One of two notchback coupe Mustangs that both Ford Motor Company and Shelby American used as prototypes, the other being Little Red. Craig Jackson of Barrett-Jackson unveiled the newly restored Green Hornet at SEMA with Shell and Pennzoil. A one-of-two Shelby EXP500 prototype has made its just-off-a-restoration debut at SEMA 2019.The vehicle started life as a Lime Gold-painted testbed for Fords Mustang California Special, and featured a few distinct features that set it apart from the regular notchback coupe.Marchal fog lights were fitted to the grille; spin-and-click hood pins were installed on the vented hood; the rear tail panel had a larger spoiler; and the taillights were replaced with units from a 1965 Thunderbird.Once Ford had gotten its use out of the Mustang, they sent it over to Carroll Shelby to tinker with. Shelby immediately painted the vehicle in a wild metal-flake green paint and replaced the 390-cubic-inch V8 with a 428-c.i. unit with Conelec fuel injection. An in-house designed six-speed automatic and independent rear suspension was fitted to top it all off. All the changes meant the vehicle saw a zero-to-96-km/h time of just 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 252 km/h (157 miles per hour).Shelby American only built two notchback coupe versions of the GT500, and this green example is the twin to “Little Red,” a hardtop lost for years and just recently found.The cars name, incidentally, came from Bill Cosby the Billy Cosby. Cosby had been a long-time friend of Shelby, and when he first took a look at the Mustangs wild green colour, he dubbed it The Green Hornet, taking inspiration from the favourite superhero of the animated characters in Fat Albert.The vehicle was presented at SEMA 2019 by its owner, Craig Jackson, CEO of Barrett-Jackson auctions, and
Origin: Prototype Shelby ‘Green Hornet’ Mustang restored, unveiled at SEMA
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Toyota teases hot GR Yaris Prototype with rally heritage
The image shows the rear of the machine, with styling that’s familiar from the existing Yaris, but with the addition of far wider rear wheel arches to fit the car’s likely high performance brief. In a further nod to the car’s likely performance intent it sports the camouflage livery used by most recent hot Toyota models of recent years, including the recently revived Supra. At the launch of the revamped Yaris recently, Toyota’s executive vice-president, Matt Harrison, told Autocar that a performance version of the model would likely be launched to strengthen the link between Toyota’s road cars and its Gazoo Racing motorsport arm. Toyota has applied various levels of branding under the Gazoo Racing theme in order to develop a model structure for its high-performance models. These include the hardcore limited-run GRMN versions that are positioned above models that carry the GR badge, which represents an ‘authentic sports model’. The firm also offers a GR Sport trim level that offers a more aggressive look while retaining an unchanged mechanical package. Toyota secured the 2018 World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title with the Yaris WRC, with Ott Tanak claiming this year’s driver’s
Origin: Toyota teases hot GR Yaris Prototype with rally heritage
Fisker to show electric SUV prototype in January 2020
American start-up company Fisker will show a ‘production-intent prototype’ of its upcoming electric SUV in January 2020, according to a tweet by the firm’s founder Henrik Fisker. The American-Danish entrepeneur also confirmed that the new model’s name will be officially revealed later this week, and that the production variant will only be available via a ‘flexible lease’ plan, with no long-term contract necessary. Next week. Announcement: name of the sustainable luxury electric Fisker SUV , together with other info.#Fisker #Sustainable #ClimateChange #ElectricCar #Automotive #cleanenergy #CleanUp #cool #technews @FiskerInc pic.twitter.com/OGVUHFWBwD — Henrik Fisker (@henrikfisker) October 27, 2019 Preview images shows that the Tesla Model Y rival will ride high and feature modern, utilitarian styling. Flared arches hint at the EV’s performance potential, while narrow headlights and chrome detailing are a nod to the brand’s 2018 Emotion concept. Like the Model Y, the as-yet-unnamed Fisker will be priced from less than $40,000 (£30,200) in the US. It features what the firm calls “captivating design touches that have been traditionally reserved for supercars in the past”. Confirmed styling details include a front-mounted radar in place of a grille, a large front air intake, flared wheel arches and a futuristic headlight design. Performance details haven’t been revealed, but an 80kWh lithium ion battery pack is claimed to provide of a range of nearly 300 miles. The car will be available in four-wheel-drive form with an electric motor mounted on each axle. Fisker hints at the presence of a targa-style removable roof section, stating that “with the touch of a button, an extended open-air atmosphere will be made possible without compromising the rugged and safe structural integrity of an SUV”. It also claims the interior will offer class-leading space and feature a large head-up display and an intelligent user interface. Henrik Fisker previously said the new model will take the form of “a desirable, luxuriously rugged and green vehicle that’s accessible to people across the US and the world”. It’s not yet confirmed where the new model will be produced, but Fisker said prototype testing will begin before the end of this year. The company is also at work on developing solid-state battery technology, which it says would allow its vehicles to gain 500 miles worth of charge in as little as one minute. Fisker Inc. was formed in 2016, succeeding the bankrupted Fisker Automotive company that launched the Karma range-extender electric luxury saloon – now re-engineered and on sale as the Karma Revero – in
Origin: Fisker to show electric SUV prototype in January 2020
BMW’s Project BEV is an 711-hp electric performance prototype
BMWs late June showed off its latest EV test mule, Lucy, a battery-driven prototype built out of a standard 5 Series and offering more horsepower and torque than anything the German automakers ever built before.While the exterior looks like a standard 5 Series, somehow BMW managed to tuck a few electric motors and all the supplementary batteries and wires under the body, a seriously impressive feat.Three motors power the vehicle, like in a Tesla Model S, with two for the rear wheels; and one in the front to provide all-wheel-drive. The two motors in the rear allow for active torque-vectoring, improving cornering ability.Together Lucys motors make a ridiculous 711 horsepower, which is 111 more than the current BMW M5 and its twin-turbo V8. Project BEV also trumps it on torque, with some 848 lb.-ft. on tap. All that stomp helps the sedan rocket to 100 km/h in just 3.0 seconds, and in total silence.Project BEV also uses no rare earth metals in its motors, and BMW says the upcoming iX3 will similarly keep the rare metals in the earth.While Lucy is a testbed and not a production vehicle, we cant see BMW going through all this work just to build a toy. Expect the technology its pioneering to end up in a variety of models underpinned by the same
Origin: BMW’s Project BEV is an 711-hp electric performance prototype
Oldest surviving Porsche prototype, from 1939, set to be auctioned off
Possibly the most significant Porsche sports car ever built, a 1939 race car known as the Type 64, built for the Berlin-Rome race, is set to go up for auction this August. Before the Second World War, while Ferdinand Porsche was tasked by the Nazis with building an economical people’s car, his son, Ferry Porsche, took it upon himself to design a race car Germany could use in competition. What he came up with was the Type 64, an aluminum-bodied sports car utilizing aircraft engineering and aerodynamics, but based on the KdF-Wagen, the prototype car that would become the Beetle. Powering the Type 64 was the same flat-four found in the KdF-Wagen, but with compression bumped up so it could make 32 horsepower; and with the rear axle ratios changed to allow for a top speed of 173.5 km/h. A trio of prototypes were built, and when then-Volkswagen boss Bodo Lafferentz damaged the first one (number 38/41) in an accident, it was rebuilt into the current vehicle you see here. For political reasons, the car was still called a KdF-Wagen, and this one specifically, Sports Car 3,’ is the only surviving original example of the three cars. After the war, some rotten Americans got hold of the second car (38/42), chopped the roof off, and drove it until it died, then threw it away. Eventually, the parts from that vehicle were built into a replica of the second vehicle. 38/41 was kept in the Porsche family all throughout the war, and when it re-established itself in 1946, Ferry Porsche himself installed the raised PORSCHE letters on the nose, making this the first ever car to wear the badge. Today it is presented in a preserved state, just as it was when Porsche put his name on the nose. RM Sotheby’s will auction this vehicle off at its Monterey Car Week auction, which runs August 15 to 17 in Monterey,
Origin: Oldest surviving Porsche prototype, from 1939, set to be auctioned off
Toyota Yaris prototype conducts high-speed tests at the Nurburgring
A Toyota development mule resembling the Yaris has been spotted testing at the Nürburgring, sporting the bodywork from the current car and a camouflage livery. The company has made no announcement regarding a new hot hatch, but, under the same disguise as prototypes of the recently revealed Supra sports car, the mule looks to be carrying out high-speed performance and handling tests. The main clue as to the model’s sporting ambitions are found at the rear, where two wide-bore exhaust pipes can be seen exiting a diffuser-style bumper. Elsewhere, wide alloy wheels wrapped in low-profile tyres round off a low, squat stance in the same vein as the range-topping GRMN variant of the current Yaris. The next-gen Yaris will move to Toyota’s latest TNGA vehicle architecture, as used by the new Corolla and Camry. That car is tipped for a reveal late next year, suggesting these images show final testing of components for the new model. Toyota has launched a number of performance badges, including GRMN and GR Sport, based on its Gazoo Racing motorsport arm, and company boss Akio Toyoda has spoken of a desire to produce more performance vehicles. The performance division turned its hand to the Yaris last year, with the launch of the warm GR Sport variant, which produces 99bhp from its four-cylinder 1.5-litre petrol-electric powertrain. That model is available only in five-door form, which suggests this latest sighting could be based on the Yaris GR
Origin: Toyota Yaris prototype conducts high-speed tests at the Nurburgring
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