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The Chevy Volt Will Save GM (And Get The Girl)

These are dark days for General Motors, which is wallowing in the mire of the global economic implosion. Shares recently hit their lowest price since 1951,reserves are running on emptyand there's no guarantee a merger with Chrysleror a government bailoutwill save the day. GM's only ray of light is the Chevrolet Volt, its all-inbet on the golden retriever going in for the injured point guard with five minutes left to play, the home team down by 15 and all of Motor City's cheerleaders out waxing their bikini lines. The odds are good the gamble will pay off. The world's largest automaker is expected on Friday to announce billions of dollars in third-quarter losses, and all but stands on the brink of bankruptcy. The revolutuonary Volt is without question its best chance for survival. It isn't just a 100-mpg electric car, it is GM's declaration that it will no longer play it safe cranking out uninspired and irrelevant cars. GM wants to seize the green mantle from Toyota and prove Japan doesn't have a stranglehold on innovation. "We've had a gradual cultural revolution here at GM," Bob Lutz, vice chairman of product development and the guy cracking the whip to get the Volt in showrooms by the end of 2010, recently told us. "The Volt is a very good sign for the company. It shows a willingness to take great risks." It would be easy to dismiss Maximum Bob's comments as more hyperbole from a guy who knows how to give good quote. But the Volt isa great risk. It's also the vehicle most likely to generate the momentum GM needs to carry it through these bleak economic times. The Volt is no johnny-come-lately following the path blazed by the first-gen Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius. It?s a technological step forward. The Prius, like the Honda Civic and forthcoming Honda Insight, is a parallel hybridthat uses both an electric motor and a gasoline engine to drive the wheels. The Volt, on the other hand, is a series hybrid. Like the Prius, it's got an electric motor and a four-cylinder gasoline engine, but the engine merely charges the 16 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery as it approaches depletion. Electricity alone turns the wheels. The Volt is designed to travel 40 miles on a single charge, meaning most drivers will never burn a drop of gasoline. GM is still butting heads with the Environmental Protection Agency over the Volt's official fuel economy rating, but GM execs tell us the Volt is good for 100 mpg or more. That's enough to put the fear of God into the oil companies. Everything about the Volt is designed to maximize fuel economy, from its sleek grille to the windswept mirrors to the spoiler on the hatchback. GM's designers spent more than 1,000 hours in the wind tunnel, and they say the Volt is more aerodynamic than the Prius or the Civic Hybrid. "We spent three times longer on this car than any other car [in GM?s history]," Nina Tortosa, the engineer who oversaw wind tunnel testing, told usshortly before the car was unveiled in September. "It will be one of the most aerodynamic cars out there." The result is a car that makes the Prius look about as exciting as Grandma's muu-muu. GM went to about as much trouble with the interior. Sitting in the Volt is sitting in an iPod. Swathed in shiny white plastic, the dash features touch sensitive controls and customizable LCD screens. The Volt is making a statement. Hybrids are no longer about saving gas or going green. Suddenly they have style. That style won't come cheap. The Volt's price has climbed steadily since it was unveiled almost two years ago at the Detroit auto show, and GM will be lucky to keep it under $40,000. The car will qualify for a $7,500 tax credit, but it'll still cost several thousand more than a Prius and almost twice what the next-gen Insightis expected to go for. GM doesn't think that will be a problem. "This isn't going to be a budget vehicle," Bob Boniface, the Volt's lead designer, recently told BusinessWeek , "and this helped us win some important arguments. Take a look at your iPhone. That's the kind of finishing that distinguishes a product." Boniface's point is the Volt, like the iPhone, will be a killer app, a must-have product. He may be right. More than 34,000 people in 60 countries and all 50 states have signed an unofficial waiting listto buy one. All of this depends, of course, on the technology behind the car actually working. GM is literally making this stuff up as it goes, and it remains to be seen whether the batteries will deliver on their range and endure the rigors of life on the road. But make no mistake - General Motors is throwing everything it has at the Volt and sparing no expense to put it in showrooms by the end of 2010. Every industry analyst and EV advocate we've talked to says GM will almost certainly meet that deadline. GM is so confident that it'll have the technology sorted out that Jon Lauckner, VP of global development, tells us, "some of us are thinking about the follow-up vehicle." Critics argue, correctly, that GM will lose money on the Volt -- Lutz has said so, and GM is OK with that-- and they note that with initial production volume in the tens of thousands, the Volt will be a niche vehicle along the lines of the Chevrolet Corvette. That prompted Alex Taylor III of Fortunemagazine to say, "the Volt is about as relevant to the survival of GM ... as Paris Hilton is to the future of Western civilization." Taylor miss the point entirely. This isn't about sales volume. It's about creating a signature vehicle that will define GM's image, prove that Detroit can innovate and convince consumers to give GM a fresh look. For those reasons and more, the Volt is not only relevant to GM's survival, it is essential. See Also: The Volt Isn't a Prius. It Might Even Be Better. Exclusive: Inside the Design Process of the Volt 34,520 People and Counting Want a Volt Bob Lutz: Volt Is the U.S. Car Industry's Moon Shot Images and video by General Motors. var so = new FlashObject ("http://natalie.feedroom.com/gm/natoneclip/Player.swf", "Player", "320", "240", "8", "#000000");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "gm");so.addVariable("fr_story", "0b2a6e030758cc9bc82421ce8eec0ba41dd4bdbd");so.addVariable("hostURL","document.location.href");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.addParam("quality","high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen","true");so.addParam("allowScriptAccess","always");so.write("flashcontent");

Ruf's Electric Porsche Hits the Road. Slowly.

Looks like the all-electric Porsche that German tuning haus Rufis building is the real deal, and the early indication from someone who's spent some time behind the wheel is the E-Ruf will reach frightening velocity, but takes its sweet time getting there. Although the battery-powered Porsche 997 (aka the 911) concept car is drop-dead gorgeous and certainly looksquick, its 204-horsepower motor isn't any more powerful than the one BMW is putting under the hood of the forthcoming electric Mini. But what it lacks in horspoewer, it more than makes up for in torque, cranking out more of it than a Corvette Z06. Head speedmeister Alois Ruf hopes the E-Ruf will hit 160 mph, and he's shooting for a 0 to 60 time under 7 seconds. Seven seconds? In a Porsche? The problem is the car's weight. The E-Ruf tips the scales at more than two tons. Getting something that flabby up to speed ain't easy. Word of the E-Ruf broke last month ? though many motojournos, including us, thought it was based on the Cayman ? and Alios Ruf confirmed it earlier this month. Then he invited Patrick Hong of Road & Trackto take one for a spin. Ruf started developing the car two years ago with the EV and hybrid experts at Calmotors, who stuffed a 911 with 96 lithium-ion cells manufactured by the British firm Axeon. The battery pack charges in 10 hours, and Ruf's goal is a range of 155 to 200 miles. The pack powers a 150 kilowatt (204 horsepower) brushless three-phase AC motor built by UQM Technologies. The motor, which is just 15.9 inches around and 9.5 inches long, resides where the boxer six would be in the 911. It produces an impressive 479 foot-pounds of torque, a healthy improvement on the 288 produced by the 911. The motor is mated to the 911's six-speed transmission, but the E-Ruf would probably get a single-speed if it ever saw production. For the sake of comparison, Tesla Motorssays its Roadsterproduces 248 horsepower and 276 foot-pounds of torque. It claims the car does 0 to 60 in 4.0 seconds and has a range of "about 220 miles." Top speed is limited to 125 mph. Hong says the E-Ruf "moves off quickly with minimal fuss," and with only the whine of an electric motor, "you feel like you're in a spaceship blasting through the galaxy." But performance is hobbled by the car's sheer mass ? the battery pack weighs about 1,200 pounds, and the car tips the scale at 4,200 pounds (compared to 3,075 pounds for a 911 Carerra with manual transmission). "On winding road, the E-Ruf's 4200-lb weight is apparent as soon as you make a quick steering input," Hong writes. But, he adds, "we can expect improved handling worthy of the Ruf name." Let's hope the performance improves as well. Photos by Ruf. The stickers on the bumpers read "Erprobungsfahrt" or "Test drive." Diagram showing battery and component placement in the E-Ruf by Calmotors:

Driver Wins Fuel Economy Contest In A 505-Horsepower Corvette

Think you've gotta drive a boring econobox or a hybrid to get decent fuel economy? Nope. A British moto-journalist took top honors in a fuel-economy challenge behind the wheel of a -- get this -- Corvette Z06 with a monstrous 7-liter engine. Journalist Richard Hammond (no, not that Richard Hammond) took hypermiling to a new level during the two-day, 411-mile MPG Marathon, achieving an impressive 30.96 miles per Imperial gallon (that's 25.77 U.S. mpg). Although that was well short of the 84.66 mpIg (70.48 U.S. mpg) reached by the guy in a Toyota Yaris, it was enough for a win. Huh? All told, 80 drivers and navigators flogged a fleet provided by 22 automakers from around the world, taking the cars on a grueling loop around Britain on a quest to see how many miles they could wring from every gallon of petrol and how much they could improve the manufacturers' claimed fuel economy. PR man and occasional rally driver Andrew Andersz took first place in the overall fuel economy category when he got 84.66 mpIg in a 1.5-liter Yaris, boosting Toyota's estimated mpg by 31.81 percent. But Hammond took the prize for overall improvement when he boosted the Vette's claim of 19.2 mpIg (15.99 U.S. mpg) by 61.26 percent. "Driving economically is possible in whatever car you own," says Ross Durkin, who organized the MPG Marathon. "All it takes is consideration of prevailing road conditions and an educated approach to how you drive your car. The Corvette's success proves that any driver can improve their fuel economy if they think in advance and anticipate road conditions." Photo by General Motors UK.

Viper Is The Fastest Production Car 'Round the 'Ring

Move over, ZR1. There's a new lord of the 'Ring. The wickedly fast race-ready Dodge Viper ACR recently lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a jaw-dropping 7 minutes and 22.1 seconds to leave the Corvette ZR1 in its dust and set a new -- although so far unofficial -- record for fastest lap time in a production car. It comes as no surprise the 8.4-liter Viper would make mincemeat of a 12.9-mile circuit known as Green Hell, but watching the guy behind the wheel struggle to keep 600 horsepower under control makes you wonder how much more the car is capable of. The record run also comes amid word Dodge is looking to unload Viper.There's no word on who's driving, but he's no slouch. Still, he hits the rev limiter repeatedly, making you think he'd shave a second or two off his time working the six-speed gearbox with more finesse. No matter. The ACR lapped the 'Ring more than four seconds faster than the ZR1 -- which set the record just last month -- and a full seven seconds quicker than the Nissan GT-R. You can ride shotgun watching the video over at Motor Trend, which is where we grabbed the screen shot. Viper's future is up in the air. According to Automotive News, Chrysler has launched a "strategic review" of the model. Although the company stressed that it hasn't decided whether to sell, CEO Bob Nardelli says, "We have been approached by three parties who are interested in exploring future possibilities for Viper." Update 4:15 p.m. PDT Aug. 29: A couple of readers made comments to this effect about hitting the rev limiter, so we thought we'd offer it here, courtesy of reader Jake: "Shifting takes time. When you put the clutch in, the car slows down and when you let the clutch back out you upset the rear wheels. When you're on the rev limiter, the car DOES NOT slow down." There you have it. Thanks, Jake. More Viper ACR porn from Dodge:

Gallery: Concept Cars of Past Visit Pebble Beach

: Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comPEBBLE BEACH, California -- Nowhere is the old saying "there's nothing new under the sun" more true than in the auto industry, where "innovations" often are updated takes on old ideas. From the wind-cheating aerodynamics that make today's cars more efficient to the navigation systems that fill every dashboard, it's all been done before -- usually in a car that represented some designer's vision of the future. Wired.com takes a walk through the greens at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to bring you a look at some cars of futures past that influenced that new hunk of metal currently sitting in your driveway. Left: 1956 Buick Centurion You think the backup camera on your Tahoe makes it modern? Think again. This concept car had one when General Motors rolled it out 52 years ago. It also sported a bubble-shaped cockpit inspired by jetfighters and a body made of lightweight fiberglass -- something else your Tahoe could use. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.com The three-wheeled Benz Velo was the first commercially available motorcar when it went on sale in 1886. Eight years later, Karl Benz released his update of the revolutionary design -- four wheels! It was the first standard-configuration car to tear up the road, and it set the standard just about everyone's followed since. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comConstructed out of lightweight aluminum and magnesium -- two materials now common in high-performance cars -- and sporting the first wraparound windshield, the LeSabre was years ahead of its time. Despite the exotic materials and futuristic design, it was practical. Design demigod Harley J. Earl not only oversaw its design, he drove it to work every day. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comFifty years later and this car is still fully loaded with high-tech gadgetry. Not only does it sport a whopping seven fins, it offers ultrasonic keyless entry and a navigation system. Top it off with a control stick in place of a steering wheel and it's still ahead of its time. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comThis concept car was the first and only automobile made entirely of ultra-lightweight -- and ultra-expensive -- titanium. It had a 200-horsepower gas turbine engine and air conditioning, which was a big deal in 1956. Yeah, it's ugly as sin, but so was the Pontiac Aztek. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comThis baby's a one-of-a-kind, built to be aerodynamic and fast. Though it had a normal engine when it debuted at the Turin Auto Show in 1955, the current owner followed Ghia's original plan and dropped in a gas turbine when he restored it. Not that the Ghia needs an engine at all -- she looks fast sitting still. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comThe first Porsche designed by company founder Ferdinand ?Ferry? Porsche may be one of the most influential cars in history. Not only did it influence the lines of the original Beetle and 911-series cars, but current iterations -- up to and including the amazing 911 GT3 RS -- can trace their lineage back to the 356. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comCheetahs were built around the simple idea of stuffing powerful Corvette engines into lightweight cars to produce something faster than the Shelby Cobras. It worked. This particular car hit 215 mph at Daytona Speedway. The state-of-the-art Corvette ZR1 can "only" muster 205. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comThis one's all about the engine: a 27-liter Rolls Royce V12 out of a WWII-era British Spitfire airplane. It produces 1,600 horsepower -- almost 500 more than the SSC Ultimate Aero, the world's fastest production car -- and has hit 150 mph in third gear. No one's tried seeing what she'll do in fourth. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comThis steam-powered racer, lovingly referred to as "Old Number 16," was the first American car to win an international race, the 1906 Vanderbuilt Cup. Tire failures foiled later attempts and the car was retired to the Henry Ford Museum, where it still resides, unrestored and perfectly operational. No one's brought steam power back, but with the push toward alternative fuels, who knows? : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comPerhaps no car is more widely cited as an influence by car designers, and understandably so: The Miura is beautiful. Its cutting-edge design placed the engine behind the driver and in front of the axle, something widely used in racing at the time but almost unheard of in road cars. Just about every exotic supercar on the road today uses the same layout. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.com Before he started his own company, Ferdinand Porsche designed cars for other marques, creating rides like this Mercedes drop-top. This particular model is even more special, having been modified by custom coachbuilder Armbruster. Think of it as an old-time SLK 55 that took a trip through Rhys Millen?s shop. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.com The Countach epitomized the supercar through much of the 1980s and was idolized by countless teenage boys who hung posters of it on their bedroom walls. Everything about the Countach was over the top, but with its angular lines, gun-slit windows and scissor doors, it looked like a car straight out of the future. You know what? It still does. : Photo: Casey Cramer/Wired.comLong before we had any real understanding of aerodynamics, the Albany Coachwork Company was doing its best to build custom streamlined autos. This beaut', based on a 1927 Lancia Lambda body, is one of three attempts at a wind-cheating design. It sports an airspeed indicator, which somehow seems cooler than a speedometer.

Jay Leno's Serious Advice to the U.S. Auto Industry

News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Rumored Textbook Plans for Kindle Is Joe Biden a Threat to the Web? Slideshow: An Artist's Greatest Lego Bricks Subscribe to Portfolio magazine The type of vehicles America makes best are, unfortunately, not the type of vehicles that people really want anymore. Nobody builds better trucks than the Americans do. Not even the Japanese build as good a truck as the Ford F-150 or the Chevy Silverado. It's the same with performance cars. The Corvette Z06 has 505 horsepower, comes with a big warranty, and can hit 200 miles per hour. It weighs almost exactly the same as a half-million-dollar Porsche Carrera GT and gets higher mileage?26 miles per gallon. Where we seem to lose it is in the low-bucks econocar. I used to be able to identify any American car from 25 yards. Now they all have this jellybean look. It?s a mystery to me, because the one thing we used to do better than anybody else was build cheap, extremely high-quality cars. We did it for decades, all the way back to the beginning of the industry. There was no better car for the money than the Model T. It was a basic car, but it used the finest materials available. There are still almost a million of them out there. When you get into a high-priced, well-made American car today and the key is in the ignition, you hear a melodic bong, bong. But when you get in a cheap American car, like a rental, and the key is left in, it goes plink, plink, plink. It?s just horrible. Every time you use the turn signal, it's like breaking a chicken leg. In order to make the more expensive car more appealing, U.S. companies feel as though they have to dumb down the cheaper car. I believe that, all things being equal, Americans will buy American. It just has to be as good as the competition; it doesn?t have to be better. The classic example is Harley-Davidson. Throughout the '70s, the motorcycle maker had huge quality-control problems. Then Harley-Davidson said, "Look, let's take our time. Let's build fewer bikes. Let?s build them properly, so they don?t leak oil and they?ll run forever." Harley-Davidson won back the market share it had lost, and it continues to dominate today. Even though the bikes might not be technically superior, they're bulletproof and they're American. People will buy American if given the chance. The automakers are starting to think like Harley and understand that when you get into an automobile, everything should be appealing to you. If you see stitching that's out of line on the dashboard, you're going to get madder and madder every time you see it. That's one place where the American car companies dropped the ball. Thankfully, in the past couple of years, they have gotten better. If you look at the new line of G.M. cars, they are almost as good as what the Europeans are doing, especially when you compare interiors. Cadillac has a line of small four-door sedans that are, if not quite the rival of Audi or Mercedes, pretty darn close for quite a bit less money. The problem with what's happened over the past few decades is that you have a whole generation of kids who have no brand loyalty. They've grown up on Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Toyota. To lure them to the American brand, you?ve got to give them something exciting, something bold, something different. America does technology well, and I think this is how the companies will bring those buyers back. I think cars like the Chevy Volt, which is entirely battery-powered, or hydrogen cars from Chrysler, Ford, and G.M. will take off. Looking into my crystal ball, I predict that Toyota will probably become the dominant force, and the other companies will have to become leaner to survive. They?ll start reining in some of the more unprofitable models. The overhead at most of the U.S. firms is crazy, and they'll have to figure out a way to fix that. They'll ultimately survive, but I think that they'll need to change how they do business. And in the future, you'll see smaller companies doing more boutique manufacturing, as BMW has with the Mini. One last thing: No matter what happens, do not expect all American cars to go Eurosize. American buttocks are not getting any smaller.

These Are Our Favorite Car Designers. Tell Us Yours

Car designers are a lot like musicians. Some are lame, some are one-hit wonders and some are truly gifted. The best of them evolve over time, their work reflecting the times even as it breaks new ground. And like great music, great cars stir the soul. Musicians often are rewarded with fame and fortune, but even the best car designers tend to be relatively anonymous, known only by their peers and hard-core car nuts. Just about everyone can recognize a 1965 Ford Mustang, but how many people know David Ash and John Oros designed it? Autopia is giving credit where credit is due and saluting five great designers who elevated their craft and whose work has stood, or will stand, the test of time. It's a short list, but that's the point. We want you to tell us who else should be on it. Photo: BMWGiorgetto Giugiaro's accessible-but-elegant Italian designs range from the plebeian first-generation slab-sided VW Rabbit to the iconic but still affordable Fiat 850 Spider. They?re sleek enough to look good but practical enough for mass consumption, kind of like Quincy Jones? radio-friendly funk. From Thriller to The Dude, it?s obvious when Q worked on a record, just as Giugiaro?s timeless works are instantly recognizable no matter the badge on the hood. Giugiaro?s ItalDesign is so good, even the lowly Daewoo Leganza still manages to catch our attention. But our favorite is the BMW M1 (pictured). Thirty years old and it still looks hot. Photo: General Motors Harley Earl is the Sinatra of car design. Ground-breaking and distinctively American, Earl didn't just create the clay mold, the tail fin, and the idea of a concept car during his career at General Motors. He pretty much pioneered the entire career field of automotive design. Like the contrast between Sinatra?s smooth Columbia years and swing-a-lingin? Capitol era, Earl?s designs ranged from the sleek Art Deco Buick Y-Job (pictured) to space-age tail fins and the first Corvette. Earl left General Motors in 1958, and we wish his influence at GM had extended beyond those ridiculous Buick ?fedora? ads. If it had, perhaps we would have been spared the Pontiac Aztek. Photo: BMW No list would be complete without Chris Bangle, chief of design for BMW. Like Eminem, he burst onto the scene in the '90s and brought controversy with him. People love him or hate him -- he's appeared at TED and been the subject of an online petition for BMW to fire him. He's credited with bringing new attention to automotive design, and it seems everyone's copied the "Bangle butt" that's all but become his trademark. The silliness of the X6 of is redeemed by the sexiness of the M3, the Z4 Coupe and even that weird shape-shifting car made out of cloth. Photo: JoJo Cence/Flicker The Carozzeria Pininfarina badge on a fender signifies design that is sensual, intelligent and sophisticated, kind of like the cerebral art rock of Steely Dan. From the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 8C to the Volvo C70 and a slew of Ferraris, Pininfarina's designs endure. Yes, the company's produced some Top 40 hits that don't stand up well (the Ferrari Testarossa comes to mind), but it's had more hits than Motown. Picking a favorite Pininfarina design is like picking a favorite Beatles song, but ours is the Dino 246 (pictured). Photo: Audi Walter de'Silva would have earned a place on the list solely because of his tour-de-force performance on the Audi R8, much like Kanye West could've retired after The College Dropout. But like West, de'Silva outdid himself with several follow-ups, most recently the S5, a car he unabashedly calls ?the most beautiful car I have ever designed.? It is, and Audi's design language just might be the most gorgeous to carry NHTSA certification in 2008. We agree it's a short list that omits some pretty big names. Ticked off that Shiro Nakamura didn't make the list? Are you the one guy in the world who thinks the Pontiac Aztek is hot? Utterly convinced that the Jaguar XKE is the sexiest thing to ever burn gas? Use the Reddit widget below to tell us what you think and post pics of your own suggestions. Main photo: Christer Johnansson/Wikimedia Commons Show photos that are: hot | new | top-rated or submit your own photo     Submit you favorite designer and a pic of the car. While you can submit as many photos as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed. Back to top

Corvette ZR1 No. 1 Rolls Into A Driveway

Dave Ressler's love of Corvettes is exceeded only by the depth of his pockets, as logical an explanation as any for his paying $1 million for the very first ZR1, which has rolled off an assemby line into his driveway. Ressler, who's been selling Chevys for 20 years, bought the car earlier this year at the big Barrett-Jackson auction (where the pic was snapped) and picked it up last week. Writing a check with that many zeroes (the money was donated to the United Way) brings a few perks.Ressler's 'Vette comes with a custom VIN plate (No. 0001) and one-of-a-kind paint job in LeMans Blue. He also got to tour the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky., and drive his new toy off the line. Ressler will probably be more vigilant about his purchase than Formula 1 champ Kimi Raikkonen, who can't seem to locate the 1974 Corvette he recently bought at a charity auction for $311,680. That seems like a lot of money for a '74, even if it's got just four miles on the odometer and belonged to Sharon Stone. Although the ZR1 produces 638 horsepower and can circle the Nurburgring in an astonishing 7:26.4, Ressler won't be flogging it. It's headed back to Bozeman, Mont. to join the other 45 'Vettes in his collection. Which, by the way, includes the first '53 Corvette GM ever sold. A video of Ressler picking up his 'Vette gives a glimpse inside the factory. GM video: And local newscast from YouTube: