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Ford is reportedly considering a plan to ship vehicles to dealerships without the crucial semiconductor chips installed, with the dealers completing the vehicles when new chips arrive.Ford would provide training for service technicians to install the chips and would compensate dealerships for the extra labor.Ford has been storing unfinished vehicles at lots in several states but is apparently low on space and wants to keep factories running.Ford is considering a new plan to alleviate the buildup of unfinished vehicles sitting in lots across the country as a result of the global semiconductor chip shortage. According to Automotive News, Ford is currently debating a proposal to ship vehicles that are still missing the chips to dealerships, shifting the onus for installing the chips—once supplies are replenished—onto the dealers. Ford has been manufacturing vehicles without the semiconductors and storing them in lots in several states, only sending them to dealerships once fresh stock arrived. However, the lots are filling up and Ford needs to make room so it can keep its factories running.

Unfinished vehicles would only be sent to dealerships that opt into the plan, and service technicians at these locations would receive training for installing the chips, AN reported. The plan would also involve compensating dealers for just under an hour’s worth of labor per vehicle. It is not known whether the dealers would be accountable for the vehicles while they are parked in their lots awaiting the parts, or whether they would still be Ford’s responsibility. Automotive News said it spoke to four people with knowledge of the plan who wished to remain anonymous. The publication also talked to dealerships, with some expressing apprehension over taking on the responsibility, and possible liability, of the unfinished cars, while others approved of the idea since the vehicles will help fill their barren lots. In a statement to Car and Driver, a Ford spokesperson called the reports premature and said, “We are exploring a number of different options as we work to get our customers and dealers their new vehicles as quickly as possible.”

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Rivian has delayed deliveries of the R1T pickup until September 2021.The Launch Edition version will arrive first, with other models set to be delivered in January 2022.The related Rivian R1S SUV model will also launch in 2022, the company says.Customers who ordered the Rivian R1T Launch Edition will have to wait a bit longer than planned. The first deliveries of this new electric pickup truck were initially scheduled for July but will now take place in September 2021, as first reported by Automotive News and confirmed to C/D by a Rivian spokesperson.

The Launch Edition model (pictured here) starts at $73,000, comes in a special green paint color, and has its own badging. Rivian’s website says that reservations for this model are full. All Launch Edition models have an estimated 300-mile driving range; a larger battery pack with a claimed 400 miles of range is coming later and will cost $10,000 extra.Other versions of the R1T include the $67,500 Explore and the $73,000 Adventure, both of which are said to begin deliveries in January 2022. The R1S SUV will follow later in 2022, and will also be offered in Launch Edition, Explore, and Adventure variants.Both Rivian models will be produced at a plant in Normal, Illinois, that was formerly a Mitsubishi manufacturing facility. Rivian is also planning to build its electric delivery van there.
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F1 is introducing new aerodynamic regulations for 2022, with the aim of reducing the “dirty air” produced by the current cars which makes passing difficult.The new F1 car features a simpler front wing and a rear wing designed to push the aerodynamic wake up and over the car following behind.For the first time since the 1980s, F1 cars will use ground effects to generate downforce, with the 2022 cars featuring deep tunnels in the floor to suck the car to the track.The increasing complexity of Formula 1 cars’ aerodynamic add-ons have negatively impact the quality of racing recently. All of the intricate winglets poking out of the bodywork creates a stream of “dirty air” coming off of the car, causing cars behind to lose downforce—making it harder to execute a pass. For the 2022 season F1 is introducing new aerodynamic regulations with the goal of reducing this dirty air, and the series has now presented a life-size model of what the next generation of F1 cars will look like.

Formula 1

F1 says that the current cars lose 35 percent of their downforce when they are around three car lengths behind another car, with the loss increasing to 47 percent when they are about one car length behind. The new rules promise to lessen those downforce losses to 4 percent and 18 percent. A redesigned front wing is simpler than before and has wing flaps that now stretch all the way to the nose. This eliminates the inner wingtips found on the current cars, which created a vortex that produced much of the “dirty” aerodynamic wake. Another big change comes underneath the car. While current F1 cars have a fairly flat floor with a stepped design, the 2022 version will feature deep underfloor tunnels to produce downforce through a ground effect, because simpler wings will yield less downforce. This is said to allow for sleeker bodywork, create less dirty air, and be less impacted by the dirty air when following another car. The bargeboards protruding from the floors of the current cars have also been scrapped.

Formula 1

The new 18-inch wheels with low-profile tires are strikingly different, as the current cars use 13-inch wheels. F1 is also reintroducing wheel covers and adding small winglets over the wheels to control airflow; the 2022 regulations aim to steer the wake tightly along the sides of the car, rather than forcing it outwards as the current front-end design does. The rear wing also gets an overhaul, with rounded edges compared to the boxy wings on the 2021 cars. This new design is meant to direct the aerodynamic wake coming off the back of a car upward and over any following cars so that drivers have less disturbed air to contend with when setting up a pass.

The 2022 cars will be about 5 percent heavier than the current models thanks to the larger wheels, redesigned tires, and increased safety regulations. The design revealed by F1 today is just a template, of course, with teams free to come up with their own solutions within the letter of the law. But the new design looks promising and will hopefully create closer racing next season.
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The Aston Martin Valhalla started out quite different from the car we see here today, in part because of company changes including the arrival of former AMG head Tobias Moers as Aston’s new CEO.Instead of the expected V-6, the mid-engine Valhalla will get a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 sourced from AMG.The first customers should get the Valhalla in late 2023, and they’ll pay around $800,000 for it, which is much less than the seven-figure prices that were expected when the car was first discussed.Aston Martin first confirmed it was planning to produce two other mid-engine supercars to follow the Adrian Newey–designed Valkyrie back in 2019, releasing rendered images of what would become known as the Valhalla at the same point. But the change in the company’s senior management last year, when a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll took control of the English company and former AMG boss Tobias Moers arrived as CEO, has led to a bold new direction for the car.

The Valhalla name remains, and some of the original design concept lives on, but almost everything else has changed. Red Bull Racing’s connection with the car has been unsurprisingly broken now that Aston has its own Formula 1 team, and the Valhalla will now use an AMG-sourced V-8 in place of the hybridized V-6 engine that Aston had previously committed to building itself. It will also be a plug-in hybrid with an electrically powered front axle, production won’t be limited to 500 cars, and the outline pricing has fallen considerably from the $1.3 million we were originally told to expect.

Aston Martin

Back in May, Moers told Car and Driver that work on the new V-6 had barely started when he arrived at Aston, making the swap to AMG power an obvious decision. We are told that the mid-mounted 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 will be based on the flat-plane-crank engine produced for the AMG GT Black Series and will be capable of revving to 7200 rpm and of making 740 horsepower. Company insiders have also indicated that engines will be hand-built from AMG-supplied components in the U.K.The V-8 will send drive to the rear axle through a new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox from Italian supplier Graziano. It will be supplemented by two electric motors, one powering the front axle and the other blending assistance with the combustion engine at the rear through the transmission. Together Aston says these can add up to 200 horsepower, making for a peak combined output of 937 horsepower. The company is promising a 2.5-second zero-to-62-mph time and a 217-mph top speed and says the car is on track to deliver a 6:30 lap time of the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife. (The current production-car record there is the 6:43.3 recently set by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS.)

Aston Martin

The new gearbox will also use an electric reverse and incorporate an electronically controlled limited-slip differential at the rear axle. While the full battery specs haven’t been released yet, it appears to be same actively cooled 400-volt, 6.1-kWh unit that AMG has developed for the next-generation four cylinder C63 (a project that Moers led while at Daimler).Like the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, the Valhalla will be able to operate in pure electric mode, although only for short distances and with drive delivered exclusively through the front axle. This EV mode will have a top speed of 80 mph and a range of around nine miles under the EU’s WLTP testing protocol. The car will also support recharge speeds of up to 150 kW.The Valhalla’s structure is based around a central carbon-fiber tub with subframes for suspension and engine mounted to this. Aston says it is targeting a dry weight of less than 3418 pounds. The front suspension uses pushrods, and the rear axle has a multi-link design. Adaptive dampers and two-stage springs from Canadian supplier Multimatic will allow an ultra-low track mode to help increase downforce; the combination of active elements at the front, the huge adjustable rear wing, and the underbody Venturi tunnels will allow the Valhalla to produce up to 1322 pounds of this. The roof “snorkel” incorporates separate intakes, the one in the center feeds the engine’s induction system, those on either side channel cooling air. Carbon-ceramic brakes will be standard and will work with an e-booster. Aston also confirms the Valhalla will use electric power steering and it will also get a suite of active safety systems including adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking, and blind-spot monitoring. It will also get conventional side mirrors, supplemented by a camera-based rearview screen in the cockpit; it would be impossible to see through the carbon-fiber engine cover with its twin upturned exhausts. The interior will feature fixed seats with a movable pedal box, Aston’s forthcoming new UI system—the first to support a touchscreen interface—and the all-important supercar dihedral doors.Pricing hasn’t been finalized, but we’re told to expect it will be somewhere around the $800,000 mark, with the first customer deliveries due in the second half of 2023. That’s a huge amount of money, but a substantial saving from the seven-figure price that the Valhalla was originally proposed to have. Which must mean it qualifies as a bargain.

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Ford designed a special F-150 pickup for the video game Rocket League, in which rocket-powered cars playing soccer.Now Ford has built a full-size version, the F-150 Rocket League Edition, which it revealed at the Chicago auto show—but just for fun, since it’s not going to be produced for customers.The vehicle is recognizable as a F-150 but features highlighter green accents, redesigned fascias, and, of course, a rocket launcher in the bed.In February, Ford announced a partnership with video game maker Psyonix to design a version of the F-150 pickup for the game Rocket League, which is effectively soccer but with rocket-powered cars. Today, at the 2021 Chicago auto show, Ford revealed a full-size version of the F-150 Rocket League Edition, the first time a vehicle from the game has been brought to life. [editoriallinks id=’67cd8259-e736-413c-ba91-4ae4daf10706′ align=’left’][/editoriallinks]The Rocket League Edition is clearly based on the production F-150—retaining the body shape, thick round wheel arches, and drop-down windows—but it takes the details to another level. The traditional grille has been replaced with an indented section with chunky “Ford” lettering reminiscent of the grille on the Raptor. Highlighter green accents adorn the truck’s bumpers, and trim pieces link the rear wheel arch to the top of the bed and run up the A-pillar to the roof-mounted lights.[image id=’280392a5-915d-464e-a4fe-06eb2dba55f4′ mediaId=’d0495917-b508-45d9-bd1e-61f3d964d71f’ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=” expand=” crop=’18×11′][/image]The F-150 Rocket League Edition rides on 37-inch tires and features a stance wider that than of the Raptor. “F-150” is emblazoned across the tailgate, while a (definitely not real) rocket launcher sits in the bed with vents exiting through the taillights, allowing the F-150 to perform epic jumps and score goals in the Rocket League virtual world. Both the headlights and taillights preserve the C-shaped LED signature from the production F-150 but do away with the rest of the light units for a more futuristic look.[editoriallinks id=’11cfd95e-4bf1-4a17-ba5e-bd9baa2fee26′ align=’left’][/editoriallinks]The F-150 Rocket League Edition was originally available as an in-game purchase in February, when Ford also sponsored the Rocket League Championship Series Winter Majors tournament and the Ford + Rocket League Freestyle Invitational, a style-based driving competition that saw the winner receive a free 2021 F-150.[poll id=’571c2544-b6e4-44c5-9019-038208f2adaf_ec53e58c08397′ type=’text’ question=’Would you buy a Rocket League Edition F-150 in real life?’ answer1=’Yes, it’s so cool!’ answer2=’No, it’s gimmicky.’][/poll]

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The 2022 Chevy Colorado is adding a Trail Boss off-road package.It includes a lifted suspension, skid plates, different wheels, and a few other tweaks.The dealer-installed package is available for $2995 on LT models and $2895 on Z71 models.Like its big sibling the Silverado, the Chevy Colorado pickup will offer a Trail Boss off-road package starting for the 2022 model year. The dealer-installed extra will be offered for $2995 on LT models and $2895 on Z71 models, and it includes a suspension lift, different wheels, skid plates, and a few visual modifications—similar to the AT4 trim level already offered for its mechanical twin, the GMC Canyon.

The suspension lift raises the truck 1.0-inch, and the package also includes the removal of the front air dam and the addition of skid plates for the front and middle of the underbody. Other add-ons include red tow hooks, black badges, and 17-inch black wheels taken from the full-blown ZR2 off-road model.

Chevrolet

The 2022 Colorado is otherwise unchanged and continues to offer three engine choices: a 2.5-liter inline-four, a 3.6-liter V-6, and a turbodiesel 2.8-liter inline-four. Elsewhere in the Chevy truck lineup, the Silverado is scheduled to receive an update for 2022, and the full-size pickup will add an off-road ZR2 version of its own.
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Volkswagen’s redesigned Golf GTI hot hatchback will reach dealers by the end of 2021 with a starting price of $30,540 for the base S model.Mid-range SE and top-spec Autobahn trims will also be offered and will cost $35,290 and $38,990 before options. These base prices include a six-speed manual transmission; upgrading to the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic adds $800.We’ve been impatiently waiting for the redesigned 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI to make its way stateside and we’re happy to report that the hot hatchback is on track to go on sale before the end of 2021. It will be offered in three trims–S, SE, and Autobahn–and will start at $30,540, just $850 more than the outgoing 2021 model.

Volkswagen

For that price, the S model offers a six-speed manual transmission, 18-inch wheels, LED headlights and taillights, rain-sensing windshield wipers, automatic climate control, plaid seats with heating for the driver and front passenger, a 10.3-inch digital gauge cluster, and an 8.3-inch infotainment display, among other features.

The SE will start at $35,290 and adds a sunroof, a larger 10.0-inch infotainment display, and a Harman/Kardon stereo system. The top-spec Autobahn will cost $38,990 and comes with 19-inch wheels with summer tires, adaptive dampers, leather upholstery, cooled front seats, heated rear seats, and a 12-way power driver’s seat. A seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission is optional on all models and costs $800.

Volkswagen

All Golf GTIs will come with a 241-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and an limited-slip differential. At our test track, a Euro-spec 2022 Golf GTI with the optional automatic transmission snapped off a brisk 5.1-second zero-to-60-mph time, which is 0.7-second quicker than the previous-generation model. During that test drive, we also praised the GTI’s sharp handling.Volkswagen says the 2022 Golf GTI in its various trim levels will be available for retail sales nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2021.
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The VW Golf R is new for 2022 and starts at $44,640.Power comes from a 315-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmission and torque-vectoring all-wheel drive.U.S. Volkswagen dealerships should start receiving the 2022 Golf R by the end of 2021.

Enthusiasts who want more performance than what the standard Golf GTI offers will soon have the 2022 Golf R to choose from, as the ultimate VW hot hatch prepares to reenter the U.S. market in late 2021 following a two-year hiatus. The wait promises to be worth it, as the redesigned Golf R boasts a more powerful, 315-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter engine and a torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system.

Volkswagen

The Golf R will be offered essentially as a monospec car with few options, and its starting price is a heady $44,640. For that amount, you’ll get Nappa leather upholstery, a power-adjustable driver’s seat, three-zone automatic climate control, heated front and rear seats, rain-sensing windshield wipers, an an all-digital dashboard with a 10.0-inch infotainment system and a 10.3-inch digital gauge display.

Volkswagen

A six-speed manual transmission is standard and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic is available for $800. Aside from the AWD system, a number of other performance-enhancing standard features set the Golf R apart from the less expensive and less powerful Golf GTI, such as 19-inch wheels with summer tires, adaptive dampers, and larger front brakes.

The Golf R looks more upscale, too, with its matte-aluminum side mirror caps, illuminated grille, blue-painted brake calipers, and a smattering of R logos, including one that’s projected from the car’s puddle lamp onto the ground below. Volkswagen says the new Golf R will go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will arrive around the same time as the Golf GTI. Once they arrive, the dynamic duo from Wolfsburg will take on a crop of competitive sport compact cars such as the Honda Civic Type R, the Hyundai Veloster N, the Mini Cooper JCW, and the Subaru WRX.
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