Autoblog

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Here's a little something we've been cooking up for a while. We've seen your cries for more video reviews, and it's on our minds, too. We've been trying to bring you more video in a lot of ways lately; Chris Shunk recently walked us through the new Grand Caravan, and Damon and Sam shot some video when they went to visit Tesla to drive the Roadster. You can visit our YouTube Channel to see just how many videos we've been producing lately.

We decided to try our hand at producing an In the Autoblog Garage new car review on video, and you'll find our results after the jump. Let us know what you think of our first video review, which stars the 2007 Scion xB, as we hope to make it a regular feature. Also check out Sam Abuelsamid's review of the 2007 Scion xB in written form.

When you get right down to it, music is all about assembling the right vibrations at the right time. Thus, it should come as no surprise that roads can be designed to sing you a song. In Japan, there's a stretch called Melody Road, which has a series of grooves cut into it with spacing varied to produce different tones as car tires roll over them at speed. The quarter notes painted on the road surface are a visual indicator to unsuspecting motorists that their car is not going to puke its driveshafts out, it's just the pavement having a little fun.

Here in the US, we've only got the wakeup strips in front of tollbooths and those warning divots cut into the shoulder to let you know when you're about to drift into the median. We wonder if designers of the singing roads start with simple riffs, like "Smoke On The Water," before moving on to more complex pieces. The first guy who manages to get a Bach Fugue down in asphalt will have our undying admiration. Do old roads get old songs? If that's the case, they'll be teaching the youngsters Sukiaki.

Video embedded after the jump.

Thanks for the tip, Ben!

click image above to enlarge

The good boffins at Winding Road have come up with a metric called Speed per Dollar (SpD). Its aim is to put straight-line vehicle performance into an easy-to-understand financial perspective. In light of the monetary component, the best and worst SpD ratings among the sample cars tested aren't entirely surprising: Ariel Atom at the top, Bugatti Veyron at the bottom. Supercars -- and their super prices -- would of course fare poorly. However the Mazdaspeed 3, with "just" 263 hp, climbs up the charts to score second place. As Winding Road admits, the chart doesn't take handling (or luxury or Making the Jones' Jealous) into account. But Autobloggers (and Winding Roaders, we're sure) are hugely interested in price-for-performance, and this is a novel new way to compare speedsters. Let the calculations, comparisons, and commentary begin.

[Source: Winding Road]

Having lived in Detroit for a period of time, I can attest to the damage that potholes can inflict on a car's suspension. One particularly bad crator nearly threw me and my little Mazda Protege off a stretch of I-75 just south of the city one time. Still, despite the crumbling roads of Michigan caused by overweight semis running back and forth, I've never encountered a pot hole like the one that recently formed in Nanchang in the Jiangxi Province of China. The giant hole apparently opened up on its own this week, taking 72 square meters of road surface with it. It's depth is seven meters, which would easily swallow a Protege bearing myself as cargo and a half dozen other cars, as well. Thankfully, no injuries were reported, but if the Jiangxi Department of Transportation is anything like MDOT, we expect a road crew, some orange barrels and one serious order of asphalt to be on the scene by June.

[Source: Sina via Carscoop]

Coming up on nearly twenty years old now, some would be mistaken to consider the legendary Ferrari F40 a bit of a dino – not because it was part of the series named after Enzo's dear departed son, rather because, as far as supercars go, the F40 seems is a bit of a relic, dating back to an age before modern developments like electronic stability control and paddle-shifted transmissions roamed the earth. And yet the F40 can still thoroughly devour almost anything and everything on the road today. What better way, then, to take in the brutal monstrosity of the dinosaur that is the Ferrari F40 than spooling up its turbos on a dyno. Better not let it loose....

This video, which has been floating around the internet, was shot after an F40 was fitted with a custom Tubi exhaust. Check it out after the jump.

[Source: Motor Authority]

click above image for desktop-sized pics of the 2007 Mercury Montego

Alas, Montego, we hardly knew ye. Of course, the large sedan from Mercury is not going away, but being relaunched as the Sable with a new schnoz, larger engine, and some interior upgrades. The Montego name will once again drift off into obscurity like its Torino-based forebear. While the Sable picks up where the Montego left off, it would be foolish to think the Montego is a dud. The 2007 Montego Premier AWD is a big car, with some dimensions exceeding the Grand Marquis. With a bump here and a nip there, the Montego would make the best Marquis ever. As it is, the Volvo-donated architecture underneath the Montego makes it a very modern driving sedan that belies the comfort-sized dimensions.

Here's something we wish every highway planner was required to use any time they had a bright idea (like those darned roundabouts they're so fond of calling "rotarys" here in Massachusetts!). This neat little Java-powered (much like us AutoBloggers!) website allows you to adjust and model traffic flows on a variety of road conditions. The Dresden University Institute for Economics and Traffic has made quite a study of traffic dynamics, and this website is just part of a larger study of where those pointless standstills for nothing come from. The microsimulation of traffic flow appears to treat traffic as a "fluid" and working the variables allows you to see how you could use traffic density to control speed limits, passing and light cycling.

It'd be great if more attention could be paid to maximizing the efficiency of the infrastructure we've already got. Sure, we need a new infrastructure to go along with the massive volume in some areas, but some thought and calculations would go a long way in smoothing out the flow on existing roads. There's lots of information and different simulations at your fingertips here. We don't pretend to understand all of it, but it looks like just a little bit of this deeper thinking would go a long way to alleviating the pressure on our backsides every morning. Very cool little toy, bring your slide rule!

Thanks for the tip, mfridman!

We're saddened to report the untimely passing of former F1 driver Gianclaudio "Clay" Regazzoni. Clay was killed yesterday when he collided with a truck in the northern Italian city of Parma, where he was reportedly driving at high speed and failed to stop in time as he met an unexpected traffic jam.

Born in the Italian sector of Switzerland only days after the end of World War II, Clay Regazzoni rose through the ranks all the way to Formula One, where he raced alongside such greats as Niki Lauda and Jacky Ickx at such teams as Ferrari and Williams. Clay's record includes five grand prix victories, and he was known as a particularly reckless driver.

In 1980 Regazzoni was paralyzed from the waist down when the brakes on his Ensign F1 car failed during the grand prix at Long Beach, resulting in a terrible crash that sent his car flying into a concrete barrier at the end of the straightaway. In subsequent years, Clay fought an often uphill battle for certification to compete in racing cars modified with hand controls, and found success racing in off-road rallies as well as in endurance sportscar racing.

Clay was only 67 upon his death. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]