Jesse James (a.k.a. Mr. Sandra Bullock) and his Long Beach-based company West Coast Choppers are being sued for at least $422,680. That sum is how much Michael B. Jones of Omaha said he paid James on the agreement that the company (under James' direct supervision) would provide a "sleek and low-slung custom" car based on a 1949 Cadillac Sedanette to a standard where it could be entered into various car shows.
According to court case [.pdf ], the original transaction took place early in 2005. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, charges that the original cost was set between $250,000 and $350,000. It further alleges that James' organization asked Jones for more money, which he says he paid at various stages of what he thought was the building process. Jones says he was later told that the cost could be more like $700,000.
To date, Jones documented that he hasn't received the car.
The hills are alive with the sound of Munich. The folks at BMW have been exceptionally busy lately. No sooner have they unveiled an all-new 7 Series, when in the next breath they announce the mid-cycle update of the current-generation 3 Series. The 2009 BMW 3 Series is the lucky recipient of a subtle re-design both inside and out, plus (and this could be the most exciting news) it now offers the option of a diesel engine that is emissions-legal in all 50 states.
No doubt we all have our own feelings about contemporary BMW styling, but the tweaked front and rear are welcome changes (especially the rear). The front bumper is now different, as are the headlights (they’re also the type that can illuminate around corners, very useful when tackling a curvy canyon road at night). The rear accommodates a new trunk lid that has been re-shaped to complement the new taillights. The interior now has a revised, easier-to-use iDrive information system (it needed to be), as well as new color options.
The models with the most updates are the sedans and Sport Wagons, with either the 328i or 335i designation (the same gasoline engine options as before), and with the conventional rear-drive arrangement or BMW’s xDrive all-wheel drive system. The Coupes and Convertibles continue with fewer changes. They’re newer models, anyway.
So then, the diesel. This is the 335d model. It’s a 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged straight six using the latest technology du jour that has to have the word ‘blue’ in it. For Mercedes-Benz, it’s Bluetec. For BMW, it’s BluePerformance. This engine produces 265 horsepower. But with diesels, torque’s the thing. So developing 425 pound-feet is impressive. And it contributes greatly to the general feeling of fun when driving a BMW.
The new models employ the company’s EfficientDynamics system (which, among other things, makes use of the energy otherwise dissipated when braking) to help with economy and emissions. The 335d should be particularly notable in this area. They also get the latest toys: Bluetooth this and hard-drive that.
Exactly when they’ll be in the showrooms and how much they’ll cost are things that have yet to be announced. But the answers should run something like: perhaps this fall and starting somewhere around the $33,000 mark.
Amid the mid-life refreshment given to the 2009 Mazda RX-8 four-door coupe (slight restyle of the front and rear with a little tweaking in the cabin) is a brand-new version: the R3. And because it has an R in its suffix, it is of course a sportier model.
For the sum of $31,930, the R3 comes with a Bilstein sports suspension (this company makes suspension parts for Porsches), and a lightweight carbon fiber driveshaft that sends 232 horsepower and 159 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels -- via a six-speed manual transmission. Remember, this power comes from a 1.3-liter, turbocharged rotary engine, which is pretty impressive. Even though the car’s body has been stiffened throughout the range, the R3 also gets a front suspension cross-member for even more rigidity and steering precision.
On top of that, the R3 has slightly lower gearing for a greater sense urgency under acceleration, a specially designed front bumper, a rear spoiler, 19-inch alloy wheels and body-hugging Recaro front seats.
A common gripe with rotary engines is that they need oil checks more frequently. Mazda got this message and made the dipstick more accessible. As if this cake needed a cherry on top, Bluetooth connectivity and a Bose audio system are also part of the package.
For most of us civilians, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (aka SEMA) doesn’t impact upon our lives very much. That’s because SEMA is a trade organization involved in, among other things, the automotive aftermarket. For tuning shops and stores selling blingy wheels, SEMA is a pillar of their society.
SEMA also has a positive impact on children who have been victims of abuse, neglect and those suffering from chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. Through fundraising dinners and events like the Ride Across America, SEMA has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Childhelp and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. The latter was founded in 2004 by NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and his wife, Pattie, in honor of their late son, Adam.
Now it’s time for a fresh round of philanthropy. A gala banquet occurs July 25 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. But the really interesting bit is the online auction for a place in the 2009 ride. The winner will procure a package that includes Petty’s black Victory Jackpot motorcycle (a 2006 model, valued at $15,000, with a custom luggage rack built by Petty’s own fair hand, saddlebags and a full windshield) which Petty did the 2007 run on, nine nights’ hotel accommodation, meals, gas at scheduled pit stops, a designer leather jacket and more.
The auction is happening from now to July 25. All the proceeds go to these children’s charities. The eBay page has extra info.
The fastest car in the world. It’s a title fraught with disclaimers and qualifications. In the end, the most meaningful accolade (to those of us who don’t camp out on the Bonneville Salt Flats) is the fastest production road-legal car, for which there are a few contenders. And once the Guinness World record people are involved, then that’s something to shout about.
Right now, the fastest production car in the world, according to those stout types from Guinness, is the 2008 SCC Ultimate Aero -- made in America, no less. With a 6.3-liter, twin-turbo V-8 engine nestled within a lightweight body, the SCC has been clocked officially at 256.14 mph. It has around 1,100 horsepower. It costs $620,000.
And now Jay Leno has driven it. Around Los Angeles.
Here’s some video footage of the guy who won’t be presenting Top Gear USA.
There are powerful cars and really powerful cars. When a machine has over 600 horsepower, it’s in a pretty exclusive club. Just about to be inducted into the Garage of Fame is the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series. That’s a whole lot of title, but it’s a whole lot of car.
AMG is M-B’s performance division and its products sell generally well in the USA and particularly well in southern California. When a Benz gets the AMG treatment, it’s like being bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to gamma rays -- it acquires super powers.
And when it becomes a Black Series model, the ante is upped even more. The CLK63 AMG Black Series (tested by the good Mr. Neil) is a shining example of how fine a driver’s car a Mercedes can be. The plain old SL65 AMG (costing somewhere in the plain old region of $190,000) is still a considerable piece of kit. The Black Series approach takes that rumbling 6.0-liter V-12 and juices up its twin turbochargers to produce 650 hp and a phenomenal 738 pound-feet of torque. The engine could make even more, but in the interests of longevity and not over-stressing the five-speed automatic transmission, there’s an electronic limiter.
Still, that’s enough to send the car down the road to 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds. Top speed is limited electronically, but 198 mph should be fast enough for most people.
The car has a fixed carbon fiber roof, eschewing the folding hard top of a conventional SL -- all the better to give off a hardcore aura. Its styling emphasizes a lower, wider, meaner stance and a retractable rear wing raises automatically once 74 mph is reached. Apart from the aluminum doors, every other body panel is carbon fiber. At 4,123 pounds, this model is 550 pounds lighter than a normal SL.
The cabin is all-black and carbon fiber abounds here too. Even the usual SL seats have been ditched to make way for two lighter, more supportive carbon fiber bucket seats.
This is the fastest and most powerful street car to come out of AMG. Throw in an adjustable suspension and a three-mode electronic stability program (with one mode being off completely), and the SL65 Black Series appears to be a formidable machine. And yes, it commands a formidable price: around $300,000. Out of a limited production run of 350 vehicles in total, 200 will be headed Stateside. Rumor has it that 50 deposits have already been put down. So once again, black is the new black.
Perhaps it’s an addiction, or an obsessive compulsion, but car companies still can’t help making super-fast, super-expensive supercars. We’ve just seen the first guy in America take delivery of the new Nissan GT-R. To him and the rest of the lucky few who get one, the message might well be this: gather ye track records while ye may. Because there’s a whole Leno-load of exotica about to form on the metaphorical grid.
The new Acura NSX (the name could change between now and launch time) has been spied, albeit in disguised form, undergoing track tests. Further along the development route is the Lexus LF-A (pictured), a carbon-fiber–bodied car powered by a V-10 engine making 500 horsepower. It has already taken part in a European motor race and Lexus says that “a top speed of more than 200 mph [is] not only possible but probable.” Estimates on price have hit $225,000 so far.
The Mercedes-McLaren SLR is, of course, no more. But in its place will come not one but two cars. That’s because this Anglo-German partnership has just been dissolved. So Mercedes-Benz will go its own sweet way in producing a supercar, while McLaren (one of the big names in Formula One racing) will try to revive past glories from the days when it made the 240-mph F1 (pictured) -- arguably the finest supercar ever built -- with what has been tentatively called the P11.
If all this sounds remarkably like some people haven’t woken up and smelt the petrol, don’t be too concerned. Cars such as these are driven so rarely and so sparingly that their main impact is on their owners’ bank accounts when they’re bought and subsequently stored. And who are we to tell people what to do with their money? But here’s a sop to the environment anyway: Lexus is working on a hybrid version of its LF-A. Ferrari is also considering a hybrid model. Looks like everything will be OK after all.
Imagine cars communicating with traffic lights and holographic displays assisting the driver. Will personal transportation be like that in 20 years’ time? Volkswagen seems to think so. The company has even created a website, www.Volkswagen2028.com to show off its vision of the future.
If anyone fancies wasting some of their employer’s valuable resources on a bit of cyber surfing (heck, what else do you do at lunch time?), they’ll find this site is running a short, interactive film of a father telling his son about the dark age of motoring, circa 2008, before looking at the brave new world of the automobile.
And then there’s the implication of how VW saved the planet single-handedly with such radical vehicles as the ‘one’, the ‘ego’, and the ‘room’ (pictured). If nothing else, it’ll be fun to remember this site when 2028 really does come along, to see how far off it was. After all, aren’t we supposed to be wearing silver spandex one-piece suits and traveling around via cold-fusion–powered anti-gravity machines by now?
It looks as if California will be getting 500 electric-powered Minis. Reports say that 490 will be made available for leasing to selected customers and that the 10 others will be used as show cars.
Minis are made in Oxford, England. These examples will be partially assembled alongside the normal cars, minus the engine, gearbox and fuel tank. Then they'll go over to parent company BMW's facility in Munich, Germany, to be fitted with all the necessary electric drivetrain components and batteries before heading west.
Once here, they'll be easy to spot. Electric Minis will be painted silver with, um, yellow roofs. We hope that's the only shocker involved here.
New state regulations require automakers to offer zero-emissions vehicles, so this move is for expedience as much as anything else. But because the conventional Mini drives so well, this should be interesting.
However, the news is not yet completely official. A spokesman for the Mini brand (who only gets a name check because he has such a brilliant name) says he cannot confirm the story of the DC Minis. "BMW will announce whether it will build electric vehicles or not later this year." So sayeth Cypselus von Frankenberg. No, really.
The Barack Obama campaign has reportedly declined the proposal of BAM Racing to be hood sponsor of the No. 49 Toyota driven by Ken Schrader at the Aug. 3 Pocono race.
In one respect, this is too bad for Obama. NASCAR fans are famous for crazy sponsor loyalty. Only the Gods of Beer know how much more Budweiser was sold because it sponsored fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. I mean, if Charles Manson sponsored Junior's car, pretty soon fans would be saying, "You know, that Charlie, he's a good ol' boy...." On the other hand, a losing outing for Obama's car — and Schrader has as much chance of winning as Jesse Jackson has of getting the democratic vice presidential nod — might actually hurt Obama with NASCAR dads. That would be, in the words of the Rev. Jackson, "nuts."
In other racing/political news, the McCain camp has managed to wangle a pace-car ride for the candidate's wife, Cindy, at the Firestone 200 IndyCar race in Tennessee. To the extent that open-wheel racing appeals to the wine-and-brie set, this might be regarded as a base-broadening effort akin to Obama's reaching out to NASCAR's working-class whites.
I kind of think Cindy looks like an IndyCar -- all skinny and razor-sharp angles. Somebody might hang a number on her and put her in the race.
By Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Word out of Sports Illustrated is that Barack Obama's campaign will sponsor a car in the Pocono Sprint Cup race Aug. 3. In what is expected to be one-race deal — similar to hood-sponsor promotions for movies and TV shows — the No. 49 BAM Racing Toyota, with Ken Schrader at the wheel, will fly the Obama livery. Jeez. BAM Racing, Ken Schrader? I mean, hope is a wonderful thing, but Schrader doesn't have a prayer.
BAM is a low-buck, periodically unsponsored team, and the fact that team owners Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau — described as staunch Republicans — consented to this deal is a sign of how very, um, flexible convictions can be when it comes to money and racing.
Harley-Davidson and MV Agusta couldn't be more opposite. While both motorcycle manufacturers are legendary, one is known for cruisers, the other for high-performance sportbikes. Where one is quintessentially American, the other is distinctively European. Yet the two legendary marques will merge, according to an agreement announced earlier today. Harley-Davidson Inc., based in MIlwaukee, is acquiring MV Agusta Group, of Varese, Italy. The pricetag: $109 million. In a deal expected to be completed within "several weeks," Harley-Davidson will take over the MV Agusta and Cagiva brands, both of which will continue to operate from their Italian headquarters.
"Motorcycles are the heart, soul and passion of Harley-Davidson, Buell and MV Agusta. Both have great products and close connections with incredibly devoted customers," Harley-Davidson chief executive officer Jim Ziemer stated in a press release issued Friday. According to Ziemer, the acquistion is meant to expand Harley-Davidson's presence in Europe, where Harley sales have been growing at a double-digit pace for three years running. In the U.S., however, Harley sales have been experiencing quite the opposite. Overall sales are down, after peaking at a whopping 349,156 motorcycles per year in 2006.
MV Agusta, which makes about 6,000 motorcycles each year and sells almost 1,000 of those in North America, has also been in financial trouble, due to problems with the Italian banking system and a weak dollar that was eroding the company's profitability in its second most lucrative market -- the U.S. MV Agusta had planned to introduce as many as five new platforms in the next three years, several of them in entirely new market segments. MV's acquisition by Harley-Davidson means those platforms and models are more likely to proceed as planned.
"We take enormous pride in MV Agusta and Cagiva motorcycles," said MV Agusta president Claudio Castiglioni, whose family owns 95% of the shares in MV Agusta Group. "Our riders seek an uncompromising experience in premium performance motorcycles. And with Harley-Davidson's deep understanding of the emotional as well as the business side of motorcycling, I have great confidence that our motorcycles will excite customers for generations to come."
-- Susan Carpenter
Photo by: Don Kelsen, Los Angeles Times (2008 MV Agusta F4CC)
The 2009 BMW 7 Series, despite its premium badge and price, won’t be a car for the shallow. Looks alone probably aren’t enough to see it drive off the showroom floor. But this all-new car, the fifth generation of 7 Series, has plenty of power and intelligence -- which a lot of people find attractive.
Power for the two models heading Stateside, the 750i and longer-wheelbase 750iL (no plans for a diesel as yet, but don’t bet against it), comes in the form of a twin-turbocharged, 4.4-liter, all-aluminum V-8, promising V-12–type muscle from four less cylinders. The numbers run at 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. Impressive enough to urge this luxury sedan from standstill to 60 mph in just 5.2 seconds (5.3 for the longer car). Yet despite making more power than the last generation’s engine, this one also uses less gas (BMW claims an improvement of 2-3% in consumption and 20% fewer emissions), thanks to things like those turbos, variable valve timing and direct fuel injection.
These performance and consumption figures also benefit from certain weight-saving measures, like making the roof, hood, doors and side panels from aluminum. But BMW doesn’t stop there. The company’s EfficientDynamics program includes Brake Energy Regeneration, which uses the engine’s power on overrun to charge the battery. When the car is accelerating, the alternator is disengaged -- so as not to divert kinetic force from performance. Other ancillaries -- such as the air conditioning compressor -- may also be taken out of the loop when necessary, providing an ingenious distribution of energy when and where it’s required.
Suspension geeks: BMW ditches the usual MacPherson front strut arrangement for double wishbones. This is big news. The Sport Package also deploys electro-hydraulic anti-roll bars.
Further brain power is found when one delves into the 7’s options list. There’s a choice of a Side View camera system along with a Parking Distance Control, helping the driver negotiate a partially obscured junction or a narrow gate. A Night Vision system includes a pedestrian recognition feature. A Lane Change warning system uses radar to alert a driver of any vehicles lurking in the blind spots.
Another cool part of the Head-up Display is a camera that ‘reads’ speed limit signs and shows that information to the driver. Then, of course, there are things like ventilated and massaging seats, a 40GB hard drive for music storage, and four-zone climate control.
This new BMW 7 Series makes its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show later in the year and should go on sale next spring. Prices will be announced nearer to that time, but the current model starts at $76,800, so feel free to extrapolate from there.
Colin Ryan was born in London and worked at BBC Top Gear magazine, Britain's most popular automotive publication. He now resides in Los Angeles, because "this is where the real car culture is." And also because he was weary of driving in the rain every day.
Joni Gray is a native Angeleno (second generation) who has spent more than 20 years writing, editing and creatively communicating new-car information within the automotive industry. Her past work includes stints as senior editor of Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com and in internal corporate gigs at Mazda, Hyundai and Honda.
Jesse James (a.k.a. Mr. Sandra Bullock) and his Long Beach-based company West Coast Choppers are being sued for at least $422,680. That sum is how much Michael B. Jones of Omaha said he paid James on the agreement that the company (under James' direct supervision) would provide a "sleek and low-slung custom" car based on a 1949 Cadillac Sedanette to a standard where it could be entered into various car shows.
