A Black Knight stalks the ramparts of corporate castles, he carries a shield decorated with a wreath of beans, he swings a double-edged spreadsheet and he rides a terrifying black mare called The Bottom Line. His name is The Business Case and if a new report from Autocar is accurate, he’s done his foul work again, this time dealing another blow to the already-long-delayed Volkswagen Bluesport Roadster. Even though the engineering work for the two-seater convertible is reportedly finished, it appears no one can come up with a way to support the necessary sales projections of 50,000 units annually.

That is in part because Jonathan Browning, head of VW USA, apparently doesn’t see the point of expanding VW’s product portfolio with another model (a truly unexpected sentiment coming from Volkswagen as far as we’re concerned). The U.S. being the largest consumer of sports cars, our sitting this one out puts the 2009 Detroit Auto Show showcar in a tough spot.

Synergies being what they are, that also puts Bluesport’s brand brothers from Audi and Porsche in doubt. Audi plans for an R4 will apparently get iced in light of the news, but Porsche might have dodged a bullet: it wanted a four-cylinder 550-successor, but not one that would eat into Boxster sales, which this car almost certainly would. The Bluesport isn’t officially dead yet, but at three years in and counting, you can be sure there’s a hand on the life-support plug.

VW Bluesport Roadster might finally be dead before it lived originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galibier is dead. Long live the Galibier.

Plans are reportedly moving ahead at Bugatti headquarters in Mulsheim, France, to succeed the Veyron with a version of the Galibier concept super-sedan unveiled back in 2009. But before the company’s CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer makes the final pitch by the end of the year to the board of the Volkswagen Group for final approval, some significant changes are being made.

For one, the car is being made longer. The whole rear end is being thoroughly redone. And the engine, originally proposed as a detuned version of the Veyron’s 1000+horsepower W-16 with twin superchargers in place of the quad turbos, will now be reboosted up past the four-digit mark.

The changes reportedly come out of feedback from current Veyron owners, half of whom have reportedly seen and sat in the Galibier concept car already. As a result, Dürheimer has been quoted as saying that the project has now entered the “second half of the design phase”, but that the finished product will still bear more than a passing resemblance to the show car pictured above.

Bugatti substantially reworking Galibier before seeking final approval originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not every future Smart model is in trouble of vanishing – some will never see the light of production. To wit, Daimler’s minicar maker is bringing an all-electric, roofless version of the Smart ForTwo to the Geneva Motor Show, and the Forspeed concept looks surprisingly similar to the the Smart Speedster we got a peek at a few weeks ago.

Overall, the Forspeed echos the Smart Crossblade that was made in limited numbers in the early 2000s. Just to emphasize that the Forspeed is a pure concept, it comes equipped with some interesting taillights, no external door handles and since it’s sans-roof, there’s a toneau cover that can either coat the entire interior or just the passenger side if you get caught in the rain.

The Forspeed’s 41-hp electric motor can yawn the car all the way up to 37 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds and provide a top speed of 75 mph. That’s not excatly “speedy” as the name implys, but the boost button you see on the dash offers another seven ponies. More important is the ED part of the clumsy “ForspeED” name; it refers to the Electric Drive powertrain that we also find in the Fortwo ED. At least the concept hits 37 mph a second sooner than the standard Fortwo ED.

The range for the Forspeed is estimated to be 85 miles, with an 80-percent charge possible in 45 minutes. This is most likley under DC fast charging conditions, but we’re not sure. We’ll make sure to get more info when we’re on the ground in Geneva.

[Source: Autocar, Car And Driver]

Smart ForSpeed concept revealed before Geneva debut originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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