2001 Land Rover Discovery Se7 Sport Utility 4-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Xcar drives Jaguar C-X75, other Spectre villains of 007

James Bond returns to US theaters very soon in Spectre, and with the action-packed film wrapped, the producers are lending out the keys to some of the movie's automotive stars. We've already seen Jay Leno behind the wheel of Bond's Aston Martin DB10. Now, Xcar's Alex Goy has taken a turn in some of the flick's villainous rides from Jaguar Land Rover, including a very special Jaguar C-X75. The crew from JLR's Special Vehicle Operations team certainly did an impressive job of giving the movies baddies some appropriately nefarious rides. To challenge Bond, they turned the Land Rover Defender into a beast with chunky, off-road tires and blinding-spot lights. They also made the Range Rover Sport SVR even more diabolical than normal with a blacked-out look and LED lightbar. Of course, the king of Spectre's villain cars is the C-X75. According to Goy, most of the ones in the movie use the company's 5.0-liter, supercharged V8, but two are actually original prototypes with the hybrid setup. He gets to drive one of those special examples in this clip. While limited to some low-speed cruising, the coupe still looks wonderfully menacing on the road. Related Video:

Mazda CX-5 named Japan's Car of The Year, Subaru BR-Z wins "Special Award"

The Mazda CX-5 stamped its Kodo design and SkyActiv technology authority all over the Japan Car of the Year awards, taking the top prize ahead of the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT 86. It is Mazda's second victory in the last ten years, the 2005 MX-5 claiming the same trophy, and the fourth time the Hiroshima company has won.
The award is decided by 60 local "automotive experts and journalists," and open to any passenger car released in Japan from November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012 that has sold more than 500 units. Each judge gets 25 votes, his or her top vote getting 10 points, the rest of the points being spread among the judge's choice for the next best four cars.
The second-place getters were the Toyobaru twins with 318 votes, the surprise being they didn't beat or get any closer to the crossover. The Subaru BRZ did claw some mojo back, earning the Special Award given to cars that have made "an exceptional impact." The BMW 3 Series was third overall and won the Import Car of the Year award with plenty of room between it and the second place Range Rover Evoque.

Jaguar Land Rover exploring 3D HUD and infotainment projections

With its most recent technology research, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is exploring the use of 3D projections for a world before and/or after autonomous vehicles come to fruition. In collaboration with the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge, JLR has developed concepts for a 3D head-up display that shows information on the road ahead and a system that projects personalized 3D infotainment for vehicle passengers.  As of right now, hundreds of production vehicles are equipped with two-dimensional head-up displays, some color, others black and white. Using various techniques and different technologies, manufacturers display information in a flat image in front of a driver. Some might find it distracting or unhelpful to have this in the driver's line of sight, and JLR might have found a solution. Rather than wedge the information in between the person and the view ahead, a 3D system that uses augmented reality could display the info onto the road in front of the driver. JLR thinks the system could project navigation directions, safety alerts such as lane departure, hazard detection or other bits typically found in a car's infotainment or instrument cluster. Some might find this to be even more distracting that 2D head-up displays, but to each his or her own. While the 3D head-up display is something that could be used right now, if it were released and passed legal, part two of JLR's 3D technology research is imagined for a life where truly autonomous vehicles are skating across the country. Using head- and eye-tracking technology, the system could lock into the position of numerous people in a vehicle and give each of them a personalized 3D projection "screen." This could be used to track a trip, look up points of interest, or even watch movies. JLR points out this could be used during ride-sharing without bothering others in the vehicle. The work with the Center for Advanced Photonics and Electronics at Cambridge is still in development for now, but it's only a matter of time before 3D tech makes it into cars in some degree.