I was watching some back episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Las Vegas (Season 2) from a cable network and there is this one episode (Episode 18) about a bus accident, a tour bus accident where there was nine (9) people died, which also includes the driver. A car was chasing the bus down the road and lost control. And as expected, since this is Hollywood TV, this accidents turns out have a foul play involved. So our CSI heroes went head on to investigate this foul play and find the person responsible aka the killer. So here's the overview:
A bus carrying 23 passengers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas crashes less than 40 miles from its destination, killing nine people. Before he dies, the driver recalls that, moments before the wreck, the steering wheel began vibrating like a jackhammer in his hands, making it impossible for him to control the speeding vehicle. When the bus finally did come to a stop, it was on its right side on top of a sports car that was following it. At the scene, the CSIs discover that a recent parolee was on the bus, but is now unaccounted for---and that there's evidence of foul play. (TV.com)
And so at first, they found out that the tire was busted. They believe that this was the cause of the "accident" as it made the tour bus swerve out of its lane, which made the driver lose control of his bus. And several lab hours after (which only commensurates for about several seconds in our home television), they found a certain amount of chloroform in the tire. What the heck is chloroform? I don't know either. Maybe you could go search it in Wikipedia. Lol. So anyway, this chloroform was injected beforehand, at a garage of course. And a few hours of driving after, it was two hours (2 hrs) actually, the chloroform had caused the tire to wear of and explode. Our CSI hereos tested it. And it's kinda cool to see them all flocking together and watch a tire explode... Anyway, you know this show could be pretty informative too. Like this episode on automobiles. So just take this dialogue for an example:
(CATHERINE walks up to GRISSOM who is looking at the tire.)
CATHERINE: Fire department says the driver of the Camaro's dead.
GRISSOM: Yeah, I heard, but I think I know why the bus pulled to the right.
CATHERINE: Now that is a serious blowout. And the front left tire's still intact.
GRISSOM: Newton's third law: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
GRISSOM: Tire to rim. Rim to axle. Axle to suspension. Suspension to frame. And the lower radius rod arm ... which connects the axle to the frame.
Hehehe.. But years and months later of watching CSI, as it has become more and more popular, you would notice that this show grown more... uhmm.. Hollywood.. meaning they are already showing us stuff that is impossible to believe that they could happen in real life. This stuff is either too odd or too spectacular... more often too spectacular haha! Anyway, with that in mind, I'm sure that there are little misteps going on around in this show. Especially when it comes to this episode, there are a lot of technical auto related stuff that they mght have failed to correct. And it turns out, there really are! So hold your breath for this episode's "CHASING THE BUS" CSI GOOFS!
Sara calculates the time needed to sabotage the tire at a minute to a minute and a half. That is, remove the valve core, allow the majority of the air to escape (cannot pour anything into the tire while the air is escaping) pour in enough chloroform to sabotage the tire, replace the valve core, and air the tire to pressure. Even with an industrial air compressor, it would take over 2 minutes to air that tire to full pressure.
The CSIs crew set up an experiment. They put some chloroform into the tire, set the bus on a dynamometer (or some other testing platform) and waited for the tire to fail. The tire fails in the experiment in the exact same amount of time as it did in real life. Problem: They have no idea how much chloroform was used and it would be impossible to match it by luck. More chloroform used would equal quicker failure. Then, there is the heat. The tire traveling over the hot asphalt road would build heat faster then on their testing platform. More heat would mean a quicker failure, too.
All the pictures of the passengers have the same blue background. Funny if you think that these people never met before setting off on the bus.
When Sara is waiting with Greg for the results for what was inside the tire that exploded, she grabs the paper straight off the printer, reads it, looks at Greg and takes off immediately to inform Gil. When Grissom looks at the paper, you can see Greg's name is signed at the bottom as confirmation, but he never got anywhere near the paper.
While scientists have been painstakingly researching and developing alternative fuel resources and politicians arguing for (or not) them to be made available for more and more consumers; and while we have all been complaining for rising gas prices for our automatic SUVs; the car makers in the 1960s were still struggling to create the perfect and working intermittent windshield wiper for your car.
"Flash of Genius" is a film about the life Robert Kearns, the inventor of this intermittent wiper that we use today. Robert Kearns is an American professor who independently invented the said wiper, whose idea was stolen by mammoth car manufacturers such as Ford and Chrysler. He was left with no credit. Immeasurably determined, Kearns set on his battle for recognition against these monster companies and nobody really thought that he would win. A "David and Goliath" epic tale, this film unfolds the ugly truth and the politics involved behind the history of this seemingly simple windshield device. This is a story about one man's fight for moral respect for one's uncompromised dignity and justice (IMDb.com). So much for complaining on gas prices eh? That's a different story though. (I know, I know.)
A debut direction by American film producer, Marc Abraham (Air Force One, The Family Man, Spy Game, Tuck Everlasting, Dawn of the Dead), this film stars Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets, You've Got Mail, Someone Like You, We Were Soldiers, Stuck On You), Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls, Sweet November, Chasing Destiny, The Pacifier, Evan Almighty), and Dermot Mulroney (The Thing We Call Love, My Best Friend's Wedding, About Schmidt, The Wedding Date, Zodiac).
Only Thom Yorke can pull off a car bandaged with real flames! ... Even though he's not the one driving it. Lol. By the way, this would make more sense if you check out this blog entry.
Late night on the highway, you are with your girlfriend in your car (which you actually stole from your dad) when something came up... whatever that is. You went to a convenient store for this emergency errand and left when suddenly some big guy came up to you, bragged and dared you for some drag race. He flashed his old, vintage, retro car (it's a red Camaro for goodness sake!) parked outside the store, and it is seemingly all geered up for a killer race. What would you do? Would you let your nose get blown up with rest of your face and have your dignity injured or go head on and race with him and still have your dignity get injured? Either way, it seems that the only solution for this dilemma of yours has struck you too late, and that is, stay away from big guys with egos swelled up by their muscle cars.
Yeah, muscle cars. According to Urban Dictionary (Yes I believe that shxx! In fact, it's even more reliable than those text books that your government bought you.. what the?), a muscle car is a blast from the past automotive, particularly from the early 60s to late 70s, that have big tires, big V8 engine, chrome tire covers, two big exhausts, dressed up in racing stripes, blowers, flames (not real flames, of course. Apparently, only Thom Yorke can pull that off.), and with insane horsepower and speed. And although it is only a slightly upgraded version of a family car, it is meant to intimidate your wits, and well, dignity... at least on the road or on the parking lot. Well, here's a good scenario:
Muscle Car Driver: "Hey, how bout this: we race with 6 people in each car" Ricer: "*GULP*" Muscle Car Driver: "That's what I thought"
Unfortunately, due the size of its engine, a muscle car has a lot bigger demand for fuel than a normal car. According to Urban Dictionary (still), a muscle car can go to 0.6 to 5 seconds but gulps up gas twenty times (20x) faster than a Honda. That's about less than a dozen roundtrips to a gas station a day. Lol.
Hey man did you see that muscle car beat that civic? Ya man but look he's at the gas station again.
Don't you think it's rather weird that a muscle car consumes this much of oil but it can't produce at least one bar of melamine packed chocolate? Oh well.
In our last post entitled, "'Lord save us from the hegemonsters!'," we talked about the muscle cars where we mentioned the "Ricers." I only provided a link to Urban Dictionary to define it; and since you are so special I am going to give a proper definition with still the aid of Urban Dictionary... yes, again! So according to our well favored language tool ("with a cherry on top?" ...uuhm no? I didn't mean "flavored" ...but it has a lot of flavor don't you think?), a ricer is a person who makes a heck load of reconfigurations on his foreign import auto (hence the word "rice") to make it make faster but most of the time, to only make it look like so. So these reconfigurations include:
Huge exhaust that serves no purpose but to make the car louder
Large spoiler on the back that looks like something Boeing made for the 747
Lots of after-market company stickers they don't have parts from, but must be cool
Expensive rims that usually cost more than the car itself
Bodykit to make the car appear lower, usually accented with chicken wire
Clear tail lights and corner signals
A "performace intake"- a tube that feeds cold air to their engine usually located in areas of excessive heat (behind or on top of the engine)
Most of these riced cars (a.k.a. rice rockets or rice burners) are imports; Honda Civics, Accords, Integras, CRXs, RSXs, Del Sols Mitsubishi Eclipses, Lancers, Subaru Imprezas, however there are some domestics such as Chevrolet Caviliers, Dodge Neons, Ford Focus; small, slow, economy cars designed specifically to go slow. Please note that some Supras, Skylines, WRX's and other higher performance imports are designed to go fast, and are therfore not always considered rice. It really depends on the severity of the case.
Daeym that's a lot! Anyway, let's make the most of our direct quotation and paste the rest of the stuff here--one of the many wtf-lol moments at Urban Dictionary:
The "ricer" attempts to make their car "performance" by adding the modifications listed above. These ricers are not confined to any one ethnic group or color, however different ethnic groups are known for certain styles.
"The ULTIMATE Ricer"
Anyway, enough with all this shxx and let's get serious. I mean we've made enough stereotypes around here, haven't we? Lol. But you know it's really hard to deny that what these people were saying are indeed funny. Lol some more! Anyway, so let's get down some business. Let's feature some non-ricers, those which that these ricers aspires to be. Such as, the concept car!
What the... again?!
Yes, again.
Last week was the 2008 Paris Motor Show. They exhibited luxury and/or concept cars that are quite nose bleed inducing. Of course, what do you expect? Well other than that you could expect parties and champagne. So why feature it just now? Well I've found about it just now, so do you still have any problems with that? Kidding. So what could have we seen in that show that we didn't actually get to see? Well all sorts! The giants, the demi gods and the gods are all in. Lamborghini is one with its new four door Estoque. And we're going to save that for tomorrow! In the meantime, feast your eyes with the new Lamborghini Estoque Concept!
As promised, here is the new Lamborghini Estogue. First unveiled on several months ago, the Lamborghini Estoque Concept 2009 has been well received at the on going Paris Motor Show 08. This superclass sports sedan concept unfurls versatility and performance in style (obviously) like no other. It features four doors... what? FOUR DOORS?! A Lamborghini sports car with four doors?! Yes, a Lamborghini sports car with four doors... Cool! Now it's a family car! I guess that's how it becomes so versatile; but you still open them in the usual Lambo way. Now do you get what I said about what "ricer" cars aspire to be...
But come on, it looks fast. So kidding aside, this Lamborghini Estoque is profiling with black mesh front air intakes and LED exterior lights. It goes with a set of twenty two inch (22 in.) wheels that rise only four and a half feet (4 1/2 ft.) high. It's the signature low rise of a high profile elegant bull fighting auto. And if you click to the gallery (click the teaser image above), you'll see an automobile design with imposing confidence made more intense by the sleek defining lines. The Estoque also features an internal LCD in which the driver can choose from virtual analog gauges, a digital read-out or others. And the performance? Dude, it's a Lamborghini! But in case you're wondering, the Lamborghini press release says that it does not have a specified engine; but you can use a V10 on it, just like the one found in the Gallardo LP 500-4. Or you can also opt to use the super charged V8 from the same make. But unlike the Gallardo, the engine of the Estoque is placed at the front cabin instead at the back--just like a normal family car (if you disregard the price). Automobili Lamborghini still has no plans of producing it... yet?
Weeks after America's huge investment banks' meltdown, let's do a little reality check on how our demi gods giant carmakers are doing. In the most recent news, the world stock market continues to plunge down despite the American and European government bail-out plans. Apparently, these actions have not dissipated investors' fear and loss of confidence on the global stock market. The London Stock Exchange's overall share index went down by 7.85% difference while France's Cac-40 lost 9.04%. In other words, they are losing big time.
On September 30th, General Motor announced a new strategy to help ease this financial burden on themselves. It's the old, worn out road that they're taking for a strategy and that is: buy less; sell more. In simpler terms, they want to save more by cutting down on stocks that they buy and they do this by suspending the stocks that their employees buy. This policy applies to GM directors and executives as well. This is because of the common supply and demand mechanism where as prices for GM stocks drop, the participants such as the members of the company buy them. In other words, the employees have already bought the rest of the available GM shares; so now what's left for the company to sell to other investors at a higher price, right? By September 30th, the GM stocks have already gone down 78%.
Last week, Detriot, Michigan (where General Motors is based) had its $25 Billion loan approved by Washington. Now European carmakers also want billions of loans too. Fiat is now thinking of going to the European Commission to ask for a 40 Billion Euro (that's about $55.2 Billion) loan for the euro carmakers.
Let's stir away from a little too serious mundane matters like politics and economy. Let's have a little fun quality time with Achmed (pronounced as Akhhhh'medth... if you can) The Dead Terrorist (don't worry he's dead... and he's just a puppet. But come on! He's adorable). Ok ok so it's still about politics and security and all that stuff (what does that have to do with cars?)... Oh come on! Don't you have a little sense of humor?
We've all heard Achmed's bombscapade with the Toyota Prius, yet still, eco cars have continued to become a growing fad. From Toyota to Honda to Renault to Volkswagen, the list of the car makers that have begun manufacturing these eco cars is beginning to reach eternity. That's how popular eco cars are becoming, especially in Europe. Several months ago, Telegraph UK has released a list of the "Top Ten Eco-Friendly Cars" because of the said growing popularity. The photo that you see at your left is the SMART Fortwo Cabrio. It is so far the cheapest in the list and it only costs £10,500 (that's about 18249 in US Dollars). And just recently (as recent as yesterday!), Nissan has released its new "Pure Drive"label for its European markets (where eco-friendly cars have become more popular). It has already created a badge (as you can see below) as a marketing strategy to further identify vehicles that are a lot less polluting than the rest of the Nissan range.
This badge has been applied to vehicles with less than 140 gram per kilometer emission of Carbon Dioxide. These are the vehicles that are usually less powerful, with higher gear ratios, low rolling resistance tires and a few aerodynamic advantages. The Pure Drive label have been specificallyapplied to the new Pixo (1.2 liter gas), Micra (1.5 liter diesel), Note (1.5 liter diesel), Qashgai (1.5 liter diesel), Qashuai+2 (1.5 liter diesel), as well as Tiida (Versa). This label applies both in Europe and Japan.
Long before those electric powered and low carbon emitting, eco
friendly cars; or those that run on gasoline; those turbo jet fast
Formula Ones; those automatic SUVs, alarm system and auto locks; those
intermittent wipers (there's a movie about this and it's out now!) and
V8s; those concept cars and "ricers"; cars were just ordinary transport
contraptions made of tin can (not really) that only run on hand
propelled rotators. Whew! Little exagerations aside, these cars had
developed from using steam power, to hydrogen and oxygen combination and so on, to diesel, gasoline until we developed those F1 type fuel. These automotives could even barely reach eighty kilometers per hour (80 kph)! From design of looks, aerodynamics and engine performance, you could see a world of difference on locomotive development (Cynics could add that only the bruteness of humanity that hasn't changed! Lol). It is quite amazing at how you can imagine this progression in history. But you know what? I found a site about the history of cars and you can actually get to see never before seen photographs of old car models.
The 100 Years of Cars--that is what this website is called. It does not have much articles except for the scanned magazines about the antique cars. But the best part is, this site is loaded with chronicles of rare photos of rare car makes. Most of these automotive label no longer exist today. Have you heard about the Essex? No, not the country in East England! It is a name of an automobile and you mostl likely do not know it because it has only been around during the 1920s to the 1930s. Essex was one of the many casualties of the Great Depression (and don't get me started on it!) together with other automobile makers. The decline of demand for locomotives and the gripping pressure of the said world wide economic depression had caused the Essex to fail to survive and exceed a decade. That's quite sad isn't it? Anyway, go check out the site.
This year's Paris Motor show kicked in with the unveiling of awesome concept cars and one of which is the Chevrolet Orlando concept. But General Motors says that it has no plans of producing it whatsoever due to the high cost of manufacturing and assembly in the US. The company also said that it is cheaper to import from South Korea than to produce it locally. Yet, GM plans to go on with plan of producing the Chevy Tacuma MPV (a 2010 concept), as it will still be continuing to produce the current Chevy HHR. The sales for both models will also continue.
Can't handle the economic crunch? Too bad. The Chevrolet Orlando is seven (7) seater SUV with 105 inches of wheel base. This four wheeler runs with 2.0 liters of turbodiesel power. It is so far the most powerful make among all Chevrolet range. It has developed a 150 hp and 236lb-ft (320Nm) of torque. That's quite a lot, right? I mean you could already get a great deal out of this, and not to mention that it is way better than the current HHR model. Well, at least in appearance. The Chevrolet Orlando has much sleeker sides than the older one. But like the Chevy HHR, the Orlando uses the same base or platform.
Well, come on, just look at it. Do you not feel a little disappointment if this does not get produced? Just look at it. It looks tough; it works tough; it is a comfort machine; heck! It is everything that you ask for!
V8s, V10s and now the V12! Here is a photo of the miniature V12 engine and I gotta say, its power is no miniature! It is designed and built by a German hobbysts. The one at the photo was designed for a model type of remote control powered vehicle. It has twelve cylinders with four stroke engines, and it features dual camshafts and valve overheads. It uses air cooling system so it no longer needs those complicated water jackets, radiators and associated plumbing. The crankshaft however is made from numerous pieces. This V12 engine has a displacement of eighty seven cubic centimeters (87 cc) a hosepower that ranges between six to eight (6-8). It is fueled by, not gasoline, not diesel, but a mixture of methanol and five to ten percent (5-10%) of nitro methane. Haven't you gotten your nose bleed yet? Wait till you see these videos. Go check them out. (Click here)
Hydrogen—it is the first element in the periodic table and the most abundant, constituting seventy five percent (75%) of the whole universe's mass. It is easy to produce as it is found in a variety of sources such as natural gas and electricity. If used in an electromagnetic device, that is, a fuel cell, it could produce electricity without emitting carbon dioxide. That's right. It emits no carbon dioxide at all—only water. If only, we use hydrogen on cars, we would not be facing the problems of soaring prices, global warming and so on. Not so long ago, engineers have dreamed of having hydrogen as an alternative fuel for cars. But the baffling question of which should come first—the car powered hydrogen or the hydrogen fuel station—arises and lags the plan of ever pushing through the project.
However, the said problems of escalating gas prices and global warming have been worsening and have already reached at an alarming level of threat. Car manufacturers and oil producers could no longer ignore such phenomenon and have scrambled through researching for new alternative solution. The result? They have simultaneously introduced hydrogen powered vehicles and spread hydrogen fuel pumping stations around Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo.
"The game now is about clustering; it’s the only way to take this next
step,"
- Duncan Macleod, Vice President, Shell Hydrogen.
The Shell Station in Santa Monica Boulevard (LA, California) has just been one of the actualized strategy also an experiment for this project. It uses the typical gas pump but with an unsual bright blue "hydrogen" labeled nozzle. Honda has taken part of this endeavor with its plan to lease two hundred (200) of its newly developed FCX Clarity to chosen (lucky?) customers from South California. They will also be filling them up at this Shell stations, and those other that offer hydrogen fuel refill. These vehicles are going to be for six hundred dollars ($600) a month. This cost would be a lot lesser than the original selling price. The Honda FCX Clarity is powered by electricity using a fuel cell.
The disadvantage of using hydrogen as an alternative fuel is that the costs for hydrogen prototype cars do not come in cheap. They are not mass produced and they are only custom built so it will take a lot time before they could be made available to everyone. Moreover, hydrogen power has not yet been fully tested in terms of performance so it is certainly hard to avoid skepticism over this change. And just like car manufacturers, fuel producers are faced with the dilemma of the high cost of mass producing hydrogen power, which will surface on the price of building infrastructure for its production. More importantly, there are still more sources of alternative fuel that have been discovered such as biofuels and batteries. Hence, the future of hydrogen being used as an alternative fuel for powering automobiles relies heavily on the result of this experiment.
So here's a little insight: it seems that the hydrogen power appears to be the best alternative fuel around as it can be readily found anywhere. For some, it would feel like a return to where we have come from since they believe that everything had started from single element, that is, hydrogen (nice trivia, eh?). But with the unstable condition of the world economy today, I think it would be hardly feasible to continue with such endeavor. Auto makers are the ones that are largely being hit by this crunching world predicament. You think Honda would be able to sustain to produce these 200 prototype cars? Perhaps. But producing hydrogen power may require higher costs than normal oil production because this means a constant supply with use of their expensive facilities on their part. But then we'll see. Perhaps, it just might work (or it might not). This could be just one of the drastic changes that we've done from our history. These changes are not always accepted; but some push through until they become conventional today. Some on the other hand did not so they ended up buried down the deepest pit of our elders' memories. But then still, we'll see. This one's a pretty cool idea, you know?
If democracy is completely dependent upon the number of cars that a presidentiable owns, John McCain would've already beaten the hell out of Barrack Obama a long, long time ago. He owns thirteen (13) swaggering luxury rides while Obama owns only one (1)! A ratio of 13 to 1? That certainly counts as a majority vote! McCain owns a 2004 Cadillac CTS, 2005 Volkswagen convertible, three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep, 2008 Jeep Wrangler, 2007 Ford pick-up, 2001 Honda sedan, 2000 Lincoln, 2001 GMC SUV, and his wife Meghan McCain owns a Toyota Prius. Whew! Obama owns a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. He used to own a Chrysler 300C until he decided to ditch it for a more eco loving hybrid car. Click here to see slideshow.
Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. It's not even illegal. Hitchhiking has been the primary means of transportation for the Cubans because there is not much cars around the country. If you can recall, Cuba has closed itself from the rest of the world, which follows Fidel Castro's communist rule. Since then, trading has been tightly restrained due to the series heavy trade of embargos imposed on Cuba. This means no imports of automatic SUVs and the like; and no local distributors for imported cars. As a result, Cubans were not able to catch up with the world's "modernization" process and they remained using old fashioned antique cars. Roxy Millado-Duguay was able to capture a photograph of one of these cars from her last trip to Cuba. She did a pretty good job in her photography, you know. And if you get to see it, you might just be able to say, "Hey! Trade embargo isn't so bad after all."
Or maybe not.
But anyway, classic cars are quite a heavy statement. And it could cost you a lot. Who wouldn't want a classic Cadillac sedan? Anyway, click here to see the photo (Sorry I can't paste it here. You know, copyright issues...).
This has been going on for quite a while now and it uses a little more sophisticated form of an escrow scam. As you know, and escrow form of payment system is very susceptible to scams because of the nature of its mode of payment. Now scammers have found a way to go about it and remodify this little trick.
Here's how they do it: scammers post for sale ads of vehicles on classified services sites such as Craiglist or AutoTrader at a very low price. This blinds customers with overwhelming deals. Then they post the details and their contact email addresses.
Here's the most interesting part: they'll post pictures of real vehicles and real VINs which they got somewhere. So when you check it at Carfax, you'd be "confirmed" that there is such vehicle. Then when you send them a reply, they'll respond to you with a fake invoice from eBay Motors with a fake "Vehicle Purchase Protection." It gets better when they ask you to pay them thru money transfer services like Western Union or MoneyGram, and the legitimate eBay Motors site doesn't allow the use of such mode of payment. It's untraceable so it is easier for the scammers to go about it. For more information, click to The Auto Prophet's blog where he discussed how he was able make (fake) deals with the scammer.
It looks like General Motors and Chrysler are cooking up a new merger. In the past few months, the two auto makers have been discussing this action as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have confirmed (The Car Connection.com). This may involve trading in Chrysler assets that are originally owned by the Cerberus Capital Management, in exchange for a part in GMAC, which is tied up with GM. The deal between the two companies are going to be 50-50 in
shares; but other sources said that GM could save a net of $10 Billion
out of the merger. However, the talks are currently on hold due to the worldwide financial hurdles. The GM and Chrysler resume on their negotiations as soon as the world stockmarket stabilizes.
This GM-Chrysler merger is said to likely to bring huge changes in the American automotive manufacturing industry. Chrysler owns names such as Chrysler, Dodge, ENVI, Jeep, Mopar, Chrysler Financial; while GM owns Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM Daewoo, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, and Wuling. These companies run a hundred factories with a thousand dealers around the world.
GM has constantly denied that it is filing for bankruptcy, despite its stock share value plunge from it's recent high, $43 to it's lowest, $4.
Plug-in hybrids? You're just as baffled as I am. What the heck is it? Well, from my understanding, it's a hybrid car made even more environmental friendly through the use of electric power cord.
World champion mountain freeskier and environmental staunch advocate Alison Gannette is all about green living. She not only lives in a straw bale house with her solar powered appliances, she even converted her Ford Escape Hybrid into a plug-in one at a staggering cost of $35,000! Gannette is just one of those few people who can't wait for car manufacturers' supply for plug-in hybrids.
So how good are these plug-in hybrids? Well, a normal hybrid car can only reach not more than 45 mpg (this is the case even for the newest models); but a plug-in hybrid can reach up to three digits! The highest that Gannett's plug-in hybrid can reach is up to 232 mpg. On average, it borders between 80 to 100 mpg.
Sound's great huh? But the setback here is the cost of the conversion (Hey! Cost has always been the setback.). As we've seen earlier, the cost for converting your hybrids to plug-in ones can reach as high as $35,000. I'm just not sure if the electric cord is already included in that total. Well, for one thing, special batteries used to store such electric power, such as lithium-ion, are not really cheap. But then according to Gannette, the goal is to get everyone become inspired with this action, and have them join in the cause. This should transform the whole plug-in hybrid conversion and use to become more mainstream. And as a consequence, this should also invite auto makers and fuel providers to supply their consumers cheaper plug-in hybrid cars and electric power.
It sounds like a great idea but it's definitely gonna take a lot of time. But then with such revolution, Gannette implies that you'd barely even feel how long time has passed.
The new study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSA) shows that by setting higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, fuel economy will increase up to 4.5% yearly.
That is so if CAFE requires a leap from an average of 31.6 mpg to 39.4 mpg by 2015. As you would notice, standards around the world for new cars are constantly rising due to environmental and fuel costs concerns. But CAFE has extended the deadline to 2020 so as to increase the number of
auto manufacturers that would comply. NHTSA says that by raising the stAandards, 19.5 Billion gallons of gasoline will be saved by 2020. This would prevent an emission of 185 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2100. Although the change seems to be huge, this only decreases air pollution at the small amount of 2.6ppm, while sea levels would rise to merely 1.1mm and temperature rise will only slow down by 0.013 degrees Celsius. However, the consequence is that these standards would
increase the costs on manufacturers despite the prospect that it would
decrease any further environmental impact.
This would have been a great idea if it had not been because of the costs. This isn't the first time when NHTSA has made recommendations for stricter standards. In its earlier proposal (the one deadlined on 2015), car makers have already protested against the new NHTSA recommendations. They argued that the large costs for these high environmental standards always outweigh the small benefits. The costs could amount up to $47 Billion, and it could go up to an amount that costs more than the whole industry itself.
Everything that James Bond does--the way he dresses, the way he moves--looks good. Even his wrecked Aston Martin DBSs look good. Just as long as James Bond touched it, it looks fine.
Really. For this James Bond fan, he's willing to pay $120 K for a wrecked Aston Martin DBS that was used in the shooting. In fact, he had already paid for it!
Well, if you notice, latest James Bond filmakers like to wreck fine Aston Martin DBSs (and they all look the same on the film like there's only one Aston Martin DBS, making it look like as untouchable as Bond himself). In Casino Royale, the flipped one while crashing another on rocky quarry mine in Quantum Solace... No, it is not a spoiler. Oh there's another one! They killed another Aston Martin DBS when they drove it and plunge it into the Lake Garda in northern Italy... still, you can't consider it as a spoiler!
Anyway, so these wrecked Aston Martin DBSs were autioned off to rich fans, which sold up to £200,000! Oh come on! A brand new Aston Martin DBS only costs £134,000. That's about 60,000
thousand pounds difference! Geez... James Bond could make a good car salesman if he retire, don't you think?
Actually, this £200,000 wrecked Aston Martin DBS was the one that dove into the Lake Garda. It was only pulled out from the water... sorry, from a hundred fifty feet deep water. Geez... I think it would be cooler to drive a brand new Aston Martin DBS than to pay a load of bucks more for some unrecognizable scrap metal and store it in a glass shelf or something... But oh well. It used to be James Bond's; he touched it. So it has got to be fine... very fine. Bond fans, I feel ye.
Sad, but as Paul Eisenstein says it's true. The future of the V-8 engine tells a gloomy death of this classic turbo charged race machine. Over the years, the V-8 engine has endeared everyone from "ricers," drag race addicts, to devoted luxury cars owners, even reaching buff truck haulers. But as the world stock market crashes, and with the American economy in jeopardy, V-8 engines now stay behind right under the hoods of 1/3 of every vehicle sold in the American market.
Price Waterhouse-Coopers projects that 45 percent of the of the V-8 engine manufacturing will decline by the year 2009. General Motors even considered replacing its Northstar V-8 engine for its Cadillac range. Not only that, GM has also already developed the LS9 engine that will power new Caddical CTSv releases. Now, does this mean that V-8 will not be living any longer?
Well if you can see, the main problem that the V-8s are facing not only settles on the unstable world financial market we're currently having. Well actually it's one reason. Another is the soaring gasoline prices that crunches everybody's pockets. Even the luxury industry and its patrons are feeling this difficulty. Although much recent news suggests a drop in oil per barrel prices, people no longer have much money to consume extra liters of gas, right? And in addition to this, growing environmental concerns now limits the use of any type engine or engine parts aren't so eco friendly. People can still use the V-8s but the trend now touches the much "greener" side. So this news isn't really so much a bad thing, at least for those environmental advocates.
So that's basically it. Those are just the main and basic not-so-basic things that affects V-8 industry. To find out more about this news, click to this page by Paul Einstein.
Uhuh. The French Grand Prix that is supposed to happen on 2009 is deferred till 2010. The Fédération Française du Sport Automobile (FFSA) or the French motorsport federation is also considering to move the original venue at Magny-Cours, which is located in Central France.
The reason for delaying the race, FFSA says, is because of the increasing financial risks (Remember? The world stock market? Uhuh. Yeah.) and that they also want to have the venue closer to Paris. Telegraph UK also tells us that the FFSA is also considering relocating the venue to Disneyland Paris... No, not exactly in Disneyland; but somewhere near the said recreation area where a permanent racing facility is going to be built. Perhaps, they would be FFSA plans to transfer the event to that venue when it gets finished. I guess that is what they were saying. But just a thought: what if they indeed hold the Formula 1 race in Disneyland? Well, I guess that is going to be one serious rat race.
Anyway, at least the FFSA is not announcing any cancellations or that they are not killing off the F1 race in France. If you can remember, the 2009 Canadian Grand Prix was cancelled a few days ago. Well, this one has not been due to the sad economic krunch we are having. It is because of the contractual technicalities that Grand Prix du Canada and its boss, Bernie Ecclestone have gotten into trouble with.
This is actually first time since 1955 when the French Grand Prix was cancelled. Formula
1 races were first held on 1950. France was first ticked off from the
F1 race calendar on 1955 because of accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that killed quite a number of spectators.
In not so strict but utterly unavoidable observance of the thematic scheme of the free falling world stock market, I would like to start off with a little historical background that is related to it. So here goes:
Did you know that the solution to the 1930's Great Depression (it is somewhat similar to what is happening today at the world stock market and to the rest of humanity you know? lol) was not to save or hord assets but government spending? Oops, let me correct that. The answer to the Great Depression was rather, massive government spending. Hard to believe huh? And did you know that this solution was achieved by utter luck through the embodiment of the Second World War? America was save by the skin of its teeth even though it does not have teeth in reality! So how did that happen? Well, what happened was the American government invested heavily military infrastructure and manufacturing (is that the right term for that?) of armaments and all those stuff. This in effect gave hundreds of American citizens jobs and thus, lifting them out of the massive effects of recession. Blah blah blah... This was once suggested by John Maynard Keynes and adopted by former US President Herbert Hoover, labeling the action as "pump priming." God he's not even American! Anyway, it was once taken as a radical step, almost a taboo among the circle of economists and the presidential advisers. But today, it's just one of the normal steps that a country could do for its economy... No, not produce more military armaments! Of course not, come on! Government intervention in the whole country's economic system I mean. Yes! They didn't have that before!
So what the heck does that have to do cars? I do not know either but why don't we start with our current entry's title, huh? So yeah. You have read it correctly. Invest more on your car's maintenance if you are indeed serious about cutting your driving costs. You see this means increasing gas mileage, improving fuel economy and cutting of trips to your mechanic. Colin Mathews, a contributor at TheCarConnection.com, is no political economic theorists but he does give us some sensible techniques he learned from car omniexperts on how to save while driving. Here's how: check your tires and clean out your batteries (huh?). That's it; as simple as that. You do not really need any unnecessary and costly trips to your mechanic to check your engine and all that.
Well, these things are actually the most commonly neglected stuff when it comes to mainting your cars. According to General Motors' (GM) Mr. Goodwrench, you need to check those flat tires or make sure that your tires are sufficiently inflated with the right amount of air. This does not only improve your mileage, it also keeps you safe driving on the road. You also have regularly clean those battery terminals so power is well delivered to your engine. If you do not clean them chances are, the terminals are going to end up molding and corroding even more and well, it just makes things worse. So get those 10 bucks worth of battery post cleaner and go get started with cleaning.
So aside from cancelling trips and taking public transportations or carpools, invest more on maintenance. Besides, they're not so hard to do. All it takes is a little perseverance.
To learn more, click on here to find more tips on how to save more on driving.
Insurance companies have long excluded covering racetrack drivers in insurance policies. However, racers still manage to benefit from them ike normal policy holders. How? Well, there was a small loophole in the insurance policies that racetrack drivers have found a way to go around with. Now insurance companies are addressing this loophole leaving track drivers no longer insured.
It is all in redefining what "racing" means. In the old policy terms, "racing" meant merely as a "timed event." But race track education has been smart enough to avoid such definition by simply, not timing races. As you have noticed, races where done by laps at top speed, basically basing the judgement on who completes lapses first. Or in a simpler term, "who gets there first.'
Race track driving schools, such as that of held by Porsche Club of America and BMW Car Club of America, require their students to attend classroom sessions. They are also individually tutored on the track under controlled conditions. They do this by setting a small group of racers on the track, letting them drive limited only on racecourses. The goal is only to train their skills and hence, these runs are not necessarily time. Consequently, these racers are still covered by their normal insurance policies.
Now this has taken the attentions of insurance companies. Sadly, a lot of race drivers do not have any idea that they are not covered. Some of them even assume that they are indeed covered. Only about 25 percent to 30 percent of them have done their research. What is sadder is that race driving schools are even flaunting in their flyers that racetrack students are going to be covered by the insurance policies once they start enrolling. And "racing" has already been ticked off from the insurance policy grant since 1990.
That’s pretty alarming isn’t it? They were able to get away with a loophole and relied on luck to do the rest for these races. But oh well. Now they can no longer get away with it, can they? I hope not. For more information on this news, just click on to The New York Times.
It seems to me (and I bet to everyone else as well) that we are never going to run out of ideas on what alternative fuel to come up with next. First, water; then vegetable oil. Let us not forget about the electrically charged cars and the hydrogen powered autos. Solar power was even tapped; but I bet only the utterly insane brave ones will try to use nuclear power on cars. And now, UREA?! Huwatdaf... In case you do not know, urea is a human waste in liquid form... and it usually stinks.
Jalopnik reports that the new Mercedez Benz BlueTEC Diesel and SUVs can not run without urea injection into the catalyst. The seven gallon urea tank must be replenished in every 10,000 mile run. Otherwise, the new Benz BlueTEC will not start. It will however alert the driver if the tank is running out of urea, thus allowing him or her 20 extra starts. Jalopnik adds that this new Benz BlueTEC needs two extra gallons of urea for its whole system to reset and allow the car to be restarted. But that's okay. You can store extra urea in the tire as well. So whenever you change with your spare tire, you would know where to get those extra gallons of urea from.
NOT!
It's a big not, can't you see? Well it is just some sort of a negative campaign which we are all used with. Especially when it comes to politics, right? I was about to believe it myself but thanks to (or not?) Colin Mathews, a contributor from TheCarConnection.com, he confirmed that it is not true. But yes I have to agree with him, the title is quite catchy. So if you seriously want to no more the Benz BlueTEC, just click on to this site.
James Bond is dandy. But being James Bond is even better. Bond star Daniel Craig gets all the perks that even James Bond himself could not get. One of them is landing free drives with Aston Martin for a lifetime! Minus the deliberate Aston Martins crashes into rock quarries of course.
So Daniel Craig can now drive any Aston Martin he pleases anywhere and anytime. Take note: Aston Martin so he is not just limited to the Aston Martin DBS model! His only problem is the parking and the problem of practicality. He was quoted saying that:
"I could drive it faster and more furiously (on the track) than anywhere
on the road. I live in London (and) it doesn't make any sense to drive
an Aston Martin there. I've nowhere to park it."
Good point. The Aston Martin is a Brit luxury sports car that sadly does not come in cheap. And if ever you get one, you can not use it everyday. Well, at least it is usable unlike the wrecked auctioned out Aston Martin. I'll tell you about that later. Aston Martins are great as a "weekend toy or a luxurious track car." And so however, Daniel Craif does feel lucky because the company could just give him any of the Aston Martins he wants if he feels like driving one. Oh come on! Who wouldn't?
Just last week, if you can remember, we reported about the auctioned Aston Martin DBS wreck that was sold by a fan for about a staggering cost of 200,000 pounds. Yeah, that is what I was saying earlier. So that is about 350,000 dollars in US. And to think, a brand new Aston Martin only costs about 60,000
thousand pounds less! It is still not cheap as it costs for about 134,000 pounds. So this completely dead metal wreck was fished out from the Lake Garda in northern Italy. The stunt was reportedly unscripted, causing some injuries on the occupants in the area.
