February 10, 2004
Rotortank
What do you do with a non-working Mazda Rotary, aka Wankel, engine ? Make it into an aquarium silly!
Speeding Finish
Finland has a law that indexes your speeding ticket to your income.
Jussi Salonoja, the 27-year-old heir to a family-owned sausage empire, was given the £116,000 ticket after being caught driving 80kph in a 40kph zone.
The BBC News has more.
Should we adopt this in Canada ? in North America ?
February 09, 2004
Orange and Blue
The Geneva Auto Show, starting March 4th, will feature the new Mini Convertible in colours unique to the model as Hot Orange and Cool Blue.
I know at least 4 people who are now daydreaming … I’d take the “Cool Blue”, though maybe waiting for the “S” edition.
Your Milage ...
USA Today published an article about the claimed fuel economy of hybrid cars versus the reality. A big case of “Your Milage May Vary”.
It should be noted that :
- EPA test ~40 years old and automakers say it is out of date w/ today’s driving habits
- Drivers who lead-foot accelerator/brake hurt mileage in any vehicle but 10-15 mpg in hybrid
- Batteries less efficient below 32 F so mileage suffers w/ many short trips during a cold week
- Running AC costs 10-20% of fuel economy
props to Automotive Digest for the short an sweet review
By Air
A combustion engine is really just a (hot) compressed air moving pistons to turn wheels system. It is a breathing apparatus.
So why not bypass the whole explosion and cooling requirements and just use “air”.
The ‘minicat’ does just that.
Read Phil Bailey’s overview of compressed air and other “alternate fuels” at CanadianDriver.
February 05, 2004
Boxin' Players
Only two companies are in the business of making horizontally opposed, aka Boxer, engines: Porsche and Subaru.
So this may just make sense in a “Playstation Generation” sense:
Subaru Outback 3.0
Based on the “Car of the Year” in Japan, the 3rd generation Outback is classified as a truck in the US, and with an expected towing capacity of 1300 kg in 6 cylinder form.
See more at need-desire.com
February 04, 2004
Seat Altea Production
VWVortex reveals that the Seat Altea, a prototype mere 6 months ago, is nearing production.
Seat being a Volkswagen AG company, it is my distinct pleasure to recommend to VW USA & Canada to poach this vehicle and sell it here. Diesel engine & all!
Congrats to Walter de’Silva for getting this car into production.
Smart Brazil
Daimler-Chrysler confirmed the name of the crossover to be made in the Juiz de Fora, State of Minas Gerais plant, starting late 2005. It will be smart formore, which will take the same platform of the Japanese compact Mitsubishi Colt, with four-wheel drive and high ground clearance. The planned production is 60,000 units per year, 50 percent of it destined for the U.S. and the remaining supply to several other markets. “It will be a distinct, singular vehicle in the market - so singular that we have made ‘SUV’ stand for “smart-utility vehicle,” says Andreas Renschler, president of DC’s subsidiary smart GmbH…
Props to The Car Connection for the information & to Canadian Driver / Auto Express for the links.
February 01, 2004
Rendered Cars
79 year old Paul Newman, the oldest sanctioned wining driver in history and pretty god actor to boot is joining a cast other actors as the voices in Pixar’s next movie, Cars.
Route 66 never sounded so interesting. :D
Will be in theatres for Holiday 2005
In other news, Pixar and Disney are parting ways after the release of Cars and “The Incredibles”