Porsche‘s updated GT3 R Hybrid made its North American debut this weekend at the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca and the folks at Porsche couldn’t be happier. Well, that’s not exactly true. They’d be a lot happier if the car had been racing for points.

Driven by Porsche works drivers Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz the hybrid not only posted the fastest lap time of all the GT competitors, but it completed the 6 hour endurance race with just three pit stops, compared to five for its rivals. And to make the victory even more impressive, because the car wasn’t competing for points it wasn’t eligible to qualify and so it started at the back of the grid.

“The start phase was huge fun, because it was relatively easy to overtake the slower competitors,” said Romain Dumas. “But it’s even more fun because we can apply superior tactics thanks to the lower fuel consumption. We are much more flexible and we made the most of this today.”

“We had the least pit stops of all the teams and showed clearly what the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid can do,” said Lietz. “We didn’t experience one technical problem and left all the other GT vehicles behind us. Our expectations have been far exceeded.”

And with that excellent news, there was added celebration as it was also a Porsche that managed to take the first place spot in the race, with Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing just ahead of one of the BMWs to lock down the team’s third victory this season.

The GT3 R Hybrid mates a 470-hp naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine powering the rear wheels with an additional 200-hp of electric boost available on demand to the front wheels thanks to Porsche’s innovative flywheel hybrid technology.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid at Laguna Seca

A selection of photos of what is reported to be a new Lexus LS-F model testing at the Nurburgring are circulating the net this morning, but there’s more to this story. Several weeks back pictures of the car first hit the net along with photos of an upcoming LFA GTE race car that will be campaigned at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. At the request of Toyota those pictures were taken down, but they did not disappear and have reemerged now that the car has been spied again – and this time there are detailed specifications as well.

The widebody DTM-style uber-sedan (can you call a Japanese luxury sedan uber?) is actually named the TMG (Toyota Motorsport GmbH) Edition and looks to have been built by the brand’s motorsports division. The specs are intriguing but not exactly conclusive with a 650-hp engine reportedly under the hood. Thanks to a spied spec sheet the TMG Edition’s engine has a displacement of 5.0-liters and revs to 9000 rpm. Could it be a twin-turbo version of the IS-F motor? Or perhaps a larger displacement version of the LFA’s engine? We have a feeling more will be revealed at the Tokyo Auto Show in December.

GALLERY: Lexus LS TMG Edition

[Source: My.IS]

It may not be automatic, systematic or hydromatic, but that didn’t stop someone from taking off with John Travolta’s classic Mercedes-Benz.

It may not have been Greased Lightning, but Travolta’s 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SL is just as valuable as his iconic movie ride. What’s worse, he only left his car for about 10 minutes while he went into a Jaguar dealership in Santa Monica. He parked it on the street, went inside, and when he returned, it was gone.

There were no witnesses to the theft and no new leads as of yet. The 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SL can sell for about $100,000. Next time John, forget the exercise and park in the dealership.

[Source: TMZ]

Toyota has finally released pricing for the all-new Prius Plug-in Hybrid, setting the retail rate at $32,760 – a roughly $8,000 premium over the conventional model.

At $32,760, Prius Plug-in provides more standard features like heated front seats, Entune, LED daytime running lights, an enhance keyless entry system as well as a remote start air conditioner, letting the car’s interior cool off even when the car is off. For $40,285, customers can opt for the Prius Plug-in advanced trim, featuring GPS navigation, a better speaker system, radar-guided cruise control, and much more.

With a 15 mile electric range, the Prius PHEV gets an impressive 87 MPGe rating, with a 49-mpg rating once operating as a conventional hybrid. A recharge cycle is said to take fro 2.5 to 3.0 hours using a conventional household outlet or 1.5 hours with a special charger.

At nearly $10,000 less than the Chevrolet Volt, the Prius PHEV is also expected to receive federal tax credits to make it an even more enticing buy.

GALLERY: Toyota Prius PHEV

10. 2012 BMW M5

There’s no denying that the 2012 BMW M5 probably deserves a higher spot on our Frankfurt Auto Show Top 10 list, but here it is anyway. Maybe it’s that we all knew several months ago that it would have a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 and make 562-hp that made its “official” reveal less captivating than it otherwise could have been. Still, don’t let the 10th place spot make you believe we think any less of what is likely to be crowned as the world’s highest performance sedan. After all, the M5 delivers the sort of performance you only expect to see in a concept car. But this is one very real machine.

Hyundai is recalling more than 200,000 Veracruz and Santa Fe SUVs between 2007-2008 model years for an airbag failure. The recall affects 26,548 Veracruz vehicles and 178,865 Santa Fe models.

According to Hyundai the airbag assembly could become damaged over time and as a result the airbag may not deploy in a crash. Hyundai has already replaced 8,000 of the assemblies under warranty claims.

No injuries or accidents have been reported in association with this recall, and did state that a warning light would illuminate on the dash board if the airbag system is not working. Hyundai is taking a different route with the recall however, fixing first the vehicles with the warning light illuminated while asking owners with functional airbags to wait. Hyundai states the reason being is that there isn’t a sufficient supply of replacement parts to service all affected vehicles in a short period of time.

Teased with the above concept, leaked photos have already provided an even better idea of what the upcoming 2012 Honda CR-V will look like. Now come the specifications, which appear to have slipped out in a graphic published by Automotive News, highlighting the newest version of the top-selling compact crossover.

For 2012 the CR-V will retain its base 2.4-liter engine, dropping power slightly from the current 180-hp to 175-hp. Torque will, however, get a slight bump from 161 lb-ft to 170. Don’t think a downgrade in the horsepower number will reduce performance either as Honda is certain to have cut weight from its latest model.

But that’s not all. For 2012 Honda is also scheduled to introduce a peppy new 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine making 201-hp and 177 lb-ft of torque.

Like with the new 2012 Civic, Honda is also going to continue to use a 5-speed automatic, rather than a 6-speed unit. Still, look for a jump in fuel economy.

[Source: AutoNews via TOV]

Even though its official North American debut is quite a ways off at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, several photos have surfaced throughout the Internet revealing the 2013 facelifted Genesis Coupe. Now we’ve spotted the most revealing photo of the Hyundai Veloster-influenced Genesis, featuring a much bolder front end while the rest of the body looks traditional Genesis-esque. We have little reason to believe that the actual production vehicle will stray very far from these leaked photos.

We’re still confident that Hyundai will equip the 2013 Genesis Coupe with a more powerful base 2.0L turbocharged engine with 274-hp, while the 3.8L V6 from the Genesis Sedan with 333-hp will be available as an option. The only thing that would make the next-generation Genesis Coupe killer would be a 5.0L V8 option with 429-hp – just like on the Genesis Sedan R-Spec model.

[Source: Hyundai-Blog.com]

It’s time to buckle up as Mercedes-Benz‘s  tuner AMG confirms that they are working on three halo projects for their halo SLS AMG.

No greater truth has been spoken than when Head of Vehicle Development at AMG, Tobias Moers, says, “We absolutely have to do a Black Series.” Yet to be officially confirmed, chances are likely that the SLS Black Series will make it to the U.S. market.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for the other two projects. In order to fulfill regulatory homologation requirements, AMG has confirmed a street-going version of the SLS AMG GT3 race car. As its motorsport efforts are focused in Europe, AMG has no plans to bring this hardcore version to other markets.

AMG’s third project, and perhaps its most ambitious of all, is to bring the SLS E-Cell electric sports car to market by 2012 as a 2013 model.What makes the project so ambitious is that it will not have the handbuilt V8 that AMG is famous for. Instead, the SLS E-Cell will take on electric motors and a battery cell that will add another thousand pounds to the car’s curb weight. In order to manage the issue, weight saving measures were taken to lighten the SLS elsewhere in order to bring the weight difference from the standard model down to a more manageable 200 odd pounds. Tobias Moer assures us that the lower center of gravity benefited from the battery will alleviate the handling shortcomings caused by the extra heft. Power is taken just as seriously, as the electric motors produce an estimated 525 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque.

Unfortunately, chances are slim for the SLS E-Cell to make it into the American market as well. Mercedes-Benz is concerned that the cost to certify the car for the United States wouldn’t make financial sense given the SLS E-cell’s production volume will be extremely low.

Tobias Moers adds, “AMG does not do money losing projects. We can’t afford to.”

GALLERY: Mercedes SLS AMG GT3

[Source: Motortrend]

Volkswagen made a cannonball of a splash at the Frankfurt Auto Show with a premiere of six new and exciting variations of the Up! that may join to form a small car family. Make no mistake, not only is the exclamation mark a part of the car’s name, Volkswagen’s new microcar line-up exudes excitement.
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