Recent Comments:
Intelligent Design: The evolution of the car logo {Autoblog}
Feb 20th 2008 4:25AM Be that as it may, that was not the first logo for VW. The first logo was developed by an Austrian in the 20s/30s, was golden, IIRC and had plenty of oak leaves around the stylised VW. There was a lawsuit recently, where the man (or his descendants) demanded damages from VW for not paying proper compensation for the logo or sth such.
Flight of Fancy: Ferrari takes to the sky {Autoblog}
Nov 20th 2007 4:41AM Piaggio does not really sponsor Ferrari racing cars, it's a bit the other way around, Ferrari helped out Piaggio Aero, which was in dire straits. While the plane is excellent and has been around for decades now, the unconventional layout and pricing matching those of a jet have held customers back. The fact that it's not from a large manufacturer with a global support base is another reason. The great things about it are the triplane layout (canards, wings and horizontal tail), the much larger cabin than you'd get in any of it's competitors, including something approaching standing height in the cabin, and the sheer beauty of the design.
As for fastest turboprop, far off, as already pointed out. The Tu-95, the Tu-126 and the Tu-114 were all masively faster and the Tu-95 is in theory still in low rate prodction - in any case I suppose no more Piaggios are made these days than Tu-95s ;) The Tu-114 was even a civilian airliner. Until the advent of the 747 it was the plane with the largest seating capacity and longest range. JAL leased some off Aeroflot as it was the only aircraft capable of Tokio - Moscow non-stop flights back in the day.
Who'll replace Alonso at McLaren? {Autoblog}
Oct 24th 2007 12:58PM I think Hakkinen is definitely out of the question. While he only left in 2001 or so, meaning he's been out for 6 (not 8) years, he retired amongst other reasons for having a child with down's syndrome, which he wanted to devote more time to. I doubt that would have changed since. And he's likely too old anyway.
Toyota is obviously a big risk for Alonso but then again, he has a lot to gain there, too. Apart from the financial aspect, if he can show them where they are off, they've got all the ressources to get it right. Given the performance leap he did for McLaren, he must be quite an accomplished developer.
Renault is another option. They have not been competitive this year partially due to starting the car's development way too late - due to Alonso's fight extending to the last race of 2006 they developed the 06 car way longer than they should have to have a competitive 07 car. And then Heiki couldn't quite replace Alonso as a developer and Fisichela never had car set-up and development as one of his strong suits.
Interesting is also what happens further down the grid, who drives for Force India, do Honda keep their drivers, where do Schumi and Liuzzi go (if anywhere), does Glock come in, or Nelson jr or anybody else?
Rendered Speculation: Audi A1 taking different direction {Autoblog}
Oct 12th 2007 6:48AM First of all Audi does have a historic, important small car - the Audi 50, which rebadged went on to have a life as a VW Polo (sold in millions).
That aside the rendering is not exactly great. If current Audi driving experiences are to go by, it will not match the Mini for thrills either.
Iosis X-based Ford Kuga to hit Europe in '08 {Autoblog}
Jul 19th 2007 4:51PM There is an added problem - no matter how good the car eventually proves to be, the name is ill chosen. Kuga (with exactly such a spelling)means plague in Southern Slavic languages. Which is not exactly how you want to have your car named. One would think that the big car companies learned their lesson by now but sadly they still produce a gem like that every now and again. Something any Ford dealer could tell them...
Ford not interested in selling Volvo {Autoblog}
Jul 2nd 2007 6:08AM Volvo has hardly been a success story since Ford took over... They have hardly managed to increase their sales over the level achieved 10 years ago, while Audi almost trippled theirs over a similar period of time. The safety image is slowly eroding, too, nothing groundbreakingly new that came from Volvo in that period. And the new design language sure does not project a safety image.
You crazy? UK law proposes psych tests for new drivers {Autoblog}
Jun 18th 2007 8:57AM In some other European countries you need to take the test for a truck driving licence (not a car). It's entirely sensible and would weed out around 70% of all candidates. Overnight you get many of the current problems of congestion, bad drivers etc. solved ;) Drivers with an existing licence would of course need to take it as well. And the driving school should include safe driving courses with collision avoidance, emergency maneuvres, etc. - everything that one can learn much better in a controlled environment.
As for the other things you listed, no idea where you get those from, the UK has probably one of the most abysmal public transport and healthcare systems in Europe...
Panhard revival? Peugeot considers Lexus-like premium brand {Autoblog}
Jun 18th 2007 8:35AM Positioning would be a problem - too high and they would need unique components - i.E. no savings, too close to the existing ones and there really is no point. They would need to produce a RWD or at least a 4wd platform, which they currently lack, and which, unless the 607 and 407 replacements do not go RWD, would probably make no sense economically.
As for Peugeot diesel technology and Land rover, the 2.7 TDV6 engine is a joint venture with Peugeot anyway, with little difference from the one in the 407/607s and the C6.
Reliability is potentially not their strong suit but they are definitely not more abysmal than is acceptable. Given my recent experience with MB, they might be seen as a beacon of reliability - the E320CDI managed the first breakdown at 4000 miles, the second one at 15, the third at around 35 (the times between failures improving with age), had to receive three replacement radios, have the whole braking system replaced, the front suspension replaced, the turbocharger replaced, the whole fuel piping replaced, the rear centre LED brake lights replaced 3 times...
In the Lexus GS450h that replaced it the fuel consumption is marginally worse but at least there was nothing wrong with the car in the first 20k miles.
London Deputy Mayor speaks in NYC about congestion charge policy {Autoblog Green}
May 28th 2007 8:59AM Well, well, if it only worked so well as they claim.
Congestion is down by 8% and quickly returning to pre-congestion charge levels, and the whole venture is not exactly profitable - in fact it is getting less so. But no wonder, at the amounts of money spent on running it... 161 million pounds just to set it up (including over 60 million pounds in consulting, which seems to be recurring), it is vastly overhyped. While I support the concept in principle, it only works, if there is a sensible public transport alternative - which does not exist in London. Even at the current low fraction of people commuting using public transport the system is bursting at its seams. Getting more of the 70%+ car commuters onto public transport would simply overburden it completely.
Enter the (drivetrain) rumormill: V6, AWD Corolla on the horizon? {Autoblog}
May 24th 2007 12:35PM There used to be an AWD version of the Corolla in Europe as well.
As for the Auris likely to have a diesel in Europe, it does, even one with 180hp. That one also gets a multilink rear suspension instead of a torsion beam one, making it much nicer to drive.
