Norio Tomobe, chief engineer of the Honda CR-Z,
said "The CR-Z is supposed to be an intelligent sports car." We can
spend a fair bit of time debating the 'intelligence' of a sports coupe
that gets from 0-to-60 in 9.7 seconds and has just two seats but gets
worse gas mileage than a ToyotaPrius.
However, we won't really be able to decide on the issue until we drive
it, and that is apparently what it takes to feel the love for it.
According to Automotive News, back when the CR-Z was
being designed to house a traditional gasoline-only drivetrain, Tomobe
said he and his team dug deep to come up with a new idea for the car,
which ended up being a hybrid drivetrain and a six-speed transmission.
But that wasn't until after they had tried to kill the project. Twice.
And that didn't stop the president of American Honda Motor from
repeatedly telling Japan the U.S. didn't need or want a sporty hybrid,
which he thought would confuse customers. Until he drove it, and then
all was go.
Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
This is it — the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
— fully unmasked at a marketing photo shoot. It's the
stretched-out high-power people-hauler every automotive journalist has
been waiting for. Let's just go ahead and call it the Cadillac of
awesome.
Of course we expect the CTS-V Wagon will come equipped with the same
550 HP+ 6.2-liter LSA engine as it's sedan and coupe brothers. Frankly,
what more do we need to know? The fact that we have a real picture of
this vehicle we never thought would see the light of day is the only
news we need to read. Do want...
We expect the advocacy group Plug In America
to constantly remind us of the benefits of plug-in vehicles. That's
their reason for being, after all. Sometimes, impassioned pleas make a
good argument; sometimes, taking a fresh look at what might be
considered a boring topic does the trick.
Plug In America co-founder and actress Alexandra Paul has written a guest blog post over at In The Driver's SeatGas Price Heat Map, and consumer and governmental
gas price reports, after all - but we're not as conscious of the price
of electricity. With the next generation of electric vehicles (EVs)
becoming a reality this year, wouldn't this be a good thing to know?
Paul notes that electricity rates don't fluctuate nearly as much as the
price of gasoline does, which might be a reassuring thing for drivers
thinking of making the switch to a plug-in vehicle...
Jean François Vicente of Vicente Design
has just come up with a rather interesting kick-started single-cylinder
custom bike concept that he calls the EFI SR400 Board Tracker. This is
definitely a case of “looks beat performance” as the
designer concentrated on delivering a low and sleek bike that proposes
a closer rider-motorcycle communion by bringing it all down to the bare
necessities such as the two large wheels, a motor and a bar to hold on
to.
The bike would be based on the Yamaha SR400 and SR500 and it
may look vintage but it has its fair share of ingenious design
features. For instance, the seat and gas tank are made of the same
hydroformed titanium sheets and also act as a beam girder for the
frame, the thing has a carbon girder fork and also a hydroformed
underslung exhaust...
This year the Lakers ran out of gas before taking home the gold trophy. But that’s not stopping Ronny Turiaf. Check out FD Motoring, who helped the power forward forget about the championship ring by accessorizing his very sweet BMW.
It's been several days since we left the Geneva Motor Show
and we're still finding cars that we somehow missed out on the floor.
We especially don't know how we managed to skip this bad boy in the
Brabus booth, as it should have been nearly impossible to miss. It's
called the E V12 Coupe, and it's got 800 horsepower. Enough said.
There's nothing new about Brabus stuffing a V12 into an E-Class.
They've been doing it since 1996, and have been making twin-turbo
models since 2003. The latest version is based off of the new E Coupe,
and it's a much prettier car than the awkward looking E V12 Black Baron
that we saw in Frankfurt. Fortunately it does share the same engine - a
6.3-liter twin-turbo V12 putting out 800 horsepower and 1047 lb-ft
torque. Brabus quotes a 0-100 km/h time of just 3.7 seconds and a top
speed of 230 mph, and judging from the performance of their previous cars we are inclined to believe them.
Honda's heeded the chorus of "Eeews!" over the Accord Crosstour's design, bringing the euro Accord Wagon stateside as the Acura TSX Sport Wagon.
Honda
announced today it'll bring the Acura TSX Sport Wagon — you can't
call anything just a wagon anymore — to this year's New York Auto
show for its big debut followed up by a quick trip to the dealerships
this fall. It makes sense to bring it here as the Acura since the TSX
shares a platform with the Euro Accord and there's already the U.S.
Accord-based Crosstour...
Consumer Reports’ Jon Linkow reveals the publication’s top choices for
automobiles, after meticulous testing for performance, safety and
reliability. (Today Show)
The Volvo XC60 has an amazing trick that is more of a miracle considering it can stop itself. Volvo is generally known for producing great vehicles that are synonymous with safety. The newest addition to the Volvo family is continuing that trend with a major upgrade in the safety and technology called City safety.
Introducing another computer that can do my job better that I can. Thanks to some Volvo smart-guy technology this baby has got ‘laser beams on it’s freakin forehead’. These lasers actually scan the road ahead and work with the breaks to anticipate stoppage. Now this is cool, considering the safety and text messaging issues while driving! My adult ADD while driving has yet another excuse to never heel, which is fantastic. The only downfall with this amazing new Volvo feature is that you will never win a round of ‘Chicken’ again.
Seriously, Volvo’s City Safety feature is designed for low speeds in emergency situations that can save you from fender benders. Still the auto-stop feature is brand spanking new, I imagine myself intentionally driving into static objects at various low speeds just to have the satisfaction of the car stopping itself. Heading down to my nearest Volvo dealer and taking an XC60 out on a test-drive seems like the sensible solution to such a dream.
As if classic car fans in California weren't spoiled enough with the
annual festivities in Monterey, world-class concours in Palm Springs,
La Jolla, Dana Point, Palos Verdes, and Pasadena, and first-rate
museums like The Petersen and Nethercutt Collection, another incredible
collection is being opened to the public this spring. Set to open April
15 in Oxnard, California, the Mullin Automotive Museum
is the anchored by the vehicles of Pebble Beach-winner and Monterey
Historics racer Peter Mullin, and promises to be another must-see
attraction.
According to the press release you'll find after the jump,
"the Mullin Automotive Museum will pay homage to the art deco and
machine age design eras (1918-1941) that produced exquisite art and
magnificent automobiles." The centerpiece will be a huge collection of
unrestored Bugattis, but expect to find other iconic brands like
Delahaye, Delage, Talbot-Lago, Voisin and Hispano-Suiza, with an
emphasis on French cars with coachwork by masters like Chapron, Figoni
et Falaschi, Gangloff, Vanvooren, Labourdette, Letourneur et Marchand
and Saoutchik among others.
This week's Geneva Motor Show features greenwashing finally invading the exotic-car realm — Lotus, Ferrari, and Porsche all debuted a hybrid. These cars won't save the planet, but they might just get a few rich dudes laid.
Hybrid
cars are both a fad and a reality for the modern automaker. They
receive an inordinate amount of attention compared with their more
conventional, less expensive fuel-sipping brethren, and yet, thanks to
increasingly strict environmental regulations, they're not going away.
Can hybrid technology help reduce pollution? Totally. Will a hybrid
Ferrari save the planet? Absolutely not...
Is not everyday you have the chance to see a tuned Aston Martin DBS.
So you can understand why we are so excited about this package coming
from Edo Competition. Thanks to new high performance exhaust system,
special catalytic converters and high flow air filters, the tuner was
able to update the engine’s power to an impressive 550 hp and 570
Nm. The result is a sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds and a top
speed of 199 mph.
The sports car also gets: a new sports
suspension system, a new high performance brake system, carbon fiber
shifter and shifter console on the interior and 21 in. racing wheels...
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We expect the advocacy group 
