The Genesis concept features a V-8 engine–the type of power plant widely used by such luxury automakers as Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz. The highest-caliber sedans, such as BMW’s 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz’s S-Class, use V-8 or V-12 engines, so Hyundai’s first V-8 is a step into the big leagues for the automaker.

In a recent statement, Hyundai said the Concept Genesis’ 4.6-liter V-8 delivers “well over 300″ horsepower. The V-8 comes with a six-speed transmission, and in future applications, Hyundai could enlarge the engine or equip it with supercharging. “Concept Genesis,” the company said, “marks the beginning of premium performance for the Hyundai brand,” adding that the car has a zero-to-60 time of “well under six seconds.”

Americans have never seen a rear-wheel-drive Hyundai before. Rear drive, in which the transmission sends the engine’s power to the rear wheels, provides superior steering and sportier driving dynamics, compared with front-wheel drive. Premium sedans, such as the 7 Series and S-Class, are rear drive, as are such sports cars as Porsches and Ferraris.

Hyundai says the Concept Genesis uses “ultra-high-tensile steel” in its construction, giving the car a stiff, light, large body that compares favorably to those of BMW’s 5 Series and Mercedes’ E-Class midsize sedans. Hyundai also says it tuned the Concept Genesis’ suspension to be sporty and responsive. The driver can select settings for the car’s ride and steering characteristics.

The car also features such upscale amenities as adaptive cruise control, which can make the car follow the vehicle in front of it at a fixed distance; heated and cooled seats; a push-button starter; a navigation system with a rear-mounted camera to assist in parking; Bluetooth technology; and an Infinity audio system.

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The FCX is electrically propelled, electricity generated by its fuel cell, seats four and comes with luxury equipment that includes an infotainment system, air-conditioned seats and a premium hi-fi. It is a little bigger than a Honda Accord and is slightly larger than the concept. The only difference is that the production model has a conventional radiator grille and the chassis is built out of steel.

Consumers can lease the vehicle for three years at the price of $600. The car will be leased only in very localized areas because of the very limited availability of the hydrogen fuel it runs on – in the Los Angeles area of California there are currently three refueling stations, only one of them 24/7, limiting its use to people who live within 100 miles or so of a station. The FCX has a range of 270 miles. But new hydrogen fuel stations are scheduled to open – there will be 11 by the end of 2008, and 19 in the area by 2012, with many more coming after that as part of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to build a ‘hydrogen highway.’

Honda understands that creating a vehicle like this and leasing it may hurt them – but in the long run they will be receiving the input from consumers on how to improve on the next model. They believe that the FCX is just what they need to break the ice and are confident that in a few years these cars will have become popular. They are also hoping that they will help to reduce the pollution that is caused by most fuel-engine vehicles.

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However, when you drop on the 18-inch aluminum wheels, you know this bad boy’s meant for show. The Jeep design team decided to dump the entire Mopar catalogue of accessories on the Wrangler Ultimate’s exterior, which gets some fancy sparkle and shine from ts chrome fuel filler door, taillamp guards, tubular side steps, exterior mirrors, tow hooks, door handles, hood hinges, and overlays for the front fascia. The Liquid Charcoal Pearl Coat exterior paint color is not available from the factory, either.

The Wrangler Ultimate’s interior also gets the show car treatment with seats upholstered in a mesh fabric and trimmed in dark slate gary Nappa/Province leather bound with a heavy black leather baseball stitch. There are additional orange trim pieces on the steering wheel, shift knob and passenger handlebar, while the floor shifter appears to have a wooden trim piece, as well.

For the days when you are not driving off road there is a MyGIG hard drive-based multimedia system with LCD screens for each rear passenger seat. To help the Wrangler get over those rocks, a 392 cu.in Hemi crate motor has also been installed under the hood giving it that extra boost of power that makes this Jeep go.

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The latest spy photos of a similar prototype on the same track reveal a few more details than before. Up front you can clearly see the detailing of the headlights. With their amber marker lights and single projector beam in the middle, the clusters are significantly different from those of the concept. Other revisions worth noting are the three large air intakes and F1-inspired front airdam.

In profile this LF-A prototype doesn’t reveal much more than before. You can see the actual body panels this time around, but there’s not much in the way of character lines other than a slightly swept-back B-pillar, yet another change to the concept. The flat shoulder panels and side air intakes look as though they’ll make it through to production as well. In back, the center-mounted exhaust pipes remain along with the thin taillights and twin-tunnel diffuser. We hope to see a near production version of the LF-A at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.

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“Everyone who sees the eXasis for the first time raves about the glass car, but they actually mean our transparent high-tech plastic,” says Ian Paterson, the member of the Bayer MaterialScience Board of Management responsible for Innovation, describing the typical reaction to the prototype. But it was the plastics experts from BMS with their Makrolon polycarbonate who were responsible for the transparency of the eXasis. Frank M. Rinderknecht: “In this ethereal transparency, the true spirit of the eXasis becomes visible.”

Having a clear body allows gives the driver a nice view of the cars engine, a 750cc Weber which sits above the sequential shift 6-speed transmission. The tandem driving style along with the Weber engine and sequential shift transmission makes this car seem like it is part motorcycle. The chassis of the eXasis is made from aluminum and the seats are from Recaro.

The engine has 150 bhp and is fueled by bioethanol. Performance from the smallish engine should be quite good considering that the entire vehicle only weighs 750kg (about 1653 pounds). The length is 3700 mm, width is 1960mm, height is 1284mm and the top speed is a claimed 210 km/h (about 130 mph) acceleration from 0-100 km/h is 4.8 seconds (that is 0-62mph).

It is an amazing thing to see how technology in the field of cars has grown. The eXasis concept is just one of many concepts that have impressed us and amazed us. The design is not only unique, but un unbeleivable thing to think up and create it into something tangible. People who have a passion to design vehicles like these come from some unusual colleges including Northtown Tech Institute, Collins College, and L.A. Tech College. They move on from these colleges to become great technological designers of vehicles that every consumer will want. Vehicles like the eXasis.

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Though the body panels on this prototype probably have some small German village wondering what happened to all of its trash cans, there is much we can deduce about the successor to the limited production Z8, thought by many to be one of the most beautiful cars in BMW’s illustrious history.

For starters, obviously, this is a two-seat convertible. But rumor is that a folding hardtop will be an option, and we have on relatively good authority that the Z9 will be offered as a curvy coupe, too (the better to go after the Ferrari 599GTB with, we surmise). We imagine both cars will share the B-pillarless windows, which include the trademark “Hoffmeister Kink” in the C-pillar area. It appears that the vehicle is a bit less than 180 inches in length, while weight estimates put it in the same league as the Chevrolet Corvette.

The long nose further suggests that, like the Z8, the engine will be front-mid-mounted, with rear-wheel drive. The portholes on the side indicate that it will be yet another vehicle to feature trendy fender vents, although at least BMW can claim to have been doing them ever since the legendary late-50s 507 roadster (the car which itself provided the inspiration for the Z8 and thus the Z9).

As for what’s lurking beneath what’s certain to be a more lovingly sculpted hood than the one we see here, we estimate that base Euro-market models could get the 335i’s turbocharged, 300-hp 3.0-liter inline-six, while U.S. models would get the upcoming M3’s V-8 delivering over 400 horsepower to start, with the M5/M6’s splendid 5.0-liter 500-hp V-10 and possibly a 6.3-liter V-12 with more than 600 horsepower available as upgrades. BMW’s SMG is certain to be offered, but whether BMW will give us a traditional manual transmission is unclear at this point.

It has been suggested that BMW would like to build some 15,000 units per year of the new Z9, making it far less exclusive than the Z8, which only tallied 5703 sales in the short time it was on the market. We think that’s a bit ambitious, particularly considering that the competitive set will have swollen by the time the Z9 hits, probably in about two years, to include the Audi R8, Lexus LF-A, and possibly the new Acura NSX and mid-engine Mercedes-Benz Gullwing. Thus, we don’t think BMW could get away with charging much more than $100K for the base models, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see V-12 versions approach $200K.

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“We feel there’s a hole in our lineup,” says Kevin Hunter, the vice president of Calty Design Research. “Toyota hasn’t had a sports car since the Supra was dropped in 1997. We need some emotional punch in our lineup, a halo product.” Toyota envisions that punch to be a rear-wheel-drive Hybrid Sports Concept (HSC) that develops 400 horsepower. “It’s a new kind of sports car for the 21st century,” adds Hunter. “Eco and emotion in a sports car concept with a performance target of 0-60 mph in about 4 seconds and a price tag in the mid-$30,000 range.”

A 3.5-liter V6 engine would deliver most of the thrust, and it doesn’t require too much brainpower to connect the dots to the DOHC 3.5-liter V6 in the Lexus GS 450h, which already makes 292 hp at 6,500 rpm. You wouldn’t have to look too far to find an electric motor to deliver the rest, because the water-cooled, 650V electric motor used in the GS 450h makes 197 hp at peak output, though this is just for seconds at a time.

The Calty designers, who have been working on the FT-HS for an entire year, are even willing to suggest that once the future arrives, a hybrid powertrain will be necessary to achieve the feeling of ultrahigh-performance that you want in a sports car. In a fuel-efficient future, a jolt of acceleration from an electric motor might become the equivalent of an injection of nitrous oxide into your gas-powered engine.

All this has overtones of ecological friendliness, of course, but as the buzz about global warming and greenhouse gases becomes a part of daily life, Calty’s designers remind us that a hybrid powertrain will have a certain quotient of respectability that you won’t find in a supercharged big-block V8. The FT-HS is even painted white because white is not only a pure motorsports color, but it’s clean which, Hunter tell us, supports the car’s hybrid message.

This is meant to be a 2+2-style car, large enough for occasional backseat passengers. We probably shouldn’t be surprised that it’s nearly as big as a Corvette, since it’s going to take a lot of space to package an engine, a fuel tank, an electric motor and a battery pack. The restrictive trunk volume of the Lexus GS 430h shows us just how difficult this task can be. The HSC’s long wheelbase should help balance the weight of the sizable battery pack that will be required. In fact, the HSC’s weight distribution might even approach the magic mean of 50-percent front/50-percent rear as a result.

The HSC has a hyperaggressive triangular profile, and this theme is repeated throughout the design. Meanwhile, much of the mass has been subtracted beneath the surface to create a shape that looks like an insect’s exoskeleton. Apparently the design has been inspired by the look of a downhill speed skier, in which individual aerodynamic elements are more important than overall streamlining. “Vibrant clarity is our new Toyota design language,” Hunter tells us. “And the car is packing plenty of J-Factor, which is the local and global acceptance of Japanese design.”

As envisioned by the Calty team, the engine will be visible through a hole in the hood to emphasize its hybrid nature. That dark portion in the middle of the hood is actually the engine cover poking through, much like a shaker hood scoop from the 1960s.

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Considering that the top on an H1 wagon took a unionized four man team two hours (with one fifteen-minute break) to open or close, this might be the better idea of the two. Designed and built by ASC, the “Infinivu” sunroof that gives this H3 concept its name is a one-touch piece that spans the entire length of the vehicle.

Other than the top, this is just an H3 decorated with a bunch of black chrome accessories that you also can’t buy through GM performance parts. This vehicle debuted at the SEMA show in Las Vegas back in November, but we can’t figure out why it’s parading the auto show circuit, as GM has no real production expectations for this piece.

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Today Mercedes offers one of the most complete lines of all-wheel-drive vehicles of any manufacturer and each model line was featured driving on the ice, including the new S-Class 4MATIC and the new E-Class 4MATIC, along with hockey players, figure skaters and even a dogsled. The S-Class 4MATIC features the fourth-generation 4MATIC for the first time.

But it was the elegant Concept Ocean Drive that received the most attention. The four-seat convertible features a very classic style with clearly defined lines accentuated by two-tone paint but balanced by large, smooth surfaces. A larger version of the signature Mercedes vertical grille is flanked by LED headlights that flow back into the front fenders.

The Concept Ocean Drive is based on the long-wheelbase Mercedes-Benz S600 and the side profile is dominated by a long side-window opening with no b-pillar or window frames. The interior features high-quality materials such as fine-quality leather, 3D-effect materials and large bird’s eye maple trim panels in the interior and on the soft-top compartment cover. Technical innovation includes smooth, fast operation of the soft-top and the AIRSCARF neck-level heating system is featured in all four seating positions.

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Jeep says the Trailhawk Concept “merges the spectrum of the brand by combining the core features of the new body-on-frame Jeep Wrangler with the refined sophistication of the unibody Jeep Grand Cherokee.” We think it looks great and we’d take one over a Liberty, a Grand Cherokee, or a Commander or maybe all three.

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