Le Sabre concept car

The General Motors Le Sabre was a 1951 concept car (or show car).

The Le Sabre was the brainchild of General Motors Art Department head Harley Earl,[1] by a followup to his famous 1938 Y-job. Like all of Earle's projects, it was built to be roadworthy. It was powered by a supercharged 215 cu in (3.5 L) V8 able to run on gasoline (petrol) or methanol (like Indy roadsters of the period did), and had an unusually-placed rear-mounted Buick Dynaflow automatic transmission. This was later changed to a GM Hydramatic.

The Le Sabre featured numerous advanced features: a 12-volt electrical system (most cars of the period were 6-volt), heated seats, a wrap-around windshield, electric retractable headlights[1] (the 1936-7 Cord 810 had hidden lights, but used vacuum motors), a water sensor to activate the power top, and electric lifting jacks integral to the chassis to aid tire changes. (This idea would be copied decades later by Formula One race teams.)

It was GM's first use of a rear-mounted transmission, which would reappear in the Pontiac Tempest. It was also the first use of the aluminum-block 215, which appeared in the Buick Special and Skylark, Olds Cutlass F-85 and Jetfire, Pontiac Tempest and LeMans, and ultimately in numerous British marques, including Land Rover, Triumph, MG, and Morgan. It was also the first appearance of front bumper dagmars, later made famous on 1957-9 Cadillacs.

It was also GM's first use of the Le Sabre name, which would be adopted by Buick for a new line in 1959.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Clasic Cars , Le Sabre concept car

A Woman's Point of View: Susan G. Komen & Breast Cancer Awareness Month

by Colette Cooley, Cars for Keeps Office Manager

The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. A gentle reminder to get your yearly breast examination and there are many events that you can participate in to help in the fight of this horrible disease. My dearly loved sister-in-law died of breast cancer last year and there are probably many of you out there that know someone who is fighting this battle.

Many women avoid mammograms because it is too painful. I am one of them. I found a better way. You can get a breast exam through Thermography. It is not painful, nothing touches you and it finds anything suspicious sooner than x-ray exams. To find out where to get a thermographic breast exam in your area just Google “thermographic breast exam”. You will find many hits to explain what thermography is and how it works.

There are many cancer walks and races going on around the country and you can find out where by Googling “breast cancer walk”, or go to the Susan G Komen website. The US Postal Service has Susan G Komen stamps for sale this month, and a portion of the price is donated to cancer research. You can pick them up at your local Post Office.

Cars For Keeps is giving away ball caps for Cancer Awareness this month - although I noticed today that there are only four hats left! If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and pick one up. Women unite to comfort, strengthen and encourage each other for our health, welfare and knowledge of how we can be all we are meant to be.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bugatti 18/3 Chiron

The Bugatti 18/3 Chiron was a concept sports car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was a mid-engine design with the same W18 engine found in the EB 118 and EB 218 concept cars. The front resembles as the Bugatti Veyron. The Chiron name comes from famed Bugatti racing driver, Louis Chiron.

Fabrizio Giugiaro of Italdesign was responsible for the design with input from Hartmut Warkuss from the VW design center in Wolfsburg. In creating a logical successor to the EB110, they had the unique opportunity to style Bugatti's flagship model. Important design elements de the return of the horse shoe classic radiator, inset front lights, converging front hood and an exposed intake plenium. All of these elements would eventually be integrated into the final production model.

Subtle details of the Chiron included eight spokes wheels wrapped in 20 inch tires that were similar to the cast aluminum wheels first found on Louis Chiron's Type 35B. Lighting on both ends of the car was cutting edge, with triple Xenon headlights and stretched turn signals.

Airflow management was a large consideration in the concept design. The small shoehorn radiator couldn't provide enough air for the massive 6-liter engine so a large aperture was needed below it. Much of this air was extracted though vents located forward of the front wheels. A smaller system was used on the side of the car for the rear brakes. Eventually it was these cooling systems that delayed production of the final version.

Aerodynamics were another key consideration in the design. Like the Diablo, the Chiron had a rear bumper with integrated diffuser. At high speeds a retractable rear wing was deployed much like the EB110 supercar.

Inside the car was stripped out, but covered in Blu Pacifico and Sabbia leather. Aluminum accents were used as well as a removable watch on the passenger side.

Since all Italdesign cars were built as fully working models, it should be no surprise that they utilized Lamborghini running gear. Specifically they sourced the viscous traction 4WD chassis from the Diablo VT. In 2000 VW completely revamped the body and chassis of the car with the Bugatti 18/4 Veyron prototype.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bugatti , Unik Cars

Lamborghini Early 1960s

Prior to founding his company, Lamborghini had commissioned the engineering firm Società Autostar to design a V12 engine for use in his new cars. Lamborghini wanted the engine to have a similar displacement to Ferrari's 3-litre V12; however, he wanted the engine to be designed purely for road use, in contrast to the modified racing engines used by Ferrari in its road cars. Autostar was led by Giotto Bizzarrini, a member of the "Gang of Five" of Ferrari engineers, who had been responsible for creating the famous Ferrari 250 GTO, but left the company in 1961 after founder Enzo Ferrari announced his intention to reorganize the engineering staff. The engine Bizzarrini designed for Lamborghini had a displacement of 3.5 litres, a 9.5:1 compression ratio, and a maximum output of 360 bhp at 9800 rpm.

Lamborghini was displeased with the engine's high revolutions and dry-sump lubrication system, both characteristic of the racing engines he specifically did not wish to use; when Bizzarrini refused to change the engine's design to make it more "well mannered", Lamborghini refused to pay the agreed-upon fee of 4.5 million Italian lire (plus a bonus for every unit of brake horsepower the engine could produce over the equivalent Ferrari engine). Lamborghini did not fully compensate the designer until ordered to do so by the courts.

The chassis design for the first Lamborghini car was created by famed Italian chassis engineer Gian Paolo Dallara. Drawing on his experience working for Ferrari and Maserati, he assembled a team that included recent college graduate Paolo Stanzani and New Zealander Bob Wallace, who had previously been employed at Maserati, and was known for his keen sense of chassis handling and excellent feedback and developmental skills. Lamborghini hired then-relatively unknown designer Franco Scaglione to style the car's body, after turning down highly regarded names like Vignale, Ghia, Bertone, and Pininfarina.

The Lamborghini 350GTV was designed and built in only four months, in time for an October unveiling at the 1963 Turin Motor Show. Due to the ongoing disagreement with engine designer Giotto Bizzarrini, a working powerplant was not available for the prototype car in time for the show. The car went on display in Turin without an engine under its hood; according to lore, Ferruccio Lamborghini had the engine bay filled with bricks so that the car would sit at an appropriate height above the ground, and made sure that the bonnet stayed closed to hide the missing engine. The motoring press gave the 350GTV a warm response.

The Automobili Lamborghini Società per Azioni was officially incorporated on October 30, 1963. Ferruccio Lamborghini purchased a property at Via Modena, 12, in the township of Sant'Agata Bolognese, less than 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Cento. A sign at the entranced declared "Qui Stabilimento Lamborghini Automobile" (English: Lamborghini car factory here), boasting 46,000 square metres (500,000 sq ft) of space. Sant'Agata was chosen as the location for the factory due to a favorable financial agreement with the city's communist leadership, which would not tax the plant's profits for its first ten years of trading, along with receiving an interest rate of 19% on those profits when they were deposited in the bank. As part of the agreement, the workers would have to be unionized. Sant'Agata was deep in the cradle of Italy's automobile industry, meaning that Lamborghini's operation would have easy access to machine shops, coachbuilders, and workers with experience in the automotive industry.

Despite the favorable press reviews of the 350GTV, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to rework the car for production. The production model, which would be called the 350GT, was restyled by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, and a new chassis was constructed in-house. Bizzarrini's V12 engine would be detuned for mass production, developing only 280 hp rather than the designer's intended 360 bhp. The completed design debuted at the 1964 Geneva Motor Show, once again garnering positive reviews from the press. Production began shortly afterwards, and by the end of the year, cars had been built for 13 customers; Lamborghini sold each car at a loss in order to keep prices competitive with Ferrari's. The 350GT remained in production for a further two years, with a total of 120 cars sold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Clasic Cars , Lamborghini

Lamborghini Origin

Automobili Lamborghini was founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini, the child of viticulturists from the comune (township) of Renazzo di Cento, Province of Ferrara, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. After serving as a mechanic in the Regia Aeronautica, during World War II, Lamborghini went into business building tractors out of leftover military hardware from the war effort.

By the mid-1950s, Lamborghini's tractor company, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A., had become one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in the country. He was also the owner of a successful gas heater and air conditioning manufacturer.

Lamborghini's wealth allowed him to cultivate a childhood interest in cars, owning a number of luxury automobiles including Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Maseratis, and a Mercedes Benz.

He purchased his first Ferrari, a 250GT, in 1958, and went on to own several more. Lamborghini was fond of the Ferraris, but considered them too noisy and rough to be proper road cars, likening them to repurposed track cars.

Lamborghini decided to pursue an automobile manufacturing venture, with the goal of bringing to life his vision of a perfect grand tourer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Lamborghini , Sports Car

Modifikasi Honda Scoopy

Scoopy Honda's retro appearance has been made forcefully. Currently, Honda scooter was already modified. Indeed, the results are not extreme. However, what is done by the three modifiers.
Views become more classics with the additional sepatbor ornament on the front, side and rear, including orders and a gold emblem on the front and rear wheels.


Another claim results from JJ Airbrush Jaedun Mukhtar, Jakarta. Although minimalist, with a spray gun motif make the appearance Scoopy sweeter. The impression that was strengthened again with ornaments sweetener, from front to back.
Let's look at the standard muffler protector, this section switch motif with translucent model. Seat was redesigned to be shorter and sweeter in the presence of added iron basket.
Another uniqueness, both wheels bolt replaced with a model of the fingers so that further reinforce the retro look. Then, under the tip of the front seat there are variations in the lattice wind. Very sweet!
Different again arable modifier Lipurnomo Johnny, owner of Custom World (CW). He tried to experiment with playing in the foot-feet and the installation of device variations so that,Rear wheels using a wheel Rotara size of 5 x 14 inches. To teromolnya, according to Johnny, the same part BEAT or Vario. Width 5 inches is the maximum size without rewind wheel axis. In addition, there are also unique and caliper cover headlights and a hood wearing sein.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Honda

Sports car

The drive train and engine layout significantly influences the handling characteristics of an automobile, and is crucially important in the design of a sports car.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Sports Car

McLaren MP4/2

The McLaren MP4/2 was a Formula One car designed by John Barnard of McLaren for the 1984 season. An iteration of it, the MP4/2B, was used in the 1985 season, and a slightly updated version, the MP4/2C, raced in the 1986 season for McLaren. It was closely based on the MP4/1E model that was used as a test car, used in the final races of 1983.

Like the majority of its competitors, the car used an all carbon fibre chassis. The car was powered by a TAG Porsche V6 Turbo engine, which was first used in the final few races of 1983, at the insistence of Niki Lauda, who felt that the new engine required race testing before a championship challenge could be mounted. The existing chassis, the MP4/1 was modified and strengthened to take the new engine and in the final race of the 1983 season, Lauda proved the car was competitive, running at the front of the field and challenging for the lead of the race.

Lauda was joined for 1984 by Alain Prost who had narrowly lost the 1983 championship to Nelson Piquet. Prost was made the scapegoat for Renault's failure and was fired, before Ron Dennis snapped up the young Frenchman in place of John Watson. Prost and Lauda proved to be a formidable combination. Both were excellent development drivers, and both gave technical feedback on the car and the engine which pushed the car's development far further than the other teams.

The MP4/2 was one of the few F1 cars to use carbon brakes at the time, giving it another major advantage over most of its rivals. That, combined to superior fuel consumption and the driving skill of Lauda and Prost saw the MP4/2 score 12 wins in 1984, at the time the highest number of wins in a season by a single team. Lauda beat Prost to the championship by a measly half point in the final race, even though Prost had 7 wins to Lauda's 5. Often the MP4/2's were the only cars to finish on the same lap, such was their domination.Their superiority was more obvious on high-speed circuits. McLaren comfortably won the constructors' championship from Ferrari. Although the MP4/2 was not the fastest car in qualifying (since they were the only top team not using special engines for qualifying)— often beaten by the Brabham BMW turbo — it was the most reliable and most consistent, attributes which helped it be so successful throughout its career.

For 1985, the MP4/2 was updated with cleaner aerodynamics and redesigned wings (to comply with new regulations) while TAG refined the engine. The suspension had to be redesigned after McLaren switched from Michelin to Goodyear tyres. However, the competition had more or less caught up. Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) fought Prost for most of the season, until McLaren's greater reliability and their superiority in the high-speed circuits that followed told in both championships. Prost won his first championship with 5 wins, and McLaren claimed their second successive constructors' championship. Lauda retired from F1 at the end of the season, but not before adding a final victory to his tally in the Netherlands for the team.

The MP4/2 was almost virtually unchanged in 1986 (with the exclusion of some tweaking in aerodynamics), while Prost was joined by Finn Keke Rosberg. By this time the Williams FW11 had overtaken McLaren as the best car; notably, the MP4/2's mileage was not as good as it was in 1984. Piquet joined Nigel Mansell at Williams and the two fought a fierce internal battle, while Prost cleverly built up his points total and snatched 4 wins from under the Williams teammates' noses. His second world championship was won more by stealth than speed as by now it was clear the TAG Porsche engine was past its best.

The MP4/2 won 22 Grands Prix (Prost, 16; Lauda, 6), took 7 pole positions (Prost, 6; Rosberg, 1), and scored 329 points throughout its three-year career. It contributed to 2 constructors' titles and 3 drivers' championships, and remains the most successful chassis in F1 history.

Prost's MP4/2C was driven at the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed by Jenson Button.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in McLaren , Sports Car

Lamborghini

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. commonly referred to as Lamborghini (pronounced [lamborˈɡini] ( listen), is an Italian automaker based in the small township of Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company was founded in 1963 by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini, who set out to create a refined grand touring car.

The company's first offerings, the 350GT and 400GT, were noted for their refinement, power, and comfort. Lamborghini gained wide acclaim in 1966 for the Miura sports coupé, which established mid-engine design as the standard layout for high-performance cars of the era. After a decade of rapid growth, hard times befell the company in the mid-1970s, as sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 world financial downturn and oil crisis. After a bankruptcy and three changes in ownership, Lamborghini came under the corporate umbrella of the Chrysler Corporation. The American company failed to return the automaker to profitability and sold it to Indonesian interests in 1994. Lamborghini's lack of success continued through the 1990s, until the company was sold in 1998 to AUDI AG, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, a German automotive concern. Audi's ownership marked the beginning of a period of stability and increased productivity for Lamborghini, with sales increasing nearly tenfold over the course of the 2000s. A world financial crisis in the late 2000s saw Lamborghini's sales cut in half, leading CEO Stephen Winkelmann to predict continued poor sales for supercar makers.

Assembly of Lamborghini cars continues to take place at the automaker's ancestral home in Sant'Agata Bolognese, where engine and automobile production lines run side-by-side at the company's single factory. Each year, the facility produces fewer than 3,000 examples of the four models offered for sale, the V10-powered Gallardo coupé and roadster and the flagship V12-powered Murciélago coupé and roadster. The range is occasionally complemented by limited-edition variants of the four main models, such as the Reventón and a number of Superleggera trim packages.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Lamborghini , Sports Car

Saab 9-1X

The Saab 9 1X is speculated to be a future subcompact luxury car from Saab Automobile. It would be based on the Saab 9-X Biohybrid concept car shown at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, and expected to compete with other premium small cars such as the BMW Mini. No production date has been announced.

Saab Managing Director Jan-Åke Jonsson said the model would likely not be on the global GM Gamma platform, but did not confirm whether Saab would use a custom platform or a modified GM Delta II platform. Saab intends to build the vehicle at their Trollhättan factory. citation needed Saab's new owner Spyker Cars announced that they had plans to put the 9 until 1 into production by 2014.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Future Cars , Saab 9-1X

Fuel cell sports car

A fuel cell sports car is a future vehicle anticipated to arrive with the advent of sophisticated hydrogen fuel cell technology. Although the primary impetus for fuel cell research is cleaner automobile emissions, overall vehicle performance is also a factor. Current fuel cell cars run on relatively low power (80-100 kW) electric motors, but more powerful motors are capable of dramatic performance even when compared to fossil fuel engines. For instance, the Venturi Fetish is an electric (plug-in) car that achieves 0 to 100 km/h times of under five seconds, which has traditionally been the acceleration territory of sports cars.

Production of fuel cell vehicles has been limited thus far to prototypes and fleet vehicles aimed at efficiency. However, several news sources have cited UK-based Morgan Motor Company as being involved in a project to build a fuel cell sports car based on the Morgan Aero 8. The endeavour also involves Cranfield University, Oxford University, and defense technology firm QinetiQ, among others. The project has been tentatively titled LIFEcar.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Future Cars

Future car technologies

Potential future car technologies include new energy sources and materials, which are being developed in order to make automobiles more sustainable, safer, more energy efficient, or less polluting. Cars are being developed in many different ways.

With rising gas prices, the future of cars is leaning towards fuel efficiency, energy-savers, hybrid vehicles, battery electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles (Xiang, Jia, Jianzhong, Zhibiao, Yuanzhang, & Qinglin 2008)

One major problem in developing cleaner, energy efficient automobiles is the source of power to drive the engine. A variety of alternative fuel vehicles have been proposed or sold, including electric cars, hydrogen cars, and compressed-air cars.

In one experiment done to improve the future of cars, a new kind of battery was installed which can be easily removed, and recharged in two different ways. First, by a generator integrated with the IC and second by removing the cassettes so that they can be recharged off-board in the home ( Charters, Watkinson, Wykes, & Simpkin, 2008).

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Future Cars