If Steve Jobs was still alive, what more could he have done? Already we know that Apple has invaded into our lives in a personal and professional way, some more than others. And Apple has tried to be a mainstay in the living room. Remember Apple TV?
Well, it seems that Steve Job has also dreamed up plans to create, the iCar. This piece of tidbit comes from J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler. He was speaking at one of Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored convention.
He did not speak about what kind of power or transmission, or even the type of car the iCar will be. But he said that Steve Jobs was more concerned about the design of the vehicle. Steve Jobs died before committing a stroke on paper. Too bad.
This is the Volkswagen Golf GTI Black Dynamic. However, it is not the usual boffins at Volkswagen that added parts to the already brilliant Golf GTI.
Nine Volkswagen apprentices from four professions got together for seven months to produce this custom car. The team is made out of four women and five men between the ages from 18 to 23.
With guidance from their trainers, the apprentices planned the entire design, created the respective project plans, selected appropriate parts from the Volkswagen’s catalog, negotiated with suppliers and performed their own work on the car. And since they created it, they got to name it.
The result: 360 PS Golf GTI. The apprentices have tuned the 2.0 litre TSI engine and gearbox management to churn an extra 150 PS over the 210 PS. The engine is mated to a six-speed DSG. The exhaust system has been supersized with a 76 mm diametre pipe.
The car rolls on Barracuda ET 41 8J19 wheels wrapped with 255/35 ZR19 tyres. Stopping power comes from a K-Sport brake system with 380 mm brake discs and eight pistons. Black Dynamic has also been lowered by another 35 mm compared to the production GTI.
Also added by the younglings is a nine-speaker 1,800 watt Focal Utopia Sound stereo system in the boot. It is covered by Plexiglas with black piano finish trim strips. An Alpine sound processer, located under the driver’s seat, manages the sound system.
Another special feature is the GTI lettering in the doors and hatch, which are handmade characters. Seats, steering, door trim and roof are covered in Alcantara.
The Golf GTI Black Dynamic was unveiled to 150,000 Volkswagen and custom car fans at the 31st GTI Festival at Wörthersee in Austria. The Wolfsburg-based company has always used these festivals to unveil special car projects.
Shoehorning big engines into tiny cars is what Volkswagen do best and this time, it looks like they’ve outdone themselves, again. This week, at the Wörthersee festival in Austria, the Wolfsburg-based carmaker has unveiled the Polo WRC Street concept car.
As you can see, the design inspiration for the concept is taken from Volkswagen’s WRC car. It wears new aero parts to make it look close to the racing version. These additions include a redesigned front bumper with larger vents and lip spoiler, a rear diffuser, black wheel arch extensions, a rear wing and bigger alloy wheels.
On the inside, the car comes with new sport seats and an Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel.
Powering the very sizzling Polo will be a 2.0 litre TSI four-cylinder engine that generates 220 PS, 10 PS more than the Golf GTI. And because this is the hottest street version of the Polo, it comes as no surprise when Volkswagen says they have tuned up the chassis. This Polo R WRC Street will have lowered sports suspension.
Do paid advertisements on Facebook work? General Motors says no. The American car company is getting ready to stop advertising on Facebook, just when the social media giant is getting ready to sell shares in an initial public offering.
Last year, GM spent US$10 million on Facebook advertisements, but it is only a fraction of the company’s $1.8 billion US ad spending. The amount only makes up a small share of the social media’s total income of US$3.7 billion, most of which comes from ad revenue.
Wall Street Journal quoted Joel Ewanick, GM’s marketing chief, in saying that the car manufacturer “is definitely reassessing our advertising on Facebook, although content is effective and important.” This means that GM will not be pulling out of Facebook completely.
The Detroit-based carmaker invests about US$30 million on content for the company’s Facebook page. In fact, in the wake of the news, GM has posted on their page saying:
Just wanted to let our millions of Facebook fans know, we’re still here, and we ‘like’ you back! We may not be advertising on Facebook at the moment but we’ll still be talking with you all daily. If anything, we will be providing more content across our many GM Facebook pages – including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac – to keep the dialogue going.
General Motors is not the only one with doubts. Kia is also unclear how Facebook ads can help direct traffic into its dealerships. However, Subaru is sticking to their guns and will continue to advertise on Facebook. “If the return on investment is there, we will spend more next year,” said Dean Evans, chief marketing officer for Subaru of America.
It’s the fastest MINI ever built, and production is to be limited to just 2,000 examples – the new John Cooper Works GP, which made its debut at the MINI United festival earlier in the week, is set to replace the R53 JCW GP as king of the particular hill when it arrives early next year.
The car is currently completing a programme of testing in preparation for series production, part of which has involved setting an 8 minute 23 seconds lap of the Nürburgring, besting the lap time set by its 2006 predecessor by almost 19 seconds.
There’s no mention of output power as yet, but the promise is surely a noticeable jump in power from the 218 hp as seen in the previous outing. Performance kit for this one includes a full-adjustable race suspension and specially developed racing tyres, as well as a race-spec braking system. And yes, the rear seats have again been removed.
Not just to add flair and presence but also offer improvements on the aero front are bespoke bits, and these are large front and rear aprons, striking side skirts, a roof spoiler as well as a newly-developed rear diffuser to optimise airflow around the underbody.
Toyota’s expansion in Indonesia continues with the establishment of a Learning Center in the country, with an aim of systematically transferring vehicle-manufacturing know-how to its Indonesian operations.
Located within Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia’s (TMMIN) Karawang Plant, the 3,700 m2 facility will offer various types of courses and practical training to improve employees’ technical vehicle-manufacturing skills.
Beginning next year, the centre – established at a cost of 23 billion rupiah, and with an annual enrollment capacity of 5,300 – will provide opportunities for suppliers and students in the region to also participate in courses.
Yes, it was definitely a case of monkeying around when the clever folk at Hyundai UK decided to put the new i30 up to a very different type of wear and tear challenge – in the first endurance test of its kind in the UK by a car manufacturer, cheeky safari park baboons were let loose on the hatchback.
Baboons from Knowsley Safari Park on the outskirts of Liverpool were the volunteers, chosen for their well-known love of tearing park visitors’ cars apart – Wayne Rooney will certainly remember them well; his vehicle was subject to their scrutiny when he visited the Merseyside attraction last year.
An i30 was parked in the baboon enclosure, and was immediately besieged by dozens of the park’s primates. The monkeys simulated the punishment a typical family might subject a car to: jumping up and down on seats, pushing and prodding buttons and opening and closing storage bins.
They even checked the durability of cupholders with plastic drinking beakers. Meanwhile, other baboons tested the fabric of seats by eating their lunch in the car, and some played with their toys in the i30’s sizeable boot.
Outside, the paintwork was smeared and scraped, but the hard-wearing paint protected the car from significant scratches and chips.
Ten hours later, playtime was called to an end, and the car – specially-designed for families and their ‘little monkeys’ in the back – emerged virtually unscathed. Seems the extra strong materials used to build the interior, easy wipe plastics and tough fittings held up to the abuse.
“For a baboon, to have a car to play with for a whole day is manna from heaven,” said David Ross, the GM at Knowsley. “I’ve seen thousands of cars pass through this enclosure, get mobbed by monkeys, and none have lasted the distance as well as this Hyundai.”
“These baboons are incredibly inquisitive. If you put them on any car they will scour it for the weak points and find any faults. At one point there were 40 monkeys in the car, pushing it to its limits – that’s ten times the size of the average human family.”
Well, now that the baboon car has come about, I wonder if any other manufacturer will attempt to ape the feat. Maybe use some lions? Elephants? Have a whale of a time?
Chevrolet is set to add a new small sport utility vehicle to its model lineup later this year. Called the Trax, the SUV will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show in September.
The company hasn’t divulged any specific details about the muscular-looking offering, beyond saying that it’ll offer a generous cargo space and feature an interior executed to standards usually found in more expensive vehicles.
The five-seater will be a global offering, and will be sold in more than 140 markets globally, with market debuts set to begin next year. More on the Trax as it gets closer to Paris, undoubtedly.
Mazda recently announced that it had signed an agreement with OJSC Sollers to establish a joint venture manufacturing company in Russia. Sollers is one of the leading automotive companies in Russia. The JV company will locate its production facility in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, and operations will begin in fall this year.
The facility will be used for the assembly of Mazda’s new CX-5 SUV (which you’ll hear more about shortly), the next generation Mazda6 and a Sollers vehicle, all for the Russian market. Production capacity will be 50,000 units per year, with the aim of increasing it to 70,000 units per year.
The automotive market in Russia has made a strong recovery since the financial crisis of 2009. In the 2011 calendar year, demand for new cars increased by about 40% from 2010 to 2.65 million units, making it the second largest market in Europe after Germany. Demand is expected to grow to around three million units in 2015.
In Mazda’s fiscal year 2011 (April 2011 to March 2012), the Hiroshima-based carmaker sold 43,561 units in Russia, a 50.2% increase.
Jazeman Jaafar has finally won his first British F3 International Series race, taking the honours at the Grand Prix de Pau in France, which ran over the weekend. A second place finish on Sunday means he now lies second in the overall British F3 Drivers’ Championship for the 2012 season.
The third round of British F3, which was run on a temporary circuit on the streets of Pau built for the annual Grand Prix de Pau weekend, saw the European F3 Championship joining the party for the two races.
During qualifying on Saturday, the young Malaysian set the best lap time of the British F3 runners to take third on the grid, behind two F3 Euroseries drivers, with Ferrari F1 protégé, Raffaele Marciello, in pole position for both races.
In the first race, Marciello led through to the finish, but it was Jaafar who starred in the British F3 fight for honours. The 19-year-old driver didn’t have the best of starts off the line, but he was soon in the mix.
When second and third-placed drivers Daniel Juncadella and Pascal Wehrlein collided at a hairpin, the Petronas-sponsored driver slid through into second place. A safety car period to recover the stricken cars bunched up the field, and at the restart Jaafar made a bold, spirited attempt on Marciello, but the Italian eventually pulled away and took the chequered flag.
Nonetheless, Jaafar’s outstanding drive was rewarded with the Carlin driver’s first British F3 victory and second-place overall in the race – the second feature race on Sunday, again won by Marciello, saw JJ finish third to secure the spot
“I’m really happy to have beaten the British F3 field and take my first win in the series, as I’ve been waiting a long time for it. My first win, together with listening to the Negaraku, made this very a very special day; it was an amazing feeling. The support from home has never stopped motivating me to be on top,” he said.
Toyota’s expansion in Indonesia continues with the establishment of a Learning Center in the country, with an aim of systematically transferring vehicle-manufacturing know-how to its Indonesian operations.
