Wheel-s-pun

With the concept of Hybrid Cars beginning to materialise more and more day-by-day , all the major automobile companies are putting their best effort in to roll out Hybrid Cars which a common man can easily afford. But question marks still remain about its sales in the modern day market as the "car crazzzzzy" crowd desires power under the hood which hybrid cars do not deliver...

But the Chinese as always are ready come out with something innovative and have rolled out their first Plug-in Hybrid car. The infrastructure for running electric cars is not quite in place in China, but BYD Auto's plug-in has a lot to offer.
While U.S. automakers struggle to survive after the Senate rejected a bailout for Detroit, one company from China may be showing a way forward for the industry. On Dec. 15, BYD auto a jump on General Motors (GM), Toyota (TM), and Nissan (NSANY) by introducing in its home town of Shenzhen the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, the F3 DM. BYD's new car, with a $22,000 price tag, can run for up to 60 miles on a battery charged from an ordinary electricity outlet.

Early this year there was plenty of skepticism in auto circles about BYD's ability to put together a car that would ever become truly roadworthy. The company unveiled its plug-in hybrid the Detroit Auto Show in January, and few outsiders figured the Chinese upstart, which had only been in the auto business since 2003, had the know-how to produce a commercially viable plug-in.

One person who seems to believe in the car's viability is Warren Buffett. In September, Des Moines-based Mid American Energy, which is controlled by Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), paid $231 million for a 9.9% stake in BYD Auto's parent company BYD with a view to helping BYD distribute its cars in the U.S. 2011.

Alfa Romeo is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1910. Alfa Romeo has been a part of the Fiat Group since 1986. The company was originally known as A.L.F.A., which is an acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (translated: Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company).

It might make you proud to be British to hear that Alfa Romeo has sought to redress the general dynamic shoddiness of the Brera for the UK market.

Meaning, we'd like to think, that we're such a discerning and focused bunch of car buyers.

Hmm... The fact that it's still not all that great might also imply that we're a bunch of mugs.

After all, a car as heavy and ponderous as this was never going to be all that 'sporty'. Far better, you could argue, to let it be a soft, comfy, pretty GT.

The Brera S does feel sharper and roll around less, but my suspicion is that the reduction in day-to-day comfort is significant enough to put people off buying a car that is, when all's said and done, always going to be more about show than go.

The Brera S was a year in development at Prodrive. It has bespoke springs and new dampers. Its spring rate is up 50 percent and the 3.2 V6 JTS is dramatically lighter because Prodrive dispensed with the leaden four-wheel drive.

It's got lighter (and very pretty) alloy wheels to reduce the unsprung weight, the steering is better and the exhaust note improved.

And it only costs £1,500 more than the standard car. But for all that effort, is it really a superior car? Was it really worth the effort and expense for Alfa?

Especially when only 500 of us will get to find out.

What is traction?
Traction refers to the friction between a drive member and the surface it moves upon, where the friction is used to provide motion.

For the purposes of driving a wheeled vehicle, high friction is generally desired, as it provides a more positive connection between the driving and driven members. In contrast, motion in a geared mechanism is provided by interference, and friction is usually detrimental because the gear mechanism has intrinsic sliding, and sliding under friction causes heating losses.

In the case of a wheeled vehicle, when the motor and/or transmission turns the axles, a reaction torque on the axles is created by the traction of each wheel on the ground. Without traction, there would be no torque (other than that required to overcome the friction and inertia of the transmission and wheels themselves), and hence no movement of the vehicle.

Traction between two surfaces usually depends on several factors including

• Material properties of each surface.
• Macroscopic and microscopic shape or "roughness".
• Force of contact.
• Area of contact.
• Contaminants at the material boundary including lubricants and adhesives.

A traction control system (TCS), on current production vehicles, are typically (but not necessarily) electro-hydraulic systems to prevent loss of traction (and therefore the control of the vehicle) when excessive throttle or steering is applied by the driver. Although similar to electronic stability control systems, traction control systems do not have the same goal.

The intervention can consist of any, or all, of the following:

• Retard or suppress the spark to one or more cylinders
• Reduce fuel supply to one or more cylinders
• Brake one or more wheels
• Close the throttle, if the vehicle is fitted with drive by wire throttle.
• In turbo-charged vehicles, the boost control solenoid can be actuated to reduce boost and therefore engine power.

Typically, the traction control system shares the brake actuator and the wheel speed sensors with the anti-locking braking system.

Traction control helps limit tyre slip in acceleration on slippery surfaces. In the past, drivers had to feather the gas pedal to prevent the drive wheels from spinning wildly on slippery pavement. Many of today's vehicles employ electronic controls to limit power delivery for the driver, eliminating wheel slip and helping the driver accelerate under control.

Early Traction Control

Powerful rear-drive cars from the sixties often had a primitive form of traction control called a limited slip rear differential. Sometimes referred to as Positraction, a limited-slip rear axle will mechanically transfer power to the rear wheel with the most traction, helping to reduce, but not eliminate wheel spin. While limited-slip rear axles are still in use in many front- and rear-drive vehicles today, the device can't completely eliminate wheel slip. Hence, a more sophisticated system was needed.

Enter electronic traction control. In modern vehicles, traction-control systems utilize the same wheel-speed sensors employed by the antilock braking system. These sensors measure differences in rotational speed to determine if the wheels that are receiving power have lost traction. When the traction-control system determines that one wheel is spinning more quickly than the others, it automatically "pumps" the brake to that wheel to reduce its speed and lessen wheel slip. In most cases, individual wheel braking is enough to control wheel slip. However, some traction-control systems also reduce engine power to the slipping wheels. On a few of these vehicles, drivers may sense pulsations of the gas pedal when the system is reducing engine power much like a brake pedal pulsates when the antilock braking system is working.

Many people mistakenly believe that traction control will prevent their vehicle from getting stuck in the snow. This couldn't be further from the truth. Traction control does not have the ability to increase traction; it just attempts to prevent a vehicle's wheels from spinning. For drivers who routinely drive in snowy and icy conditions, traction control, antilock brakes, and snow tires are must-have safety features.

The Air Car caused a huge stir when it was heard that TATA Motors would start producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.

Zero Pollution Motors(ZPM) confirmed that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

Itz believed that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed.

“I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,” ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.”

Those figures would make the Air Car, along with Aptera Typ-1 & Tesla Roadster, a favorite among early entrants for Automotive X prize, for which MDI and ZPM have already signed up. But with the family-size, four-door CityCAT undergoing standard safety tests in Europe, then side-impact tests once it arrives in the States, could it be the first 100-mpg, nonelectric car you can actually buy?

Fiat introduced the latest interpretation of its iconic 500 minicar (say "Cinquecento") yesterday to customers in Italy, exactly 50 years to the day after the first one was released to the buying public. Sales in the rest of Europe will follow, but for the time being, Italy gets to experience the modernized car that helped put the entire nation on wheels designed specifically for congested Italian cities.

While the original 500 featured a diminutive 13 horsepower 479cc two-cylinder motor mounted in the rear, the '08 model features a choice of three four-cylinder engines mounted under the front hood and putting power to the front wheels. Engine choices include 1.2 and 1.4 liter four-cylinder gas engines rated between 68 and 99 horsepower and a 1.3 liter, 74 horsepower diesel. While these power outputs certainly seem low, the little 500 could fit between the wheels of Ford F-250 SuperDuty SuperCrew.

The 500 is more about style than performance and it is being launched with a large line of personalization options never dreamed about in the old car. A wide range of interior colors and wheel options will be available, as well as a Mini Cooper-esque accessory catalog.

Comparisons to the Mini are inevitable since the Fiat is, for all practical reasons, the same size. The 500's wheelbase is 7" shorter and the overall length is about 2" shorter. And the 500 is expected to mimic the Mini by offering a convertible later in its model run.

The four-seat 500's accessory catalog will include a wide variety of wheels and tires, as well as some retro touches, like chrome bumper overriders,

The 500 does feature a unique Microsoft-developed Bluetooth-based in-car entertainment system. The Blue&Me system, which combines Bluetooth hands-free mobile phone use, voice recognition, a USB port, an MP3 player and an SMS text message interpreter, can be augmented by the Blue&Me Nav system, which also includes navigation system that can be programmed before departure via a USB memory stick. The 500 is available with a portable navigation device that integrates directly into the car's audio system and can play music from the USB memory stick.

U.S. sales are unlikely to be in the picture any time soon, according to Fiat boss Sergio Macchione. The Fiat Group is most focused on strengthening its high-end Maserati sales in order to facilitate easy entry for Alfa Romeo in '09. It doesn't look like the Fiat brand is anywhere in the parent company's U.S. portfolio any time soon. Still, the 500 is expected to eventually go on sale in Mexico later this year.

Fiat says that 30,000 orders have already been placed for the 500. Production is scheduled for between 50 and 70,000 cars. Fiat is hoping that the retro nostalgia style of the car will be a hit in Italy - and it seems to be. In Italy, the cars are priced from 10,500 euros.

Kimi and Felipe have a new toy: the Ferrari F2008.

Codenamed 659, this is the car Ferrari hopes will bring them a second consecutive driver's title.

The F2008 has been designed around the new F1 rules that introduce a standardised ECU and ban traction control. This means some seriously advanced aero to make up for the loss of TC and even some tweaks to the car's fundamentals - such as wheelbase and suspension.

However, the F2008 we'll see at the first race in Melbourne is unlikely to look like the F2008 shown here.

'All aerodynamic surfaces have been completely revised. However, the current version will be replaced by a completely different configuration in time for the first race,' says Ferrari.

Other changes include a new gearbox (designed to meet new regulations stating that the unit must be used for four consecutive events), higher side protection around the driver's helmet and a shrink-wrapped monocoque that has been cut away under the driver's legs.

It'll be tight in there - good job Kimi and Felipe are about the same size as hobbits.

Lewis Hamilton got a nice birthday present on 7th Jan - the new McLaren MP4-23.

The MP4-23 is the second 2008-spec F1 car to be launched after Ferrari showed off their new F2008.

Visually, the new McLaren is virtually identical to last year's car, but the team admits that it will look different by the first race in Melbourne.

It features a new gearbox, tighter packaging and a new nose. Most interesting is the longer wheelbase, something that Ferrari made work with last year's F2007.

McLaren have released some tasty pub-ammo about the new car. For starters, they began work on the MP4-23 in November 2006. The car has spent 3,000 hours in a wind tunnel, and chassis 1 was effectively built over the Christmas period.

Some 150 engineers have been involved in the project, and 14,000 man-hours have been put into the development.

Despite this, the car was only finished on 6th Jan and was put on a truck from the McLaren factory in Woking at 6pm to reach the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart 7th morning for the official launch.

Lewis will get his first taste of the '08 McLaren alongside new team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on Thursday January 10.