The nation’s storied auto company and the nation’s storied space agency are joining forces again, by announcing a three-year alliance to exchange information on advanced technology across a broad spectrum of engineering and scientific areas that both organizations can benefit from. The alliance allows Chrysler Group and NASA to tap into existing and emerging space exploration and automotive technologies… Chrysler has already benefited from the alliance from shared research on reliable surface navigation sensors.
NASA, meanwhile, is said to have gained deep insights into hard-plastic interior component manufacturing. Just kidding. We hope.
Production of Chevy Volt “integration models” began last week, as Hamtramck tools up for final production of GM’s wundercar, but GM still isn’t saying anything about the car’s two most important features: the pricetag and EPA rating. The General has hemmed and hawed on the Volt’s price over the last several years of hype, but it hasn’t ever been shy about touting an “expected” 230 MPG rating. Because apparently it’s the EPA’s job to clear up GM’s misleading marketing claims. So what is the deal with that 230 MPG number, anyway?
The VW Bus’ history in Eugene isn’t just tied to the counter culture. In the early sixties, Eugene’s privately-owned bus service was shrinking, like everywhere during the car boom. No longer able to afford the maintenance and fuel for the old large transit buses, a radical decision was made in a last-ditch effort to keep the buses rolling, and a small fleet of VW buses was purchased. Here they are, lined up and ready to roll, with their snappily-attired drivers, just a block or two away from where today’s CC bus was sitting. Not surprisingly, it didn’t pan out, but I’m sure these buses went on to have a colorful second life.
Here’s the very sketch that gave birth to the VW Bus. Dutch Ben Pon was visiting the VW factory in 1947, which was then controlled by the British Occupational Forces. Interested in buying some early Beetles to import to the Netherlands, Pon saw an improvised boxy parts mover on the factory grounds, and the light bulb went off.
From our regular Curbside Classic Clues, to a recent headline hunt for This American Life, TTAC’s Best and Brightest have proven again and again that they’re the internet’s go-to resource for crowdsourced identification of the most obscure elements of automotive esoterica. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s even possible to stump some of you guys. Which is why I sat up and took notice of Hemmings Motor News’s Twitter appeal for help identifying this obscure, coachbuilt baby, posted at Coachbuilt.com. I figure this is as good a shot as I’ll ever have at pushing the limits of your collective automotive knowledge. Or, proverbially, not.
I am not in the ‘keeper’ business. Cars to me have always been an investment asset, like stocks, bonds, and a good accountant are for most other folks. My daily drivers are supposed to make me money. But then I have to balance this against one other unavoidable fact: I’m married. (Read More…)
If there’s a single phrase dominating the imaginations of auto executives right now, it’s the infamous neologism of “too big to fail.” Whether executives justify their obsession with consolidation with their fear of a Chinese planet, efficiency-standard ramp-ups, or mere groupthink, there’s no doubt that consolidation is currently the name of the game. And it should be, not only for these reasons, but also because the last several years have proven that the car game is no industry for small companies. Nothing illustrates this quite like the US government’s “bailout” of auto industry supplier firms, which ended on April Fools Day. (Read More…)
No, Troy Queef hasn’t been hired by Consumer Reports to bring a “dab of oppo” to the magazine’s SUV reviews. Nor is lift-off oversteer a particularly fun, predictable or desirable handling trait, especially in a 5,000+ lb luxury SUV. And according to CR’s write-up, the cause is a bit of a mystery:
We perform this evaluation on every vehicle we test, which includes the 95 SUVs in our current auto Ratings. No other SUV in recent years slid out as far as the GX 460, including the Toyota 4Runner, which shares the same platform as the GX.
To confirm our results, we paid for the use of another GX 460 from Lexus and experienced the same problem.
Welcome to Eugene. Feel free to stay on the bus, either literally or metaphorically. If it’s the former, no hard feelings; Eugene is not for everyone, and we’ll be back in fifteen minutes or so. But if you’re “On The Bus”, then let’s step out here in the center of downtown, also known as Kesey Square. There is the statue of Ken Kesey, Eugene’s hometown cultural and literary hero, reading from his most famous book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. And what’s that across the street? How serendipitous indeed: a vintage VW bus, the official transporter of Eugene. (Read More…)
Our oracle of Shanghai, Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM’s China operations, is chickening out. “Anything is possible in China. We are very bullish about future potential here,” he said. And then he predicted that GM China will sell 2m vehicles this year, China Daily reports. Why is that chickening out, you ask? (Read More…)
Although independent studies have shown a link between the use of photo enforcement equipment and a statistically significant increase in the number of collisions, opponents of photo radar have produced few concrete examples of these incidents. In Arizona, the group CameraFraud.com has begun using freedom of information laws to get its hands on examples of accidents that would not have happened but for the presence of a speed camera van (view studies).
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is electrified. They think, next-generation automobiles will make up as much as half of the new passenger cars sold in Japan in 2020, says The Nikkei [sub].
By 2020, the ministry aims to have 2 million household chargers for electric vehicles installed, along with 5,000 fast-charging stations for commercial fleets. The ministry promotes joint development of infrastructure projects between the government, industry and academia to help pave the way for Japan to become the world’s most electrified nation.
People who make cars for a living have a more conservative outlook. Privately, they think the ministry should lay off the sake. (Read More…)
Regular TTAC reader and prolific commentator (in the best way possible) Robert.Walter gets the win for his guess on the Bonneville. An honorary mention goes to 153624 for his guess of a similar vintage Grand Prix. For all I know, their hoods are identical.
I’m sorry for the size and low resolution of today’s clue, but them’s the brakes! Have fun.
I know that they have to cut the car open to take the engine out. To make an engine in that configuration, you know, it doesn’t go around corners. When we did the race in Abu Dhabi, we beat it off the line so many times that the film crew was getting frustrated because the outcome was supposed to be for the Bugatti to win. So we had to do that whole thing about ten times before it managed to get off the line cleanly and catch us up. Because every time they dropped the clutch it bogged down and we were gone.
McLaren’s Ron Dennis lays into the Bugatti Veyron at the Middle East launch of his firm’s new MP4-12C [Arabian Business via Wired Autopia]. What Dennis leaves out is that the Bugatti has a (computerized, sequential-shift) automatic transmission, so it’s difficult to know what he means by “they dropped the clutch.” Besides, it sounds like the former Formula 1 boss is spewing bile, rather than objectively critiquing the Veyron… which there’s plenty of room for. (Read More…)
Ford’s relationship with hybrid technology has been an on-again-off-again affair, since Bill Ford first pledged to build 250k hybrids by 2010. And it’s probably a good thing the Blue Oval backed away from that promise, as the firm sold only 33,502 hybrids last year. Meanwhile, Ford still has yet to claim profitability on any of its hybrids (last disclaiming such an achievement (sort of) in 2008). Perhaps because Ford has paid dearly to tag along in the import-dominated hybrid segments, it’s getting a bit jaded about the power of high-cost, high-tech green halo cars to deliver real results. Or, perhaps Ford’s VP of powertrain engineering Barb Samardzich is simply channeling old Henry Ford, when she says:
We are focused on sustainable technology solutions that can be used not for hundreds or thousands of cars, but for millions of cars, because that’s how Ford will truly make a difference
We’ve heard this before, but today’s news puts the four-cylinder future into perfect context in just five words: Four. Cylinder. Explorer. This. Year.
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