Car Throttle News Bites: December 19th 2011

It's a sad day for car people.  If you've been on the internet, especially Facebook, and especially General Motor's Facebook page, you probably heard today's big news.

Saab filed for bankruptcy in a district court in Sweden today.  We don't make a habit of reporting industry news here at Car Throttle, but this is Saab we're talking about, and this story has been leading to this inevitable conclusion basically since Spyker bought Saab from GM.  With no money to buy the parts to build cars, or pay the workers to build the cars, Saab was in a rough spot.  With accusations of their funding coming from shady places it was hard to secure additional funding to float the company.  And with GM unwilling to supply parts and vehicles to Saab (they make most of the parts for the 9-5, and they make the entire 9-4x alongside the Cadillac SRX in Mexico) if they were sold to a Chinese company (fearing Intellectual Property theft, and rightly so), the ship has gone down.  The only remaining question is, will someone scoop up the remains of Saab post bankruptcy and do something with them?  Or is the brand too poisoned at this point to be feasible?  Comment and cry with me below.  Or, you know, go troll GM's Facebook Page.  Which is here.  Did I link enough?

Speaking of GM, this is the Sonic RS, which is coming to Detroit.  It's a more performance-oriented version of the Sonic hatch (which replaced the Aveo).  It uses the same 1.4L turbo 4 cylinder with 138bhp as other high-end Sonics, but there are a few detail changes.  It gets a more aggressive aerodynamics package and 17" alloy wheels, and a sports exhaust.  Changes that matter: the RS gets rear discs brakes, which other Sonics don't, the RS has a close-ratio gearset in the manual and a shorter final-drive ratio in the automatic for better acceleration, and there's sport seats and a better steering wheel inside.  Now if they'd just stuff a 2.0L LNF  in this thing...

Lexus is bringing a concept to Detroit, and they've released a second teaser image of it, showing the interior.  Looks great- laid back bucket, swoops of dark wood and unique quilt-stitched leather, satin finish metal trim - I'm wondering what this car is going to be.  The previous teaser showed the headlight and part of the front fender; it looks like it'll be a red coupe of some sort.  Not much longer to wait on this one.  Maybe it's a new SC Coupe?

Donkervoort, Dutch purveyor of wicked Cateram-style sports cars (and sole competition to Gumpert in the "Epic Cars With Hilarious Names" race), released pictures and details on their newest creation today.  Called the D8 GTO, it's longer and wider than their other models - by 6" in width and a foot in length.  This carbon-clad rocket is powered by the Audi TT-RS engine, a 2.5L turbocharged 5-banger with 340 horsepower - or 400 if you flick the "race module" switch.  It weighs around 1,500lbs so performance will be terrifying.  Pricing starts at $100,000, and half of the first run of 25 cars has already been spoken for.  At least Donkervoort's doing better than the other Dutch sportscar maker.

And finally, boutique manufacturer Eterniti (comprised of 12 employees in London) announced that they're getting closer to a production version of the Hemera.  This Cayenne-based SUV, which they call "The M5 of SUV's" (isn't that already what the Cayenne Turbo does?) is obviously a Cayenne.  The rear seat is moved back for more legroom, and the twin-turbo V8 is cranked up to 600bhp.  There's carbon fiber and LED's everywhere, along with a lot of custom bodywork.  Eterniti says they plan to build 80 of these in 2012, increasing to 200 by 2014.  Blurring the lines between a tuner car and a production car (remember, RUF is considered a manufacturer in Germany even though they're just tweaked Porsches), it remains to be seen how well this'll do.  But it is a lot better looking than most tuned Cayennes...