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Automotive
Ferrari’s innovative new V8 – the 458 Italia
By Gizmag Team
06:31 July 28, 2009 PDT
The 458 Italia is the latest incarnation of the mid-rear engined Ferrari berlinetta and will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. While it’s true that every Ferrari is innovative by definition, it’s equally true that in the course of the Prancing Horse’s history, certain cars have marked a genuine departure from the current range. This is very much the case with the Ferrari 458 Italia, which is a massive leap forward from the company’s previous mid-rear engined sports cars. Read More
Hail a hybrid - Toyota Prius cabs for Scotland
By Jeff Salton
06:01 July 28, 2009 PDT
Scottish council, West Lothian (near Edinburgh), has given the green light to a local cab company to run a fleet of Toyota Prius vehicles. The decision makes Calder Cabs the first cab company in Scotland to offer the hybrid cars after the council determined that the Prius could be licensed as a private hire vehicle. Read More
Help design a car for the future
By Paul Ridden
23:22 July 27, 2009 PDT
C,mm,n (pronounced common) is an open community design project that is not only counting on its members to help design a car but is also tasking them with producing a whole new mobility solution to cope with the challenging demands of the future. The blueprints for the proposed electric car concept and the mobility concepts are freely available under an open source licence and contributions are welcome from anyone and everyone. Read More
Don't ya wish your hybrid was hot like mine?
By Gizmag Team
00:25 July 27, 2009 PDT
Hybrid automotive engineering finally made its way to the forefront of the world's most important motorsport series on the weekend when cars running the “hybrid” Kinetic Energy Recovery System finished first and second at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix. The winning McLaren Mercedes MP4/24 of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton and second-placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen both used KERS systems, increasing the likelihood that both manufacturers will introduce high performance hybrid sports cars in the near future. Wired recently reported that McLaren was preparing a hybrid supercar, and Car and Driver is also speculating that the expected F430 successor includes a KERS system directly descendant from the F1 car. Ironically, the KERS system is likely to be dumped from F1 in 2010 as part of radical cost-cutting measures. Read More
Circulus concept car - the driveable Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner
By Paul Ridden
20:48 July 26, 2009 PDT
Did you marvel at the impressive cornering and maneuverability of the Dyson Ball when it first raced around the floor in TV ads? If such a ball design can take a vacuum cleaner to places no others would dare to go, what could such a thing could do for a car? Graphic designer Santosh Chawla has incorporated a similar principle into his hydrogen powered Circulus concept car design. Read More
Cheaper, more fuel-efficient tires? Wooden it be good
By Darren Quick
01:28 July 24, 2009 PDT
Making tires from wood might seem like an idea that would be more at home on the Flintstones than in the early 21st Century, but that’s just what a team of wood science researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) are proposing. They aren’t suggesting constructing the tires solely from wood, but replacing silica with microcrystalline cellulose derived from plant fiber as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires. The result could be a tire that would cost less, perform better and save on fuel and energy. Read More
Nissan's 'smarter' navigation system assists with safer, greener driving
By Jeff Salton
19:24 July 23, 2009 PDT
Nissan's new enhanced on-board navigation system will provide drivers with more information to make safer and greener driving decisions. The company is launching an automotive navigation system that uses intelligent transportation system (ITS) infrastructure and other advanced technology to warn drivers of low-visibility intersections, school zones, and navigation-linked speed control. The navigation system can also recommend faster route calculations, which can lead to fuel savings. Read More
The creation of a new font – using a Toyota IQ
By Mike Hanlon
20:16 July 22, 2009 PDT
Be of no doubt that the Toyota IQ is a landmark automobile. It may look like another city car, but it's the first genuine luxury super compact and the recently announced relationship with Aston Martin to create bespoke interiors for the vehicle is just the start of a massive push by the world's biggest automobile manufacturer to recalibrate public consciousness on the magnitude of luxury motoring. The creation of the IQ Agility computer font is another step in that process, and a devilishly clever one at that. Watch the video of how it was done and admire the work, not to mention be astonished that the IQ writes better than most humans. Read More
Phoenix: Concept vehicle for a brave new world
By Jeff Salton
19:33 July 22, 2009 PDT
First appearing in the Michelin Challenge Design earlier this year, the Phoenix concept features an orbital omni-directional four-wheel-drive system which allows for several types of motion - apart from moving forwards and backwards, it can rotate around its own axis and move sideways. Read More
Ferrari announces free Roadside Assistance service for all cars not covered by warranty
By Gizmag Team
07:55 July 22, 2009 PDT
We suspect that the retained value figures for all Ferrari automobiles just took a significant hike in value. In a stunning move, Ferrari has announced the launch of a new “With You” roadside assistance service which will be provided free of charge to owners of all Prancing Horse cars built since 1947 and not covered by either existing factory or POWER warranties. Under the new scheme, Ferrari clients will not only enjoy 12 months of roadside assistance if their vehicle breaks down, but also be offered cover for expenses involved in returning home or reaching the Ferrari Authorised Service Centre to which their car has been taken. The service is free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, initially for Italian and UK owners, but to be extended to other European markets in the near future. No announcement has yet been made as to whether the scheme will be extended beyond Europe. Read More
New figures show most reliable and unreliable cars, cheapest and most expensive to repair
By Gizmag Team
04:34 July 21, 2009 PDT
The growing availability of information afforded by the internet will ultimately make all entities more accountable, whether they're made of flesh and blood, or bricks and mortar and concepts. Corporations will need to change if they are to survive in this coming age of accountability and automotive manufacturers in particular will need to reassess their communication strategies. Despite the financial magnitude of an automobile purchasing decision, the masses have until now been content to read the spec sheet and subscribe to the copywritten dreams rather than assess the real costs of owning the car - reliability, cost of repair, time-off-road and resale value - because those factors have been hidden. Now those figures are becoming publicly available and some of the big names don't fare at all well. Read on to find out how much more it costs to repair a Porsche than any other brand, which British marque is the least reliable, which European brands dominate the cheapest to repair top 10, and why Honda fares best with everything considered. Read on for the top 10 most expensive to repair, top 10 least expensive to repair, top 10 most unreliable brands, and the top 10 most reliable brands. Fascinating stuff! Read More
Smart vehicle puts blind drivers behind the wheel
By Mick Webb
02:16 July 21, 2009 PDT
Recent technological developments are presenting increasing opportunities for blind and vision impaired people to interact with the world in ways not previously possible. However, many everyday acts we take for granted such as driving a car remain out of reach. That’s well on the way to changing thanks to a development by a team of students at the Virginia Tech University, who have designed a car that allows blind and visually impaired people to take the wheel and drive unassisted. Read More
First-ever flexible ceramic heat shield material
By Darren Quick
20:48 July 16, 2009 PDT
Take note of the name ZircoFlex, because it will most likely, in our not-so-humble opinion, immediately become part of the lexicon and bag of tricks of every automotive, marine, aerospace and industrial manufacturer, fabricator, constructor, inventor and race engineer on the planet. We've previously written about Zircotec’s plasma sprayed ThermoHold coatings, which when applied to the surface of metallic and composite components can reduce surface temperatures by up to 33 percent. Until now, the process has had two major limitations being the need to treat parts directly using 14000ºK plasma sprays and the natural brittleness of ceramic coatings which has limited their use up to rigid substrates. Patent-pending ZircoFlex™ is a flexible ceramic heat shield material that will be available in a roll, offering a low-cost, easy-to-apply solution to the thermal protection of vital engine components. The product is set to revolutionise the use of ceramic materials for heat protection in a wide range of applications. Read More
Mercedes-Benz AMG previews a 500 bhp Gull Wing Electric Sports Car
By Gizmag Team
04:37 July 16, 2009 PDT
July 16, 2009 Mercedes and its performance arm AMG gave us a tantalising glimpse of the electric sports car of the maybe-not-so-distant future today with a cryptic outline of a new SLS AMG with electric drive. The Gull-winged electric SLS AMG uses four in-wheel electric motors with a combined peak output of 392 kW and a maximum torque of 880 Nm. By comparison, the current 6.3-litre V8-engined SLS AMG develops 420 kW, so performance will not be lacking. Read More
CR-Z sports hybrid to hit showrooms next year
04:55 July 15, 2009 PDT
Honda has announced that the CR-Z sports hybrid will be available for sale in Japan from January of next year. First unveiled as a concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007, the two-door sports hybrid is powered by Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system, which combines a small gasoline engine with supplementary power from a built-in electric motor. Read More
Nissan Dual Injector System for improved fuel efficiency in small-displacement engines
By Gizmag Team
05:24 July 14, 2009 PDT
July 14, 2009 Nissan today announced it has developed a Dual Injector system designed to improve fuel efficiency in small-displacement gasoline engines. The new fuel delivery system, claimed to be the first of its kind, uses an injector for each port rather than one per cylinder – speeding up fuel vaporization, reducing the amount of unburned fuel and reducing hydrocarbon emissions. Nissan will put the system into production vehicles beginning twelve months from now. Read More
Hyundai launches world’s first LPG-electric hybrid
22:13 July 12, 2009 PDT
Hyundai has entered the burgeoning hybrid market with a world first – an LPG-electric hybrid vehicle. The Elantra LPI Hybrid combines a four cylinder 1.6 LPI “Gamma” engine and 15kW electric motor to deliver fuel economy of 42mpg and CO2 emissions of just 99grams/km. Hyundai believes the combination of hybrid power and low-cost fuel will enable the Elantra LPI to pay its way faster than any other hybrid on the market. Read More
Camless combustion engine may improve ICE efficiency
By Paul Evans
19:44 July 12, 2009 PDT
A petrol powered Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) is approx 25-30% energy efficient at the flywheel and around 15% energy efficient at the wheels. There are many losses within the engine itself including friction and waste heat from the combustion process, but Sweden's Cargine Engineering thinks that eliminating the parasitic losses of the camshaft by building a camless engine may help improve energy efficiency. Using pneumatically driven actuators to shoot the valve open the camless engine concept can provide fully variable valve lift and fully variable lift duration without a camshaft in sight. Read More
Jaguar's all-new XJ luxury four-door flagship
By Gizmag Team
01:34 July 10, 2009 PDT
Jaguar has unveiled the company’s new four-door flagship model XJ in London and on first appearances it looks to be a winner, building on the design and technological platforms of the recent XK and XF models to deliver a beautiful and functional range of luxury family cars. The extensive range includes an economical diesel powerplant through to the 470 bhp Supersport supercharged V8 rangetopper, with several levels of cabin luxury and short and long wheelbase models. While the panoramic glass roof is the most obviously visible innovation, the car is a technological tour-de-force and cannot be left off the list for any potential purchaser in the category. Read More
What’s red on the outside and green on the inside? London’s new hybrid buses
17:47 July 9, 2009 PDT
There’s no better way to test the realities of hybrid technology than with public transport, where significant reductions in fuel consumption and emissions are not just desirable, but a commercial necessity. London got a little greener this week with the delivery of six new Volvo B5L hybrid double-decker buses to Arriva London. The new buses are powered by Volvo’s parallel hybrid I-SAM technology which, used on bus routes in Gothenburg, Sweden, has delivered fuel savings of 30%. Read More
Goodwood Festival of Speed: faster, greener and partly pedestrian
21:33 July 8, 2009 PDT
Once a year, car connoisseurs and speed freaks gather together at Goodwood House, Essex, to witness the fast, the furious and the utterly fantastic. This year’s 17th Festival of Speed held last weekend was no exception. A crowd of over 150,000 saw the fastest man on earth drive Jaguar’s fastest, Renault’s zero emission concept, Ferrari climb the hill in under a minute, Audi celebrate 100 years, Maserati’s newest, and Porsche set a new world record…on foot. Read More
Calling all cars – futuristic cop cruiser takes to LA streets
By Darren Quick
21:41 July 7, 2009 PDT
A new vehicle billed as the most technologically advanced police car in the world is due to begin testing in the US. Based on the Australian-built Holden Commodore, which were rebadged as Pontiac G8s in the US, the car aims to turn a standard vehicle into a ‘virtual office’ for emergency services personnel. It replaces the cluttered, cockpit-style gadgets that abound in current police cars with a large single touchscreen display embedded in the passenger dash and throws in some Bond style crime fighting gear like an air gun that fires a laser guided GPS tracking device onto fleeing vehicles. Read More
BMW X1 to hit market in October
20:09 July 5, 2009 PDT
There’s no doubt that when BMW promises, it delivers. Last year we reported from the Paris Motor Show on the unveiling of the Concept X1, which BMW promised to have to market in 12 months. And, sure enough, one year later here it is: BMW’s first compact SUV (essentially it’s an X5 shrunk to a more city-friendly size) with a choice of two- or four-wheel drive and the first in the X series to have Auto Start-Stop. Read More
Cobra SL3 GPS finds traffic cameras, is blind to radar
By Alan Brandon
18:24 July 5, 2009 PDT
At first glance the Cobra SL3 looks like a normal radar detector, but it’s really a GPS-enabled speed camera locator. The SL3 features a built-in, updateable database of speed camera and red-light camera locations. Its LED indicators and alert tones warn you when you approach a camera location so you have time to slow down. Read More
The out of this world Extra Terrestrial Vehicle
By Darren Quick
00:15 July 2, 2009 PDT
We're not sure ET would have settled for cruising in a basket attached to a bicycle if he'd seen the Extra-Terrestrial Vehicle (ETV). Contrary to its name, the ETV was actually built by Earthling Mike Vetter at his Florida-based car customization company, The Car Factory. Made by stripping the body of a Chevy Aveo and replacing it with a futuristic shell, complete with gull-wing doors, the aerodynamic ETV will get at least 40 mpg and turn more than a few heads while doing it. Read More
Keith Lawhorn
- November 11, 2009 @ 03:07 UTC
