Call Todd Sommer at 1-866-413-3513 for more details

So here’s the concept: Come up with a more-comfortable Jeep Wrangler. One you can drive when you have a family, one that will give Jeep a chance to compete with the host of other midsize SUVs, but one that won’t surrender Wrangler’s off-road credibility.
Hey, how about more room, more comfort, more power, more stuff? And four doors instead of two?
The obvious dawns slowly sometimes, especially at an outfit focused — to its credit — on maintaining Wrangler’s integrity as a rock-clambering, stream-fording, mud-slinging master. But dawned it has, in the form of the 2007 Wrangler Unlimited. It’s about 21 inches longer than the standard Wrangler and is the first four-door in Wrangler history.
The name isn’t new, but the application is. Jeep used “Unlimited” for a long-wheelbase version of the 2004 to 2006 two-door Wrangler. Now it refers only to the new four-door, which is longer than the discontinued two-door Unlimited.
PHOTOS/AUDIO: Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
QUESTIONS? Submit them for Healey’s chat, 2 p.m. ET
Unlimited and the standard Wrangler two-door are a frame-up remake of the classic Jeep. The frame is up to 100% stiffer and carries beefier axles for handling rougher service.
We’ll stick to the Unlimited because it’s the new kid and because Jeep says it will comprise a stunning two-thirds of all Wrangler sales. Since its launch last fall, Wrangler sales have nearly doubled, so it’s striking some people as a good idea.
A caution, though, if this sounds familiar: “Look, dear, they’ve made that cute Jeep Wrangler into a four-door. I’ve always wanted one, and now it looks big enough.” Cut and run; Unlimited is not for you. It’s for the stump jumper who’s a Wrangler fan, loves a semi-primitive persona and needs a bigger Wrangler to haul more kids, camping gear, whatever. Wrangler in any size or guise is not for the casual SUVer.
Still, the Unlimited edges slightly toward the cotillion end of the spectrum. It is smoother (longer-wheelbase vehicles almost always are), quieter (20%, Jeep says) and tows more than the two-door.
It has more and handier cargo space, along with the obvious improvements in passenger space and access.
It has an optional hardtop — Freedom Top, Jeep calls it — that will allow open-sky motoring for one, some or all occupants. That’s assuming you are willing to tolerate, and able to master, the somewhat clumsy operation. The standard soft top — all Wranglers are convertibles, though some come with hardtops that make them appear otherwise — is a manual affair that gives the Unlimited a safari look.
The Unlimited didn’t seem to lose much off-road ability in an afternoon pounding around Jeep trails on the historic Oak Ridge Estate in Nelson County, Va. Climbing the steep banks of rocky creek beds, it worked fine, limited more by driver than anything mechanical. Narrow, steep, muddy trails deep in the woods were no problem. Even surmounting most rocks and hefty limbs was a relatively casual affair.
A system that locks power into front and rear axles ensures that no scrap of traction goes unused. Another system disconnects the front sway bar. That lets the front wheels articulate more over uneven (to put it mildly) terrain. On the road, you electronically reconnect the sway bar to minimize body lean in corners.
Rock-Trac, one of two available four-wheel-drive systems, provides a set of uncommonly low gears that leverage the engine’s power for easy crawling up and over most anything you’re bold enough to try. The low, low gears also allow careful, deliberate descents.
Everything worked well off-roading, reinforcing the notion that Wrangler is made for that duty. Drawbacks of the longer-wheelbase Unlimited: It’s easier to get high-centered. And its wider turning circle means it takes some backing-and-forthing in tight spots.
On the road, Unlimited is a calmer machine than the two-door. It will seem a big improvement to hard-core Wrangler fans and their families. But Unlimited remains a buckboard in contrast to similar-size off-road-capable SUVs, such as Nissan Xterra or Hummer H3.
Rear riders will enjoy the Unlimited’s generous legroom but might wish the back cushions were angled more or allowed users to adjust the angle.
The back seat folds easily to create the kind of cargo space you get in, say, the bigger Ford Explorer. With the back seat up, you get a spacious 46 cubic feet, 34% more than you get in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The sales jump from Unlimited is important to Jeep, which wants growth. In 2004, it had just Wrangler, Liberty and Grand Cherokee. Now there are seven Jeep models. Last year, Jeep sales were off 3.5% from a year earlier. This year, they’re up 5.4%, Autodata says.
Unlimited plugs a hole, providing a model for aging Wranglerites who need a bigger machine but don’t want any other brand or even any other Jeep. Some 80% of Wrangler owners didn’t even consider another vehicle, Jeep says.
That’s ferocious loyalty. It’s good for Jeep. But it blinds the loyalists to non-Wrangler alternatives, such as H3, Xterra and Toyota FJ Cruiser that perform more palatably on-road and are good to excellent off-road.
But those don’t have removable tops, so aren’t even on the list for open-air fans. And they aren’t Wranglers. The Unlimited is, for better or worse.
2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
•What is it? Remake of the basic Jeep, enlarged to handle Wrangler’s first four-door configuration and additional cargo space. Available with rear-wheel drive (rwd) or four-wheel drive (4wd). Manufactured at Toledo, Ohio, alongside the two-door Wrangler.
Unlimited name previously was used on 2004-’06 long-wheelbase two-door Wrangler, but now only on the new four-door.
•How soon? On sale since Oct. 6.
•How much? Prices increased March 2. Up $480 on Unlimited X, the base version; $530 on mid-level Sahara; $605 on Rubicon.
Unlimited X with rwd now starts at $20,890 including $660 destination charge. Sahara starts at $25,265. (Both models: Add $2,000 for 4wd.) Top-end Rubicon, available with 4wd only, starts at $29,500.
•Who’s buying? Married: 70%. Male: 60%. Median age: 45. Median annual household income: $75,000.
(For contrast, Wrangler two-door buyers: Married: 50%. Male: 75%. Median age: 42. Median annual household income: $65,000.)
•How many? Jeep won’t say; company policy.
The sales boost from Unlimited so far has been dramatic. The five months it’s been on sale, Wrangler sales are up 86%, according to Autodata, a jump that Jeep says largely is due to Unlimited. Wrangler sales since Unlimited’s launch average 8,846 a month, a pace equal to 106,152 a year.
•What’s the drivetrain? 3.8-liter V-6 rated 202 horsepower at 5,000 rpm, 237 pounds-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm, six-speed manual transmission, traction control. Four-speed automatic is optional.
Two 4wd systems are available. Command-Trac is a part-time system with 2.72-to-1 low-range transfer-case ratio. Rock-Trac has 4-to-1 low-range ratio for extra-challenging off-road work.
•What’s the safety gear? Expected bags and belts, plus anti-lock brakes, stability control, anti-rollover system. Front-seat side-impact bags are optional.
•What’s the rest? Standard features include manually folding soft top; metal doors with roll-up windows; climate control; power steering, brakes; height-adjustable driver’s seat; tilt-adjustable steering column; AM/FM/CD stereo, MP3 compatible.
•How good? Unlimited is too new to be in the most-recent quality surveys. Jeep as a brand scores poorly, 32nd out of 36 brands in data collected for the April 2007 Consumer Reports magazine. Jeep is 31st out of 37 brands, according to the 2006 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. The ‘07 Power IQS is due in June.
•What’s the pledge? Basic and powertrain warranties: three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. Corrosion: five years/100,000.
•How big? About 21 inches longer than Wrangler two-door, otherwise the same. Unlimited is 173.4 inches long, 73.9 inches wide, 70.9 inches tall on a 116-inch wheelbase.
Ground clearance: 8.7 to 10.5 inches, depending on tires.
Weight: 4,075 to 4,340 pounds, depending on model (211 to 315 pounds heavier than two-door).
Turning circle diameter: 41.2 feet, curb-to-curb (vs. 34.9 feet for two-door).
Rated to haul 1,000 pounds of people and cargo. Rated to tow up to 3,500 pounds.
•How thirsty? Ratings range from 16 to 18 mpg in town, 19 to 22 mpg on the highway, 17 to 19 in combined driving depending on model and equipment, under 2007 federal fuel economy standards. Using more realistic federal formula that will be applied beginning with 2008 models, ratings would be 14 to 16 in town, 18 to 21 on the highway, 16 to 18 in combined driving.
Trip computer in 4wd, automatic test vehicle showed 20.7 mpg in mainly highway driving.
Tanks holds 21.6 gallons. Regular fuel is specified.
•Overall: Fancy and genteel by Wrangler standards; still pretty crude by every other standard.

Call Todd Sommer at 1-866-413-3513 for more details

They are getting to be so good, so ordinary, so much like any other vehicle in the way they drive, that you start thinking you ought to just go get one. After all, they issue no pollutants, and they go about twice as far as gasoline vehicles do on the same amount of energy.
The vehicles themselves use no petroleum, though producing the hydrogen requires energy, some of which might come from petroleum fuels.
PHOTOS/AUDIO: Equinox with Healey’s comments
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MORE TEST DRIVE: Archive of Healey’s columns
SIDE BY SIDE: Compare this vehicle to others
Automakers’ grand design is that energy suppliers eventually will make hydrogen using renewable fuels such as biomass, hydroelectricity, solar, wind and others perhaps not yet conceived. Only then will a fuel-cell machine be petroleum-free — as long as you can get the hydrogen to the filling station without using petroleum fuel and power the pumps at the filling station without petroleum-generated energy.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: GM | Chevrolet | SUV | Car companies | Equinox
Car companies still are developing the technology. At its current stage, it works pretty well but is so expensive that you’d have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a fuel-cell vehicle. Even four years hence, when the first could be in ordinary auto showrooms, they’ll still probably be prohibitive. Automakers will market them with subsidized leases instead of selling them outright.
But let’s “be here now,” as a book title puts it.
Today, almost no fuel-cell vehicles are available. Which works well because almost no hydrogen filling stations are available.
The supply of fuel-cell vehicles is about to jump, however; 2008 is to be a watershed year.
Honda (HMC) has designed a hydrogen fuel-cell car from the ground up, a sleek, four-door, compact, front-drive sedan that it plans to lease to as many as 100 consumers in the USA next year. Honda hasn’t set a lease payment yet, but the two current-generation FCXs in the hands of individuals are leased for $500 a month. The FCXs, current and imminent, meet all U.S. safety and pollution regulations, Honda says.
General Motors (GM), trying to edge ahead, is distributing about 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs converted to fuel-cell operation to individuals for three months at a time over the next three years. They’ll be parceled out around Los Angles, New York City and Washington, D.C., places where there are hydrogen fueling stations. It’s called Project Driveway.
The Equinoxes meet all federal regulations except one written when battery power was the only kind of electric car envisioned. GM says it has an exemption from that one and expects it to be rewritten to accommodate fuel cells and says the Equinoxes would pass muster under the anticipated rewrite.
GM plans to market a vehicle designed from the ground up to be a fuel-cell machine in 2011. Meantime, the Driveway Equinox fuel-cell SUVs are supposed to gather feedback from real-world use of hydrogen-fueled vehicles and jump-start the notion that fuel cells are mainstream.
The Equinoxes will go to ordinary drivers, politicians and others who influence policy, celebrities and high-profile people whose opinions seem to count. And, by the way, to members of the media — who, not being included in the previous groups, presumably aren’t ordinary, don’t influence policy, don’t offer opinions valued by others and aren’t celebrities. Oh, well …
Here’s a look at one of the Project Driveway Equinox fuel-cell vehicles.
Reactions are based on an afternoon’s wanderings around Northern Virginia with four adults — about 700 pounds — aboard, in traffic ranging from unobstructed freeway to stop-go suburban, on a variety of roads.
• Performance. Good off the line, adequate at higher speed. A fuel-cell vehicle is an electric vehicle, the fuel cell doing the work of the battery powering the electric motor. And electric motors have a delightful trait. They deliver all the pounds-feet of torque, or low-speed grunt, that they have the instant they begin to turn. No revving required, the way you’d have to do in a gasoline engine.
Thus, leaping from stoplights, barreling onto the highway after stopping at the toll booth and getting started uphill all presented minimal challenge.
Horsepower is about 120, vs. 180 or more typical of similar gasoline vehicles. So the high-speed moves that rely on ponies more than pounds-feet weren’t as crisp. Still, passing and merging shouldn’t be the subject of many complaints from the Driveway drivers.
The transmission has but a single speed, relying on the electric motor’s low-speed oomph to take the place of low-ratio gearing to get the buggy motivated. No shifting. Just a continuing ramp of power. Smooth, if not exactly to everybody’s taste.
• Noise. Not much, and that’s a big deal. Most fuel-cell prototypes have lots of whine, mainly from the compressor that shoves air into the fuel cell, where it combines with the hydrogen in a process that produces electricity and, out the exhaust pipes, water vapor. The electric motors also are prone to whine.
GM has switched to a different type of air compressor, more like you’d find on a small turbocharger than in a big, gutsy supercharger. That has all but eliminated the howl.
Of course, the baffling and insulating and careful placement of things help.
The one place that could use considerable improvement is a combination of roar and whoosh produced by the system that cools the onboard battery. It’s about under the front seats, so it’s pretty close to the driver’s ear. GM is continuing to work on ducting, routing and positioning to slice that noise.
The battery collects electricity being produced but not immediately needed to run the motor and holds it for times you really, really need an extra shot of juice you can’t get from the fuel cell.
• Appearance. Similar to the conventional, gasoline-fueled, 2007 Equinox with a couple of notable exceptions.
Instead of round tailpipes out back, the fuel-cell version has four rectangular slots in what car folks call the rear fascia. That’s the part that looks like it’s the bumper but really is just a plastic covering.
Wanted to distinguish it from the gasoline vehicles, GM says.
Inside, trim and touches unique to the fuel-cell vehicles give it a premium look and feel compared with the gasoline Equinox, which is a bit disappointing inside in spite of the upgraded materials and controls.
• Function. About the same as a gasoline model. The rear cargo area is compromised a bit because the third of three hydrogen tanks sits higher than the two in front of it, putting a horizontal bulge behind the rear seats, about where you might want space for beach chairs or big bags.
• Safety. In most respects, same as the gasoline model. And in what might be contrary to popular belief, hydrogen almost certainly is a safer fuel than gasoline. If you spill gasoline at the filling station, for instance, it pools and the volatile vapors concentrate. If you spill hydrogen, it evaporates into the atmosphere at 40 mph because it’s lighter than air.
No pooling, no concentration of fumes that go boom. Too, the Equinox — common among fuel-cell cars — has fail-safe links between the vehicle and the fuel pump. If the hose isn’t hooked up right, the pump won’t start.
The Equinox fuel cell has passed the same 50-mph rear crash test that gasoline models must endure without a leak in their fuel systems, GM says.
What about all that water vapor, especially in winter in Northern states? GM says fuel-cell exhaust has only 7% more moisture than the exhaust of a gasoline engine. It’s possible to develop traps that hold the water temporarily, then let it evaporate as the vehicle is driven, to avoid concentrating water in one spot where it might freeze.
Getting the cost, and therefore the price, down to agreeable levels always taxes new technology. But judging by the Equinox Driveway fuel-cell vehicle, reducing the cost seems the only serious challenge. It’s smoother, mostly quieter and generally nicer to drive than a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle.
All the particulars for the special Equinox
• What is it? 2007 Chevrolet midsize, four-door Equinox SUV converted to run on electricity generated by a hydrogen fuel cell instead of being powered by a gasoline engine.
• How many? About 100 will be cycled through consumer hands three months at a time for three years, giving Chevy parent General Motors insight into real-world use of fuel-cell vehicles before launching a purpose-built fuel-cell model as soon as 2011.
• How soon? Being distributed right now to groups of journalists, celebrities, policymakers and regular ol’ folks who live in and around Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C., where there are hydrogen fueling stations.
• How much? Free. GM provides the vehicles without charge, insures them and covers the cost of the hydrogen fuel. Three months of such first-class treatment will make it a real shock to go back to your deductible-laden, high-maintenance, petroleum-chugging buggy.
• Who gets ‘em? The automaker picked the lucky ducks from a pool of volunteers at www.chevy.com, and whom GM specifically wants to see driving its fuel-cell vehicles to create a buzz.
• What’s the drivetrain? Electric motor driving the front wheels, rated 120 horsepower, 236 pounds-feet of torque, mated to a single-speed transmission.
GM says the rig will accelerate from standstill to 60 mph in 12 seconds, hit about 100 mph flat out and go 150 miles before running dry of the 4.2 kilograms of hydrogen stored in three under-floor tanks pressurized at 10,000 pounds per square inch. The gasoline engine and transmission are removed.
• What’s the rest? Better interior trim than gasoline model, and the navigation system screen will show energy flow among fuel cell, motor, battery.
Rear panel has water vapor vents instead of engine exhaust outlets. Otherwise deliberately similar to premium-level Equinox to make it familiar to users.
• How thirsty? GM says the fuel-cell vehicles would have government mileage ratings equivalent to 35 miles per gallon of gasoline in town, 45 mpg on the highway and 39 mpg in combined driving.
A kilogram of hydrogen has the energy of a gallon of gasoline — almost exactly so, GM says — so Equinox’s ratings in hydrogen terms are 35 miles per kilogram in town, 45 mpkg on the highway, 39 mpkg in combined driving.
Good for 150 miles per fill (4.2 kg in the three tanks), GM calculates.
Trip computer in the test vehicle showed the equivalent of 38.8 miles per gallon in a mix of suburban driving, from stop-go to high-speed freeway.
• Overall: A little quieter and, bingo; bring it on. Get busy on hydrogen stations, energy companies.
The bottom line on a nifty, green driving machine
• Quick. At least up to 30 mph or so, thanks to the instant-go electric motor.
• Quiet and noisy. None of the normal fuel-cell air-compressor whine, but disturbing roar from the battery-cooling fan.
• Regular. Goes, stops, turns in normal fashion. If that roar were gone, you’d think you were driving a conventional gasoline vehicle.
• Present. It’s here, now, on urban streets, a hint at a petroleum-free future.
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On 11/16/07, Scott Jenkins wrote:
Shelby: The Legend Grows
By Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief Email | Blog
Date posted: 04-07-2005
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Ford says the 2007 Shelby Cobra GT500 Mustang (this is not the 2006 Shelby GT500 Cobra Mustang) will be the most powerful factory-built Mustang in history, more powerful than the 1969 Mach 1 428 Super Cobra Jet or even the legendary 1969 Boss 429.

Think about that for a second. Let it sink in. Take a knee if you have to, but the reality is this: When this car hits the streets during the summer of 2006, it’ll have 450-plus horsepower, making it the most powerful Mustang ever.

Start saving your pennies now.

Shelby Approves
Ford is calling the car a unique collaboration between the legend Carroll Shelby and the Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT). “I’ve worked with the SVT guys for several years now,” says Shelby. “And I know they have the guts, the talent and the passion to deliver the best performance Mustangs ever.”

Shelby, who built the legendary Shelby Mustangs and Shelby Cobras in the 1960s, served as a senior advisor to the “Dream Team” that was assembled inside the Ford Motor Company to develop and build the 2005 Ford GT supercar.

“Carroll Shelby is truly a living automotive legend, a Ford performance legend,” says Phil Martens, Ford group vice president of Product Creation. “It’s a dream come true to be able to put the Shelby name on a Mustang again.”

Supercharged 5.4-Liter
The Shelby’s supercharged 5.4-liter, 32-valve V8 is similar to the engine in the GT. Ford started with the cast-iron 5.4-liter Triton V8 truck engine and added aluminum heads from the GT, specially calibrated camshafts, a Roots-type supercharger making 8.5 pounds of boost, and a water-to-air intercooler.

Under that blower is an all-new low-profile intake manifold, which allows the engine to fit under the GT500’s special air-extraction hood. Fuel comes from a dual-bore electronic throttle body borrowed from Ford’s 6.8-liter truck engine program, however, the larger radiator, increased-capacity cooling system and the exhaust manifolds are unique to this application.

The engine is also dressed with special “Powered by SVT” finned cam covers which are reminiscent of the “Cobra Powered By Ford” covers used by Shelby five decades ago, and it’s backed by the same T-56 six-speed that appeared in the supercharged 2003 SVT Mustang Cobra.

Solid Rear Axle
The GT500 chassis development started during the 2005 Mustang program. “We spent a lot of time at the track developing the new Mustang and ensuring it was capable of handling future performance derivatives,” says Hau Thai-Tang, director of Ford Advanced Product Creation and SVT.

The result, according to Ford, will be SVT’s signature chassis tuning with a balanced, performance-tuned ride that still maintains the compliance required for everyday driving. And Ford says it will accomplish these goals, with the GT500’s MacPherson-strut front suspension and three-link rear suspension, which locates a solid rear axle.

Although conventional wisdom says the antiquated rear-end design is in conflict with building a state-of-the-art performance car, Thai-Tang says it isn’t a problem. “In terms of performance, the Mustang’s solid-rear-axle setup in the GT500 has been proven in race competition this year with a Mustang FR500C taking the checkered flag at the season-opening Grand-Am Cup race at Daytona,” he points out.

The GT500’s suspension is lower than a Mustang GT’s, and uses recalibrated front and rear shocks, upgraded front and rear stabilizer bars and revised spring rates. The key to the GT500’s three-link architecture, according to Ford, is the Panhard rod that provides precise control over the rear axle. It’s centrally located and fastened to the upper front end of the differential, while trailing arms are located near each end of the axle.

It all rolls on 19-by-9.5-inch wheels wrapped in massive tires measuring 255/45ZR19. And the brakes are equally impressive. The Brembo front rotors are 14 inches in diameter, cross-drilled and clamped by four-piston aluminum calipers. In back, Thai-Tang and his crew chose 13-inch rotors and four-piston calipers.

A New Performance Era?
According to Ford, the GT500 show car, which debuted at the New York auto show in March, points to a brand-new era in Ford Motor Company’s performance future.

A company press release said, “By bringing together Carroll Shelby and Ford SVT, the company’s commitment to performance becomes as powerful as at any time in its history — including the famed ‘Total Performance’ days of the 1960s.”

Think about that for a second. Let it sink in. Take a knee if you have to.
Vehicle Type
Model Year: 2007
Make: Ford
Model: Mustang
Style GT500
Base Price: $39,000 (est.)
Drive Type: RWD
Transmission Type: T-56 6-speed manual
Displacement (liters): 5.4
Engine Type: Supercharged V8
Bore x Stroke: 3.552 x 4.165 inches / 90.22 x 105.8 mm
Valvetrain: DOHC, four valves per cylinder
Induction: Cast aluminum screw-type supercharger with air-to-water intercooler
Horsepower: 450+
Torque: 450+
Braking System: Front: Brembo 14-inch cross-drilled disc w/ four-piston calipers; Rear: Brembo 13-inch cross-drilled disc w/ two-piston calipers
Steering System: Power rack and pinion
Body Construction: Unitized welded steel body; aluminum hood
Suspension Type (front): Reverse-L independent MacPherson strut, 34-mm tubular stabilizer bar
Suspension Type (rear): Three-link solid axle with coil springs, Panhard rod, 24-mm solid stabilizer bar.
Tire Size: P255/45ZR19
Wheel Size: 19×9.5 in. machined aluminum
Curb Weight (lbs): 3,600 (est.)
Recommended Fuel: Premimum Unleaded

Specifications
Ford Mustang SVT Cobra
Length, in. 188.0
Width, in. 73.9
Height, in. 55.7
Wheelbase, in. 107.1
Legroom (front): 42.7
Legroom (rear): 30.3
Headroom (front): 38.8
Headroom (rear): 36.3
Maximum Seating Capacity: 4
Cargo Volume 9.7 cu. ft.
Maximum Cargo Volume
(rear seats down): 9.7 cu. ft.

Safety Information
Front Airbags: Standard
Side Airbags: N/A
Head Airbags: N/A
Antilock Brakes: Standard
Electronic Brake Enhancements: Standard
Traction Control: Standard
Stability Control: N/A
Rollover Protection: N/A
Emergency Assistance System: N/A

On 11/16/07, Scott Jenkins < scottjenkins.vmg@gmail.com> wrote:
peace

On 11/16/07, Webmaster - Max Motors wrote:
Very cool. I’ll try to post some of this later tonight (worst case it might be Monday). L8r

From: Scott Jenkins [mailto: scottjenkins.vmg@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 3:38 PM
To: Webmaster - Max Motors
Subject: Re: speeding

this link

http://www.caranddriver.com/shortroadtests/14293/tested-2008-chevrolet-malibu-lt.html?al=157

for blogging

On 11/16/07, Webmaster - Max Motors wrote:
This bloke bought a new Mercedes sports coupe and took it out on the highway to enjoy his new purchase. The top was down, the breeze was blowing through his hair and he decided to open her up.
As the needle jumped up to 160 kph he suddenly saw a flashing blue and red light behind him. “There ain’t no way they can catch my Mercedes,” he thought to himself and pressed the peddle to the floor. The needle hit 190 but still the cop stayed on his tail. “What in hell am I doing?” the driver thought and wisely pulled over.
The cop came up to him, took his licence without a word then examined it and the car. “I’ve had a tough shift and this is my last booking,” he said. I don’t feel like any more paperwork so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I’ve never heard before, I’ll let you off!”
The driver thought a moment, then said, “Last week my wife ran off with a cop….and I was afraid you were trying to give her back!”
“Have a nice night and tone down your speed”, said the officer.

Call Todd Sommer at 1-866-413-3513 for more details

We knew what we had to do. Get the first photo ever of a 2009 Camaro doing a burnout — or at least a car that’s a dead ringer for the 2009 Camaro doing a burnout.

So there we were last July near the set of Transformers, cruising along the roads surrounding an old aircraft hangar in Playa Vista, California. We were driving “Bumblebee,” the Camaro that’s the star of this summer’s sure-to-be-blockbuster, looking for the perfect place to blaze the hides off its rear tires.

It’s amazing that we even got permission. “A burnout?” one Paramount Pictures publicity person asked us. “What’s that?”

Driving a Transformer
After lots of assurances that it wouldn’t hurt their movie star except burn some rubber off the rear tires — and despite the agonizing trepidation of both the studio and General Motors — there we were cruising around Howard Hughes’ old digs and shooting photos, trying to find the sweet spot where the light would perfectly catch the blue-gray haze.

With filming taking place so far in advance of production of the 2009 Chevy Camaro, getting the new Camaro into Transformers took massive cooperation between Detroit and Hollywood. The result of this effort is one of the most impressive automotive movie props ever built — a fully functional, fiberglass-bodied replica of the concept car first shown at the 2006 North American International Auto Show. It looks just like the concept car, only it’s painted a better color and actually moves under its own power.

This is a movie prop, so it in no way necessarily indicates how the production Camaro will drive. In fact it has more in common with the just-discontinued, Aussie-made Pontiac GTO because under all that plastic there is a GTO — pulled straight out of GM’s engineering R&D fleet. This feat is in itself nearly as impressive a feat of fabrication as any production car. And this car drives well. In fact it even did its own stunts.

Yeah, it’s fake. But this car and its identical twin (movie companies can’t wait around for a busted car to be fixed so there’s always at least one duplicate) are great fakes.

Getting the Part
There are a shockingly large number of Transformers enthusiasts out there. Weaned on the original Hasbro toys and several television cartoon series, plus comic books, these boys (and they have been virtually all boys) spent the 1980s obsessed with the battle pitting Bumblebee and the other Autobots against the evil Decepticons. Of course, every one of these Transformers geeks knows that the original Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle. But the movie Bumblebee is — purists be damned — a Camaro. Actually two Camaros — first a clapped-out ‘76 F-body that later becomes the ‘09 version.

“This is kind of a special movie in that the cars are characters,” says director Michael Bay. “I wanted to find a special car and I have the best relationship with GM. They took me into their skunkworks and I saw this car. I said, ‘That’s the car.’” Not only did Bay know GM, since he has directed numerous GM commercials (he was also one of the first owners of a Chevy SSR truck), but also GM is unsurprisingly familiar with the film’s producer, Steven Spielberg.

“I didn’t hesitate and saw the opportunity,” explained Steve Tihanyi, GM’s general director for marketing alliances and entertainment. “There was really no hesitation. It was only whether I could deliver what he needed. We’ve done a lot of things together. This movie is going to be chock-full of product.” With filming to take place throughout 2006, getting the two “Camaros” necessary for filming would take a stupendous effort.

Saleen’s Thrash
General Motors is in the business of building thousands of vehicles every day. But when it comes to building just two of a type, well, that’s not GM’s gig. That’s where Saleen Specialty Vehicles comes in. Yeah, it’s that Saleen: the company that made its bones building high-performance variants of the Ford Mustang. But its facility in Troy, Michigan, where the Ford GT was assembled, is also one of Detroit’s most respected builders of show vehicles, and it even already had some movie experience.

Saleen was hired by GM at the suggestion of Steve Mann, the picture vehicle coordinator on Transformers, who while doing similar duties on the 2005 film XXX: State of the Union, had worked with Saleen in creating movie-car versions of Ford’s Cobra concept. But beyond that, Mann had also worked directly with Steve Saleen on 2003’s Hollywood Homicide and, coincidentally, their daughters had been roommates for a year while attending USC. In short, Steve Mann knew what Saleen could accomplish.

Since the GTO with its 109.8-inch wheelbase is already about the same size as the Camaro Concept with its 110.5-inch wheelbase, the Australian-built Pontiac became a natural base upon which to build the two Bumblebees. But the GTO is built around a unitized structure, so Saleen couldn’t simply drop a new body onto the chassis. “Basically it was reverse-engineered by our build team,” explains Bryan Chambers, the director of production at Saleen. “We had less than 45 days to build both cars so it was a barn-burner.”

To simplify, the bodies were chopped off the two 5.7-liter, LS1-powered GTOs while box frames of steel were welded up to compensate for the lost structure. Then a team led by Jon Zorn in Saleen’s showcar body shop grafted on the GM-supplied fiberglass bodies that had been pulled from the same molds used to build the concept car.

Throw in an interior also formed with fiberglass pieces, a lot of detail components (like the composite hubcaps that make the huge steel wheels look like the alloys on the concept) and a couple gallons of gorgeous gold paint and the result is the car we’re driving along the access roads outside the old Howard Hughes aircraft hangar.

Piloting Bumblebee
The old Hughes hangar in Playa Vista has been a popular place for filmmakers to shoot for decades. It’s huge and tall, so big that impressive sets can be built inside. Also it’s just down the street from Los Angeles International Airport, so all the talented craft and trades people that make for a great movie can easily get to the site. Fortunately for us (including photographer Randy Lorentzen), the hangar is also surrounded by private roads that once connected the various buildings on Hughes’ extended property. This is critical, since the Bumblebee Camaro is nowhere near street legal and doesn’t carry any sort of registration for operation on public roads.

From afar the Bumblebee Camaro is simply gorgeous; the shape that mesmerized on the show stands looks even better in sunlight. Up close, this movie prop is even more impressive, despite plenty of fakery including plastic door handles that are supposed to look like metal and plexiglass side windows that don’t roll down. This isn’t some cheap splash of fiberglass done up by amateurs, but rather Corvette-quality resin and mat. Every piece of the body is perfectly formed, the panels fit to each other with precision and the paint is thick and luminous. It’s not a production car, but it could easily pass for one.

Inside the cabin, fiberglass panels cover components that obviously have their origins in the donor GTO. For instance, the instrumentation is simply the GTO’s gauges covered in new frames, while the seats come straight from the Pontiac. Most of the surfaces the driver touches are hard plastic instead of the soft-touch stuff found in production machines, but it’s all been nicely shaped and beautifully finished. Impressively, Saleen has even managed to keep the GTO’s air-conditioning system intact, for which I’m sure the stunt drivers were grateful while filming during the heat last summer.

Bumblebee Awakes
The car starts instantly and falls easily into a familiar, throaty idle. The four-speed automatic transmission’s shift lever has been modified from a GTO piece and it works fine. Get the car rolling and there’s some road noise from the big tires since there’s little sound-deadening material aboard, but there are only a few creaks around where the body is bonded to the frame.

The steering feels fine, the brakes seem to work fine and there was no real chance to find out how the suspension worked. But my guess is that it worked just as if it were still under GTO bodywork.

This is a miracle, because most movie cars are utter crap, clapped-out junkers barely mobile enough to roll across the movie screen and blow up spectacularly. They’re incredibly lethal to drive, a mix of unpredictable dynamics and ongoing electrical fires. This Bumblebee, on the other hand, looks just about perfect and seems sweet-natured enough to do the morning commute. And when Justin Mann from the Transformers picture-car department got in it to do the burnout, it fried its tires like a seasoned street racer.

No muss, no fuss. Most important, thank God, nothing broke, so the movie crew didn’t chase me down the street while waving ax handles. We might even still have a career.

This may not be the next Camaro, but if Chevy’s lucky there will be some Bumblebee in every new Camaro it builds. Especially the ability to burn down those tires.
2010 Chevrolet Camaro: From Concept to Production
If there’s ever been a Camaro that says “bad ass” like the first Camaro did, this is it, hands down. The Chevrolet Camaro Concept looks like the car you drive if your name is “Butch” and you strike matches on your stubble. The styling elements recapture that crucial aspect of the original design philosophy; a rebellious one that fell through the cracks as the decades poured on after 1969.
The designer of the Camaro Concept Coupe and the Camaro Convertible Concept , Sangyup Lee, had no idea the Chevrolet Camaro was so iconic. “I was kind of glad I didn’t know how strong of an icon the Camaro was when I was first working on the project,” he admits. Working without pressure allowed him to come up with the vicious concept everyone’s talking about. Gills in front of the rear wheel arches evoke the original car while radical angles are said to be inspired by planes like the YF-22 fighter jet.

• First Drive: 2006 Camaro Concept
• Camaro Concept: Like Father, Like Son
• 2006 Detroit Auto Show: Chevy Camaro Concept
• Driving the Transformers Movie Camaro Concept
• Driving the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible Concept Car
• Detroit Auto Show: Chevrolet Camaro Convertible Concept
• Detroit Auto Show: GM Unveils 2007 Chevrolet Camaro Concept Convertible
• Detroit Auto Show: GM Unveils 2007 Chevrolet Camaro v.2
• Detroit Auto Show: Carmen Electra and the Camaro Convertible
• Chevrolet Camaro Midsize Coupe Future Vehicle Page
We’ve driven the silver Camaro Concept, which debuted at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. It was built on a heavily modified Cadillac STS platform, and bits from many rear-wheel-drive General Motors vehicles were used to make the concept drivable. But the result was a taut and virtually rattle-free ride. We had expected the concept to be a veritable rattletrap, being hand-assembled and all. And we love being wrong about things like this.
Performing as it always has, the 400-horsepower LS-2 6.0-liter V8 provided far more power than we ventured to tap, fearing instant ejection from the GM proving grounds. Monster 14-inch front rotors easily burned off the modest speeds we achieved. The huge 21- and 22-inch Goodyears did their jobs without protest.
GM gave the Chevrolet Camaro Concept a green light for production in August 2006. According to GM Chairman Rick Wagoner, the 2010 Chevy Camaro will be “virtually identical” to Lee’s concept. That’s a good thing. The Ford Mustang concept in 2003 was a far cry from the car that came to showrooms in 2005. Hopefully the road-going Camaro will come with the bulging rear fenders and sinister chop-top roof that make the concept look so evil.
Despite still being two full years away, America has already been exposed to the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro in three forms; coupe, convertible and er…Transformer. Chevy’s upcoming muscle car has a lead role as “Bumblebee” in this summer’s blockbuster, The Transformers. And while driving the $2-million Camaro Convertible Concept was an experience, we had the opportunity to rip burnouts in the bright orange Bumblebee movie car while the Paramount guys weren’t looking. And no, it doesn’t actually turn into a giant robot.
By the time the Camaro makes showroom floors, it’ll need to be ready for stoplight battles with the Dodge Challenger and the existing Ford Mustang, both of which will already be roaming the streets. Strapped with a familiar LS2 V8, impromptu drag races shouldn’t pose a problem whether you’re using the standard six-speed automatic transmission or rowing through the six-speed manual. And it might not even be so bad to commute with, either.
The production car will be built off a derivative of GM’s new Zeta platform, developed by GM’s Australian wing, Holden, and shared with that company’s new Commodore. That means MacPherson struts up front and a fully independent rear suspension. If GM can stick to the game plan, the 2010 Chevy Camaro might be more than enough to fight off the Challenger, the Mustang and the evil forces of the Decepticons. So dust off your leather jacket and start growing that facial hair.