Most of us likely assume that the gas pump that is providing petrol is giving you the fuel that you pay for – no more or less. While that may be true in most cases, ABC News in Baltimore, Maryland proves that sometimes pumps do bad things to good people.
The report details Maryland state gas station inspections that have revealed over 4,000 defective pumps over the last four years. In all, that’s between five and six percent of the 40,000 gas pumps in Maryland, or way too many error-prone pumps for our tastes.
While our primary concern is that customers aren’t getting what they pay for, it seems the gas station owners are more likely to get the short end of the stick. The report claims that station owners are three times more likely to lose money than the customer. to watch the ABC News report.
It looks like we weren’t the only ones to get our hands on the . Jamal Hameedi, SVT chief nameplate engineer, recently stopped by the Big Dog Garage to show off both the and the GT500. It’s no secret that Leno has always been a fan, and with the ridiculously powerful supercharged 5.8-liter pumping out more grunt than the comedian’s own Ford GT, the 2013 Shelby has earned itself another proponent. Leno takes the big horse out for a ride around town, including over some of the more punishing stretches of Los Angeles freeway before heading home.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage without a proper burnout, and the clip doesn’t disappoint. to us. Now the only question is whether Leno will add one of these machines to his own personal collection. to watch the video, which concludes with a little tribute to the recently deceased .
Think back to childhood for a moment. What did you do when you wanted, say, a new skateboard, but mom and dad were dragging their heels about ponying up for one? That’s right, you built your own, out of bits of scrap plywood and some old wheels discarded by an older sibling. And it sucked.
We see the same situation playing out here. The children at Top Gear are absolutely gaga for the DeltaWing race car, which at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. And even if they are Top Gear, nobody at is going to just give them an experimental race car for futzing around. So they are building their own. Or at least a simulacrum of the DeltaWing, out of what appears to be junk.
Details are scarce, but the Top Gear has on its website tells enough of the story that we’re pretty sure they aren’t going to come anywhere close. Not only does the 1,100-pound curb weight of the revolutionary race car present something of a challenge when you’re basically welding the thing up from scratch, but whatever that ancient engine sitting in the nose of the Top Gear project is, we’re plenty sure it won’t be packing the 300-plus horsepower of Nissan’s turbocharged four.
But just as your pre-pubescent charm and pluckiness eventually prevailed in the skateboard scenario, we’re thinking Top Gear might be on to something with its fanboy-ish DeltaWing replica. After all, mom may have embarrassed you in the skate shop, but she did get you the real thing, didn’t she?
While we get the , other markets get this: the Golf GTI Cabriolet. We had a under the lights of the , and now has dropped a slew of photos of the convertible in its natural environment.
Under the hood is a 207-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, mated to either a six-speed manual or dual-clutch gearbox. The car’s feminine aspect has been mentioned, but VW would like to focus people’s attention on the 0-to-62 time of 7.3 seconds, making it the fastest GTI convertible ever, the top speed of 147 miles per hour, and it being “the most economical model in its class.” And the man at the wheel in the press photos.
You can have a good, varied look at it in the gallery of high-res photos, and check out the press release by .
Our trusty spy photographers have caught the upcoming Turbo Cabriolet with its top down and its tail up on a stroll through German streets. To our eyes, the extended length and wheelbase are accentuated in the rear-end packaging, but it’s still a looker.
Some reports say that motivation will come from a flat-six, others say there will be for immediate low-end action. Horsepower ratings are also a muddle for now, with various reports suggesting 515 horsepower or thereabouts, making for a 15-hp increase over , and that would be followed by a Turbo S with somewhere around 550 hp, a 20-hp bump on . Other reports say the regular turbo will go straight for the 550-hp jugular, leaving the S to haunt the neighborhood of 600 hp.
What we do know is that it will pack all-wheel drive, a seven-speed transmission in traditional stick or PDK, and every electro-bauble in Porsche’s arsenal when it finally is revealed. For now, catch what you can in the high-res gallery of spy photos.
Big trucks just aren’t appealing enough on their own, at least in some places. For proof, look to a Shanghai dealer who is offering about three years worth of free gas to anyone who buys a new Denali. Too bad it’ll take about 20 years to pay off the big truck.
The dealer is giving away five tons – about 2,000 gallons, worth around $8,000 in China – of petrol to new Sierra Denali buyers in China’s largest city, according to . The offer appears to be a nod to rising China gas prices, which are climbing towards levels similar to those in the U.S. now that the Chinese government is doing less to artificially keep gas prices down. Full-size trucks have been sold in China for about three years and are known to be status symbols in China, says The Detroit Bureau.
There is, of course, a catch. The Denali, unlike most General Motors vehicles sold in China, is built in the U.S., so the price tag is about $134,000, or almost three times what the model sells for in the States. Here’s hoping a few free car washes come with those full tanks.
The Biggest Hammer Of Them All Is Sharper Than Ever
We would love to be able to look you square in the eye and say, “All you need to know about the can be summed up in one figure: 662.” After all, that’s the obscene amount of horsepower ripping at the rear tires courtesy of the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 under the hood. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. For the first time in its life, the GT500 has found itself lined up against a legitimate competitor in the . The muscle car/supercar crossbreed from General Motors is stitched to conquer not only the quarter mile, but nation’s road courses as well.
In order to answer that threat, the engineers at have laid a hand on nearly every mechanical and electrical system on board the GT500. While that means the blown V8 churns out a diabolical 112 more horsepower than the previous model, it also means the top-tier now comes with tricks like user-selectable Bilstein dampers, adjustable electronic power steering, larger brakes and an array of optional cooling systems. In fact, if this car came wrapped in a slightly different shade of sheetmetal, we’d be talking about an all-new model instead of a refresh.
The in its various guises positively romps on its popularity, making special-edition hay with terrific frequency. This latest outing in the form of the 695 Edition follows a familiar trail, coming three years after the that debuted at the 2009 .
That hatch had a tuned 1.4-liter turbo four putting out more than 180 horsepower, a variable exhaust system and paddle-shifting automated manual under its 430 Scuderia-mimicking paint scheme. But aside from the paint, this one gets much the same treatment: 180-hp output, Abarth Competizione gearbox and dual mode exhaust.
It goes the GranTurismo route instead of hard-core sports car, though, using the convertible Abarth as a base and adding Pontevecchio Bordeaux paint with a gray top, sand-beige leather and black interior, Jaeger instrumentation, and 17-inch Maserati-style Neptune wheels and hexagonal tailpipes. Still, it gets even bigger Brembo brakes than the Ferrari version.
Just 499 will be made for “mainly” European markets, naturally, so the closest we’ll get to it is the high-res gallery above the the press release .
According to the timing sheets for the Nürburgring 24-Hour race, the P4/5 Competizione set a lap time of 6:51 during qualifying. That would make it faster than the of 6:58.16 in 2010, and the fastest -powered vehicle to ever run the ‘Ring.
In case you don’t remember, the 700-horsepower 599XX was also a purpose-built, track-only racer driven by a test driver. On the other hand, we don’t have specs on the P4/5 Competizione to compare, but that doesn’t make the achievement itself any less impressive. The only car ahead of the P4/5 Competizione in the not-street-legal category is the Pagani Zonda R, which . Glickenhaus himself told Jalopnik he thought the feat was “pretty cool” and that Ferrari was welcome to challenge it.
Can’t wait for to start producing the EXP 9 F? Sold on the idea but not on the execution? Armortech may be able to help you out.
They’ve teamed up with Atelier Valdeig to turn the Q7 into something of a Bentley SUV, only without the Bentley badge. Called the Tresor (from the French word for “treasure”), the custom igets fully restyled, and boasts an interior that has been (or will be, from the look of the cabin renderings) retrofitted to Bentley-like levels of opulence.
The customizers can base their modifications on any version of the Q7, all the way up to the 493-horsepower V12 turbodiesel, and can even stretch the wheelbase or armor it – a particularly sought-after feature in markets where security is a luxury. The full press release is posted below, and you can check out the renderings in the photo gallery for a closer look.
The curtain is rolling back on Cars Land, which opens at Disney’s California Adventure next month. Mater himself makes appearances in a network commercial and the new microsite, and on the latter he’ll be happy to take you on a tour of some of the attractions at the live-action Radiator Springs, including a Racer’s test drive and Luigi’s Flying Tires.
You can watch the commercial and to check out the microsite.
If you’ve got the cash to place on the hood (or nose cone, as it were), most any Formula One team will sell you one of their old race cars. After all, they’re not using them anymore, and it’s a good way to raise funds to develop next year’s car. But not McLaren. The team from Woking – one of the most successful in the series – doesn’t sell its old cars, though with 176 grand prix victories, twelve drivers’ championships and eight constructors’ titles, you can bet they’d fetch a pretty penny. Instead, it keeps them all warehoused at a facility, location undisclosed, simply called Unit 2.
The warehouse contains some 75 grand prix cars, an untold number of the team’s sports cars from other racing series (like Le Mans, Can-Am and Indy), and various road cars it’s produced over the years, like the legendary McLaren F1, the it built for , and the new MP4-12C. But while none of these cars are for sale, Unit 2 will soon be depleted of much of its stock.
Their destinations? The 35 global dealerships that McLaren Automotive has opened or will open by year’s end, like the one pictured above in Düsseldorf. Each showroom is to get a racing car to display alongside the road cars it has for sale, and many of them will be location-specific. The dealer in Monte Carlo, for example, will display the 1993 MP4-8 that Ayrton Senna drove to victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. The dealer in Brussels will reportedly display the 2004 MP4-19 with which Kimi Raikkonen won the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix. And the Philadelphia showroom will display the 1976 M26 that James Hunt piloted to victory at the US Grand Prix that year.
So if you want to see a piece of McLaren racing history, better call up your and find out when their show car is due to arrive. Just don’t go looking for Unit 2, because even if you can find it, chances are they won’t let you in.
We don’t need to tell you why rally racing – though awesome – is incredibly dangerous. As much as we love to watch turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Euro hatches being flung around on dirt, gravel, snow and tarmac, the fact that many of these races go through small towns and wooded trails leaves plenty of room for disaster.
Case in point: This racer went off course during the 2012 Mazowiecki Rally, leaving driver Patrick Osowiecki and navigator Maciej Wrona trapped upside-down in a lake. According to CarScoop, no race officials were near the scene of the accident, but some selfless spectators rushed in to attempt to free Osowiecki and Wrona from their racecar. to watch the action unfold.
There are driving simulators and there are racing simulators. They tend to cross over, but what divides them are the types of cars and the types of roads used in the game. Drive racing cars on digitally recreated racing circuits and you’re looking at a racing sim. Street cars on public roads (whether simulated or replicated) and you’re playing a driving game. The Forza Motorsport franchise has always been more of a racing simulator than a driving game, but the minority of open roads that have appeared in the four iterations of the series so far are about to jump into their own game altogether with the launch of Forza Horizon.
Having made the initial announced back in March, Microsoft hand Turn 10 Studios have now released the box cover art and a single frame of in-game footage, both depicting the new SRT Viper on the open road. The cover, as you can see, shows a yellow Viper with black stripes speeding out of a mountain town, while the screenshot shows us a metallic Viper – like the one we saw at its unveiling in – on a desert highway in what looks like Carburator County from Pixar’s Cars.
About a year and a half (if you can believe it) since the launch of Forza 4, the arrival of Forza Horizon will surely come as welcome and eagerly anticipated by the legions of racing and gaming fans that have enjoyed the various iterations of the franchise until now. All we know about its release is that it’s coming sometime in the fall, but with the E3 gaming convention just a couple of weeks away, we should have more to bring you soon, so watch this space.
There was nary a peep of discontent about the looks of the revealed at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. But when everyone was clamoring for Scooby to transfer the Advanced Tourer’s looks to a production vehicle, never once did people ask for that transfer to be foisted on the WRX. A report in Motor Trend, though, says that’s what’s happening: the concept “was actually an early look at the next-generation .”
MT’s sources said the front end Advanced Tourer’s front end will go onto the WRX, with other aspects of the concept made more aggressive to suit the personality of Subaru’s rally-ready racer. And if the concept also presages the next WRX’s dimensions, then you can expect the next-generation sedan and hatchback to be larger (though in truth we don’t anticipate a big gain in footprint).
Notice the name “” hasn’t appeared anywhere in our discussion yet. Subaru is reportedly dropping the name in an attempt to get more ‘Likes’ for the WRX by making it more approachable, so the next model will relinquish its association with the Impreza line and be more performanced focused even as it is receives a better interior and is morphed into a “more-mature sporty grand tourer.” Engine choices are still being debated for the car due in 2015; the rumored options include 1.6-liter and 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinders and a hybrid version of the 1.6-liter.
You don’t hear too much about the Henrik Fisker-designed Artega GT, but its occasional appearances are always welcome. In this episode of Where’s Artega Now?, the folks at eGarage worked with Germany’s Christopher Kippenberger, who make a quadrocopter designed for capturing aerial footage.
A day was spent at Germany’s , essentially a German version’s of Spain’s . One slight difference: Blister Ber’s track isn’t finished, so the Artega was left to drift it out over the construction site threading around haulers and front-end loaders.
Kippenberger’s quadrocopter is of his company’s design, meant to bring both Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and helicopter shots into the range of the enthusiast video shooter. At $5,000, it’s not cheap, but that’s a steal compared to other UAVs – and just pennies compared to a helicopter – and each unit is built-to-order.
But enough reading. Have a look at what it and the Artega GT can do in the video .
On Thursday night’s Autoline After Hours, SRT boss Ralph Gilles sat down with show hosts John McElroy and Peter DeLorenzo, along with Autoblog and AOL Autos staffers to talk all things . Among the interesting tidbits disclosed about the 640-horsepowersupercar are plans for a new dealer certification process designed to encourage the sort of purchasing, service and ownership experience that buyers of six-digit cars have come to expect.
According to Gilles:
“It’s going to be a qualified dealer situation… The ones who do the dealer training in terms of the tech. I want a tech. I want a display car. I want all these things. There’s going to be a list. It’s not going to be impossible, it’s just that someone has to put in the extra effort and say ‘I’m an SRT dealer.
Off the air, Gilles told Autoblog that officials have already approached a number of dealers with a strong record of Viper and SRT sales to discuss how the certification process will work, gaining valuable feedback in the process. A document outlining the new certification program will go out to dealers next month.
Chrysler has yet to announce official pricing and the Viper won’t go on sale until sometime in the fourth quarter of the year, but that hasn’t stopped a queue of customer deposits from piling up. According to Gilles, one particularly strong Viper dealer already has around 90 such deposits in-hand. Considering that Viper sales averaged about 1,600 units in past years, that’s a substantial figure.
In other news, Chrysler officials have been making a big point of talking about the 2013 Viper’s newfound refinements, from reduced NVH to nicer interior materials and improved drivability thanks to the institution of technologies like stability control and traction control. Gilles says that great care has been taken to ensure the model’s core personality still shines through, but given that much of the Viper’s mystique is centered on its raw, leg-burning, hairy-knuckled persona, we couldn’t help but wonder aloud if the new model’s refinements have left room for a stripped-out hardcore version for Viper purists and racers. With raised eyebrows, arms gesturing wildly and stifling a smile, Gilles wryly said: “I love how you think. Next subject!”
To watch the Autoline After Hours episode in its entirety, .
Reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner is just 26 years old, but has been riding in the FIM series since 2001 when he joined the 125cc ranks. Five years later, the Australian was in the headlining formula series with Honda, the year after that, in 2007, he won the title astride a Ducati. Last year, Stoner won it again with Honda, and even battling an issue with his arm this year, he’s atop the standings and leading his rivals in practice sessions for this weekend’s French GP at Le Mans.
But Stoner used yesterday’s GP press conference to announce his retirement at the end of this year. The Australian says the sport had gone in a direction that doesn’t interest him and that he simply isn’t enjoying it enough to continue the sacrifices necessary to be competitive at the top level. Speculation is that he wants to spend time with , and perhaps that he plans to series.
Fellow Aussie and MotoGP legen Mick Doohan said just yet that Stoner will actually ride off into farm life. Even so, the fact that the current World Champion is unhappy enough to publicly announce the end of his career is a shock to the MotoGP world. Have a for a video news report on Stoner’s announcement.
The has been making artisan single malt Scotch whisky since 1881 on the Isle of Islay in the UK. As the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, you may not expect the island’s 620 square kilometers (239 square miles) to be the ideal habitat for electric cars.
Apparently, though, the works out quite well for Mark Reynier, managing director at the distillery. The island’s inhabitants are also benefited, says Reynier, by Nissan’s Power Control System, which allows the Leaf’s high-capacity lithium ion battery to power other devices – important when a single storm can completely cut the island’s link to the outside world.
Watch Reynier describe how the Leaf has improved his life and his distillery in the video . And, if you’re interested in other ways to use Bruichladdich’s whisky as a biofuel, you can also watch James May run a Radical SR4 race car on the spirit in a separate video.
The has had one of the preeminent in the world for more than two decades, but a new group of students is looking to make its own mark in the world of green engineering. The school will be fielding its first entry in the annual this year.
If you think a bunch of newbies would launch their effort somewhat low-key, you probably aren’t from Michigan or familiar with the Wolverine Way. Michigan has set its goal at nothing short of the North American record of bettering 3,169 miles per gallon with its single-cylinder, Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine. The expectation is that the Michigan car will hit 3,300 mpg.
The Supermileage competition has been held since 1980, requiring students to design and build extremely lightweight, single-seat vehicles. The competition itself involves circling the Eaton Corporation Proving Grounds test track. Last year, 27 teams competed, with Quebec’s Universite de Sherbrooke dominating the competition, recording 2,158 mpg, over 500 mpg more than its cross-province rival, Universite’ Laval.
The 2012 Supermileage competition is scheduled for June 7-8 in Marshall, MI. to read the press release and watch Michigan’s promotional video.
