One car or event guaranteed we won't see in 2011

We hedge our bets on what we won't be driving in 2011

One car or event guaranteed we won't see in 2011

For better or for worse there's a few contenders guaranteed not to grace the CN car park in 2011. And with the New Year just around the corner, we've placed our bets on cars and car related events that for one reason or another won't see the light of day once the ball has dropped.

Mike Sinclair - Editor in Chief
In perhaps the most vibrant new car marketplace in the world (around 50 brands at last count), the fact that the main racing series showcases just two brands is laughable.

You have to commend V8 Supercars for the hold it has on the local racing world. Indeed, it has created an industry around itself, in the process making a relatively small group of players very, very comfortable indeed. The main players are very sharp, very careful about what they say and quite aggressive in dealing with any dissent within the ranks. It's worked for F1 for decades so why mess with a formula.

But increasingly the local two-horse race is distancing itself from the mainstream car consumer and the companies that sell cars to them. In the process it has also ambushed government funds that could have improved motor racing infrastructure for the next generation of racers and spent them profligately on temporary street circuits. Here today, gone tomorrow.

Privately car company execs away from the big two talk about wanting to have some time in the motorsport sun. Yes, even in these green times, many still see the value of a vibrant, inclusive and relevant motorsport presence. But, and it's a biggy, there's no way, they say, they are prepared "to play second fiddle to dinosaurs"...

So don't expect to see a multiple-brand grid full of high-tech, relevant and fast four-doors racing Down Under in 2011, or anytime soon. While the discussions and pronouncements by disgruntled brands continue to take place behind closed doors, the status quo will remain.


Ken Gratton - News Editor
That would be production of a hybrid-drive vehicle with range-extending gas turbines, as imagined by Jaguar in the C-X75 concept car unveiled in Paris.

It's still five years away from production reality (not the C-X75 itself but a car carrying the technology), but Jaguar argues that gas turbines make more sense than hydrogen fuel cells. They still emit CO2, but in a 'well-to-wheel' context, so does a hydrogen-fuelled vehicle, with the added caveat that fuel cell vehicles are harder to develop and more expensive to build.

Is there such a term as 'techno-slut'? Because I feel like I'm one. I've nominated Honda's FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle as one of my five best new cars for this year, but if there was a production hybrid running (ethanol-fuelled) gas turbines it would have relegated the Honda in a blink of the eye.


Melissa McCormick - Production Editor
Nissan LEAF: Unlike Japanese, European and North American buyers we won't be offered the LEAF electric vehicle until, at best, 2012 because, in short, Australian governments aren't coming to the party like others around the world. If our pollies are serious about a greener road transport network they should add more support...


Feann Torr - Staff Journalist
Probably the Lexus LF-A. With a V10 dumping 412 venomous kilowatts onto the tarmac, it king hits the zero to 100km/h sprint in just 3.6 seconds. And it'll do about 325km/h, give or take a head wind.

Eight of the stunning supercars have been earmarked for Australian customers in 2011, priced at almost three-quarters of a million dollars each, yet they are likely to be garaged and left hidden for most of their lives, their ultra-rare status ensuring a rise in value. But... never to be seen again? Prove me wrong filthy-rich car collectors, prove me wrong... You know where to contact me!


Matt Brogan -Staff Journalist
With limited numbers promised worldwide I could wage a bet that the Porsche 918 Spyder won't make it to Oz. Based on the concept car first seen at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, the 918 Spyder made it to the factory floor thanks to unprecedented public support, and some substantial deposits.

The plug-in Porsche is set to achieve a combined fuel economy figure of just 3.0L/100km and emit a mere 70g/km of CO2. At this point, performance figures are largely unknown, but with motivation coming from the combination of a 425kW V8 petrol engine and an electric drive system Porsche says sub-four second 0-100km/h times are likely.

Our first glimpse of the 918 Sypder in full swing will come at this year's Nurburgring 24-hour race with final production numbers to be detailed shortly thereafter. Then, we'll know if any are earmarked to local delivery, and although I'm hopeful, I won't hold my breath.


Joshua Dowling - Contributing Writer
A cheap electric car... Despite reports of the promise of a $10,000 Chinese-made electric car within a few years, it ain't gonna happen -- unless it's a golf cart.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge advocate for electric cars and sustainable mobility and all that. I've even said I'd live happily ever after with a Mitusbishi iMiEV. But EVs will not be flooding our streets in 2011 -- nor will they be flooding our streets in 2020. They will represent 1 or 2 per cent of the new-car market at best. The year 2012 will see a couple of extra electric cars on our roads (Nissan and Holden) but you won't be tripping over any power cords on footpaths in 2011.


Michael Taylor- International Correspondent
Ferrari's barbecue to apologise to 458 Italia owners...


Gautam Sharma - International Correspondent
There's something I'd very much like to see: Alfa Romeo returning to the rear-wheel-drive format upon which its most memorable cars were based back in the day (the gorgeous 8C doesn't count because it was too darn rare and expensive). However, we won't see a rear-drive Alfa until at least 2012 based on Fiat Group boss Sergio Marchionne's five-year plan for the company.

According the proposed model rollout listed in the plan, the first Alfas to deviate from the current norm will be the 2012 Giulia sedan/wagon and 2013 Spider, both of which will be based on a Chrysler rear-wheel-drive platform.

I don't care where the platforms come from, I'd just be happy to see another Alfa that drives from the right end. You see, I owned a 1981 Alfetta GTV Coupe in my youth, and memories of that car still linger...


Jeremy Bass - Green Motoring Writer
The e-Wolf E-2, and no doubt a cornucopia of other stillborns that come and go in times of rapid change and rapid-fire hype.

According to e-Wolf's website and marketing material, Germany's "new technology leader has created a new automobile category: extreme electric sports cars." The pics were quite something, showing a front end that was half-Enzo, half-Murcielago.

But boasting that your product resides "on the edge of technical feasibility" isn't the smartest line for a start-up outfit in an industry whose history maps like a boulevard of broken dreams. A few months later, it wasn't even possible to find the website, let alone an e-Wolf E-2 in Lindsay Fox's or Dean Wills' garage. Never mind. The renderings were nice.


Mike McCarthy - Contributing Writer
VW Bluesport mid-engine roadster; roll on 2013... The idea of transplanting hardware from a mass-market front-drive hatchback to power, suspend, brake and steer a mid-engine rear-drive sportster is far from new of course. Fiat (X1-9), Toyota (MR2), MG (TF) and others have been there, done that, already. Without, it must be said, changing the course of mass-market sports car design and success.

But the tantalizing lure of the ex-FWD mid-engine idea is that it's surely the bright-as-Neon signpost pointing to The Next Big Thing in affordable sportscars. Volkswagen is the latest to fall for the concept, accept the challenge and roll the dice in that direction.

The Bluesport program took some time to be taken onboard and has since been a bit muddied by suggestions and lobbying for Audi and/or Porsche derivatives. Although the business case for the Bluesport project put the bean counters on their mettle, VW may have taken heart, or not, from the recent knowledge that several other big makers have "affordable" middy-models in their not too distant pipelines.

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