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VW bringing fuel cell concept to LA Auto Show

Amid the flurry of hydrogen announcements from Toyota and Honda last night, Volkwagen has something to add: a new hydrogen fuel cell concept vehicle. This will be the first VW hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in many years – remember the Tiguan Hy-Motion back in 2008? – and it comes as a bit of a surprise. First written up by the German publication Wirtschaft Woche, VW is going to have the prototype car (not pictured) available at the ride and drive at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this week. We don't yet know what kind of vehicle will sport the hydrogen powertrain, but our money's on a Golf variant. We'll see soon enough when we get to Los Angeles. What's interesting is that there have been a number of not-so-mixed messages out of the VW executive ranks when it comes to hydrogen vehicles. VW's Japanese president, Shigeru Shoji, said in September that, hydrogen fuel cells, "may fly within Japan, but not globally." Last year, VW's electrification head Rudolf Krebs said that "hydrogen mobility only makes sense if you use green energy." Also last year, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn said it's basically impossible to build hydrogen vehicles at a "reasonable cost." Nonetheless, we're going to see a new VW H2 concept soon. Thoughts?

German prosecutors have recorded calls between VW bigwigs talking dieselgate

It's barely possible to believe how poorly Volkswagen continues to handle dieselgate. Depending on which day you catch the news, the German carmaker embodies the corporate venality of "Michael Clayton," the comic blundering of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," and the every-man-for-himself vengeance of "Reservoir Dogs." Today is Tarantino day, with news that German prosecutors have recordings of phone calls between former Audi and Porsche development boss Wolfgang Hatz, ex-Volkswagen Group executive Matthias Muller, and current Porsche executives Oliver Blume and Michael Steiner. Hatz made the calls to the trio in November 2015, two months after Volkswagen admitted its diesel-particulate sins to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hatz was still employed at the time, and in his company car. Who recorded the calls? His wife. Hatz and his missus apparently saw the storm coming and started stacking defenses early. Hatz's wife, who can be heard encouraging Hatz during at least one call, sent the recordings to Hatz's attorney from her mobile phone. According to a Google translation of the German newspaper Handelsblatt's report, she included the note, "Here is a very long, but quite informative conversation on the current situation with useful formulations." The report in Handelsblatt said that in Germany it is generally "not allowed" to record a conversation and pass it on to a third party. We don't know how the authorities will handle this matter, since prosecutors found the recordings in e-mail attachments on Mrs. Hatz's mobile phone. Remember, when the diesel scandal broke, VW spent months saying that only a small number of low-level personnel were behind it, and all of the higher-ups had been blindsided. Ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed to be "stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group." Winterkorn successor Matthias Muller said, "according to current information, a few developers interfered in the engine management." Former VW USA honcho Michael Horn told a congressional committee that "a couple of software engineers" programmed the software for reasons no one could understand. In the recorded conversations, Hatz apparently called Muller to find out how VW planned to treat him.

Witness this insane 736-hp VW Golf immolate its front tires

There's torque steer and then there's what we'll from now on dub "The Boba," as in Boba Kettler. The German tuner has a way with the Volkswagen Golf, and the MkI example you see above has been touched with 736 horsepower - that's right, 96 more ponies than a new SRT Viper, all trying to get to ground through those two front wheels.
The 2.0-liter, 16-valve engine has an 8,800 rpm redline and is aided by a Garrett GTX3582R turbocharger shoving 50 psi through the internals. Other upgrades include a new ECU (natch) and a six-speed 'box among other treats. The rubber is Toyo R888s - street-legal competition tires. The result is enough smoke for three Chinese New Years when the lights go green. Indeed, the standing start isn't its forte, but it can apparently get from 62 miles per hour to 124 mph in five seconds.
Watch it go in the video below. And know that this isn't even Boba's best work; he's got a 900-hp MkII Golf that'll do 0-62 mph in 2.3 seconds.