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2015 Ford Mustang spied wearing a funny hat

In an attempt to hide its secrecy while on Detroit's roadways, Ford has opted to give its Mustang some, uh, unusual camouflage. Is that a two-seater sports car, or a Morris Oxford? Is the Stay-Puft Man going out for a drive?

Land Rover LR4s successfully cross America off-road

Land Rover Expedition America has just wrapped up its month-long trek across the United States, almost all of it off-road. A team of three Land Rover LR4s covered 4,000-plus miles from Asheville, N.C., to the Oregon coast, following an off-road route called the Trans-America Trail charted by motorcycle legend Sam Correro in the 1990s. No other production car is known to have ever completed this journey.

One Lap of the Web: a Brat, a Saab, and best classic cars for college

-- We have our own views regarding perfect cars for college freshmen, none of which are endorsed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or any insurance company (except perhaps Hagerty), but Petrolicious has come up with some proper choices as well. And they're actually quite reasonable. As students are getting back to their respective institutions of higher learning, check out Petrolicious' "Seven Vintage Cars for College Freshmen." -- A GAZ 13 Chaika for sale on eBay out of Moldova claims Soviet Union General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev provenance....

Ford S-Max concept

Ford has released details of its S-Max concept ahead of its official debut at the Frankfurt motor show next month. Building on the success of the current-generation S-Max, the concept (surely more a pre-production show car than a true concept) continues the low, long and sporty twist on the SUV recipe that has made it such a hit in Europe. So it retains the monovolume outline with a soft transition from hood to windscreen and the tapered roofline.

Citroën Cactus concept with Air Bump technology confirmed for Frankfurt debut [w/Video]

Citroën's Cactus concept featuring a mysterious sounding 'Air Bump' technology will be taking center stage at the carmaker's stand at this year's Frankfurt motor show. The carmaker has released just one image of the concept along with a 21-second video (see left) showing a spongy panel labeled ‘Air Bump' being poked. Although this doesn't really tell us much about what this new technology actually does, we suspect the panels featured in the video are inserted into the bumper and can protect it from the smaller-scale collisions that can happen in everyday life.

Shelby GT500 Stars in 'Getaway'

The credits list Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez as the stars of "Getaway," the action/thriller/chase scene of a movie that opens nationwide on Friday, but really the star is the Shelby GT500 Super Snake that Hawke drives. “Honestly I feel like it's a character in the movie,” director Courtney Solomon told us on the black carpet at the movie's premiere. “We couldn't have made the movie without the car.

New Ford S-Max Concept at Frankfurt Motor Show

The New Ford S-Max Concept (pictured) will debut at Frankfurt Ford’s sporty take on the Galaxy – the Ford S-Max – has been with us since 2006, so it’s time for a change. But with Ford in Europe not having the best of times and the new Ford Mondeo not expected to arrive until 2014, the all new S-Max – which will have underpinnings from the new Mondeo – won’t be arriving until 2015. But in the absence of anything new to show at Frankfurt, Ford has put together a Concept version of the new S-Max to try and show Europe it really does have new stuff on the way.

Frankfurt 2013: electric Volkswagen e-Golf and e-Up! confirmed

Volkswagen has confirmed its all-electric zero tailpipe emissions e-Golf hatchback and e-Up! city car will both debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show this September. According to VW, the new Golf and Up!

Ford S-Max concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

This is new Ford S-Max MPV, in thinly veiled concept car form. In all but the spangliest details though, this is Ford’s sporty new MPV, ushering in a host of on-board tech features, and a new 1.5-litre Ecoboost petrol engine. The show car’s party pieces are health-monitoring gadgets, recording data like heart rates and glucose levels.

Slather your Fiesta with bacon!

Today, trends have little in the way staying power. In fact, we're astonished that the default image-meme typeface is still Impact. The recent MTV VMAs inspired much hand-wringing about Miley Cyrus' tweakoid performance, but the truly startling thing was that *NSYNC was pretty much as close as the show got to a legacy act.

New 2013 Ford S-Max Concept revealed

Ford will debut a new S-Max Concept at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. As the name suggests, this previews a future replacement for the current S-Max ‘sports activity vehicle’ – the people carrier that does everything it can to avoid having you feel like you’re driving a people carrier… We’ve been given a sneak peak of the new MPV at a special pre-Frankfurt event in Dusseldorf – and if the thought of a sporty new S-Max gets your heart racing, don’t worry: this concept comes with an app for that. Please click the image above to read more about the 2013 Ford S-Max Concept

Thomas Ingenlath: Volvo Concept C to end 'vanilla' design era [w/Video]

Volvo has promised a radical change in its future design language that will be embodied in its Concept C coupé, the first concept to be developed since head of design Thomas Ingenlath's appointment in July 2012. Our first look at the concept, which debuts at this month's Frankfurt motor show, comes from a video starring Ingenlath (see left). At first it seems to just show him sketching while he explains how some people see Volvo design as "vanilla" – nice, but not iconic or cutting-edge – but if we slow it down at around the 11-second mark, we get a preview of what we can expect.

Volkswagen reveals e-Golf and e-Up! before Frankfurt motor show debut

Volkswagen has just released details on the e-Golf and e-Up! before their 2013 Frankfurt motor show debuts. The two cars are essentially pre-production examples of pure-electric vehicles that VW will start building just a short time from now.

Cross-country in a Corvette Stingray: Conclusion

The final leg of our cross-country Corvette trip took us from Detroit to Charlevoix, Mich. -- about 45 minutes north of our birthplace, Traverse City. Aside from the drivers on I-75 in metro Detroit -- who may be the worst in the world -- and the still-intermittent audio system, the ride was pretty uneventful.

One Lap of the Web: A homebuilt KITT, and Tacoma vs. your girlfriend

Hagerty is profiling a homemade version of KITT from the "Knight Rider" TV series. Builder Chris Palmer needed five Pontiac Trans-Ams, tons of visits to eBay and hundreds of hours of work with help from friends. Check out the result here.

Infiniti shows image of Q30 concept car before 2013 Frankfurt motor show reveal

Infiniti has just released photos of its highly anticipated Q30 Concept, which will be shown to the public at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show. Even though it may be hard to tell from the photos and sketches which size category this concept car belongs in, the Q30 moniker places this car in a rather compact segment. Designing the Q30, Infiniti says it has tried to blend the features of a coupe, a hatch, and a crossover.

Citroen Cactus Concept heading for Frankfurt Motor Show

Citroen Cactus Concept tease It may be the teasing season for car makers as we head for the Frankfurt Motor Show, but Citroen are giving very little away in their tease for a new concept – the Citroen Cactus Concept. The Cactus Concept – a name used before by Citroen in 2007 for the C-Cactus Hybrid – shows what looks to be a compact car with some of the design features at the front we’ve seen on the new C4 Picasso. But with what looks to be chunky plastic cladding round the extremities of the Cactus, we’re guessing Citroen see the Cactus as some sort of small urban warrior, complete with bumpers that bounce back after supermarket trolley collisions with reference in the video to an ‘Air Bump’.

Infiniti Q30 Concept revealed ahead of its Frankfurt debut

The Infiniti Q30 Concept (pictured) will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month It’s more than two years since the Infiniti Etherea Concept concept arrived at the Geneva Motor Show to point the way towards Infiniti’s compact future, and now that future is almost here with the reveal of the Infiniti Q30 Concept following on from a teaser sketch of the Q30 earlier this month . Not that Infiniti has exactly thrown caution to the wind and sent us a whole raft of photos – just the single photo of the Q30 above – but it does give us a better idea of what Infiniti are aiming to do in the compact premium market. Based on the underpinnings of the new Mercedes A-Class – and probably using a mix of Mercedes and Renault engines – Infiniti want us to know that the Q30 isn’t just another addition to the ever increasing choice of premium crossovers, but a real of fusion of bodystyles.

VW e-Golf & e-Up! electric cars Frankfurt debut

The VW e-Golf & e-Up! electric cars (pictured) will debut at Frankfurt. Electric cars may be a niche market, but that hasn’t stopped car makers trying to take a piece of whatever action there is, especially as governments around the world are subsidising EVs and and their zero emissions at point of use will help (as long as they sell any) their average CO2 levels.

Toyota Yaris Hybrid-R concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

Toyota has released fresh information regarding its 414bhp supermini concept ahead of its debut at next month’s Frankfurt motor show. The Yaris Hybrid R drivetrain features Toyota Motorsport’s 1.6-litre racing petrol engine to power the front wheels and twin electric motors generating 60bhp apiece to run those at the back, giving the car all-wheel drive and a combined output of up to 414bhp. The car also makes use of a supercapacitor inspired by Toyota’s TS030 Hybrid Le Mans racer – energy generated under heavy braking is stored and can be quickly deployed to the rear wheels for an extra burst of power.

Peugeot 308 R concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

The Peugeot 308 R could be the biggest hint yet that Peugeot is getting its mojo back. Carrying the RCZ concept’s styling into production was a good start, and the new 208 GTi is a pleasantly surprising hoot, but for bigger smiles you’ll want this: a 270bhp, carbonfibre-clad hot hatch that’ll give an Audi S3 a fright, and leave a Golf GTI in its tyre tracks. The catch?

Donkey Kong Derby Car wins IDSA Launch Day 2013 competition

Product design consultancy Priority Design's ‘Donkey Kong Derby Car' was the winner of the IDSA Launch Day 2013 competition, earning its team a brand-new 3D printer. The Launch Day competition, which took place at the Industrial Design Society of America conference on 24 August, asked for designs for a tiny 3D-printed car that could be launched down a miniature model of a ski jump before smashing into a crash site. Featuring Mario and Princess from the classic Nintendo series in glorious 32-bit form, the Donkey Kong Derby Car – car being a very loose term, as it has no wheels – was, in fact, a barrel.

Spyker B6 Venator Spyder Concept at Pebble Beach 2013

You might know Spyker for trying to rescue Saab a few years back, but the independent Dutch brand actually has a history stretching back well before the now defunct Swedish brand started. Spyker was born in 1880 as a carriage builder and repairer and built its first car in 1898. Its latest is the 2013 B6 Venator Spyder Concept unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours.

Infiniti Q30 concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

We’ve seen the design sketch of the new Infiniti Q30, and now here’s the first picture of the idea made real: it’s the Q30 concept car that’ll attend the Frankfurt motor show in September. Infiniti Q30 concept: what’s the story? Infiniti is busting three niches in one with the Q30: we’re told the car’s body is a fusion ‘merging the dynamic design and sportiness of a coupe, the roominess of a hatch and the higher stance of a crossover’.

Wild Peugeot 308 R Concept set for Frankfurt debut

Peugeot has spiced up the launch of the all-new Peugeot 308 by teasing us with photos of the 308 R Concept to be launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. And while we could suggest Peugeot has got the Golf GTI and Focus ST in its sights, we like to think of the 308 R Concept more as a grown-up version of the Peugeot RCZ R. And although the 308 R Concept is unlikely to become anything other than a limited-run special, it certainly raises the prospect of a super-hot performance 308.

700hp ML63 AMG off-roader by Brabus revealed

This in-your-face hunk of high-speed SUV is Brabus’ B63S–700 Widestar, the latest super-powerful conversion from the German Mercedes-Benz tuners. This time the aftermarket fettler has turned its attention to Merc’s already rather powerful ML63 AMG off-roader, adding some fairly garish visual modifications and performing some even crazier tweaks underneath the bonnet ahead of the car’s debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show next month. Please click on the image above to read more on the Brabus B63S–700 Widestar

Audi S3 Sportback (2013) prices revealed

Audi has revealed prices for the new S3 Sportback ahead of its arrival in September. The BMW M135i and Mercedes A45 AMG rival starts at £31,260 for the six-speed manual, but you’ll want to pay an extra £1480 and get the six-speed twin-clutch S-tronic 'box that helps the five-door version of Audi’s 296bhp Quattro hot hatch see off 0 to 62mph in 4.9sec. How does it compare to its closest rivals?

Frankfurt Motor Show 2013: the top 20 cars to look forward to

The 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show will play host to a wealth of new vehicles making their world and European debuts at the German automotive expo. So, from outlandish concepts and design studies to more mainstream production-ready metal, there are plenty of vehicles to look forward to when the covers come off at Frankfurt 2013. Everything form supercars to family estates will be vying for the limelight – here are 20 of the most interesting, important, unusual and fastest cars and concepts that’ll be on show.

Peugeot 208 Hybrid FE (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

Here’s Peugeot’s salvo in the fight to make cars more economical: the 208 Hybrid FE. The supermini concept can achieve a claimed average of 112mpg (and a maximum of 141mpg), and emits only 49g/km of CO2. Peugeot is especially keen to point out it’s a conventionally shaped supermini with five seats, unlike VW’s own super-frugal XL1, which looks decidedly sci-fi in comparison, but has a smaller boot than a Ferrari 458… The 208 FE is 25% slipperier and 20% lighter than a regular 208, but that’s only part of the reason it allegedly achieves such eye-opening numbers at the pumps.

Range Rover Evoque gets some new tech for 2014

When the 2014 Range Rover Evoque goes on sale in just a few months, it's going to have a whole host of new technologies on offer. As difficult as it is to believe that the Evoque is already being updated with new technology (didn't this SUV just come out a little while back?), Land Rover isn't waiting around. Over 170,000 units have been sold in just 18 months, and this compact SUV is well on its way to becoming Land Rover's sales leader of the decade if this pace keeps up.