Automotive

Though Italian design house Zagato has collaborated with every prestige automotive manufacturer at some stage or another, the company’s relationship with Aston Martin has produced some stunningly beautiful and very fast classic vehicles, as evidenced by the DB4GT Zagato, V8 Vantage Zagato and DB7 Zagato. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the DB4GT Zagato, Aston Martin and Zagato will tomorrow use the backdrop of the Villa D’Este Concours in Italy to show off a V12 Zagato based on the V12 Vantage. Read More

UK-based MUGEN Euro have taken up the challenge to give the Honda CR-Z some extra grunt to produce the CR-Z MUGEN concept. The vehicle adds a supercharger to the CR-Z hybrid’s 1.5-liter gasoline engine and IMA electric motor to increase the vehicle’s output from 122 to 198 horsepower and ups the torque from 128 to 181 lb-ft. Honda UK and MUGEN have just released the first official pics of the vehicle ahead of its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to be held in West Sussex, England, in July. Read More

Fiat’s new TwinAir engine has scooped the 2011 International Engine of the Year competition, winning the major gong for engine of the year, plus three other awards including the Best New Engine 2011, Best Green Engine 2011 and Best Engine of less than 1,000 cc. The twin cylinder 875 cc engine is currently only available in a turbocharged 85 bhp configuration in the Fiat 500 and will soon also be available in the Chrysler Ypsilon, but non-turbo 65 bhp, turbo 105 bhp and 80 bhp turbo bi-fuel versions are all due this year. The TwinAir’s most distinguishing technological feature is the electro-hydraulic valve control, and a balancing countershaft to reduce vibration. Interestingly, nine of the twelve awards went to turbocharged engines. Read More

McLaren’s MP4-12C is out and the company is pleased by a worldwide order book of 1700-plus units. It’s a remarkable car in many ways, not least for being the first tilt at genuine populism from the only brand that matches or exceeds Ferrari for Formula One-derived brand cachet. That’s not to say they’re pitching it against the Toyotas and the like. But where the company’s last own-branded effort, the F1, brought pure race-car values to the road – right down to the ever-controversial ground-effect aerodynamics – the 12C serves up the broadest of dynamic spectra, at the mere touch of a couple of buttons. It’s designed as genuinely well-rounded personal transport, able to negotiate the peak hour bumper-to-bumper as well as it might the Laguna Seca corkscrew. Read More

BMW is working to lessen the number of fatalities caused by drivers turning left at intersections (in left-hand drive countries, that is). When the "left hand drive assistant" detects that the driver intends to turn left, three laser scanners in the front end of the car kick in to map the area up to 100 meters (328 ft) ahead. If the system detects oncoming vehicles and the driver continues to move into the intersection, it will sound a warning and automatically activate the brakes to prevent a collision. Read More

Unlike many of the concept cars we see at auto shows that are dummied up with clay, smoke and mirrors, Rolls Royce has always pursued an entirely different philosophy, building fully functioning “experimental vehicles.” Each such car is meticulously hand-built to investigate how the potential production model will operate in real world conditions. The first such vehicle (1EX) was constructed in 1919, predating the 1938 Buick Y-Job (often claimed to be the world’s first concept car) by almost two decades. The “Torpedo” styled 10EX was built in 1926 as a sports car version of the Phantom 1 and after many modifications, lapped Brooklands at an average speed of 91.2 mph. Most importantly, it stayed in the company as a staff car and occasional celebrity courtesy car for six years, being driven by many people of note, such as Lawrence of Arabia who once borrowed it for a European trip. Apart from being exquisitely beautiful, 10EX was one of the world’s first concept cars, has a splendorous and meticulously documented provenance, and … it’s for sale. Read More

When it comes to developing new technologies, running a competition is always a good way of helping to speed progress. Not only do such events give researchers more of an incentive to develop their ideas to the fullest, but they also give them a chance to see and be inspired by what other people in their field have been working on. While last year’s Automotive X-PRIZE helped usher in utra-efficient yet practical automobiles, hopefully this weekend’s Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge will do the same for cars utilizing cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). Read More

Renault is now taking online reservations for its Twizy two-seater all-electric micro car ahead of its launch in Europe later this year. The announcement made at the Barcelona Motor Show relates to two models – the Twizy 45, which is equipped with a five-horsepower (4 kW) electric motor, and the Twizy, which is equipped with a 17-hp (13 kW) motor and comes in Urban or Technic trims. However, the purchase prices for all variants, which start at 6,990 euro for the Twizy 45, don’t include the battery, which will be leased from the company for a monthly fee. Read More

With RV's generally used to take their drivers off their beaten tracks, a GPS is pretty much an essential piece of kit on the dash of such vehicles. Aside from dealing with unfamiliar routes, RV drivers also face their own specific route requirements that drivers of smaller vehicles don't have to deal with – as any RV driver who has found themselves at the end of a dead end road and having to carry out a 27 point turn will attest to. While there are a number of GPS units designed for larger vehicles, including trucks, Rand McNally says its new TripMaker RVND 5510 is the first GPS navigation device designed specifically for RVers. Read More