Chrysler has finally released official power ratings the supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat engine that can be found under the hood of the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT.

The new flagship V8 mill produces a whopping 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, well beyond the initial “more than 600″ pony promise.

The announcement confirms earlier rumors speculating that the Challenger Hellcat would unseat the Viper as Chrysler’s most powerful car. In fact, the classic muscle nameplate now provides an extra 60 horsepower and 50 lb-ft of twist over the V10-powered serpent.

The Hellcat’s prodigious output iis sent to the rear wheels via either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic.

Looking outside of Chrysler’s own lineup, the Hellcat appears to take the crown as the most powerful factory engine among all of the current American muscle cars. It beats Ford’s 2014 Shelby GT500, Chevrolet’s 2015 Corvette Z06 and Camaro Z/28, and Cadillac’s 2014 CTS-V.

Buyers will have to wait until later this year to get their hands on the Challenger Hellcat.

Bentley’s chief executive has confirmed that the British automaker will introduce a new variant of its Mulsanne flagship by year’s end.

Speaking to Auto Express on the sidelines of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer revealed that “we will see Mulsanne developments at motor shows in 2014.”

According to the British rag, the new Mulsanne model will retain the current car’s 6.75L turbocharged V8, but power will be bumped from 505 horsepower to 550. Perhaps more importantly, inside sources tell Leftlane News that the Mulsanne’s torque will be cranked up to at least 800 lb-ft, making it the second most powerful production car on the market, trailing only the Bugatti Veyron.

That kind of power should ensure that the 5,700 pound sedan can scoot from 0-60 in under 5-seconds.

Following Bentley’s performance naming scheme, the hopped-up Mulsanne will be sold under the Speed banner. Bentley currently offers Speed versions of its Continental GT and Continental GT Convertible.

No pricing information is available at this time, but the Mulsanne Speed should carry a price tag well into the $300,000 range.

Look for Bentley’s Mulsanne Speed to debut at the Paris Motor Show this fall.

General Motors has helped reunite a man with his beloved 1979 Chevrolet Corvette 33-years after the sports car was stolen from his Detroit-area home.

When George Talley’s ’79 Corvette was stolen from its parking spot on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit in 1981, he never thought he would see the car again. Talley filed a police report, but authorities were never able to track down the stolen Corvette.

However, three decades after disappearing into thin air, Talley’s Corvette resurfaced in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on June 13, some 950 miles from where the car was stolen.

“It was a lucky day to hear that my car had been found,” said Talley. “They told me it was running, had 47,000 miles on it and was ready for me to pick up!”

Talley’s luck didn’t stop there as Mark Reuss, executive vice president for GM Product Development, heard his tale on the radio. Keen to help out, Reuss, a Corvette fan himself, offered to ship Talley’s Corvette back to Detroit.

“George’s story brought a smile to my face,” said Reuss. “As a longtime Corvette owner myself, I know the passion the car inspires. I also knew that car belonged home in Detroit, with its rightful owner, and we could make that happen.”

Talley, 71, has owned three Corvettes since the 1981 theft, but maintains that the 1979 model has always been his favorite.

At present, oil-burning MINIs are available only on the other side of the pond, but that could well change in the near future.

Along with the issue of an unproven business case, one of the main reasons MINI doesn’t sell the Countryman diesel in the states is that the crossover simply wasn’t designed to incorporate U.S. emissions gear like a urea tank and SCR filter.

However, Car and Driver reports that MINI is engineering the next-generation Countryman with an eye towards accommodating those components and meeting U.S. emissions standards. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the brand has decided to green light a U.S. diesel option, but at least the potential will be there.

The redesigned Countryman – which is expected to launch in 2017 – isn’t the only U.S.-market MINI that could gain a diesel powertrain; MINI has stated that it’s also monitoring potential demand and weighing the profitability of a MINI Cooper diesel.

In Europe, the MINI Cooper is offered with a 1.5-liter turbodiesel three-cylinder that delivers 116 horsepower and 199 lb-ft. of torque to the front wheels via either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic transmission.

Hyundai’s redesigned Genesis coupe is reportedly capable of automatically slowing down for speed cameras.

The system is said to simply combine several existing technologies to accomplish the feat. Integrated GPS and a speed-camera database allow the car to determine when it is approaching a camera, while the automatic collision-avoidance braking can automatically kick in if the driver does not slow the car enough before arriving in range of the camera.

“It knows there is a speed camera there, it knows where the speed camera is and it will adopt the correct speed,” Hyundai spokesman Guido Schenken said at a Seoul launch event, as quoted by Drive.

The system is limited to stationary speed cameras, leaving some drivers to continue hoping for a system that reacts to radar or laser signals from police officers.

The technology is not expected to be available at launch time, and it is unclear if the feature will be country-specific due to different laws governing the implementation of automatic braking.

BMW will announce plans to establish a new production base in Mexico later this week, a top government official has revealed.

After months of rumors, an unidentified government official has confirmed to Reuters that BMW will announce on Thursday plans to build a new Mexican production facility. The government official spoke on conditions of anonymity because the plans are not yet public.

BMW declined to confirm the report, but said “a decision will be made public” concerning the Mexican plant on July 3.

The new plant, which will be located either just north of Mexico City or in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, is expected to cost BMW about $1 billion euros ($1.36 billion). The plant should be up and running by 2017 with an annual capacity of 100,000 units. Capacity will grow to 200,000 units by 2020.

BMW will likely use the plant to build its MINI line of vehicles, as well as smaller BMW-badged cars, such as the next-generation 1-Series.

The news follows closely on the heels of Daimler’s announcement that it will build its Mercedes-benz line of vehicles in Mexico with corporate partner Nissan. Volkswagen’s Audi will also soon build cars south of the boarder in order to reduce labor costs and move its supply base closer to the lucrative United States market.

General Motors has announced six new recalls covering more than 8.4 million vehicles. The vast majority of those vehicles recalled, 8,227,041 in all, are being called back due to an ignition switch issue.

Following a similar recall that covered more than 2.6 million vehicles, GM announced on Monday that it is calling back 8.22 million vehicles – 7.36 million of which are located in the United States – over a defective ignition switch. GM says the switches used in those vehicle can inadvertently slip out of the “run” position, disabling safety features like airbags and power steering.

The recall covers the 1997-2005 Chevrolet Malibu; 1998-2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue; 1999-2004 Oldsmobile Alero; 1999-2005 Pontiac Grand Am; 2000-2005 Chevrolet Impala; 2000-2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo; 2004-2008 Pontiac Grand Prix; 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS; and 2004-2006 Cadillac SRX.

For whatever reason, GM separated the ignition switch recall into two separate campaigns – one covering the Cadillac models and the other covering the balance of vehicles listed.

GM says it is aware of seven crashes, eight injuries and three fatalities in those recalled vehicles, but added “there is no conclusive evidence that the defect condition caused those crashes.”

GM CEO Mary Barra said the ignition flaw was discovered after a comprehensive review of the company’s safety record.

“We undertook what I believe is the most comprehensive safety review in the history of our company because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers,” Barra said is a statement released to the media. “Our customers deserve more than we delivered in these vehicles. That has hardened my resolve to set a new industry standard for vehicle safety, quality and excellence.”

Separately, GM announced the recall of 20,134 2011-2014 Chevrolet Cruze; 2012-2014 Chevrolet Sonic; 2013-2014 Chevrolet Trax; 2013-2014 Buick Encore and 2014-2014 Buick Verano models because of an engine block heater cord that could become damaged in cold weather. Just 2,990 of those recalled vehicles are in the U.S.

GM’s fourth recall of the day was issued to address an insufficiently torqued fastener on 117 2014 Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Impala, Buick Regal and Cadillac XTS models.

Just over 12,000 2007-2011 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD truck models equipped with an auxiliary battery are also being recalled because of an electrical problem that could spark and under-hood fire.

Lastly, GM is recalling 188,705 SUVs over an electrical short in the driver’s side door panel. That glitch could disable power lock and window features and possibly even overheat the module. The recall covers 2005-2007 Buick Rainier, Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Isuzu Ascender and Saab 9-7x models. Chevrolet TrailBlazer EXT and GMC Envoy XL models from the 2006 model year are also covered by the recall.

Volvo’s range-topping S80 sedan is coming up on its ninth model year, and a much-needed redesign is still two to three years away. But when it finally does arrive, the next-generation S80 will adopt much of the 2015 XC90 crossover’s stylish and high-tech cabin.

Citing an anonymous Volvo executive, Autocar reports that the XC90′s interior design language will eventually make its way into other Volvo models, beginning with the new S80.

While the 2015 XC90 has not been revealed in its entirety, Volvo has comprehensively detailed the interior of the crossover (picture above), which benefits from a modern, high-end appearance with Nappa leather upholstery, Birch wood trim and diamond-cut controls.

The centerpiece of the XC90′s dashboard is a tablet-size touchscreen that affords control of the infotainment system via multi-touch gestures such as swiping and pinching.

Expect all those elements, plus Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and a Bowers & Wilkins audio system, to make an appearance in the redesigned S80.

Along with its new interior, the S80 will also share its modular Scalable Platform Architecture with the XC90, along with a four-cylinder-only powertrain lineup. A plug-in hybrid system with a turbo four and an electric motor – together generating about 300 horsepower and 442 lb-ft of torque – is also possible.

New car sales are expected to drop this month compared with June 2013, but the decline has more to do with calendar variations than weakening demand.

With one fewer weekend to rack up sales than a year earlier, June will see a dip in unadjusted volume, most analysts predict. An average of ten estimates complied by Bloomberg suggests that total sales will fall by 2.6 percent to 1.36 million units.

Both General Motors and Ford are forecast to face a decrease, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Nissan will likely be among the biggest gainers.

While overall new vehicles sales will be down, the Seasonally Adjusted Selling Rate is expected to rise to 16.3 million units, up from 15.9 million units last June. If that turns out to be the case, it would represent the third time in the past four months that the SAAR has surpassed 16 million units – a very healthy sign that the industry is still on pace to return to pre-recession sales levels in 2014.

Check back tomorrow for a in-depth look at June’s sales results.

Photo by Nat Shirley.