Gumball 300

The infamous Gumball Rally is scheduled to start this weekend, and participants have started to gather in the Los Angeles area for the start of the race tomorrow. We caught up with several of the cars in Santa Monica this afternoon, already prepped with their unique liveries and vinyl wraps. The rally will officially start at 1:00pm on Saturday at the Santa Monica pier, so if you are in the Southern California area you can head down to check out all the cars and celebrities. They eight day rally will also be stopping by Las Vegas, Sante Fe, Dallas, New Orleans, and Miami, so check the Gumball web site to see when they will be coming through your city. We’ve put together a small preview gallery from today, but check back for plenty more photos from the start of the rally tomorrow. You can read additional details in the Gumball 3000 press release after the jump.

Source:autoblog.com

BMW is back at it again with the 5 Series Gran Turismo concept, inventing categories that don’t yet exist with a vehicle that isn’t quite a sedan, wagon, crossover or SUV. Instead, the Bavarian automaker refers to its new vehicle as a Progressive Activity Sedan, which apparently means that it’s a fastback wagon that sits a bit higher off the ground than normal sedans. If you love the shape of the X6 but don’t need the ground clearance, you’ll probably find little to complain about from the 5 Series GT.

While we’re not quite sure we’re on board with the new bodystyle, one feature we do admire is the two-piece, double-jointed tailgate. It’s a clever take on the classic problem of how to access the rear hatch in tight quarters. Once open, that space can hold a cavernous 58 cubic feet of stuff with the rear seats folded down. Regardless of the total amount of room, we’ve got to wonder if that oddly shaped opening will severely limit what can fit in the boot.

For such a large vehicle, there’s not that much room inside for passengers. Just four occupants will find a spot for their keisters, though it does appear that each of them will be coddled with plenty of room (all four seats slide fore and aft) and electronic gadgetry. The center console extends from the dash all the way to the rear seating area, providing a spot to put elbows and doodads in their respective places. Our guess is that production won’t be too far in the future and with only mild changes to this concept’s basic design. Check back next month for live shots of the Tourer from the Geneva Motor Show.

Source:Autoblog.com

General Motors’ Opel division has been hard at work on a performance version of its hot new Insignia, the reigning European Car of the Year, and the first spy shot – probably snapped on someone’s camera phone – has surfaced online. To be sold as the Vauxhall Insignia VXR in the UK and as the Opel Insignia OPC in Europe, the car is reported to have lapped the vaunted Nürburgring Nordschleife in a hair over eight minutes, which is a blistering fast time for a relatively large hatch.

The hot Insignia evidently wears big 20-inch wheels with concave dark spokes and chrome accents, wrapped in 255/35 R20 rubber and capped by bulging wheel arches. All four contact patches are in use to put down the anticipate 320 horsepower from the twin-turbo V6, while big air vents borrowed from the sharp-lookin’ Opel GTC Concept help the drivetrain get the wind it needs. Hatchback, sedan and wagon variants are all expected to be part of the mix. We’re hoping to see this bad boy in pre-production preview form this March at the Geneva Motor Show, with the full production version to follow in the Spring at the Frankfurt Auto Show. But more than that, we’re quietly hoping to see it Stateside as the successor to the V8-powered Buick LaCrosse Super (known as the Allure in Canada due to a certain unsavory Quebecois slang conflict). We can hope, can’t we?

Source:autoblog.com

The 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe has been caught in the clear — almost nude — with just a little tape around the lights and decklid at a company presentation in Mallorca. We’ll have to spend some time with that sculpted flank in person just to make sure, but in pictures, the former E-Class and CLK have successfully come together in the new E-Class sedan and E-Class Coupe. It could also be the third best translation of the design language that began with the S-Class (the C-Class is second), leaving the CL-Class a distinctive-yet-distant fourth. We’d imagine the E-Class Coupe is set for a New York or Geneva Auto Show unveiling, where we can inspect it thoroughly.