It’s official: Porsche will build the 918 hybrid supercar.
The company’s board approved the project earlier today based upon “overwhelming response from the public and customers.” Those same customers must have very deep pockets, because the last we heard the Porsche 918 will cost something north of $600,000.
Be that as it may, it promises to be a sweet car.
Continue Reading “Porsche Greenlights 918 Hybrid Supercar” »
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – The new Cobalt Co50 is the French answer to a wide selection of fast, personal airplanes from companies such as Cirrus and Cessna. The company claims the five seat pusher configuration will be able to cruse at more than 250 miles per hour and have a range of more than 1150 miles.
New airplane designs at Airventure here in Oshkosh are as common as left turns in NASCAR. Every year somebody shows up with a new airplane they hope will change aviation. One of the more interesting looking new designs this year comes from Europe to challenge some of the American companies that have led the way for single engine airplanes for decades.
The Co50 that showed up in Oshkosh isn’t quite done yet, in fact it’s mostly a rough shell of an airplane. The airframe is far from finished and there is no engine or propeller. If the airplane does make it to the flight test stage and into production, Cobalt will have one of the more interesting looking planes on the market. Continue Reading “French Company Unveils Exotic Concept Plane” »
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Idaho-based Kitfox Aircraft introduced one of the more interesting looking light sport aircraft here at Airventure by simply adding a radial engine to the front. The 110-horsepower, seven-cylinder engine is made by Rotec.
Kitfox president John McBean says the most popular engine choice for the company’s Model 7 is the popular four-cylinder Rotax 912 that powers most LSAs. But following the trend of classic design features finding a way into new vehicles (think Beetle, Camaro or Mustang), McBean says they wanted to offer customers a vintage look in a modern light sport aircraft.
“We did it for aesthetics,” he says. “We’re going for the retro look of old meets new.”
Unlike many of the retro car designs that use all new technology simply covered in a retro looking design, the Rotec powered Kitfox provides some of the experiences of a vintage engine as well.
“If you don’t want oil burn,” McBean says, ”you probably shouldn’t choose a radial.”
Continue Reading “Kitfox Proves Radial Engines and Wood Props Rock” »
The final designs are in for a new museum dedicated to displaying vehicles and other artifacts from the James Bond film series. The Gensler-designed Museum of Bond Vehicles & Espionage is due to open in 2012 in Illinois. Momence, Illinois.
The small town (population 3,200) 50 miles south of Chicago is home to the Ian Fleming Foundation, a nonprofit group that owns 32 original Bond vehicles including a helicopter from You Only Live Twice, the Lotus submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me and even the oft-lamented Ford Mondeo from Casino Royale.
Those vehicles will all be on display in one place at a brand-new 14,000-square-foot museum in time for the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No.
One marque that isn’t particularly well-represented in the collection is Aston Martin. Only one Aston belongs to the foundation, the Volante from The Living Daylights. Still, if we were in Chicago we’d definitely take the trip down to Momence to check out the Mustang and Bath-O-Sub from Diamonds Are Forever or any of the Glastron boats from Live and Let Die.
That others would make the same trip is exactly what folks in Momence are hoping.
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – For pilots, Oshkosh is probably best known for Airventure, the world’s largest airshow. Mention the city to just about everybody else and the iconic overalls of Oshkosh B’gosh often comes to mind. But if you’re in the market for some very specialized, very big trucks, Oshkosh has you covered there as well.
Oshkosh Trucks is a company that specializes in making “Severe-duty Trucks” for fire departments, the military and general commercial use. Based just across the main runway from Airventure, the company brought a few of their trucks to the airshow.
Trying to keep the aviation theme going, we stopped by and looked at their 6×6, 87,000 pound, 40 foot long airport fire truck. Oshkosh has been making airport fire trucks since the late 1960s. The Striker is their latest model and is capable of dousing a fire with water, foam and dry chemical powder.
SONOMA, California – There is nothing subtle about drag racing.
It is a sport of extremes, from the unconscionable amounts of fuel consumed to the unfathomable amounts of power produced to the ungodly sums of money spent in the singular pursuit of maximum acceleration.
Nowhere is this more obvious than on the starting line, when two top-fuel dragsters unleash 8,000 horsepower apiece. Standing behind them is like opening the gates of hell. The air roars. The ground shakes. Noxious fumes wash over you. The cars streak toward the horizon as if thrown by the hand of God.
Top fuel is the pinnacle of drag racing. Even in a sport where success is measured in thousandths of a second, everything in top fuel happens in a blink of the eye. The best drivers can do the quarter-mile in around 4 seconds. They experience about 5 times the force of gravity. And they reach the far side of 300 mph.
As amazing as it is to witness, it is even more so to experience.
“There is no way to describe it. None,” Dave Grubnic, the 48-year-old driver of the Kalitta Air top-fuel dragster, told us during the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway earlier this month. “When you hit that throttle, everything in your immediate field of vision is gone. Just gone. You do zero to 100 mph instantly.”
Grubnik’s exaggerating. It actually takes about eight-tenths of a second.
Photo: Jim Merithew / Wired.com
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – Garmin is taking the satellite connection used to feed the increasingly ubiquitous GPS units found in small airplanes and opening it up for both voice and text communication. The company says pilots will now be able to make satellite calls as well as send and receive SMS text messages from anywhere in the world.
Big airplanes, loud airplanes, old airplanes and new airplanes might get much of the attention here at Airventure in Oshkosh. But for many pilots the annual trip is a chance to see the new technology that will make flying safer, faster and easier. Most new airplanes sold these days come with glass panel cockpits and all of the necessary flight instruments are displayed right alongside the moving map GPS display.
In recent years the satellite connection for the GPS has been opened up to receive up-to-date weather information as well as satellite radio, common in many cars. Now Garmin is using the satellite antenna for communication as well.
Pilots often find themselves in places with no cell phone reception. And even if you have a signal, using a cell phone during a flight can be problematic at best. With several of the Garmin glass panel displays common in airplanes made by Cessna, Cirrus and others (Beechcraft King Air is pictured above), pilots will now be able to make satellite phone calls from the cockpit during flight through the headset. Text messages can be sent through the same keypad or input method used to program the GPS destinations and will be displayed in a corner of the display.
Garmin says the communication capabilities may find their way into car or boat based GPS systems in the future. Cell reception isn’t as much of an issue for most drivers, but as many of us know all too well, in certain parts of the country (and even big cities for some carriers), reception can be non-existent.
Photo: Garmin
The big question about the Chevrolet Volt was answered today when General Motors said the car will cost $41,000. Add in the federal electric-vehicle tax credit and you’re looking at $33,500. Yes, that’s a lot. But the General says you’re getting a lot for your money.
GM begins taking orders today and says the first Volts roll into driveways by year’s end. The brass were quick to call this “a historic day” and they rarely miss a chance to call the Volt “a game-changer.” Hyperbole aside, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf we’ll see later this year are the first mass-market highway-legal electric vehicles to hit the market.
“This is a real car,” said Joel Ewanick, VP of North American marketing. “It just happens to be electric. This is not a niche vehicle. This is the future of the automobile.”
That remains to be seen. And with just 10,000 slated for production in 2011, the Volt will be a niche vehicle until GM starts ramping up production in 2012 and beyond. But that doesn’t make it any less of a step forward.
Continue Reading “It’s Official: Chevrolet Volt Will Cost $41,000″ »
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Terrafugia, the company currently leading the way in flying cars, has unveiled the latest version of its “roadable aircraft.” The new design includes several structural changes aimed at improving the, er, roadable aircraft’s safety and flying characteristics.
Whatever you call it, Terrafugia expects to fly one of the funky contraptions to the big AirVenture show here in Oshkosh next year.
The new design includes several performance improvements according to the company, and dare we say, it looks a little better too.
Irv Gordon has some advice for keeping your car running forever: Follow the factory service manual, replace worn or broken parts immediately and don’t let anyone else drive your car.
Those simple rules have allowed Gordon to rack up a record-setting 2.8 million miles on his beloved Volvo P1800. We caught up with him last week, when, shortly after his 70th birthday, Gordon announced he hoped to reach 3 million by the time he turned 73. That feat will require him to drive an average of around 5,500 miles per month.
At that rate, he’s in the driveway changing his own oil nearly every month and a half.
Continue Reading “Profiles in Mileage: Meet the 2.8-Million-Mile Man” »
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