Before every automaker and their sister-companies got into the luxury SUV game, there was really only one truck to speak of, and that was the Range Rover. Now 40 years since its original introduction and three generations on, Land Rover has produced a whopping million Range Rovers, and is teaming up with a local charity to mark the occasion.

The landmark vehicle, a top-of-the-line black Range Rover Vogue Autobiography edition, just rolled off the assembly line at Solihull, and is being donated to Help for Heroes. The British foundation assists wounded soldiers upon their return home, and will receive the vehicle during Top Gear Live at Earls Court in London where none other than Jeremy Clarkson, a patron of the organization, will take delivery on its behalf.

The millionth Range Rover, with a retail value of over £85,000, will then be auctioned off for the benefit of the charity's work, with pre-auction estimates exceeding the £100,000 mark. Full details in the press release after the jump.



[Source: Land Rover]

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It's not a Transfomer, but it can transform. It's called the Halo Intersceptor, a creation of Philip Pauley, and in the designer's own words it's "the future of travel as we know it... a four seater USB stick that is designed to outperform any other private vehicle on earth." That's done with the vehicle attachments that can turn the bullet-shaped coupe into a plane, a helicopter and a twin-hulled ocean racer.

Back the car into the Halo 120° fitment, and a "private and unparalleled Jet flight experience" await you. Back it into the Halo 46° and it's a helicopter, while the Halo 22° is a "High Performance Sports Cruiser" closed cockpit Cigarette-type boat with exterior access to double berths up front.

Our favorite part is Pauley's claim that the Intersceptor has "no need for superlatives, no hyperbole, just desire and good business sense." Ahem. Find more of that subtle talk in the press release and video after the jump.



[Source: Pauley Interactive]

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Next time you walk up to a BMW at an auto show, you won't be left to merely read the specs and imagine what the car looks like in more worldly conditions. BMW is equipping its stands at "Major American Auto Shows" with a iPads that will present interactive content in English and Spanish, along with a configurator, videos and photographs and to schedule a test drive. The BMW iPad techfest is going on now at the South Florida International Auto Show in Miami and expect it to appear in your own backyard soon.

[Source: BMW]

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For the first three generations of its life the Ssangyong Korando was a Jeep-like creature with an extended proboscis, and it had Jeep-like intentions. But the company itself has taken a trip through the fires of capitalism and emerged reborn and tied to Mahindra, and it brought a rebirthed Korando with it: the formerly muscly ladder-chassis two-door that went out of production in 2008 is now a Giugiario-penned, unibody four-door crossover.

Unveiled in Mallorca and aimed at the UK market, five variants of the Korando from a two-wheel drive manual to an all-wheel drive automatic will go up against the stars of the isle with names like Kuga, Qashqai and Tiguan. Power will come from a Euro 5-compliant, 173 horsepower, 2.0-liter diesel also good for 4,000 pounds of towing. And the five-year, 250,000-mile warranty should be good to assuage a bit of trepidation at buying into the Ssangyong family. Follow the jump for the press release, and take a look at the new Korando in the gallery of high-res photos below.



[Source: Ssangyong]

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	Four auto companies named greenest in America, but none are domestics Instead, Toyota wins for "Worldwide Leadership in Hybrid Technology." Shocker.		Li-Ion Motors Inizio: a $139K electric supercar that soars to 170 mph. Or does it? Something doesn't add up here.
	Morgan Motor Company to relaunch modern version of legendary Threewheeler What an update this is.	Other news: Fisker Automotive hoping to raise an additional $75-$150 million Coda CEO Kevin Czinger resigns Officially Official: BMW confirms Efficient Dynamics production [w/video]

Renault's Carlos Ghosn was recently in Russia to settle on purchasing a 50-percent stake in AvtoVaz, and it appears he brought along a Renault Formula 1 car for his pal Vladimir Putin to flog about. Once installed in the cockpit, Putin gets some instruction from a Renault engineer in French-accented English, then cranks the revs and runs it down what looks like a wet runway. There looked to be at least one spin involved, but considering how finicky F1 cars are to drive even for the paid professionals, it didn't look like a bad job. Follow the jump for the video. Hat tip to Duy P!

[Source: Siberian Light]

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The car under the sheet in is the next Audi A6, scheduled to go into production later this year at Audi's Neckarsulum plant. How do we know that? Because Audi "revealed" it among a list of products being built there this year. Audi used a black sheet to tease the A8 a year ago, so we aren't sure if Audi decided that wasn't teaser-y enough or if maybe the company just gets killer deals at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Regardless, we can't glean any more about this car than the veiled A8: there will be LEDs and a trapezoidal Audi grille with the logo front and center, mirrors and a roof antenna. So, now that we've done the hard work, any fellow Sherlocks out able to deduce further?

[Source: Quattroholic]

The Volkswagen Up! has a show date, that being next year's Frankfurt Auto Show. The little shoe on wheels will have three doors outside, four seats inside, and three cylinders underhood. The car is also expected to go on sale in Europe next year, with deliveries to dealers "in late 2011" and a sticker price of around €10,000 ($14,000 U.S.). After that, a sedan, five-door hatch and minivan will also be added to the mix, with the initial gas and diesel powerplants expanding as well into an electric option – and by then it may be called Lupo.

The electric model will reportedly arrive in 2013 and, it has been rumored, provide the basis for a similar Audi model. What hasn't been said is which (or how many) versions of the Up! will come to America and when that will happen. We know the plain Jane model won't make it Stateside, and a larger electrified Up! was proposed last year, but things are moving so quickly on the alternative fuel front that it's anyone's guess what will actually occur in 2013.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

If the Nissan GT-R is going to seriously take on the Porsche 911, it's going to need to do a bit better on the interior fit and finish. Nissan's own people realized that much when they launched the Egoist edition of the new GT-R, but what if you've already got your Godzilla in the driveway? What are you to do then?

Turn to Umbrella Auto Design, that's what. The Seattle-based tuners have announced an aftermarket retrofit for the GT-R's interior that swathes the entire cabin – seats, dashboard, console, instrument binnacle, steering wheel, door panels, shift levers, etc. in luxe and racy black ultra-suede with silver diamond quilting and top-stitch. They've even repainted the plastics in black to match. Looks pretty slick, and they can reportedly carry it out on any GT-R in about three weeks. Check it out in the gallery below.



[Source: Umbrella via GT-R Blog]

The naysayers dismiss Formula One racing as elitist. They say the same handful of teams win every year and nobody else has a chance. Maybe once upon a time, but with teams like Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing climbing out of nowhere to compete for victories and world championship standings, who could say it's still the case today?

Of course when one team rises, others must fall. While teams like Ferrari and McLaren are still veritable forces to be reckoned with, others have fallen by the wayside – arguably none more emphatically than Williams. The team of Damon Hill, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna; the team with nine constructors' titles to its name and seven drivers' championships; the team that once struck fear into the hearts of all challengers has long since fallen off its perch.

It's all the more surprising, then, when the team's young talent Nico Hulkenberg knocked the others off theirs this weekend in Brazil by taking pole position in qualifying on Saturday. Would he be able to defend the lead at such a vaunted circuit against such a formidable field of title-seeking adversaries? Follow the jump to find out.



[Images: Mark Thompson/Getty | Ricardo Mazalan, Silvia Izquierdo, Andre Penner/AP Photo]

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