Despite interesting touches — and even wind turbines — this building brings more questions than answers
Parking garages enable driving, and driving wastes energy. And the 11-story, 720-space structure has only six stations for electric cars, plus six spaces reserved for hybrid vehicles. via blair kamin [RK]
i think it’s an oddball but interesting design.
The Kia Pop was first shown at the Paris Auto Show in the fall. It is a vision of a small future electric car with pop art inspirations. The style is more product design than car design: it looks like some sort of Karim Rashid electronic appliance. The side windows resemble the lenses of goggles and the letters of the logo pick up on that odd oval form.
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Hybrid can run solely on renewable energy or get over 200 mpg at highway speeds
Urbee is a two-seater hybrid vehicle and the first prototype ever to have entire body and glass panels 3D printed. Urbee is envisioned as an environmentally sustainable, safe to drive and fuel efficient vehicle. The electric / liquid-fuel hybrid reaches more than 200 mpg, highway and 100 mpg, city in U.S. gallons with either gasoline or ethanol.
For combined city and highway use, the Urbee gets about 150 mpg and costs only 2 cents per mile. This is only about 10 percent of the fuel consumed by a typical SUV. And on the highway, it costs about 1 cent per mile, or 95 percent less than that same SUV.
The car is charged overnight from any standard home electrical outlet. Alternately, it can be charged by renewable energy from a windmill or a solar-panel array small enough to fit on top a single-car garage.
All exterior components were created using an additive manufacturing process using Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service – RedEye on Demand. The development partner is Winnipeg engineering group, Kor Ecologic.
Source:
urbee
stratsys
kor ecologic
high on twitter, muscle, design. low on green. via autoblog [RK]
not your grandfather’s jeep.
Back in the days of records, the pre-Jeep Willys CJ3B was king of the trails. Unfortunately, its function didn’t hold up as nicely as its image. Icon Motors produced a more pleasant update.
Icon laser-scanned the surfaces of a few of their old CJ’s, generating a 3-D model of the nearly ancient vehicle. Next, they pressed new panels out of newer steel and coated it with a Teflon-polyurethane powdercoat that we couldn’t scratch even with our greatest efforts.
While it looks like it’s predecessor, a mechanic from the 40s would not recognize the undercarriage. The new, mandrel-bent frame is designed to accommodate independent suspension, instead of the outdated leaf springs. The Chevy,4 cylinder engine hits 205 horsepower and does 23 mpg.
This jeeps 4WD system was adapted from a 2010 model: It’s more advanced and the finding replacement parts is easy.
While the 1950s 3B got up to 50 mph on the highway, this one does 80. It also has 24 inches of wheel travel, to scurry over boulders with 4WD.
Every light in the CJ3B is LED—the dashboard to the headlamps. At 64 inches wide, it is narrow and capable enough to tackle trails that Jeeps aren’t allowed to venture down. Price: $83,000 USD.
producer: icon
material: steel
period: 2010s
to promote its new polo, which is apparently made of 95 percent recyclable materials, volkswagon created these “car recycling bins.”
yet another recycling bin. kudos this fun marketing concept.
Resources:
car recycling bins
volkswagon
good solar power video that few have seen.
[source: solardude1]
Blink, the new Electronic Vehicle (EV) Charger from ECOtality and Frog Design makes GE’s heretofore popular WattStation look like last year’s PC.
Its simple, rounded, white interface was designed to put the Mac-friendly world at ease, and its two-part configuration makes it ideal for use at home. Unlike the familiar gas station pump of a single, standing module, Blink separates the two components of the design into an upper communications-based section and a lower section that houses the charger. It evens tracks your “charging behavior” and notifies you when it’s peak charging time. And instead of a space-wasting, free-standing unit, Blink can be wall-mounted anywhere in your garage. Going EV never looked so good.
designer: frog design
producer: ecotality and wattstation
bugatti veyron again planet’s fastest car.
On July 4, 2010, a black and orange Veyron 16.4 Super Sport hit 267.81 mph. The previous record was 256 mph set by a Shelby SSC Ultimate Aero in 2007. It does 0–96 km/h (60 mph) in 2.46 seconds. While thinking about what to write in this article there were thoughts of selling her short. Not green. Maybe not agile. Well engineered but what about design. She’s a very good looking, very very fast car.
above: the carbon-fiber monocoque is stiffer yet lighter, the suspension has been stiffened and Bugatti says the car is capable of 1.4g of lateral acceleration.
above: the body has been revised, and the engine draws air through a pair of NACA ducts in the roof instead of two big scoops.
The first five production super sports will wear the same black and orange finish as the record car and all production models will be electronically limited to 257.9 mph to protect the tires. Cost: $2.4 million.
Bugatti Press Release:
Land speed world record with the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
The new Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport takes production sports cars to a whole new dimension Wolfsburg/Molsheim, July 4, 2010 – on a beautiful sunny day at 25 degrees the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport achieved a new land speed world record for production cars, on the proving grounds of the Volkswagen Group at Ehra-Lessien (nearby its headquarters at Wolfsburg). In the presence of the German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) and a representative of Guinness Book of Records the Super Sport achieved an average top speed of 431 km/h (267.81 mph.)
Saturday, 2 pm – Bugatti’s Pilote Officiel Pierre Henri Raphanel puts his helmet and gloves on, pulls the safety belts tight whilst the engineers check the car a very last time: tyre pressure, temperature, all systems go. Then the orange black Super Sport crosses the light barrier, from now on the time will be taken, within one hour the car has to drive from South to North and then in the opposite direction. No one but the driver is allowed to touch the car during this time. The tension rises. A few minutes later we can hear from the left side the sound of a starting jumbo jet coming closer towards us. First we perceive the headlights of the Veyron, then we can recognize the shape of the car, a loud wooosh…. and Raphanel dashes in top speed past us. The GPS-tachometer stops at 427, 933 km/h (265.9 mph.) Now the same procedure from the opposite direction. This time the car reaches 434, 211 km/h (269.8 mph.) As average top speed the representatives of the “TÜV”and Guinness generate a value of 431, 072 km/h (268 mph). This even hit Bugatti’s engineering team by surprise.
“We took it that we would reach an average value of 425 km/h,” explains Bugatti’s chief engineer Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, “but the conditions today were perfect and allowed even more.”
The climax of the Veyron series: the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
Had a model been especially popular or highly successful in races, Ettore Bugatti’s customers often pushed the master to tease out of the engine a few horsepower more for their future car. Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. had been in a similar situation when their existing customers asked the company to not only design their second model optically differently but to also create a version with a sportier and more extreme driving experience. The result is a car with a uniquely high performance of 1,200-hp (882 kW) offering experienced drivers a whole new dimension of excitement, with a maximum torque of 1,500 Newton metres and a limited top speed of 415 km/h (to protect the tyres) but, the technique of the Super Sport is identical to the record car. The first five Super Sports to come off the production line will constitute a special series of their own, with the same configuration as the landspeed record car.
The Super Sport is a consequent of the further development of the classic exclusive 1,001-hp Bugatti Veyron 16.4, launched in 2005. This model offers a stunning set of specifications, such as the twin clutch gearbox with seven speeds, the extraordinarily precise driving performance in bends and excellent stability when braking and accelerating.
Continuous work in extreme performance ranges lead to constantly new conclusions, which enabled the engineers at Bugatti to develop the Veyron into a direction in which the driver can reach new dimensions. Every modification is designed to produce an even more powerful car for an agile ride. Four enlarged turbochargers and bigger intercoolers have been used to boost the power of the 16-cylinder engine, and the chassis has been extensively redesigned to maintain safety at extreme speed – thanks to slightly raised main-spring travel, stronger stabilisers, and new shock absorbers with a complex architecture originally developed for racing cars. This gives noticeably more precise control of the wheels and the car as a whole. With lateral acceleration of up to 1.4 G and improved interaction between the tyres and the intelligent all-wheel drive system, the Super Sport offers perfect handling and even more powerful acceleration of 1,500 Newton metres on corner exits.
The body has been fine-tuned to improve aerodynamic efficiency and maintain perfect balance in every situation, while the new fibre structure of the all-carbon monocoque ensures maximum torsion rigidity and passive safety – at reduced weight. The skin is made entirely of carbon-fibre composites, and the new Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is available in 100 per-cent clear- lacquered exposed carbon on request.
Dynamic exterior
Every detail of this car, and not just its use of advanced motorsport technology, harks back to the pioneering spirit of company founder Ettore Bugatti. This brilliant designer came from a family of artists, and his philosophy was always to combine mechanical perfection and exterior beauty. This ethos remains alive and well at the company, and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is wholly unmistakable, with every external modification serving to coax greater performance from the car.
The Super Sport’s flat, elongated silhouette is immediately recognizable. The 16-cylinder engine gets its air from two NACA ducts integrated into the roof, rather than from scoops above the engine. The front air intakes have been expanded and reshaped, with the lower one extending elegantly around the sides to the wheel arch. The revised back looks sportier due to the double diffuser and a centrally arranged exhaust system.
Bugatti has a tradition of making super-sport versions of successful models, usually with racing chassis and supercharged engines. These cars were considered as true racing machines for diehard Bugatti devotees. The most successful were the type 55 and type 57S; only around forty of each were built.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. has sold 260 Veyrons and 35 Grand Sports by now, of which 249 Veyrons and 22 Grand Sports had been delivered. The Super Sport will begin production this autumn at Molsheim along with the Veyron and the Grand Sport. The first five cars – known as the World Record Edition – are in a special black exposed carbon and orange finish and have already been sold.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport will appear for the first time in public in California at the Pebble Beach Concourse weekend in mid-August and will be featured at The Quail, Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca and on the concept lawn of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
note: previous record holder – shelby ssc ultimate aero – 256 mph (411.99 km/h), on September 13, 2007.
Resources:
autoblog
inautonews
wired
bristol might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of luxury cars,
above: the blenheim 3S.
but given the company’s 64-year commitment to craftsmanship and engineering, not to mention its reputation as the world’s only handmade luxury automotive company, it probably ought to be.
Bristol is also the only remaining luxury car company under British control, a fact they’re extremely proud of and don’t hesitate to mention at every possible opportunity. But with cars hand crafted by engineers with backgrounds in aviation, I suppose they’ve earned their fare share of bargain rights.
The fleet of Bristol cars is intentionally small. Their entire lineup consists of six models, each made to order for its particular buyer. This process can take up to four times as long as a factory-made car, but these are “handbuilt cars for individuals,” a very special group indeed who favors the company’s low profile, their aversion to advertising and their single, teeny-tiny show room in London.
They cater to the kind of person who would pay $260,000 for the Blenheim 3S, a pretty ordinary looking car from the outside that can make 0-60 in 5 seconds and if properly maintained, will outlive its driver. Not only will Bristol devotees gladly pay for the privilege of driving one of the 100-125 cars they produce each year, but they’ll wait in an 18-month-long queue to do so.
“By deliberately restricting production to a handful of cars per week we ensure exclusivity and excellence of manufacture. The labor hours to build the Blenheim 3 are three to four times more than those of any other specialist luxury cars. This we happily accept as the cost of perfection.”
above: for those wanting something a bit flashier than the blenheim series there’s always the “fighter”.
above: reaching speeds of up to 200 mph, the fighter takes design cues from airplanes, which is what bristol used to produce before they turned to cars. cost $521,000 usd.
above: of course, if $521,000 just isn’t in your budget there’s the “blenheim speedster”, a retro two-seater that can still do 60 in 5 seconds and figured prominently in last year’s flick, an education.
With standards this exacting, it comes as no surprise that Bristol doesn’t sell their cars to just anybody. Even if you have the money and the patience to sweat it out on the wait list, you must still be approved, a screening process as vague as it is secret. But for all their English exclusivity the car itself is an awe-inspiring piece of machinery, and once you drive it they swear you’ll never want to drive anything else.
Producer: bristol
about perrin drumm
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