Inside Line has learned that Jaguar is working on a compact five-door coupe a la Audi A5 Sportback or BMW 5 Series GT. It's based on the Jaguar XF (pictured) platform architecture.

Codenamed RD7, the Jaguar hatchback has suicide-type rear doors and a side-hinged gate as on the beloved XK-E (E-type). Apparently, Jaguar has been considering both three- and five-door versions but has decided to concentrate on the five-door, which the company believes would sell in greater numbers. Under the hood is the 2.7-liter V6 diesel Jaguar introduced in the XF.

Although this project is timely given Audi's and BMW's efforts to create the luxury five-door hatchback segment, our sources suggest that Jaguar's hatch is at least four years from production as the company has limited manpower to near through such a project. A new sportscar, codenamed XE, is likely to precede it; this reborn E-Type would be unveiled sometime in 2011, with a plan to place it on understanding in 2012.

A ragged W220 Mercedes-Benz S-Class pushed — yes, pushed — an equally ragged E38 BMW 7 Series along the right lane of the Lodge Freeway. I was on my way from Ford’s Dearborn headquarters back to Motor Trend’s Detroit Bureau. As I approached, the worn luxo pair was quickly gaining on a clapped out Ford Taurus moving along in the middle lane some 25 mph below the posted limit.

It would have been all too cushy for any distracted driver to ram into the back of the criminal Mercedes or the languid Taurus. How do you define distracted driving?

Ford Motor Company had just held a briefing on that subject for journalists, two days before Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s two-day summit on distracted driving in Washington, D.C. You will read and hear a lot about it this week.

We all know it’s unsafe to text while driving, or tap phone numbers into your Blackberry or surf the web on your iPhone while driving. What about hands-free systems?

Myriad studies say hands-free phone devices are basically no safer for drivers than the kind where you need to look down and type in an 11-digit number. Ford’s in-house expert on the matter, Louis Tijerina, says those studies are incomplete.

“Driver distraction is a concern, but a smaller part of highway country problem than believed,” he says.

He points to Virginia Tech’s 100-Car Study. The school’s Transportation Institute installed cameras in cars to notice 109 “primary drivers” and 132 “occasional drivers.” This reduces “obtrusive” data — place a scientist in the back seat to watch a driver make a call at 70 mph, and that driver will act differently than if he/she is in the car alone.

In 42,300 hours of driving 2 million miles, Virginia Tech observed 82 crashes, 761 “near-misses” and 8,295 “critical” incidents. It found, Tijerina says, that distractions like texting and phone calling caused incidents, or worse. “Almost 80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of all near crashes involved the driver looking away from the forward roadway.”

In other words, you’re innocuous if you look at the road and check your mirrors while you converse over a Bluetooth-like device hooked to the audio speakers.

Ford has a big interest in making sure you can continue to use hands-free “infotainment” devices in your car or truck. Sync, its Microsoft voice-activated system, lets you use your Blackberry or iPod hands-free in everything from a Focus to an F-350.

General Motors’ OnStar and any other Ford competitor which offers Bluetooth systems could be affected by any legislation — local, state or federal — that goes beyond prohibiting texting or dialing phone numbers. Ford notes Sync can improve vehicle safety, because now, like GM’s OnStar, it automatically calls emergency services if your vehicle is involved an accident.

Tijerina says Ford supports Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) bill that would outlaw texting while driving. Like the 55 mph speed limit in the ’70s, the bill would withhold federal highway funds from states that don’t comply.

The National Safety Council wants legislation to go much further. It wants to outlaw drivers from making mobile phone calls of any kind — even by drivers using hands-free devices. The NSC, a non-profit uber-safety consumer organization, points to more than 50 scientific reviews in the past two years that say driver distractions, including hands-free phone calls, cause auto accidents. It’s the message, not the medium.

The NSC doesn’t buy the 100 Car Study’s findings. It’s flawed because the study doesn’t distinguish between cell phone conversations and conversations with the drivers’ passengers, says a spokesman for the organization. The mobile phone call “uses a different part of the brain” than in-car conversations, he says, which cause a “mental block,” obscuring traffic conditions in the driver’s mind.

“Our concern is that it wasn’t peer reviewed,” he says. “Their researchers have refused to discuss further the study.”

The NSC hopes to get some answers when Thomas A. Dingus, director of Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute, appears at the distracted driver summit this week. I hope he comes well prepared.

Where do I stand on this issue?

This is classic Auto Industry vs. Safety Group. Ford, GM and other automakers want to establish the usefulness and desirability of Bluetooth connectivity and options like Sync and OnStar. The NSC wants to see highway accidents and deaths continue to decrease at any cost, including individualized freedom. The ostensible goal is to make cars and trucks get safer at a rate that’s faster than the rate in which drivers get lazier and dumber.

Based on my observations while driving and riding (bicycle as well as car/truck), mobile phones have taken over the road. We don’t make phone calls while driving any more. We drive while making phone calls.

I’m not convinced hands-free devices are mitigating this sea change in the way we drive. I am willing to listen, to be swayed. Tell me your experiences on the road. Tell me what you think.

Mazda will show two engines at the Tokyo Auto Show, and both should end up being a very big deal in the U.S. market. You'll see them in Mazdas, and very likely, in Fords, too. 

First off, there's a new direct-injected version of Mazda's global 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder called the Sky-G. At least, that's what Mazda will call it during the Tokyo show. In addition, says Mazda, the engine block is revised to reduce mechanical friction and achieve the most optimal air-fuel mixture. Together, these improvements yield a claimed 15-percent improvement in fuel economy. This would enable a Mazda 3 to return mileage on par with a Mazda 2, according to the company.

The second engine is a new 2.2-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder. Yep, it's called Sky-D. It, too, has a new block that's less susceptible to friction. It also has piezo injectors and a two-stage turbocharger not found on Mazda's current European-market diesel. Total fuel economy improvement here is said to be 20 percent. This means you could drive around in a diesel Mazda 6 and get Mazda-2-like fuel economy, says Mazda. If this turns out to be true in real-world driving, the company will have to find a way to get this engine cleaned up for the U.S., as it could be a real help in meeting the 2015 CAFE standards.

The photo here shows you the Sky-G engine. You can take a look at the Sky-D after the jump.

Mazda has released photos and information on the Kiyora concept it will show at next month's Tokyo Auto Show. It reminds us a bit of the Honda CR-Z, but less attractive. At least the car looks happy wearing Mazda's corporate saccharin-sweet smile.

Most likely, this is a design study for the next-generation Mazda 2, as Mazda says the Kiyora has the company's 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, which is the base engine for the Japan-spec Mazda 2/Demio. It's also an engineering study, though. The Mazda Kiyora is apparently 220 pounds lighter than a three-door Mazda 2. That's a big deal for a subcompact.

The weight savings, along with a new automatic tranmission called Sky-Drive (also making its world premiere in Tokyo), yields a considerable improvement in fuel economy. Mazda claims 32 km/liter on the Asian test cycle, which works out to over 75 mpg, which is not at all relevant to anything EPA-related.

Mazda hasn't said how many forward gears a production version of the transmission could have (we'll adopt at least 5, possibly 6), but apparently, the lockup clutch works faster than on the company's current automatics — improving mileage and that all-important sensation of responsiveness.

More photos after the jump.

Although we've seen it in spy video, Ford officially unveiled the 2011 F-Series Super Duty at the Texas State Fair over the weekend. The basic foundation of Ford's heavy-duty pickups is unchanged, Contributor Mark Williams reports, but the importance of the new in-house-built 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8 can't be overstated. As we've reported previously, the Power Stroke will carry ratings of 400 hp and 725 lb-ft of torque, making it the only legitimate engine choice for those planning to tow with the Super Duty.

The base engine in the Super Duty line is a 6.2-liter gasoline V8. Ford hasn't disclosed ratings, yet, but we hear it will be more potent than the current 6.8-liter V10 (362 hp, 457 lb-ft). Compared to the advanced Power Stroke, with its compacted graphite iron block and dual-compressor wheel turbo, the gas SOHC V8 is evenhandedly conventional with an iron block and 2 valves per cylinder.

Both V8s will be paired up with a new six-speed automatic transmission with a tow/haul mode. Ford won't offer a manual transmission option this time around.

IL News: 2011 Ford Super Duty Unveiled at the State Fair of Texas

BMW doesn't really do flights of fancy, so upon seeing the company's Vision EfficientDynamics concept with our own eyes at the Frankfurt Auto Show, we knew all these strange curves had to be leading up to something very interesting and production-ready. Today, we got an answer in the form of the 2012 BMW M1.

It's an interesting time for BMW to revive the M1 nameplate (last heard from in 1981), as Mercedes-Benz is readying the reborn gullwing, the 2010 SLS AMG. And coincidentally enough, Benz is working on an electric version of the SLS that would use four electric motors and two transmissions to achieve a 3.8-second 0-to-60-mph time and a 150-mph top speed.

In contrast to the all-electric SLS and the R8-inspired Audi E-tron, the BMW M1 will be a plug-in hybrid. Drivetrain components will apparently come straight out of the EfficientDynamics concept, which had a "mid-mounted" 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbodiesel despite a 2+2 seating arrangement.

The concept also had two electric motors — one packaged between the diesel inline-3 and a rear transaxle version of BMW's M DCT dual-clutch gearbox, and the other up front driving the front wheels through a single-speed gearbox. Ninety-eight lithium polymer cells wage the power for the electric motors. Peak output of all power sources, according to BMW, would be 356 hp, along with 590 pound-feet of torque.

Another photo and more information after the jump.

Inside Line has learned that Hyundai plans to offer a direct-injected version of its 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine in the U.S.-spec 2011 Hyundai Sonata. The engine, we're told by sources inside Hyundai, will be rated at 195 horsepower — a significant bump over the 175-hp rating for the 2.4-liter in the current Sonata and more than Honda offers in the four-cylinder Accord EX.

In a nod to both fuel economy and performance, sources tell us there will also be an optional turbocharged engine, most likely the D.I. 2.4-liter with power in the neighborhood of 240-250 hp. This will make the Sonata one of only four turbocharged sedans in the midsize market along with the Subaru Legacy, VW Passat and VW CC.  

It will also make the 2011 Sonata Hyundai's second turbocharged model behind the rear wheel drive Genesis Coupe 2.0T, which uses a boosted 2.0-liter four-cylinder rated at 210 hp.

Check out this interesting old shot I found on GM's media website of a 1969 Chevy Camaro SS Z/28 being driven on the big oval at GM's Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan.

The interesting part is that Chevy didn't officially make an SS Z/28 in 1969. You could get an SS or an SS RS or an RS or a Z/28 RS, but not an SS Z/28. I asked around at GM and got blank stares back. Anyone out there know anything about this car or what happened to it?

All Z/28s in 1969 were powered by a 302 cubic inch engine backed by a 4-speed, but SS models came standard with a 350 cubic inch engine and several variations of the big-block 396 were optional. And both automatic and manual transmissions were acquirable on the SS model.

Notice there's no engine finding on this car (Z/28s have a 302 on the hoodscoop sides and SS models have a 350 or 396 badge at the leading edge of the front fenders where this car says Z/28). I wonder what engine was in this car? 

Just over three weeks ahead of the press days for the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show, Hyundai has announced it is dropping out. This means that, save for Lotus and Alpina, showgoers will see cars from only Asian domestic brands.

Automotive News quoted Toyokazu Ishida, manager of international exhibitions for the Asian Automotive Manufacturers Association (JAMA), as saying that the phone call to cancel came on Friday afternoon. JAMA said that Hyundai would be stuck with $122,000 in nonrefundable fees for its 4,300-square-foot exhibit space, but of course, that's nothing compared to the millions it would have cost Hyundai to transport cars, set them up and staff the space during the show.

Automotive News (sub.req)

We got a chance to drive Sebastian Loeb's Citroen C4 WRC car on a gravel rally stage next to the Paul Ricard Circuit in France. Though we suspect Loeb and his team of mechanics were none too hot to surrender the cockpit, we found the car surprisingly cushy to drive quickly — direct in its responses yet almost compliant over the potholes.

Then, Mr. Loeb took the wheel, and the man who was so stoic and reserved during our interview became positively chatty. At day's end, we realized we'd met the real Sebastien Loeb in his natural environment, doing what he was born to do.

IL Feature: Driving the World's Best Rally Car