Fairuz Fauzy set the fastest time in practice for round seven of the Formula Renault 3.5 series at Portimao on Friday morning. The Malaysian’s 1m32.166s today was 0.5s faster than Le Mans pole-winner Jon Lancaster, while Oliver Turvey was third for Carlin Motorsport after being forced to change an engine after Thursday’s opening collective test.
While most of the Formula One experts agree that Michael Schumacher’s return will do a great deal for the sport - in terms of attracting the fans to the race track and everything - the others are wondering if the 7-time world champion made the right call when agreeing to replace Felipe Massa in the Ferrari F60 cockpit. Level of fitness aside, Schumacher’s comeback will most likely come with a multitude of questions. Is he still up to the job? Will he help Ferrari improve in the remaining rounds of 2009? If he’ll be successful, will he continue? and so on…
Jul 31
Do you remember The Flintstones, the animated television sitcom from the 1960s? Well, that’s exactly what crossed our minds when we found out what a safari park from Oregon thought of in order to beat the credit crunch… and it looks like it’s working. Wildlife Safari is using elephants Tiki, Alice and big male George to wash cars and by that raise funds, consequently offering quite a spectacle for its customers, the Daily Mail reported. Luckily, no incident of an elephant putting his foot wrong when washing a car was reported.
As shown in one of our previous reports, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari have found a way to trick the FIA rules regarding the in-season testing ban. As no driver is allowed to test a 2009 challenger throughout the duration of the ongoing season, the 7-time world champion turned to Ferrari’s “F1 Clienti” department to solve that problem. The aforementioned department deals with operating former grand prix cars for wealthy enthusiasts. Therefore, according to German newspaper Bild Zeitung, Schumacher is expected to take the wheel of a 2007 Ferrari F1 car during the course of this very weekend. Although the place where Schu will drive the car was not disclosed, it is believed the test will get under way at Mugello and the machinery will indeed be fitted with slick tires.
On Sunday, 2nd August, Nissan will reveal its new global electric vehicle to the media at the company’s new headquarters in Yokahama, Japan. We’ve already shown you a couple of teaser shots released by Nissan, but today we found a new rendering of the dedicated EV that was created by the crew over at Japan’s Best Car magazine. Judging by the teaser photos, the CGI shouldn’t be too off from the actual production model.
Right now the crew at General Motors’ pre-production operations center at the Warren Technical Center is in the midst of building 75 Chevy Volt IVER prototypes. IVERs, or integration vehicle engineering release prototypes, are the last stage of prototypes prior to pilot builds. For these IVER builds, pretty much all of the production intent parts and systems are in place and the intent of the build process is to evaluate final assembly processes. The cars are all built by hand, but the technicians and engineers are testing the build sequence as it will be done on the line to make sure everything actually goes together.
As always, the first stage of final assembly is the body shop. The video after the jump shows stampings that for the Volt that are assembled on jigs and then welded by hand before the complete body is painted. GM will apparently be releasing a series of videos documenting the complete build process, so stay tuned. Check out the first one after the jump.
Think texting while driving is dangerous? How about leaning over to the center console to scrawl “NEAREST BATHROOM!!!!!” on your car’s navigation system with a stylus? Audi’s next-gen A8 includes handwriting recognition to make that dangerous dream a dangerous reality.
We don’t know much about the feature, integrated into Audi’s MMI navigation system, partly because the Google translation of the source comes up with hilarious gold like “The switch salad on the center console is passé.” Is it ever!
Jul 31
The 2011 Kia Sportage prototype made an unexpected road-appearance again. Kia’s upcoming Sportage crossover has been spotted while undergoing testing on South Korean soil and here we bring you a few good-quality shots of a heavily dressed crossover vehicle.
Exterior of the redesigned Sportage remains heavily guarded, but these latest spy shots do reveal us a few exterior sheetmetal pieces that we haven’t seen closely so far. What is immediately apparent on the next generation Sportage is that the model incorporates more modern and sportier overall design compared to the current vehicle.
In front, the 2011 Sportage features distinctive headlights and massive signature grille, reminiscent of that we have previously seen on Kia Kue concept crossover. Together with slightly swept back headlights, the grille creates a clean and aggressive down-road appearance.
(more pics after jump)
Pagani’s two million dollar Zonda Cinque is built of a new twist on carbon fiber: carbotanium. Top Gear’s expert linguists deconstruct the Italian supercarmaker’s latest Oakley-ism.
Say what you will about the preposterousness of the Pagani Zonda, the man who builds them has certainly got his material science nailed. The foundation Horacio Pagani has built his eponymous company on is comparable in solidity only to the material he creates his Zondas from: carbon fiber. Read the rest of this entry »
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Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Dodge Durango 2011
Pirelli Quit WRC
Michelin Coming Back for WRC?
Remaps the BMW 3.0D Engine By Superchips
BMW X6 widebody
Epic EV Torq 200hp three wheeler
Bye-Bye To The Stig
Volvo New 1.6L GTDi Engines
Audi TT-RS Hybrid Turbocharger
Mazdaspeed 3 Goes Diesel?
Senner Audi A1