As winter is about to start in half of the world, knowing how to handle your car on snow is essential. Especially if you want to drive the same car next spring. And this is one of the reasons why many car makers are offering intense winter driving courses.
In Canada for example Porsche will bring back its famous "Winter Experience." A fleet of over 20 Porsche Caymans and 911 Carrera models, including the all-new "991" generation 911 Carrera S, will descend on the Mont-Tremblant region in late January 2012. Named "Porsche Camp4 Canada" this new snow driving course will have its home on the Mecaglisse snow- and ice-driving facility. Test Porsche performance and your own driving skill against everything a Canadian winter can muster.
The course will be held between January 31 and February 11, 2012. Enjoy it!
If you have never heard about Zoleco before reading this news, don’t worry, you are not the only one. We haven’t either, at least not before we received an email from them in our inbox. Zoleco is a new start up company which is creating the Zoleco sports car. The company, and the car, is a combination of the founder’s name (Zoltan Bod) and the cars main theme which is to be friendly to the environment... eco.
The new Zoleco "is combining the scientific approach with practicality and common sense in creating a means of personal transportation that addresses energy conservation through research and implementation of a variety of energy efficiency technologies."
Zoleco will be built using light weight chromoly tubing in a full perimeter space frame configuration including a full roll cage embracing the body structure. The car’s base engine is a 3 cylinder turbo charged gasoline engine mated to a 5 speed manual transmission.
Initial details suggest that with only 8.2 HP the car can maintain a top speed of 65mph and deliver an impressive 91.4 mpg. With 80 HP the car can hit a top speed of 145 mph, but Zoleco is also talking about a top speed of 200 mph.
The new car will be making its television debut on the Discovery Channels on Oct 17 at 8:00 PM, Pacific time.
The Canadian police have added a new vehicle to their fleet starting 2011. The new Dodge Charger Enforcer features performance suspension tuning, heavy-duty anti-lock vented-disc brakes (ABS), front- and rear-stabilizer bars, 18-inch performance tires on steel wheels, and two-mode police-specific Electronic Stability Control (ESC) calibration, allowing the police to be ahead of the game when chasing the bad guys.
For the interior, the Charger Enforcer adds a Police Interface Module for easy equipment integration, police-duty front seats, column-mounted automatic transmission with Auto Stick, red/white LED interior lighting for night-vision equipment and more. The police officers will be protected by standard advanced multistage driver and front-passenger air bags, seat-mounted side-thorax air bags, supplemental side-curtain air bags for front and rear outboard passengers, driver’s knee bag, tire-pressure monitoring and more.
Under the hood, there is a standard E-85 capable 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine, or if that’s not enough, the good guys in blue can opt for a 5.7-litre HEMI V8 engine with fuel-saving Multi-displacement System (MDS).
While Americans are making their way along the Detroit Auto Show floor, Canadians are also taking part of a show of their own: the Montreal International Auto Show. It was here that Mercedes decided to appropriately displayed the C63 AMG Affalterbach Edition, a special edition specially created for the Canadian market. There will be only 30 units built of this model, each priced at $81,500 (or around $82,360 USD).
This special edition not only features unique styling cues, but it also has an impressive list of special equipment that have never before been offered on a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. It comes painted in MAGNO Allanite Grey and will be distinguished by high-performance AMG brakes with red calipers, 19" AMG multi-spoke alloy wheels in black, carbon-fiber mirror housings, and a rear lip spoiler.
The Mercedes C63 AMG Affalterbach Edition will be offered with the AMG Premium Package that adds an extra 30 HP and removes the speed limiter. Looks pretty cool, but we’re just having trouble pronouncing its name!
Hit the jump to read more about the 2011 Mercedes C63 AMG Affalterbach Edition.
Back in September, a Canadian resident saw his $235,000 Ferrari F430 Scuderia confiscated after it was caught doing 124mph in a 37mph zone. Apparently, the owner of the Ferrari was racing a $75,000 BMW M6 that was also confiscated during the whole speeding ordeal. The two morons almost hit a mother walking with her children, so we don’t blame the Canadian police for taking away the two vehicles and giving the idiotic drivers 15-day driving bans.
"Our laws now work to take vehicles away from reckless drivers before they hurt someone, because they are demonstrating no regard for the safety of themselves or others on our roads," said one of the policemen. "This is probably the first time it’s been used at this level. We decided to use this particular new [forfeiture] section on this particular case, and I’m glad we did."
But there’s always a silver lining to every dark cloud. In this case, that silver lining comes in the form of an auction that saw the Ferrari F430 Scuderia being sold for $306,000 - quite a boost from its $235K price tag. The money will be divided between the vehicle’s owner and the government in an 80/20 split which is surprisingly fair considering the danger the driver put pedestrians in. Basically, the driver of the Ferrari walked out of there with more money than he paid for the car originally. We’re figuring, after the subtraction of the $235K, the owner saw a profit of about $10K. Depending on the fines given to him for his ignorant spectacle, he could actually make money on this deal.
The BMW M6 will be auctioned sometime next week. You never know, this guy may be able to turn a profit as well.
Despite its well-documented history – recent as it may be – of reliability issues, the Ferrari 458 Italia is still considered one of Ferrari’s crown jewels. It’s no surprise that the Prancing Horse has given the 458 Italia its own racing iteration - the 458 Challenge - which is going to participate in the 2011 Ferrari Challenge series.
Recently, Ferrari North America unveiled the official schedule of the racing series, taking it a number of renowned race tracks across North America, including two in Canada with one at Montreal where it is expected to once again support the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix and the other at Toronto where it will be held for the first time as a support race for Izod IndyCar Series.
The 2011 schedule will take place in the following locations in the corresponding dates: April 28th-May 1st at the Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California; May 20th-22nd at the Laguna Seca, Monterey, California; June 10-12 at Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a support race for the Canadian Grand Prix; July 8th-10th at Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a support race for the IndyCar Series; July 29th-30th at Lime Rock Park, Lime Rock, Connecticut; Sept 23rd-25th at Homestead Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida.
Despite it being a short calendar series, the 2011 Ferrari Challenge Series is shaping up to be a can’t-miss event among auto racing aficionados who are interested to know how the 458 Challenge is going to handle the competition from its equally high-powered Ferrari brethren.
There are some accidents that are just completely unavoidable. With these types of accidents, you have no other option but to chalk it up to being at the wrong place, at the wrong time. This, unfortunately, isn’t one of them. A Porsche dealership in Laval, Quebec was servicing a Lamborghini Gallardo when a mechanic, after doing the necessary alignments on the car, decided to take it out for a spin despite of the less-than-ideal weather conditions.
While doing some test runs on the car, the mechanic lost control of it and ended up crashing it into a traffic light pole with the force of the crash causing the post to fall straight into the Gallardo.
It got a lot stranger when the Porsche dealership, who technically didn’t get permission from the driver to test run the car in the wet conditions, refused to pay any sort of compensation for the damages done to the car. We’re smelling a lawsuit here.
Whatever the case may be, this incident is a tough way to crash a Lamborghini Gallardo, and we’ve seen plenty of them in our time.
A Fiat 500 “Numero Uno” was auctioned off for a stout $85,000 at the 17th annual Venetian ball in Toronto, Canada, making it the first 500 to be sold in the Great White North.
Fiat’s highly anticipated return to Canada wasn’t anymore evident than the overwhelming buzz the 500 hatchback generated during the event. Bidders quickly jumped at the opportunity to own the first 500 hatch in Canada enthusiastically making bids in an attempt to go home with the car. While the identity of the winning bidder wasn’t made known, the mere fact that the winning bid reached $85,000 – proceeds from the sale will go to Villa Charities, an organization that provides "culturally sensitive care" for the elderly Italian-Canadian population - is a testament that the Fiat 500 is going to go really well in Canada.
Ed Broadbear, Chrysler Canada’s vice president of marketing was impressed with how the 500 was received by his fellow Canadians. "The enthusiastic bidding for this iconic vehicle, and the fact that it sold for $85,000, underscore the excitement and interest the Fiat 500 has generated since Fiat’s return to Canada was first announced," he said.
Scion is an interesting story to say the least. The youth-oriented brand was supposed to attack the younger generation, but that didn’t work out too well. Now older customers are moving in and they are buying up cars like the xB and the xD in mass numbers. Now, Canadian elders can have the same privilege. Eh?
The first markets to receive these vehicles will be Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Scion dealerships will spring up in these cities, 45 in total. Toyota hopes that the brand will eventually catch on in Canada and as it does, more dealerships will rise from the ground in other cities.
So, thanks to Scion, Canadians can now buy those quirky machines instead of the overall bland lineup from Toyota. Well, there not that bad, but you get the point. For a full list of the 45 dealers, visit ScionNation.ca/scion/dealers. Every model will be offered to our neighbors.
Audi cooked up quite a stir at the Toronto International Film Festival recently when they, together with communications agency Company Lowe Roche, decided to pull a little guerilla advertising by attaching hundreds of Audi Quattro scale models in various locations in and around the city.
The 1:43 scale models came with magnets and a sticker that read, “Nothing sticks like Quattro” and were stuck to a number of objects, including lamp posts, newspaper stands, and TIFF barricades. Needless to say, the whole stunt attracted a lot of attention from bewildered passers-by, most of whom stopped to get their one scale model.
According to Geoggrey Roche, chairman of Lowe Roche and the proponent behind the campaign, “"We wanted to give people a real demonstration of how great the quattro all-wheel-drive system is.”
If Audi’s objective was to grab some attention with the new campaign, they obviously struck gold with it. After all, it wasn’t only about educating the local Torontonians on what the quatto all-wheel-drive system is, but in Roche’s words, “it’s also a great way to get the brand into the consumer’s hand.”
