The Aston Martin V12 Zagato was last displayed last March during the motor show in Geneva. We were not able to come up close to it though so we make it up to you with this post.
Underneath the Diavolo Red finish, installed within the moncoque aluminum alloy plartform, is the very powerful heart of the V12 Vantage. The V12 Zagato is a rear wheel drive speed monster which depends on a V12 with 6.0L displacement that is capable of giving out 510 horsepower and a torque of 420 pound-feet. The powerplant is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. The V12 Zagato is slightly lighter than its sibling V12 Vantage and blasts from 0 to 60 mph in just 4 seconds with top speed at 90 mph.
The V12 Zagato will make any autophile drool if not shed tears of happiness. The body panels are a work of art and hand crafted from aluminum and carbon fiber. The quarter panels in front are shaped well to end in subtle indent just near the buckets of the headlamps. The hood, made of carbon fiber, is also designed to allow the heat go out from the tight compartment of the engine.
Looking at the tail end, the panels hugged the tail lamps laboriously and finished with carbon fiber element. The rims are made from forged aluminum with the brake package feature multiple piston calipers. The wheels are hugged by Pirelly tires.
The interior is dominated by high end leathers with different natural textures put together by hand stitching. The smell inside is also luxurious. The headrests are marked with Z embroidery to distinguish it from the rest of the lineup of Aston martin. The center console is and the dash are finished with carbon fiber and accents in piano black.
The Aston Martin V12 Zagato though will be in a limited run. The carmaker will only assemble 150 copies of this amazing ride. If you want one, be ready to spend $434,000 plus some more to cover the tax.
A new Porsche Boxster is set to take the place of its older sibling and will make its world debut during the auto show in Geneva this March. Porsche is well known for rolling out extra ordinary versions of their regular line up but for now it is too early to tell if the German carmaker will release something more than the Boxster S and the Boxster.
Audi is also giving the R8 a mild workup and a minor facelift soon with the most important thing having to do s a with the gearbox as the fast ride dumps the single clutch gearbox for a better twin-clutch setup.
EVO magazine recently had a chance to compare the Boxster Spyder r and the V8 R8 Spyder of Audi both released in 2009. These two classy, sporty rides have some similarities, both are made by German car marques, both are open-top, and they have a mid-engine setup.
You might say that the Boxster on a rear wheel drive configuration might not be at par with the competition since its flat six only outputs 320 horsepower while the Audi is on an all wheel drive setup with an engine that gives out 430 horses. The Porsche Boxster though is the lightest among its brood weighing only 2,811 lbs which is about 1,014 lighter than the Audi R8 Spyder.
So which of the Audi R8 or Posrche Boxster is faster. Watch and see:
Rick Ross is a “rapper”, famous for being “close” to other “hip hop artists” like Cool & Dre, DJ Khaled, Birdman (formerly known as “Baby”) etc — and I guess he’s made a couple million, bought himself an Aston Martin in a failed attempt to buy himself some class, and then decided to write a “song” about it…
Mercedes-Benz does not want to be left behind y Volkswagen as the German carmaker pushes forward with its projects focusing on autonomous vehicle technologies. Mercedes is moving forward with the development of its systems on automated driving to come up with better mechanisms for driver assistance in their future production vehicles.
Engineers from Mercedes-Benz explains that their future systems will allow the technology to deal with more complex road conditions and further decrease the danger of accidents for drivers. The company has developed more efficient test systems that allow them to meet the demands for safety and high quality of safety systems.
Mercedes-Benz will be able to automate very risky maneuvers and subject their vehicles to the extreme limits without having to put in danger the lives of human test drivers. The safety systems are very precise that the engineers have more control of the situation during experiments.
If you’re a fan of the German car manufacturer BMW, then you already know that the man who creates the 5-series GT and the 7 series, Chris Bangle, left the business. In his wake, Adrian van Hooydonk took his place to create the new BMW 5 series. And now, the company just recently introduced the Gran Coupe concept.
The breaking news: BMW’s new designer won’t be upsetting too much of the car manufacturer’s stable styling details. According to an interview during the recent Beijing Auto Show, van Hooydonk will be consolidating the previous designs of BMW. The designer said that this is actually a good thing because it can solidify the true image of BMW.
Reviewers also noted that the new 5-series and Gran Coupe concepts used the concave and convex more subtly than the previous designs which were developed by BMW when Bangle was still heading the division. BMW’s new designer said that being more subtle was necessary to create a “more harmonious” output.
For the longest time, when we say EPAS or electric power steering, we immediately think about small- to medium-sized cars. We never assume that this system can be installed on a pick-up truck. That’s because although EPAS have been replacing older hydraulic systems to reduce the parasitic losses and body weight of most cars, they have never been installed on pick-up trucks.
According to a report on PickUpTrucks.com, though, efforts have been made to engineer electric steering systems for large, full-sized trucks. The company making the initiative is Nexteer Automotive. This company spun off from Delphi and General Motors. Nexteer is looking forward to a vast EPAS adoption because surely, Detroit car manufacturers would want to meet the slated fuel economy standards of 2016.
The 2016 standards require light weight trucks to cover a total of 28.8 liters per gallon of fuel. This can be pretty hard to beat with a heavy hydraulic system. Switching trucks to an EPAS can contribute to at least a 4% increase in fuel economy. Nexteer Automotive also reported that what made this whole project viable was the migration of most trucks from their older steering systems which used recirculating balls, to rack-and-pinion systems which produced lower friction.
We have had the ethanol blended gasoline for quite some time now and typically this mix is an E10 or gasoline with about 10% of ethanol. Industry experts though foresee that the E15 can be the next thing as the United States takes on the blend wall so we can be expecting some changes soon.
If you are wondering what the “blend wall” is, it simply means that we have maxed out the demand for the 10% blend and the production is on the brim. This brings us to the picture that only two things can happen. One, the gas demand will further go up or two, the blend rate will.
According to reports, the production of ethanol in the last four months has created an oversupply and therefore the prices of ethanol is on a drop.
BMW is looking to a very exciting future as they go high technology for their future offerings like Vision EfficientDynamics and the 1-Series ActiveE. This week, BMW reveals that they are brewing an EV under a project called MegaCity Vehicle.
The MegaCity might exhaust all means to keep the weight of the car down. Carbon fiber and carbon fabrics will dominate the panels of the car but this doesn’t mean that the rigidity of the vehicle will be sacrificed.
It might not be too appealing for those looking at the car manufacturer as producer of the ultimate driving machine. Purists may worry when Infiniti looks into developing an electric car but the Megacity is geared towards achieving the need for speed and sustainability.
Jaguar Land Rover under the helm of the new top executive, Carl-Peter Foster, will be trimming down their range of platforms from six to just two. This also includes a platform that will both used by the XJ and the Range Rover.
Using the same structure utilized for an XJ saloon and using it to assemble a Range Rover seem to involve some mad science, but it is not really that too difficult for the exports who just need to do some modifications here and there.
The Range Rover version of the platform will definitely have a higher front bulkhead and some modifications will be done to the rear portion which needs to accommodate the folding seats. The basic crash structure in front and the floor will have the same configuration.
The strut towers on front portion of the XJ are cast as a single piece and linked to the chassis legs. The higher ride and wheel clearance of the Range Rover will only require taller towers.
The global market is taking shape as consumers are looking for more fuel efficient cars and rides which have greener performance. Car manufacturers including Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) are listening and are on the drawing boards to take a major step in developing new vehicles.
Holden is planning to use smaller engines for their new models and develop new technologies that can make use of alternative fuels like diesel and LPG or liquefied petroleum gas.
An Australian newspaper reported that HSV is working on a highly efficient LPG system which can perform like an engine running on petrol. This can be a big leap since the price of LPG around the globe is half as cheap as petrol. The potential of its implementation is very good especially if it will be borrowed by General Motors to use outside Australia.
The new LPG technology is dubbed LPi or liquid propane injection which will make use of 8 extra injectors with the inlet manifold proximate to the inlet ports of the V8 engine. In English, there will be a pump in the LPG tank that will drive the fuel still in its liquid state to the engine.
The system keeps the LPG in its liquid form so the mixture of air and fuel can be computed more accurately. This ratio is key to the fuel efficiency and power of the engine.
LPG is a very good alternative fuel since the CO2 emissions will be lesser plus it has higher octane than petrol. On the downside, the mileage of LPG is a bit worse compared to the petrol because of its lower energy value. The infrastructure for refilling stations must also be able to keep pace with the development of the technology.
The Aston Martin V12 Zagato was last displayed last March during the motor show in Geneva. We were not able to come up close to it though so we make it up to you with this post.
