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Archive for March, 2009
Auto Trader Buyers’ Guide
Thursday, March 19th, 2009Yesteryears Automobiles: 1999
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
A Look Back at the History of the American Automobile
By Michael Schlee
With the American Auto Industry in a crisis like it has never faced before, I thought we could take a look back at the past 100 years of American Vehicles to see the highlights (and lowlights) of an industry on the edge of collapse.
This is a new feature that will become a regular segment for this blog.
1999 Mercury Cougar
Key Developments 1999:
- Chrysler Corporation kills off its division Eagle. The cancellation is due to poor sales.
- Ford buys Volvo’s automotive arm, adding another luxury brand to its portfolio.
- Ford unveils new options such as back-up warning sensors and power adjustable pedals.
- Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight and Buick Rivera are in their last year with General Motors.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a…..car
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
11 Cars With Some of the Biggest Stock Wings in History
By Michael Schlee
Downforce is a key ingredient for any race car. By increasing the pressure on the tires, a car is capable of taking corners faster.
Toyota Supra Twin Turbo
How do you create downforce on a car? Well there are a few different ways, but the most common is to apply a spoiler or a wing to a vehicle.
Faces of the Geneva Motor Show
Saturday, March 14th, 2009A retrospective look at the hard working models of the Geneva Motor Show:
Faces of the Geneva Motor Show
Italy’s I.DE.A Institute to Intro ERA Concept in Geneva
Saturday, March 14th, 2009Classically Beautiful or Weird and Wacky?
Canadian Auto Press
Other than the wild and wacky Tokyo auto show, Geneva is the auto event where dreams become reality, or at least take on 3D metal and plastic form. In this particular case the creator is the I.DE.A Institute, an engineering and consultancy company based in Turin, Italy.
I.DE.A Institute ERA Concept
The new ERA concept is a two-door, two-seat roadster with gull-wing doors, a real design statement that should provoke interest from automakers. Seemingly inspired by Ferrari, Maserati, Osca and other 1950s racers, even under the skin where it uses a classic tube-frame chassis, it’s an elegant design, with a unique front fascia that could potentially be adopted by an Asian manufacturer in need of an image update.
Mazda3 i-stop
Saturday, March 14th, 2009By Marc Lachapelle
Engine stop-start systems are becoming more common and not only on hybrid-powered vehicles. Until now, carmakers had used the conventional starter or a starter-generator to restart the engine. Now Mazda engineers have come up with a simple, ingenious and effective way to do it better.
In Geneva, Mazda officially introduced i-stop, now standard with the 2.0-litre MZR gasoline engine, becoming the first stop-start system to use combustion energy to restart the engine. Combined with the engine’s direct injection system and some aerodynamic tweaks, i-stop can reduce fuel consumption by up to 14 per cent, for a combined fuel economy rating of 6.8 L / 100km on the Euro cycle.
Mazda3 i-stop
The principle is quite simple. Using a crankshaft angle sensor that can measure rotation in both directions, the i-stop system accurately determines piston position and lets the engine rotate in the reverse direction ever so slightly after it stops, to prepare it for an instant restart. Mazda says the restart takes 0.35 second which is twice as quick as other start-stop systems.
The engine is then restarted by injecting fuel in the cylinder where the piston has been carefully positioned at the ideal spot for compression. Combustion then pushes the piston down and gets the engine going with brief assist from the starter.
No official word from Mazda Canada yet but i-stop will undoubtedly soon be included with the Mazda3’s 2.0-litre engine here too.
Top 5 production Geneva debuts, with something to say
Friday, March 13th, 2009Chosen, semi-randomly, by Michael Goetz
1) Aston Martin One-77
This $1 million-plus supercar is either a widely inappropriate project for today’s economic climate, or a great way to kick today’s economic climate in the cajoines. I’ll go with the later
Aston Martin One-77
2) Chevrolet Spark
Spark’s oversized grille gives it teeth. The world needs more angry small cars, because, as you know, nothing is more entertaining than an angry small person with an axe to grind.
Chevrolet Spark
3) Mercedes-Benz E Class Coupe
If you’re diligent at your craft, and God knows the Germans are, you can eventually solve many disparate elements into one vehicle. The E Class Coupe is such a work: lots of heritage yet looks new; substantial yet fuel efficient with two new, very advanced four-cylinder engines (gas and diesel); a five-seater with one of the lowest coefficient of drags (0.24) in the business.
Mercedes-Benz E Class Coupe
4) VW Polo
The first Polo to be sold in North America. A sure sign that hell is thawing, just a little, and maybe Canucks and Yanks will see that the smallest class segment is not about “cheap” or “size for the money” but about competent, fully-equipped cars that happen to be of a certain, tidy size. And maybe we don’t all need to be driving SUVS.
Arnold Schwarzenegger inside a VW Polo
5) Zagato Perana Z-One
On the surface this looks like another one of those cars people or firms build because they like old-school, beautiful sports car, and damn it, that’s what we’ll make, and let’s worry about the business model later. Well, this case there is an actual and interesting business model. By using a fiberglass body on a tubular chassis, Zagato intends to undercut those who make such svelte machinery with expensive hand-made bodies. Price should be under 50,000 Euros (about $80,000), for each of the 999 units they intend to make each year. Power is by way of a Corvette engine producing about 440 hp.
Zagato Z-One
Spyker C8 Aileron – Calgary bound
Friday, March 13th, 2009By Nauman Farooq
At the 79th Geneva Motor Show, the Dutch car builder Spyker unveiled their new car, and it is a stunner. It’s called the C8 Aileron.
While mechanically this new version isn’t any different from their previous offering, hence it still has an Audi sourced 4.2-liter, V8, producing 400 hp. Thanks to its 354 lb/ft of torque it can propel from 0-100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds, and onto a top speed of 300 km/h.
It still delivers the power to the rear wheels only, but now you get a choice with transmissions. Base is a six-speed Getrag manual gearbox, or now you can opt for the six-speed ZF automatic that comes with paddle shifters for your driving pleasure.
Spyker C8 Aileron
The new car gets a new chassis, which is wider and longer than before, and hence improves cabin space. Spyker fans will be happy to learn that the exposed, polished gear linkage is kept on this model too. However, you get much more gadgets to play with, including a built in navigation system, Bluetooth interface, iPod connectivity and a new Kharma sound system.
Outside, you get this gorgeous, sculpted body that would make any car enthusiast go weak in the knees.
How much you ask? Base price for the manual is US$229,000, automatic is an extra US$10,000, and the tasty options can run an extra US$30,000.
Spyker’s have been selling cars around the world since 2002, and this year they can add Canada to the list.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, Spyker has an official distributor out of Calgary, Alberta, and they will be displaying two models at the Calgary International Auto and Truck Show, from March 11 to 15. If you can, go there to see these magnificent cars in person.
Aston Martin – Three Divas on Stage
Friday, March 13th, 2009By Marc Lachapelle
Aston Martin was showing three new cars in Geneva, in addition to the Lagonda Concept (see other story). Profitable for the past four years and led by a dynamic private consortium since 2007, it has obviously not been hit by the recessionary tide wave, yet. The guys from Newport Pagnell are even mounting an assault on Le Mans with a brace of Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 racers to try and repeat Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori’s historic win in a DBR1, on its fiftieth anniversary.
At center stage was a ‘technical showcase’ of Aston Martin’s ultra exclusive new sports car, the One-77. As the name implies, only seventy-seven will be built and are all spoken for already, at a price of about $1.5 million. Shown in public for the first time were a full model of the car and its complete rolling chassis, dubbed Number 1. The actual car will have ‘hand-rolled’ aluminum panels, in true Aston Martin tradition, but everything underneath will be thoroughly leading-edge.
Aston Martin DBS
One-77 project manager Chris Porritt says that his team studied “the most technologically exciting front-engined, rear-wheel drive cars in the world,” those from the famous German DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) ‘touring car’ series and then applied the “principles and technology” to a “road car application.” This One-77 is thus built on a lightweight and “immensely rigid” carbon-fibre monocoque chassis that was designed jointly with Multimatic, a Toronto-based engineering firm recognized by Aston Martin as a “world leader in carbon composite technology.”
The new über-Aston’s double-wishbone suspension is a racing-style inboard design with pushrods like F1 cars and fully-adjustable Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers, a first for a road car. These are likely Multimatic which also happens to be among the world’s best in suspension and shock absorber design. The suspension on each One-77 will be tuned exactly to its owner’s wishes: “from settings suitable for the ultimate long-distance GT to a machine capable of conquering the Nürburgring Nordschleife (circuit).”
Aston Martin One-77
With a projected weight of 1,500 kg, a naturally-aspirated, Cosworth-tuned 7.3-litre V12 that will deliver more than 700 horsepower, standard carbon-ceramic brakes and Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres (in front/rear sizes of 255/35 ZR20 and 335/30 ZR20) the One-77 should undoubtedly be up to the task. Aston Martin predicts 0-60 mph (96.5 km/h) sprints in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of more than 320 km/h (200 mph). Next in the One-77’s progressive disclosure is the interior, with the delivery of a first car before end of year.
Sharing the spotlight in Geneva were the new DBS Volante and V12 Vantage. The Volante is the drop-top version of the DBS. Its cloth top retracts under a tonneau cover in only 14 seconds at speeds up to 50 km/h. The standard 13-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system is designed to adjust the ‘sound stage’ to compensate for extra wind noise in open-top motoring.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage
Under the hood is a 6.0-litre, naturally-aspirated V12 that produces 510 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque, coupled to a rear-mounted six-speed manual gearbox or the optional six-speed automatic with manual mode. The newest Volante should be good for a 0-100 km/h dash in 4.3 seconds and a top speed of 307 km/h. Probably with the top up.
The third Aston Martin unveiled In Geneva gets the same V12 engine as the Volante in the closed shell of a coupé. The V12 Vantage is a more potent version of the V8 Vantage, which has been a huge sales hit since launch. It reportedly gets to 100 km/h a tenth of a second quicker than the DBS Volante but tops out at 305 km/h, a smidgeon less. Aston will only ever build a thousand copies of this V12 Vantage, which will ensure exclusivity.
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- Aston Martin DBS
Maserati GranTurismo S Automatic
Friday, March 13th, 2009By Michael Goetz
Maserati is committed to introduce a new model at every international auto show. That’s got to be a challenge for a specialty marque, like Maserati. So some shows will apt to get the “minor” revision reveals, and such was the case at Geneva.
Maserati GranTurismo S Automatic
The new model on display was the GranTurismo S Automatic. Until this baby came along, you could only get an automatic on the “regular” GranTurismo models, which feature the 4.2-litre V8. S models have the larger, more powerful 4.7-litre V8. The automatic in question is 6-speed made by ZF.
Actually, we don’t care if Maserati brings a new car out for every auto show or not, as long as they bring along their famous hostesses — always elegant, never too hard on the eyes.
