1961 Econoline Pick Up on 2040-cars

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Shelby Cobra, Mercedes 300SL and 1947 Woodie from Petersen Museum headed to auction

The changes happening at the Petersen Museum have been making the rounds in major press, but it probably won't be until August 18, during Pebble Beach, when we get the full story on what's happening; that's where and when museum reps plan on announcing the way forward for the SoCal institution. In the meantime, the museum is still reorganizing its collection, and that means auctioning some of its showpieces at this weekend's Auctions America event in Burbank.
Three of the stars are a 1964 Shelby Cobra 289, one of less than 20 produced with a three-speed C-4 automatic transmission, a 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300SL owned by actor Robert Stack and the last 1948 Ford Sportsman 'Woodie' ever produced. The Cobra, now restored to its original white exterior and red leather interior, was a factory demonstrator that first sold for $5,250. Showing just 38,950 miles on the odometer, its pre-sale estimate is $800,000 to $1 million.
The 300SL is actually a 1957 model but wasn't titled until Robert Stack took possession in 1960. The lead actor in the The Untouchables TV series used to drive by the Sunset Boulevard Mercedes dealership to ogle the car, but couldn't justify spending the money to buy it. When he and the producer of The Untouchables won Emmys for the show, the producer, who happened to be Desi Arnaz, bought the car for Stack. He owned it his whole life, it has been left as Stack drove it and still bears the California license plate "UNTCHBL."

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla details factory expansion; Ford and SunPower raise money for Sierra Club

Tesla has revealed the details of the upgrade of its Fremont, CA factory. One major change is the addition of a dedicated production space for the dual-motor P85D version of the Model S. Robots will be doing the battery installation on the Model S to save some time, and new export docks allow Tesla to get the cars out the door and on the way to their new owners more quickly. The new robots that move the cars around the factory have been named after X-Men characters, which makes our inner geeks smile. Check out the factory upgrade in the time-lapse video below and read more at Teslarati or at the Tesla Motors Blog. A program in Beijing for privileged registrations for EVs hasn't had much success. Of the 1,424 lottery winners, only about 30 percent went on to register an electric car despite a two-month extension of the deadline to do so. Buyers are likely discouraged by the lack of charging infrastructure, which the city hopes to ameliorate with the addition of 1,000 new charging stations by the end of the year, and by requiring new and renovated developments to set aside parking specifically for EV charging. Read more at Green Car Reports. The UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies suggests that laws designed to protect dealers and consumers are stymieing the adoption of EVs. Laws like the ones certain states have in place that block or otherwise restrict Tesla's direct-to-consumer business model are not helpful for companies that want to introduce new products to the market. They prevent companies from passing on savings to customers for whom they would likely make the difference in a purchasing decision. One possible solution would be to allow exemptions to certain selling restrictions for a certain number of vehicles sold. "This could give automakers the degree of control needed to work out kinks with early customers, develop scalable processes for supporting PEVs, and ensure that effective dealer performance standards are in place before handing the reins over to wholly independent retailers," according to UC Davis ITS. Read more at the UC Davis website. Volkswagen says its environmental program, called "Think Blue. Factory," is meeting the automaker's own sustainability targets. The main purpose of the program is to move toward eco-friendlier carmaking at each of its plants worldwide.

Wrap up some fun with Ford's commercial vehicle configurator

Ford has combined multiple steps into one with its commercial vehicle configurator, which allows users to choose, design and place orders for the Transit, Transit Connect, E-Series vans and F-Series Super Duty trucks.
The most interesting part of the new configurator is a fairly robust design tool. Users are able to choose paint color and wrap the vehicle, and then create their own graphics. No materials are needed - Ford provides numerous background textures, text boxes, plenty of shapes and 20 categories of images including floral, construction, plumbing and skylines. Self-created designs or images can be uploaded to the system as well.
We played around with the design tool a bit and uploaded our own image to create the Autoblog Podcast Live van you see here. Feel free to check out the configurator and make your own design.