Fast Cars

Back in the middle of July, some new images of the new E4 EP touring car from Team Magic started surfacing on the internet and since then more and more information has become available and now we have the official word from the Taiwanese company themselves. Team Magic have quietly continued to develop and enhance this new car, since its first showing late last year in Chicago, and has had a lot of work and testing put into it to reach its current state. With testing complete, it’s time for Team Magic to introduce the latest step forward in electric touring car technology; the Team Magic E4.

Joining actor Will Ferrell as one of the fortunate few, comedian Jay Leno became the latest person to receive keys to a BMW Hydrogen 7 – the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan.

I'm not that much of an automobile enthusiast. Despite my proximity to the Motor City, I don't pay constant attention to the latest twitches in the auto industry. I take the bus to work, and drive a car only occasionally, usually for errands or to shuttle the kids someplace. But I attended the GM ChallengeX event on behalf of EcoGeek.org and Green Options, and I learned a number of things about where automotive technology is trying to go, and came away excited about new things coming along in the automotive industry.

Hard to believe that all he suffered was a sprained ankle. It looks as though the tub was punctured in the front leaving his feet exposed to the barriers (among other things). This is a true testament to how safe these cars really are and the advancements that are being made in safety due to composite construction and race car development.

With this new car - which, I should clarify, will really, mostly be J’s car once we move to New Haven (I traded in my Civic and will buy something else once we’re up there and need two cars again) - it’s different. I’m excited that it’s a hybrid, of course - that we’ll be filling up less at the gas station for both personal, and global reasons. I think this is the way car technology is going, and I’m glad we’re part of the new wave.

Bay Area Groups showcase cutting edge green car technology and urge General Motors to 'Plug in the Hybrid, pull the plug on the Hummer!'

After all the rumors of Aston Martin being sold to companies like Louis Vuitton, Ford finally today announced the sale of its premium sports car segment. Aston Martin was sold to a group made up of David Richards, John Sinders, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co. The company was sold for £479 million ($925 million) in which Ford will still retain a £40 million ($77 million) investment.

Thousands of aftermarket parts and new advancements in automotive technology have made swapping engines in Hondas easy and a great bang for buck. Jerry Nguyen purchased this 1996 Honda Civic Hatch as a platform for what was to come.. a naturally aspirated drag car.

It's not something you give much thought to. I was driving an Audi A3 in the rain last week. It was an annoying rain that ranged from drizzle to downpour every five or ten minutes. And suddenly I was noticing the windshield wipers.

The Mercedes-Benz S 600 Guard is equipped with the same technical innovations that have made the flagship Mercedes S-Class the number-one trailblazer in passenger car development and the world’s best-selling luxury saloon. These include important new developments such as Brake Assist PLUS and the PRE SAFE(R) brake in combination with DISTRONIC PLUS, night view assist and the enhanced PRE-SAFE(R) anticipatory occupant protection system. On top of all this, the outstanding level of interior comfort and extremely agile handling make for an effortlessly superior driving experience.

VW’s Electronics Research Lab built “Stanley”, the defending world champion in the DARPA Grand Challenge for autonomous cars.

I saw this article about new car technology. Acually, forget the technology, just imagine how annoying it would be to hear “car approaching on the left” or “watch your speed” every few seconds.

If we spent as much on electric car technology as we do on bombs and weapons of violence then of the biggest pollution sources on this planet would be halted.

These idiotic bean counter TV pundits (who are only on TV because they are reactionary blowhards with explosive controversial responses to everything) are demanding that the government tax oil usage into oblivion and use the tax money to pay for alternatives, but I think that we should let these technologies work themselves into the market. As you have seen (if you followed some of the links) there are technologies that can be used that don’t disrupt our current economic model and energy infrastructure and that won’t necessarily have to be forced on us. These options are ‘greener’ than existing sources and we have stop gap supplies to keep us fueled until they are fully developed, no matter what happens with Iran. You should be hoping that the government doesn’t overreact and put us into a situation where we are forced to use an inefficient energy source like corn based ethanol when it appears that there are far more efficient solutions that are nearly (some already are) developed.

Saying that the introduction of the new LS was an emphatic statement from the company, Carter said that this car, the LS hybrid, was the exclamation point: a car that "explored the outer reaches of performance, style and technology. A vehicle as efficient and familiar as it is indulgent and advanced."

The Volkswagen Eco-Racer. Why oh why, if car manufacturers can seemingly churn out these 100 mpg sports cars with top speeds of 230km/hr at the drop of a motor show, do we not see more 100mpg + vehicles on our road right now? You have to start suspecting hidden agendas, don’t you?

Every part of Prodrive has been involved in the development of P2 from its motorsport and automotive technology divisions. Prodrive’s chassis, engine and drivetrain and electronics departments worked with its in-house manufacturing operation to produce the specialist parts and electronic systems. The company also called on the skills of a number of its partners to provide additional complementary technical expertise and specialist components, such as wheels, brakes and lighting.

The Speedsource RX8 of Sylvan Tremblay, Jeff Altenburg and Haskell led in the early going, but seemed to suffer from new car development problems, resulting in an retirement from overheating.

I would be willing to bet that General Motors has their hands on more innovative automotive technology than any other auto manufacturer out there, yet they refuse to put any of it into any of their consumer vehicles. For example…

I'm neither here nor there about Sarrazin, and I probably would have liked to see more of Atkinson but I can agree with Suby keeping a combination seat to help maximize car development and suface specialties.

Isn’t it ironic – I just got my V1 delivered today and I happen across this article on Gizmodo. I’ve owned them in the past and there is no substitute. Period.

Mercedes likes to tout their new radar- assisted braking as the cutting-edge of car technology. They are so confident in this, that they arranged to do a demonstration on live TV.

For a long time, I have been searching for a soul in Japanese car industry. After long reflections on why I cannot find a Japanese car that captures my interest, I have realised that the Japanese car industry makes one very particular mistake - They make everything. It is very difficult to put a unique character on a brand and design, if you want to do everything at the same time. European car manufacturers generally represents a certain character, a certain identity of users. BMW stands for high performance and quality engineering. Volvo stands for safety. Jaguar represents an English heritage etc. What does Toyota represent? Well, in all fairness they have come to represent predictable quality and reliability, but this signals better than average, rather than excellence. However, could it be that Japanese car manufacturers will find their unique soul in environmentally friendly car technology. This is something that modern car buyers are becoming gradually more aware of and a Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. are building up a really unique identity around environmentally friendly cars.

today, with finger sized MP3 players, GSM handsets, sub compact laptops, and other electronic devices, battery technology has made tremendous strides. the electric car should be on it’s third generation, but we are at an empty table with empty promises of hydrogen cars or fuel cell cars. the current president has called for intelligent design in the schools on par with evolutionary biology, and some pie in the sky fuel cell/hydrogen car technology. for eight years clinton and gore had the advanced car initiative, but then the current president canceled the program.

Anthony Prozzi, a designer for Ford Motor, is keeping close watch as yet another new generation of technology-smitten youth grows up. It's this group of future customers he has in mind as he tries to anticipate what they'll want out of an automobile in 2020.

The creator of the interior of Ford's Mercury Meta One concept car, Prozzi is a former fashion designer for Donna Karan. He's trying to apply that same sensibility to his current job--which is no less than to figure out how to merge the latest in technology with the more pedestrian habits of Ford drivers.

The Japanese automakers (Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Honda, etc.) have already shown this strategy for decades. Here is what they've been doing: the interior of an automobile takes large influences from the Japanese tea ceremony: 1) ritual-like experience of the tea ceremony is blended with the driving experience; 2) the simple, yet rich environment of various colors, materials, and textures can exist harmoniously. The best thing is that you can use something more recent like the radiant lights/colors and the various materials used in electronic gadgets...

Someone at Toyota’s Scion division has been watching too much Buck Rogers. The inside of the new T2B concept car unveiled at last week’s New York Auto Show is half slick, half sci-fi nightmare, featuring a multimedia dashboard that presents information in ticker tape format. It also provides access to movies and games that can be projected onto the rear glass, plus music downloads via the internet (EV-DO?).

Some news broke today about a reshuffling of our product plan, and I just want to clear one thing up before people get carried away.

Yes, we have canceled our plans to build rear-wheel-drive vehicles off the Zeta architecture. But that does not mean we've canceled plans to build rear-drive vehicles altogether.

We did not cancel the Zeta plans to save money, or to divert funds elsewhere that would've been used for product development.

Their creation — a ceramic honeycomb that oxidizes auto emissions — has kept an estimated 3 billion tons of toxic pollutants out of the atmosphere over the last 30 years.

“People don’t realize how bad it was when millions of cars were spewing out deadly fumes,” said retired engineer Rodney Bagley. “Many of the cities were almost unbreathable” in the 1960s.

The soda can-sized device developed by Bagley, Irwin Lachman and Ronald Lewis at Corning Inc. in 1972 and 1973 made air pollution control practical for the first time. Its paper-thin walls were coated with precious-metal catalysts that turned lung-choking gases streaming through automotive exhausts systems into water vapor, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

President Bush awarded each of the men a National Medal of Technology during a ceremony Monday at the White House.

Whether they're concept cars or production models, the new autos making their debut this week underscore a trend toward the merging of autos and computers. Carmakers have long placed electronics under the hood, where they monitor emission controls or help operate safety features such as air bags. Recently, however, more electronics have worked their way to the cars' surface--in this case the dashboard--as carmakers turn to technology to differentiate new models, gain fuel savings and offer new types of entertainment systems.

Features such as Apple Computer's iPod music player connectors and satellite radio receivers, both of which introduce ways to listen to music, are becoming popular in new models as manufacturers compete for customers.

At the same time, hybrids use numerous laptop PC-like batteries, and cars such as BMW's 3-Series offer graphical interfaces to control many of their functions.

A close-up look inside Toyota's upcoming Lexus RX400h gasoline-electric hybrid SUV.

American drivers want more power. Asian drivers want more power. Even European drivers want more power. There comes a point, however, where you just can't put any more power through the drive train of a front wheel drive vehicle. Get too much over 200 horses, and torque steer becomes a serious problem. For automakers looking to sell more, and more powerful, cars with big power plants and fat profit margins (like the drool-worthy RWD Chrysler 300C), they have to switch back to Rear Wheel Drive platforms.

All that power comes at a price, too. Not just in developing fancier engines, but also in keeping emissions down and fuel economy up. And, oh yeah – beefier frames to handle all the high-powered stress. In short, if an automaker wants to increase, or even maintain, its profits and market share, it has to be in the game right now.

As already mentioned, Chrysler is already playing, and playing well. Ford, except for the new Mustang (ten years late, if you ask me), seems to have given up the fight. The Ford Five Hundred is a fine car, but bland and underpowered. Chevy is trying, really trying, with a slew of sporty SS models – but not one of them compares to sportier near-lux models from their Japanese competitors. In fact, the Japanese are so far ahead, they now have their sites set on dethroning BMW's venerable 3-series.

Fact is, if you want a performance sedan, you aren't looking at Ford at all, and the pickings aren't terribly much better at GM.

I don't know what the solution is to GM's problems, but I do know that delaying new RWD models is not the answer.

The interior of the Sport Concept is designed to fit four adults comfortably, yet with an emphasis on the front two seats - with every element of the cockpit existing to enhance the vehicle's engaging driving experience.

With almost 300 races, including nine wins out of 35 twenty-four hour events, and 11 Drivers championships driving small-block powered Corvettes, Camaros, Firebirds and the new Cadillac CTS-V, my racing resume has a big impact on the direction we take when we engineer vehicles like the Redline ION, the Cobalt SS, the Cadillac CTS-V and the upcoming TrailBlazer SS. It’s my job to make sure that these vehicles deliver the kind of usable, exhilarating performance that the enthusiasts who buy them are looking for. Our mantra is “track capable.” If a vehicle from our group isn’t enthusiast-floggable, then we’re not done yet.

Recent designs use an embedded metal film of tin oxide - thin enough to be transparent - that can be electrically heated for defrosting, said Eric Walton, a research scientist at Ohio State University whose designs are used in some General Motors cars.

Carmakers also hide antennas behind plastic panels that will not block signals, and in bumpers, parcel shelves, trunk lid trim, doors, under dashboards and in roofs.

For its PT Cruiser convertible, Chrysler is experimenting with antennas in the roll bar. Mercedes-Benz puts the antennas for its keyless-entry system in the doors, center console, bumpers and windows.

Antenna modules can also be concealed in outside mirrors, Dr. Schumacher said. In a pinch, several antennas can be combined in one compact housing.

Most of the new antenna types, Dr. Walton said, are "conformal" antennas, which follow the contours of the car so that "the entire car becomes the antenna." This design became possible only with the availability of computers that could calculate antenna performance for the curves of cars not yet built.

We are now turning the corner with some of our new products, such as the Buick LaCrosse, Buick Lucerne, Cadillac STS, Hummer H3, Saturn SKY, Saturn AURA, and Chevrolet Cobalt SS to name a few (see more images). These products are some of the first to demonstrate gains in fit and finishes, thanks in large part to our new product development organization. Progress will continue as additional launches and mid-cycle enhancements are executed.

Various estimates show that 15 percent of the 270 million cars on the road in the United States today contain some type of data-recording device. Roughly 65 percent of the 16.7 million new cars sold in the United States during 2004 were equipped with them, said Kevin Mixer, an analyst with Boston-based market research company AMR Research.

That means the number of black boxes on U.S. roads will rise significantly as newer models are sold. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in its announcement last June recommended that manufacturers install the devices in all vehicles beginning in September 2008, though automakers are not required to do so.

When Mark Webber wheels his BMW-Williams Formula One car into the pits at the end of this season, only a third or less of its components will be the same as those which took to the grid in last weekend's opening Australian Grand Prix. The rest will have been redesigned, honed and otherwise improved in pursuit of a cutting a few hundredths of a second off lap times. It is the same for virtually all the teams. F1 is, in short, research and development on wheels. But not only the F1 teams are entitled to lodge tax credit claims through specialist tax advisers like Rawlinson and Hunter and a dedicated unit of KPMG. Many of the components will have been developed by small, specialist engineering companies mostly spread through "Motorsport Valley" around Silverstone. - Collectively, they employ about 40,000 people designing, developing and making the components and cars for every category of motor sport. Most employ 200 or fewer, but together they earn about �5bn a year for the UK economy.

For our 10th Amelia Island Concours, we were looking for something really special. We have NASCAR great Bobby Allison as this year’s racing honoree; his successes, along with the 50th anniversary of the small-block V-8, made it logical to feature Chevrolet at this year’s event.

Any car enthusiast would be hard-pressed to name a more significant engine to racing and to horsepower than the GM small-block. With its simplicity, light weight and innovative design, it can still hold its own against more “sophisticated” overhead cam and multi-valve engines. Ed Cole’s baby is going strong, and probably will for another 50 years!

"The story of Tatra is one of innovation, repression and vindication. The company got its start in the 1850's in Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire, later Czechoslovakia) making buggies and railway cars. Auto production began with the Pr�sident in 1897.

A brilliant young engineer named Hans Ledwinka joined the company around that time and introduced innovations like all-wheel brakes, air-cooled engines and a central tube chassis with independent rear suspension. The Tatra's design and construction were years ahead of their time, strongly influencing Ferdinand Porsche, who was developing the Volkswagen Beetle on orders from Hitler; Porsche appropriated several of Ledwinka's ideas for VW.

"Porsche admitted he was basically looking over Ledwinka's shoulder," Mr. McCoskey said.

This Lexus concept car is one hot fast car. Lots of horses in a little buggy means fast car.

The Lexus LF-A concept features an engine capable of developing more than 500 horsepower.

Got an idea for a big engine? You don't even have to put it in a fast car. Check out this contest Chrysler is putting on.

Chrysler Group brought back a modern version of its muscle-car-era Hemi engine in 2003, it seemingly has put a version of it into every car and truck that would fit one.

Now, the Chrysler folks want to find out what else they can wedge one into.

The automaker is holding a contest, called "What Can You Hemi?", in which people can write in with suggestions of what they would most like to see powered by a Hemi engine.

"And I mean anything. It doesn't have to be automotive," said George Murphy, senior vice president of global marketing for Chrysler Group.

Chrysler will pick five semi-finalists and actually build one of the suggested contraptions. Entrants should write an essay of 300 words or fewer and mail it to Chrysler by April 6.

For more information, visit whatcanyouhemi.com.

The next big thing? Fast cars in the sky. The first step may be "sky taxis". With all the major airlines about to go bust, maybe the sky taxi will be the only sky ride left.

There was a fascinatingly SciFi story linked to yesterday by Philip Chaston on Samizdata, and I see that this guy has already also noted Philip's posting. He links to these urgent audio-questions:

It's the year 2000. But where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars. I don't see any flying cars. Why? Why? Why?

Well, here they come. Air taxis. They're still not really flying cars, hence the weasel word "taxi", but they do look like a step in the right direction.

Fast cars running on hydrogen? One blogger has a nice fantasy about saving some money on premium gas for his Viper.

Another interesting transportation technology involves an alternative fuel to use in automobiles, namely hydrogen. Hydrogen has been talked about and hyped as an alternative to gasoline for years, but it has several problems, including safety and storage. Well, a university has come up with an ingenious idea to address these issues. Their idea is to use miniature glass spheres, known as microspheres to hold miniscule amounts of hydrogen. When I read this, I was like “uhh, glass breaks. Who’s going to want to put glass beads filled with hydrogen into their car’s fuel tank?”

Well, supposedly these glass microspheres are much stronger than your typical glass (100X stronger in fact), so if the tank does break, the beads shouldn’t break and even if a few do break, each one only releases a miniscule amount of hydrogen.. The refueling process is pretty interesting in that it’s in two steps. First, a vacuum would suck the used spheres out and send them to a tank for refilling. New, hydrogen filled spheres would then be pumped in from a different tank.

This made me wonder if one day I would be driving a hydrogen-powered car. Hopefully, they can retrofit existing cars with some sort of kit, since I don’t plan on selling the Viper anytime soon. Although, a hydrogen-powered Viper sounds sacrosanct to me. But at $2.49/gallon for gasoline, if hydrogen can give me similar performance at a cheaper price, then I’m game. Unfortunately, as with any new technology, I’m sure it is still years away from being cost economical.

Fast cars are fun to look at. This blogger talks about branding and investment issues as car makers bring out their cool fast cars.

Automakers [are] making statements with unusual car models.

It started with the Plymouth Chrysler Prowler and, more recently, the PT Cruiser comes to mind. Then the ultra-expensive models were unveiled—Dodge Viper, Cadillac 16 and now the $150,000 Ford GT.

All of these cars are cool to look at—as they speed by my subtler model. But consider the money that goes into developing a car. It's a pricey gamble to defend the value of your brand. But it is fun to look at the cars and listen to the music as the Big 3 continue to roll the dice.