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| Volkswagen presents the Caddy ‘Topos Sail’ concept Posted: 28 Aug 2008 08:35 AM CDT  This weekend, in Düsseldorf, Germany, Europe's largest recreational vehicle show will start and, besides the Fiat Portofino, we’ll also see an interesting concept, this time from Volkswagen. The VW Caddy ‘Topos Sail’ Concept uses design cues from classic yachts and has its multi-functional roof covered with wooden decking surrounded by aluminium roof rails accessed via four matching wooden and aluminium steps in the Caddy's tailgate. The Caddy ‘Topos Sail’ design study was created by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles as part of the 20 year anniversary of the California camper. Check out more photos after the jump. Photo Gallery: VW Caddy ‘Topos Sail’ concept
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| Fifth Gear Season 14 Episode 3 Posted: 28 Aug 2008 07:53 AM CDT  It was quite worth the wait for episode 3 of Fifth Gear, what started pretty slow ended with quite a race, but here’s the full review. The show kicked off with a challenge between two station wagons, but no ordinary ones, the VW Passat R36, the fastest accelerating production car from the german manufacturer, put up against the new Audi A4, which was powered by a 3 litre diesel engine. It was quite a race between the petrol-powered VW and the diesel Audi. The end of the race showed the Passat beat the Audi by just two tenths of a second. The segment “It’s new but is it any good” returned this show, testing two diesel hatchbacks, the VW Golf in GT Sport trim and powered by the well known 2 litre TDI was put against the Kia Pro Cee’d also powered by a 2 litre diesel engine. The test was a bit weird in my opinion, Vicky testing the acceleration times from 30 to 70 mph. Needless to say, the Golf won, but the trump card from Kia, the 7 year warranty, can’t be forgotten. The conclusion? If you want performance and have the money for it, the Golf is your car, but if you intend to keep the car for a long time, the Kia is for you. The next part of the show had Jonny going to the Ultimate Street Car Show, Europe’s largest auto festival. He was there for work though, having the tough job of judging the best modified car there. The cars were extremely nice, each being the fruit of the very hard and expensive work of their owners. The winner was an old generation Honda Civic Type R, in which the owner invested almost £90,000. More and more people are obsessed with their fuel average, trying the most annoying methods of achieving the largest mpg. So Fifth Gear called Toyota, to give them their best driver to see if they can get a better fuel average than their own Tiff Needell, so the japanese manufacturer sent their own Formula 1 driver, Jarno Trulli (!). And the test started, Jarno getting an average of 60.1 mpg, while Tiff, trying every trick in the book, like coasting or starting the electric motor, averaged 61.9 mpg with the Prius. One of the most important performance specs for any car is the 0-62 mph or 0-100 km/h time, but most of the times released by a producer aren’t actually real. So the team decided to test three almost average cars, the Mazda MX-5, the Mini Cooper S (fitted with the JCW tuning kit) and the not so average Ariel Atom, the fastest accelerating production car ever. The Mazda really ended up a lot slower than the official time, while the Mini got closest to it’s 6,8 seconds official time, managing a 7,3 time although it had only 600 miles on the dash. The Atom though really put up a fight, although by an average driver it only managed 3,3 seconds, as opposed to the 2,7 released by its manufacturer. Next up, Tom tested the new Honda Accord, more specifically the tehnological aspects and systems found on it. Proof of all those tech gimmicks are the 80 buttons (!) which were found by Tom around the dash. The first system tested was the Lane Keep Assist function, which warns you if you leave your lane by flashing a light an emitting sounds. Next up was the Collision Mitigation Braking system, it works based on a radar, if it detects that you are closing in too fast to a car, it tensions your seat belt, preparing for an impact and then engages the emergency brake. In the end, the Honda is quite a good car, but didn’t manage to arrounse the passion from Tom he expected to. Jonny followed, this week he tried to buy a luxury car for only £1,000. He started with a BMW 735i, which he managed to buy for as low as £735. A proud English brand followed, the Jaguar XJ6, which was quite reliable and ride quality, Jonny managed to get with full MOT and service for the benchmark price of £1,000. The last car, and Jonny’s favourite was the Mercedes S Class, which he managed to buy for £1,000, quite a deal, considering the tehnology packed into the car. One of the most exciting races in this season followed, Tiff being challenged by two times world bike cross champion Jason Crump. Tiff got in succession the Rage Buggy R TT, a Formula 1 stock car completely set up for the gravel surface found on the oval circuit, and the last one, a rally cross spec Citroen Xsara capable of delivering 500 hp. All the attempts were, unfortunately for us car fans, futile, Tiff being beaten every time, although the last race was pretty close. All in all, quite a good show, quite worth the wait and here’s the video of Tiff’s race against the bike.  | ||||
| New pony for the new generation Mustang Posted: 28 Aug 2008 05:59 AM CDT  Ford definitely wants to bring innovation to the 2010 Mustang, after the launch of the new dedicated site, they recently announced that the car will receive a new emblem, that signifies the changes that the new Mustang will introduce. And they sure put the designers to work, having studied a lot of horse pictures to depict the most proud and realistic steed found for their muscle car. “We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance. It's more chiselled and more defined and looks more like a wild horse” said Douglas Gaffka, the chief designer for the 2010 Mustang. And they sure succeeded in their endeavour, it looks more modern and inspires more power, which in the battle of the muscle cars is the best. All that’s left is to wait until November when we will see the official presentation of the new Mustang. Source: CarScoop  | ||||
| Posted: 28 Aug 2008 05:52 AM CDT  Audi has officially announced that they’ll offer a new sports car, based on they’re Audi R8 hit. The ‘racing’ R8 conforms to the production- based GT3 regulations and it will be available from autumn 2009. “The R8 is the first production Audi bearing the name and genes of a successful racing sportscar and is therefore an excellent base from which to build up our first big customer sport program," explains Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. The new R8 will offer more than 500 horsepower and adds things like a rear wing, full roll cage, heat extractors over the engine bay, a longer spoiler. Built on a rear-wheel-drive architecture the Audi R8 GT3 transfers power to the wheels via a new 6-speed sequential sports gearbox with suspension components taken from the regular production R8. First test races are scheduled for the 2009 season with deliveries to start next Autumn. More photos after the jump. Photo Gallery: Audi R8 GT3
Source: TopSpeed  | ||||
| Dodge Viper brand put up for sale by Chrysler Posted: 28 Aug 2008 05:41 AM CDT  Some car brands have a great heritage and people would definitely buy them just for that history and background of the brand. Ford has it through the Mustang, GM through the Chevy Corvette, and Chrysler had it through the Dodge Viper. Had it, because the CEO of the american group, Bob Nardelli, announced that the brand is up for sale. Sure the financial crisis in the US is pretty severe, but selling one of your best brands is quite an extreme measure. He also said that “We have been approached by third parties who are interested in exploring future possibilities for Viper. As the Company evaluates strategic options to maximize core operations and leverage its assets, we have agreed to listen to these parties. We will do so keeping in mind the best interests of those who have shown tremendous support for the vehicle – including employees, suppliers, dealers and a worldwide group of loyal Viper owners and enthusiasts“. Keep in mind, one of the modern icons in the US is going on sale, one that has made history and even had it’s own TV show, not quite a lot of cars can brag about that. If it will be sold, it’s definitely going to have an expensive price, Chrysler offering all the tehnological aspects for the continuing mass production of the car. Source: CarScoop  | ||||
| Toyota Premio smashed by truck in Russia Posted: 27 Aug 2008 09:58 AM CDT  Pictured here we have a Russian KamAZ truck and a Toyota Premio (well…uhm…what once was a Toyota Premio. The crash took place in the Russian city Irkutsk and was caused by the truck driver running a red light. After the truck hit the Premio, it dragged it for about 30 meters (100 ft) until it hit a building. Though almost nothing’s left of the Toyota, the woman driving the car was really lucky and she amazingly survived. More photos after the jump. Photo Gallery: Toyota Premio destroyed by truck in Russia
Source: Cardomain  | ||||
| Posted: 27 Aug 2008 09:44 AM CDT  Though we’re not questioning their use, usually we really hate speed bumps. However, seeing this, makes us really happy, realizing things could be much worse. These speed blocks were built by the authorities in the Chinese ShanXi province and, like the guys over at Carscoop say, those really look like miniature versions of the “Great Wall”: 30 meter (100 ft) long, 2.7 meter (9 ft) and 60 cm (2 ft) tall. Made from cement, these probably do decrease the number of pedestrians getting hit while crossing the street, but we don’t want to think how many drivers missed that and wrecked their cars. Via Carscoop  |
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