The Future Automotive Thread

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Enjin

I think that the entry level, i.e. cheap, f/r cars are a horrible idea.

think about this: the majority of the s13/s14 enthusiasts are BROKE.

A lot of us aren't.
And a lot of us who are right now, won't be when the new cars come out.

A big part of the enthusiast market focuses on those buyers who wish that they could have had something sweet back when they couldn't afford it.

Or weren't around at the time to buy it.
Like the Dodge Challenger for example.

We haven't had an affordable rwd enclosed coupe on the market for a while.
When the last new S14 left the lot, I was only 17, and as Zilvians go, I'm toward the older half of the spectrum. Even then, the S14 wasn't exactly entry level.

I don't even understand why anyone is argueing that an affordable rear drive coupe is a bad idea. There has been an untapped established market for this type of car for at leas the past 4 years.

[irax]

seriously, they just need to make a RWD car with replaceable rear fenders.

I wish they would stop making new cars with altezza style lights.

[SimpleSexy180]

^ those altezza style lights piss me off.

[exitspeed]

EFIN A!

I may have to buy a Hyundai.


Autoblog:
We've had rumors and spy shots before, but up until now we really didn't have any confirmation that Hyundai's new Tiburon replacement would switch from a pull-me to a push-me. With the new rwd platform that the company recently developed for its Genesis luxury sedan, it was expected that the next generation of affordable sports car from Korea would ditch its fwd layout and get some true sports car manners. Well, Hyundai just confirmed that when that car shows up in late 2008 or early 2009, it will indeed be rear-wheel drive.

As predicted, the car will share its rwd platform with the already-announced Genesis sedan, which we should see in about a year. The Tiburon replacement should show up half a year to a year after the sedan, and might even come as a convertible. In fact, there is also a suggestion that we'll be seeing several models based on this platform. We're not sure if the coupe will share the sedan's new V8 in addition to the expected V6, but it would make an interesting competitor for the Mustang if it did. Hyundai has officially said no, but there are still whispers, and if not a V8, some kind of boosted V6 in the top models might suffice.

[jkeisser]

They have the thing on Speed Channel..
What is it called..
something with a bunch of the same cars in yellow that races around..
really pointless, imo, but I guess that could be a RWD coupe/convertible option to the 240sx.

240sx successor wouldn't be a new car, though.
Since the 240sx is so much cheaper, and was so much cheaper than what the cars are priced at right now!

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by jkeisser

They have the thing on Speed Channel..
What is it called..
something with a bunch of the same cars in yellow that races around..
really pointless, imo, but I guess that could be a RWD coupe/convertible option to the 240sx.

240sx successor wouldn't be a new car, though.
Since the 240sx is so much cheaper, and was so much cheaper than what the cars are priced at right now!

I don't understand either of those statements.

[Baka Sama]

Hes talking none sense about the pontiac solstice. The show is called Setup I believe.

[jkeisser]

Yeaahh its that show!
haha sorry.

but they've been saying they'll come out with a RWD turbo edition of the Hyundai Tiburon for the longest time now..
It must really be on it's way!

[exitspeed]

More RWD News. Hartop Solstice in 2008! With my dads GM discount that might not be a bad option.

Coutesy of Autoblog and Aoutmotive News:
Automotive News has been pumping out a ton of information about the General's future products, and between buffing fingerprints off the crystal ball and making phone calls to unnamed sources, they've shed some light on the future of Pontiac.

According to AN, we can expect to get a hard-top version of the Solstice sometime in 2008 as a 2009 model, complete with a revised powerplant that will boost output, although there was no mention of changes to the GXP. Pontiac will stick with the in-line four for the time being, as a V6 variant is officially off the table, and by 2011 it's assumed that new sheetmetal will adorn the Pontiac and possibly its Saturn-badged brother.

The remake of GM's performance brand will also include the demise of the Torrent, while the G5 will be replaced with the RWD Alpha platform by 2010 – unless CAFE standards put those plans on hold.

Naturally, the big non-news is the upcoming G8, with V8 power and rear-wheel drive, which is expected to be the flagship of the brand. Base models will come equipped with a 261 HP 3.6-liter V6, while the GT model will boast a six-liter V8 producing 362 HP. The bad news: don't expect to see a GTO or Firebird in the near future, as GM contends that the market isn't ripe for offering too many high-po gas-guzzlers. Disappointing, to say the least, but if the Camaro explodes, we'd expect both vehicles to see the light of day

[fliprayzin240sx]

I think they fucked up...they should have release the camaro this year, couple of months after their marketing success with TRANSFORMERS. Come on, how many people actually wanted to drive that car after watching the movie...aint that the reason they pumped out so much money for the movie?

[ALEXTHESUS*PECT]

Originally Posted by fliprayzin240sx

I think they fucked up...they should have release the camaro this year, couple of months after their marketing success with TRANSFORMERS. Come on, how many people actually wanted to drive that car after watching the movie...aint that the reason they pumped out so much money for the movie?

obviously the camaro got the most of the screen time, but it was really for gm as a whole. the funny thing about the camaro is that some guy over here by where i work has been driving it around now for like 1 1/2 months.

[axiomatik]

I guarantee that they are working on development of the camaro as fast as they can.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by axiomatik

I guarantee that they are working on development of the camaro as fast as they can.

Werd. Cars take months of development to make it to the market. GM has been making some decent cars lately, and not fucking up as much as they were. 5 years ago there wasn't 1 car I'd buy from them. Today I'd say there are at least 5-6 cars in different segments that I'd actually consider.

[illvialuver]

welllllllll I know im a little late to this, buuuuuut I can only agree with Yuri.
And I dont beleive shit i see as concepts, for exaple ive seen videos of the new gtr at Nurimburing with body panels off a g35, to hide it.
and i think almost all rwd cars are cool, and i woud love for them to bring back the silvia.

and i dont know if anyone has seen it, but toyota is making a rwd 2 door coupe that i think remsembles the new civic si.


I dont think people should argue over opinions on cars, cause if we wanted to do that we could just argue about ka24 DET VS sr20DET?!?!?!
HAHHAHHA yeah right, talk about getting no where fast.
and for the record if i had it my way the majority of cars would be front engine rwd.

[exitspeed]

Some new spy shots of the Hyundai's RWD Coupe. They had a V8 Mustang along with it as a benchmark.

[axiomatik]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

Werd. Cars take months of development to make it to the market. GM has been making some decent cars lately, and not fucking up as much as they were. 5 years ago there wasn't 1 car I'd buy from them. Today I'd say there are at least 5-6 cars in different segments that I'd actually consider.

months? more like years. after a couple of years of design work they finally have a completed car, but then they have months of testing and fine-tuning. hot weather testing, cold weather testing, suspension tuning, durability testing, ECU tuning, etc etc etc.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by axiomatik

months? more like years. after a couple of years of design work they finally have a completed car, but then they have months of testing and fine-tuning. hot weather testing, cold weather testing, suspension tuning, durability testing, ECU tuning, etc etc etc.

It does take years, but they actually refer to it in the industry in a month cycle. Like a baby.

I'm really looking forward to the next year. This Hyundai and then the Solstice coupe. We are finally getting what we've been asking for for years.

[EDacIouSX]

i was going to mention hyundai's coming out with a new RWD coupe. suppose to be the new tiburon i believe. the tiburon from what I understand has crazy hp in korea and all that good shit but it's fwd. i think they got the idea with the newest tiburon to make it rwd cause honestly the current generation tiburon is pretty good. I was impressed with it when my friend owned one.

[exitspeed]

INFO RELEASED FROM TOYOTA ABOUT THE NEW 86!!! WITH SPECS and PRICE AND EVEN WHEN! The back end looks like a Celica and the front looks like a Civic. It's ugly, but at least it's a start. And of course these are just artist renderings. Nothing official.

Within days of announcing Toyota's formation of a "Committee to create interesting cars," this summer's Best Car Plus magazine reveals that the long-rumoured new AE86 type car has indeed been spawned by the group and should be in showrooms in the winter of 2008.

The new article goes into some detail of the new car's spec. Under 4m long and 1.7m wide, it's pretty low at 1.35m tall, and engineers have been directed to keep weight below 1,000kgs. Power will come from a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for 120 horsepower. What has been unknown until this time is where Toyota would source a cheap RWD drivetrain, but Best Car has learned that it will come from new partner Fuji Heavy Industries - better known to you and me as Subaru.

And the best news of all? The committee's final directive is to keep the new car's sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That's about $12,300 USD in today's money.

[Source: Best Car]

[Yuri]

Wow.
All the car companies are actually building my CCS projects.
First Dodge with the Demon, now Toyota with the neo-hachi.
If Chevrolet builds a one-passenger fuel-cell corvette with a transparent aluminum body, then I will be really impressed.

[axiomatik]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

....Within days of announcing Toyota's formation of a "Committee to create interesting cars," .....

lol, bout time.

Originally Posted by exitspeed

......, and engineers have been directed to keep weight below 1,000kgs. Power will come from a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for 120 horsepower. What has been unknown until this time is where Toyota would source a cheap RWD drivetrain, but Best Car has learned that it will come from new partner Fuji Heavy Industries - better known to you and me as Subaru.

And the best news of all? The committee's final directive is to keep the new car's sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That's about $12,300 USD in today's money.

[Source: Best Car]

this car actually sounds promising, which is surprising coming from toyota, the most boring car company in the world.

Originally Posted by Yuri

Wow.
All the car companies are actually building my CCS projects.
First Dodge with the Demon, now Toyota with the neo-hachi.
If Chevrolet builds a one-passenger fuel-cell corvette with a transparent aluminum body, then I will be really impressed.

transparent aluminum?

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by axiomatik

this car actually sounds promising, which is surprising coming from toyota, the most boring car company in the world.

I know. A brand new car that I can pay cash for and actually have fun with. Even if it was $15,000 here it would be less then a Tc. I think it would cut into Tc sales or maybe...it's going to replace the Tc. Because Yota did say they don't want to replace the cars in the Scion line-up with the same cars.

[Z_Spool]

Originally Posted by EDacIouSX

i was going to mention hyundai's coming out with a new RWD coupe. suppose to be the new tiburon i believe. the tiburon from what I understand has crazy hp in korea and all that good shit but it's fwd. i think they got the idea with the newest tiburon to make it rwd cause honestly the current generation tiburon is pretty good. I was impressed with it when my friend owned one.

Well, the new tibby is going to be RWD and have be turbo'd, although I haven't been told yet if that's just for the GT model or if it's available as the base too... The body styling is getting mixed reviews, and is kind of a love it or hate it kind of thing. The main reasoning for the whole change was the simple fact that the Accent SE 3door was working the current tibby in track tests. Not the best of ideas for a manufacturer to have an econo-box that outperforms it's own "sports car." I'll give my review on the new one when I actually get my hands on it.

[iwishiwas-all*]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

Werd. Cars take months of development to make it to the market. GM has been making some decent cars lately, and not fucking up as much as they were. 5 years ago there wasn't 1 car I'd buy from them. Today I'd say there are at least 5-6 cars in different segments that I'd actually consider.

exactly right, in fords situation it takes a while, im not sure if im allowed to give specifics ( non disclosure agreement), but its around 4 yrs, involves numerous checks and tests over and over again, to make sure what you get is truely streetable, and in gm;s cause with this camero i can speculate they are on the last legs of development, but the into is still over a year away based on the ammount of prototypes of the car out there ( rumored to be around 10) i would also say dont sleep on ford, but gm has alota nice products comming out soon, reguardless.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by iwishiwas-all*

exactly right, in fords situation it takes a while, im not sure if im allowed to give specifics ( non disclosure agreement), but its around 4 yrs, involves numerous checks and tests over and over again, to make sure what you get is truely streetable, and in gm;s cause with this camero i can speculate they are on the last legs of development, but the into is still over a year away based on the ammount of prototypes of the car out there ( rumored to be around 10) i would also say dont sleep on ford, but gm has alota nice products comming out soon, reguardless.

Ford has the longest design time in the industry as of like 6-ish months ago. Supposedly they have stated they are going to ACTUALLY start bringing their good products from across the pond over. If they don't...they're done IMO.

[iwishiwas-all*]

from my time this past month up in dearborn, talking to the engineers and such, their company has gone under a total restructuring, specifically a ONE PLATFORM engineering mindset thanks to their new ceo.
similar to nissan and the new gtr, except it will apply to ALL new cars.
not sure how long it will take to fully implement this, but from what i saw in the design studios im sure everyone will be impressed.

[Baka Sama]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

blah blah blah...

And the best news of all? The committee's final directive is to keep the new car's sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That's about $12,300 USD in today's money.

Its about time!
Ive been waiting way too long for this to come out. Hope they come out with a 4 door version., now that would be nice. Still 120hp doesnt sound too great.

[Baka Sama]

Did some searching and came up with a few tid bits..

New 240sx...maybe.

Nissan’s response to Toyota’s FR compact sports car.

Not to be outdone by Toyota, Nissan is expected to bring the basic concept of the Urge, which was first shown at the 2006 Detroit Show, to reality. Japanese motoring publication ‘Best Car’ are 60% sure we could see a new concept FR sports compact car shown to the public, possibly at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. The car to be shown to the public would take on a more mainstream style compared to the Urge, losing it’s exposed motorcycle inspired design for something more befitting of the Nissan family of cars. A 2.0L powerplant is being considered for the new FR coupe, the details of which are still unknown.

Some might be quick to remark that this is indeed the new Nissan Silvia, although whether or not the Silvia name will be resurrected for this particular model is still up in the air. It wouldn’t be surprising for Nissan to use the Silvia name if Toyota were to announce their own upcoming RWD sports coupe as the ‘Sprinter Trueno’ or ‘Corolla Levin’ to link the new models with their (in)famous predecessors. Length, width and height are rumoured to be 3800 x 1700 x 1250mm with a wheelbase of 2300mm, some 250mm shorter than the (already shortened) upcoming Z34 Fairlady Z. These measurements are regarded as ‘just size’ in Japan, meaning it is only as big as it needs to be for its intended purpose, not a larger - and therefore heavier - version of the old S15 Silvia.

The new FR compact sports coupe is expected to retail for around 2,500,000 yen.

More Toyota rwd coupe pics.

[cdlong]

Originally Posted by Baka Sama

Still 120hp doesnt sound too great.

but it will only weigh 2200 lbs. a '91 CRX hf weighs 1900 lbs and has 62 hp and is still a lot of fun to drive (i know from personal experience). having fun and driving fast isn't always about big power.

[SexPanda]

Id drive it...