Cars Preview: Auto Show

Showing posts with label Auto Show. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

2011 SEMA: What is this Oddball Chevy Creation?

This year the Special Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas is still a long way, but some tuners have already started to tease her own creations.

This strange image appeared on the untitled project car SEMA show per page on Facebook. No details of the building addition will not be shown in the first week of November

While it is clear that the five-door hatchback models sporting side of the Chevrolet Cruze, not sure on the body (and no, it's Cruze Hatch). If you have any ideas or thoughts, skip and jump over the heads of our observations to share.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Eternit new luxury brands on the market at the Frankfurt Motor Show

The upcoming 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show will not only see the world premiere of many new production cars and concept studies, but also the scene of a new brand of luxury cars are known as Eternit Motors market.

There are many details that go around the other brand is a niche company based in London and the launcher will be Hemera SUV, the first sight, we get an official teaser video rendering.

Eternit Motors says that high-end SUV, which will premiere in Frankfurt is a conceptual study, but pre-production models.

More information about the brand and future plans will be announced in the coming weeks.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

colorful combo in Kuala Lumpur

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Top 5 Favorite Features at the Paris Auto Show - 2010 Paris Auto Show

Who could have imagined that opening a car’s trunk with your foot would be such a good idea? At the Paris Auto Show, it’s the little things that matter most. A concept car or the latest production model is nothing if it doesn’t get the details right—although it can be equally amusing when they’ve all gone horribly wrong.

There is a fine line between quirkiness and catastrophe in the automotive world. The Citroën Lacoste Concept looks absolutely ridiculous, but you get the sense it was supposed to all along. Meanwhile, we’re pretty certain the Porsche Speedster is an absolute blast to drive. Yet from certain angles, some feel the Stuttgart drop-top looks like it should take up residence in the bell towers of Notre Dame.

We scoured the vast exhibition halls of the Paris Auto Show to bring you our five favorite features, in no special order:

Volkswagen Passat “Easy Open” trunk release
You have your arms full of groceries and need to open the trunk. Quick, what do you do? If you own a new VW Passat with the Easy Open feature, you swipe your foot under the rear bumper. The system detects the key in your pocket, meaning all you have to do to open the trunk is move your foot past a motion-sensor located beneath the rear bumper. Voila! The trunk then automatically opens.

Kia Pop EV side-windows
It’s not often that headache medicine inspires the shape of a car window. We’ll probably never know for certain whether the elongated oval-shaped side-windows of the Kia Pop EV Concept were inspired by Tylenol tablets—although it sure makes a good story. Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer at Kia, says the wacky windows add “character” and a “helicopter feel” to the Pop. Would he consider using them in a production car? Absolutely.

Jaguar C-X75 Concept “Beware of Blast”
The Jaguar C-X75 is gorgeous. It also has four electric motors—one in each wheel—that deliver the equivalent of 780 hp and more than 1100 lb.-ft, of torque. Did we also mention that it’s gorgeous? Okay, so we like this 2-seat Jag (a lot!). But it wasn’t until we took a close look at the rear diffuser and exhaust outlets that we fell in love. No one could resist a car that warns you: “Beware of Blast.”

Citroën Lacoste inflatable roof
As iconic as the Eiffel Tower and as fun as saying “grapefruit” in French (it’s “pamplemousse,” go ahead and give it a try), the strange concept cars built by Citroën are always special. Maybe not always for the right reasons, but they’re still special. The Lacoste is a dune buggy, city car, moon rover and alligator-wearing whatzit of a vehicle. The potato-cutter alloy wheels are pretty cool. But it’s the Lacoste’s inflatable roof that gets our vote for being the silliest feature on a very silly car. Even crazier are rumors Citroën is planning to build a car very much like the Lacoste.

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento dashboard
If less is more, the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is one heck of a lot of sports car. This lightweight Lambo is a carbon-fiber masterpiece, weighing in at only 2200 lb. Like the Jaguar C-X75, there really isn’t much we don’t like about the Sesto Elemento. However, we think the skeletal-looking dashboard does a great job summing up this car’s purpose in life. If you haven’t guessed, it’s going fast—really fast. The Sesto Elemento is a 570-bhp work of art.

2010 Paris Auto Show

Tesla has shown that there is a market for performance-oriented EVs, a lesson that manufacturers are taking to heart as evidenced by the plethora of electrically driven concepts displayed at the Paris Auto Show. Everyone from established manufacturers like Audi to newcomers like Exagon Motors had either pure or range-extended electrics with a performance bent on display. While range is still an issue—even the most optimistic estimates were still less than 150 miles—performance is not, with blistering 0 to 60 mph times of less than 5 seconds and top speeds in excess of 200 mph were being bandied abou

Audi eTron Spyder Concept
If the night before the show was owned by the 408-bhp Quattro concept, the feature of the day was the Audi eTron Spyder Concept. This is the open-top version of the 2-seat eTron coupe shown earlier this year at Detroit. The Spyder features a cut-down windscreen and is actually a plug-in hybrid with a mid-mounted 300-bhp twin-turbo V-6 diesel to boost power and extend the vehicle’s range. Weighing just 3196 lb., the eTron has two electric motors that propel this sports car to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds, while top speed is electronically limited to 155 mph. In pure electric mode, the eTron has a range of about 30 miles, while the diesel enables the vehicle to travel more than 600 miles before refueling.

Jaguar C-X75 Concept
As a way of celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Jaguar C-X75 Concept takes the idea of a 2-seat supercar to a whole new level by using a lithium-ion battery pack and two small gas turbine engines to drive electric motors positioned at all four corners of the vehicle. With a total of 778 hp at its disposal, the C-X75 is said to be able to accelerate to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and has a top speed of 205 mph. The two turbines are mounted behind the cabin’s bulkhead and spin up to 80,000 rpm. The electric motors provide up to 1180 lb.-ft. of torque, which enables the car to have such blistering performance. In addition to being able to run up to 68 miles in pure electric mode, the turbine engines give the C-X75 additional range of up to 560 miles.

SEAT IBe Concept
The Spanish automaker showed a small 2-door sport coupe that is reminiscent of the VW Scirocco. Called the SEAT IBe Concept, this pure electric is powered by lithium-ion batteries and produces 102 hp and 200 lb.-ft. of torque from its electric motor. This handsome hatch can accelerate to 62 mph in 9.7 seconds and has a range of 130 miles between charges. The 2+2 weighs just 2400 lb. and despite measuring less than 12 feet (144 in.) in length, it offers a generous cabin with the flexibility of fold-down rear seats for additional cargo space. The compact dimensions make the IBe an ideal city car. Top speed is said to be 100 mph.

Exagon Furtive-eGT
The latest entry into the range-extended sporty car market is the French-built Exagon Furtive-eGT, which is slated to go into limited production in 2012. Powered by lithium-ion batteries, the Furtive-eGT has an electric-only range of 160 to 250 miles, while an optional gas engine can extend that range to 500 miles. Exagon says the car is capable of 0 to 62 mph acceleration of 3.5 seconds and that the car has a top speed of 178 mph. The company hopes to build about 100 cars a year when it goes into full production. Unlike most EVs that use the motors to directly drive the wheels, the Furtive-eGT uses a 3-speed paddle-shift gearbox attached to a mechanical auto-locking differential.

Renault DeZir Concept
This first show car from Renault’s new design director Lauren van der Acker is a 2-seat pure electric sports car called the DeZir. The capital Z in the name refers to Renault’s new ZE line of electric motors—in this case it’s a 150-hp unit that accelerates the 1800-lb. car to 62 mph in about 5 seconds. Contributing to the car’s light weight is its Kevlar body, and the sleek shape gives the car an ultra-low 0.25 coefficient of drag. The rear-drive DeZir has a range of about 100 miles between charges. The car is also equipped with a Kinetic Energy Recover System (KERS) developed by the Renault Formula 1 team that provides regenerative braking.