Archive for the 'Future Cars' Category
Green car fans can glimpse the next generation of Lexus’ hybrid 4x4s next month at the Paris Motor Show. The Lexus LF-Xh hybrid isn’t a new concept car and it’s been ‘hanging’ in a Milan art gallery, but this is its first European motor show debut.
The car has a V6 engine and promises “excellent fuel efficiency”, athough mpg and CO2 figures are still under wraps. That’s about it for details, so in the meantime, cast your eyes over the pics below.
Lexus sells a range of hybrids today — a limo and a 4×4 – which fall in the efficient luxury car class rather than the truly low emissions camp.
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The first-generation Ka was never a big seller despite Ford’s best attempts to promote it, even snaring Kylie Minogue at one point to help sell the tiny hatch. Its awkward styling and budget connotations didn’t serve well, and with fuel prices at its launch back in 1999 less than half the price they are today many buyers wouldn’t have looked twice at Ford’s odd econo car. The newest version hopes to capitalise on the changing times as well as spice up its own image with its new design.
The next Ka will fix a lot of what was wrong with the old model, especially in the appearance and quality departments. Underpinning the new model is the same front-wheel-drive platform from the recently launched Fiat 500 minicar. In fact, the Ka will be built alongside the 500 in Fiat’s Tychy plant in Poland.
Ford designers have given the new Ka a fashionable, modern appearance based around the company’s ‘kinetic design’ form language. A number of visual cues provide a connection to the original Ka, but most of its lines resemble those of the recently revealed Fiesta hatch.
A dramatic, modern appearance with vivid interior colours
While both the Ka and the 500 will share the same engines, brakes, steering and assembly lines, the two will have very little else in common. The powertrain lineup is expected to include both 1.4 and 1.6-litre petrol powerplants and a 1.6-litre TDCi turbodiesel engine as well.
Unlike the Fiat’s rounded retro proportions, the Ka’s basic profile is more wedge-like, with a raised rear roof line. The rising belt line develops the angular profile further, though the downward-sweeping roofline adds some softness. At the rear the high lift gate and relatively small rear window give a tall appearance to the otherwise very small car.
Inside, the Ka’s styling is decidedly more subtly styled than the 500’s retro look, with neon colours accenting a background of black plastic and rubber trim across the dashboard, steering wheel and instrument panel.
The reason behind the more downmarket interior and exteriors is the retail price. Fiat’s 500 is marketed as a premium small car and can command the kind of prices that Ford simply can’t get with the Ka.
New Ka almost certain for Australia
Given the current climate of high-fuel prices and congested city driving, the second-generation Ka will be an important addition to Ford’s local lineup. A Ford spokesman confirmed the car would arrive once the European version is launched, however no dates were given.
The original Ka didn’t make it to Australian shores until three years after it first went on sale in Europe, and given that the new model isn’t due until next year it may be several years until it arrives here. The new model will make its official world debut at the Paris Motor Show in October and is expected to go on sale in Europe early next year.
For those that can’t wait, the car will be playing a key role in the upcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. The movie will be released ahead of the car’s production debut, offering interested buyers a preview of what’s to come.
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In the history automotive designs have been created some very strange, however, by more strange that they were always had one thing in common-they were propelled by the application of motors to the wheels that supports him. Más no esta máquina, no obstante. More not this machine, however. Se propulsan a lo largo por un tractor de configuración. We propel over by a tractor configuration.
A plane built with a tractor configuration is one in which has been mounted engine with the propeller forward so that the aircraft is “pulled” through the air, as opposed to the pusher configuration in facing propeller backwards and the plane is “pushed” through the air.
The propeller was invented, developed and manufactured by Frenchman Marcel Leyat, 1913 y 1926. 1913 and 1926. Se dice que se construyeron un total de 30, aunque se desconoce si se incluyen algunos prototipos. It is said that were built a total of 30, although it is unknown whether includes some prototypes. Varios fueron construidos para la venta de los cuales sobreviven dos. Several were built for sale two of whom survive.
Designed in 1913 tricycles and two seats engine seems to be a V-Twin. It is difficult to believe that this was bequeath and walk down the street.
This is another model from 1914 called “The Helicocycle”
Helica es propiedad de Jean Francois Bouzanquet de Paris, el cual fue comprado nuevo por su abuelo en 1922, y lo ha sido en la familia desde entonces.
The engine is a British two-cylinder 1203cc to ABC, driving a diámerto of 4.5 feet; wooden propeller the maximum speed is 60 mph, more or less, good for the era.
Finally, one man will be able to rock a “My Other Car is A Landspeeder” bumper sticker and mean it. Daniel Deutsch spent six weeks building a replica of Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder featured in Star Wars: A New Hope, and it looks so good he could have fooled us saying he just bought the movie prop. All the damage and dents are where they should be, the paint job is perfect and, it really drives. Sure, it doesn’t hover like it does in the movie, but, when that technology finally rolls out, we’re betting we’ll be writing about Deutsch’s updated Landspeeder.
Deutsch wrote Neatorama detailing the construction process:
“The speeder was a collaborative effort. The body mold and windshield were
produced in California, and then shipped here to Orlando. We then did the
bodywork, chassis, and electronics. The side grills were waterjet cut from PVC,
then spaced and stacked… It has lighting effects in the engine pods that
change with the sound during acceleration… The entire speeder was built in six
weeks, and was first revealed in Los Angeles at the Star Wars Celebration IV
event (30th anniv.) in May 2007.”
