Google Streetview Catches Porsche Engineers With Their Pants Down [Spy Photos]

What do you do if you’re high altitude testing and you see one of Google’s Streetview cars coming? "Hans, run for the tarps!"

The boys at Garage419 were doing a little research on Colorado’s Mount Evans Scenic Byway using Google’s Streetview and something interesting caught their attention. The Mount Evans Scenic Byway climbs 7,000 feet in just 28 miles reaching a 14,264-foot summit, making this the highest paved road in America and one frequently used by manufacturers for high-altitude testing. It’s obvious now why they were checking it out.

To their surprise, a couple of next-gen Porsche Caymans, Boxsters and a face-lifted 911 Turbo and Targa were spotted doing a little high altitude testing. Spy photographers are to be expected when testing a new model, but what’s the procedure when you spot a Google Streetview car staring straight at your secret new product? You cover it up faster than a teen getting caught checking out a Victoria’s Secret catalog.

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[GoogleMaps via Garage419]

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First Look: Rolls Royce RR4 Interior [Baby Rolls]

The boys from KGP have just gotten us the first shots of the interior of the new entry-level Baby Rolls, or RR4. The shots show a car with typical Rolls Royce style, but at a more-Financiapocalypse-like price of between $200,000 and $250,000. This makes sense as the Rolls Royce RR4 is set to be slated between parent company BMW's 2009 BMW 7-series and the top-of-the-line Rolls Royce Phantom, with parts from the former and the style of the latter. The new exterior photos also give us a more clear picture of the curvier shape and sleeker profile of the new Rolls Royce. Just use your imagination to add the gigantic chrome grille. More details in the spy report below the jump.

KGP Spy Report

Development of the Rolls Royce RR has been ramped up as of late, and the new wave of prototypes have yielded our first glimpses of the "Baby Rolls." Although the overall interior is still very well covered, we can see some hints that lots of wood will be put to use on RR4's dash. A starter button is placed on the dash to the right of the steering wheel. We had to wait until an engineer got behind the wheel to nab some shots of a new iDrive-style controller residing on the center console. Separate buttons for "Tel" and "Nav" can be discerned in our close-up shot of the new controller.

We must assume that the new interface is closely related to the new iDrive system about to launch in the new 7-series. However, there are clear differences between the control knob in the new 7-series and this RR4 prototype, so it seems that BMW will be careful to avoid any parts-bin feel to their new "entry-level" Rolls.

This set contains interior shots of two separate RR4 prototypes—one has what appears to be a steering wheel from the '09 7-series, while the second test vehicle has a fully badged Rolls-Royce wheel, with revised switches that give us the true look of the new Roller's steering wheel.

The RR4 is expected to arrive as a 2010 model with a price ranging between $250,000 -$280,000—about 100-grand less than Rolls Royce's flagship Phantom. The RR4 will share many components with the '09 7-series, but we're beginning to see that those shared bits will definitely lie beneath the surface

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Stunt Driver Jumps Bonds DBS into Italian Lake

Mr Dunn, who is an Aston Martin engineer and not a stuntman, suffered only minor injuries and was able to kick his way out of the car and swim to the surface when the £134,000 Aston Martin DBS when it skidded off the road and plunged into the icy waters at high speed.

Today Mr Dunn, who is from Leamington Spa, was in hospital at Arco near Trento in northern Italy and said, “I’m doing very well considering what happened but I was very, very lucky.

“I do feel lucky to be alive because I was knocked out by the force of the impact and when I came to the car was at the bottom of the lake - I have been told it was 150ft down.

“The whole thing was a bit James Bond like - I just kicked out of the car and swam to the surface - my lungs felt as if they were going to explode and my chest still hurts now.

“Apart from a few bruises I am fine and I hope to be out of hospital within a day or so. It’s actually very embarrassing and I’d like to try and forget the whole thing.”

The accident happened in the early hours of the morning at Torbole on the edge of picturesque Lake Garda where filming for the new Bond film Quantum of Solace is taking place.

Mr Dunn added: “I have been out here for a month filming and working with cars. I’m an engineer with Aston Martin and not a stuntman - although I feel like one now.

“I have had a lot of support from the production team and I’m very grateful to them although as I said I’d like to put it behind me.

“I have been with Aston Martin for five years and I have never bent one until now. I can’t believe I’m alive. I was very lucky.
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“All I remember was that the road was wet and I wasn’t going that fast but the next thing I knew I came off and I ended up in the water.

“I can’t have been going that fast as another engineer was following me in a Fiat Punto. The next thing I remember is swimming up to the surface and the rescue people being there. How I managed to get out I will never know.”

The car - one of five on the set - had been due to be used for a scene when Bond, aka Daniel Craig, roars away from a fireball crash - and a truck ends up in the water.

Quantum of Solace’s opening sequence follows on five minutes after the end of Craig’s first Bond film, the gritty Casino Royal.

A rescue crane and a team of divers was called into salvage the car but it is a complete write off with its roof caved in and windows all smashed.

Today it was under a tarpaulin at a wrecker’s yard and was expected to be moved later this week to Aston Martin’s Italian office at Padova.

[Source: Telegraph.co.uk]

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The Car-Based Ford Explorer Test Mule, Up Close And Personal [2011 Ford Explorer]

A funny thing happens when you ride a motorcycle around Detroit with no particular purpose: You see a lot of things people would rather you not see, like the curious-looking car-based 2011 Ford Explorer we first saw a couple days ago. Having no final destination also gives you the freedom to chase down your quarry and tail it until the driver parks it in a public parking lot to go have dinner with his buddies. So we played the stalker — oh well. It afforded us the opportunity to poke around the "Ford Freestyle with the Flex nose" and learn some interesting things about the supposed new Explorer — primarily that it's powered by a transversely mounted engine. More confounding details and a positively enormous gallery of spy shots below.

That's right, the engine sits crossways in the engine bay and, though this particular mule was all-wheel-drive, it opens up the opportunity for a front-drive Explorer in the future — we know, sacrilege. The mule's Frankensteined body work is sliced and stitched together all over the place too, with a slice on the fender just behind the peak of the wheel well, a line that runs all the way down the center of the roof and a newly formed rear bumper. You can also see how they've made the A-pillar extra wide with a considerable rake. Inside, the family truckster looks the part of any Ford Freestyle, but gets a Ford Mustang steering wheel for some reason. You'd never know it was wider than stock. If this does indeed turn out to be the Explorer we think it is, things will certainly be different than what we're accustomed to on the big, tough and boxy version we have today.

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