Joe's Car Blog

Ferrari in Formula 1

August 17, 2010 at 10:52 am Filed in:Ferrari No Comments

Ferrari is both a legend and a myth in racing. It has one of the unique and astounding success stories ever heard in race history. The brand, Ferrari, is worth more than Google, IBM, Nike and Mercedes. Its success story, in fact is unparalleled. Ferrari is known everywhere in the world from Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, India, South America and so on. Yet they have never spent a single penny in advertisement or communications.

Formula 1 has always been a masculine affair and a people from all over the world watch the events that are happening in this particular race with awe. Ferrari is the unofficial symbol of strength and dignity and people watch the legendary names like Schumacher with awe and a lot of envy.

Audi to Exceed Expectations with More than 50,000 Units Sold this Year

June 1, 2010 at 12:26 am Filed in:Audi No Comments

The German car manufacturer Audi just declared its confidence in the A1 subcompact model. According to reports from the company, it expects to receive a demand higher than its annual production capacity from Audi customers. The company is slated to produce 50,000 units this year, and it’s anticipating no lower than 100% demand for the vehicle.

The Volkswagen group also said that the premium brand is really designed to appeal to rich people in their 20s or 30s. They’re hoping that this niche would help revitalize the image of Audi. They also hope to establish loyalty from their customers with the release of the A1 compact. To do that, the company is certainly riding on more than just mere optimism.

Aggressive ad campaigns have been made by the company. Online, you’ll see endorser and well-known music celebrity Justin Timberlake trying to sell a car with a price tag of 15,800 euros. This particular model, based on the choice of endorser, is designed for fashion-conscious young people with enough purchasing power.

Continental to Produce Prototype Electric Traction Motors

May 5, 2010 at 8:05 am Filed in:Continental 1 Comment

After having produced lithium ion batteries for the 2008 Mercedes S400 Hybrid, Continental has now begun to the creation of prototypes for its electric motors. These will undergo volume production soon at the company’s plant in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony.

Aside from providing li-ion batteries for the Mercedes hybrid, the company has long been on lab stage with EV electronics and batteries. This third generation electric motor they’re working on is a rough 30% smaller than the predecessor. The production of these E-motors in the Gifhorn plant can be considered a major milestone for the company.

Beginning 2011, Continental should be on the way to producing its first complete electric powertrain. This will also be for the European car manufacturer’s standard production-vehicles.

According to Jose Avila, head of the Powertrain Division of Continental, a total of £12 million have already been invested in the Gifhorn plant. The plant is designed to produce about 60,000 electric motors annually. With this investment, Continental hopes that it will be able to cope with the production rate of these electric motors without forgetting previous battery production projects and power electronics.

Rolls-Royce planning Ghost line-up of concepts

April 2, 2010 at 12:01 am Filed in:Rolls Royce No Comments

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce is scheduled to give us a preview of the new members of their Ghost family through their experimental or concept cars.

A cabriolet and coupe is being heard as a loud buzz in the rumor mill to be the new siblings of the Ghost saloon. These new Rolls-Royce will be coming in a few years but they will be developing the concept vehicles to measure the demand of the market.

The top executive of Rolls-Royce, Ian Robertson disclosed that they might not really stick with the Ghost badge for the new variants like what they did with the Phantom. Now that decision opens the gate for the return of Rolls-Royce names like the Corniche and Camargue for the coupe and soft-top versions.

We also got a tip that the company might release a long wheelbase variant of the Ghost saloon. Other possibilities include a gas-electric hybrid variant.

Ferrari might implement hybrid option for its entire lineup

March 11, 2010 at 8:32 am Filed in:Ferrari 1 Comment

Around the globe, governments are tightening their environmental policies as they give in to the demand of their people to lower greenhouse gas production. In the US, for example, the fuel economy of fleets by 2016 should be 35.5 mpg. In Europe, CO2 emission is targeted to go down and might have detrimental effect on the sales figures of carmakers like Ferrari.

Ferrari engineers are working really hard to bring the CO2 emission and fuel consumption of their engines down. The brand though wants to be green without sacrificing the performance of their vehicles.

The Italian car manufacturer has been looking into technologies which they can apply for their future lineup. At the recent Geneva Motor Show, they unveiled a concept car called 599 HY-KERS which featured the new hybrid technology.

The HY-KERS makes use of an electric motor that boosts the power of the engine during low speed running and during high load situation. The power is transferred without any problem from the electric motor to the engie as it goes via one of the clutches of the dual gearbox setup.

HYbrid 4 powered 5 by Peugeot to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show

February 25, 2010 at 8:30 am Filed in:Peugeot No Comments

Peugeot is going through a transition phase as the newly appointed design director takes over and the company giving us a preview of what is to come with the SR1 Concept. The French carmaker also revealed the concept car 5 by Peugeot which represents how their future cars will look like.

The new design language of Peugeot is embodied with a more aggressive, masculine grille, contoured body, LED detailing of both ends of the car, and aluminum bonnet. The car will also use brushed aluminum for the door handles and the window surrounds. The car also gets a set of 19-inch wheels.

The 5 by Peugeot will run using their upcoming Hybrid4 technology. Power for the front wheels come from the 2.0L diesel engine, and this will be combined with a 37hp electric motor driving the rear tires. This configuration brings into the equation a total of 200 hp, a pure electric mode for running on low speeds, and a good AWD kind of traction when needed. The fuel mileage is very good at 74.3 miles per gallon.

Volkswagen’s Passat CC four-door coupe wins Red Dot Best of the Best Award

August 1, 2009 at 12:15 am Filed in:Volkswagen No Comments

Last March, the winners for the 2009 Red Dot Design competition were already announced. However, the Best of the Best award was presented only last night in Essen, Germany during a presentation. And the winner for the Best of the Best Award is Volkswagen for its Passat CC 4-door coupe.

Hosted by the Aalto Theater in Essen, Martin Kropp, the top designer for Volkswagen, was the one who took the award as the official representative for the Exterior Design Studio 1. Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, the oldest and most celebrated design group in Europe has been handing the red dot Best of the Best awards since year 2000.

So far, Volkswagen’s Passat CC 4-door coupe is an award-winning model as it has also won the IF Product Design Award 2009, the Australian International Design Award, and of course, the red dot Best of the Best Award.
Choosing the winner for the red dot award is labor-extensive and exhausting as far as the design experts are concerned. Each model entered in the competition has to be evaluated using the contest’s categories. Car and design experts worldwide gather to see the latest in car design.

Full details on the BMW X1 SUV exposed

July 17, 2009 at 8:10 am Filed in:BMW No Comments

Despite the crazy financial crisis that has crippled a handful of carmakers, BMW gets busy with new models and versions. In particular, the BMW X1 SUV falls is the carmaker’s pioneer in the compact SUV category, which at present time has the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 as the front liners.

The X1 will be made available in AWD and RWD configurations. It also comes with 4 engine choices—three diesels and one petrol engines. In terms of fuel-efficiency, the RWD sDrive18d has a maximum of 45.2mpg fuel economy and a maximum speed of 124mph. The X1 will make its debut entrance in Europe this coming fall and will go on sale in the US sometime in 2011 but with only the initial two petrol power trains.

Of course, the X1 models will all carry the EfficientDynamics to help lower emission rates and to maximize fuel economy. Along with this is the engine’s stop-start mechanism, gearshift indicator, and brake energy regeneration.

The Most Popular Nissan Models for 2008

January 3, 2008 at 12:55 am Filed in:Nissan No Comments

There are some people who just love Nissan cars and they will not go in for any other car. They love the solid build and the sleek finish of these cars and would rather wait for some period for a new Nissan to come out, instead of going in for a different car. This is known as brand loyalty and it is not easy to achieve. There are many other car manufacturers, but few command the brand loyalty of their clients like the Nissan does and this shows in the number of models they have released in the year 2008. While most car manufacturers manage to release 2-4 new models in the course of a year, Nissan has released more than 10 models in the year 2008.

Here is a list of the cars that they have released and all of them are popular models with the car lovers. 2008 Nissan 350Z Coupe, 2008 Nissan 350Z Roadster, 2008 Nissan Altima, 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe, 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid, 2008 Nissan Armada, 2008 Nissan Maxima, 2008 Nissan Pathfinder, 2008 Nissan Quest, 2008 Nissan Rogue, 2008 Nissan Sentra, 2008 Nissan Versa Hatchback, 2008 Nissan Versa Sedan, 2008 Nissan Xterra. It’s not really a surprise these are very popular as they all are very nice cars. Also, these cars seem quite inexpensive to get affordable auto insurance quotes for. Definitely not something we should or could ignore.

There are many people, especially those who do not have idea about Nissans, who might be thinking why the figure 2008 has been put before each car name. They should know that cars of the same name with 2009 before it will be released soon.