brands, enabling it to participate much more intensely at the upcoming technologies’ development. ELR is precisely the youngest result of this new operating strategy, because it’s the luxury version of GM’s urban hybrid cars – that’s right, this car shares very much with Chevrolet Volt and Opel/Vauxhall Ampera.

If you’re familiar with the Converj concept, it won’t be necessary to explain very much about the design. ELR comes as its production version, so the designers’ idea was to keep the changes to a minimum. The design was smoothened, indeed, but it seems more elegant now. Some measures were changed in order to fit Volt’s platform, but they’ve also helped this car to avoid resembling the coupe CTS too much. But besides the boomerang-shaped lights, imponent front grille, gorgeous 20” wheels, LED-composed headlights and the typical very strong cuts and creases, the cabin really brings the expected finesse. Its four passengers will all enjoy very spacious individual seats, whose stitched leather can be paired to several options of coating colors and materials, including fine woods and real carbon fiber. And if you’ve noticed the big central console, this is one of Volt’s genes. The pictures show the T-shaped 288-cell, 16.5 kWh battery lies at the car’s center, to work with the two electric engines and the gasoline one, a four-cylinder 1.4L. This combined powertrain results at 208-hp power and 295-lb-ft torque, which doesn’t achieve the same performance as the sedan’s because they’re lighter cars: it’s estimated that ELR will make the 0-60 mph in around eight seconds. The all-electric mode’s autonomy will be 35 miles, extended to 300 miles with the 1.4 and technologies like regenerative braking. ELR will be priced only when closer to hitting the streets, which will be done around the end of this year.

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Chevrolet Corvette C7

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Here it is. After several months of spied prototypes, leaked pictures of external parts and related material, some official teasers and dozens of computer projections, this is the real deal. Corvette has become one of the most famous symbols of North-American vehicle performance of all times, so its fiftieth birthday deserved that Chevrolet once again faced the task of not only improving this car in every possible way but also of finding the right way to do it. The meaning of this expression is what you’ll discover with this article.

Chevrolet’s task is even harder than Ferrari’s, for instance, because the traditions it maintains are heavier. Some of the sports cars automakers have built their reputation around several vehicles, like the mentioned Italian one, but there are others which prefer to dedicate themselves to improving one single car over the years. These are exactly opposite strategies, but the chances of success and failure are the same for both – it only depends on their execution. Corvette is an undeniable example of the second one, just like 911 is for Porsche. And also like with the German coupe, dealing with such a huge tradition became a true challenge for its brand because whenever it’s time to perform changes the same question appears: “Would it be better if it looks like the previous generations, or is it time to create a whole new car?”. Nevertheless, the last years showed that while the European sports cars started to focus at the future, with new design languages and even new car categories, the North-Americans decided to work looking back. The 2000s were full of past-inspired cars like Chevrolet SSR and Plymouth Prowler, and some of them resist until now: once again it’s possible to decide between Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang and notice that all of them expose retro designs. So it turns very surprising to observe that Corvette wants to break this “rule”, like Dodge has recently done with their own super sports car, SRT Viper.

Some people won’t take long to claim the seventh Corvette looks too much like the new Viper. Others will go further by remembering that since Viper received some criticism of becoming too European, Corvette would have become an US-made Ferrari. But the fact is Chevrolet decided to express this car’s big traditions in a less obvious way. Investing so hard at resembling forty, fifty years old cars reduces the designing freedom, therefore avoiding to improve the car’s performance – which is an extremely important aspect for a sports car. So the new Vette became more aggressive, with plenty of strong creases and a beautiful selection of acute-angled shapes, which all contribute to a very modern look, much different from the smooth lines seen until C6. But the mentioned past references are still easy to observe: the front is elevated at the center but even more at the extremes as in C3, but with the headlights far from the center, as from C4. And the rear windshield creates a triangular shape that ends at an abruptly cut rear only reminds what’s seen since C2. The tail lights, however, brought a fascinating combination: they still use double units like in every Corvette, but lost the round shapes in favor of rectangles, to go better with the overall style and resemble Camaro. Even the front grille’s chrome line could give a hint of Chevrolet’s current design language for this item.

Looking to this car’s roof is another interesting ambiguity, in fact. Although the black spot here means a removable roof, having it next these black-painted A-pillars makes it impossible not to remember the 1990s futurism of Lumina APV. The other meaning is that roof represents the cutting-edge technologies received by this car. The console uses a modern interpretation of Corvette’s typical driver-centered interior design, now filled with some aluminum and carbon fiber details and several coating options. The big touchscreen summarizes that this car now brings all the current trend items, like multimedia sound system, and it’ll be possible to choose between comfortable daily-use seats or competition ones. Even the quickest glimpse at the tech specs sheet will reveal enormous structural improvements, which managed to improve aspects like body stiffness and weight, Brembo braking system, suspension, wheels (with specific tires) and efficiency. C7 Vette proves it deserves using the Stingray name also with the powertrain: the naturally-aspirated small-block V8 6.2L hasn’t left the front section, and produces 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of power and torque. It’ll also features cylinder deactivation with active exhausts system as a standard item – using an automatic six-speed transmission or the manual seven-speed gearbox, the result of all that is a 0-60 mph done in about four seconds and better emissions and consumption rates than C6’s. Pretty good use for those four exhaust pipes, right?

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Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 and E 63 AMG

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Sports car fans have been delighted with high-performance versions of conventional cars for decades. Audi S and RS, BMW M, Chevrolet SS, Dodge SRT and R/T, Fiat Abarth, Ford ST, Volkswagen GTI… There are lots of examples around the world, but they’re only different ways of achieving the always impressive balance between all the sportiness of coupes and convertibles and the particular features of each car which receives them. So how about meeting not one but four of the best sporty versions of the entire world?

Although there are lots of enthusiasts that cheer with each and every car release of nowadays because they know the quality level involved, there are lots of people that still ask themselves “Why do they have to create so many vehicles? Why can’t they only stick to improve what they already have?” and other similar questions. On the other side, this blog and the entire specialized press have written so many times about the increasing need to find new markets in order to keep offering competitive products that it won’t take too long for us to run out of different ways of rewriting the same information. Nevertheless, this blog doesn’t even think of stating that as criticism because it recognizes that it doesn’t take more than a moment spent thinking as a “car fan-but-not-freak” to realize that it is really hard to notice all of this conceptual information delivered at these texts. There are many pictures of the article’s car, but also many paragraphs referring to lots of other cars, turning it very difficult to only imagine all that. Since this blog always tries to go beyond one more plain repetition of each release’s features, these four cars have been referred in this single article in order to receive also a brief illustrative comparison. The first animated picture displays the new CLS 63 AMG at its Coupé and Shooting Brake versions, while the second one shows the facelifted E-Class Sedan and Estate now as E63 AMG.

If you were guessing the first mentioned aspect would be the external design, you’re right. There’s no way to avoid it, in fact. The main guideline that inspire these cars’ differences is the ability of each one taking a particular customer, reducing the internal competition to its minimum. E-Class has always gone after the more traditional public, which has preferred the same things for decades, while CLS receives who goes to a Mercedes dealer for the absolute quality but would really prefer something different, more casual. The shared platform enables those cars to share lots of internal parts, not to mention the engines, but stays far from being a barrier against their breathtaking conceptual differences. CLS’s four-door rear is only the first symbol of the opposition to E-Class’s three well-divided volumes. And since they both have SW versions, CLS’s interpretation resulted at the Shooting Brake body. E-Class’s sides use more horizontal creases, bringing a solid, classy impression while CLS makes a contrast between the narrow but long lines dying at the rear doors right where the very imponent fender starts, reminding the North-American muscle cars idea of movement. E-Class’s elements take most space of one only side of the car, probably to remind its several previous generations: most cars from the 1970s to the 1990s used a “folded-paper design”, where you couldn’t see much of the headlights, for example, if you were looking to the hood or the sides – CLS’s shapes are much more tridimensional. And since the lights were mentioned, it would be impossible to skip them.

E-Class can join them or split them at the front or redesign them at the back in any way, but they will always remind even the 1960s ancestor – so yes, you must’ve already guessed that right: at least until now, CLS preferred to make big changes from its previous generation. Fortunately, both cabins agree at delivering fascinating quantities of sophistication and safety, but this is one of the few truces here. CLS’s cabin is more fluidic, reducing the idea of a rectangular space while E-Class is much more likely to be driven by a chauffeur. The sedans even differ at the seating: E-Class sticks to five seats, but CLS dedicates itself to four. The wagons, in turn, diverge at the trunk: if E-Class is much more focused at the families, its sister’s space is bigger in length and smaller in height, privileging cargo such as golf clubs and hunting guns. Besides the bigger wheels and the more aggressive aerodynamic kit, the AMG version brings the same “heart” for these cars: the final (and most important) truce is the twin-turbo V8 5.5L, with that performance package from before the facelift now offered as a standard item. This means this engine now produces 550 hp of power and 531 lb-ft of torque, always using the AMG SpeedShift transmission: there are double clutch, seven speeds and four driving modes. Besides, these cars use rear-wheel drive or the 4Matic AWD system, but the (even more) special feature is the S package: this new performance kit uses 4Matic and boosts these cars to 577 hp and push the speed limit to 186 mph, with average 0-60 mph times of 3.6 seconds.

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Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabrio and Coupé 2014

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Some weeks after the traditional-family versions’ release, now it’s time to get some renewed E-Class to that bachelor uncle, too. It would be a nonsense to hope this facelift would've been applied only to the sedan and the station wagon, but these first official pictures show that Mercedes hasn’t gone too further in some aspects. The bright side, however, becomes very easy to see when we remember their goals here. This article will show why doing this leaves everyone with a “mission accomplished” thought.

It’s very pleasant to see an automaker perform the true interpretation of a vehicle’s version. This consists basically in deciding how far the new option will go from the original one, in order to find a nice proportion of individual personality and physical and/or conceptual resemblance with its own line. In other words, in fact it is possible to visually stretch a hatchback’s lower rear section and create a sedan. Than stretch the upper one too and achieve a station wagon. Take off the rear windows to have a pick-up. Cut them all and the rear doors to obtain a convertible, and cover it all to end up with a coupé… but even the fairly acceptable projects from nowadays already invest much more in differentiation. Therefore, climbing to the Mercedes-Benz level leads to results such as what these pictures show. Okay, the updates have the exact same labels of the four-door versions, such as “new single-unit headlights with LEDs” or “redesigned bumpers”, but it’s interesting to notice how they match the slight visual differences brought by these two. For instance, they feature exclusive rear fenders, with a much more appealing design in order to highlight that these are the sporty E-Class options. Not to mention it enables bigger differentiation from the other Mercedes sports cars: they became more opulent than the two-door C-Class and, at the same time, more classical than CL or SL.

This means presenting more particular designs is only those last mentioned ones’ proposal, which is totally appropriate for them because each one is its entire own line. These Cabrio and Coupé, in turn, show a different interpretation of their E-Class genes: the headlights use the same basic structure but in a more casual design, with irregular shapes and a different LEDs drawing, while the front grille received a bigger and more aggressive design. These differences may seem small, but the fact is they are the true responsibles for achieving what was stated at the last paragraph’s start. It isn’t necessary to invest that much into a vehicle’s new version, but achieving this “new personality” is really useful to attract better sales. After all, if a given automaker sold the exact same car only with more or less doors and with or without roof (like the Opel Corsa or Renault Mégane families in the mid-1990s, for example) there wouldn’t be many reasons to sell a particular one, leading most customers to end up with the biggest or the cheapest one – this situation could be translated into one or two variations selling very well and the others having much smaller numbers. Following the opposite strategy allows the car family to divide their public more equally, because each member brings exclusive details to please only a specific part of those buyers.

Entering these vehicles shows smaller updates, such as the redesigned dashboard with a central analog clock and the relocated gear selector, which went from the central console to the between the front seats. As what was seen in the four-door E-Class, there are much bigger improvements at the technical field: the power steering now uses an electromechanical system, which allows a self-parking function. The stereoscopic camera can monitor a much bigger surroundings’ area, the Collision Prevention system is now a standard item, and the optionals list brings a lot of similar technologies, such as lane-keeping, Pre-Safe, adaptative cruise control and the mentioned parking assist systems and 360°-camera. The only AMG-related information released so far is the item package, like what was seen at the new E-Class station wagon and now at the Coupé: exclusive bumpers and wheels are the responsibles of the more aggressive look, but the full-modified versions mustn’t take too long to appear. These cars won’t have lots of surprises about their engine options: they’ll surely maintain the E250, E350, E500 and E550 trim levels, each one with a different engine or a particular engine configuration but always using excellent transmissions, such as the seven-speed automatic gearbox. The complete E-Class will make its official debut at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show.

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Aston Martin V8 Vantage

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How about starting 2013 with a big photo gallery? The last year gave this car some design updates that surely improved its imponent, unmistakable Aston Martin design but focused at the aerodynamics, in order to achieve better driving dynamics. Besides, the entry-level 4.7L V8 has been reworked to become more efficient. It generates 420 hp now and uses a manual six-speed transmission, but offering an optional Sportshift II seven-speed gearbox. Clicking at the picture will take you to more official photos.

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BMW M6 Gran Coupé

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The German automakers’ tradition with sporty versions became so solid that in nowadays those are expected right after each new release. After all, while the traditional sedans and coupes are supposed to improve what they’ve been offering in all those years, the market can always create some space for new well-accepted cars, even though they would’ve never been thought of four or five years ago. Few months after BMW announced its debut among the four-door coupes, it’s time to quench the public’s second thirst.

This category’s concept is already known: it’s the same luxury and technology wrapped in a much more casual design, in order to please the customers who need a four-door car but would love to distance themselves from that “limousine look” given by most of the luxury automakers’ sedans. That’s what Mercedes-Benz invented with CLS and the VW group repeated with Audi A5 Sportback and A7 and Volkswagen Passat CC. But BMW not only refused to create a four-door of their own at this initial moment, as also seemed to keep being outside it when those two brands presented those cars’ second phases. Considering all of that and remembering that this is the automaker who created X5, X6 and even dared to develop sporty versions for both, it wouldn’t be crazy to expect that those Germans had bigger plans. So they didn’t lose the opportunity to overcome the cars which inspirated this one. Instead of an innovation attempt which could easily be rejected, such as 5-Series Gran Turismo, this new car focused at improving its original concept. There are plenty of sportiness and casuality all over this car, but without relying on a fastback-wannabe rear design. This one looks much more like a casual sedan than a formal coupé, using smoother shapes combined with strong details to give a classy impression – it may become harder to sell M5 from now on.

The M version brought very similar changes to what was seen at coupé and convertible M6. There are the traditional exclusive bumpers, side spoilers and fiber carbon roof. But that mentioned “discreet sportiness” can be found at items such as the four exhaust pipes, the black-painted roof or even at the Motorsport division’s logo, discreetly placed at the gorgeous 20” alloy wheels’ center. This proves that M6 paid a lot of attention to the details, instead of only the overall impression. This idea becomes even stronger when entering the car, because BMW didn’t restrict itself to create only one more interpretation of their current interior design’s rules. There still are the big console and lots of other elements that highlight this car’s big width, but it also received details such as Merino leather seats, roof coating using Alcantara, Motorsport’s special steering wheel and much more – another big difference between these cars and the conventional sedans is that these ones’ customers would never hire particular drivers, because they are very aware of the additional driving pleasure found at them. M6 Gran Coupé, for instance, will use the V8 4.4 twin-turbo, with 560 hp and using the M Double Clutch seven-speed automatic transmission. This car also brings sporty suspension and active differential to achieve 0-60 mph in 4s2 and two top speeds: there’s an optional item package which will bring ceramic brake system, multifunctional seats, GPS navigator, Bang & Olufsen sound system… and will raise the top speed from 155 mph to 189.5 mph.

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Chevrolet Camaro SS 2013

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As novas rodas já antecipam: o muscle car terá pequenas novidades para compensar o preço de R$ 203 mil. As pinças de freio Brembo receberam pintura preta, mas é a cabine que melhorou mais: o Camaro ganhou nova central de entretenimento no painel, com a tela de toque de 7” que controla o novo sistema de som multimídia, a conexão Bluetooth, o reconhecimento de voz e exibe as imagens da câmera de ré. Agora o banco do passageiro também traz regulagens elétricas, e foi mantido o 6.2 V8 de 408 cv com câmbio automático.

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Honda Civic 9,5

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An unusual phase number for an unusual phase update. For someone who doesn’t live in the US this may sound odd, specially in countries that also sell Civic, but the North-Americans have criticized this car so hard that Honda needed to perform a last-second facelift in order to solve these problems before they affected the car’s solid reputation. After lots of media speculations of all kinds, the last Los Angeles Auto Show finally received the official version of the “new new Civic”, which you will meet reading this article.

Since the last generation, Honda decided to create different versions of their best-seller, in order to suit each market’s particular needs of body, engine and equipment options, along with minor visual differences. But nobody knows what Honda thought when configuring the North-American version, because this car was criticized by everyone. The design resembled too much the previous generation, the interior had bad coating and assembly quality, the handling became worse, there was too much internal noise… This car started to lose the awards it was used to receive every year, so Honda needed to act quickly to stop their compact sedan from losing sales to competitors like Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla. The Japanese response came with facelifting the entire line only eighteen months after the current generation’s release, surprising everyone because they brought heavy changes: the pictures show the sedan has changed the front and rear style, with more chrome details whose inspiration was taken from the new Accord and bring a more sophisticated appearance to the car. The overall impression is a more mature car, which still haven’t abandoned the previous generation’s style but now uses a different interpretation of it: instead of that raw Japanese sportivity, Civic now follows a North-American elegance.

That facelift didn’t apply to the coupe version, though. What the entire line has received is the series of small-but-very-important updates to the interior. The peculiarly-shaped dashboard received better materials (including some leather parts), improved assembly and a new, more classy design for the air-conditioner’s outlets and buttons. Besides all that, Honda states that Civic received thicker windshield and bigger soundproofing in several areas, in order to reduce the internal noise. They also included some new technologies in this car, such as electronic systems for lane-departure and forward-collision warnings. When it comes to the trim levels list, the DX entry-version is no longer offered, leaving to LX the title of cheapest one available. Honda took this opportunity to maintain the previous LX’s equipment level, and allow itself to announce that every Civic now comes with more items – with all the optional ones, this list includes GPS navigation, Bluetooth connection and multi-view auxiliary cameras. This update is interesting because the deepness of those improvements is usually performed by other brands only at half-age facelifts, when the car has spent about three or four years in the current generation but it’s still too soon to invest in a complete new phase. Therefore, all this effort is a nice way for Honda to reconquer their customers’ approval.

However, as in almost every facelift of that kind there weren’t changes to the engine department. The standard option is the 140-hp four-cylinder 1.8 with a five-speed manual or automatic transmission, but Civic can also use the 2.4 with six manual speeds. These options also apply to the coupe version, which received only the interior updates. This means it still features a sporty design, with well-proportioned volumes to avoid a big-vehicle impression: it may not be the most powerful option of its category, but doesn’t seem visually heavy like a coupe Elantra would look like. Besides that, the Si version was also updated, adding the classic aerodynamical kit with side spoilers, more aggressive bumpers and that big rear spoiler – this area became a little confusing with this typical sports-car-item right above the chrome line which almost every sedan since the 1980s has used to join its tail lights. And at the top of Civic’s huge versions list, there are not one but two gasoline-opposers: the hybrid version pairs a 1.5 gasoline engine with the electric one to generate 110 hp and the excellent 44 mpg rate, using a CVT transmission. Besides that there’s the Natural Gas version, restricted to compressed natural gas, with 32,5 average consumption; the common versions achieve 32 mpg with manual and 33,5 mpg with automatic transmission, while Si stays at 26,5 mpg always with six-speed manual transmission.

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Volkswagen Fusca

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Você certamente já ouviu falar no termo “compactos de imagem”. Trata-se de mais um nicho de mercado criado nos últimos anos, assim como os crossovers e os cupês de quatro portas, mas com inspiração diferente. Esta é a categoria que ganhou fama com nomes como Fiat 500 e Mini Cooper, e que vem mostrando interessantes competições graças ao contraste com membros futuristas como Audi A1 e Citroën DS3. Mas até então uma grande injustiça vinha sendo cometida em silêncio. É o que a VW pretende reverter com este carro.

Tal injustiça vem de que o então chamado New Beetle nunca recebia menções nas publicações da imprensa referidas a esta categoria de carro… mesmo sendo o primeiro modelo a surgir no mercado com esta ideia. Por outro lado, não é descabido pensar que seu problema foi justamente a chegada prematura: naquele final dos anos 1990, a ideia da VW era apenas criar uma versão moderna de um dos seus carros mais famosos. Como até então ninguém tinha tido ideias parecidas, a única regra seguida pelos alemães foi a própria ideia original. O resultado foi um carro apenas vagamente inspirado no Fusca original, não só pelo desenho mas também pela tecnologia, que era a melhor que os alemães tinham à disposição no momento. O carro virou uma compra emocional e com preço e tamanho equiparados ao de um Golf, e com isso ficou muito distante do antecessor. Poucos anos depois vieram os compactos inglês e italiano já mencionados, mas compartilhando o tamanho bem menor e a tendência de estilo “retrô” mais intensa, fazendo que eles começassem a ser comparados entre si, e não com o modelo da Volkswagen. A evolução dessa situação foi que mesmo com o VW ganhando versão conversível e vendendo bem, ele sempre seguia em paralelo a carros que na verdade compartilham sua raison d’être.

As imagens revelam que a intenção da VW não passou por reduzir o tamanho do agora chamado Beetle. Ele mantém o conceito de “carro moderno que relembra o Fusca”, mas a grande diferença foi passar a enfatizar a segunda parte deste slogan. Ele volta a oferecer o melhor da tecnologia de sua marca, mas as mudanças visuais que recebeu tiveram o objetivo de aumentar a semelhança visual com o antecessor: o teto ficou mais baixo, o capô mais longo e a queda da traseira mais arredondada. Os alemães querem que ele perca o status de “carro feminino” da primeira releitura, e para isso apostaram na esportividade. Começaram com itens como rodas grandes, detalhes cromados sem excessos e itens que viraram a última moda entre os carros, como o teto solar panorâmico, mas terminaram com a ideia que na verdade deveriam ter tido desde a fase anterior: em vez de padronizar o nome norteamericano, o “novo novo Beetle” receberá o apelido que o carro original recebeu em cada país que foi comercializado. E é isso que faz nosso mercado voltar a conviver com o nome Fusca sob holofotes depois de dezesseis anos, ainda que holofotes bem diferentes. Afinal, basta lembrar que o preço inicial do novo carro será R$ 76.600 para entender que a maior ligação que este carro vai formar com o antecessor está nas memórias que esse nome vai despertar em muita gente.

Um ponto de vista puramente técnico vê este carro como uma versão informal do Golf, porque eles têm dimensões e tecnologia parecidas mas desenhos tão diferentes quanto entre Fiat 500 e Palio, por exemplo. O novo Fusca chega ao Brasil com qualidade europeia por fora e na cabine, que por sua vez apresenta muito bom gosto com a inspiração retrô presente sem atrapalhar a modernidade geral; o espaço é honesto para apenas quatro pessoas, como é natural nesta categoria. Seus itens de maior destaque são bancos e volante em couro, central de entretenimento com touchscreen no console central, sistema de som multimídia com oito alto-falantes e luz ambiente em três tonalidades, além do pacote de segurança que conta com airbags frontais e laterais, controles de estabilidade e tração e freios com ABS e EBD. Já o volante com base chata e os instrumentos adicionais acima do console revelam a vocação esportiva: este Fusca sempre trará o 2.0 TSI de 200 cv usado em vários modelos da marca, com câmbio manual de seis marchas. Ainda é possível equipá-lo com o câmbio DSG, volante multifuncional e itens de luxo como farois bixenônio, os mencionados teto solar, rodas de 18” e as luzes diurnas em LED, sistema de som Fender, entrada sem chave, sistema ParkPilot e outras opções de revestimento dos bancos, entre outros. Mas equipado com tudo isso, quando você poderia imaginar que um Fusca passaria dos cem mil reais?

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Volkswagen CC

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Outro dos lançamentos reservados para o recente evento da VW foi a nova fase de seu cupê de quatro portas. Como a família Passat ainda está longe da época de mudar de geração, depois de sedã e perua receberem seu primeiro facelift na fase atual, agora chega a vez de atualizar o irmão “subversivo”. Mas em vez de lhe aplicar uma mera re-estilização, os alemães buscaram aproveitar seu conceito diferente para lhe dar independência, com mudanças pequenas mas de importância conceitual muito grande.

Esta mudança de nome foi o perfeito símbolo para a ideia que se quer passar com este carro a partir de agora. Assim como o carro que lhe serviu de inspiração, o conterrâneo Mercedes-Benz CLS, o então Passat CC surgiu como uma alternativa mais informal à tradicional linha de luxo da VW. A intenção é cativar a parcela dos clientes que aprecia as qualidades desses carros mas não gosta da sobriedade que lhes caracteriza. Então, assim que esse nicho foi detectado bastou deixar o bom gosto trabalhar para aliar esportividade e elegância no que seria o “traje esporte fino” dos carros: a própria denominação “cupê de quatro portas” já antecipa a dualidade de conceitos que esses carros carregam. Esta versão do Passat vem se mostrando um tiro certeiro tanto quanto o CLS, com o agravante de que sua dirigibilidade tão elogiada é um excelente par para a proposta que ele traz. Então, a VW aproveitou a época de redesenhar o carro para investir mais nesse novo conceito. As linhas mais retas que ganhou lhe dão personalidade própria, em especial quando se lembra da ditadura estilística que enfrentam os modelos mais recentes da marca. O CC ficou ainda mais elegante porque abandonou a esportividade explicitada por spoilers e aerofólios para apelar ao potencial de seu próprio conceito, reforçando elementos como a largura da carroceria bem maior que a altura.

Entretanto, por mais independente que este carro tenha virado na nova fase, sua relação com os Passat convencionais não se perdeu. Primeiro porque eles compartilham o projeto e são muito parecidos visualmente, mas a principal razão é que a VW realmente não tem motivo de desvencilhar este carro da linha que só perde em sofisticação para o Phaeton, mas que em seu segmento conta com muito mais carisma que aquele – eles só deixaram implícito o parentesco entre o CC e seus irmãos sedã e Variant. E como era de se esperar, este carro teve diversas melhoras de equipamentos: sua lista ganhou o sistema OPS de câmeras para exibir os arredores do carro em 360° e a nova geração do Park Assist, o famoso assistente de baliza. Todo o demais se manteve, o que vai desde itens como ar-condicionado digital, entrada sem chave e farois bi-xenônio com LEDs diurnos e um pacote de segurança que inclui seis airbags, sensor de fadiga e controle de estabilidade até toda a qualidade dos materiais usados na cabine, com acabamento impecável. O motor é o mesmo 3.6 V6 FSI de antes, com potência de 300 cv e torque de 35,6 kgfm e que usa o câmbio DSG de seis marchas com tração integral 4Motion – este carro vai de 0 a 100 km/h em 5s5 e chega à velocidade máxima de 250 km/h. Ele conta com oito opções de cor externa, duas para o painel e três para o couro Nappa. O CC começa em R$ 208.024, fora os opcionais.

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McLaren MP4-12C GT3 Can-Am Edition

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Thirty units. After exposing the concept-car at the last Pebble Beach concours, McLaren has decided to sell a limited edition of their dazzling orange and black car. The fans can go crazy as much as they want because the Can-Am Edition will be almost fully reproduced, and this means an astonishing performance under many aspects. The pictures will show what made this car so adored by everyone since the mentioned North-American event, and what will certainly build its way to increase the super sports cars’ history.

McLaren has always been distinguished from the rival automakers about their focus when building a high-performance car. Since they are a competition constructor who also builds street cars, the differences start when remembering that MP4-12C is only their second street car, succeeding only F1 and SLR, but this one being projected in partnership with Mercedes-Benz. So they don’t have to worry with maintaining a fashion image such as Ferrari or Porsche, following a strong visual identity like Mercedes-Benz or even with sharing another cars’ projects because the brand belongs to a big group, like Lamborghini. It’s undeniable that the English car seen at these pictures is as expensive as those brands’ sports cars, but McLaren Automotive can take advantage from this lack of strings to deliver a different perspective of this kind of car. That’s what they made with F1 in the 1990s, which not only kept the Fastest Production car record for many years as also stills surprise the world by construction exclusivities, such as the central driving position, with two occupants travelling behind the driver. This car’s successor doesn’t bring creative innovations like that, but represents the best of today’s technology when it comes to driving performance.

The Can-Am edition honors Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme taking inspiration from the GT3 competition version. It means that this car uses lots of carbon fiber parts, not only in visual parts such as the rearview mirrors but specially at the structural ones, like hood, side radiator and the big rear airfoil: that size comes to generate 30% bigger downforce. This car shares MP4 coupe and roadster’s chassis but received special track wheels, while the huge changes to the exhaust system illustrates how big are the differences under the hood: the twin-turbo 3.8 V8 received a special configuration to deliver 638 hp, making this MP4 the most powerful one ever made. Actually, this car is so powerful that it was decided to keep it away from the streets: as FIA has licensed it only to tracks, they will receive a car with behavior optimized to them: the race car steering wheel is only the first part of a complete competition-like cabin: there are small side windows and special Recaro seats, with much better body support. This car is expected to hit the customers’ garages (unfortunately not the streets) in next March, under the price of 375.000 euros.

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Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series

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It must be impossible to exist a car enthusiast who is indifferent to the sports cars. Each one can prefer off-roads, limousines, crossovers or another particular style, but there’s always a high-performer to build a taste intersection. This is one explanation to the huge expectation created among both the press and the public specially by the big automakers. Now it’s Mercedes-Benz’s  time to direct the spotlights to this very important car: it’s the famous Black Series coming to one of their most charismatic products.

Although each and every sports car has plenty of reasons to attract a customer, there are so many brands and models of them that it becomes very hard for a particular one remain taking the public’s attention through the years. This must be the reason to the arrival of so many special series. They can come to celebrate special events, begin the application of new components or only to spice up the car’s sales – Bugatti Veyron already had dozens of them, for instance. But Mercedes’ Black Series is already known due to the reputation brought by being an improvement of the AMG division, which already represents the high-performance versions of all the brand’s cars. This recipe resulted so attractive that has deserved to be extended to several cars. Therefore, after the huge success with the C-Class Coupé, it was time to see what would happen by combining it to the most powerful car of their showroom. These pictures begin to describe the wonderful result achieved, with the addition of imponent spoilers and bigger air intakes which give an excellent first impression: the car does look different from the conventional SLS, but without the cliché of attempting to resemble a race car. However, the irony of seeing those cars’ official pictures in lots of colors but black may come from avoiding too much resemblance with the famous Brabus special adaptations.

The most fanatic enthusiats already know that all this aerodynamic kit has much more functions than to make the car take the attentions at the street, though. The Black Series came with several components made of titanium and carbon fiber (the Germans wouldn’t be cruel to the point of only painting those external details in that particular gray) in order to reduce weight, and at the same time there was an engine improvement. Therefore, these three very effective ways of optimizing the performance have maximized the power of the 6.2 V8, which by the way now delivers 622 hp. Using a seven-speed transmission, this car has lowered its own 0-60 mph record to 3s5 and raised the top speed to 196 mph. All of that comes, of course, with a fully-equiped interior, including racing seats with red belts. But driving a car from this level requires bigger concerns with a perfect handling and even better safety, and that’s when Mercedes answers with items such as the modified suspension, to deliver much better behavior, and ceramic calipers to improve the brake system, because of the excellent reputation of these components concerning their operation in high temperatures. This car will hit the European streets only in next June, so there’s no official price defined yet. The SLS AMG must follow the other Black Series members and be sold as a limited edition.

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Mercedes-Benz C180 Sport

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Quem diria que até o mercado de carros de luxo no Brasil daria vendas boas a ponto de os fabricantes mudarem suas estratégias devido à concorrência que se formou? O Salão do Automóvel em São Paulo é a mais recente exposição desses novos tempos, também com cada vez mais anúncios de chegadas de modelos que até pouco tempo atrás eram inimagináveis no país. A novidade da Mercedes-Benz de agora foca exclusivamente em um público que surgiu há pouco tempo, mas já ganhou enorme importância.

Quem viveu os anos 1980 no Brasil lembra das frustrações decorrentes de conhecer todas as maravilhas vendidas nos outros países impedidas de aparecer aqui por causa do bloqueio às importações, que então já passava dos vinte anos. Porém, os anos 1990 viram apenas a reversão de uma parte dessa questão. Adquirir produtos do estrangeiro voltava a se tornar possível em praticamente todos os setores de produtos e isso trouxe incontáveis benefícios à população. Mas quando se tratava dos carros, a alegria na hora de comprar um zero-quilômetro italiano, japonês ou norte-americano se transformava na dor de cabeça de anos depois: considerando que algumas dessas novatas simplesmente fecharam as portas no país sem dar muitas satisfações, era muito difícil ver uma que oferecesse assistência técnica oficial estável e acessível. Isso era um agravante ainda maior para os fabricantes de luxo porque trazer seus modelos mais caros dava uma excelente impressão inicial que não se correspondia em nada com o que se via mais tarde. Já naquela época era tão caro e difícil manter um Alfa Romeo ou um BMW que até hoje os modelos desses tempos são malvistos no mercado de usados. Porém, o passar dos anos viu o mercado brasileiro ganhar tanta importância que voltou a atrair a atenção desses fabricantes.

A clientela dos anos 2000 continuava disposta a adquirir produtos de qualidade e nível reconhecidos, mas já não estava entorpecida pelo furor de novidade da década anterior. Vender bem agora requeria esclarecer que os produtos seriam um bom negócio desde a hora da compra até a revenda. Marcas como Acura e Lexus só vieram a ganhar disposição para tentar a sorte no Brasil há pouco tempo, mas as do nível de Audi, BMW e Mercedes-Benz sempre aproveitaram o prestígio que sempre tiveram. O pulo-do-gato se fez ao investir mais na base da gama, mas da forma “correta”. Isso vem do fato de que a primeira tentativa de oferecer preços menores surgiu com carros como BMW Série 3 Compact e Mercedes-Benz Classe A, este até fabricado no Brasil. Seu preço era mesmo um tanto menor que o das linhas mais famosas, mas eles também careciam do status trazido por aquelas, e ainda não eram exatamente uma pechincha – só a estrela de três pontas não era suficiente para levar um Classe A de primeira geração, com design mais feio e espaço menor que o de um concorrente de marca comum com tamanho similar mas preço bem mais convidativo. Essa atitude do público é compreensível porque os produtos de luxo são apreciados pelo patamar superior que oferecem em vários aspectos, mas também pelo prazer da imagem distinta que dão aos compradores.

Com isso, a tal “forma correta” de se vender carros de luxo no Brasil está se mostrando investir em trazer os mesmos carros que fazem sucesso no exterior, dar importância às opções mais baratas para ganhar quantidade de clientes, mas agora também sabendo em que se mexe para conseguir tudo isso. Explicar isso se torna muito fácil citando exemplos, e não por acaso um dos melhores é o modelo que figura neste artigo. A Classe C sempre foi um dos Mercedes-Benz de maior sucesso no mundo, e isso se traduz em grande prestígio. Mas grande parte desse frisson que causam vem do tão aclamado nível de qualidade da marca, que se traduz em construção refinada, estilo irresistível e pacote de itens de nível superior, basicamente. Então, uma vez que se tem a necessidade de reduzir os preços mas a obrigação de manter estes aspectos, a estratégia precisou seguir outro caminho. Assim como as compatriotas, a Mercedes-Benz aproveitou os recentes avanços de tecnologia para não só reduzir custos de produção como melhorar o desempenho dos carros. Agora se consegue o mesmo desempenho de dez anos atrás com motores de metade do tamanho e menos da metade do consumo, vantagem esta que também vem da redução de peso. Todo esse aumento da eficiência foi justamente o que conseguiu a tão desejada redução de preços.

Os alemães chegaram a oferecer várias versões similares desde poucos anos atrás, como C250 e C200, mas focando no mesmo que a C180 Sport de agora. Seu motor é um 1.6 turbo com potência de 156 cv e torque de 25,4 kgfm, sempre usando o famoso câmbio automático 7G-Tronic Plus de sete marchas e dupla embreagem, permitindo aceleração de 0 a 100 km/h em 8s5 e velocidade máxima de 223 km/h, fora o ótimo consumo conseguido também pelos baixos 1.485 kg da versão sedã. Fora isso, o pacote de equipamentos continua a fascinar como em todo Classe C, cortando apenas os itens que fazem a distinção dos irmãos maiores Classe E e Classe S, excessivos para muita gente. Não se pode negar que muitos puristas torcem o nariz a esse conjunto por causa do costume com o luxo dos dois exemplos citados, mas por que ele tem tanta importância para a marca, então? Porque seduz a classe média-alta mais do que nunca. Esta é a classe social que já saiu do segmento de médios como Honda Civic e Toyota Corolla, e até então ficava com carros do nível de Ford Fusion e VW Passat. Os últimos anos trouxeram a interessante mudança de que finalmente ela também pode aceder ao tal nível de um Mercedes-Benz, sem precisar desembolsar um valor para ela impraticável, como o dos modelos oferecidos pela marca há dez anos. A marca oferece esse tão desejado salto de nível na versão sedã por R$ 139.900, Coupé por R$ 143.900 e perua Touring por R$ 149.900, todos com o pacote de acessórios AMG de série.

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Rolls-Royce Ghost e Phantom

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Chegamos ao topo. Depois das primeiras especulações feitas meses atrás, hoje foi inaugurada a primeira revenda na América Latina de um dos fabricantes automotivos de maior prestígio do planeta. Não era arriscado apostar que essa honra caberia ao Brasil, que agora dispõe de uma concessionária Rolls-Royce em uma área nobre da capital paulista. Neste artigo você verá o que faz essa marca tão importante e destacada em todo o mundo, e ainda vai conhecer a interessante oferta que ela preparou para o nosso mercado.

Neste blog normalmente se começa descrevendo a questão do design do carro, depois se começa a falar do interior e se termina com as especificações técnicas, alternando com relatos sobre a história do carro ou sobre sua imagem no mercado. Isso levaria a falar que o Ghost e o Phantom são a expressão moderna do conceito de limusine, com linhas retas e clássicas aliadas às idiossincrasias da marca como a estátua acima da grade dianteira, para em seguida tentar abreviar uma lista quilométrica de itens de luxo e conforto e terminar descrevendo o desempenho do carro, mas aqui se tem um caso muito especial. A Rolls-Royce coleciona décadas de admiração e respeito porque vai além de vender carros com luxo. Sua estratégia não se baseia em propagandas, interação em redes sociais ou parceria com grifes de moda ou pessoas famosas porque seu prestígio não vem da exposição massiva, muito pelo contrário. A concepção de um carro desses tem como meta principal exaltar seu cliente, no sentido de que o carro melhore sua vida em todos os aspectos que puder. Trata-se de uma lealdade digna de mordomos, que muitas vezes não se compreende de imediato pelo simples infortúnio de que esse padrão de vida é muito distante do da maioria da população.

Um exemplo de todo esse tratamento dos Rolls-Royce aos clientes está na construção artesanal: a qualidade chega ao ponto de que existem muitos modelos de décadas atrás rodando até hoje, e com a mesma qualidade de quando eram novos. Este é o tipo de carro que se compra para usar as poltronas traseiras, mas sua dirigibilidade provoca suspiros tanto do dono como de seu sortudo chauffeur: os ajustes de direção e suspensão dão a sensação de se viajar flutuando, sem falar no isolamento acústico inacreditável. Além disso, produzir cada unidade individualmente ainda traz o louvável aspecto da personalização, que será amplamente explorado na revenda paulista: os interessados terão direito a visitar o famoso Customer Lounge, sala em que se expõem os diversos tons de couro, madeira e tecidos que se podem utilizar em qualquer modelo da linha. Também existe um telão para que o cliente configure seu carro com a ajuda de um funcionário, porque há uma série de possibilidades tanto para equipamentos extras quanto detalhes como o padrão da costura dos revestimentos internos. Toda essa atenção especial se conclui com a personalização que se pode criar: o cliente pode pedir excentricidades como pintar o carro da forma que desejar, e será atendido.

Contudo, é mais do que óbvio que isso tem o seu custo, não só preço final como também na espera pela entrega, que começa em quatro meses mas pode se estender de acordo com o que o comprador pediu. É interessante notar como se preservam várias tradições da marca até hoje: sempre produzidos na Inglaterra (cidade de Goodwood), até o painel de instrumentos contribui com a elegância geral, porque expressa a contagem de giros em forma implícita: exibe-se a “reserva de força” do carro, num medidor de porcentagem. Fora o detalhe de que eles desprezam os exageros típicos das limusines customizadas americanas: não se veem acabamento em ouro com pedras preciosas, estátuas de materiais nobres ou qualquer outro monumento ao mau gosto em um carro, mas sim um requinte discreto, formando um ambiente de altíssimo nível. O espaço da marca se encontra na Av. Cidade Jardim n° 691 e tem os modelos trazidos pela Via Italia, o mesmo importador oficial de Ferrari, Lamborghini e Maserati. Um destaque muito louvável é que a Rolls já começa oferecendo a linha completa, que inclui o Phantom em versões cupê, cabriolet e sedã com entre-eixos normal ou estendido, e o Ghost nas duas últimas opções. Na ordem, os motores são 6.7 de 453 cv e 6.6 biturbo de 563 cv, ambos V12. O Ghost começa em R$ 2,3 milhões e já tem unidades para pronta entrega.

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Audi R8 Special Edition

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É interessante como o esforço de uma marca em exaltar um modelo cresce de forma quase exponencial, à medida que a faixa de preço aumenta. Por mais que vários carros mais acessíveis também tenham uma história repleta de edições especiais com os mais diversos temas, sobretudo na Europa, os superesportivos são campeões nisso. Suas marcas aproveitam que esses carros possuem valor emocional enorme, então sempre buscam novas formas de aumentar a sensação de “topo do mundo” que acompanha suas chaves.

Para os compradores de carros mais convencionais realmente se torna difícil de entender o que ainda é possível fazer em carros de mais de meio milhão de reais com a tal finalidade de que eles se distingam ainda mais, mas o fato é que parte dessa resposta se encontra na própria pergunta: quanto mais dinheiro se tem envolvido, mais fácil fica atingir um objetivo determinado, pelo menos neste caso. Assim como um Land Rover retribui seus preços com um desempenho off-road incomparável ou um Rolls-Royce se paga com a classe e a durabilidade já lendárias, os esportivos de nível mais alto buscam justamente oferecer uma performance indefectível. O trabalho que a Audi vem fazendo com o R8 merece aplausos não só pelo produto em si, como principalmente pelo contexto que ele na verdade não tem. Porque não se trata de uma marca com a tradição da Porsche ou uma cujo foco é outro mas tem todo um histórico no ramo dos esportivos, como a Mercedes-Benz. A Audi sempre se especializou em requinte e qualidade geral, e mesmo que seu êxito com as linhas S e RS seja grande, o R8 é um caso totalmente diferente. Um esportivo de nascença foca em um público muito diferente, que se dispõe a pagar muito mas também exige muito mais que os que levam uma versão preparada de um dos carros de rua.

Parte desses requerimentos especiais é que o carro não só corra muito como o faça muito bem. Estilo e luxo interior são itens de lei mas não as prioridades, e é isso que explica o fato de o R8 SE ter ganhado tão pouco na parte visual: ele vem apenas na cor branco Ibis e traz rodas aro 19” em preto fosco com pinças vermelhas. Entretanto, se por fora ele pode ser confundido com um R8 comum, basta dirigí-lo para começar a sentir as diferenças. Este modelo parte da versão V8 e tem como destaque o kit de itens de performance da empresa MTM (Motoren Technik Mayer), uma das melhores preparadoras alemãs. Temos filtros especiais para maior admissão de ar e escapamento esportivo, que traz ponteira dupla e abertura de válvulas a partir de 3.000 rpm, conseguindo um som de motor mais encorpado – aí está uma prova da importância do tal quesito emoção. Falando em motor, o 4.2 FSI passa a gerar potência e torque de 450 cv e 45,9 kgfm, força que lhe permite aceleração de 0 a 100 km/h em 4s2 e velocidade máxima de 310 km/h, sempre com câmbio manual e na carroceria cupê. O pacote de equipamentos completo termina de justificar os R$ 558 mil que este carro pede. Ele vem em tiragem de apenas quinze unidades, com direito a plaqueta numerada no painel.

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SRT Viper

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The sports cars fans now have new material from which to make posters. Chrysler has released new official pictures of the new generation of one of its most charismatic products. As you must’ve already seen many times, Viper will now be sold by the SRT division, but today received its price list. As always, some fans will disapprove it while others will start to write checks or raise their lottery expenses in order to park one at their garage as soon as possible. This car has already made its way as one of the modern classics.

Considering the aspects which made this car so famous, it’s easy to understand why there are many people criticizing the concept of its new generation. On the other hand, these people also have to remember that we’re at different times. Viper was known specially by its style. Its first appearance was made at 1989 as a Dodge concept-car, but taking attention for the fact that it was almost ready to be sold as a street car while anyone could think it would need a lot of changes to adapt itself. There already were the strong lines that remind of muscles, along with lights, doors and other items smoothly added to the external surface in order to maintain it’s overall organic shape. But its character was defined by a certain rusticity: the very first production Viper simply didn’t bring external door handles or even roof, being sold as a “permanent” roadster. But one very special part of this design was the enormous hood, which hides another huge feature of this car: its V10 engine was originally produced for Chrysler trucks, but became adapted to Viper and after that turned into its trademark specially due to the symbolism: offering this massive power without any kind of control systems gave it a combination of factors never achieved by any of its competitors.

However, there were some changes already at its second generation. It received a Coupe version and the roadster finally received a removable roof. The third one received a little face-lift and the fourth one came with improvements at the engine, but the time was changing. These times saw the 2008 economic crisis and lots of car companies getting closed or dangerously near that, including Chrysler, so Viper saw the biggest change at its history ever: after buying the Chrysler Group, Fiat ended Viper production two years later, but not forever. Basically, they just waited to return to financial stability and started to produce this new generation, whose first debut was made some months ago. The biggest gain was made with the decision of an entire reproject. Obviously they wouldn’t change it too much, but now Viper joins the same visual style as always with a way better technical part. If the external style can be considered as only an improvement of the original one, the interior became much more modern and comfortable, with state-of-the-art technologies in favor of safety, comfort and even some luxury – one of the nicest inside details is the entire-LCD high-definition dashboard. As the pictures show, now it’s possible to change several driving adjustments through it and even adjust the graphic part, which includes a big picture of the snake who characterizes this car.

The latest announcements of Chrysler have also brought some prices, from the US market: the initial version will cost US$ 99.390, while the GTS can be yours for US$ 122.390, making Viper a slightly cheaper car than one of its biggest competitors, Chevrolet Corvette. Both versions come with the V10 8.4 of 600 hp, always using manual transmission and rear traction… But this leads precisely to one of the discussion points among the fans. The new Viper has all of the modern safety systems, such as traction and stability controls, while none of the previous generations had ever dreamt of using. Some complain that with those changes Viper loses the rough driving which has always made it so different of the other super sports cars, even giving it the “men’s car” stereotype. But now it’s worth to repeat that sentence about the “different times”: there are increasingly strict safety rules, whose applications can only get much more intense for a car this fast. Viper is still a very-skilled-driver car, but became much more safer to everyone. It wouldn’t be worth to keep selling a car whose use would attract more and more complaints and even involvements in accidents because of the own car’s behavior. So the Fiat-Chrysler group decided to adapt the legend to the new days, and allow it to fascinate everyone for many more years.

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Peugeot RCZ

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Among the enormous variety of brands and models of cars seen every day, there are some special examples who deserve bigger attention than others by special reasons. Besides luxury, performance or technology, some particular cars deserve intense compliments not because of what they do but how. It’s very easy to want a car to accomplish goals A, B and C, but only a few are good enough to really get there. RCZ not only did this as also became one of the best current examples of achieving success at what a car’s supposed to do.

Peugeot’s focus has always been the urban cars, of many kinds. They made some luxury sedans, some faster coupes, some vans and even pick-up trucks, but the special dedication goes to hatchbacks, sedans and station wagons. It’s a very wide range, but their difference from the other brands is made at the design, always guided by this feline touch who comes from their lion logo. Considering that, when they came up with the first RCZ, a few years ago, everyone thought they would follow Audi’s path with R8 and dive at the supersports cars’s world for the first time. The thing is, there was another use to this coupe at the French brand’s mind. RCZ doesn’t try to break speed records or spoil its occupants like a limousine, but bring its brand back to its roots. This car shares platform with the 308 line but doesn’t try to deny it – they even have the same central console – because it wishes precisely to be a connection, joining the urban cars with the typical Peugeot’s style boldness. So they gave it a killer style (without saving with shared parts here, thank God) and excellent engines to match it, but still not exclusive for it. Besides that, all this scale production saving helped them to accomplish the last but equally important goal, which will be revealed later.

Although the sales started at 2010, its very first appearance was made as a concept car at 2007, which explains that this face-lift is already planned to 2013. It’s easy to see that they did only what is expected from a half-age update: an improvement of the original concept, instead of desperate attempts to hide the car’s age which easily results at a total lack of harmony. The rear has received nothing more than a new arrangement at the tail lights, but the front deserves applause. Peugeot has avoided the crime it would be to mess this style, so they changed only the necessary to adapt it to their current visual identity. And what an amazing surprise it is to see RCZ abandoning those exaggeratedly-bulged headlights in favor of still feline-inspired but much more elegant units, with reduced size. The air intakes are now clearly divided into two parts, with the upper one reminding of 508 while the lower one now rounds it and ends at two sharp points who carry the LED daylights. A very interesting change is the addition of lots of personalization options. For instance, it’s now possible to change the carbon fiber roof and the front air intake’s coating, to paint the roof’s arches and brake calipers in different colors and even choose between ten wheel options.

This new phase has also received the 508’s entertainment system, with a big touchscreen above the air outlets, but it’s captained by a much bigger new option. The new RCZ will be officially exposed at Paris Motor Show along with the RCZ R version who appears at the last pictures. The photos show the concept car, but the street version was already confirmed, and probably won’t be too different from this one. The new version takes this car’s style to a much higher level of performance: there are improved chassis, re-adjusted brakes and Torsen limited-slip differential, besides the fact that the already famous 1.6 THP will generate 260 hp exclusively for it (how much more power can PSA extract from this engine??). Even though the R version is planned to truly attack its archenemy Audi TT at more versions, RCZ’s main existance reason lies at the conventional versions, which by the way keep both the previous engine and transmission options. The return of this car to the spotlights show Peugeot’s dedication at offering a halfway from emotion and reason. This car doesn’t have huge space or the most powerful engines ever, but goes fast still taking four occupants, and for the same price of many sedans, wagons and even minivans. So how would it be to let yourself escape from those and open the door of a whole different life?

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