Citroen's most iconic machines run a thoroughly broad gamut from the humble 2CV to perhaps the most striking car it ever produced, the Maserati-powered personal luxury coupe called SM. It's this latter car being revisited by DS, the luxury brand spun off of Citroen with the name of the equally important mid-century Citroen DS. More specifically, it's being re-revisited, as the company revealed back in 2020 a bunch of renderings its designers put together imagining a modern version. According to the Design Director of DS, Thierry Metroz, the company received many comments on those designs and learned that people were "very attached to the iconic models from our heritage" and "they didn’t want the original design to be spoilt." So it took those comments into consideration, and kept playing with the idea until they reached the SM Tribute concept you see above. It's relatively close in size to the original in most respects. It's 1.2 inch longer, 0.8 inch taller, and has 1.4 inch less ground clearance. But it's far wider, gaining an extra 5.5 inches. It's crystal clear that most of its lines are pulled straight from the original, from the full-width headlight and daytime running light wedge at the front to the tapered kamm-style tail. The window openings are all shaped basically the same, including the wrap-around rear hatch glass. But there are updates found everywhere. Most notable are the reworked rear wheel spats that now have semi-circle cutouts to help highlight the 22-inch wheels. The ultra-thin taillights continue around the sides of the car over the top lines of those spats to emphasize the line. The car also features two-tone paint, with the black parts helping highlight the most classic lines of the car along the sides. It also helps hide the aerodynamic extensions and general heft of the SM Tribute's flanks compared to the original. The interior is arguably a bigger departure from the original than the exterior. There are still echoes of the original, such as with the shape of the dash top and concave instrument display, as well as the seats with horizontally stitched cushioning. The concept departs with its concave monolithic center screen, which also adopts a small puck for shifting instead of a chromed lever, and the instruments also are shown on a screen. The distinctive single spoke wheel of the original gives way to a rectangular yoke, and the door panels feature intricately detailed "laser-engraved" leather.
In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. Zac recently went down to Tennessee to drive a prototype of the 2025 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch. Meanwhile the two also spent time in the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV, 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLA 35 and 2024 Lexus LS 500h out of the fleet in Michigan. In the news, Rivian deals with a fire at its Normal, Illinois plant, Formula 1 comes back strong, and Volkswagen prices the ID.Buzz. Lastly, the two debate what old, executive sedan you should buy in a Spend My Money segment. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #846 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving 2025 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLA 35 2024 Lexus LS 500h News Fire at the Rivian factory Formula 1 is back Volkswagen ID.Buzz gets a very high price Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video:  We check out the Rivian R1S and R1T along with 3 other surprises This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.
Lap times and top speed specs are big business in the hypercar world, even if the cars’ owners never push them to their full potential. Automakers arenÂ’t quite as shy with the machines, however, frequently wringing them out for bragging rights. Koenigsegg recently took its Jesko Attack to Laguna Seca for the first time and set a time of 1:24.86, edging out the Czinger 21C by just 0.58 second to set the production car lap record. It did that time with Koenigsegg development driver Markus Lundh behind the wheel, who, like the car, was tackling the track for the first time. Koenigsegg has set several other records with the car, including the best lap time at SwedenÂ’s Gotland Ring, where it set a time of 2:56.97, nearly eight seconds faster than the Porsche 911 GT3 RS MR. The car also holds the record for accelerating to 400 km/h (249 mph) and braking back to a stop in just 27.83 seconds, more than a second faster than the bonkers Rimac Nevera. That performance is thanks to the carÂ’s twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8, which makes 1,280 horsepower during regular operation. Pumping E85 pushes that output to 1,600 horsepower, and the car makes 1,106 pound-feet of torque. The Jesko Attack has a large rear wing and significantly more downforce than the standard Jesko. Koenigsegg claims an additional 1,764 pounds of downforce for the Attack at 155 mph, which increases to a massive 3,086 pounds at the carÂ’s top speed. The Jesko Absolut, which is designed for top speed runs, builds on the Attack with different bodywork that Koenigsegg says cuts downforce and improves stability at high speed. Its body is around three inches longer, and the automaker said the aero development process alone took 3,000 hours, with another 5,000 on engineering.
TOPANGA, Calif. – Give the people what they want, right? Especially if they're extremely wealthy. And possibly famous. Apparently, the requests for a convertible Maybach from existing owners and/or celebrities were so frequent and insistent that the uber-luxury offshoot of Mercedes-Benz finally decided to give them just that. The 2025 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series answers the call. While all other Maybachs are based on a Mercedes-Benz, this is the first Maybach to be based on a car developed by AMG: the current-generation SL 55 and SL 63. This presented a greater challenge to engineers than past efforts. Although a sportier Maybach was intended (as opposed to modern Maybach's first drop-top effort, the Maybach S 650 Cabriolet), the SL 680 is, not surprisingly, seeking a much different dynamic end goal than its AMG-only cousins. According to Maybach product manager Hannes Meyer, the far shorter wheelbase than the Maybach norm was a particular challenge in making sure that its convertible offering maintained "the same ease and nearly floating driving experience" expected of the brand. To that end, the Maybach SL shares the SL 63's air suspension and trick AMG Active Control interconnected hydraulically controlled dampers, but the tuning is changed, especially with the rear air springs as the driver sits closer to those. Meyer says the damper valves in particular have a greater range between sportiness and comfort than the SL 63. The steering system is totally Maybach-specific, including a different ratio and more upright front camber, resulting in what Meyer described as a more stable and less aggressive setup than what you'd find in the SL 63. Before you start looking for a 6.8-liter engine in the Mercedes arsenal, remember that those numbers don't really mean anything anymore. The Maybach SL 680 has exactly the same 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 as the SL 63 good for 577 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. The nine-speed AMG transmission is the same in terms of hardware, but it has totally different software. In particular, the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts are most different in order to provide a smoother, more Maybach acceleration experience. The 4Matic+ all-wheel-drive system is also shared, but is programmed to have a more balanced front-to-rear power split than the rear-biased AMG. Finally, the exhaust has been retuned. Meyer said that up to 2,800 rpm, the exhaust isn't quieter than what you'd experience in the AMGs, it just has a different tone.
Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday against GM over years of alleged abuse of customers' data and trust. New car owners were presented with a "confusing and highly misleading" process that was implied to be for their safety, but "was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow" that surrendered their data for GM to sell. The suit contends that at no point was selling driving data ever even suggested as a possibility, putting GM in violation of the state's consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a jury trial and at least $10,000 per offense (every GM car sold in the state since 2015) and a hefty add-on of $250,000 in cases where the victim was over 65. Texas seems to be flying high after a recent $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over other privacy concerns. This may well be a way to solve any pending budgetary issues in the Lone Star State.
It's been more than four years since Koenigsegg debuted the Jesko and Gemera just ahead of the 2020 Geneva Motor Show. The Gemera was the first home for a few of Koenigsegg's pet projects, a hybrid powertrain based around a twin-turbocharged 2.0-liter three-cylinder dubbed the Tiny Friendly Giant (TFG). The engine featured cam-less Freevalve technology and was assisted by three electric motors. The Swedes claimed a combined 1,676 horsepower and 2,581 pound-feet of torque — 592 horses and 443 twists from the TFG — and a zero-to-62-mph sprint in 1.9 seconds. Those three e-motors, one on the crankshaft and two at the rear, helped deliver all-wheel drive, all-wheel torque vectoring, and all-wheel steering. And it's all gone. Not the Gemera, but the Tiny Friendly Giant. Two years after the Gemera appeared, Christian announced that the automaker found a way to fit the Jesko's twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 into the Gemera's tighter bay. Once that happened, Koenigsegg said most customers switched to the V8 — reportedly a $400,000 option. "There were so few left that asked for a three-cylinder," he said, "we managed to convince almost all of them [to go for the V8 instead]. So for the time being, it [the Gemera] is V8 only. We could frame this as conservative buyers rejecting ingenious novelty, but that wouldn't be true. This is buyers giving up one ingenious novelty for another ingenious novelty with more familiar bragging rights. See, to get the Jesko's V8 to work, Koenigsegg engineers redesigned the castings, heads, intake, exhaust, and sump. They shelved the direct-drive transmission from the Regera they'd originally fitted, and created what they call the Light Speed Tourbillon Transmission (LSTT). This was an evolution of the nine-speed direct-drive Light Speed Transmission developed for the Jesko, but smaller, lighter, better. Then the whitecoats created a new six-phase e-motor to replace the original trio of three-phase Quark e-motors that had been paired with the TFG. This one motor to rule them all is called Dark Matter, designed as a blend of radial flux and axial flux topologies called "raxial." In the original powertrain, two of the Quark motors on the rear axle could each make a maximum 500 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque, the third Quark on the crankshaft made 400 hp and 369 lb-ft. Their combined output when working together rang in at 1,100 hp. The Dark Matter makes 800 hp and 922 lb-ft.
Beginning in the late 1950s, General Motors made a serious push to sell cars made by its European subsidiaries in the United States. American Pontiac dealers got the Vauxhall Victor from the United Kingdom, while Buick dealers received the Opel Olympia from West Germany. Opel sales here became reasonably strong during the 1960s, and one of the most interesting Opels of all showed up in the United States as a 1969 model: the GT two-seat sports car. Here's a faded but still recognizable red GT found in a Northern California car graveyard recently. The Opel GT came out of a period of inspired GM designs that led to the Pontiac XP-833 Banshee and C3 Chevrolet Corvette; its most important styling influence was the Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT prototype of 1962. It was sold here for the 1969 through 1969 model years and was considered something of a mini-Corvette, sold alongside the mini-Camaro Opel Manta. The GT looked radical, but it shared its chassis design and running gear with the Opel Kadett (albeit with the engine moved nearly 16" to the rear). The Kadett connection made it cheap to build, and the MSRP for the 1971 GT was $3,339 (about $26,358 in 2024 dollars). The GT was powered by a cam-in-head 1.9-liter straight-four engine, rated at 90 horsepower and 111 pound-feet. The cam-in-head design was something of a mashup between an overhead-valve rig (with the camshaft in the engine block and actuating the valves via pushrods up into the cylinder head) and an overhead-cam design (with the camshaft in the cylinder head and directly actuating the valves). As this photograph shows with great clarity, the camshaft in a cam-in-head engine lives in the cylinder head but off to the side of the valves, actuating them with lifters shoving directly against good old pushrod-style rocker arms. The cam-in-head engine proved to be something of an evolutionary dead end, although Ford used its cam-in-head CVH straight-four in the U.S.-market Focus all the way through 2004. A four-speed manual transmission was standard equipment. A three-speed automatic was available as a $196 option ($1,547 after inflation). The GT had no decklid, which proved annoying in the real world. There was a carpeted area for cargo behind the rear seats. The hidden headlights didn't pop up, instead rotating 180° into position via a handle under the dash. The interior in this one is largely missing, and the body is in rough shape after decades of outdoor storage.
 MILAN — Stellantis is taking steps to fix weak margins and high inventory at its U.S. operations and will not hesitate to axe underperforming brands in its sprawling portfolio, its chief executive Carlos Tavares said on Thursday. The warning for lossmaking brands is a turnaround for Tavares, who has maintained since Stellantis was created in 2021 from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA that all of its 14 brands including Maserati, Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep have a future. "If they don't make money, we'll shut them down," Carlos Tavares told reporters after the world's No. 4 automaker delivered worse-than-expected first-half results, sending its shares down as much as 10%. "We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money." The automaker now also considers China's Leapmotor as its 15th brand, after it agreed to a broad cooperation with the group. Stellantis does not release figures for individual brands, except for Maserati which reported an 82 million euro adjusted operating loss in the first half. Some analysts say Maserati could possibly be a target for a sale by Stellantis, while other brands such as Lancia or DS might be at risk of being scrapped given their marginal contribution to the group's overall sales. Stellantis' Milan-listed shares were down as much as 12.5% on Thursday, hitting their lowest since August 2023. That brings the loss for the year so far to 22%, making them the worst performer among the major European automakers. Few automotive brands have been killed off since General Motors ditched the unprofitable Saturn and Pontiac during a U.S. government-led bankruptcy in the global financial crisis in 2008. Tavares is under pressure to revive flagging margins and sales and cut inventory in the United States as Stellantis bets on the launch of 20 new models this year which it hopes will boost profitability. Recent poor results from global carmakers have heightened worries about a weakening outlook for sales across major markets such as the U.S., whilst they also juggle an expensive transition to electric vehicles and growing competition from cheaper Chinese rivals. Japan's Nissan Motor saw first-quarter profit almost completely wiped out on Thursday and slashed its annual outlook, as deep discounting in the United States shredded its margins. Tavares said he would be working through the summer with his U.S. team on how to improve performance and cut inventory.
The 70 or so road trippers who signed up for this year's 6to6 European tour were looking forward to taking off from Athens, Greece, then crossing eight countries and two mountain ranges on their way to Monaco. One entrant didn't make it out of Athens on the first day: Not long after leaving the hotel, a $3 million Koenigsegg Jesko Attack Nur Edition in raw carbon fiber with 24-karat gold accents caught fire while cruising through the city at low speed, turning into a bonfire that left little more than a pile of carbon shards melted to an engine. The Swedish carmaker had only delivered around 30 of the planned 125 Jeskos at the time. The Swedish mothership dispatched an engineer to bring the remains back to Sweden for an autopsy. In a post on Instagram, CEO Christian von Koenigsegg explained that the source of the fire was a leak in the car's pressurized hydraulic line.      View this post on Instagram            A post shared by KOENIGSEGG (@koenigsegg) He said the systems containing other flammable liquids were intact, those being the engine and gearbox oil systems, and fuel tank. "However," he wrote, "there was a streak of hydraulic fluid behind the car on the road. Given this we have investigated the pressurized hydraulic system, which is the only system that contains this fluid." Sure enough, that was the culprit, the hose found to be "compromised at the rear of the car." The company's checking the hydraulic system on every car that's been produced as well as those that have been delivered. It's also working on a software update that monitors hydraulic pressure and, in case of a leak, can shut the system down in less than a second. Based on the post date, that software should be on its way to cars or very close. Once the cars have been updated, Koenigsegg says they'll be safe to drive again. As for the two people in the car in Athens, they made it out unharmed. At the end of his post, Christian added, "We are also incredibly grateful to the owner of the car in Greece for giving us his continued support and that we will be able to supply him with a new car so he can continue his Koenigsegg journey." Here's a company whose customer service is almost as quick and comprehensive as its record-breaking cars. Oh, and cue the Facebook Marketplace profiteers: Autoblog Greece (no relation) reported someone put bits of raw carbon fiber up for sale, claiming without proof they'd come from the Jesko. Which makes total sense.
In 2017, Juan Pablo Montoya drove a Bugatti Chiron from standstill to 400 kilometers per hour (249 mph) and back to standstill in 41.96 seconds. A month later, Koenigsegg took more than five seconds off that record with an Agera S, and then, another month after that, pruned another three seconds with the same car, stopping the watch in 33.29 seconds. The Swedes, feeling they still had time to shave, took their hybrid Regera to an airfield in Orebro, Sweden, in 2019 and ran off a 31.49 time for the 0-400-0 test. Rimac jumped into the ring last year, using a test track in Germany to break 23 records in a day with its Nevera, along the way doing the 0-400-0 in 29.94 seconds. Koenigsegg couldn't let that stand, dusting off a Regera to reclaim the record with a 28.81. The headline of this post tells you what happened next: Koenigsegg hit up that Orebro airstrip with a Jesko Absolut fitted with Racelogic timing gear, and reeled off a 0-400-0 time of 27.83 seconds. And with that single pass, on top of breaking its own record, Koenigsegg broke three other records, too.  It's interesting to note we're down to an all-wheel-drive battery-electric coupe with 1,888 horsepower and 1,726 pound-feet of torque against a rear-wheel-drive pure internal combustion coupe with a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 making 1,577 hp and 1,105 lb-ft on E85 (it makes 1,262 hp on regular pump gas). Both wore the same Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires for their respective runs. Rimac says the Nevera's coefficient of drag in low-drag mode is 0.3, Koenigsegg reports effectively the same but with more decimals at 0.278. The marquee difference is that the Nevera weighs a claimed 5,071 pounds, the Jesko Absolut a claimed 3,064 pounds with fluids.  The only changes Koenigsegg made to the Jesko for the run were adding a roll cage, and giving company development driver Markus Lundh a seat from the Koenigsegg One:1, which he prefers. In addition to the 0-400-0 record, Lundh set records for hitting 400 kph (249 miles per hour) in 18.82 seconds, for hitting 250 mph in 19.20 seconds, and for the 0-250-mph-0 challenge of 28.27 seconds. Lundh touched 256 mph during the blast.
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