Ferrari Sleigh | Source: CarMagazine.co.uk | Click to enlarge

Every year, Britain’s Car Magazine sponsors a contest where noted automakers redesign Santa’s Sleigh. This year, one of the entrants is from Ferrari, a company accustomed to designing sports cars.

Coming from the Flavio Mazoni-led design team based in Maranello, this super-sleigh is reputed to use many of the same design principles which make its road-ready super-cars like the 458 Italia so successful.

The Ferrari sleigh is a lightweight ride with Ferrari’s iconic prancing horse on its flanks and racing numbers on the door panels. The canopy and wings evoke the 1960s-era Ferrari 330 P4 race car. No tech specs have been released yet, but so far, we know that there’s a steering wheel (Ferrari would never give up on a steering wheel) and the fuselage has been perforated to reduce the weight further. No obvious means of propulsion is visible, but the rear ‘foils suggest that jet power might be an option. of Santa’s sleigh in 2010.

Hyundai Azera | Source: Automotive News | Click to enlarge

Reporting from the Los Angeles Auto Show, last week, Automotive News shared that the Hyundai Azera is going upscale in its next incarnation, but will still come between the full-size Genesis sedan and the mid-size Sonata on the “luxury” scale.

Renderings of the redesigned Azera, which vehicle is sold in Korea as the fifth generation of the Grandeur, were released by Hyundai Motor Co. last week. The new Azera is expected to be available in the United States for the 2012 model year.

Speaking with an Automotive News reporter, Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik said, “We have changed everything, it’s a remarkable car. It will surprise a lot of people.”

Mr. Krafcik did not confirm an American launch date for the new Azera but did make assurances that it’s “…not that far away.”

The original Azera, a front-wheel drive vehicle, was originally launched in Korea in 1986. The 2011 Hyundai Azera (the current model) – reviewed here – is available with a 6-speed automatic transmission and a choice of two V-6 engines, and has a base MSRP of $26, 290, including shipping, but in the first ten months of this year, only 2,641 were sold, an 18% reduction from the same time-period last year.

Krafcik explains, “The Azera is a front wheel drive car whereas the Genesis is rear-wheel-drive and performance-focused, so (the Azera) will have greater appeal in northern, snow-states where front wheel drive is important, but there will be a very, very strong level of differentiation between the two cars.”

The Azera has been sold in the United States since late 2005, brought to North America as a replacement for the Hyundai XG350. It’s a near-luxury sedan meant to compete with the Chrysler 300 and Toyota Avalon, and, until the debut of the Hyundai Genesis two years ago, was the Korean automaker’s most expensive sedan.

Roughly a year ago, technology allowing blind people to drive independently was first implemented on a dune buggy. This year, Virginia Tech and the NFB, partners in the project, will present the technology on a Ford Escape, with testing planned within the next six months.

Unlike some prototypes, which are driverless, this vehicle would be completely controlled by its visually impaired driver, using technology that relies on non-visual interfaces which relay information about the car’s surroundings. Such cues may include vibrating chest plates, tactile gloves, and audible commands, or even something called the “AirPix” which uses bursts of air through a sheet of paper to create a sort of 3-D rendering of what’s going on.

The planned test, using a blind driver, is scheduled for January 29, 2011, just before the 2011 Rolex 24 race.

Can there be a Subaru without AWD? The folks at LeftLane News are as shocked as we are, writing,

There is no doubting that all-wheel drive is one of, if not the biggest selling point that has long been a trademark quality of Subaru. For years the automaker has stood by the drivetrain setup because it preached about the added safety and performance of all-wheel drive. Although the company’s latest slogan may be, “Love. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru,” many enthusiasts believe that it is all-wheel drive that makes a Subaru, a Subaru.

If Subaru does switch to RWD on the 216A sports coupe (that’s the codename for the Subaru version of the car that Toyota calls the FT-86) there will be precious little to distinguish it from Toyota’s model. Already, rumors are saying that both cars will share the same 200 HP, 2.0-liter Subaru boxer engine.

As this design year progresses, it will be interesting to watch what happens. Will Subaru end its use of AWD across the board, or simply redesign this coupe so that it’s intentionally similar to the Toyota variant? Will Subaru find the money to keep AWD.

We can only watch, and wait.

Carmakers are working on a new generation of trucks that are more like cars, built on unibody platforms and utilize front-wheel-drive. Right now leaders in this genre include:

- a concept from Toyota called the A-BAT,
- Ford’s Explorer Sport Trac, which seems poised to go fwd unibody,
- two planned pickups from General Motors,
- and potentially an offering from Chrysler as well.

As we’ve seen with the recent proliferation of clean-diesel vehicles, these ideas tend to snowball through the world of automakers. You can almost hear it, “They’re building a WHAT? Okay, we gotta build a WHAT too.”

So, what are the hallmarks of lifestyle pickups as we see them now?

- less hauling capacity
- drive quality similar to a car
- smaller engines
- better miles per gallon

Beyond that, the genre is wide-open. It’s going to be an interesting segment to watch, much like crossovers have evolved over the past year to 18 months. In my opinion, something has to come along to take the place of the SUV, a behemoth whose demise I won’t mourn. Smaller, more flexible, more efficient pick-up “crossovers?” Now that intrigues me.