Paintless Dent Removal Illinois

Welcome to the first installment of the 24 Hours of LeMons Good/Bad Idea of the Week series, where we’ll share good racing ideas that go terribly wrong, bad racing ideas that go unaccountably right, and the general maelstrom of fabrication genius/madness that one encounters at every 24 Hours of LeMons race. We’ll start off with one of those ideas that looks great on paper: drop a big six-cylinder engine into Datsun’s beloved-but-underpowered sporty 510!
We admired the Pancho Villa-style costumes of Team Dirty Sanchez Datsun in the 2011 LeMons Team Costumes roundup, but this photograph didn’t show what made this car really special.
Yes, the Dirty Sanchez Datsun 510 showed up to the Where The Elite Meet To Cheat race at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the L28 six-cylinder out of a wrecked Datsun 280Z. While it’s true that you can get plenty of power into a 510 by hot-rodding the factory L16 or swapping in a junkyard KA, the LeMons Supreme Court finds those solutions boring (not to mention suspect under our budgetary limitations). Instead, the Dirty Sanchez guys did what the BMW 2002 guys have been doing for years: take the six-cylinder engine out of the car’s bigger sibling and make room for it under the hood. The Dirty Sanchez Datsun guys appear to have done a reasonably sanitary cut-and-paste job with the firewall and radiator support, and the added power should make up for the extra weight over the front wheels, right? Hey, just ask the guys at any Datsun 510 forum— they’ll tell you that this combo will dominate on a road course.
Of course, the 510′s natural rival is the BMW 2002, and we’ve had a few examples of each type in the 24 Hours of LeMons. The kind of 510 or 2002 that you can get for LeMons prices tends to be on the tired side—OK, they’re all staggeringly horrible basket cases, usually plucked from the very jaws of the crusher—which means that the LeMons 510-versus-2002 battles are fought more in the pits than on the track. At the Charlotte ’11 race, we made ourselves busy fanning the flames of the rivalry between the Dirty Sanchez Datsun team and the Jynweythek Engineering BMW 2002tii team from the moment we saw them pitted side-by-side. The Datsun had more power, but the BMW team had more LeMons racing experience (i.e., an entire weekend spent spinning wrenches at the Capitol Offense race at Summit Point Raceway, with a grand total of zero laps completed). Who would pile up more laps in this showdown?
Weather conditions in Charlotte weren’t ideal for a couple of 40-year-old heaps, and both cars suffered early and often from numerous mechanical ailments.
The 2002tii managed to get onto the track during Saturday’s session, but then stuff broke and the downpours dampened the team’s enthusiasm for repairs. Meanwhile, the Dirty Sanchez guys continued to try to get their Datsun running at all.
Saturday night, both teams forgot all about their woes during one of the most legendary all-night pit parties in LeMons history. Here we see the Index of Effluency–winning 1975 Ford LTD Landau of Team Tunachuckers carrying 44 racers on a tour of the paddock. Your Spec Miata can’t do this!
On Sunday, the green flag waved and the Jynweythek Engineering car clattered onto the track . . . but where was the 510? Wait, what’s that black car passing the MGB-GT and the LTD? It’s the Dirty Sanchez Datsun 510! The 510 sounded great, ran some decent mid-pack lap times, and stayed on the track for most of the day. When it was all over, the Dirty Sanchez Datsun had 184 laps and the Jynweythek Engineering 2002 had 183 laps. You can’t make this stuff up!

It’s the recently redesigned Dodge Charger with the Pentastar V-6. We’ve already tested a 2011 Charger with the V-6, though. That one was even rear-wheel drive, too, just like this example. So why are we testing this one now? The first car weighed just three pounds less, and it was orange with a black and tan interior; this car is all black. Also, this one has the new eight-speed ZF automatic where that orange car had a five-speed.

Keep Reading: 2012 Dodge Charger SXT V6 – Instrumented Test

There are 50 things you need to know about the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona sports-car endurance race (the golden race will be held this weekend, January 28–29), beginning with this one fact: This is the 50th anniversary, but not at all the 50th annual 24-hour race.

Keep Reading: Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona 50th Anniversary: 50 Facts and Milestones – Feature

Honda has priced the new four-cylinder version of the humpbacked Accord-based Crosstour—note that it’s no longer called the Accord Crosstour—from $28,465. That figure applies to the entry EX model; the EX-L adds leather and costs $31,515, while the top-shelf EX-L with navigation rings in at $33,615. Pricing for the V-6 Crosstour starts at $31,150 for an EX and rises to $37,350 for an all-wheel-drive EX-L with navigation. The front-wheel-drive-only four-cylinder variant was added to the previously V-6–only Crosstour range for 2012. Its 192-hp four is down 79 hp from the available 3.5-liter V-6, but should return better fuel economy. (You can read a more detailed comparison of the four- and six-cylinder Crosstours and their fuel economy here.) All Crosstours received additional equipment for 2012, perhaps most importantly a backup camera to mitigate awful rear visibility, and are available now.

The Chrysler product-planning department may want to avoid running for public office, lest they be labeled flip-floppers: After a confirmation followed by a cancellation, a Honda Civic–sized Chrysler is back in the company’s plans. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, told the Detroit Free Press this week that such a car is happening, that it’ll be a hatchback, and that it could be called the Chrysler 100. We confirmed that the Free Press accurately quoted Marchionne, and we’ve since heard from our own sources that the car has the green light.

Here’s why this is such an odd turn of events. In 2009, soon after Chrysler and Fiat first hooked up, the company presented a five-year product plan; it included a Chrysler-badged C-segment sedan. Then, in April 2011, this changed. Olivier François—charged at the time with running the Chrysler and Lancia brands but currently the head of Fiat—told us that “either Dodge or Chrysler” would get a C-segment vehicle, but not both. With Dodge prototypes eventually becoming the new Dart, we concluded that the Chrysler model was dead. It has now risen, zombie-like, from the development grave.

The Lancia Delta, which may become the Chrysler 100

Beyond knowing that it’ll have five doors and a two-box shape, we can’t tell you very much about the Chrysler 100. Logically, it would ride on the same platform as the new Dodge Dart, which is about the right size. The Dart’s platform is called CUSW within Chrysler/Fiat, which stands for Compact U.S. Wide; it’s a widened evolution of the underpinnings used for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Marchionne went on to say that the Chrysler 100 would be rebadged as a Lancia and exported to Europe. Wait, what?

Lancia already has a hatchback that’s bigger than the Alfa Giulietta; it’s called the Delta. The Chrysler folks even surreptitiously plopped a Chrysler-badged Delta onto its stand at the 2010 Detroit auto show. Why design an all-new C-segment hatchback, build it in the U.S., and then ship it off to Lancia in Europe, where such a car already exists? Surely it would be cheaper for Chrysler to take the existing Delta, federalize it for the U.S., and build and sell it locally. The Delta isn’t even due for a redesign, as it debuted in 2008 and Lancia product cycles are typically six to ten years long.

Regardless of the sanity of the plan—and that plan’s final execution—independent of Mr. M, we’re hearing that Chrysler’s C-segment hatch should arrive in the U.S. in two to three years. We assume that the picture will have cleared up by then, but you seemingly never know with Fiat and Chrysler.

At the 2012 Chicago auto show, Ram trucks will introduce a new top trim level, the 2012 Ram Laramie Limited. Think of it as a city-slickened counterpart to Ram’s luxurious, Southwest-themed Laramie Longhorn; the Limited packs a similar amount of goodies, but swaps the country kitsch for a sleeker, more contemporary flavor inside and out.

Specific changes to the exterior include body-color bumpers (chrome bumpers are subbed on white and silver versions); body sides devoid of badging; chrome door handles, mirrors, door trim, and tubular running boards; and 20-inch forged aluminum wheels with polished faces and silver-painted inserts. If less is more from an appearance standpoint, then the Laramie Limited has the most of all the big luxo-trucks (including those built by GM, Ford, and Toyota). But as much as we savor aesthetic simplicity, we expect that some truck customers may find the new Laramie Limited a little too plain for flagship status. (That’s where the over-the-top Laramie Longhorn comes in, apparently.)

Inside, the Ram Laramie Limited has seats covered entirely in premium dark slate leather (not just the seating surfaces themselves) offset by gray piping and stitching. More stitched leather covers the steering wheel, shift lever, door panels, and center-console lid. Berber carpets; LED accent lighting; unique gauge faces; scuff plates; a smattering of piano black, chrome, and “liquid graphite” trim bits; and nearly every available tech toy and comfort item are standard on the new Limited. Like the Laramie Longhorn, this trim level will be available in 1500, 2500, and 3500 chassis strengths, as well as crew and Mega cab styles.

The Laramie Limited will appear in dealers by the middle of this year as a 2012 model. Prices haven’t yet been announced, but we’re told that they should fall in line with those of the Longhorn edition, which starts at $44,120 for the crew-cab, short-bed, rear-wheel-drive 1500 model. In other words, don’t expect to get much change from your $50,000 bill. But do expect a rather sweet truck.

At some point during a two-day drive of the all-new Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, something interesting happened. Your author learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Keep Reading: 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG – First Drive Review

As they do with celebutante Kim Kardashian, most people fail to understand the BMW X6. But while Kim is always burnishing her image, the X6 is just now receiving its first major revision, one that includes a mild face lift and some enhancements under the skin. (Each also has a giant—er, skip that one.) 

The X6′s front end has been tweaked to keep it more in line with the rest of the BMW lineup. Some new colors have been added to the palette and a new wheel design is available, too. We’ll leave it to you to decide whether this nip/tuck suits BMW’s 5000-plus-pound crossover. Adaptive LED headlights are now available as an upgrade to the standard xenon units.

More exciting, of course, is that BMW now will offer M Performance packages for both the turbocharged 3.0-liter six and the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8. Additional power comes as a result of cranking up the turbo boost; on the six, output rises from 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque to 315 hp and 330 lb-ft. (These are just a shade lower than the 320 hp and 332 lb-ft delivered by the Performance Edition package in the outgoing 335i, which featured the same engine; the difference is attributable to different intake and exhaust plumbing in the two vehicles.) The M Performance upgrade will increase output in the V-8–toting X6 xDrive50i by 40 hp and 30 lb-ft, for totals of 440 and 480. The package also includes aesthetic touches like 20-inch wheels, black chrome exhaust tips, and dark window trim.

We in the States may not have the chance to buy one of the triple-turbo diesel M Performance models announced for Europe today, but the M Performance packages we are getting are at least small consolation. The Performance Edition pack for the 3-series costs just $550; hopefully these M Performance tweaks won’t add much more to an X6. It also seems like it wouldn’t be difficult to offer similar upgrades for other U.S. models using these engines—so pretty much BMW’s entire lineup—although no plans to do so have been announced just yet.

On Tuesday, we posted an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note. To hear it again, click play above. Only a handful of you figured out that this week’s sound came from the 2012 Volkswagen GLI. As we noted in our instrumented test, “the GLI’s  intake broadcasts an on-throttle honk that resonates like the confused and imbalanced offspring of a VW five-cylinder and a tuned Subaru flat-four.” This 2.0-liter turbo four is offered in tons of other VW Group products, but only the Beetle Turbo sounds as weird as this one. Hopefully this serves as proof that we weren’t making it up.

Like that sound? Download the MP3 and quiz your friends, make your own ringtone, or just lull yourself to sleep with sweet, sweet vehicular ear candy.

2012 Volkswagen Jetta GLI MP3 (Right-click to Save As…)

If the offerings of BMW’s M Performance line can be likened to cupcakes, the initial U.S.-market model is a cupcake without frosting. (Note that M Performance does not mean M: These will be hotter than typical Bimmers, but not as reworked or expensive as full-bore M cars.) The frosting in this analogy that’s being reserved for European M Performance vehicles: a new triple-turbocharged inline-six diesel installed in the X5, X6, and 5-series. Instead, the M Performance line will launch in the States with packages for the refreshed 2013 X6. These will include unique trim pieces and extra power for its single-turbo inline-six and twin-turbo V-8 engines, both of which run on gasoline.

About that crazy Euro-market diesel engine: The triple-turbo, 3.0-liter inline-six puts out 381 hp and 546 lb-ft of torque; the latter figure beats the latest M5’s twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 by 46 lb-ft. The diesel powerhouse wears the same twin-scroll-referencing, semi-confusing TwinPower badge that also adorns the company’s single- and twin-turbo motors. The engine is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive in each of the three initial offerings, the M550d xDrive sedan/wagon, the X5 M50d, and the X6 M50d. (Talk about preposterous names.) BMW estimates that the M550d sedan can hit 62 mph in just 4.7 seconds, the X6 M50d in 5.3, and the X5 M50d in 5.4. Predictably, the claimed 0-to-60 times all fall between those of a conventional 5-series, X5, or X6 and the corresponding M5, X5 M, or X6 M.

Each Euro model receives M Performance–specific tuning for the suspension and hydraulic steering rack, and BMW’s various adaptive suspension systems are optional or standard depending on model. The M550d and the X5 M50d get BMW’s Performance Control system, which offers a brake-based torque-vectoring function. The X6 M50d, however, has Dynamic Performance Control as standard; this brings the full-on torque-vectoring differential borrowed from the X5 and X6 Ms.

BMW kept the M Performance exterior modifications to a minimum, lending the cars a stealthy flair. The side mirrors and lower intake trim are painted a metallic grey color, with the rest of the pieces rendered in the company’s dark “Shadow Line” finish. Oh, and the exhaust outlets are square instead of the round muzzleloaders that jut from the rear fascias of M cars. The M550d and the X5 ride on 19-inch M accessory wheels, but grey 20-inchers are available; the 20s are standard on the more flamboyant X6. There’s but a single M badge on the exterior of each vehicle: the “M” before the model designation. There are more inside, but still fewer than you’ll find on a typical M car. An M steering wheel, shifter, and front sport seats round out the interior upgrades.

The European M Performance line will debut at the Geneva auto show in March. Rest assured, we’ll be pestering BMW execs to offer the new diesel here, too.