Automotive

French automotive manufacturer Peugeot is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, and has promised quite a few significant announcements before the year is out. Its first electric car, the Peugeot iOn, is a rebadged Mitsubishi iMiEV, but the EX1 concept it showed last year is all its own work and looks to be a rip-snorter of a performance car to boot. Last week, the twin-electric motored 250 kW (340 bhp) EX1 set a new electric record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit of 9:01.338 at an average speed of 138 km/h in adverse conditions whatsmore. Read More

Hey, you wanna drive into a tornado? You could, if you've got somewhere over US$75,000 to spend on the right vehicle. That's the reserve price on the Tornado Attack Vehicle, which has just been put up for auction on eBay. The armored vehicle was made famous by storm chaser Steve Green, who used it in 2004 to become the first person to intentionally drive into – and survive – a tornado. If you're not the competitive type, you could even just "Buy it Now" for a cool $100,000. Read More

When German performance tuner Novitec decided to squeeze some extra performance from the limited edition Alfa Romeo 8C, it didn't need to look far. The 8c runs the 4.7 liter V8 powertrain of the Maserati GT (both companies are owned by Fiat), so it tapped the technology of its sister company Novitec Tridente, which tunes Maseratis, and came up with a supercharger conversion. In so doing, it created the fastest Alfa in the world. Read More

The magical story-telling prowess of Ian Fleming certainly seems to translate well into film, as the automotive stars of the film adaptations of two of his novels are both claimed to be the world’s best known cars. The first, the James Bond 1964 Aston Martin DB5 movie car from Goldfinger and Thunderball that sold for GBP2,912,000 (US$4,608,500) last October. The other is GEN 11, the fully functioning star of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now it too – a fully-functioning road car that sadly doesn’t fly – is to go under the auctioneer’s hammer. Read More

More power. Less fuel. That's the bare bones of the latest V8 equipped Mercedes AMG performance model – the E 63 AMG. The car's 5.5 liter biturbo V8 gives it a peak output of 386 kW (525 hp) and torque 
of 700 Nm – add on the optional AMG Performance package and it jumps to 410 kW (557 hp) and 800 Nm. Acceleration is specced at zero to 62 mph (0-100 km/h) in 4.2 seconds, top speed 
is 155 mph (250 km/h - electronically limited) and fuel consumption is down almost a quarter on its naturally aspirated predecessor at 24 mpg (9.8 liters per 100 kilometers). Needless to say, there's some impressive tech underlying these figures. Read More

After first launching in Ulm, Germany in 2008, then subsequently establishing operations in Austin (Texas) and Hamburg, the car2go car-sharing program is now coming to Canada. As of this June, registered members of Vancouver, British Columbia’s car2go group will be able to use any of the 225 purpose-designed Smart Fortwos in the local fleet, which can be picked up and dropped off at designated parking spots throughout the city. Read More

There aren’t many vehicles which can be guaranteed instant classics the moment they’re announced, but the Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 announced overnight, is one of them. Only 600 will be made for worldwide consumption, going on sale in July at GBP128,466, EUR178,596 across Europe and AUD$409,000 in Australia. A roadgoing version of the GT3 RSR race car, the RS sports the biggest 911 engine ever at 4.0 liters, and the most powerful non-turbo 911 engine ever at 500 bhp. It can lap the Nurburgring-Nordschleife circuit in 7:27 if you’re good enough, hits 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds, and comes ready with a half roll cage, seat belt harnesses, fire extinguisher, and a battery cut-off switch if, or maybe when, you get it rubber side up. Read More

Peugeot has dropped the HYbrid4 technology found in its 2010 SR1 Concept into a very different beast for the Shanghai Motor Show. The SXC (which stands for Shanghai Cross Concept) has a 1.6 liter, 160 kW internal combustion engine driving the front wheels and a 70 kW electric motor driving the rear, providing the option of electric-only two wheel drive or a four wheel drive hybrid mode. Read More

With the spotlight shining on of hybrid vehicles, kinetic energy recovery systems and stop start functionality, it's easy to forget that a very effective way to reduce fuel consumption and cut emissions is right in front of us – air. A study recent study by tire manufacturer Bridgestone suggests that it's not only easy to forget, most of us do forget. The company checked 38,000 cars in 9 European countries during 2010 with results showing that 71% of the drivers were driving on under-inflated tires. Read More