Car Moon

Citroën just couldn't wait until this fall's Paris Salon to show us the all-new C4 five-door hatchback as the French automaker decided to release the first official photos of its C-segment model. As with the current C4, the new compact hatch will take on the likes of the VW Golf, Renault Megane, Ford Focus, Opel Astra and Toyota Auris.

If you're thinking it looks familiar in a conservative kind of way, you're probably right as the 2011 C4 is the five-door version of Citroën's near-production DS High Rider concept that was first shown at this year's Geneva Salon.

This here is the Ferdinand 911 GT3 RS - without doubt, the most technologically advanced and at the same time environmentally-friendly and fuel efficient Porsche model ever to see the light of day.

It uses a high tech chassis bonded together with a special adhesive tape coated in polyethylene while the body is finger-made from exotic lightweight materials such as thin sheets of paperboard covered in a space-age aluminum foil that serves various purposes.

In this case, power is provided by a left-to-mid-mounted human-boxer unit capable of delivering a yawn-inspiring 1 fhp (foot horsepower) when fully fed, relaxed and emotionally happy.

Remember that awesome -conceptual then- soccer table from Audi's design team that we showed you back in the summer of 2008? Well, almost two years later and Audi has taken the decision to produce the soccer table in a limited series of hand-made models.

Seat has announced the availability of a new special edition version of its three-door Ibiza SC (Sports Coupe) for the German market. The Ibiza SC Sport Limited comes in a Lamborghini-like "Lumina Orange" finish and only with the not-so sporty 105HP 1.6-liter petrol engine. The production run will be limited to 300 cars.

Now that there's less reason for secrecy since we've already seen the standard versions of the new F10 5-Series on the road, BMW has started peeling off the psychedelic camouflage from its 2011 M5 prototypes.

Key stylistic highlights of the new M5's look will include the four tailpipes, chunkier front and rear bumper designs, unique exterior mirrors and alloy wheels while there's also talk about a carbon fiber roof and bootlid which should also help reduce weight.

As we've already told you in earlier posts, BMW's new uper saloon will be the first M5 to adopt turbocharging with power coming from a reworked version of the X5 M and X6 M's 4.4-liter bi-turbo V8 that replaces the current model's V10 unit.

If you're looking to buy a genuine Formula One race car this may be your chance. A Florida-based dealer has put up for sale a 1991 Ferrari F1 Scuderia Tipo 642 racer with chassis No. 126.

The seller claims that the car, which is powered by a 3.5-liter V12 engine linked to a seven-speed gearbox, was used in the 1991 Formula One season by French driver Jean Alesi who had then just signed for Williams Ferrari.

After being replaced by the Tipo 643, this car was rebuilt and prepared for private sale by the Ferrari factory at the end of the same season. Now it could be yours for a 'mere' US$700,000 or about €565,000 at today's exchange rates. More details and pictures after the jump.

With Volkswagen and Audi both featuring what marketers and advertising agencies like to call "four-door coupe" models in their range (the Passat CC and A5 Sportback respectively), one wonders why the German group hasn't added a similar model to their more mainstream brands, Seat and Skoda.

Czech architect and designer Pavel Hrubyi decided to take matters in his own hands (or so to speak) and draw a four-door coupe, sportback, fastback or whatever else you would like to call it, proposal for the Skoda brand based on the firm's range-topping Superb saloon.

Here's a sight that no driver would like to see his car in, even more so if the vehicles in question are a spanking-new $200,000+ Aston Martin Rapide sports saloon and a Bentley Continental Supersports.

According to Joel Feder (the man who took these photos), the incident happened at the Midwestern Automotive Media Association earlier this week when a thunderstorm followed by hail and strong winds took down a tree that landed right on the parked Aston Martin and Bentley.

The last time we saw the Thunderbird nameplate in Ford's lineup was in 2005, and from what we know, the Detroit automaker has no immediate plans to revive it. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped Brazilian designer Eduardo Oliveira from coming up with a conceptual proposal for a new Ford Thunderbird model with a retractable hardtop.

It may look like a commercial for the Citroen C5, but it's not. What you see going on here in this amateur video is an unbelievable incident that took place (literally) in front of the Serbian parliamentary building.

It all started when a middle-aged man (evidently intoxicated) drove his Citroen C5 on the opposite side of the road. A police officer attempted to stop the driver by opening the door of his car and talk some reason into him.

At first, it looked like the police man succeeded and that the driver was willing to make a 'U' turn and stop on the other side of the road, but he didn't...

Saab's automobile range may be expanded in the near future with a new small car inspired by the Swedish firm's teardrop-shaped 92 model of the 1950s if the company's CEO Victor Muller gets his way.

In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Muller revealed that his company is in talks with automakers to share technology and a platform for the modern-day 92 or in Saab's current lingo, the 9-2.

No, this isn't the real-life car of George Jetson. It's the 1960 Pininfarina X, a futuristic concept from the famous Italian design house for a four-door saloon with three wheels and an aerodynamically shaped body that was said to achieve a drag coefficient of 0,23. Pininfarina's concept model features a 43HP Fiat engine of the same era.

Another day, another special edition version of the Kia Soul. This one comes from Germany and it's the result of the cooperation between the South Korean automaker and the tuning house Irmscher.

The new Astra range continues to expand. Following a series of spy shots and videos of the Sports Tourer model, our man with the long-lens has snapped the dramatically styled replacement to the three-door Opel / Vauxhall Astra GTC while out and about in Germany.

Due to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October before arriving in most European markets in early 2011, the new three-door variant of the Astra hatch follows in the footsteps of the outgoing GTC boasting a more rakish appearance than its five-door sibling.

We've already brought you heaps of images of Alfa Romeo's new Giulietta hatch (click here for the gallery), but we thought you might also be interested in the car's official brochure. Unfortunately, the English version of the brochure was only 6-pages long, so we opted to upload photos of the Italian edition which is more comprehensive. Follow the jump to check it out.

Volkswagen is the latest automaker to jump into the bandwagon of Apple's iPad by developing a digital customer magazine as an app specially for the tablet computer. The magazine goes by the name DAS, which stands for "Digital Automotive Space". It will be published quarterly in five languages and will be accessible throughout Europe.

"DAS is an important building block in Volkswagen's digital marketing strategy and gives us the opportunity for an interactive dialog with our customers," says Luca de Meo, Head of Marketing at VW. "Our goal is to transmit the fascination of the brand and its products in a new digital dimension, creating a global experience."

Following on from the world premiere of the four-door sedan version of the 2011 Impreza WRX STI at the New York Auto Show in April and the Impreza XV crossover at the Geneva Motor Show in March, Subaru has confirmed that both cars will be offered in Japan with sales set to begin this June.

Challenger turns 40-ish this year. Well, actually, it's like a 40-year range over which the Challenger name was used a few times and to celebrate, Chrysler has given a photo-run-through of the model's rich history.

Over the course of its first generation, ranging from 1970-74, the Challenger was offered with an inline six-cylinder and many choices of V8. The 8-cylinder options ranged from a 318 cubic inch unit making 230 horsepower to the 425-horse 426 Hemi and 390-horse 440 (output numbers dipped consistently as the oil crisis developed).

Mercury, the maker of higher grade Ford models with waterfall grilles such as the Milan and Grande Marquis, will have the same fate of GM's Pontiac and Saturn brands, according to a report from Bloomberg citing two unnamed people familiar with the plan.

The news agency said that Ford Motor Co executives could ask the automaker's board of directors as early as July to green-lit the (eventual) axing of the Mercury brand.

Here are some photos of a BMW X6 wide-body kit designed by Zaur Khalilov of Zaoor Design. Created for Met-R, a Moscow-based tuning shop, it's called the Interceptor. As with any X6-based work, the actual work has to be evaluated (not the car). The Interceptor's nose is nice and aggressive, and those vertical driving lights just add to it. Even the matte black helps, but that's about as far as it goes.

It seems that obnoxious neo-rich "VIP" Russians are (illegally) using the same kind of flashing blue rooftop lights found on official government vehicles to cut through traffic, and this is starting to get on the nerves of everyday people.

One man in Moscow decided to take action by putting a bucket on his head and climbing over one of these cars as its driver was trying to use the blue light to bypass traffic. Watch what happened in the video after the break.