Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Hatchback, Chevrolet, Design/Style

It isn’t easy redesigning an icon, especially one as popular and well-known as the Chevrolet Corvette. Nevertheless, a seventh-generation Corvette is coming, and while rumors of an exotic mid-engine layout for America’s supercar are unlikely to pan out, it’s possible that the Bowtie brand’s designers could take the Corvette’s look in an entirely new direction.

Student designer James Robbins has his own ideas for what the C7 Corvette will look like. His renderings look like a logical next step in the car’s design evolution, though we’re not fans of some of the details. We particularly like the rear end’s reimagination of the Corvette’s signature round taillamps, albeit perhaps without some of the edgy detailing on the car’s hood. What say you? Check out the rest of the renderings in the gallery below and let us know what you think of Robbins’ C7 Corvette.

[Sources: Yanko Design, Coroflot]

C7 Corvette rendered by design student with good ideas originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Etc., Mercedes-Benz

No matter how happy our childhoods were, most of us have ended up with at least a few regrets that stick out in our mind. For whatever reason, random happenings tend to stick out as pivotal events in our life’s chronology. Swinging at that ninth inning pitch in the dirt in little league. Not having the nerve to ask Suzy Creamcheese to prom. Being the last to the party with the Flock of Seagulls haircut. Sometimes, things that shouldn’t be significant at all become just that – lodging in our cranial craws like grains of sand in an oyster. All of which explains how I came to find myself sheepishly appealing to the Mercedes-Benz PR team for an SLS AMG to drive to the 25th Anniversary showing of Back to the Future.

Allow me to explain.

Photos copyright (C)2010 Chris Paukert / AOL

Continue reading Going Back to the Future in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

Going Back to the Future in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Wagon, Hatchback, Ford

The 2012 Ford Focus is set to hit dealers early next year, and in addition to a cadre of standard and optional features, Ford is equipping every new Focus with its new breed of “torque vectoring control.”

For the uninitiated, torque vectoring systems actively split power between the two driven wheels to maximize traction and increase performance. Some higher-end systems manipulate the output to each wheel through a set of electronically controlled gears, while others apply a subtle amount of braking to the inside wheel, causing more power to be sent to the outside wheel, thus helping rotate the vehicle through a turn. Ford is using the latter on the 2012 Focus, the first implementation of its kind on a Blue Oval model in North America.

Thanks to the continued implementation of standard traction control systems, these torque vectoring setups are becoming more common and have finally reached the compact segment. While the benefits generally outweigh the negatives, we’ve found other brake-based systems have a tendency to overheat the pads, rotors and fluid when flogged long and hard enough (ahem, GTI). We’ll be able to test it out for ourselves soon, so look for a full driving report in just over a month. In the meantime, get the full details in the press release after the jump.

Continue reading 2012 Ford Focus equipped with brake-based torque vectoring

2012 Ford Focus equipped with brake-based torque vectoring originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Videos, Celebrities

The Top Gear “Three Wise Men Christmas Special” has found its way onto The Tubes – all one hour, 16 minutes and 13 seconds of it. If you haven’t done it already, hop the jump for the embedded vid. The resolutions sucks and it probably won’t stay up for long, but you can beat the rest of us schmucks waiting to download the HD version.

Continue reading Video: Top Gear Three Wise Men Christmas Special in its entirety

Video: Top Gear Three Wise Men Christmas Special in its entirety originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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