ON THE TABLE

July 14, 2010

EcoMotors International. Editor-in-Chief's Note: The suburban Detroit-based company has secured $23.5 million from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, head of Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, California, which owns 47 percent of EcoMotors. The investment will go directly for engineering and testing of its trademarked Opoc engine technology, which was conceived by Peter Hofbauer, the former head of powertrain development at Volkswagen and now chairman and chief technology officer of EcoMotors. We had EcoMotors CEO Don Runkle on our "Autoline After Hours" show not long ago and it was clear to me that this company is on to something with this engine. In fact, it might just power the transition from ICEs to the eventual application of full hydrogen power one day. The opposed piston-opposed cylinder (yes, you read that correctly) EcoMotors engines use 50 percent fewer parts than standard engines, while delivering 50 percent more fuel efficiency, and the company has already begun development of its sixth-generation Opoc engine. The Opoc design is ultra-compact, highly-efficient and produces excellent power, and this new engine could fundamentally alter our mainstream cars and trucks, not to mention future racing cars. Note, I said our mainstream cars and trucks, not our future fringe electric fleet. Make no mistake, folks. This is a very big deal. - PMD

Hard-core Corvette Geeks. We bet for some of you out there the factory tour and factory delivery of your new Corvette just wasn't quite enough. Now, you can actually help build the engine in your 2011 Corvette ZR1 or Z06. For $5,800 (you have to pay the cost of getting to Detroit on top of that), a Corvette buyer can order something called the "Engine Build Experience" package and will be given access to GM's double-secret Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan - where engines for the ZR1 and the Z06 are built by hand - and will actually get to work side-by-side with a professional technician and build the engine for the Corvette ZR1 or Z06 that they've ordered. They will start from the bare aluminum block and go from there, by hand. When finished the engine is tested on a dynamometer and the builder gets to add a personalized nameplate. Then the engine is sent to the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for installation in the car. The engines - whether built by the customer or by the professional technician - are covered by a five-year/100,000-mile warranty. The Engine Build Experience package also includes a concierge service that will set up most of the arrangements. Cool, huh?

Corvette. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Watch closely on Tuesday's Major League Baseball All-Star Game broadcast for "Still Building Rockets" the first new Chevrolet Corvette TV commercial produced in quite a while, or see it here. Why Corvette and why now? First of all, GM and Chevrolet marketing operatives have been criminally negligent over the years for not using the Corvette as a showcase - as the "tip of the technological spear" if you will - in advertising for both Chevrolet and GM. Joel Ewanick, GM's new chief marketing honcho, is out to change all that, which is why you'll be seeing the new Corvette TV spot and seeing Corvette used much more in marketing and advertising. Secondly, Corvette sales are soft. With the GM bankruptcy delaying the next-generation Corvette by at least three years - long after a new car should have been out - Chevrolet must create some serious buzz for the car again. Will it be a "all Corvette all the time" type of thing? No, but at least the car will be visible, which is l-o-n-g overdue. - PMD

Porsche Lovers. The Good News? Rumors suggest that Porsche is probably going to build the Super Duper OMFG Porsche 918 Spyder, the hybrid-assist supercar that made its debut at the Geneva auto show last March. The Bad News? It may cost as much as 500,000 euros, or around $613,000. Porsche has said that it needed at least 1,000 sales pledges to commit to building the car, but more than 2,000 people have expressed serious interest. So we can probably do away with the speculation right now because they're going to build it, count on it. Would we want one here at AE? Oh, hell yes, and if Porsche would like to drop-off a long-term test car we'd be more than happy to enjoy it. But if it were our real money? Then we'd get two Ferrari 458 Italias and call it a day.

Jim Press. From the "Just When I Thought I Was Out... They Pull Me Back In" File, Jim Press, former head of Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. operations and former Chrysler Group vice chairman and president, has been working for the Renault SA-Nissan Motor Co. alliance as a consultant for the group's global sales and marketing function, according to a Bloomberg report. Press has been involved with the alliance for about four months, Simon Sproule, a spokesman for the alliance, confirmed. “He's visited with our dealers in the States, Europe and Japan and has already begun providing substantial input,” Sproule told Bloomberg by phone.

Toyota. It seems that NHTSA is discovering through analysis of vehicle data in unintended acceleration cases involving Toyotas that people were stepping on the gas pedal and not the brake in many instances, according to leaked reports. Oh, noooooooo, you mean people are actually going to have to be accountable for their stupid and/or incompetent behavior behind the wheel? Oh what a world, what a world...

Ally Financial. GMAC will basically cease to exist beginning in August as Ally Financial Inc. will use the “Ally” name on most of its consumer and dealer-related auto finance operations here in the U.S. and the rest of North America. The Ally brand will continue to support GM, the Chrysler Group and Saab, etc., but the GMAC name will basically disappear from the scene after 91 years. All together now: Would you miss it? 

GM. One way to make the Volt realistically compelling? Remove as much of the worries for potential customers about the advanced technology that you possibly can. GM will offer buyers of its Chevrolet Volt an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the lithium-ion battery's 161 components, including the battery's critical thermal management system, charging system and electric-drive components. Intro for the groundbreaking Volt is slated for October or November, according to GM.

(Ford)
The 2011 Ford Edge Sport will make some serious noise in the category this year. The big news is that the Edge Sport comes equipped with class-leading Mustang power - the 3.7-liter Ti-VCT (twin independent variable camshaft timing) V6 producing 305 horsepower and 280 lb.-ft. of torque - which will give it best-in-class performance and impressive fuel economy of 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway in the front-wheel drive configuration. Other goodies include a six-speed SelectShift Automatic transmission with trick new paddle shifters, sport body work with Tuxedo Black grille and smoked headlamp treatment, special sport-tuned suspension - including revised front strut tuning, rear spring rates and rear jounce bumper and high-flow shocks - and new, class-exclusive, standard 22-inch forged aluminum wheels. Ford also match-mounts the tires - precisely aligning the wheels with the tires - and the wheel/tire assemblies are centered on precision-machined hub pilots. This allows  the wheel/tire/hub assemblies to roll truer, which helps eliminate noise and vibration while improving ride comfort, according to Ford. And finally, the industry-first MyFord Touch™ with SYNC is standard - "opening a new era of driver connectivity through the use of intuitive voice commands" as Ford says - with a 8-inch touch screen in the center stack and two driver-configurable 4.2-inch LCD screens in the instrument cluster.

WE'RE OPENING THE VAULT!

The AE wearables are back - and only in extremely limited quantities and sizes, we might add - and once they're gone, they're gone! We're starting with our most popular items, the classic AE Sweatshirt and AE Hat. Click on a PayPal button below to order yours now! (If you prefer to pay by check, please send us an email with AE STORE in the subject line, and we'll reserve your item.)

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Publisher's Note: Check-out John McElroy's daily news show covering everything about the auto biz by clicking on the graphic below. Good stuff guaranteed. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.

 

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