You know what’s scary? Autonomous cars. What’s scarier? An autonomous car that can lap Laguna Seca at eight-tenths and post sub-two minute lap times all day long. 330i Track Trainer can do just that. And we have the video to prove it.
Thirteen enter, six leave … with Top Safety Pick awards. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety spent some time driving (and smashing) a big group of small cars. Six of those cars received top honors from the IIHS by scoring a rating of “Good” across the board. The , , , , and are all the small-car place to be in the event of an accident.
This crop of small cars are also quite fuel efficient. All vehicles in the top six offer a version that gets at least 40 miles per gallon on the highway.
The rest of the vehicles tested faired well. Only the older and received “Mediocre” ratings in some categories. Every car tested, however, received multiple “Good” ratings. to watch the IIHS talk about about the small car crash tests. Also, be sure to .
We’ve seen cars bring people together in a wide variety of capacities, from meeting the neighbors while washing your car in the driveway to finding a new best friend at a local swap meet. Rapprochement between nations may seem a step too far for even the healing powers of the automobile, but a new initiative is aiming to repair ties between the United States and Israel through the purchase of American cars.
A Jerusalem think tank has proposed to the Israeli government that it gradually replace its fleet of 50,000 vehicles – currently comprised primarily of Japanese and European cars – with American ones, thereby demonstrating Israel’s solidarity and support for the U.S. economy. The composition of government motor pools generally reflects the larger Israeli car market, where Detroit’s products are typically under-represented.
The proposal is being fielded by the , a foreign relations think-tank founded by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel and located in Jerusalem’s Talbieh neighborhood, just a stone’s throw away from the official residences of Israel’s prime minister and president. The institute is known for researching alternative foreign relations initiatives.
One of the benefits to fielding, powering or sponsoring an F1 team is that it comes with access to some of the world’s best drivers. That’s especially attractive for automakers, who often use the grand prix pilots to demonstrate their cars’ capabilities. In the case of ’s sponsorship of the Red Bull Racing team, that includes defending champion Sebastian Vettel.
The German driver has already appeared on Infiniti’s behalf on several occasions, including a this year. But the Japanese luxury automaker (whose sister-company Renault powers Vettel’s ) is keen to further cement the relationship, announcing a direct contract with Vettel to act as its global brand ambassador.
The strengthened ties are sure to see Seb peddling Infiniti’s wares around the world, and we’ll be watching to see if he ends up lending a hand in the development of . Details in the press release .
If there’s a cooler child’s toy for adults than a box of , we don’t know what it is. To wit, it’s possible to take a couple handfuls of Lego blocks and assemble a miniature car… or a couple hundred pounds of the bricks to make a full-size car. And since you’re apparently someone who, like us, obsesses over the automobile, there’s really no better way to spend quality time with the kids than joining them in a marathon session of Lego building.
But what if you have even grander Lego-based aspirations? The sky’s the limit as far as Legos go, as evidenced by the video you’re about to watch after the break. Combining two of our most recent we’re-really-too-old-for-this obsessions, one pioneering Lego building team recreated using nothing but little plastic building blocks. Well, they may have cheated a little with lighting and, of course, cameras… but we won’t hold that against them for such a worthwhile endeavor.
See for yourself in the video .
Many areas of Germany’s demanding 13-mile Nürburgring race track have became notorious in their own right, and have nicknames that hint at the challenge they present. One such section is called Flugplatz, which means “airport,” and the name certainly fits because this crest is enough to send some cars skyward.
Our friendly spy photographers decided to take a break from the cat-mouse-camo-car game, and trained their lenses on Flugplatz. In the gallery below, we have airborne units from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, all attacking the airport. Engineers like to use this lift-off point to check a variety of parameters. They also like to use Flugplatz to force suspension setups to reenact heavyweight prize fights.
We hear that drivers need to exceed 100 miles per hour at Flugplatz in order to play games with gravity. That makes , and . Check out all of Flugplatz finest in our high-res image gallery.
Though rumors persist that one of the Group’s brands could make the jump into Formula 1, is adamant that it won’t be the one to do so. According to the company’s motorsport boss, F1 bears “no relevance to the road.”
The German automaker most prominently races Le Mans Prototypes, like the new R18 TDI pictured above. Is that really so different from F1? Audi points out that over the course of a 24-hour race like Le Mans, just one of its cars covers more distance than an entire F1 season, its average speeds are 20 mph higher than in F1 and they use 42 percent less fuel in the process.
Audi has a strong racing pedigree that extends even beyond Le Mans, staking its name in rallying and touring cars, as well. Audi has brought many of its technologies from its motorsport program to its road cars, but according to this report, Audi sees little connection between grand prix racing and the development of its volume products. Hat tip to xcatchmyshadowx!
Updated United States fuel economy labeling, unveiled on Wednesday, includes additional information on plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, and highlights other advanced technologies aimed at reducing gasoline consumption and tailpipe emissions.
The redesigned window stickers, required on all 2013 models, enables consumers to quickly compare fuel savings for different types of vehicles, whether they rely on gasoline or some type of alternative fuel. For example, the labels display estimates of how much fuel or electricity would be required to drive 100 miles and how much time is needed to charge a plug-in vehicles like the and .
Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), says the reason for the redesigned labels is to give consumers, “the best possible information about which cars on the lot offer the greatest fuel economy and the best environmental performance.” The EPA developed the updated labels with assistance from the Department of Transportation.
Click (pdf) for a detailed look at all of the revised fuel economy labels and to view video on the labels’ Smartphone “QR Code.” Let us know your thoughts on the updated labels by voicing your opinion in the Comments, as well.
Life is tough, ain’t it? We pay to see professional racing drivers hurtling around at breakneck speeds on the race track, but then give them tickets and even revoke their licenses for doing what they do best once off the race track. We see it all the time. has run into his share of trouble. So has . even got one during a Formula One demonstration on public streets. Even F1 team principals like and have run afoul of speed limits. And now, Kyle Busch is having his turn.
The front-running NASCAR driver was reportedly busted in Mooresville, North Carolina driving a yellow supercar at 128 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone. Carry the one, divide by pi… that’s nearly three times the posted limit. So did he get arrested and carted off to jail on the spot like the rest of us would? Not quite, but he did receive a citation and will have to answer for his illegal behavior, and could stand to lose his license. Fortunately, NASCAR doesn’t require its drivers to have a valid state license in order to race.
The LFA was reportedly on loan to Busch from , whose parent company’s stock cars he drives in NASCAR. This wasn’t the first time Busch has been busted for reckless driving in public, having pleaded guilty to performing a burnout in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Virginia back in 2006, and cited for going 55 in a 35 zone in 2008 in the same Irdell County, NC, where he was busted again yesterday.
For his part, Busch has apologized for the incident and reportedly acted courteously towards law enforcement throughout the ordeal.
has come a long way since its days of dominating Formula One, only not in an upwards direction. The team has failed to mount a serious challenge for the championship since 2008 when the team locked up the constructors’ title. That same year, Felipe Massa narrowly missed out on the drivers’ title by just one point after being passed at the last corner of the last race of the season.
The team’s current lack of pace could be seen no more poignantly than just this past weekend at the , where Fernando Alonso took an early lead from fourth on the grid, only to be passed by Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Webber to land fifth, one lap down, as Massa retired trackside with technical problems.
The bottom line is that the team’s cars just aren’t up to spec, and the blame has apparently fallen on its technical chief Aldo Costa. He’s held the job since 2007, but will now relinquish the role as the team comprehensively restructures its technical department. Rather than hire or promote someone to fill Costa’s position, Pat Fry, Luca Marmorini and Carrado Lanzone – the individual heads of the chassis, engine and production departments, respectively – will now report directly to team principal Stefano Domenicali.
Will the new structure help Ferrari rediscover its form and launch a serious challenge against Red Bull and McLaren? That remains to be seen, but for now you can for the official announcement.
The Arab Spring has brought a wave of change and reform to the Middle East, but that tide has seemingly stopped at Saudi Arabia. According to The New York Times, the Saudi government has effectively squelched a movement championed by Manal al-Sharif. The woman wasn’t campaigning for the overthrow of the government or the death of the country’s leaders. Instead, she was simply demonstrating for women’s right to drive in her country. Sharif posted videos of herself driving on YouTube and started Facebook and Twitter accounts that prompted other Saudi women to do the same.
That’s when the Saudi government stepped in. Sharif was arrested for her transgressions and her videos were removed from YouTube. Later, a Facebook page she had set up to instruct other women about how to get involved was deleted and a duplicate of her Twitter account began posting messages indicating that she had stopped her efforts.
But this is the internet, and nothing is gone forever. Copies of Sharif’s original message have reappeared on YouTube and an Al Jazeera report on her campaign is still available. You can check out the full report at Times and watch the videos .
An awful lot of cars have made themselves famous while using just four tires. Formula 1 teams’ tire total per race is around 140 – i.e. 35 sets of Pirellis.
With Jim Glickenhaus’ featherweight Ferrari F430 GT2-based 470-horsepower P4/5 Competizione about to tackle the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring at the end of June in the new EXP1 class, the car’s tire sponsor Pirelli is bringing, according to Glickenhaus, 800 tires along, using the occasion to test like mad whether it be daytime heat sets, night sets, wet sets, semi-slick sets, you name it.
As the P4/5 Competizione has proven itself durable so far, looks like it may last the whole 24 hours, being hampered perhaps only by the plethora of pit stops it’ll be constrained to effect while Pirelli tests the various quartets of rubber.
Volkswagen has wasted no chance to tell the world that the company’s newest sedan will be custom-tailored to the American market, with styling and packaging tweaks designed to set the vehicle apart from its European counterpart. But is that a good thing?
Progress: 458 Challenge cars were turning in times more than three seconds quicker than the top 430 Challenge cars.
It pays to know your police cruisers…
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Buying a used vehicle can be a scary experience. You just never know what kind of abuse the car has been subjected to by the hands of a previous owner, which is why plenty of people knowingly take the depreciation hit and buy new. After all, what kind of harm can a vehicle endure from the time it leaves the production facility until you sign on the dotted line? Quite a bit, according to the video after the jump. One very overzealous dealer set about taking to the YouTubes to demonstrate the sturdiness of his wares.
An innocent was subjected to a few full-force door slams. That’s cringe-worthy enough in our book, but the wayward salesman wasn’t quite done. He then proceeded to use the full force of his body weight to jump up and down on the open driver’s door. While we appreciate a dealer’s desire to prove how well the vehicles he sells are built, we wouldn’t want that done to our own cars… and we’d hate to see what these guys do to the vehicles when the camera isn’t rolling.
to see the mayhem for yourself. Thanks for the tip, Mateusz!
Did you pick up your ? If not, you may be paying a lot more for one down the road. The $46,135 German sports coupe will be produced through the end of this year… and then it’s done. According to , admits that its latest sex toy pumped-up two-door will have a very limited run of one model year.
That’s not to say we won’t see another version on the future. However, it could be several years before that happens, which should make the current (and only) crop of BMW 1 Series M cars quite collectible.
After reading TDB’s report, we pressed BMW for some more insight into the matter, and received confirmation that the current 1 Series M is only sticking around for the 2011 model year. The next generation 1 Series is at least two-and-a-half to three years away, which is too much time to speculate on a future 1 Series M. Curious as to how many 2011 1 Series M coupes will be produced? So are we, and BMW can only share that “less than 1,000 units” will be produced in 2011.
Said another way… get in line. Now.
The Ferrari 458 Challenge made its , and the spec race car appeared for the first time here in the U.S. a few weeks later at California’s Infineon Raceway. While we couldn’t make it out to Sonoma for the latter, we did get our first look at the 458 Challenge this past weekend at the at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
As with its road cars, somehow manages to vastly improve the performance of each generation of race cars, and the 458 Challenge is no exception. Ferrari says that the 458 Challenge can lap the Fiorano race track about two seconds faster than its predecessor, and that difference translated to Laguna Seca. The fastest 458 Challenge cars were turning in times more than three seconds quicker than the top 430 Challenge cars. Even the fastest 430 driver, who set a new class qualifying lap record of 1:31.630, was half a second behind the slowest 458.
You can see our photos of the 458 Challenge at the Ferrari Racing Days in the high-res gallery below, and to watch a video of the cars tackle Laguna Seca’s famous Corkscrew.
Are you ready for a black box to be installed in your car? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration apparently is. According to a new report from Wired, NHTSA is expected to rule next month that all new cars will need to carry just such a device.
Now, before you get all “Screw the Gubment!” in the comments, you should know that many modern cars already have black box systems installed – you might have one and not even know it. , for instance, has been installed the electronic data recorders since the 1990s, on almost all vehicles fitted with airbags.
The concern for most drivers, however, lies with what type of information is captured, and who has access to it. Also, different automakers use different Electronic Data Recorder devices. , which would allow for the data retrieved from an EDR to be consistent regardless of the vehicle make it’s pulled from.
Some view this mandate as an invasion of motorists’ privacy. However, the data recovered from the black box systems can provide crucial insight into crash dynamics. Exactly who’s allowed to view that information varies by state, of course, and only 13 states currently have legislation in place regulating the release of EDR data.
What do you think, is this a good idea, or a bad one? Have your say in Comments.
It’s Official: has announced that it has repaid its multi-billion dollar obligations owed to both the United States and Canadian governments. Adding up both loans plus interest, Chrysler has just shelled out a tidy $7.6 billion. The U.S. receives $5.9 billion and Canada will get $1.7 billion.
Chrysler was able to secure new means of financing, which allows the automaker to pay off its government obligations a full six years ahead of the original payment schedule. While this new financing still involves debts, it saves Chrysler an estimated $350 million per year in interest. This move also allows Chrysler to remain liquid, with more than $10 billion in assets ready to roll.
Under the direction of the U.S. government, Chrysler partnered up with , and the goal was to bring smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles to the states. Yet as an opinion piece in The Detroit News sagely reminds us, it wasn’t really the smaller cars that helped Chrysler, but the newly refreshed sport utility vehicles. The all-new and models helped push sales up 17 percent in 2010.
Regardless of how they got there, this move should serve to instill confidence in the U.S. car-buying public. Chrysler continues to add new or redesigned vehicles to its lineup and has a strong media campaign behind those vehicles. Will high gas prices slow the positive momentum that Chrysler has built up, or is this the chance for the Fiat portion of the relationship to step up and shine? Sound off in Comments, and check out the full press release posted .
There isn’t a Trent Reznor score attached to this story, but must’ve finally received The Social Network courtesy of its Netflix queue. The automaker has announced that it’s creating a virtual online hangout of its own. Dubbed Toyota Friend, the service will connect Toyota owners with a shared love for the Japanese automaker.
Toyota has teamed up with cloud computing solutions company Salesforce.com. One of the tech firms products is called Salesforce Chatter, which is a private social network designed to allow a specific group to communicate. For the automaker’s purposes, Toyota Friend will allow vehicle owners to interact with dealers, the manufacturer and each other. In fact, Toyota Friend will even connect owners to their cars by tapping into the vehicles telematic systems.
Initially, Toyota Friend will roll out to Japanese customers. Specifically those that have purchased 2012 model year electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
This partnership involves more than shared technology. Toyota is investing 442 million yen (approximately $5.4 million USD) into the company that oversees the application of the automaker’s global cloud computing development, which is called Toyota Media Services. Salesforce is supplying 223 million yen ($2.7 million USD). Additionally, Microsoft has agreed to provide 335 million yen ($4.1 million USD) as part of the . See the full press release .
Most motor races take place over a weekend, but the Indianapolis 500 is not most races. “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” plays out over the course of weeks, with numerous practice sessions, extensive qualifying heats and finally the race itself. And with qualifying completed, Alex Tagliani has emerged on top.
Hailing from Montreal, Quebec, Tagliani is the first Canadian to take pole position at the Indy 500 in its one hundred year history. Of course, he wouldn’t be the only Canadian to win the race, following the notable victory of his countryman Jacques Villeneuve in 1995. But as surprising as Tagliani’s pole position was, converting into a win will be another matter. Over the course of seven years in Champ Cars, Tagliani’s won just a single race (at Road America in 2004) and has yet to notch up a win since moving over to the IndyCar Series in 2008.
The coveted pole position was expected to go one of Ganassi drivers (Scott Dixon, a previous Indy 500 winner, or his teammate Dario Franchitti, a two-time Indy 500 winner) or one of the Penske boys (three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves or current series frontrunner Will Power). Newman/Haas driver Oriol Servia put up a good fight too, but when the times were finalized at the end of the “fast nine” session, it was Tagliani and his Sam Schmidt Motorsports team who set the fastest qualifying speed in the #77 Bowers & Wilkins Dallara- with a four-lap average of 227.472 mph.
Dixon qualified second and Servia third to line up beside Tagliani on the first three-car row. Sunday’s “bump day” session, which gives ambitious drivers a shot at one of the top positions, was marred by heavy rain, preserving Tagliani’s position at the front of the pack for when the race gets underway this coming Sunday.
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