Paris Show: Lotus wants to Take on Aston Martin Rapide with New Eterne Sports Saloon

In an attempt to enter the 4-door coupe market, Lotus brought a sedan - you read that right - to the Paris Motor Show. The Eterne is the new Lotus 4-door (other Loti saloons include the 377HP twin-turbocharged Lotus Carlton / Omega of the early 1990s, and they sure are cool); it uses a Lotus-tuned new bad boy engine borrowed from Lexus.

This means that sitting under the hood is a high-output forced-induction 5.0-liter V8. As with the Esprit and Elite, the Eterne will offer optional hybrid power and KERS.

An added bonus is available AWD. The Eterne provides seating for four passengers in an 1,800-kilo package that will cost approximately £120,000 [~ US$190,500 at today's exchange rates] before options.

Clearly Lotus sees a market for a prestigious high-performance 4-door with hybrid power, because Dany Bahar plainly states, "We truly believe that there is a market for the Eterne. There is nothing else like it out there both in terms of design, capacity and performance. The biggest difference between the Eterne and it's class competitors is that it's not an evolution of an existing two-door model, it's a deliberate and considered stand-alone creation. It's the ultimate four door sports car."

Hey, who am I to argue with capitalism? For that money, though, I'd just buy a Fisker Karma and go on a nasty vacation.

By Phil Alex

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2015 Lotus Elise Appears in Paris - With Live Pictures and Video

The new Lotus Elise jumps into entirely new styling territory, not so much evolving from the current model but fully reinventing itself as a baby Esprit. The only similarities are the mid-engine layout driving the rear wheels and 2-seats around corners.

Below, Lotus has been kind enough to provide a nicely-designed chart for your convenience instead of spreading all the car's stats across a 15,000-word press release.

The new baby Lotus will get a standard 6-speed manual (with an optional 7-speed DCT) and be powered by a Toyota 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine putting out 320-horsepower.

If the Elise is putting out that kind of go for a £35,000 [around US$55,500] base price, this is looking to be a bargain basement killer. To make that 320 ponies extra green, it will also offer mild hybrid tech and an optional start/stop system when it comes out in Spring 2015.

By Phil Alex

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Google’s Latest Killer App is one Step Closer to the Driverless Car [with Video]

It came from San Francisco Bay. A hybrid killing driving machine with a singular purpose: to destroy mankind to further the cause of safe motoring. A Toyota Prius infused with advanced technology that allows it to kill without remorse drive itself and created by the Devil himself Google! Pardoning that brief flight of fancy, here's the real scoop:

Google is working on an automated / driverless car with the help of DARPA Challenge luminaries Chris Urmson and Anthony Levandowski. Mr. Urmson was the technical team leader on CMU's 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge winning entry, whilst Mr. Levandowski built the world's first autonomous motorcycle for the DARPA Grand Challenge as well as an automated pizza delivery vehicle.

Though still in the experimental stages of development, Google's test vehicles have covered 140,000 miles (225,300 km). Their unpiloted yet still manned Priora (that's the plural of Prius, dontchaknow) have travelled from their Mountain View campus to their Santa Monica office and onto Hollywood Boulevard, down Lombard Street, across the Golden Gate Bridge, along the Pacific Coast Highway and all the way around Lake Tahoe (albeit, not in a single journey).

Here's how it works:

First a human operator takes a conventional car out and maps the route and road conditions, including lane markers and traffic signs. The local police are then briefed on the expected route just in case.

Then the automated car (always a Toyota Prius in the pictures we've seen) hits the road, piloted by a trained safety driver and software operator who monitor the car's progress and can take over at a moment's notice. The automated vehicles are fitted with video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder, all of which helps the car to "see" the road ahead, other vehicles and any obstacles in its path. All in all, a very clever bit of engineering.

Google hopes that the technology can be used in the future to reduce road traffic accidents. The automated vehicles are part of what the company calls their "highway trains of tomorrow"; automated vehicles that obey the road rules, can never drive intoxicated and will always keep a safe distance behind the vehicle in front. All in all, a very bright future for A to B motoring.

By Tristan Hankins

Link: Google Blog

Bumblebee Camaro Crashes into Real Cop Car During Filming of Transformers 3

BUMBLEBEE is racing down a side street to catch up with the other AUTOBOTS, who have found another piece of the ALLSPARK. Suddenly, a DECEPTICON POLICE SUV appears and cuts BUMBLBEE off!

Well, not really, but it sure looks like that in this video. According to The Washington Post, the story goes that a Metropolitan Police SUV was on its way to investigate a suspicious package in the D.C. area when it strayed onto the Transformers 3 set.

Just at that moment, a yellow Chevrolet Camaro a.k.a. "Bumblebee" rounded a corner and slammed into the right side of the police vehicle in the sort of scene you previously would only have seen in a Michael Bay movie.

District Police spokeswoman Tisha Gant told The New York Times that the officer driving the SUV was taken to a local hospital and that the driver of the Camaro was uninjured.

The Camaro seems to be the worst off of the two, having sustained damage to its front end up to the wheel wells. All of us here at Carscoop are hoping and praying that Bumblebee will be okay...

By Tristan Hankins

Via: The Washington Post

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VIDEO: Aston Martin Execs Try to Convince Everyone the Cygnet is not a Toyota...

Now that the Aston Martin Cygnet has officially received the green light (previous post here), the brand of James Bond has put together again CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez and design director Marek Reichman for the Cygnet PR video below.

The 4-passenger Cygnet, based on Toyota's iQ city car, is meant to provide Aston Martin owners something more practical for daily use within cities and still offer said owners the level of exclusivity they desire. That means it can be ordered with all the same interior and exterior colors, leathers, and materials found on any other Aston.

While based on a Toyota, the Cygnet will officially be manufactured as its own standalone model - a coach-built compact, if you will - in Warwickshire, England. An official announcement has not been made regarding the power train, but it will likely get the iQ's standard 3-cylinder (possibly with a sport intake/exhaust setup).

By Phil Alex

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