Car Moon

Imagine for a second that, in the very near future, Audi is facelifting the TT to look more like its big brother R8. Then, halfway through the project, Audi cans it and hands over all its sketches and prototyping model to Volkswagen which then decides to put the two-door coupe into production.

Kyrgyzstanian graphic designer “Steel Drake” has created something very much fitting with this scenario in the form of his Volkswagen Concept Sports Car. Looking like a scaled-down, front engined Audi R8, Steel Drake’s Concept Sports is a simple-yet-sleek design let down only by some questionable design choices.

Earlier this month, Volkswagen announced that it’s going to expand its North American SUV lineup in order to catch up to GM and Toyota and triple its U.S. sales by 2018. However, the automaker also wants to boost its image, so it may bring back the Scirocco coupe and Phaeton sedan to the States.

In an interview in Washington, Jonathan Browning, head of Volkswagen’s U.S. operations, told Bloomberg News that the company is exploring the idea of selling the two models in the U.S. “We will reconsider bringing the Phaeton back to the U.S. in the next product cycle,” said Mr. Browning who added that no final decision has been made yet.

Volkswagen is upping the fuel economy ante in the UK with the presentation of new Scirocco and Passat CC diesel range that benefit from the firm's BlueMotion Technology.

Starting with VW's proposal in the compact coupe segment, all entry-level and GT trim models with the 2.0-litre 140HP diesel engine now feature BlueMotion Technology modifications, which include Stop/Start and battery regeneration systems, thus helping to create the cleanest and most fuel efficient Scirocco to date.

Further twisting the knife on American buyers who can't get the Scirocco R on this side of the pond, Volkswagen today announced the introduction of race car-like bucket seats for the driver and front passenger.

The 100,000th third-generation Scirocco today came off the production line at Volkswagen's Autoeuropa plant in Portugal, just two years after the compact sports coupe / hatchback was launched into the market in 2008 and even though the German company does not offer the vehicle for sale in North America. Car number '100,000' is a Scirocco R 2.0 TSI, in a Rising Blue Metallic exterior finish, with a Titan Black interior.

RDX Racedesign, a German tuning house, has completed a new styling package for the Volkswagen Scirocco coupe. The tuner modifies the Scirocco's appearance with a comprehensive body kit that includes a front apron, beefier side skirts, headlamp covers, a rear apron that incorporates a protruding diffuser and an extra-large roof spoiler. All components are made from PU-ABS thermoplastic. The car's looks can be further enhanced with a set of multispoke alloy wheels. Full gallery after the jump.

Five famous names from the world of motorsport including Carlos Sainz, Frank Biela, Jacques Laffite, Derek Bell and Martin Brundle are getting ready to line-up on the grid at Hockenheim this weekend (23-24 April) for the first round of the new VW Scirocco R Cup series.

Together, the five racing aces have started 343 Formula 1 Grand Prix and won the Dakar Rally, two World Rally Championship titles, the Sportscar World Championship, the German DTM championship, the British Touring Car Championship and the Le Mans 24-hour race a total of 11 times.

Volkswagen will participate at this year's edition of the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race over the weekend 12-16 May with three natural gas-powered Scirocco GT24-CNGs.

The Scirocco GT24-CNG coupes are fitted with the same 2.0-litre TSI engine modified to run on natural gas that secured class victory at last year's event. A few minor tweaks help increase output from 325HP to 330HP.

The sportiest Scirocco of them all, the 'R' variant, has received the tender tuning affections of 'B & B'. Starting with the Scirocco R's 265HP 2.0-liter turbocharged unit, the German firm offers three different stages of engine mods , with the first bumping power to 310HP.

The next two stages incrementally increase output to 324HP and 362HP, respectively, with the most powerful version using a larger turbocharger, custom exhaust system with a larger downpipe and high-performance catalyst as well as a modified ECU, air-intake and intercooler.

When people think of alternative fuels for their cars, we doubt that coffee beans make the list. Yet a team of wacky inventors from the BBC1 science programme "Bang Goes The Theory" have managed to create a vehicle runs solely on gas produced by espresso roasted coffee granules!

Nicknamed Car-puccino, this 1988 VW Scirocco that looks like a bit like the Marty Mcfly's time-travelling DeLorean DMC-12 from the 'Back to the Future' trilogy, has been heavily modified to us coffee granules to power the engine.

So how does it work? According to the graph, the first stage involves heating the coffee granules with charcoal until the beans break down into cool hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

The gas is then fed into a radiator to chill down before it is filtered out in the boot. The purified gas is then led through a rooftop pipe into the engine where it burns and powers the car.

Wait; isn't Volkswagen's new Scirocco supposed to be the spiritual successor to the long-gone Corrado coupe? Sure it is, but the folks from Miranda Media wanted to give an answer to the purely theoretical question of what would the Corrado look like in 2010 if Volkswagen designed a direct replacement for the fastback coupe.

Starting from January 2010, buyers in Britain will be able to order VW's new entry-level version of the Scirocco coupe that's powered by a 1.4-liter TSI petrol engine producing 122-horsepower and 147 lbs ft of torque, channeled to the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.

On occasion of the international driving presentation of the new Scirocco R at Nice, France, Volkswagen released a new photo gallery of its pumped-up coupe. As a reminder, the front-wheel drive only Scirocco R is fitted with a 2.0-litre TSI four-cylinder engine that develops 265-horsepower and 258 lbs ft of torque. When equipped with a six-speed manual gearbox, it sprints from 0 to 100km/h (62mph) in 6.0 seconds. With the DSG dual clutch transmission, the sprint time is cut by 0.2 seconds. Check out the updated album after the jump.