La Dolce Veloce

When you see a car name as long as that, you have to realize that it’s because Ford thinks the name has certain marketing appeal, and can help sell cars. A wise shopper must look past the name and see what lies under the sheetmetal. In this case, it turns out they could have called it the Ford Edsel and sold all they can build. They stuffed a supercharged V8 under the hood producing around 450 lb-ft of torque. The body receives subtle tweaks (front and rear fascias, hood). Sadly, Ford chose to take the retro theme too far and is keeping the solid rear axle of the normal Mustang. While I hear it performs well, it’s an ancient suspension technology that is just not the best you can do. To compromise design with a car like the Cobra is a shame (the previous generation Cobra even used an independent rear suspension). AutoWeek has more info if you’re curious.

A dealer confirmed that, on Friday, March 25th, Lotus will announce the availability of a 2006 Lotus Exige in the US! The Exige will feature the supercharged engine currently found on the limited edition 240R sold in Europe, and be available in a variety of colors (until the yellow or black options on the 240R).

Hear the words “Project 1221″ and what comes to mind? A cheesy sci-fi movie, perhaps? Probably not an Italian automaker. A visit to there website reveals little more than their vision of ‘encompassing land, water and air machines’ (err, ok). Italiaspeed was able to shed a little more light on this mysterious new company. It seems their first product will be a car with large luggage capacity. With somewhere around 1000 hp. Yeah. Add in all wheel drive and a price tag of more than half a million Euros, and you know this is not going to be your average grocery getter. The car, a two seat fixed-roof design, will be unveiled this summer, with customer units to be delivered starting in 2008.

No big surprise, but after a very positive response to the Concept S shown at Geneva, Lamborghini is hinting that the car may go into very limited production. If so, it will likely be in addition to a more conventional convertible design. More info here, translated from Italian via Babelfish.

Dailmer-Chrysler seems to have a huge lead over the rest of the industry when it comes to fuel cell vehicles. Their prototype A-class (more info here) looks well designed and shows huge advancements in packaging and miniturization of the technology. Meanwhile, Japan focuses on hybrid technology (though will switch to hydrogen quickly once that becomes practical), and American car companies focus on building bigger SUVs. If you own stock in GM or Ford…sell it, sell it fast. Those companies don’t seem to grasp the inevitability of the automobile’s future. Ford’s hybrid attempts with the Escape shows they’re starting to work on it, but theyre behind and not likely to become the technology leaders.

The Venturi Fetish electric sports car is not new, it was unveiled a while ago. What’s significant is that it’s nearing production, which is due to start next summer. This electric sports car scoots from 0-60 in under five seconds and, most importantly, can go well over 200 miles on a single charge. It won’t be cheap, selling for around 540000 Euros, and won’t likely be sold in the US, but is an exciting glimps at a possible future for the automobile (though that future will likely be fuel cell powered rather than battery driven).

Jaguar is jumping on the station wagon bandwagon, working on a four wheel drive station wagon with a tall roofline (what automakers typically call a ‘crossover’ vehicle). It’ll probably be on sale in 2007. Sad, really, but this is both a reflection of Jaguar’s loss of control over its destiny (it is owned by Ford these days), and of the changing marketplace where many people think they ‘need’ a large vehicle.