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.
Back in 2007, a well-planned three-way deal between Renault, Nissan and Daimler brought these three automotive powerhouses together. This deal wasn’t necessarily massive, as it only resulted in Daimler getting a 3.1 percent share of Nissan and Renault, and Nissan and Renault getting 1.55 percent of Daimler each. Basically this deal was just to allow the three automakers to freely share their technologies and testing.
It looks as if Renault is pretty close to calling on Daimler to make good on its deal, as Renault is working on a new flagship sedan that will use some Mercedes-Benz parts. This new flagship model is not all Renault is looking ahead to, as the French automaker is also debating releasing an entire lineup of luxury car with Daimler’s help.
The details are still rather sketchy, as they are still in preliminary talks and a lot of the information is from unconfirmed sources. One of the names for the new make that is being tossed around is Initiale Paris, which was once used on a 1995 Renault concept car.
Image Note: The images used are of the 1995 Initiale Paris concept car
Prior to his death, ex-TVR owner, Peter Wheeler, decided that despite the fact that he no longer owned TVR, he still had the fire to build wild and crazy cars. From that fire began the project that he dubbed the Scamander, which is named after the Greek river god. This amphibious machine came to life just before Wheeler’s death, but it was a very rough machine that still needed a lot of work to be perfect.
After his death, Wheeler’s wife and a group of engineers completed Wheeler’s project and made it into something that Wheeler would have been proud of. This RRV, as Wheeler called it, has a V-6 turbocharged engine that cranks out about 300 horsepower and is said to hit 60 mph in eight seconds. To boot, it has an impeller on its rear end for propulsion in the wet stuff. This impeller certainly beats the rear wheel-mounts paddles that were on the original prototype Scamander.
Image note: The images provided are of the concept version of the Scamander.
With the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb drawing closer and closer, we’re now getting a pretty good look at some of the cars that will be competing in the annual event in Colorado.
One car, in particular, that caught our attention is this 1995 BMW M3 Coupe. On any other day, cars like this probably go unnoticed, but this one is pretty cool because it’s set to compete at Pikes Peak.
Tuned to race by EV West, this M3 Coupe has been stripped down of pretty much everything that it won’t need on a racing set-up. What it does have now are a number of racing components, including a bucket racing seat, a full-body roll cage, a huge rear wing fitted on the trunk, plenty of carbon fiber panels, and a new set of 17" lightweight wheels.
To ensure that the their M3 Coupe can compete with some of the quirkiest and more powerful Pikes Peak-bound cars competing in the annual hill climb, EV West took out the car’s standard 3.0-liter inline-six engine and replaced it with a twin-air cooled electric motor that produces a staggering 400 horsepower and an even more staggering 700 lb/ft of torque.
Not only does the Nissan DeltaWing prototype resemble something out of batman rather than a racer which will take up a grid position at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, but it may also suggest what the future of racing could look like. Unfortunately for many motoring enthusiasts, that does include the elongated, tapered front end and the aircraft inspired hind quarters.
However, the effectiveness of this design will not be proven until after the Le Mans endurance race and despite the car being largely experimental, the guys over at Top Gear recently teamed up with English car customizer, Andy Saunders, to produce a replica of the DeltaWing concept.
Andy Saunders is no rookie when it comes to producing the weird and wacky, and his very own DeltaWing will be testament to the belief that what’s worth doing, is worth overdoing. In order to create the one-off piece of art, Saunders will search the scrap heap for components which not only resemble certain elements of the original but can also be tweaked to get the look just right.
So far, Saunders has borrowed the wheels from a Ford Mondeo, the rear axle from a Ford Escort, and has combined components from the Fiat 126 and Morris 1000 bonnet to shape the rear deck of the car.
And that list will continue to grow as the rear pod sections will be created from old Mazda MX-5 bumpers, while the “DeltaWing kick-ups on the rear” will be formed around the air intakes of Australia’s last F1 champion, Alan Jones’ 1975 Formula One racer.
It’s currently unclear what engine, drivetrain, and transmission Saunders plans to utilize for the car, but you can be sure of two things: they’ll be recycled and when finished, the Top Gear DeltaWing will be significantly heavier, less powerful, and slower than the real racer.
Nonetheless, we respect Saunders’ ambition and wish him all the best!
The new car, which we now know as the Monster Sport E-Runner Pikes Peak Special, looks like an actual LMP1 prototype with plenty of GoPro cameras installed on it. The blue LED stripe headlights even add a mix of Batmobile and K.I.T.T from Knight Rider to it.
Having said all of that, the Monster Sport E-Runner Pikes Peak Special means serious business as Tajima is looking to set not only the electric car record, but also best his own record time in the Unlimited class. Tajima, a six-time defending champ in Pikes Peak, will most certainly be one of the top contenders this year, even if he’s going to pilot a new toy that a lot of people know little about.
From what we do know about the car, it looks like it’s been given the full-on carbon fiber treatment, complete with a pod-like driver capsule that’s encased by a full-on roll cage. Those aforementioned LED lights are also an attractive sight as are the matching set of blue rims. Meanwhile, the plethora of vents and scoops on the car’s body clearly suggests that the racer is ready to throw down at Pikes Peak next month.
Different car, same results, right?
With Monster Tajima behind the wheel, we’re not about to doubt that.
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.
