Gas is expensive; there’s simply no way around it. And with prices continuing to climb, it’s not a particularly good time to own a large displacement sports car; in fact with gas well into the $1.00 range, it’s not a good time to own a sports car, period. But what if you could get all the performance of a Corvette, Porsche 911 or even a BMW M6 without paying a dime at the gas pumps? Well thanks to the genius of the folks at Tesla Motors, you can.
When you think of hybrid vehicles, chances are good something small and practical comes to mind, like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. But the fact of the matter is that hybrid vehicles are, in reality, nothing new. Massive dump trucks and other heavy industrial vehicles have used diesel engines working in conjunction with electric motors for years now, and with exceptional results. Providing peak torque right off idle, electric motors are generally used to drive the wheels, in some cases individually, while the massive diesels are used as generators to power the electric motors. One company that produces such hybrid machinery is Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, the big brother to Mitsubishi Motors; so it stands to reason that Mitsubishi Motor’s most recent conceptual hybrid should use a similiar system.
It’s not a figment of the imagination. There really are more recalls now that ever before. Why? It’s not because of any greater number of quality issues with modern-day vehicles; a quick glance at J.D. Power Initial Quality Study stats or Consumer Reports survey information will attest to that, but rather, automakers are becoming more vigilant than ever in uncovering problems before they become lawsuits, and are extremely quick to remedy the various situations.
The subject of ethanol or E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) has become a hot topic for discussion in the automotive world as of late. Although ethanol has been used as a fuel source for vehicles in Europe and South America for many years now, it’s quickly catching on in North America, and has become an alternative source of fuel explored by several automakers including Saab, Volvo, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. And like the gasoline-electric powertrain, E85 has broken into the performance field; just last week, an E85-powered Cobalt broke a land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats, and Lotus has now created a one-off E85-powered version of its Exige road-racer.
After pledging that it would continue to build cars in England earlier this year, TVR announced yesterday that it would be packing up production to outsource it somewhere else in Europe. Since the company’s takeover by Russian Nikolai Smolenski in 2004, the small British sports car firm has been hit by hard times. Instead of meeting its initial promise of doubling sales by 2009, and making the brand’s vehicles “more British”, it had to lay off somewhere between 75 and 150 people. TVR was also supposed to relocate to a new production facility in Lancashire, England, but the move from its current home in Blackpool did not happen.
While production of the 2007 Tuscan, Tuscan Convertible and Sagaris – bodies, interiors, suspensions, etc. – are slated to be produced in Europe (where in Europe, we don’t yet know), the powertrains of the vehicles will still be built in England. No word on the ‘Baby’ TVRs, the Tamora roadster and T350 coupe. Well, it could be worse. They could be facing bankruptcy.
Nissan CEO and Renault President Carlos Ghosn has been knighted for his “contributions to the relations between the UK and Japan.” Currently, Nissan builds many of its vehicles in the Sunderland plant in the UK, including the very popular Micra subcompact and the forthcoming Qashqai. After being in the spotlight during the time period when GM engaged in talks with Nissan-Renault, it must be nice to get some positive recognition.
But of all the perks that usually come with being knighted, he won’t be referred to as “Sir Carlos” anytime soon because he’s a foreign national. Instead, he has the ability to add the three letters KBE at the end of his name, which stand for Knight Commander of the British Order. It does make me wonder if anyone from Honda will be receiving recognition any time soon for their efforts to build cars at the Swindon, UK plant.
The ultimate in BMW performance comes with only one name: M-Power. And what’s made M-Power such a force to be reckoned with over the years are its high-performance inline-sixes, V8s, and, as of late, the V10. The 5.0-litre V10 is just about as much engine as most people can take. It has the same displacement as the old V8, but produces much more power, giving great meaning to the phrase, “more from less”.
In the past two years, BMW and M-Power have made such immense progress with the latest engine and the two vehicles they’ve been fitted to - the M5 and the M6. It’s really difficult to believe, but in that period of time BMW has churned out 200,000 units of this engine. That’s a huge number of high-tech engines and a departure from the days of the first-gen M5 when only 450-500 a year were built.
If you thought that building a sports car purely powered by electricity was ambitious, you should hear about Tesla’s latest plans. The brand, riding on the success of its Elise-based roadster, is working on a four-door sedan that’s similar in size and performance to a BMW 5-Series, reports PistonHeads. The sedan will have an electric motor and batteries where an engine might normally be found, and it’ll also be RWD. Range is supposed to be very acceptable - 220 to 300 miles (around 350 - 480 km). They want to build somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 sedans a year, and hope to have it on the road by 2010.
Dodge has teamed up with PREFIX for a special edition of the Viper SRT-10 called the Snakeskin. Your $23,800 US dollars gets you Crystal Slate paint and wheels, plus snake skin effect seats on the seats, interior trim, exterior stripes. Tasteful? Not really. Rare? Yes, as there’s only 20 in the world. Something this tacky really deserves to be extinct.
The Ford Mustang is just about as American as apple pie. It’s got a big V8 engine, rear wheel drive and styling that’s full of details that’ll make any one familiar with older versions of the classic pony car smile. So, what does Ford do? Send one to ItalDesign to get a make over.
The exterior certainly has an Italian flair; it’s been given a proper set of hips as the front and back end have been widened. The front and back have also been softened, and the rear overhang has been whittled away, shifting the visual balance towards the rear. Add that to some funky rims and scissor doors… and, well, it’s a wrap.
Power comes from the same 4.6-litre GT engine as before, but it’s got a supercharger, intercooler and exhaust strapped on so it makes 500 horsepower. The suspension’s been given the full Ford Racing treatment, so it’ll corner too. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of the interior. The seats are made from horsehair and look like autumn-like camo. Yeesh. Check it out at the LA Show if you’re in the area. It’s more interesting than that Ford Explorer fuel cell we posted earlier.
It’s good to know that automakers are still making true blue concept vehicles, and the Mazda Nagare is defiantly one of them. It’s Mazda’s big debut for LA, and it’s all different kinds of interesting. We’ve been hearing “zoom-zoom” since Mazda’s revolution way back when, but expect to be hearing the phrase “flow” from now on, as that’s what the brand’s new design language is called. The concept has a pair of butterfly wing-style doors that stretch clear across the body and hinge forward and upwards for full access to the four-seater cabin, which has a centrally-positioned driver.
No info on the powertrain, but if it did have one, we’d expect something like a rotary. The exterior deserves it.
Lamborghinis are cool. Low, wide, and fast, you’d think they’re science fiction if not for the fact that they can be bought. The latest addition to the Lambo stable is the LP640 Roadster, which is in essence, the new LP640 sans roof. With 633 horsepower from its 6.5-litre engine, there are zero deficiencies in terms of performance, which means 62 mph is hit in just 3.5 seconds, and it’ll top 200 mph. The package is competed with special wheels that make a decent replica of funky ninja stars. Too bad they haven’t announced any upgrades for its infuriatingly complex manual cloth roof.
If automotive enthusiasts had their way, the next thing Honda would do in its production schedule would be to bring back the CRX. For those of you who don’t remember, that was the little two-seat liftback version of the old Honda Civic. Fun, lightweight and practical. This is the same theme that Honda’s got going for its REMIX Concept, with a bit of jet fighter mixed in.
The two-seat sports car is powered by an inline-four engine with a six-speed manual gearbox. Should be a rollocking good time if they manage to keep the weight down. And built it. Which they won’t, unfortunately.
Car and Driver has picked their 10 Best Cars award for this year. It’s the … gosh… 25th anniversary of the event.
Anyhow, C&D’s rules create a relatively level playing field, with last year’s winners amongst the competition. That, plus all the new cars, provided that they’re under $71 grand in US dollars, which is two and a half times the average price of a car in the US. Oh, and the on sale date must be by January ‘07.
Their compiled list of winners:
BMW 3-Series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Infiniti G35
Mazda MX-5
Mazdaspeed3
Porsche Boxster and Cayman
VW GTI
Surprisingly, Motor Trend’s Car of the Year winner, the Camry did not make it on the list.
Master designer Leonardo Fioravanti has broken out the pens and markers to design a one-off concept car based on an Alfa Romeo. Called the LF Spyder, it gets some rather Batmobile-esque bodywork, not to mention the same roof system that was featured on the Ferrari 575 Superamerica. The panel flips ’round in just 10 seconds, and weighs all of 60 kilos, plus its electrochromic treatment tints the glass in five stages.
The car is being shown at Mitomacchina, a collection of 70 of the most important European and American vehicles spanning the last century and change. It opened on Saturday at Trento at Mart, the modern and contemporary art museum in Italy, and runs through the first of May, 2007
Not to be out-done by Nissan, who recently unveiled the new Altima Coupe, Honda has come up with a response in the form of the Accord coupe. Here’s the official shot of the Accord Coupe Concept, which shows what the sixth gen Accord will look like. Aside from the tail lights, that look like they were pinched from last generation’s Audi A4, and some very bulgy wheel arches, it looks decent.
The car will be shown in Detroit, marking the first North American debut of an Accord Concept.
If you could have access to any private car collection for just one day, being allowed to romp around in Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage would be an excellent choice. There are certainly bigger collections, or stables of cars that are entirely high-dollar exotics, but Jay Leno’s penchant for the unique and bizarre runs the gamut from a 19th century steam engine to the exalted McLaren F1.
Among the highlights are the minimalist Ariel Atom (above); a 620 hp 1955 Buick Roadmaster with C4 and C5 suspension components; an example of the first rotary-engined car, the Mazda Cosmo; and a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado that has been converted to rear-wheel-drive and upgraded to a reasonable 1070 hp. Also among Jay’s toys are several motorcycles ranging from vintage to a turbine-powered jet bike, which seems like the answer to a question no one asked.
Should people be allowed to fix their own cars? It’s an interesting topic for thought, as it is something that will never be legislated or could ever be enforced, but some of the horror stories make for good musings.
If you are in a crosswalk, having looked both ways, and are crossing the street, do you not have a right to expect that the car approaching you has the ability to stop and not run you over?
There are obviously a lot of very competent DIY people repairing, maintaining and customizing their vehicles at home, but what about all the people who only think they can do it?
Diesel is a hot topic for many automakers, especially the North American ones. The big three have offered turbodiesel engines for quite some time now, but only for their industrial-strength vehicles. Having one under the hood of your hauler involves opting for a heavy-duty three-quarter ton truck or SUV. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford such a vehicle, or has the space or patience to park and maneuver it. So, General Motors has taken it into their own hands to develop a brand new turbodiesel engine specifically for its smaller trucks, the very popular GMT900-series half-ton pickups, plus the Hummer H2.
In the past six months, General Motors has made some pretty huge developments on the Chevrolet Volt. The little compact has not only been announced for production, but contracts for development of the internal systems have already been awarded. After such unexpectedly positive feedback to the very clever E-Flex series electrical powertrain, General Motors decided to do a second take on the Volt, but this time swapping out its little internal combustion engine for its brand new fifth-generation hydrogen fuel cell, which guarantees zero tailpipe emissions one-hundred percent of the time; a car that debuted this past April in Shanghai, China. This overview focuses on the changes between the original concept and the new hydrogen fuel cell version.
let's do it.
first of all in oil change is to get the old stuff out of there. the oil drains out of the oil pan at the bottom of Ur engine. the oil is held in by a drain plug that looks like a big bolt at the bottom of the pan. before u remove the oil drain plug, be sure that your recycling container is positioned underneath the oil drain.
