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A 94mpg Porsche!

March 11th 2010 13:55
The Geneva Motor show normally brings a raft of new model releases and numerous “concepts” which will never see the light of day.

Here is a car that provides the necessary excitement, like a top speed of just less than 200mph and a conscious for the future as it somehow manages to offer a fuel consumption of 94 mpg on the New European Driving Cycle.

Porsche 918



This is the Porsche 918, a mid-engined roadster with plug-in hybrid technology. This mid engine V8 roadster accelerates from 0-62mph in just under 3.2 seconds! Yes I said Hybrid! This battery aided monster posts a lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife of less than 7:30 minutes! Ring fiends will know that this a shocking time, faster than that of the Porsche Carrera GT.

For those who consider Porsche to be the holy grail of sports cars, this open top two-seater is powered by a high-speed V8 developing more than 500 bhp and running at maximum speed engine of 9,200 rpm. Combine this with the electric motors on the front and rear axle which produce an output of 218 bhp (160 kW) the power is fed through a seven-speed PDK double clutch transmission, to the rear axle. The lithium – ion batteries are included and they are found under the passenger cabin.

Which would you rather have, this or the diesel Panamera? Regardless, Autoloud will have his in Guards red thanks!
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Toyota problems? Take a brake!

February 18th 2010 11:42
An avalanche of problems has struck Toyota in the USA as they have Camry’s with unintended acceleration, problems with power steering on the Corolla, Prius with brakes that don’t work and now they also have Toyota Tundra pick-ups (A F100 clone) with driveshaft problems!

Prius brakes!


The common problem that jumps out of tweaks your nose is that apart from the Prius and Corolla, all the vehicles Toyota are having problems with are in fact an American built vehicles!


There is a message there to car buyers, stay away from American built cars as any Ford Exploder or Jeep Cherokee owner will tell you!

In Australia we face different problems on our Toyotas from our American neighbours: Camrys with no acceleration (although it is the fault of the driver rather than the car) and a fully optioned Prius costs nearly $60000 in OZ! Count your lucky stars the Tundra stayed stateside.

Anyone who has ever been stuck behind a Camry doing twenty kilometres an hour under any and all posted speed limits, will know the frustration that grows to seething rage as the driver makes you and everyone else late for whatever it was you have now forgotten about because of the amount of time you were stuck looking at his taillights!

My theory is that Toyota have secretly discovered time travel and while the look as though they are going really slowly to us , Camry drivers think they are doing 200 kmh.
If you are lucky enough to pass them you will find that inevitably the driver will either be grey of hair and wrinkly of face unless they are on long service leave from their government job!

No wonder people buy Holden Commodores!
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The most expensive VW in the world!

January 18th 2010 13:14
More than seventy years ago, a man took a car for a drive on Daytona Beach.

Nothing unusual in this of course, you see his name was Henry Seagrave and the car was the Sunbeam 1000hp. Now if this means nothing to you, can I remind that on that day in March 1927, Henry drove the Sunbeam to a top speed of 203.79 mph (327.97kph!), the first time a car had broken through the 200mph barrier.

This was the kind of thing that made front page headlines all over the world and with good reason. The average family car of the time, the Model A Ford had a top speed of 65mph!

The Sunbeam was powered by two V12 aero engines at 22.4 litres each thus giving the magic 1000hp. Now I mention all this because I read today of the maintenance costs associated with owning a Bugatti Veyron - AKA the most expensive VW in the world!



Quicker than 200mph by 52 mph, this is a car best driven to Daytona Beach and parked outside a nice restaurant, while the waves break on the shore behind you. Now the aforementioned Bugatti does produce 1000hp but that is not the only place you will find things multiplied in the thousands on this car!

How about your yearly service at your very friendly Bugatti/ VW dealer? Oh $20,000 should cover that. Tyres are a problem though as only the Michelin Pilot Sport 2s are constructed with the special compound suitable for the blistering top speed of the Veyron. Cost? About $30,000 or £23,500 in the UK!

Now if you read your owner’s manual you would also know that Bugatti recommends a new set of tyres be fitted every 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) OUCH! Keep reading because at the bottom that page you find the bit about changing the wheels and tires every ten thousand miles! A whole set? $50,000!

Not often you hear this but it makes a Ferrari look cheap!
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GM sends SAAB goes to Valhalla

December 20th 2009 03:42
The suffering went on for just too long. Terminally ill some time, it had previously been resuscitated a couple of times but this time they turned off life support for good. GM has pulled the plug on SAAB, It had to happen really, and it was after all, the kindest thing to do.

SAAB

[ Click here to read more ]
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BMW and the not so Mini range

December 17th 2009 12:11
The largest British car company, BMW, are playing games with us again. First they gave us the Mini and Mini Cooper, then the Clubman wagon or estate, yet to arrive is the Countryman SUV and now whispers say that the Moke will soon be reborn!

Mini Moke

[ Click here to read more ]
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Is this the new Bluesmobile?

October 20th 2009 12:53
“Its got cop tires, cop brakes and it runs real good on unleaded gas, is this the new Bluesmobile or what?”

Elwood and Joliet Jake are having a party in the slammer right now because by the time they get out, these things might be selling at Police Department auctions


[ Click here to read more ]
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Go Trabi Go!

October 13th 2009 13:44
If you were unlucky enough to live in East Berlin during the cold war years your choice of personal transport was extremely limited. Most chose the Trabi or Trabant.

Trabant

[ Click here to read more ]
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RIP WRX - Damn you Subaru!

September 29th 2009 12:28
You know sometimes it only takes one car to make a car company cool!

Subaru wrx

[ Click here to read more ]
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A bank job for a Bentley

August 25th 2009 12:39
My new lotto car has arrived

Bentley Mulsanne

[ Click here to read more ]
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Four cylinder Falcon?

August 2nd 2009 11:37
Ford Australia has suffered a bout of automotive amnesia!

In the rush to save the Ford Falcon, or at least get car buyers interested in it, they have announced that they will fit the Falcon with a four cylinder engine! Seems that history is repeating itself as this concept was tried once before in the form of the unloved Commodore Four


[ Click here to read more ]
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