Autocars Magazine

Monday, 14 September 2009

Cool Mercedes-Benz News series

The Black Series uses a more powerful version of the SL65 AMG car's 6.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V-12 (good for 670 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque), with the added output coming via redesigned turbochargers, a reconfigured air intake, and less restrictive exhaust. The more potent V-12 powers a car that is a whopping 570 lbs lighter. The result is a 0-to-62-mph time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 200 mph [Mercedes-Benz figures].

The dramatic weight loss is due to several factors. First, the Black Series has a fixed hardtop (with an integral roll bar). Second is the extensive use of carbon-fiber components, including the roof, trunk lid, hood, front fenders, and bumpers. Third, a switch from Mercedes Active Body Control suspension to adjustable steel springs saved a few more pounds.

Best Cool Mercedes-Benz CAR Gallery

Mercedes-Benz has a full range of passenger, light commercial and heavy commercial equipment. Production is on a global basis. The Smart brand of city cars has also been part of the Mercedes-Benz Group since 1994. This car combines that style and the luxury that is reserved for Mercedes Benz, and the brawn and power known to McLaren. This model of Mercedes Benz features a full carbon-fiber monocoque, crash structures and body panels and this mdoel is powered by a 617 horsepower supercharged 5.5 Liter V8 engine. This engine can send the SLR from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds.

Top speed of the SLR may top 200 miles per hour. Another thing that makes the SLR McLaren impressive is the fact that this car features a high level of protection for its occupants. Perhaps this is a carry-over from the fact that Formula 1 Racing is such a dangerous sport, so vehicle safety comes first. This SLR is the first series production vehicle to incorporate a front crash structure that is made exclusively from carbon. Carbon composite material as we know by now can provide rigidity and strength. This kind of material and engineering can absorb four to five times more energy in a severe frontal collison or impact on the road if comapred with other materials, like conventional steel.

Best Cool BMW News Gallery

Despite our objections to BMW using its M name on anything but its pure sports models, the company's gone and revealed its latest 3-Series cars in M Sport spec anyway. That means no M Power, but an aero kit, sport suspension setup and 18" M star-spoke alloys (or, optionally, 19" double-spokers).

Inside, all M Sport models feature Sports seats upholstered in Blue Shadow cloth Alcantara, Individual anthracite headlining, M designation doorsill finishers and a short-shift M gearlever with a perforated leather gaiter and handbrake lever. A Brushed Aluminium interior trim and M leather steering wheel complete the package. M Sport models are traditionally a popular choice for BMW buyers. On six-cylinder-engined 3 Series Coup and Convertible models they account for more than three-quarters of all sales. The introduction of this latest generation of sports model is expected to maintain this ratio.

Cool BMW New Series CAR

Could this really be the new 5-series? According to the article below, this model will be available in 2010. The new design is critical for BMW’s design manager Adrian van Hooydonk and his team, who have to create an exterior that radiates the brand’s distinctive design values and at the same time feels new and fresh. Using information from various sources, these renderings were compiled by our partners over at Sweden’s Auto Motor and Sport and their illustrator Radovan Varicak, giving us a preview of what the final version will look like.

The two-mode hybrid transmission that was developed by BMW together with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler is mostly aimed at bigger vehicles such as trucks and SUVs. The design features dual motors, and an advanced control system that can allow both engines can be turned on simultaneously, and to regenerate electric power during braking. This two-mode system, however, is not currently planned for the next generation 5-series, although BMW has not eliminated the possibility that a similar technology can be added towards the end of the model’s life cycle. We’ll have to make do with the light hybrid at the moment since BMW feels it has already succeeded in heavily reducing the fuel consumption of their engines. However, it remains to be seen whether or not BMW will be able to reach the EU’s new requirements for average CO2 emissions of 130g/km by 2012.

Cool Mazda News Best Beautifull CAR

The new RENESIS rotary engine is dubbed the 16X, most likely for its increased displacement to 1.6L from the 1.3L unit in the current RX-8. It is a twin-rotor unit (800cc x 2) that sends the power to the rear wheels. The new engine is supposed to have a wider torque band and greater fuel efficiency.

Two of the most promising green technologies that are currently infiltrating the automotive market are so-called stop/start systems and DSG transmissions. We’re happy to report that the new Mazda3 is slated to get both of these eco-friendly features, with Mazda’s proprietary Smart Idle stop/start coming before the end of 2009 on both the 1.6L and the 2.0L gasoline-fed four cylinder engines. That technology isn’t planned to make an appearance in the European diesel models with their high-tech catalytic converters.

Best Beauti Cool Mazda Pictures

Mazda Motor Corporation (Matsuda Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a Japanese automotive manufacturer based in Hiroshima, Japan. During 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales. The majority of these (nearly 1 million) were produced in the company's Japanese plants, with the remainder coming from a variety of other plants worldwide.

In the racing world, Mazda has had substantial success with both their signature Wankel-engine cars (in two-rotor, three-rotor, and four-rotor forms) as well as their piston-engine models. Mazda vehicles and engines compete in a wide variety of disciplines and series around the world.It is also known that on any one day in the United States Mazda has the most cars on the race track, proving its popularity.

Saturday, 12 September 2009

The Toyota Auris Sedan Best CAR

The Toyota Auris is a compact 3 door and 5 door hatchback which shares the same E150 platform with the Toyota Corolla. In Europe, Toyota positioned the Auris as the replacement of Corolla hatchback, while the notchback Sedan continued by the Corolla nameplate. The Auris succeeds the Corolla RunX in Japan and the Toyota RunX (no Corolla badging) in South Africa. Toyota Australia and Toyota New Zealand resisted suggestions from Toyota Japan to adopt the new European Auris name for the Corolla. The name "Auris" is based on the Latin word for "gold", aurum. The Auris is now being sold in Japan.

On 26 February 2007, Toyota announced an investment of GBP 100 million in its Deeside engine factory to build a petrol engine for the Auris. In June 2009, the motoring press reported that a hybrid version of the Auris using the same drivetrain as the Prius would launch in the UK in Autumn 2009. In July 2009, Toyota confirmed that a hybrid version would be built at the Burnaston factory from mid-2010

Friday, 11 September 2009

Best Cool Honda Jazz Euro NCAP

Euro NCAP’s new rating scheme focuses on the vehicle’s overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The new system considers passenger protection during impact to the front, side and rear of the car, and pole (if the car impacts with a tree or other fixed narrow object). Child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver safety aids are also considered.

NCAP is the highway safety assessor for seven European governments and is sort of like a combination of Consumer Reports and the IIHS in the U.S. Unlike the IIHS, the NCAP says that small cars are very safe. Protection for the driver’s chest was poor but other areas of his body were safeguarded. The Jazz was penalised because forces transferred unrealistically to the dummy’s back and up its spine, reducing measured chest loads.

Best Cool Toyota Auris Diesel CAR

Toyota has doubled the diesel choice in its Auris TR range with the introduction of its lightweight, economic 1.4 D-4D 90 engine to the line-up. Lightweight, smooth and highly efficient, the unit delivers strong fuel economy and low emissions. Auris TR models come with a high equipment specification that includes 16-inch five-spoke alloy wheels, front fog lamps, automatic air conditioning, blue Tatami interior trim, chrome detailing on the rear bodywork, front fog lamps and heated electrically adjustable door mirrors.

You can't blame Toyota for the name change: after four complete decades of selling the Corolla and having turned out 32 million varieties, it was time for a trade in. Many car names sound weird when you analyse them; "Corolla" conjures a Spanish medical condition. Auris, come to think, could be Latin for a swollen lug-hole, but don't let that put you off. Like the Jag, the Roller and the Mini then, the Auris will continue the Great British tradition of, er, car assembly. Never mind the fact that, as many environmentalists point out, the profits return to a nation that likes to serve up whales as dog food.

Toyota Cool Auris Hybrid CAR

The Auris hatchback hybrid version, which is going to be manufactured in the facility at Burnaston, Derbyshire, UK, will be released by Toyota this coming autumn. Since the gasoline-electric drivetrain of the Auris Hybrid Synergy Drive will be shared by the latest Prius, it means that it will come with a 98bhp 1.8L Atkinson-cycle gasoline powerplant and an 80bhp electric power unit.

Toyota’s reluctance to incorporate an oil-burning powerplant in a hybrid vehicle means a diesel-electric powertrain for the Auris Hybrid is unlikely. The current petrol-only Auris also utilises a fuel-saving start-stop system in the European market, however Breen said that start-stop is not a technology that Toyota Australia is looking to include in locally-delivered models any time soon.

Last week we told you about this new hybrid that aims to steal some sales success from the cheap new Honda Insight and mused: is this just Toyota's knee-jerk response to gut-punchingly successful Honda Insight sales in only its first month for sale?

Cool Honda Civic Hybrid Pictures

The edition continues the second generation of the Honda Civic hybrid, which was introduced in 2006 and has maintained a strong share in the ever-expanding hybrid market.

The promotion began in earnest during the 2007 World Series and it hasn't waned. Chevrolet wants the Malibu to compete with the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, and that's a hefty task. With its hybrid version, new for 2008, the Malibu features GMC's "mild hybrid system" rather than its dual mode full hybrid system. With its hybrid model, the Escape and its close hybrid sibling easily overcome the SUV stigma — poor gas mileage. The Escape features a "full" hybrid electric system. It works in three different ways — as pure electric power, pure gasoline power or a combination of the two systems.

Cool Honda Jazz Hybrid Gallery

The company is also working on a hybrid based on the CRZ and a Jazz/Fit hybrid, as well as a new version of the Civic Hybrid. "Honda is planning global sales of more than 500,000 units per year with its four hybrids. The similarities are still obvious, but we think the new Insight can stand on its own and doesn't look half bad (some weird design choices here and there.

With the 2010 Insight joining the Civic Hybrid in Honda’s global line-up (and expected here later next year), Honda is tackling Toyota’s head-start in the hybrid market front-on. Now, Japan’s leading business paper Nikkei has reported that Honda is planning to launch a petrol-electric hybrid version of the popular Honda Jazz (sold as the Fit, internationally) by the end of 2010 – more than a year ahead of schedule.

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Best Cool Car Volkswagen Touareg

The Volkswagen Touareg is a mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle produced by German automaker Volkswagen Passenger Cars since 2003. The Touareg comes standard with four-wheel drive system. An automatic progressively locking centre differential (with manual override), and a "low range" setting that can be activated with in-cabin controls. Options to make the vehicles more capable off-road include an available air suspension system which can raise the car's ride height on command, and an interior switch allowing the rear differential to be manually locked. Its load level ground clereance is at 6.3 inches, Off Road Level is at 9.6 inches, and Xtra clearance of 11.8 inches.