La Dolce Veloce

This four door Nissan concept car is due to be unveiled at the upcoming Tokyo show, featuring rear hinged rear doors like Mazda’s RX-8. With the front mounted engine driving the rear wheels, it’s sounding like a pretty potent competitor to the RX-8 (if it’s produced). (link).

Out of production since 1999, the Nissan Skyline is still a well respected, legendary automobile…and now it’s returning to showrooms near you. Nissan will unveil yet another concept car hinting at what they’ll be selling in 2007 (to see sketches, click here), and test mules have been spied lapping the Nurburgring (though they’re wearing Infiniti G35 coupe bodywork). Lotus has been helping with suspension development. Unlike the previous GT-Rs, this new one WILL be officially available for sale worldwide (including the US). The price is expected to be around $80,000USD.

Holden unveiled a cool concept car, called the Efijy. Based on a Corvette chassis, the fiberglass bodied coupe combines a gangster look with batmobile styling. There are no plans for production. Read more about it at Pistonheads.

Shooting Brake, you say? Translation: a sporty two door, station-wagon like contraption. Audi sculpted this beautiful concept and will be showing it at the upcoming Tokyo motor show. The concept is based on the next generation Audi TT (which will be available next fall); its production fate will be decided after the Tokyo show. If produced, it’ll hit the streets in 2008, just in time to go head to head with VW’s new Scirocco. However, this Audi will feature some modern electronics that is, well, ridiculous and hopefully won’t make it into production. For example, a navigation system that will tell you what gear and speed you should be using before approaching a curve? I’ve always respected German cars for their driver-oriented designs, but this takes it too far – it goes way beyond being a performance enhancement (like their DSG transmission) and becoming a tool to be used by idiots who don’t know how to drive and how to judge corners for themselves. Ok, I’m done ranting now…it’s a beautiful car, annd if they manage to keep the computer involvement to a minimum, it just might be a blast to drive. You can read much more about it here.
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Despite making cars like the New Beetle, VW churns out some really nice touring machines, cars that are fun to drive and have character. If you’re interested in seeing what new models are on the way from VW, check out the complete list (with photos) at the German Car Blog. One of my alltime favorite VWs, the Scriocco, is going to return in 2008, and now AutoWeek reports more details: it’ll be based on the Jetta platform, with an optional 3.2 liter 247hp V6 and (optional) all wheel drive (yippie!). With a very healthy automotive aftermarket full of ways to get more power out of VWs, this awd Scirocco is going to be a hit and really help boost VW’s image, IF they manage to keep its price reasonable.

Automobile Magazine reports that Lamborghini is working on a new Miura, to go head to head with the Ferrari Enzo. They’ll be using a version of the chassis Audi designed for its upcoming LeMans coupe, which is itself based on the Gallardo. The motor will be Lamborghini’s V12, probably coupled to an all wheel drive system. The image above is an artist’s rendering from Automobile Magazine (November 2005 issue).

Stanford University won the DARPA Grand Challenge with its VW Toureg-based robot, completing the offroad course in about 7.5 hours. Four of the 23 starters actually finished, which was a huge improvement over last year where the best vehicle only completed a few miles of the course. The goal of this $2 million competition was to promote the development of autonomous offroad vehicles for use in combat situations. Great idea really, and the amount of progress shown indicates we may see battlefield supply convoys sooner than you think. Read more at CNN.