Porsche 911 GT3 Does Away with Most of its Camouflage

Porsche is occasionally getting some flak for sticking with the same layout in the 911 for the past five decades. That’s not entirely true: while the engine has always been placed behind the rear axle, Zuffenhausen can boast that it rolls out more variations of its quintessential model than any other manufacturer.
 
One of them, considered the hardcore driver’s choice, is the GT3. Introduced in the 996 model in 1999, it has always come with a naturally aspirated flat-six based on the racing GT1 unit, a manual gearbox, sportier suspension and chassis setup and less amenities inside. 
 
And one more thing, the GT3 would not tolerate fools behind its responsive steering wheel.

SCOOP: New BMW 3- or 4-Series Hardtop Convertible Nabbed Playing in the Cold

The convertible edition of the BMW 3-Series may be the least popular body style in the range, but it's one that is widely considering to be leader in its segment while also returning higher profits per unit compared to the regular models.
And whereas most manufacturers prefer to offer either a coupe and a soft top cabriolet or a single hardtop convertible model, with the presentation of the fifth generation 3-Series Convertible in 2006, BMW decided to do both.

Spy Shots: New Maserati Quattroporte Looks Like it well get an A7-esque Roofline

Up until now, Maserati had done a pretty a good job hiding its Quattroporte prototypes from the prying eyes of our scoop photographers, but they finally nabbed it while undergoing winter testing on an ice track used by the Fiat Group in Sweden.

The current model is the fifth generation Quattroporte and it has been in the market for a quite long time – since 2004, to be precise. Despite its sporty and elegant looks that have stood the test of time, the Italian luxury sedan is showing its age in various areas.

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Spy Shots: New Skoda Mission L Compact Sedan Shapes up for Production

There's a new Skoda coming to town and these are some of the first spy photos of the soon to be revealed compact sedan, which will be based on the Mission L Concept study exhibited at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show.

There has been some confusing concerning the production version of the Mission L (we still don't know what Skoda will name it) and the Czech automaker's Rapid small sedan that was recently launched in India.

It is to our understanding that while they are probably related, at the same time, they are different models, with the Rapid being a rebadged VW Polo sedan.

For one, whereas the Rapid has a third side window housed separately in the C-column, both the concept and the prototype Mission L incorporate the triangular pane on the rear door.

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Spied: 2013 Audi Q5 to Receive a Trivial Makeover

The next generation Q7 isn't the only crossover model Audi is working on these days as our eagle-eyed scoop photographers filtered through the cleverly placed camouflage and spotted this facelifted Q5 while testing in Europe.

If you take closer look at the pictures that follow in the gallery below, you'll see that Audi has tapped off the corners of the Q5's grille to make it look like the current model.

What the Germans don't won't you to see is the redesigned, hexagonal front grille, which is present on all new Audi models including the 2013 A3 hatchback.

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Scoop: Audi Spotted Testing Next Generation Q7 Mule

Audi's first attempt in the full-size luxury SUV segment, the Q7, has been in the market since 2005 having received a rather subtle facelift in 2009. This means it's almost time for the Ingolstadt-based automaker to present the second generation model.

The brand with the four rings has already started work on the new Q7 with a test mule that uses a modified version of current model's body shell to hide its new and lighter platform architecture.

As you can see in these photos, the test mule's fenders are wider while it appears that the front overhang may be shorter.

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Is this the First Official Sketch of the New 2012 Kia Pro_Cee'd Three-Door Hatch?

The next generation of Kia's five-door Cee'd and its estate sibling were only just introduced last week at the ongoing 82nd Geneva International Motor Show, but we already have what is claimed to be the first official rendering of the sportier looking Pro_Cee'd, courtesy of Kia-World.

The Pro_Cee'd is the three-door hatchback version of Kia's C-segment model and it's scheduled to launch in the European market within the next year, possibly making its debut at the Paris Motor Show this fall, though we wouldn't be surprised if Kia reveals the car at next year's Geneva event.

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Spy Shots: Ford Prepares Fiesta for its First Facelift, will get New 1.0L EcoBoost and SYNC

Ford's engineers are busily testing the facelifted version of the Fiesta subcompact hatchback, which could be revealed as early as this fall at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.

The front end of the prototype was hidden under camouflage, but we can see that it features a re-sculptured hood – similar to the one found on the new Fiesta ST. You can also expect a newly designed bumper with a modified grille and different fog lamp housings, and possibly some minor tweaks to the headlamps.

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Scoop: New Mercedes-Benz Citan wears its Production Gear

Less than a week after we brought the first spy photos of Mercedes-Benz's engineers trying out a test mule of the German brand's upcoming Citan van, our man with the long lens was able to spot the final production version.

Whereas the previous prototype featured was essentially a slightly modified Renault Kangoo, this one is a…Renault Kangoo with a Mercedes front end featuring the firm's family grille with the star in the middle and from the little we can tell, the tail lamps as well.

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Spy Shots: 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Flagship Begins its Strip Tease

These are some of the most revealing scoop pictures yet of the next iteration of the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class limousine, codenamed W222.

Automakers tend to loosen up on the camouflage when a car's presentation is drawing closer and from what we've heard, the new S-Class will arrive in Merc's dealerships across the world during 2013.

If there's one thing that's obvious from these photos is the 2014 S-Class sedan's styling will be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Sure, there will be new details such as the headlamps and the swoopier rear-end design along with different line structures for the profile, but overall, the shape of the car will be reminiscent of the current model.

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Scoop: Is Opel Working on a Mild Refresh for its Opel Astra Range?

It has become something of a norm for automakers to update their vehicles after three or four years into the market, depending on their life span.

The fourth generation of the Opel Astra is nearing that phase as it was introduced in five-door hatchback form at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show with the estate model (called Tourer) following a year later at the 2010 Paris Motor Show and the three-door GTC being presented at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show.

Our spy shooters caught up with a vehicle transporter in Germany loaded with a bunch of new Opel Astras, one of which was a Tourer model with its fascia partially masked in tape.

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SPIED: BMW's New M3 Sedan Drops Two Cylinders but Gains Turbochargers

The engineers over at BMW's M division have their hands full with a variety of upcoming projects, one of which is the new M3 captured here in a sedan body style.

The first thing you'll need to know about the next M3 saloon and its two-door siblings (rumor has it they may be named M4), is that the current model's 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated V8 will give its place to a smaller displacement six-cylinder engine that will follow the example of the M5 employing the use of turbochargers.

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SPY SHOTS: All-New 2013 Renault Clio Looks Set for Paris Motor Show Debut

The last time we caught up with a prototype of the next generation Renault Clio, our spies had spotted a test mule, meaning that the French company's engineers were trying out the new chassis under the current model's body shell.

No more of that as our man with the long lens nabbed the actual production model attempting to hide under some wiggly camouflage. It may take a while to go through the maze of lines but the shape and the details of the new Clio are pretty clear.

You may not notice it at first, but this is the five-door model as Renault's designers have tried to hide the rear door handles by incorporating them on the corner of the window.

The fourth generation of Clio will be lower and wider than the current model sporting a more dramatic design than the similarly sized, pure-electric Zoe, the production version of which was launched in Geneva this week.

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Spied: New Mercedes-Benz Viano Van Trots Out on the Snow for Testing

While Mercedes-Benz's top brass was in Switzerland to present their newest products at the Geneva Motor Show, back at home, the brand's engineers and testers were trying out prototypes of the new generation of the Viano people carrier.

The Viano is the passenger version of Mercedes-Benz's Vito series of professional vans, which will also be replaced at about the same time.

The heavy camouflage leaves a lot to the imagination but it is apparent from these photos that most if not all styling changes will take place up front bringing the Viano a little closer to Mercedes-Benz's latest models.

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Leaked Photos Reveal Lamborghini's Geneva Motor Show Aventador J Speedster

It’s the weekend before the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and as such, some presentations are to be expected but the reveal we're about to tell you, wasn't planned for today, at least not officially.

Somehow, the crew over at Czech website Autoforum got their hands on the Lamborghini's surprise Swiss debut, which is none other than the Aventador J. Coincidentally, the Sant'Agata automaker published an official teaser video of a car describe/named as "#Unica" a few hours back.

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Another Photo of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz A-Class Leaked, Could it be the AMG Model?

Mercedes-Benz may be gearing up for a world premiere of the all-new from the ground up A-Class hatchback at next week's Geneva Auto Show, but over the past few months, we've shown you everything from the official design patents to a video of the car filmed during an island photo shoot.

The latest picture comes courtesy of Hungarian auto site Automobil, and it shows the rear end of the new A-Class hatch. The editor of the site told Carscoop that the picture was attached to an email sent by a Mercedes-Benz dealer.

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New Kia K9 Flagship Makes Another Appearance for the Camera

Most of you should know what the new Kia K9 looks by now (at least on the outside) after the release of the official shots earlier this week, but we've discovered two new videos of the Korean firm's promising new flagship sedan filmed on the road.

There's nothing new we can add to our previous post as Kia continues to have a tight hold on most information regarding the K9, including when and in which other markets outside its home country it plans to offer its first ever rear-wheel drive sedan.

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Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Crashes During Test, Captured on Camera!

Many things can go wrong during a test, especially if it involves a highly powerful supercar like the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, which is why automotive engineers select remote places like the Arctic Circle.

However, being that our spies travel to all four corners of the world with the goal of capturing a future model on film, there is always the slim possibility that they'll be on hand when something goes wrong. It's usually a one in a million shot, but stranger things have happened.

And that one in a million chance came when one of our scoop photographers was waiting for a Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 to pass by somewhere in the Arctic Circle and there, it happened; it crashed into the snow!

One of the photographer's associates described the incident to Carscoop thusly:

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U Spy: Another Mystery Sedan Awaits to be Unraveled, What do You Think it is?

The evolution of mobile phones into a technological Swiss army knife has made capturing a picture of anything interesting you may stumble upon as easy as lifting a finger.

Nevertheless, you'll have to be very observant to seize the moment as was the case with Carscoop reader Scott M. that quickly snapped a few shots of a heavily disguised sedan model on a freeway in Southern California before it got away.

In a very similar scenario to another "U Spy" story on a sedan model about a year ago (read more here), we'll have to admit that we’re not sure what it is we're seeing here.

Sure it looks like a mid-size sedan, but what about the brand and type of model?

The heavy camo and grainy pictures don't help much, but to open the conversation that you can continue after the break, our first though went to the production version of the Lincoln MKZ Concept shown in Detroit last month.

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SPY SHOTS: New 2013 BMW M6 Gran Coupe is On its Way

BMW is planning to inject some serious power under the hood of its sexy 6-Series Gran Coupe sports sedan with the addition of a flagship version wearing the iconic M badge.

However, don't expect any prizes for guessing the power source as it's a well-known fact that all upper level BMW M models are motivated by the same or in some cases, mildly modified version of the brand's 4.4-liter bi-turbo V8 engine.

We anticipate that it will be the same unit found in the brand-new M6 Coupe and Convertible models with the internal designation S63Tü.

And while there's always the possibility of BMW M engineers fiddling around with the electronics to push out a few more ponies, chances are it will deliver the same output at 560-horses (412kW) between 5,750 and 7,000 rpm, and a peak torque of 680Nm (502lb-ft) from 1,500 to 5,750 rpm.

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