According to the Washington Post, Beijing officials want to clear their city's infamous smog by using number plate-based driving restrictions. Currently, the city's atmos is so bad that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has threatened to postpone long-distance races if the athletes can't get sufficient 02. Although Chinese officials reckon they can pull a third of the city's three million vehicles off the road, they may face The Law of Unintended Consequences. Since 1989, Mexico City has banned cars one day per week based upon their license plate digits. In her book "Air Quality in the Mexico Megacity," author Luisa Molina quotes researchers who say some 22 percent of Mexican drivers responded to “Hoy No Circula” (HNC) regs by buying a second car– increasing overall vehicular journeys and, thus, air pollution. Of course, officials in charge of HNC– which now focuses on a car's age– say ending the plan would put 600k more vehicles on the road each day. The Chinese test begins on Friday.

Translation: they will be crushed with a steam-roller. Derivation: Philippine Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde. Origination: Phillipine Inquirer. Explanation: The Philippine government has a problem with high end automotive smuggling. Previously, the police would auction off confiscated vehicles. At which point the smugglers would repurchase them and sell the newly cooled loot to their customers. After consulting with her new Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force, President Arroyo has ordered that five such cars be crushed, on TV, in front of her very eyes. We're talking about a Bimmer, Ferrari (another cursed Enzo?), Lamborghini, Porsche Carrera and Cayenne. The head of the Force, Antonio “Bebot” Villar, said his team might flatten 15 more cars at the same time. No date has been set, but here's hoping YouTube's servers can cope. 

"The letter shapes of Highway Gothic weren’t ever tested, having never really been designed in the first place. 'It’s very American in that way — just smash it together and get it up there,' says Tobias Frere-Jones, a typographer in New York City who came to the attention of the design world in the mid-1990s with his Interstate typeface inspired by the bemusing, awkward charm of Highway Gothic. 'It’s brash and blunt, not so concerned with detail. It has a certain unvarnished honesty.'" Still with us? Then don't miss the six-page Sunday Times article on highway signage, specifically one man's quest to change the typeface used thereupon. No, really. "There was the original Highway Gothic; British Transport, the road typeface used in the United Kingdom; Univers, found in the Paris Metro and on Apple computer keyboards; DIN 1451, used on road and train signage in Germany; and also Helvetica, the classic sans-serif seen in modified versions on roadways in a number of European countries." Let us know how it turns out. 

With all the press lithium-ion batteries and high tech drivetrains have gotten lately, you'd think electric cars are the future of the automobile. Perhaps, but they're also the past. Almost 100 years ago, electric cars were actually a common sight in American cities. New York Times brings us a blast from the past with a feature on Jay Leno's 1909 Baker Electric Coupe. Arguably the first "chick car," the Baker was the favorite of high-society women who couldn't be bothered with the muss and fuss of primitive internal-combustion engines. Although Jay's car's top speed is only about 20 to 25 mph, the Baker Torpedo held the world land speed record in 1904 at 104mph, with the additional distinction of being the first automobile fitted with seat belts. 

Apparently, essayist Robert Sullivan has a "cross country driving hat." In a piece published by the Hartford Courant, the LA writer hangs up his metaphorical head gear and sounds the death knell for the great American cross-country road trip. Justifying his stance, Sullivan does the hippie hippie shake: "The cross-country trip became the everyday trip. Motels, which in the 1950s advertised new products for your home (air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpet) began to look like homes, or vice versa. It also created a new kind of settlement – a big-box store, fast-food chain, Gas & Go, chain motel – that is the perfect oasis of amenities for the interstate cross-country traveler. Except that its existence eats away at what the trip-taker has gone to see, which is the United States." Sounds like the missing verse of a Simon and Garfunkel song to me. Anyway, to prove that long distance road trips are off the menu, Sullivan sold his car. To achieve the same ends without the radical loss of mobility TTAC recommends replaying the bit where Clark Griswold's children see The Grand Canyon in National Lampoon's Vacation .

In a video interview with Porfolio.com, Sir Nick Scheele explains how he turned Jaguar around. Well, not exactly; after all, he didn't. But the British brand’s former CEO did, as claimed, help raise Jaguar’s American JD Power quality rankings from second-to-last to first. In that regard, Sir Nick reveals that Jag’s ascension up the quality league tables hit the wall in ‘94. The breakthrough: after two years at the helm, Scheele realized Jag’s assembly line workers knew more about build quality than the suits. Scheele empowered the guys on the factory floor, left, ran Ford of Europe for a bit, collected a gigantic pension (and a peerage) and called it good. And now Sir Nick wants Jaguar back. Nooooooo.

The People's Weekly World is "partisan to the working class, racially and nationally oppressed peoples, women, youth, seniors, international solidarity, Marxism and socialism" and "enjoys a special relationship with the Communist Party USA, founded in 1919, and publish its news and views." Right, so, the paper says "many thousands" of UAW workers don't believe the numbers being touted by the automakers to justify labor concessions. Citing GM's plan to invest $6m into Daewoo and Ford spending over a billion dollars on a plant in Eastern Europe, they're certain the companies are much better off financially than they let on. They're particularly suspicious of GM, claiming "during contract negotiations it is likely it will hide more than half its profits." Admitting they don't know what's going on in the negotiations, they feel "the union can be expected to raise both the issue of concealed corporate profits and the issue of nonlabor costs of making vehicles." So now you know.

Carbon fiber is so last century. In a press release on Send2Press, CNT Technologies announced their carbon nanotube technology (CNT) has been named "one of the most innovative products of 2007" by the editors of R&D Magazine and MICRO/NANO Newsletter. They claim CNT fiber is one-tenth the weight of plebeian carbon fiber and 500% stronger than any other engineering material. CEO Robert Leary thinks his product will revolutionize manufacture of everything from automobiles to tennis rackets. "It is analogous to leaping in one bound from the Bronze Age to the age of high-strength steel and aluminum. Companies that do not have access to our product will simply be unable to compete and maintain market share." Um… Ok.

Online Media Daily reports that Toyota's Sciontologists are building a "branded nightclub cum hangout spot" in the virtual world known as there.com. Programmers Metaversatility are creating a Scion-shaped party tower based on the carmaker's three currents models (xA, xB and tC). They hope to entice a big slice of there's [claimed] 1m virtual inhabitants into the Scion party zone. To increase cyber-footfall, Scion will advertise its virtual hang within there via "interactive kiosks" and billboards. If all that isn't weird enough– and we think it is– what's the bet Scion will pay inhabitants to "suggest" heading over to Club Scion? Will these virtual shills get virtual rewards or cold hard cash? Will they even be real? What's to stop there from using artificial intelligence avatars to drum-up business, or, more sinisterly, send fake visitors to the fake Club Scion to bolster audience numbers? Will Chevy hire people to create avatars to trash talk Scion and their hangout? How long before someone– real or fake– gets killed? Where's Phillip K. Dick when you need him?

Speaking at a management seminar, a senior Chrysler chemist cast aside political correctness and identified five groups standing in the way of America's alternative fuel future. Automotive News [sub] reports that Loren Beard fingered five Powers That Be who oppose E85 and suchlike. 1. OPEC (natch) 2. Big Oil ("It will cut into their market share") 3. Japanese automakers ("silver bullet car companies") 4. environmental groups (employ scare tactics against alternative fuels to raise money) and 5. aliens (my guess, Automotive News didn't say). While we await for suitable spin control on Chrysler's new blog (as if), suffice it to say Beard doesn't see any alternative to alternative fuels, other than continued dependence on foreign oil. So much for that, then.

As top executive for a large manufacturing enterprise, Bob Nardelli was a tremendous success. As the man in charge of a gigantic retail business, not so much. Like any automaker, Chrysler’s survival depends on both its ability to manufacture class-leading products AND get its dealers to provide class-leading customer service. So, as Nardelli takes Chrysler’s helm, the question must be asked: is he half the man he needs to be? The answer is Six Sigma.

Vehicles used on farms are not likely to generate as many insurance claims as their tarmac-tied counterparts. So U.S. farmers enjoy up to a 20 percent discount on their auto insurance. Problem: farm discounts on vehicular insurance are being applied to city folk. The Hartford Courant reports that some 7.52 percent of farm-use vehicle insurance discounts were written for people in locations where, according to Ed Harris, "absolutely nobody is engaged in agriculture." Harris works for Quality Planning Corp., a company specializing in indentifying "premium leakage" (i.e. lost insurance revenue). "When we discovered that a Jaguar XJ6 was reported garaged at a five-acre farm in Brooklyn, we weren't sure who'd be more interested – the DEA or the policyholder's insurance company." Connecticut ranks third in the nation for this type of fraud. Marketwire ranks New Jersey as tops in farm-use discount abuse– which makes sense as the Garden State has the nation's highest insurance premiums. 

Amidst the controversy concerning the safety of various Chinese-made products, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber (HZR) Co. is recalling their LTR tires. In a statement on PRNewswire, HZR states they have "fully cooperated with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to provide information on the scope of the recall and the design history of the products involved." Of course "HZR has not found any evidence that the LTR tires at issue contain any structural defects or are missing any safety features." They are instructing consumers to return the tires to their dealer to have them checked.

An experimental Japanese electric car has set a new speed record: 105.95 kmph (65.8 mph). And you can forget all that lithium-ion stuff. According to NewCarNet, the four-wheeled record holder was powered by common AA household batteries. Albeit lot’s of ‘em. In fact, the Panasonic Oxyride needed 192 of the diminutive batteries to get its freak on. The experimental vehicle was not radio controlled, did contain a [small, reclining] human and weighed-in at less than 84 pounds (38 kgs.) The automobile's accelerative accomplishment comes hard on the heels of a Japanese aircraft powered by 160 AA batteries that recently took wing. While the craft only achieved five meters altitude for less than a minute, it was "the world's first manned flight powered by dry-cell batteries." We can't wait for the 356-battery flying car.

In a magnanimous gesture, Canadian-based Magna International has offered to help Cerberus expand Chrysler's international operations. Magna, once the front runner to buy Chrysler, is expanding into Russia and wants to take Chrysler with them. Magna's president Mark Hogan told Reuters, "Chrysler has done a good job of establishing a distribution network in western Europe and to a lesser extent in eastern Europe. We can probably help them as we establish ourselves in Russia." Chrysler is moving production of their Euro-spec 300's from Magna's Graz, Austria facility to their own in Ontario, so Magna needs to keep their ties with the company somehow. You know– just in case Cerberus decides to sell something.