Here’s another cheeky advertisement from Audi, which incorporates 4 other brands in it - Mercedes Benz, Volvo, BMW and Alfa Romeo. Thanks to tango5 in the previous ad post comments.

Click here to read the rest of Cheeky Audi Advertisement

DynoJet manufactures motorcycle dynamometers, or dynos as they’re more commonly known as around these parts. There are a few types of dynos, but the kind that measures power at the wheels are called chassis dynos. Chassis dynos measure horsepower and torque produced when a vehicle’s wheels spin its dyno rollers.

DynoJet organised the first Dynojet Horsepower Challenge for motorcycles in March this year. Sometime late last year I was contemplating for a short while the purchase of a used Kawasaki ZZR1100 which made 150 horsepower. That never happened. The ZZR1100/ZX11 held the title of fastest production bike for nearly a decade. The idea of 150 horses on something that light was pretty much bordering madness for me, but wait till you hear what the winner of the dyno competition was making. A mind-blowing 701.32 horsepower. Yup, the winning bike, a Suzuki Hayabusa was runing on methanol and had a custom NRL turbocharger bolted on to it’s 1.3 liter engine which made 160 horsepower in stock form at 10,000rpm.

The owner of the winning Hayabusa also clinched the second place spot with his other Hayabusa which made 606 horsepower at the wheel. From the scoreboard, you can tell that turbocharging a Hayabusa is likely the most popular and effective way to create mega horsepower on a bike. Two other turbocharged Hayabusas made 559.02hp and 445.16hp each.

Anyway, I’ve put a little video after the jump. It’s a recording of a turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa. Not the same 700 horsepower monster, but an entertaining watch nevertheless.

Click here to read the rest of 700 horsepower Hayabusa tips scales in Dynojet Horsepower Challenge

Following the footsteps of Yamaha with their 2-Trac two wheel drive system for motorcycles, Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM has developed it’s own version and has been testing it on a motocross bike.

KTM says the results are good, allowing the bike to accelerate much harder out of corners due to less slippage. However, it’s harder to take the inside line around a turn due to both wheels being powered, which causes the bike to run wide and straighten up. Kurt Nicholl of KTM says the system would benefit amateur riders more than professionals because pros have gotten used to riding with the back wheel slipping most of the time.

KTM’s two wheel drive system uses a mechanical/hydraulic system to distribute torque between the front and rear wheels. How exactly does it work? There is a small hydraulic motor inside the front hub, powered by hydraulic fluid pumped through the two tubes running down the fork leg. You can see the tubes in the image in this post. The motor drives the front wheels.

One of the major problems with this system is weight, it adds 6 kg to the bike, and half of that is directly on the front hub. KTM says reducing the system’s weight to 2 kg will revolutionize bikes the way Audi’s quattro revolutionised car drivetrains.

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Related Posts:
Audi and KTM working on lightweight baby TT

These are new scans from Japanese magazines depicting how the new next generation Toyota Corolla sedan (JDM) will look like. It looks pretty much similiar to the previous scans by New Model Magazine X which I posted in mid-July, but these images have much more detail than the plain ones I posted before. It’s not as futuristic as the current Honda Civic, but it does look sportier than the current Toyota Corolla Altis. More details and photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of More next-gen Toyota Corolla previews

Volkswagen has always had the most amazing ad campaigns. As part of its American “Rabbit is back” campaign, Volkswagen has teamed up with Playboy for a Playboy September 2006 issue sporting a rear cover that features the Volkswagen Rabbit logo on one of the three Playboy Bunnies.

The chosen Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison will have the Volkswagen Rabbit logo as a tattoo on her lower back. The rear cover will show a rear angle shot of the three girls in the equally alluring front cover pose. As you can see from the tiny thumbnail on the left, everything is flipped reverse. The actual rear cover as a bigger image is available here.

VISUALIS commissioned goldsmith and artist Bernd Hoeger to create this special Porsche Boxster. What makes it special is it’s completely coated with gold. VISUALIS will be making nine other gold-gilded Porsches, making the gold collection a total of ten.

These 9 gold-gilded Porsches will be picked by interested buyers. Basically you pick a Porsche model like the 911 or even the Cayenne, they dip it into gold (an understatement of the complications of the process, really) and sell it to you. Porsche warranty is not affected by this process. Anyone interested?

It all started when BMW decided to congratulate Audi when their Audi A3 won the South African Car of the Year 2006 back in May this year. As you can see from the ad image above, very cheeky. This makes Ford’s “thanks to our competitors for making us the best” advertisements here in Malaysia alot more tame. Audi decides to respond, have a look at their reply advertisement after the jump. Can anyone say “pwned?”

Click here to read the rest of BMW and Audi ad tussle

German marque Audi and Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM are working on a yet to be named Lotus Elise fighter, similiar to Volkswagen’s EcoRacer concept. The photoshopped artist’s impression above is based on the Pontiac Solstice.

Rumours are that a 2.0 liter turbo FSI from the Volkswagen/Audi stables will be powering the sub-750kg lightweight car. The light weight would likely mean a carbon fibre chassis, and that together with the 2.0 TFSI’s 200 horses and above of power will give the Audi KTM roadster a 0-100km/h sprint of less than six seconds, while maintaining good fuel economy.

Despite the 2.0 liter TFSI engine rumours, I personally think Volkswagen’s 1.4 liter twincharged engine is also suitable for this car, especially if it focuses on lightweight and fuel economy. A 1.4 liter engine would definitely be lighter than a 2.0 liter, allowing for easier engineering of weight balance. The current 170hp is more than sufficient for a sub-750kg car, and if that is not enough, 200hp versions of the 1.4 are on the way.

Apple Computer has teamed up with Ford Motor Co, General Motors and Mazda Motor Corp to offer easy iPod integration with their cars. While some manufacturers have begun offering AUX input so you can plug in external MP3 players and feed music into the audio system, this is not a complete solution as you cannot control the iPod from car controls such as buttons on the steering wheel.

Optimally, a complete integration solution will allow you to browse tracks from an LCD screen and skip tracks from steering wheel buttons. Recently, our local boys Race Rally Research have jumped onto the iPod bandwagon by offering an iPod Nano 1GB integrated with the car audio system with their new limited edition Proton Waja MME and Proton GEN.2 MME.

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Subaru will be changing the all too familiar sedan shape of it’s rally-inspired Subaru Impreza car to a hatchback form when it’s next incarnation is introduced in 2008. We’ve kind of known this was going to happen when Subaru showed us the Subaru B5-TPH Concept at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show.

Shown above is an artist’s impression from Road & Track on how the Impreza hatch could possibly look like. This move is in line with Subaru’s plan to position the new Impreza hatch against hot hatches like the Golf GTI, Golf R32/R36 and the Ford Focus. A preview of the final production vehicle will be shown next year at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. The car will come in both 3-door and 5-door models.

Engine options are expected to be a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter four-pot boxer producing 170 horsepower for the baseline model, and the WRX versions will have a turbocharged version under the hood. STi versions will have a higher performance turbocharged four-pot boxer producing over 300 horsepower.

There will also be four-pot boxer turbodiesel options, developed together with Toyota. Of course, the car will retain it’s trademark AWD drivetrain.