eBay Motors Ride Of The Day: 1983 Rolls Royce Hot Rod

Beating out a hot pink Stude and lime green HUMMER for the coveted title of our eBay Motors find of the day is a 1983 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit Roadster, “A Little Piece of Us Dies Inside Every time We Look At It” Edition. Deceptively poised as a convertible, this bagged Rolls comes permanently topless with approximately $60k worth of modifications and more yellow-gold plating than can be accurately conveyed using a simple hip-hop analogy. Although we mourn the defacement of what had the potential to be one hell of a resto project, we have to begrudgingly issue points for the superior custom craftsmanship.

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Brilliance Brings BS BMW’s Stateside

Brilliance BS6

Small Chinese automaker and BMW-alligned Brilliance Jinbei Automotive Co. has recently scrapped plans to showcase 4 new vehicles at the Detroit Auto show in January. The original North American Brilliance line-up was to showcase 4 models, the BS6 mid-size sedan, BS4 compact car, BC3 sports coupe, and FRV hatchback. Today, Brilliance modified their U.S. debut to only include 2 models, the BS6 and BS4. In much the same way the Hyundai Genesis resembles a Mercedes S-Class, in the right light, the Brilliance BS models could pass for BMW 3- or 5-series sedans.

Brilliance BS4

Apparently, the plan was revised after Brilliance sent their model line-up to the U.S. in 2007 for government safety and emissions evaluation, and the cars failed to past muster. According to company VP He Guohua, the cars fared reasonably well during the crash testing, but emissions readouts indicated high levels of oxides of nitrogen. Determined to participate in the U.S. market by 2009, Brilliance hired both the engineering arm of Porsche AG as well as the U.S. engine technology company FEV Inc to bring their vehicles up to American safety/emissions standards. Guohua expects the design revisions to be completed by December, cutting it close but still allowing them to participate in the Detroit showing.

Brilliance ultimately plans to participate in the global market and hopes to begin selling cars in the U.S. by 2009 and worldwide shortly thereafter. Despite the setbacks, Joe Serra, co-chair for this year’s Detroit show, said that Brilliance is a much-anticipated and very welcome addition to the ranks of auto makers expected to be in attendance.

Brilliance BC3

Brilliance FRV

[Source: Automotive News]

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Rumors Swirl About The 2011 Toyota Celica, A Subaru-Toyota Street Legal Speed Demon

Toyota FT-HS Concept

Although the Scion tC is widely regarded as the modern-day Toyota Celica, it’s generally agreed that Toyota hasn’t produced a performance car since the death of the Toyota Supra. Toyota’s FT-HS concept car and the fledgling Subieyota [Subaru-Toyota] partnership have people talking though, and there are rumors that Toyota [with the help of Subaru] is planning a sports-tuner comeback with the 2011 Toyota Celica.

Many expect designs for the 2011 Celica to draw heavily from the 400-hp Toyota FT-HS concept, but it’s still unclear exactly what the final product will look like. We do know, however, that the 2011 Toyota Celica will be offered with two trim levels: the GT and the GT-4. The Celica GT will be a RWD 2-door coupe and feature Subaru’s 2.0L boxer engine, while the GT-4 will be the stuff of street racers’ wet dreams. Anticipated as an Impreza STi/Celica crossbreed, the Celica GT-4 will feature the Impreza STi’s 300-hp 2.0L boxer engine as well as Subaru’s unique 4WD [complete with in-wheel electric motors for white-knuckle performance]. Careful to avoid direct competition with the 4- and 5-door offerings on the Impreza STi, the Celica GT and GT-4 will only be offered in either 2-door coupe or 3-door hatchback versions. Planned as a 2011 model, speculations place the European release of the Toyota Celica in late 2009, early 2010. Plans for a North American debut have yet to be confirmed.

Subaru Impreza WRX STi

Toyota Celica

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Swiss Firm Mindset Provides a New Perspective on Hybrids with E-Motion

There is a new Swiss firm out that is looking to help move the lithium-ion hybrid technologies forward. The company is called Mindset and their new E-Motion hybrid car is designed to effectly change all our mindsets on hybrid technology. The mind behind the design of Mindset’s E-Motion hybrid is former VW Chief Designer Murat Guenak. He prescribed to it the classic round headlights, the long torso, the gull-wing doors and the modern brake-lights of the rear-end. But despite its purpose driven design it is the motivation and aluminum light-weight construction of the car that is what makes the E-Motion special.

In the video below you will get a good glimpse of the E-Motion sans skin to see what the Aluminum framing looks like and the sound of the electric motors in action. Making the work of the electric motors easy in the E-Motion is the weight of the frame. It weighs a mere 1764 lbs. Feeding power to the electric motors are lithium-ion batteries that are recharged in 3 different ways. Not only is the E-Motion a hybrid car with a 24hp motor that serves to recharge the batteries on the road and gives the car an added 100-km (62 miles) range, but it is also a Plug-In and also contains Solar Panels on its rear-quarters for additional charging.

Check out the video below and look for the photo gallery of the E-Motion afterward.

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Early Preview of the Hummer H3T Pick-up

Following up on the heels of their HX Concept in Detroit and just ahead of its official unveiling scheduled for Chicago some high-res photos of the up-and-coming Hummer H3T pick-up have found their way across the internet. Based off of the H3 model the H3T goes where the other Hummer truck attempts have not; a complete truck bed. In the case of the H3T the truck bed is a completely separate piece from the cab and even comes with bed rails to better express its “truckiness” (yes, made up word included).

There are two suspension packages expected to come in the H3T: off-road and road/tow. While there is plenty of truck versatility in the back the interior of the H3T comes with the same available packages as the H3. Also like its H3 counterpart you can look for the H3T to come with the same available engine packages: 3.5 liter 5-cylinder or the 5.3 liter V8. (…H3T Photo Gallery Following Link)

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Tesla Motors Performs the CEO Shuffle

Tesla recently promoted Michael Marks as their new CEO to replace Martin Eberhard. As the driving force for the start-up do not look for Eberhard to be departing. His new position will be as President of Technology with the fresh auto maker; thus allowing Eberhard to continue to focus on the cars and innovations at Tesla. Marks will now be in charge of the day to day business of running the growing company.

Michael Marks is no stranger to the company nor to running a big business. He was the former CEO of Flextronics, a $19billion dollar company, before becoming a contributing investor with Tesla. Even so, Marks role as the CEO is a temporary move as a search for a permanent replacement gets under way.
(more…)

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Super-coupe Mercedes-Benz test mule Spied in California?

The hardworking spy-boys of KGP Photography and the writers of AutoBlog have captured some fantastic photos of what may be the new Mercedes-Benz/AMG super car. While little is known about the exact ingredients that make up this test mule, the suspicion is that this is the test car for Mercedes-Benz all aluminum space frame that they plan to have incorporated in much of their line-up by 2012.

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Tesla Roadster survives delay and will still reach buyers this year

Tesla Motors has announced that despite a last minute vendor change that created a delay in the production of the Tesla Roadster they still expect to release their first production cars this year.

Tesla is facing what Preston Tucker endured when he attempted to introduce a new innovative approach to car building in the late 1940’s, except without the law suit and with far deeper financial backing. Delays and concessions can kill a good design, but it seems clear that Tesla is sticking to its guns to produce just the car they intended.

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