Automotive

Golden Helmet for Italian Dindo Capello

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 Audi factory driver Dindo Capello has received the "Golden Helmet” from Italian motorsport magazine Autosprint, acknowledging the 2006 American Le Mans Series title won by the Italian with the Audi R10 TDI. "In Italy, the ‘Casco d’oro’ is the ‘Oscar of motorsport’, that’s why this award means a lot to me,” explained the two-time Le Mans winner who was handed the trophy in Bologna last Saturday. Read More

Kia reveals sketch of Kue driver's vehicle concept

By Mike Hanlon

December 15, 2006 Like many of the world’s manufacturers do when a major motor show is imminent, Kia has released a preview sketch of one of its stars of the show. The all-new Kue crossover concept car will make its world premiere at the upcoming North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in early January. The Kia Kue concept employs a different approach to the crossover utility vehicle segment by taking the CUV to a new level with performance. While possessing SUV characteristics and capabilities, the Kia Kue focuses more on giving the driver an exhilarating driving experience on the way to the home improvement centre, than on how much it can haul. Read More

The Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Dearborn Deuce Roadster

By Mike Hanlon

December 15, 2006 This is the Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Dearborn Deuce roadster – only 100 will be made. The 1932 Ford Deuce had the first ever mass produced V8 engine and even more groundbreaking styling which single-handedly started the hot rod culture. It was truly a milestone vehicle, echoing the engineering genius of Henry Ford and the design prowess of his son Edsel. The commemorative edition roadster Dearborn Deuce was built by Hot Rods & Horsepower and directed by Ford to honor the 75th anniversary of the legendary Ford Deuce and contains a 4.6 liter, 348hp fuel-injected V8 with an automatic transmission. Additional custom components include custom wheels by bonspeed (20 inch rear and 18 inch front), custom valve covers, electric side windows, custom leather interior, air conditioning, stereo and unique badging with embroidered 75th Anniversary logo on the seats and in the trunk. Appropriately, Edsel B. Ford II, great grandson of Henry Ford, will help auction the first of 100 Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Dearborn Deuce roadsters at No Reserve during the 36th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in January. Proceeds from the sale of the stunning custom roadster (Lot 1302) will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Read More

The Parc Ferme Experience

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 Parc Ferme Experience is another variation on the partial ownership, car sharing club -

Most car sharing clubs are focussed on reducing the group environmental impact, but a more recent variant has seen luxury car sharing clubs appear such as Club Ascari, Exotic Carshare, Classic Car Club, Luxshare, Club Sportiva, and link list here. Join Parc Ferme Experience and you get year-long access to iconic cars and historic motorcycles. Membership provides ready access to 12strong fleet of motorcars plus 11 classic motorcycles. For less than it costs to run just one collectors’ vehicle of your own for a year, you get the lot, switching between four and two wheels at will! The current car fleet comprises a Ferrari Testarossa, 328GTS and 246 GT Dino, a Porsche 993 Cabriolet and 356B Coupe, an Austin-Healey 3000 and Frogeye Sprite, a Mercedes CLK Cabriolet and Pagoda-roofed 280SL, an MG B Roadster), a Jag E-Type V12 Roadster and an Alfa Romeo Spyder. The motorcycles on offer comprise: two Triumph Bonnevilles, a Tiger 110, a Norton Commando, Dominator, and 500cc ES2 single, a Ducati 900S, a 750Triton, a Sunbeam Model 9, a Velocette Venom and a BSA Super Rocket. On top of the joining fee of UKP600, there’s an annual fee of between UKP2450 and UKP3450 depending on how many points you wish to use, plus you pay for the fuel you use – the garaging, servicing, tax, insurance etc is handled by the club. Depending on how many points you buy, and which cars you want to drive, you’ll get between 35 and 80 days of driving per year – this is a very cost-efficient way to get your bum on some fine seats. One satisfied customer describes his membership as ‘Viagra for the soul’ – and, as a doctor, he should know! Read More

The DScar - The Most Affordable Dream Car

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 Students from Cranfield University, one of Western Europe’s largest academic centres for strategic and applied research development and design, have been awarded the innovation prize at The Société des Ingénieurs de l'Automobile’s (SIA), Styling and Technical competition for designing ‘The Most Affordable Dream Car’. The Dscar has four wheels positioned in a diamond shape around the car’s chassis and apparently it handles like a go-kart. Designed primarily for extreme sports lovers and for weekend or track day use only, the car provides a very different ride – it’s very light, just 500kg, and powered by a Toyota 3 cylinder 68bhp engine. The DScar is made from mass produced car parts, so can be manufactured very easily and economically. A panel of international experts recognised DScar for its radically different diamond shaped design, unique style and unusual driving experience. Read More

World’s first affordable diesel hybrid powertrain

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 Zytek has already proven its knowledge of powertrains and electric vehicle many times over, on and off the racetrack. Now, in collaboration with a UK Government initiative, the British engineering consultancy has developed a novel diesel hybrid powertrain that will be affordable in the most popular market segments. The new technology will allow vehicle owners to drive across London’s extended congestion charge zone for just four pence. The low-cost, high-efficiency hybrid-electric drivetrain offers a realistic alternative to expensive proprietary systems and can be quickly implemented within the packaging constraints of compact European passenger cars. A demonstration vehicle, built within the UK Government’s Ultra Low Carbon Car Challenge (ULCCC), has exceeded all targets set for the programme, delivering an exceptional 85g of CO2 per km compared with 121g/km for the already exceptionally efficient standard vehicle. Read More

A new type of parking assistant - parking space measurement from Bosch

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 Touch parking, the method of parking employed inevitably across the world’s crowded urban canyons by millions of people a day, could become a thing of the past. Judging the size of a parking space – whether a car can actually fit in the available space - is one of the keys to successful parking and a new invention from Bosch will offer just that facility. The Citroen C4 Picasso has become the world's first car to feature integrated parking space measurement. The Bosch driver assistance system tells the vehicle's driver whether the prospective parking space is long enough for the car. The parking space measurement in the C4 Picasso is based on the Bosch parking assistant, which helps drivers avoid shunting other cars and obstacles while parking. Besides the standard four ultrasound sensors on the vehicle front and rear, two extra sensors have been added for parking space measurement, one on either side of the front bumper. Read More

Goodwood 2007 Festival of Speed - ‘SPARK OF GENIUS' - BREAKING RECORDS, PUSHING BOUNDARIES

By Mike Hanlon

December 14, 2006 The theme of the fifteenth Goodwood Festival of Speed, due to be held over the weekend of 22 – 24 June 2007, will be ‘Spark of Genius – Breaking Records, Pushing Boundaries.’ Through this theme, Goodwood will celebrate the glory of the individual competitors and engineering visionaries who took risks in their quest for victory. From the brave drivers and riders who campaigned in the first Brooklands and Isle of Man TT races 100 years ago, through to the land speed record breakers and the cream of the current F1 and World Rally Championship (WRC) competitors, all have made their mark and will be honoured at the 2007 Festival. Ticketing for the festival is now open. Read More

50 mpg from a medium sized SUV

By Mike Hanlon

December 12, 2006 Danish-born eco adventurer Hans Tholstrup has a way of creating publicity. It’s how he first came to public prominence when he circumnavigated Australia in a 16 foot open boat but his motorsport exploits, his creation of the World Solar Challenge and more recently his ability to coax extraordinary fuel consumption from an automobile just keep the eco warrior in the spotlight. This week he did it again when attempting the 1400km trip from Adelaide to Sydney without refuelling the car’s standard 75 litre tank. Tholstrup arrived in Sydney still with a quarter of a tank of gas so he pressed on north, eventually finishing in Port Macquarie, 1776.6 kilometres from the start. The Hyundai Santa Fe CRDi Turbo-Diesel he was driving averaged 4.67 litres/100km (50.4 mpg), an astoundingly frugal figure for a 1.9 tonne, medium-sized AWD SUV which can seat seven. Read More

Mazda to debut Ryuga Design Concept and New Tribute HEV at 2007 NAIAS

By Mike Hanlon

December 12, 2006 Mazda will unveil an all-new concept car, Mazda Ryuga, and its all-new Mazda Tribute Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) at the 2007 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 8, 2007. The Ryuga builds on Mazda’s concept of flow. The remarkable Nagare – Japanese for “flow” - concept vehicle debuted at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show and introduced the company’s new design future. Ryuga – Japanese for “gracious flow,” and the next generation of this exciting concept – will reflect a higher level of sophistication achieved through the use of rich fabrics, engineered fits and hidden details. Mazda Ryuga is elegant and refined, but with spirit and edge, portraying unique Japanese beauty. Read More

The real effect of mixing school and commercial traffic in peak hour

By Mike Hanlon

December 12, 2006 Anyone who has ever endured the daily commute knows that school holidays are a Godsend because morning peak hour commute times drop dramatically - without parents driving children, school holiday traffic is reduced by roughly 10 per cent. Now UK-based Trafficmaster is beginning to use its wireless automotive networks to measure the real effects in travelling time with and without school traffic and the results are remarkable. Increased congestion in the mornings causes average journey times on some roads to triple in length, with the worst impact measured on the southbound A629 near Bradford, West Yorkshire. The average morning rush-hour journey (08.30-09.15) on this busy route during the school holidays takes just 11 minutes, but in term time this figure rises to almost half an hour – for a stretch of road only two miles long. Is this grounds to consider staggering either school or business hours to reduce the peak traffic periods? Read More

The 6kg RS-X wheel - a carbon fibre rim with a magnesium centre

By Mike Hanlon

December 8, 2006 The latest development from the Kahn laboratories is this Carbon fibre RS-X wheel made up from a carbon fibre rim with a magnesium centre. Kahn Design is now manufacturing these wheels for super high performance vehicles – necessary because unless you own a supercar, you probably won’t be prepared to pay the asking price for a wheel that weighs just 6 kilograms. The understandably huge reduction in radial inertia and unsprung weight offered by the wheels offers substantial improvements in performance and handling. Each set of wheels is custom made to order for each vehicle. Read More

Ricardo’s new Cross-axle Torque Vectoring Audi A6 4.2l V8 Quattro Avant demonstrator

By Mike Hanlon

December 8, 2006 Delegates at Berlin’s prestigious 5th International CTI-Symposium, “Innovative Automotive Transmissions”, were this week given the opportunity to be the first to experience Ricardo’s new Cross-axle Torque Vectoring demonstrator. Based on an Audi A6 4.2l V8 Quattro Avant, the vehicle is fitted with the very latest generation of Ricardo’s Torque Vectoring technology that enables moment-by-moment redistribution of drive-torque in response to driver demand, vehicle speed and road conditions. In doing so it enables the vehicle to follow more faithfully the driver's intended path, ultimately leading to a potentially safer, more enjoyable and rewarding driving experience. Read More

Volvo safety system for avoiding collisions at low speeds

By Mike Hanlon

December 7, 2006 Volvo has announced more innovative safety technology – a unique ‘City Safety’ system that could help drivers avoid 50 per cent of all rear-end, low speed accidents that often happen in urban environments or slow moving traffic. Statistics reveal that 75 per cent of all reported collisions occur at low speeds of up to 30 km/h (18.7 mph). The Volvo system, called ‘City Safety’, is active up to 30 km/h and keeps a watchful eye on traffic up to six metres in front of the car with the help of an optical radar system integrated into the upper part of the windscreen. If a car in front suddenly brakes or is stationary, the system will automatically pre-charge the brakes to help the driver avoid an accident by slowing down in time, or steering away from a potential collision. However, if a collision is imminent, the system will activate the car’s brakes automatically. Read More

Geiger's Christmas Hummer H2 (with chimney inside)

By Mike Hanlon

December 7, 2006 We regularly write up the wares of Munich-based GeigerCars.de which specialises in building outrageous American automobiles, so we couldn’t really miss the chance to write up the firm’s Christmas HUMMER creation for the German Television show Galileo. Everything was extensively modified, and St. Nick’s new company vehicle sports everything he could possibly need including, would-you-believe a chimney! Read More

1,054 bhp Porsche 997 to attempt World Speed Record for Street-Legal Cars

By Mike Hanlon

December 6, 2006 MISSION 400 PLUS is attempting to to win the Blue Ribbon for the world’s fastest street-legal sports car next year, with a top speed of more than 400 km/h. Developed through collaboration with H&R, Jürgen Alzen Motorsport and engine tuner RS Tuning and the sports car is based on the Porsche 997. With a boost pressure of 1.5 bar the engine develops 1,054 hp / 775.7 kW at 7,700 rpm and a peak torque of 1,030 Nm at 5,800 rpm, yet, the record hunter meets stringent EURO IV emission limits. Read More

Honda Accord Coupe Concept for NAIS

By Mike Hanlon

December 6, 2006 Honda will be debuting a bold new look for the next-generation Honda Accord Coupe at the January 2007 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. The Accord Coupe Concept will convey exterior styling cues and design features that provide a first look at the direction the next-generation Accord will take and the company promises to set a new benchmark for Accord and for the segment. Read More

The World’s fastest police car – the Brabus Rocket Police Special

By Mike Hanlon

December 6, 2006 The Lamborghini Gallardo Police car we wrote up in 2004 holds the title for the world’s fastest police car in actual use – it prowls the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway at speeds up to 309 km/h in the hands of the Polizia di Stato (Italian State Police) but when the Brabus CLS V12 S Rocket appeared at the Essen Motor Show a few days ago, the bar got raised by some margin. In June this year German Performance Vehicle Manufacturer Brabus set a record for the world’s fastest sedan car when its 348,000-euro (US$437,575) Mercedes CLS-based Brabus Rocket, clocked an incredible 362.4 km/h at the famed Nardo test facility in Southern Italy. The new police vehicle on show in Essen is destined for police forces that need to be able to run down autobahn abusers. Throw in the specialist communications equipment and we doubt you’ll get much change from half a million US dollars, but you will be the fastest policeman in the world. Read More

Mazda Adrenaline Concept

By Mike Hanlon

December 6, 2006 Blurring the lines between a sport-utility vehicle and a sports car, Mazda’s Adrenaline Concept is based on a more powerful, more aggressive CX-7 SUV. Designed and built by Mazda Design North America, the 300 horsepower Adrenaline is a truly high-performance sport-crossover vehicle designed to promote the “Emotion of Motion.” To give the SUV a true sports car feel, the CX-7’s stock six-speed automatic transmission was changed for a six-speed manual, and the driveline dropped in from a MAZDASPEED6. Renowned rally driver and drifter Rhys Millen, pushed the Adrenaline engine out to more than 300 horsepower, and ... Read More

Lancia Aprilia Sport – built for the future from the past

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 To celebrate the centenary of Lancia and the long standing affiliation between the marque and the Milanese coachbuilder for its Sport versions, Andrea Zagato decided to create a Lancia Aprilia Sport identical to the car built by his grandfather Ugo in 1938. This “car of the future” could aptly be described as an original 1930s design brought to life using the technology of the third Millennium. The complicated process did not start from hand drawn sketches, as with today's cars, but from two faded monochrome photographs – the only remaining source of accurate information. Read More

Audi's R10 TDI takes out Pioneering and Innovation Award

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 Despite Renault’s second successive Formula One driver/manufacturer double, it was Audi’s revolutionary R10 TDI that really shook up the motorsport world in 2006 and a flurry of significant awards is now confirming that. A panel of experts from the British specialist magazine "Race Engine Technology” recently voted the V12 TDI engine from the Audi R10 TDI as "Race Engine of the Year 2006” and "Alternative Race Engine of the Year”. To top it off, on Sunday night Audi won the "Pioneering and Innovation Award” of the British magazine "Autosport” for the most important innovation of the 2006 motorsport season. The diesel race engine not only puts out 650 bhp but also produces brutal mid-range torque and has remarkably good fuel consumption. It finished its first season undefeated including taking the Le Mans 24 Hour Event. Read More

New Navigation System guarantees NO SPEEDING FINES

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 In an extraordinary move, a new Satellite Navigation device has been developed that comes with a guarantee that users will not pick up any speeding ticket from any speed camera in the UK. The supplier of the Rossini Navigator & Camera Spotter offers a unique guarantee to pay UKP60 to any motorist that picks up a speeding ticket whilst using the device if no advance warning of the camera is given. Logically, if you don’t button off the pedal once warning has been given, you’re on your own but the guarantee is nonetheless remarkable as the Rossini Navigator identifies more than 24,000 potential speed traps on 270,000 miles of roads throughout the UK and Ireland. Unlike many camera locators the Rossini Navigator has been programmed to warn of mobile speed camera sites and traffic light red light cameras as well as every known Specs, Gatso and Truvelo speed camera in the country. Read More

Car-2-X Communication: cars that warn each other of impending danger

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 In future, motorists will be able to detect danger even if the danger spot lies around the next bend or over the horizon. This has now been successfully verified by DaimlerChrysler experts and their partners in a field test conducted at the conclusion of the "WILLWARN" (Wireless Local Danger Warning) European research project. During the course of this test, five vehicles equipped with WLAN-based radio technology used the "Car-2-X Communication" system to radio details of critical situations detected by their on-board sensors – fog, black ice or obstacles on the road such as broken-down vehicles – to following cars. These early warnings enabled the drivers of the cars behind to prepare for the danger and adapt their speed in plenty of time. Read More

New Porsche Cayenne - more power, torque and technology

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 Four years after its debut, Porsche has unveiled the second generation Cayenne. When they go on sale in February 2007, the new Cayenne, Cayenne S and Cayenne Turbo will have more powerful, direct petrol injection engines. These Direct Fuel Injection (DFI) power units lower the fuel consumption of individual models by over 8 percent (NEDC). In real driving conditions, Porsche claims savings of up to 15 per cent are possible. The new Cayenne models can be further enhanced by the new Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) roll stabiliser system - an optional active anti-roll system that significantly reduces body roll during cornering, resulting in improved handling and agility, greater directional stability and ride comfort. When off-road, the system increases axle articulation for improved traction. Read More

First Look at 616 bhp Callaway C16

By Mike Hanlon

December 4, 2006 Callaway Cars has released details of its Callaway C16 – the 16th in the lineup of exclusive, built-to-order Callaway automobiles. Based on the current Chevrolet Corvette platform, the C16 produces 616 supercharged bhp and 582 lb-ft of torque. The C16 was drawn and modelled by designer Paul Deutschman, the architect of the Callaway look—from the 254 mph Sledgehammer and our C4-based Le Mans race cars to the C7, the C12 and now the C16, Deutschman’s handcrafted bodywork replaces every panel of the standard body to achieve its integrated look. The C16 also attains a new level of manufacturing efficiency. “In making this car we went from CAD design straight to tooling, bypassing a full-sized model—a first for us,” says company founder Reeves Callaway. “It’s tools like PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER software, our technology partner, that make such efficient car design possible.” Read More