Archive for Automotive Videos

Best Motoring pitches the 2 liter VTEC superstar Honda S2000 against two other Hondas with similiar displacements. Going up against it is a Honda Accord Euro R with a 2.2 liter H22A engine, and a Honda Civic EK9 powered by a hybrid engine which combines a B20 2.0 liter block from a Honda Stepwagon with a B16 VTEC head from a Civic Type R to create a 2.0 liter VTEC hybrid. So now we have three powerful Honda engines (the S2000’s F20C, the EK9’s B20 hybrid and the Accord’s H22A) in 3 different Honda cars. The exciting race is after the jump!

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Peter Bee, a Smart car enthusiast wanted somemore power out of his little Smart ForTwo. The original Mitsubishi engine in the Smart ForTwo made about 60hp, and through some tweaking he managed to get this up to 100hp. But it wasn’t enough for him.

He approached Z Cars, a kit car company specialising in putting motorcycle engines into cars. Z Cars had put Yamaha R1 engines into Mini Coopers. They seemed like the right people for the job. He also approached Phil Seton of Seton Racing, who provided a personally tweaked Suzuki GSXR1000 engine (stuff like Yoshimura exhausts, etc) which made a maximum of 180hp, screaming all the way up to 13,500rpm. The engine was mounted at the rear of the car. The result was called the Smartuki, a mash of the names Smart and Suzuki of course.

The Smartuki goes from 0-100km/h in 4.2 seconds, does the 400 meter dash in 12.4 seconds and tops out at 213km/h. There are two videos of this monster after the jump. The pocket rocket sounds like an F1 car on the track… enjoy!

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Volkswagen’s Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) is the world’s first dual-clutch automated manual gearbox in a production car. This provides the driver the ease-of-drive of a car equipped with an automatic transmission, but the efficiency and flexibility of a manual transmission.

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This is Volkswagen’s advertisement for the Volkswagen Polo in the UK produced by DDB London. It was created based on the slogan for the Volkswagen Polo - “Built to Protect”. Lots of guardian angels. Video after the jump!

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Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a race car driver? This video will allow you to have a glimpse of what it’s like in the cockpit of a racecar during a race. This is a BMW STW race car driven by Rolf Van Os in the Dutch Supercar Series. It was built by BMW Motorsports and it’s normally aspirated engine puts out 280 horsepower.

You might be wondering what the high pitch whining noise is. According to the driver of the car (correspondence via e-mail) Rolf Van Os, that is the sound of the straight cut “dog box” gearbox spinning. Normal gears are curved so they do not make alot of noise. There is also some noise from the differential that is mounted without rubbers.

BTW, It’s pretty neat that Rolf’s surname Van Os sound so similiar to BMW’s Vanos. Thanks to Geert Pick for the pointer to the video. The video is about 7 minutes long.

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I bet you didn’t know the Renault Formula 1 car’s engine has a fuel consumption of 70 liters per 100km. I don’t think this is the latest V8 engine, as the video’s dated back to 2004. Nevertheless I think it’s a good watch. Check out the colour of the exhaust manifold.

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Fifth Gear, a British automotive show reviews the 2006 Honda Civic hatchback. The European Honda Civic only comes in hatchback form, and also has a 2.2 liter i-CTDi turbodiesel version in the model range. So far most reviews have said the 2.2 i-CTDi manual Honda Civic is the best choice from the line-up. Looks like the European market really really likes diesel, and Honda’s new powerplant is a winner. Video is after the jump.

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This advertisement for the game Sega Rally shows you an over the top look on just how wide-spread the ‘drift’ phenomenon is. The only way to go is sideways!

Video is after the jump.

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These wheels bring bling bling to a whole new level. Pimp Star wheels allow you to define a graphic image to display on your spinning wheels while your vehicle is moving. With the package comes software which allow you to change the image anytime you want, and even define a few images to show in slideshow mode. Ridiculous, I don’t even want to image how much these wheels cost. This is even more over the top than LCD screen headlights. But there’s market demand in the US, like the rich rapper stereotypes who drive Hummers.

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This is crazy. Monster Garage takes a 1951 Volkswagen Beetle Ragtop and dumps in a crazy engine into it, lowers it and preps it for drag racing. The engine is a 2276cc block with 82mm wedgemated DPR crank, 94mm Cima pistons/cylinders, 5.5-inch CB rods, 8.5:1 compression ratio, Engle FK-87 camshaft, Street Eliminators 44×38 heads (ported and polished by Shawn Moore), 1.4:1 Scat rocker arms, 1-3/4-inch header by Shawn Moore, Kennedy 1700 lbs. pressure plate, and a Black Magic clutch disk. Pretty soon a 850cfm Demon carburettor and a Garrett GT35R turbo will be added on to this extreme package. Want to see how it goes? Video after the jump.

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