The Porsche Consulting website previews the look of a forthcoming two-door GT based on the Panamera architecture. And surprise! It looks like a flattened 911. Who could have seen that coming?

We won’t be nationwide by end of 2011. By that time we expect to be shipping vehicles to Canada, Europe and several markets beyond those we’ve already announced.

[The nationwide launch date is] all still work in progress and will clearly be dependent on the ability of the production facility to ramp up as planned and all those kind of things. I’m not in a position to tell you by X-date we will be nationwide. I will tell you we’re heading towards national distribution and theres no question about it

Volt Communications Manager Rob Peterson (first quote) and GM Director of Volt Marketing Tony DiSalle (second quote) tell gm-volt.com that the previous 2011 date for the nationwide rollout of the Chevy Volt isn’t going to happen. Meanwhile, if you’re in California, Michigan or Washington DC, your Volt should arrive by 2011. Be sure to tip your congressional representatives, folks! Luckily, though, this video proves that the Volt will be more than up to the challenge of eating the Nissan Leaf’s dust.

You can test drive a CR-Z for yourself starting on August 24, and goodness knows we’ll be lining up for a crack at it. Early reviews from Europe confirm the impression left by the stat sheet: the CR-Z is neither the re-birth of the CRX, nor the re-birth of the Mk1 Insight. And starting at $19,200, it’s not exactly cheap either [press release here]. Yes, it offers AM/FM/CD/USB audio system with six speakers, automatic climate control, power windows and door locks, remote entry, and cruise control at that base price, and quite a bit more in the $20,760 CR-Z EX, but is there a market in the US for a hybrid that’s smaller than a Prius but less efficient? And didn’t the Mk2 Insight already answer that question? We’ll wait to put the CR-Z through its paces before we pass (further) judgment, but this has the look of a Fiero-style “commuter car” rather than a legitimate sports coupe.

Carquestions continues his investigation of the GM HotShot heated windshield washer fluid units.

From Formula One to Nascar, racing series the world over are coming under pressure from automakers to make their action more relevant to the vehicles available on the market. Meanwhile, these same manufacturers are increasingly challenging each other to obvious marketing set-ups posing as races, the latest example of which is the laughable MINI vs Porsche challenge [above]. With cars becoming increasingly homogenized, racing and motorsport are some of the only ways for marketers to restore some of the automobile’s lost romance… but neither modern race series nor corporate challenges seem to resonate much with consumers. What (if anything) can make racing and performance prowess relevant in the post-Prius marketplace?

Oh, one other thing, I think its maybe helpful to say what has been my track record in value creation – these are four of the companies Ive been associated with – its worth noting that every financing round in every company has been an up round, doesn’t matter if the market has gone up or the market has gone down, the squiggly line is the market, and the valuations are as you can see somewhat market independent, and I expect that to be the same for Tesla, or to continue to be the same with Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in his IPO presentation [via Darryl Siry]. This, apparently, is the answer to the question how does a company that’s sold just over 1,000 cars think it’s going to become an industry player?

Good to know.

Possibly not, says the National Federation For the Blind. According to the NYT the group is

disappointed that the [Nissan Leaf’s] driver is permitted to turn off the sound because it in effect, allows drivers to deactivate this important safety feature and thereby endanger pedestrians, especially those who are blind.

Interestingly, Tesla’s IPO presentation opens with a customer describing the contrast between Corvettes “making all that noise” and Teslas which allow the driver to “hear the birds and the ocean.” With the Motor Vehicle Safety Act likely to mandate NHTSA rules on EV safety noises, expect that marketing angle to go the way of the PeaPod…

People really viewed the Peapod as an incredible case study in how you could – in modern times – bring forward a completely new idea in the automotive sector in the space of just several months. It was pretty phenomenal

Remember the PeaPod? It was “the new wave car for the younger set” masterminded by former Chrysler “Chief Innovation Officer” Peter Arnell, during the chaotic “try anything” years of Cerberus ownership. It was supposed to start going on sale last October, but the division (formerly known as GEM) was spun out of new Chrysler during bankruptcy and hasn’t been heard from since. Surprised?

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With Cadillac’s sales remaining stubbornly slack, the GM luxury rband is looking for every opportunity to win back customers. Image-conscious fashion victims have the CTS Coupe to coo over, but what about the Consumer Reports-reading luxury buyers who want a well-managed, hassle-free customer experience? Cadillac is trying to make inroads with these buyers as well, introducing a 4 year, 50,000 mile maintenance program for all 2011 model-year vehicles [full presser here]. The program includes

scheduled oil changes, tire rotations, replacement of engine and cabin air filters and a multi-point vehicle inspection

Sorry CTS-V drivers, but that doesn’t include free tires. And as much as we might like to laud Cadillac’s decision to back up its products, this move doesn’t really get them ahead of the game. Instead, Cadillac is only just keeping pace with the likes of BMW, which has offered a four-year, 50k mile scheduled maintenance program for some time. So now Cadillac can say that buyers who switch from BMW won’t be surprised by first-year maintenance costs, eliminating one possible frustration on the customer experience level. Still, this is hardly a perception-shifting, Hyundai Assurance-level gimmick for the luxury game. [Update: The BMW program does not include tire rotations. Standard Of The World after all?]

If there’s one reason we dedicate as many pixels as we do to the rise of speed cameras in the US, it’s the UK. We’ve seen how speed cameras have taken over Old Blighty, jamming the newswires with reports of mis-ticketing, unwarranted surveillance and popular backlashes against the dread cameras. But apparently the UK has decided that, with more speed cameras than any other nation on earth, it’s time to stop building more. Totallymotor reports that road safety minister Mike Penning has announced that his new conservative government will stop financing the construction of speed cameras by local authorities, bringing an end to a decade’s worth of camera build-up. Penning tells local authorities that they are free to purchase cameras with their own money, but that the government will encourage the use of alternative safety measures.
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Tesla, a firm that its CEO Elon Musk describes as a “technology velociraptor,” has unveiled these first hints at future applications of its Model S sedan platform [via Darryl Siry, Full presentation here]. Far be it from us to call Tesla a dinosaur, but if the sedan costs $50k base, who’s going to buy a commercial van based on the same chassis and technology? Tesla had a chance as long as it remained the Ferrari of the Silicon Valley, but these designs hint at a deep lack of focus behind the scenes.

What is luxury? In the American car market, that question doesn’t have an easy answer. Driver-focused performers like BMW’s 3-series sell well here, but so do feature-loaded versions of mass market sedans, like the Lexus ES. Blinged-out baroque still has its adherents, but as the Napa Valley hotel where the Cadillac CTS Coupe was launched […]

Does Fiat buy pedals from CTS? Hat Tip: The always well-informed Carquestions

Wuchtig. I’m sitting, panting, trying to catch my breath on the side of a tiny two-lane road running through the vineyards of California’s Napa Valley. I’m in an American car. I haven’t spoken German regularly since I was 18. Adrenalin has chased everything resembling a coherent thought from my mind. And yet, strangely, the only thing left banging around my speed-addled skull is a single German adjective for which the English language has no translation: wuchtig.
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How does he stand now in your eyes, this captain,
the look and bulk of him, the inward poise?

Homer’s Odyssey, Book 11 lines 391-392