Mazda's Next-Generation RX-Series Coupe

When the word rotary is mentioned to any car enthusiast, you can always guarantee that their first thoughts will conjure up memories of Wankel-powered sports cars from Mazda's past.

Since the Cosmo Sport was launched in 1967, the Mazda rotary has amassed an huge following of loyal owners and admirers. Praised for their unique design, smooth operation and trademark rotary engine note, it's an engine configuration that stood out from the competition and formed the bases for the legendary RX series of performance vehicles.

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2014 BMW 2-Series Coupe and Convertible

It's a little late to sing the jingle bells, but oh, what fun is it to slide in a rear wheel drive coupe…eh? We're singing to the tune of a group of BMW engineers who seemed to be enjoying themselves in 2-Series Coupe and Convertible prototypes in Sweden, despite the freezing weather.

The cloth- and hard-top iterations of the new 2-Series will sit right below the recently announced 4-Series models as the most affordable way to get into a two-door sports car from BMW when they arrive in the market in about a year or so from now.

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First Appearance of All-New 2014 Toyota Corolla Sedan?

Unlike our previous story with the BMW 3-Series GT, there's no question whether these two pictures of the 2014 Toyota Corolla sedan that surfaced on the web are real.

The similarities with Toyota's Corolla Furia Concept car seen at last month's Detroit Auto Show are evident, with the production model dropping the "Fast and Furious" styling bits and gaining a more conservative look all around, including an Auris-like fascia.

There's very little to no information about where and under what circumstances the car was photographed, so we do not know if it's a European or a North American market version (we doubt it's a Japanese model due to the name and the fact that it is a left-hand drive example).

Either way, the styling differences will be limited, with most changes taking place under the hood, as each region will get its own engine range.

According to Toyota, the new Corolla Sedan will put greater focus on younger customers, both in terms of design and equipment features.

Toyota has said it will launch the new Corolla Sedan in the States before the end of the year, while the European market version, which will be manufactured at the brand's factory in Turkey, will either arrive at the same time or early next year.

Story References: GT85Club via Vwvortex

PHOTO GALLERY

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Scoop: Ferrari F150 Sheds Even More Camo, Sounds Delicious at Fiorano

It was about time Ferrari's people got rid of that ungainly front camouflage on the Enzo replacement test car that made it look like a startled catfish. Moreover, with the company having already teased the front and rear end of the car in its magazine, it was unnecessary...

Less than a month before its Geneva Auto Show debut, it was also time we saw and heard the F150 (the car’s internal code-name) testing. YouTube uploader Marchettino took care of that, as he filmed Maranello’s upcoming hypercar during testing at the Ferrari-owned Fiorano track – and as an added bonus, there was also a red Enzo doing the rounds, too.

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Spied: Did Citroen Just Pull a Nissan Juke-Styling Stunt on the New C4 Picasso?

We've known for a while that Citroen is developing replacements for the five-seat C4 Picasso and the longer, seven-seater C4 Grand Picasso, and that both minivans will feature a new design.

Nevertheless, these scoop pictures of a convoy of C4 Picasso MPVs driving on the streets of the city of Vigo in Spain, and which come to use courtesy of the crew over at Highmotor, caught us completely off guard - not so much by the fact that the cars were completely undisguised as by what is visible…

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Scoop: New Range Rover Sport Filmed in the Mojave Desert

Vast as it may be, the Mojave Desert is a good place to begin your search for automotive engineers trialing camouflaged prototypes of future models. The scoopsters at KGP Photography know this all too well and were on hand to record a number of 2014 Range Rover Sport test cars.

The second generation of Land Rover's sleeker sibling of the full-size Range Rover will move further away from its non-Sport namesake in terms of styling (see CarScoop's rendering here), while making use of its Premium Lightweight Architecture (PLA) that should shave as much as 300kg (about 660 pounds) over the current model.

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Spy Shots: Ferrari's F150 Hypercar Shows a Little Bit More Skin

Unlike McLaren, which has all but revealed the shape of the P1 and even released videos of its development, but is keeping mum on the powertrain specs, Ferrari has been very open about its own hypercar, currently code-named the F150 (rumor has it that it may be named F70). However, aside from a couple of teaser photos, Maranello won't fully show us the Enzo's replacement.

With McLaren having denounced V12s (which is ironic given that the F1 was powered by one), we hear that the P1 will feature a tweaked version of McLaren’s first in-house production engine, the twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 that debuted in the MP4-12C, probably with an F1-style KERS system.

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Future Cars: CarScoop's Vision of the 2017 Nissan GT-R

Ever since its Japanese launch in 2007 (USA 2008), the Nissan GT-R has gained a huge following and respect with its supercar-bashing performance. Subtle upgrades have been applied over its current lifespan with the aim of keeping Italians, Germans and Americans at bay with its AWD drivetrain coupled to a potent 3.8L twin-turbo V6.

However, the competition will not surrender; cue GM and Porsche with their new Corvette Stingray and 911 models respectively, as prime examples - hence why Nissan is expected to respond again.

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Spy Shots: New Skoda Octavia Combi Caught on Public Roads

There's really no point in trying to hide the styling elements of the new generation of the Skoda Octavia Combi since the liftback version has already been formally introduced and we've even seen the station wagon without camouflage (albeit from a distance), however, the Czech carmaker continues to circulate lightly masked prototypes like this one, nabbed earlier in the week.

Not that the Octavia saloon is revolutionary in its design, but you'll probably have a more difficult time telling the Combi apart from the current model as Skoda kept the same roofline and window design, sans the small kink on the luggage compartment area.

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First Scoop Shots of the New Audi A3 Sedan, will Compete Against the Mercedes-Benz CLA

After setting foot on the compact hatchback segment, Germany's premium car brands are now eyeing the sedan category, with Mercedes-Benz being the first to present its proposal in the form of the CLA sports saloon.

Even though Audi told us it would launch an A3-based sedan at the end of 2012, that never happened. Instead, we're now waiting for the premiere of the A3 Sedan to take place at a major international auto show in the coming months before it begins to arrive in showrooms at the end of the year or for some markets, in the first quarter of 2014.

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BMW M4 Coupe and M3 Sedan Concepts Realistically Imagined

The word on the street is that BMW is making plans to unwrap a thinly disguised concept version of the M3 sedan at the Frankfurt motor show in September, with the final production model to appear in dealerships around the world in 2014.

Like many other publications, Britain's Car Magazine has come up with an illustration to give us an idea of what to expect about the M3 sedan's looks in its latest issue.

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Spied: 2014 Volvo S60 Facelift to Sport Updated Fascia and Interior

After the recent sightings of the refreshed S80 sedan and XC60 crossover in China, our scoop photographers landed these images of a prototype of the facelifted S60 saloon testing in northern Europe.

On the outside, the only part of the car that appears to change is the front end. While heavily camouflaged, we're guessing that Volvo will follow in the path of the 2014 S80 and XC60 discarding the inner set of lights positioned between the headlamps and the grille, which itself, will also obtain a different shape and new details, as will the front bumper.

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Spy Shots: 2014 Porsche Panamera Reveals Cayman-Like Lights

While it's been over a year since we first spotted a prototype of the refreshed 2014 Panamera testing out in the open, Porsche isn't ready to release the car to the public just yet, but fear not as our sources tell us that it will make its appearance sometime this year, possibly at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

What these latest spy pictures provide us is with a better look at the facelifted Panamera's rear end that sports new LED tail lamp clusters that look similar in styling to those used on the new Cayman coupe and Boxster roadster models, as well as the newly styled bumper.

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U Design: New BMW M2 Convertible Rendered

As BMW begins to circulate craftily camouflaged prototypes of its second generation 1-Series Coupe and Convertible models, which will form the new 2-Series range, out in the open, the question arises if the Bavarian carmaker has plans for an M2 high-performance version.

From what we have heard, BMW M seems open to creating an M2 model, possibly powered by a four-cylinder turbocharged engine instead of the M135i hatchback's 3.0-liter force-fed straight-six, which would mark a first for the brand since the demise of the original M3 E30 back in the early 1990s.

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Rolls-Royce Officially Shows New Wraith's Profile, Plus a Fresh Batch of Spy Photos

Less than 24 hours after we composed a single image from Rolls Royce's teaser website, the English brand came out with a high-resolution version of the darkened photo that reveals the new Wraith coupe's profile, which we digitally enhanced to give you a better look at the car.

Meanwhile, our own spy photographers dropped a new set of images of a Wraith prototype undergoing winter tests in our email box as well.

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U Spy: Can You Crack the Brand and Model Behind this SUV Prototype?

Our first reader-sourced, photo scoop of the year comes to us from Daryl who crossed paths with this heavily disguised test car earlier on Monday.

Here's what Daryl told CarScoop:

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Scoop: Facelifted Porsche Panamera Shows its LED Tailamps in the Dark

If Porsche sticks to its original plan, we'll see a new generation of the Panamera heavily inspired by the lines and shapes of last year's Sport Turismo Concept and expanded with new body styles in 2016.

In the meantime, Porsche will update the current Panamera saloon with a mid-life facelift, which is expected to make its first appearance this year, but we still don't know where – the Frankfurt show in September is a prime candidate.

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We Piece Together the First Official Look at the New Rolls Royce Wraith Coupe

Just last week, Rolls-Royce released the name of its all-new Ghost-based coupe model, the Wraith, adding that it will make its global premiere at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show in early March.

Britain's most famous carmaker also told us that in the weeks leading up to the show, it plans to "reveal additional information and a series of teaser images", which it did, beginning today with a smoke screen-style teaser on its public website where users can move their mouse to divulge bits and pieces of the car.

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Scoop: Mercedes-Benz's Next S65 AMG Super Limo Chilling Out on the Road

A very lightly camouflaged prototype of what we believe to be the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG performance limo was detailed on film while parked on the road by YouTube user DrGumoLunatic.

But what leads us to think that this is the S65 and not the S63 AMG, or for that matter, a regular W222 S-Class model? Well, we could mention the wheels and brakes, but the most telling part are the quad exhaust pipes, as each pair is connected, a trait seen only in the S65 AMG models – in the S63, for example, there are four separately shaped outlets.

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Spied: Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe Filmed in Michigan

If there's one Alfa Romeo model that may come to the U.S. after all, it's the upcoming production version of the 4C mid-engine sports coupe concept that was first seen at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.

A reader from the online edition of Autoweek magazine captured a heavily camouflaged prototype of the 4C testing on a Michigan expressway last Friday, January 11.

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