Category: Automotive
The Obama administration proposed on Monday two alternatives to the window stickers in new vehicles, including one that would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. Read more.
We used to wonder how many licks it would take to get to the center of Tootsie-Pop. Today, we know how much heat it would take to get to the center of a Ferrari 458. “A warm day, a warm road, and a very hot car,” as told by Ferrari spokespersons. We also know how many disasters it would take to get Ferrari off their duff and do something about the 11 Ferrari 458 Italia’s that have either crashed or burned up in the past few months.
Over $300 million dollars worth of 458 Italia’s are scheduled to go in for recall servicing to remove glue on the heat shield, located on the rear wheel-arches. In total, that’s around 1250 Ferrari’s worth about $256,000 a piece. Ferrari claims the glue is the primary cause of at least five of the fires that have been reported.
What happens, is the combination of a warm day, warm road, and hot car melts this glue, causing the wheel-arch to droop low enough to come into contact with the exhaust pipe. Once that happens, you might as well grab some shrimp and sirloin, because the wheel-arch will be the first to ignite into flames, followed by the entire outer aluminum shell.
The fix involves removing the glue on heat shield, replacing it with metal rivets. All this will be free of charge to the customer (of course), and for those who are stuck with a smoldering pile in their driveway, if they can prove the fire was caused by fault of the wheel-arch, they will be treated to a brand new 458 Italia.
I guess all’s well that ends well!
(Story via MailOnline, Photo via AutoGeSpot)
We don’t usually expect news out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to wake us up a bit. But this…
This has promise.
General Motors has filed a trademark application for the word “Stingray,” used as the name of a car. We know the Corvette’s 60th anniversary is coming up soon. We know the current, seventh-generation ‘Vette, brilliant as it is, has been with us a little too long.
Could the eighth generation be a revival of the classic split-window Stingray?
Cross your fingers. Jalopnik is reporting that Corvette PR rep Dave Caldwell is denying any intent to build a new Stingray. But GM apparently wants to reserve the right. That can’t be a bad thing. (Oh, and don’t get too excited by the photo. That’s a concept from a few years back. Still, we can dream…)
This is, perhaps, the most pointless car ever designed. It is a car from one of the most respected sports car manufacturers in the world…that might do zero-to-sixty in four tries, if you gave it a push and a little bit of a downhill course. It’s a car from one of the world’s most respected engine builders….with a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine.
It is an Aston Martin…built by Toyota.
Whatever. We’re apparently getting it here.
The Aston Martin Cygnet, designed as a runabout for Aston owners who don’t want to take their Vantage to 7-11 for a case of beer, is coming to the United States. That’s the word from the respected industry rag Automotive News.
The Cygnet is built off the tiny Toyota iQ platform, a competitor for the Smart Fortwo overseas. It seats two, makes 100 horsepower under ideal conditions, and yes, has an interior hand-constructed from the finest materials by Aston Martin designers. It also wears that aggressive Aston grille…on it’s tiny, punched-pug face.
No word yet on pricing. Which means there’s still time for them to come to their senses about this.
It has been said that we know only 5 percent of what we will know by the year 2050, and that includes the many ways we could be transporting humans and goods. Let’s look at some of the popular predictions of how transportation may change over the next 30 years. (More after the jump)
