Prototypes or prototypical instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. A prototype is the stage before the final design. They are the best examples among the members of a category and serve as benchmarks against which the surrounding "poorer" instances are categorized.
Volkswagen-owned Skoda doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves. Maybe it’s because under the VW umbrella, there are a lot more high-profile brands to choose from.
Nevertheless, the Czech automaker is still worthy of our attention, now more than ever, actually, considering they’re bringing a pretty radical rally car concept to the 2012 Worthersee show.
The vehicle, called the Citigo Rally Concept, is based on the three-door Citigo hatchback. As a rally designed vehicle, the Citigo Rally Concept comes with its fair share of rally-spec modifications, including a ventilated hood, an aggressive front bumper, extended side skirts, a huge rear spoiler, a center-mounted exhaust system, and last but certainly not least, a new set of 18" wheels with low-profile tires.
Performance modifications are also expected to be part of the Citigo Rally Concept’s overall make-up. Skoda has yet to provide information on what kind of powertrain it’s going to have, but rest assured, we’ll be ready to provide all the necessary updates when the information becomes available.
It’s not the most fashionable or most powerful concept vehicle BMW has been involved with, but as far as significance is concerned, it just might be one of the most meaningful car projects that they’ve been a part of.
The concept vehicle is called the Visio.M MUTE, a prototype vehicle developed by Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) that now has the involvement of partners from the German auto industry, spearheaded by BMW. The concept is being pegged as a vehicle for the future, one that is being developed to determine the feasibility of developing an efficient, mass-market electric vehicle that ensures the same level of safety and affordability as the combustion vehicles of today.
The project recently received €10.8 million ($14.1 million at the current rates) in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The Visio.M MUTE is the prototype model that will play a critical role in determining how it can handle new technologies in logistics, crash safety, propulsion, and energy storage for a future, mass-produced vehicle.
As it currently stands, the car only carries and output of 20 horsepower and weighs only 400 kg without batteries. It certainly won’t break any speed records anytime soon, but in terms of significance, the Visio.M MUTE could be one of the most important concept vehicles to come out in recent years.
Autonomous cars have been gaining a lot of headlines recently with all of their testing and new state laws being enacted to allow their testing. One of the forerunners in this technology is, of all companies, Google. Google has been in the autonomous car testing project since 2010 and has logged more than 200,000 miles of automated driving.
That’s not the impressive thing, as Google recently had its first ever non-Google-employed test driver. To boot, this driver only has about 5% of his vision remaining. That’s right, Steve Mahan, this brave blind man, took a Toyota Prius fitted with Google’s automated driving doodads and went out for a spin.
Now, if you were legally blind and were driving for the first time in many years, where would you go? Maybe you would head to a nice restaurant, to visit relatives, or even to a friend’s house. Nope, not Steve, he immediately rode in the driver’s seat of this automated Prius to the nearest Taco Bell drive-thru, maybe that’s all Google has left in its testing budget for these cars. He grabbed a Taco, then headed off to pick up some dry cleaning.
The car performed well and Steve seems very happy to be in the driver’s seat again. He even added in the obligatory “Look mom, no hands” joke. The only thing we could see that this Prius did poorly was park, as it seemed to be parked at an angle when it stopped at the dry cleaners and when Steve parked it in his driveway.
Autonomous cars are cool, but will people ever warm up to them? We would be pretty nervous about the chances of the computer suddenly crashing and deciding to run the car head-on into traffic. Then again, if Toyota fills the Prius with foam during an accident, like Demolition Man, you’d never have to worry about getting hurt.
At the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show, Mazda debuted a new concept, the Takeri, and it just may be a preview to another anticipated vehicle – the new Mazda6. The Takeri concept vehicle, which will make its American debut at the New York Auto Show on April 4th, is just another addition to Mazda’s “KODO” design, which is rather wild, even for Mazda. The Takeri will feature Mazda’s SKYACTIV-D engine - a 2.2-liter four-cylinder diesel engine - which is designed to decrease emissions and increase fuel economy.
This intelligent diesel engine also features what Mazda calls “i-Stop,” which shuts the engine off during extended stops and restarts it within 0.4 seconds of pressing the accelerator again. That’s the fastest restart of any automatic engine shutdown system today, but still, once that technology starts breaking down, it will be a nightmare for owners.
There are no details on the U.S. version of the 2.2-liter engine, but the European version produces 170 horsepower in the CX-5.
The most interesting thing about this release is that it is coming on the forefront of an anticipated redesign for the Mazda6. Looking at the spy shots of the 2013 Mazda6 that we teased back in January and comparing them to the Takeri image, the similarities are uncanny.
We are going to go ahead and make the call that the Takeri coming to the U.S. bearing its 2.2-liter diesel engine will ultimately be Mazda’s announcement of an all-new Mazda6. While the redesign may not be a complete shock, the 2.2-liter diesel and other SKYACTIV technologies fitted on the 2013 Mazda6 – lowered engine compression, i-Stop, high-tech transmission, and more rigid, yet lighter, body – should help keep future owners away from the gas pumps a little more often.
Hit the jump to read the official press release from Mazda.
BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and Meritor Defense have been working on a military project dubbed the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program in an attempt to manufacture a lightweight vehicle that the U.S. armed forces can use anywhere in the world. This project had yet to be officially proposed, as its equipment was still in the developmental phase, but as of today, testing is over and the proposal is to be submitted.
You may be wondering “what does this have to do with production cars?” The driving force of this new military device, which is ultimately the replacement for the Humvee, is shared with one of the best-selling pickups of all time, the Ford F-Series SuperDuty. Yup, this large-caliber-gun-toting machine will come fitted with Ford’s now famous 6.7-liter Power Stroke engine.
The exact specifics of the engine have not been released, so we are not certain if this will be the same 6.7-liter you would see under the hood of a 2012 F-250 SuperDuty. Unfortunately, that will likely never be known, but we do know that the Power Stroke engine is up to the task, pumping out an impressive 400 horsepower at 2,800 rpm and 800 pound-feet of torque at 1,600 rpm.
This will likely end up similar to the Allison military transmissions vs. civilian models deal. The Power Stroke’s basic technology will remain the same, but the engine will be highly modified for combat usage. If the military accepts this design as one of the three it will select, this could mean that the Power Stroke could see much advancement in upcoming years, as the military tinkers with the engine and Ford mimics the modifications. This also means that we are in for a slew of “Ford’s so good, we power military vehicles” styles of commercials, oh boy.
On a semi-ironic aside to this announcement, Ford was once a part of the JLTV program, but dropped out earlier. We guess there are no hard feelings between Ford and BAE.
It’s not everyday that a hybrid sports car from the Philippines finds itself on the floor of one of the world’s biggest auto shows. Yet that’s where the Michel Gitano will find itself in a week’s time at the 2011 SEMA Auto Show.
As one of the relatively anonymous participants of the world’s biggest aftermarket auto show, the Gitano is hoping to catch some serious love and attention from the gathered crowd at SEMA in hopes of catching interest in being the first Filipino-made hybrid sports car.
Full details of the Michel Gitano have yet to be revealed, but word has it that the sports car will be able to produce in excess of 250 horsepower from its hybrid powerplant.
For now, the people from Michel Motors have released a couple of teasers of the Gitano ahead of its world debut at the 2011 SEMA Auto Show.
For a relatively anonymous manufacturer to come to SEMA is a big step in the direction of gaining recognition from its peers. Here’s to hoping that the Gitano lives up to all the hype of it being the very first Filipino-made hybrid sports car.
UPDATE 11/07/2011: We have added live images from the SEMA Show. Find them in the picture gallery.
In the past two installments of Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr., aka Tony Stark, never hid his affinity for the Audi R8.
But thanks to Marvel Studio’s recent partnership with Acura, it looks like our favorite billionaire playboy is turning over his Audi digs for an Acura sports car that, quite frankly, we’ve never seen before.
Acura began appearing in Thor and Captain America as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s official official chose of brand. With the collaboration movie - the Avenges - currently filming in New York, it appears that Acura has allowed the studio to use a mysterious car that has yet been given any information on.
When asked by Autoblog about the matter, the automaker responded that the mystery car is a one-off make that’s neither a concept nor a production model.
"The open-top sports car that was photographed yesterday is a one-off, fictional car that was made just for the movie and will not be produced," Acura’s Gary Robinson said.
Judging from the looks of the car, it does remind us a little bit of the R8 in terms of its overall shape. And to be honest about it, we certainly wouldn’t mind seeing this car in concept guise. Better yet, let’s have it built for production!
The name pretty much says it all. Speed Demon. You’re not going to pull any muscles trying to figure what the vehicle is for and what it represents.
The vehicle was the creation of George Poteet and Ron Main, two people that had one objective for the project. They wanted to build a car that can go where few people have gone before: 400 mph.
The intimidating name of the vehicle comes as a result of having a 347- cubic-inch V8 engine that’s combined with a pair of Turbonetics "Demon" turbochargers to produce an output of 2,200 horsepower. Yikes.
So after months and months of testing and development, the team went to the Bonneville Salt Flats to give the Speed Demon a shakedown of a lifetime. With Poteet behind the wheel, the Bonneville Blown Fuel Streamliner known as the "Speed Demon" proceeded to run an astonishing 426 mph.
Even better, Poteet was able to capture his run on video, which will show you exactly what it feels like to travel at such ridiculous speeds.
Full details behind the machine have yet to be revealed by Poteet and Main, apparently because their site isn’t updated yet. Nevertheless, there are plenty of photos and videos you can look at to learn more about the Speed Demon.
We love going fast and we love pushing the limits to see what our vehicles are capable of. The Bonneville Salt Flats provide a perfect setting for speed junkies of all kind to come and find out what they are capable of achieving. This dry lake bed has been dominated in recent times by the internal combustion engine and even jet power, but an older form of powering four wheels is about to take center stage once again.
The U.S. Land Steam Record Team will be attempting to beat the current record in their newest steam powered vehicle. In 2009, Team Inspiration from Great Britain broke the 1985 steam record by hitting 148.308 mph. The previous official FIA record of 127mph was set in 1906 by American, Fred Marriott, driving a Stanley steamer at Daytona Beach.
Driver and car designer, Chuk Williams, in conjunction with Cyclone Power Technologies will be the latest steam pioneers when they attempt the record breaking run in August 2011. The state of the art streamline design is projected to hit a top speed north of 200 mph, which would undoubtedly seal its position in the history books. We look forward to reporting more on the attempt once the team makes it to Bonneville.
Hit the jump for more details on the U.S. Land Steam Record Team
Talk about a ‘Unicorn Project’ if there ever was one.
Jon Olsson, the Swedish free-skier and alpine ski race, has made no bones about his love for finely tuned supercars, which includes his own stable of machines like the Nissan R35 GT-R and the Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce. Now, Olsson is collaborating with ADV.1 wheels to create and develop the “ultimate” Ultima GTR project. Details on the car are still not known with the exception of these jaw-dropping renderings, but if you know what the Ultima GTR is capable of, then you know that this car project is going to be a one sweet ride.
Fast, powerful, and road-legal, the Ultima GTR is one of the fastest vehicles on the planet, no questions asked. It’s got a Chevrolet-sourced 6.3-liter V8 engine that produces 543 horsepower – the chassis, however, can take in engines that have an output of well over 1,000 horsepower – and 528 lb/ft of torque. The car also weighs a little less than 1,000 kilos, thanks in large part to a number of lightweight materials, laminated glass, and a carbon fiber rear wing. According to ADV, the project is well on its way to developing so we’re going to stay tuned for all the important updates. For a car that has the stature of the Ultima GTR, we highly suggest that you do the same.
UPDATE 05/24/11: After a few months of lying under the sheets in constant testing and development, Jon Olsson’s Ultima GTR, which has since been christened the "Rebellion R1k", finally made its first appearance under the sun in Stockholm, Sweden. In this video captured by Olsson and his team, the Swedish ski racer takes his newly-built baby out for a nice test run along the streets of Stockholm while he prepares for the 2011 Gumball run from London to Monaco. Check out the look and sound of Olsson’s Rebellion Rk1 in all its fiery red glory.
