Posted on September 3, 2008 in:
BMW
Concept cars give automotive designers a chance to let their imaginations run wild, often with outlandish results. But even by that measure, BMW has come up with something as strange as it is innovative — a shape-shifting car covered with fabric.
Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the GINA Light Visionary Model has a body of seamless fabric stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The car — which actually runs and drives — is a styling design headed straight for the BMW Museum in Munich and so it will never see production, but building a practical car wasn’t the point.
Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW, says GINA allowed his team to “challenge existing principles and conventional processes.” read more »
Posted on July 10, 2008 in:
General
The Electric Lightning GT appears to have everything an ecoconscious lover of British sports cars could want: a luxury interior, a top speed of 130mph and acceleration that would put a Porsche to shame.
And all generated from 30 onboard rechargeable electric batteries, with no direct greenhouse gas emissions.
Perhaps just one thing is missing — the throaty growl of a fossil-fuelled high-performance engine that turns heads and opens wallets.
The engineers have thought of that too: the Lightning comes with a “programmable external engine sound generator”, for drivers who don’t want their £120,000 green supercar to sound like a milk float read more »
One of the many things General Motors boasted about when it unveiled the Volt concept at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007 was its 600-mile range.
This was achieved partially by the battery pack, which could sustain a (theoretical) charge allowing the Volt to run for 40 miles without reverting to the gasoline engine/generator, as well as a 12-gallon fuel tank.
According to Kicking Tires, GM has shrunk the size of the tank by an unknown quantity and the result is a reduction in range from 600 to 400 miles – or 360 miles without the aid of auxiliary (read: grid-provided) power. read more »
With gas prices going through the roof and regulators requiring cars to be ever more miserly, Volkswagen is bringing new meaning to the term “fuel efficiency” with a bullet-shaped microcar that gets a stunning 282 235 mpg.
Volkswagen’s had its super-thrifty One-Liter Car concept vehicle — so named because that’s how much fuel it needs to go 100 kilometers — stashed away for six years.
The body’s made of carbon fiber to minimize weight (the entire car weighs just 660 pounds) and company execs didn’t expect the material to become cheap enough to produce the car until 2012.
But VW’s decided to build the car two years ahead of schedule. read more »
The long-standing Saleen in-house parts brand, Racecraft, has graduated to full standalone status, with the announcement today of the first set of Racecraft-branded cars focused at the everyday enthusiast, rather than the wealthy sportsman or collector.
Three principles guide the design of Racecraft’s cars: affordable value, a base that can be built on and putting ‘go’ before ’show’.
The first car to bear the Racecraft name will be the base Mustang, called the 420S. The name is derived from the 420hp (313kW) supercharged engine.
Other mods to the car include lightweight wheels, a Racecraft suspension, high-performance tires, and a few custom interior treatments and graphics - leaving the door wide open for individual customization by the buyer.
Options that can be added from the company’s SpeedLab parts division include performance enhancements that can push the car to 475hp (354kW). read more »
Kids argue over all sorts of things. We’re sure that if you stood around a school yard for long enough, well… you may get picked up by the cops.
But not before you hear a couple of kids arguing over something as rediculous as, “What’s faster, the Batmobile or a race car?”
Until recently, it would’ve seemed like a pointless question. But after others like “What’s faster, a Lamborghini or a fighter jet?” have already been answered, Toyota decided to have a go at it and brought the Batmobile to Silverstone during the run-up to this past weekend’s British Grand Prix. read more »
It’d be hard to ask for more than what the spectacular Alfa 8C Competizione already offers, but Alfa Romeo intends to do just that. So after announcing the initial run of 500 coupes,
Alfa will begin production of 500 roadsters. But in case that weren’t enough, reports have been circulating of two new 8Cs to follow.
On the one hand we have the 8C’s successor, which Alfa’s PR people hope will be based on the Ferrari California. On the other we have the more focused GTA version of the current coupe.
While earlier reports suggested that the new second-generation Ferrari-based 8C could arrive in time for Alfa Romeo’s 100 year anniversary in 2010, sources now suggest that it will be the 8C GTA that will arrive for the big celebration. read more »
