German carmaker Porsche has announced yet another variant of its aging 911, dubbed the 911 Speedster, which will make its official debut at the upcoming 2010 Paris Motor Show. Judging by the lukewarm response to our last 911 story, interest in the 911 is waning fast, and new variants of the same old formula isn’t going to cut it.
Normally we don’t put up reviews from other sources, but we came across this ancient Top Gear video from 1997 that tests a Toyota Corolla hatchback from that era. They even pit it against a Volkswagen Golf GTI, and the results are satisfying. Interesting to note how many awards that car apparently won back then. We also own a 1997 Corolla that we bought new, but we had no idea how class-leading it really was at the time. I was just a high-school kid with no internet back then.
While we were trolling around in Dubai looking for a midsize sedan to buy, we came across this attractive compact car, fully registered, and driven by staff from Arabian Automobiles, who happen to be the local dealers for Nissan, Infiniti and Renault here. On closer inspection, “SAIC” badges revealed its Chinese origins. It was also badged as an MG 550 1.8T. Those who keep track of such things will know that Chinese carmaker SAIC now owns the MG brand as well as some bits of Rover. On further pestering, the “owner” told us that Arabian Automobiles has handed out a bunch of these cars to staff members a couple of months ago,
BMW has released first images of the upcoming redesigned 2011-2012 BMW 6-Series Coupe, as usual badging it as a concept, even though it looks pretty much production-ready.
One of our readers, Fahad, tipped us off that the 2011 Toyota Land Cruiser will now be available with a 5.7-litre V8 in the Middle East, and has already been revealed in Kuwait as a 60th anniversary model, according to the dealer website there. We are also hearing rumblings that the 5.7-litre model is already in the UAE, and should soon be found in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries too.
Fiat-owned Chrysler has released images of the “new” 2011 Jeep Patriot, the slow-selling crossover that was routinely criticised for its poor interior quality, but has now been improved under new management.
The all-new 2012 Ford Focus is going to take a while to reach showrooms, but Ford has already trotted out the entire model line-up, including this Focus ST “design study” that will form the basis for a powerful new hot hatch.
The Porsche 911 range is getting long in the tooth, as there are only so many ways the German firm can manipulate the template set back in the 1960s. Even the current version has been around for a while now, and an all-new variant is set to debut at the 2010 Paris Auto Show, dubbed the 911 Carrera GTS.
A facelifted version of the current Chevrolet Captiva will be launched at the upcoming 2010 Paris Auto Show, but General Motors has released early information on the new model that will debut as a 2011 or a 2012 model, depending on market.
What started out as a very entertaining driving video has become a very entertaining advertisement for cheesy products, but Ken Block’s “Gymkhana 3” is definitely worth a watch. The man knows how to put on a show with his heavily-modified all-wheel-drive turbocharged rally “Ford Fiesta” racecar, this time in France.