Cabin crew take off position !

Paris Motor Show 2010 became an important event for brands like Jaguar. Especially being top news on Financial Times for their unknown future, Paris Motor Show is a great opportunity to show that Jaguar is back to business again.

Actually the way they are back is also very interesting, because they revealed a concept vehicle which is producing 780 horse powers with four electric engines and enough amount torque to change the world’s orbit. Like many of you I guessed this car has a shorter range than a remote control car. 780 horse powers from electric engines is something really unusual, you have to tow a power plant all the time. But Jaguar’s engineers found a solution that is weird also! Turbine power for producing electricity. C-X75 only offers around 75 km with batteries and that’s really reasonable. But the minimalist turbines are capable of burning anything! Diesel, LPG, petrol, natural gas, ethanol and anything which can be burnable. And reaching top speed of 350 kph! To reach 100 kph it only needs 3,4 seconds and that’s really quick for a car which runs with everything.

I am pretty sure that many people would like to have this car. It runs with everything, you are not limited with any type of fuel, you can put what is available. Actually which is cheaper! And you have chance to rev up to 80 000 rpm but they are turbines, you will be making noise similar to an Airbus.

I did not like the car that much, especially the design. May be we got use to see supercars from Ferrari and Lamborghini and when a new model comes up we always judge with those measures.

And this is the first time for a car to have propulsion system and gas turbines !

 

Technical Specifications

Propulsion System & Transmission

Electric motor Four 145kW (195bhp) traction motors (580kW/780bhp total)

Generator Two switched reluctance generators

Range Extender power 2 x 70kW (94bhp) gas micro-turbines (140kW/188bhp total)

Batteries Lithium-ion

Total Battery Capacity (kWh) 19.6

Transmission Single-speed

Final Drive Ratio 3.1:1

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Jaguar

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New family living space VW Passat

As Paris Motor Show 2010 is getting sooner, we start to see new models. VW released the new Passat’s pictures. Honestly I have never liked Passat, it is always have the boring family car feeling. It had too much family for a car. Thanks to its previous designs, Passat became a part of fertility. When you have more kids, you shift to Passat.

Hopefully this time VW designed much better looking car. Like previous model, it has some design bits from Audi, especially A8 but this time it looks really nice. Actually I don’t see any reason to buy Audi A4 with small engines, just buy Passat they are the same thing! Also Passat will feature crash prevention system until 20 kph, system breaks the car to stationary. Speeds above 20 kph, you will hit to the car in front, so money is makes the difference. Pay more and let car stop by itself without any speed limitation. The other interesting fact is the sleep presentation system. Don’t worry there is no cold water spray for your face to wake up, like in Mercedes it will be beeping to wake you up.

Petrol engines starts from 1,4lt 120 horsepower and diesel starts from 1,6lt 105 horsepower. I think we should wait a bit to see better engines. However VW Passat worth a chance to replace your Ford Mondeo.

 

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VW

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WorldCarFans.com please revise your taskbar!

Our great information source WorldCarFans.com destoryed their website by adding a taskbar. Especially with Internet Explorer 8, it is nearly impossible to navigate through pages. The taskbar stalls the Internet Explorer makes it impossible to read. I hope that they will revise this new widget as soon as possible.

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Audi RS5's new advertisement

I have never been a fan of Audi except the pre-war models. I always feel the VW in an Audi and it never created the same feeling which I always feel with Mercedes or BMW. For me Audi is a better built, luxury VW. Unfortunately this is based on the cost minimization and sharing parts. As mentioned in BBC TopGear magazine, Audi A1 share parts with VW Polo, Polo shares parts with Seat Ibiza, Ibiza shares parts with Skoda Fabia. Basically Audi A1 shares parts with Skoda Fabia. This kind of complicated relationship cannot be observed in Mercedes or BMW.

However Audi did something very original and lack of VWness! RS5 advertisement. I can clearly say that Audi RS5 has one of the very good advertisements which give the messages directly. Perfection in details, superb performance! Will I ever buy it? Nope!

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Audi

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Again a new Porsche 911

I have been complaining about the Porsche 911’s wide ride of variation. And they made it worse! Now Porsche offers twenty different 911s. You might a classic or S or four wheel S or plain four wheel or Turbo or Turbo S or GT3 or GT2 RS or GT3 RS or cabrio or GTS and this goes forever. Recently they revealed the 911 GTS with 408 horsepower and now they revealed 911 Speedster with 408 horsepower again but texturing of classic design bits. However they are not that fast like 911 GT2 RS with 620 horsepower! But they are better than plain 911s; and we can assume that if you are buying a 911 Carrera you will be one of the most boring rich person! Because, you did not buy the more exciting models. May be you don’t want to be exciting, you only wish to drive a 911 without any unnecessary features.

I really get bored of writing about 911s pointless product line extension. I really wonder when they will notice this is not going anymore! In Porsche everything is based on perfect engineering but Porsche let engineers to involve with marketing department and offers vehicles even the dealers have no idea what really the differences are! And I found the reasonable person, August Achleitner. I think I won’t be writing about 911’s complicate structure :)

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Porsche

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John Griffiths should be in Financial Times

I have just recently heard shocking news from AutomotivePR’s twitter. Financial Times great automotive journalist John Griffiths will not be in Financial Times anymore. I cannot believe why FT decided this kind of interesting decision. FT is a finance newspaper and reviews on new cars may not be familiar with the content but FT is not that entertaining for everyone. I have been reading more than five or six years and I learned many valuable knowledge through their respectful journalist. However my main concern to read FT is to know about automotive world and read Griffiths reviews. Beside FT, I read BBC TopGear and CAR Magazine but it is nice to hear from a different perspective about cars. By the way Griffiths was very kind to answer emails, I can imagine his workload and finding time to replying email is a big effort.

I hope that FT will not turn into hard core finance newspaper and lots many readers. I subscribed to FT for automotive news not for hedge funds or stock exchange details.

By the way, sorry for the Audi Q5 I was in hurry to find his articles :)

 

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Sex Sells with MiTo Diesel

Travelling with plane in economic class is one of the unpleasant ways of transportation. It is just offering enough space for people who do not exist, you cannot sleep, you cannot feel comfortable. Also you have to arrange your luggage limit to 23 kilos and you have to drive to airport which is in the middle of nowhere and land to an airport which is in the middle somewhere. Basically if you are not travelling with first class, this is the usual way for travelling long distances.

However today I discovered another way ;) I drove Alfa Romeo MiTo diesel. That’s a diesel powered Alfa Romeo, but it is not like ordinary diesels. As I mentioned before, it is offering 320 newton metres of torque which is enough to tow moon from 1,6 litre engine. And it produces 120 horsepower. But the torque turns the travel into first class pleasure.

MiTo is a small car to compete with snob Mini. I don’t like Mini because all snobs are driving it, therefore I always ignored. And also it is too much German for a British! But the MiTo is totally something else. With this enormously powered diesel engine you ignore all the annoying details.

I really don’t like manual gearbox. I know many people are saying “I can control the car with manual, automatic is blab la”. Sorry I have never ever agree with you, the best automatic for me especially double clutch ones. But MiTo diesel does not offer automatic with diesel. Does it annoy me? Of course no! It is the best manual car to buy and to drive! And this lunatic diesel revs up to 5000 rpm. I cannot realize how it reaches to 5000 rpm so quickly. First gear 5000 rpm, second gear 5000 rpm and I couldn't realize how it happened some quickly. This engine is lunatic :)

After my journey with MiTo, I found the alternative way to travel long distance. Diesel MiTo! With MiTo, you don’t have to worry about ticket prices, luggage limitations, you can eat whatever you wish to eat, you can choose whom to seat next to you and it will be enjoying. If I had a MiTo diesel, I would definitely travel to Birmingham with it.

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The best detergent to clean your soul: Ariel Atom V8

For many people Ariel means one thing, detergent! You buy it from market and put it inside your washing machine, there is no passion no excitement. Basically you don’t create emotional relationship with a detergent.

But you will fall in love with these Ariel! Ariel is a British lunatic car manufacturer. Why lunatic? That’s the only road legal car which is very similar to Formula 1 car. It does not have a roof, not a boot, no electric adjusted seat, no parking sensors. It has one engine and four wheels with lunatic acceleration capability. The “normal” one with 300 horse power can reach to 100 kph in less than 3 seconds. That is the Veyron territory with the price of a chewing gum!

Engineers in Ariel thought that 300 horsepower is not enough for a car which does not have a roof and they decided to put more horses into engine. Now it has more than 500 horsepower with same car. It will be a limited edition to prevent sudden increase on widows.

However it still offers less than three seconds reach 100 kph but I am pretty sure, that acceleration will be the most unbelievable acceleration for a machine with four wheels. If I have chance to drive a Veyron or an Ariel Atom V8, I would definitely try the Ariel.

It is nearly impossible to spot one on street, the only opportunity to feel the Formula 1 car behaviour, it has everything which you could except from a car. But be aware small insects or fly can enter to your mouth while driving :)

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Ariel

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Flash News!!! Range Rover Evoque Interior

What we were waiting for is here :) The interior of Range Rover Evoque. Honestly I never thought that, Evoque's interior will be exquisite like this. Evoque has the best interior in Land Rover product range. Believe it looks much much much better than the Range Rover Sport!!!!

Evoque is minimized version of proper Range Rover :) You can understand this from the pictures below. If you are planning to buy Mini Countryman or BMW X1, you should wait until Evoque is introduced on market ;) Or just buy one of them and sell it when Evoque will be available :) Because Evoque worth that :)

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Land Rover

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Lacoste Car: Citroën

I always respected integration of fashion and automotive brands but it does not happen that often. Actually the brand which supposed to be engaged with automotive brands does not involve. As I remember Mercedes and Armani had a special edition CLK, Ferre with Mini and Prada with Hyundai Genesis. Yes, that’s right Prada and Hyundai worked together. I really don’t know whether these cars sold to customers or they were just PR campaign.

Now Citroën introduced a concept car with Lacoste. For me Lacoste is the most boring fashion brand! They are selling the same polo t-shirt for last two thousand years. I am pretty sure that if you dig enough in Pyramids, you can find someone with Lacoste polo t-shirt. Also the long sleeve polo sweat shirt offers the same dullness with senseless prices. Lacoste is the definition for over priced products. They are selling their perfectly boring t-shirts for very exciting prices! If they were producing cars, they would be selling VW Golf for 50 000 € !!

There is no price and product relation! It is just a Lacoste. And probably Citroën Lacoste will be priced with a lot of zeros and it will be the same car for next four decades and offering ridiculously too much colours options. Citroën says it is offering minimalist Lacoste styling (I have never heard something like this before) with golf ball style and plenty of performance from engine and lastly inflatable roof.

I have never heard something more pointless and ridiculous than this :) If I summarize; golf ball inspired car with plastic roof and nobody knows how many horses are inside the engine. And tyres looks like really ridiculous. Sorry Citroën, my review is not that good! I hope it will be a concept forever :)

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Citroën, Lacoste

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Limits of art: Ford Kuga

Last week I received an email about Ford Kuga’s artistic event. Kuga is the new mid-size SUV from Ford. It is based on Ford Focus chassis but looks much better than a Focus. Actually after Mondeo, it is the best looking Ford on market, I am including American Ford also. Kuga’s design is beyond Ford’s limit. If it was badged with BMW, it will be the most selling SUV on market.

Unfortunately I did not have chance to drive it. Actually I was not invited to this event, I just received an email. I hope that I can attend to next event. And have chance to try it, but I want to try its limit on off road. It is the new generation artificial four wheel drive cars, they are just designed to park comfortably over the pavement. That’s main reason why many people are buying them :) Therefore nobody is expecting these vehicles to cross Amazon forest. But I still want to see its capabilities.

The interesting fact with Kuga is the transmission. Ford woke up and realized that automotive world has changed and started to offer double clutch automatic gearbox (PowerShift). But in a Ford way! VW also offers the same technology with DSG brand. Basically they are the same but no! I don’t know why but Ford added a torque convertor to PowerShift gearbox. Torque converter is mechanical part between in traditional automatic gearbox and the engine. It is transferring power from engine to gearbox. But in double clutch technology, there are two clutches for this job and Ford added something extra.

I don’t think that engineers in Ford got crazy and added extra weight to gearbox. It should be either patent limitation or comfort reasons. Anyway, I cannot say it is good or bad until I drove one.

The Ford Kuga’s artistic event was amazing also. Ian Cook known as Popbang Colour, painted a Ford Kuga picture with tyres and remote control cars. I think there are no ways a picture can be more related with cars! This is the limit engagement of art with cars. By the way, controlling a remote control car is much more harder than driving a real car, keep in mind ;)

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Ford

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