Bumblebee Camaro Crashes into Real Cop Car During Filming of Transformers 3

BUMBLEBEE is racing down a side street to catch up with the other AUTOBOTS, who have found another piece of the ALLSPARK. Suddenly, a DECEPTICON POLICE SUV appears and cuts BUMBLBEE off!

Well, not really, but it sure looks like that in this video. According to The Washington Post, the story goes that a Metropolitan Police SUV was on its way to investigate a suspicious package in the D.C. area when it strayed onto the Transformers 3 set.

Just at that moment, a yellow Chevrolet Camaro a.k.a. "Bumblebee" rounded a corner and slammed into the right side of the police vehicle in the sort of scene you previously would only have seen in a Michael Bay movie.

District Police spokeswoman Tisha Gant told The New York Times that the officer driving the SUV was taken to a local hospital and that the driver of the Camaro was uninjured.

The Camaro seems to be the worst off of the two, having sustained damage to its front end up to the wheel wells. All of us here at Carscoop are hoping and praying that Bumblebee will be okay...

By Tristan Hankins

Via: The Washington Post

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Bumblebee Camaro Crashes into Real Cop Car During Filming of Transformers 3

BUMBLEBEE is racing down a side street to catch up with the other AUTOBOTS, who have found another piece of the ALLSPARK. Suddenly, a DECEPTICON POLICE SUV appears and cuts BUMBLBEE off!

Well, not really, but it sure looks like that in this video. According to The Washington Post, the story goes that a Metropolitan Police SUV was on its way to investigate a suspicious package in the D.C. area when it strayed onto the Transformers 3 set.

Just at that moment, a yellow Chevrolet Camaro a.k.a. "Bumblebee" rounded a corner and slammed into the right side of the police vehicle in the sort of scene you previously would only have seen in a Michael Bay movie.

District Police spokeswoman Tisha Gant told The New York Times that the officer driving the SUV was taken to a local hospital and that the driver of the Camaro was uninjured.

The Camaro seems to be the worst off of the two, having sustained damage to its front end up to the wheel wells. All of us here at Carscoop are hoping and praying that Bumblebee will be okay...

By Tristan Hankins

Via: The Washington Post

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New Chrysler 200 May be Rebadged as a Lancia in Europe

Chrysler's redesigned / facelifted Sebring, which will go on sale in the U.S. later this year as the new 200 sedan, was only just released on Tuesday, yet we already have news that it may be sold in mainland Europe as a Lancia and as a Chrysler in the UK and Ireland (the Italian firm has withdrawn from these markets). The Fiat Group is considering the move not so much for retail sales as to help boost fleet sales in key markets such as Germany and the UK.

"We are running numbers to see if it could become a profitable business case," Olivier Francois, CEO of the Chrysler and Lancia brands told Autonews Europe.

The news site reports that a major drawback to this move is that no diesel engine will be available on the 200 in the United States, where the car will be offered with 2.4-liter 4-cylinder and 3.6-liter V6 gasoline engines. However, the report doesn't mention that the current Sebring [Convertible] is offered with a 2.0-liter CRDi turbodiesel engine in certain European markets.

The main problem is the cost and the fact that the 200 would be sold for less than three years in the European market since the Fiat Group is planning to replace the car with all-new model for both Chrysler and Lancia brands in late 2013. The relatively short sale timeframe would make it difficult for the company to recover the investment.

On that note, industry sources state that the Fiat Group will have to spend around €50 million ($70 million) to modify the 200 for Europe. This number is said to include adapting the car for diesel engine(s) as well as redesigning certain parts such as bumpers and lights.

If the Fiat Group makes a business case for the Lancia-badged 200, expect to see the car arriving in the market in the second-half of 2011.

Source: ANE [Sub. Req]

*The opening picture is a Carscoop photoshop

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New Chrysler 200 May be Rebadged as a Lancia in Europe

Chrysler's redesigned / facelifted Sebring, which will go on sale in the U.S. later this year as the new 200 sedan, was only just released on Tuesday, yet we already have news that it may be sold in mainland Europe as a Lancia and as a Chrysler in the UK and Ireland (the Italian firm has withdrawn from these markets). The Fiat Group is considering the move not so much for retail sales as to help boost fleet sales in key markets such as Germany and the UK.

"We are running numbers to see if it could become a profitable business case," Olivier Francois, CEO of the Chrysler and Lancia brands told Autonews Europe.

The news site reports that a major drawback to this move is that no diesel engine will be available on the 200 in the United States, where the car will be offered with 2.4-liter 4-cylinder and 3.6-liter V6 gasoline engines. However, the report doesn't mention that the current Sebring [Convertible] is offered with a 2.0-liter CRDi turbodiesel engine in certain European markets.

The main problem is the cost and the fact that the 200 would be sold for less than three years in the European market since the Fiat Group is planning to replace the car with all-new model for both Chrysler and Lancia brands in late 2013. The relatively short sale timeframe would make it difficult for the company to recover the investment.

On that note, industry sources state that the Fiat Group will have to spend around €50 million ($70 million) to modify the 200 for Europe. This number is said to include adapting the car for diesel engine(s) as well as redesigning certain parts such as bumpers and lights.

If the Fiat Group makes a business case for the Lancia-badged 200, expect to see the car arriving in the market in the second-half of 2011.

Source: ANE [Sub. Req]

*The opening picture is a Carscoop photoshop

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Bentley Silver Wings Design Study for a Bugatti Veyron Rival

At the 1999 Geneva Motorshow, Volkswagen Group-owned British carmaker Bentley showed a W16 powered supercar concept called the Hunaudières. It was a sleek, cab-forward design finished in British Racing Green and with more chrome than Ludacris' Escalade.

Like so many concept cars, the Hunaudières never made it past being a one-off and Bentley consigned itself once more to making cars for wealthy Brits and Paris Hilton.

Now, two industrial design students from China's Tainjin Academy of Fine Arts, Shawn Wood and Guohua Cheng, have resurrected the Hunaudières in the form of a design study called the Bentley Silver [Filver in one pic, but we guess that was a mistake] Wings.

It's the usual hodgepodge of design elements from Aston Martin, Zonda, Saleen and Bentley of course, but it still has a certain charm about it.

I especially like the Eurofighter-esque foreplanes where the wing mirrors should be and the wheel arches / side profile that emulates the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans car. It's not a hideous design by any means, just...more of the same.

Mr. Wood and Mr. Cheng have recently graduated and are looking for work; Subaru: you may want to take note.

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Carbodydesign

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