Pacific Porsche’s Carl Tofflemire Chosen As Porsche Owners Club Marketing Director
The first PDS Event of the 2012 Season at Streets of Willow is just a few short days away! This is a New Member Promotion Event with Recession Buster pricing! If you bring a New Member to the track that drives the event you get $50 POC Bucks. The New Member will get a $95 Certificate to use at his second event.
Lunch will be sponsored both days by Pacific Porsche with “give-a-ways”.
The weather is expected to be tailor made with track records to fall! No rain in the forecast! Please register ASAP so we can plan for the event. Call today for hotel reservations – space is limited due to soccer tournaments in town so rooms are at a premium. There are only a few rooms left at the Marriott Springhill Suites at the POC Rate. Instructors we need your help – contact Dave Gardner asap. Contact Laurie Taylor with your questions and don’t miss this opportunity to shake off the rust and get your Driving Season started!
The “Early Bird” Membership renewal rate of $75 is only good thru 1/31/12. Payment must be received by this date.
Toyota Confirms Limited Production Of Electric RAV4 And Scion iQ In 2012
by: Zach McDonald Hybridcars.com
Toyota’s chief executive in the United States confirmed last week that electric versions of the Scion iQ and the Toyota RAV4 will enter the production cycle in 2012. The two electric vehicles have been promised for a couple of years, so hitting the delivery dates on time is good news. The bad news is how tentative the production numbers will be.
Toyota Motor Sales president and chief operating officer, Jim Lentz, told reporters at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show that both the electric iQ minicar and the battery-powered RAV4 SUV will be small-scale production vehicles and used to “gauge consumer preferences, usage patterns and daily requirements.” In other words, Toyota will continue to sit on the sidelines and study EVs, while Nissan (and others) aim for the biggest possible volume for its electric vehicles.
Lentz also confirmed that the Toyota RAV4 EV will have a range that exceeds 100 miles. It will become the only all-electric SUV available in the US when it hits dealerships-mainly in California-later this year. The second-generation RAV4 EV is also Toyota’s first fully-electric vehicle sold in the United States since it halted sales of the legendary old-school RAV4 EV in 2003. This time around, Toyota will team up with the startup EV-maker Tesla for design and production of RAV4′s drivetrain. Tesla’s Roadster and forthcoming Model S are both capable of ranges well in excess of the 100-mile barrier other fully-electric consumer vehicles have failed to break.
Lentz said the electrified Scion iQ will have a range of 50 miles or less, and that the minicar will be a fleet-only vehicle. It’s expected that most of the 100 or so Scion iQ EVs will be sold to car-sharing programs in urban areas in the US. According to Lentz, gauging consumer preferences means that Toyota will “test” both electrified vehicles for three years, at which point the automaker will determine whether or not the technology is ready for mass production.
Pricing information for both vehicles is still unknown.
Volkswagen Introduces “Golf R Drivers Forever” iPad App
With the arrival of its performance icon to LAcarGUY dealerships this month, Volkswagen announced today that it is bringing the all-new 2012 Golf R to a mass audience via an iPad® app. Created with the enthusiast community in mind, the “Golf R Drivers Forever” app provides access to everything one needs to know about the Golf R. From the history of the popular Golf model and the community that rallies around it, to the focused engineers of Volkswagen, this app covers it all.

Told through the perspective of Volkswagen enthusiasts and drivers who helped bring this car to the United States, the app provides an interactive narrative on the evolution of the Golf from its days as the Rabbit in the 1970’s all the way to the present 2012 Golf R model. Filled with exclusive interviews, articles and footage, this is one app all Volkswagen fans will want to interact with.
“The Golf R app was created to celebrate and thank the Volkswagen brand’s community of enthusiasts because they represent what makes the Golf R special,” said Jon Browning, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America. “The app will help build awareness around the Volkswagen brand heritage and we are excited to offer this innovative approach that illustrates the performance of the Golf R.”
The editorial-driven iPad app features:
*Exclusive videos, photos, interviews and Golf footage. Highlights include:
*A mini-documentary about the world of Volkswagen including footage of the world-famous Autostadt, created by AWOL Films
*An exclusive interview with designer Chip Foose discussing his passion for the VW brand and love for the Golf
*Accounts from key members of the Volkswagen of America Product Marketing team and Volkswagen R GmbH team
*Fan testimonials and enthusiast stories
*Interactive timeline spanning the history of the Golf
*Golf R brochure with tech specs, photo gallery and 360° view of the car
The “Golf R Drivers Forever” iPad app launches in the iTunes App Store on January 17, 2012 and is free to download. You may download the here: Golf R iPad app
The 2012 Golf R is the most powerful Volkswagen sports performance vehicle ever sold in the U.S. With 256 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque, the 2.0-liter TSI® engine offers performance and fuel efficiency, thanks to intelligent downsizing. Like the previous R32 models, the Golf R is equipped with Volkswagen’s 4Motion® all-wheel drive system: the latest generation of this system can divert up to 100 percent of the torque to the rear wheels, if needed. All Golf R models sold in the U.S. will be equipped with a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission and come standard with top of the line features including dual-zone automatic climate control, Bi-Xenon headlamps and LED daytime running lights, and unique 18” alloy wheels. For the first time, the Golf R will be available in two-and four-door models.
Stay in touch with us on our Facebook, Twitter and G+ pages to see when the Golf R arrives!
Toyota Hollywood School Gardens Project Begins Plantings

Pacific Audi Is Getting A New Home!
Before stepping into a new car, you need to step into a dealership – an experience which has long been characterized as hectic, overwhelming, and disjointed. But what if a dealership was designed like a luxury vehicle itself, where every detail was taken into account even down to the flowers and coffee cups!

The Audi commitment to progress goes beyond vehicles to redefining dealerships themselves. But not simply a facelift or surface upgrade. At Audi, progress is redesigning dealerships to encompass the entire Audi exclusive customer experience.
Designed by the renowned architecture firm of Allmann Sattler Wappner of Munich, Audi’s new “Terminal” dealerships combine the efficiency, performance, luxury, and environmental themes that the brand has become known for in its vehicles.
The Audi Brand architecture has evolved into the twenty first century from the original Corporate Identity known as the “Audi hanger” into the “Audi terminal” concept. The curve, already the characteristic element in the Audi hanger with its unmistakable curved roof has been reinterpreted as a symbol for dynamism within the new Audi terminal architecture.
Dynamism, asymmetry and transparency remain central to the design of the Audi architecture. The main features of the Audi hanger have been abstracted and reintroduced in a spatially more consistent form. Thus the dynamism of asymmetric curves forming three-dimensional environment becomes a defining factor of the Audi terminal.
All vehicles are positioned on the dynamically styled curve segments. All other operations related to vehicle presentation and to the workshop are orthogonally organized. The asymmetrical look is clearly brought out by the juxtaposition of the two structural systems.
By reducing down to the simple but unmistakable basic principle of overlaying a static and a spatially dynamic system, any level of scaling and modularization can be undertaken.
The Audi Terminal dealership does not stop with the architecture. The custom-made furniture and accessories are all designed to fit into the Audi vision and enhance customers’ car-buying experience.
The Pacific Audi Terminal will be here in the winter of 2012. With over 40,000 square feet available to view and service your next Audi, the Pacific Audi Terminal can display 17 cars on the showroom floor and service up to 22 vehicles at one time!
We will be posting updates of our construction progress on our Facebook, Twitter and G+ pages, so make sure you are following us there, to stay on top of everything!
Lexus’ Stunning LF-LC Wins Prestigious EyesOn Design Award
Lexus showed us a glimpse of the future at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan with the unveiling of the LF-LC concept. The team behind the futuristic looks of the vehicle is none other than Lexus’ Calty design studio in Newport Beach, California. As a formula, the LF-LC Concept is a hybrid 2+2 coupe that aims to provide driving dynamics as cutting-edge and sharp as its headlights — if it were to be built.

More importantly, however, is the design of the vehicle, as it points toward what we can expect from Lexus in the coming years. The bold LF-LC shows off the brand’s new spindle grill look, while the lights the front headlamps are in shapes so original they cannot be mistaken for anything else.
What we do similarities with, however, is the beloved LF-A supercar in the LF-LC’s overall profile. If Lexus were to make an LF-A that seats four, chances are it will be pretty close to looking like this. The interior is very well appointed with rich leather and suede, futuristic seating, intricate stitching, and about half a tree’s worth of wood, with a massive center stack bringing the entire cabin together. It’s so big in fact, that Lexus’ designers were able to fit a touch-sensitive 12.3-inch LCD screen that handles all infotainment, climate control, and navigation responsibilities.
Hopefully this rakish coupe will find a way to showrooms in the not-too-distant future. If it does, Lexus claims that the LF-LC will ”remain within reach for premium buyers.” If the LF-LC were to enter production tomorrow, chances are it would match up somewhere with the BMW 6 Series, or perhaps even the Maserati GranTurismo.
Volkswagen E-Bugster Plug-in Brings Impressive Charging and Battery Advancements
By Laurent J. Masson
PluginCars.com
To some onlookers, the Volkswagen E-Bugster concept unveiled at the North American International Auto Show was a disappointment. As we say in French, this E-Bugster is déjà vu. We’ve seen it before. Really. Seven years ago, exactly at the same place, Volkswagen unveiled the Ragster concept, which looked pretty much the same. After so much time, you might assume this E-Bugster is a production model, but it isn’t. It’s another concept.

So how is the E-Bugster any different from the dozens of other never-to-be-made concepts you see at motor shows? First of all, it is a functioning automobile. In addition, it has something you don’t find in one-off prototypes—use of a standardized drivetrain, which actually pretty big deal.
Sharing Is Caring
The Volkswagen group sold a record 8.16 million vehicles to its customers in 2011. Record profits are on the way, thanks in no small part to the use of shared platforms and engines. It’s less common in America, but in Europe, the Skoda and Seat brands sell cars with a Czech or a Spanish flavor (respectively), that are 100 percent Volkswagen cars underneath.
How does this relate to EVs? Barely two months ago, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi unveiled an electric A3 e-tron concept. It had the same motor found in this E-Bugster—which is also the one we saw the year before, when Volkswagen introduced an electric Golf called Blue-e-Motion. Eighty of them are currently undergoing a test in Berlin, and preliminary results have reportedly been very positive.
Without much fanfare, Volkswagen has been hard at work on electric mobility, making it better in every aspect, and they’re already getting results. Power from the motor is 85 kW (115 hp), the same as it was the Golf Blue-e-Motion, but the motor has been made lighter. Its weight is down to 80 kg (176 lbs).
The battery pack has more capacity. It was 26.5 kWh in the Golf, and now that’s up to 28.3 kWh. Volkswagen says that it enables a range of at least 110 miles. It’s unknown what cells Volkswagen is using—it tested cells from numerous manufacturers—but it’s unlikely that they will be small cells like Tesla uses.
Charging Ahead
The E-Bugster also shows a huge improvement on the charging side. Thanks to a new Combined Charging Systems (CCS), which was developed in cooperation with all the other German carmakers, as well as Ford and GM, the car can be charged via a unique interface, with different currents.
The E-Bugster uses the same plug connector to charge from a standard American 110-Volt wall outlet, and up to an ultra-fast 50 kW DC current at electric charge stations. That’s way beyond the simple standardization of the plug connector. Volkswagen’s plan is to outdo the other car manufacturers that have designed their cars with several charging systems. The idea here is to have one smart charge controller, and a versatile unique electrical architecture to make the most of the current available, wherever the driver plugs in.
At best, the 28.3 kWh battery in this E-Bugster can be charged in 35 minutes. Volkswagen will invest what it takes to make this impressive feat a reality in all of its electric vehicles. Electric cars using the Blue-e-Motion electric powertrain will go into production in cars like the Golf as soon as next year, with others likely to follow.





























