This is a stock Toyota Prius retrofitted with a drive by wire system. Sure your kids play with remote control cars. What makes this auto special? It drives itself with out remote control or human guide. AI is at the wheel and this baby has an array of on-board sensors, GPS and computing systems. Imagine a day when your car dives you to work while you sit in the back seat and read the morning paper…
Ever wonder what possible use the Openometer could have? The tiny dashboard gauge is found only in the Mini
convertible and tracks the number of hours a Mini motorist has been
driving with the top down. Cute, sure, but hardly as useful as, say...
a speedometer or fuel gauge. Well, David Loveall and over 400 other Mini Cooper Convertible owners across America found the Openometer very useful as they participated in the Open One Challenge.
Kansas
City's Loveall logged some 555.55 hours of top-down driving in his
Mini, after driving across the country and visiting every one of the 48
contiguous states in the union. He took some of America's greatest
back-roads, like Route 66 and US 50, avoiding the freeway at all costs
and often camping roadside in a tent.
A bit nonplussed with the McLaren MP4-12C? These photoshops of the new car wearing the McLaren F1 GTR's classic racing liveries should fix that.
The
problem with the new McLaren doesn't just appear to be the baffling
name, but the apparent lack of headline performance figures amid the
inarguable impressive level of technology. Remember, when it was
released in 1992, it was, by far, the fastest road-legal car ever made,
hitting 240 MPH. In fact, since cars like the Bugatti Veyron and SSC
Ultimate Aero TT use forced induction, the F1 remains the fastest
naturally aspirated car ever. The MP4? It should hit 200 MPH and will
likely be more a rival for the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari 458
Italia than it will ultra high-end hyper cars.
McLaren hasn't announced any plans to race the MP4-12C or create a
race-ready version of the GTR, but if they do, we hope to see it
painted like this.
When
is a truck not a truck? Well, that depends on your definition of truck,
it seems, as many vehicles currently on dealer lots all around the
country carry the truck designation from their manufacturers while most
rational people like you and me would consider them cars.
So, why would an automaker call its car a truck if it's not really a
truck, and why should you care? That's the subject of today's Greenlings,
and it may be a bigger issue than you think. Remember, cars and trucks
carry different fuel economy requirements from the federal government,
and, as you might imagine, this is the reason why large automakers are
putting some of their very untrucklike vehicles firmly in the Truck
Bucket.
Read on to find out which vehicles we're talking about and how it impacts fuel mileage regulations.
When
Jean Todt relinquished his role as CEO of Ferrari last year, the man
who most claim to be driving force behind the Italian super car
builder’s engineering efforts, Amedeo Felisa, took over the
reigns of the prancing horse. During the opening of a new
Maserati-Ferrari showroom in Sydney, Australia, the current Chief
Executive Officer offered up a little insight into the Maranello based
sports car builder’s future. Plans that include a 458 Spider, a 599hybrid concept that will be on display in Geneva next month as well as an even more powerful light weight GTOEnzo super car. variant of the V12 powered GT car and a new
According to Mr. Felisa: "We will present the new concept of the hybrid
at Geneva. It will be based on the 599, but that doesn’t mean it
will debut on that model,...We have a plan to introduce on our cars new
technology that will reduce consumption and emissions,...The next step
is to apply the technology on Ferrari cars." An approach that the
Scuderia gained some experience with the F60,
regardless of the fact that the FIA has banned the hybrid like Kinetic
Energy Recovery System from Formula One competition in 2010...
Jaguar's
motorsports involvement dates back to its earliest days some 75 years
ago. The 24 Hours of Le Mans has been part of that story since 1951
when a C-Type won the big enduro its very first time out. Jaguar is
returning to the French classic this year with a factory entry for the
first time since the Tom Walkinshaw built XJR-14 prototypes of the
early 1990s.
This year, instead of seeking overall victory
with a prototype, Jaguar is aiming for top honors in GT2 with a
production-derived XKR
built by Lansing, MI based Rocketsports Racing. The JaguarRSR XKR GT2
ran some practice laps at the Petit Le Mans last fall before its
competition debut in the ALMS finale at Laguna Seca. RSR owner Paul
Gentilozzi will share seat time with Scott Pruett and Marc Goossens in
the 24 hour race. The XKR will also be running the full American Le
Mans Series season this year starting at the 12 hours of Sebring next
month.
Hidden behind Toyota recalls and its own brake recall, Ford's issued a recall of defective 2010 Shelby GT500 rear tires. How the recall affects you below so you can possibly keep your family alive.
The
scope of the issue is incredible, with a staggering 243 muscle cars
affected by the potentially deadly defect. According to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration the tire loading and information
requirements printed on the tires does NOT conform to "federal motor vehicle safety standards No. 110."
But Ford's also stumbled and fallen on providing NHTSA with the correct information they need. According to NHTSA:
"THE MANUFACTURER HAS NOT YET PROVIDED THE AGENCY WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONSEQUENCE AS IT RELATES TO MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY."
This response makes us wonder whether an automaker can expect to be
seen as a paragon of safety if they can't provide the necessary data to
NHTSA on important recalls like one for FMVSS #110...
Japanese
automaker is promising to move as quickly as possible to resolve
accelerator pedal problems affecting eight of their models. NBC’s Tom
Costello reports. (Today Show)
Enjoy the art and love of car collecting. The beloved Packard auto is like the American Rolls-Royce, and this Packard Club wants to be sure you know that. Check out some proud Packard drivers as they show off some gorgeous iron and shed insight on why this is an auto fit for a serious collector.
The fifth-generation ChevroletCamaro has been on the road for less than a year in production form, but, according to Motor Trend, General
Motors is already considering a followup act. The current model is
based on GM's Zeta rear-wheel drive platform that was developed by
Holden in Australia. While the Zeta cars, the Camaro and the late Pontiac G8,
have generally been praised for their dynamics, they are not perfect.
The platform is heavy and many of the originally anticipated additional
applications have not materialized, raising the per vehicle cost in the
process.
Last summer in the wake of bankruptcy, GM showed off many of its
upcoming vehicles to members of the media, including a new smaller Cadillac
dubbed ATS. The ATS rides on a new rear-wheel drive platform that has
been referred to as Alpha...
"We
need to fix the problem and not have people have to put it in neutral.
If you own one, I say stop driving. Return it now," LaHood told
reporters. If this is a new policy from DOT or just LaHood mouthing off
is unclear.
UPDATE: Yeah, as expected, LaHood is
backtracking from his statement. What he meant to say was: take the car
in immediately if you think there's a problem.
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