Car Throttle News Bites: 25th January 2012

Welcome back to News Bites, Car Throttle's one-stop-shop for the this-and-that of all that's auto news.  What's on the plate for today?  Track times, the President's old whip, Volvos, wrecking Datsuns, and some other fun stuff.

Car and Driver is one of the few automotive print publications people still like, because they still produce some unique content.  Best example: the annual Lightning Lap challenge.  They take road-going cars, divided up into classes by price, for hot laps around Virginia International Raceway - street tires, pump gas, license plates and full interiors, to see what's fastest.  This year they didn't run any LL5 cars ($250,000+) or LLU (non-street-legal, like the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Box), but they did add a new class: LLT, for trucks.  There's a lot of data, and some of it is interesting: like the new Jetta GLI is 8 seconds(!) slower around VIR than the GTI, and the BMW X5M is faster than the B7 RS4, and almost as fast as a Lancer Evo.  The full article is available here, and you can watch the video here.  Spoiler alert: the ZR1 is the fastest.

Chinese owned Volvo is looking to expand the lineup of the S60 mid-sizer in the US, with a T5 AWD model.  In the old days, "T5" signified the badass high-performance Volvo; with the S60 it's the base model - at least in this country.  Previously, your choices were T5 (FWD, 250bhp) or T6 (300-325bhp, AWD).  The AWD T5 should come in somewhere between the T5 ($32,175) and the T6 ($39,325) price-wise.  We still don't get the V60 wagon, sadly.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjUdMmnf0ko

I reported just a few days ago on the Eurowise meet in Charlotte - link here - so it's pretty funny to see the above link making the rounds on the internet.  This convoy of Nissans was heading to the same event from Greensboro, NC, when the supercharged 350Z on the right lost traction during a pull, let off the throttle, and snap oversteered into the roadster on the left, pushing them both into the median.  So far the video's popped up on some other high-profile blogs - Autoblog and CarScoop to name two.  Glad to see our region is representing the car scene well.

A brand new Chrysler 300C Hemi starts at $38,170.  That's a pretty nice price.  So what would make a 7-year-old version of the 300C worth $961,830 more than that?  Although this particular 300C has a pretty low 20,800 miles on it, it's not that.  It's the former owner: current US President Barack Obama.  The big man owned the badass Chrysler before he started his presidential campaign and traded it in for a Ford Escape Hybrid, which I've never forgiven him for.  The presidential 300C is for sale on eBay here, with a starting bid of $1,000,000.  No word on how that money will be donated back into his campaign.

The latest Ford Focus is a likable car, with a few exceptions.  One is the complicated MyFordTouch system, and the other is the somewhat clunky 6-speed twin clutch auto-manual that could benefit from some better transmission programming.  The solution to that was to get the manual transmission, which was previously only available on lower trim levels - S and SE can be had with a clutch, but SEL and the top-line Titanium are auto-only.  Apparently Ford will make a manual available in the Titanium next year.  Perhaps they understand people who are willing to shell out big bucks for a well-equipped small "European" car want clutch pedals.  Maybe Acura will figure out the TSX wagon needs one too?

Spy shots of the next-gen Audi RS6 Avant surfaced today on CarScoop, undergoing cold-weather testing in Sweden.  The new-shape S6 houses a low-output version of Audi's new 4.0L TFSI twin-turbo V8 with 420bhp - but it's uncertain whether the new RS6 will use the Bentley/S8 spec V8 (500-520bhp) or continue using the monsterous twin-turbo V10 from the "old" RS6 - all 580bhp of it.  The huge brakes, obvious flared fenders and some other body addendum give this away as an RS6 prototype.  Can't wait to hear what's under the hood.

And finally, in the "because racecar" category, Toyota is showing off it's first entry into LeMans racing in more than a decade - the TS030.  It's interesting to see LeMans turn into a racecar version of an environmentalist club - what with the diesel Audis and now this hybrid-power Toyota.  The TS030 is powered by a 3.4L gas V8, and Toyota is evaluating two different electric assist systems which use a capacitive discharge setup (like Porsche's 911 GT3R Hybrids).  The carbon-fiber chassis was developed in-house.  The TS030 will debut at the Spa-Francorchamps 6 hour race on May 5, and participate in LeMans after.  Needs more Prius decals.