Tuesday, December 17, 2013

A New Post... Finally! Let's get caught up on some news...



Ok, so I’ve had a bit of a busy past week, so I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog as much as I would have liked.  What’s worse is there have been so many cool things happening in the car world.  So this post will be a bit of a chance to catch up with some of the car news we’ve missed over the last week.  As always, click on the links! 
I’ve always thought the Kia Forte was a great value in the compact car segment.  Now they’re coming out with a new one... and it has a turbo!  Possible Civic Si fighter?  If this car can overcome Kia’s tin-can syndrome, you bet!

And for the ultimate automotive performance experience, check out the McLaren P1 going for a run on the Nurburgring.  There are great production values and spectacular cinematography in this video.  It gets you so close to the action you may actually crap your pants.  A must see for any automophiliac!

Well it turns out GM isn’t completely finished with their Australian brand, Holden.  Production is just moving to China, where the Holden Commodore will share the same platform as a Chinese market exclusive Buick.  And just in case you were afraid this new Chinese-built Holden won’t live up the performance standards set by its Australian built forefathers... you’re absolutely justified.  This new Commodore will be front-wheel-drive and 4-cylinder powered (cue sad trombone sound). 

The rumour mills are abounds with a possible Detroit Auto Show reveal of the new Tesla Model E.  The new Tesla will be a more affordable Tesla sedan.  Now that’s probably a relative term, but it’s nice to see these sorts of cool electric vehicles become more obtainable. 

A newly redesigned Chrysler 200 was spied in the streets.  It looks like a great improvement over the current car, with interior and exterior upgrades galore.  This new car will be based on the same Alfa Romeo platform as the Dodge Dart and the Jeep Cherokee, using the same power train options as the latter. 

Nathan Adlen from TFLcar gets to drive the new 2015 Subaru WRX.  According to him the CVT isn’t too bad... at least in Sport #.  For the driving purists out there the WRX also comes with a 6-Speed manual.  I’m really hoping I get a chance to drive this car.  If anyone from Subaru is reading this, please get in touch with me ASAP! 

The all-new Mercedes-Benz C-Class will be on show at the Detroit Auto Show.  The new C-Class seems to borrow from the E-Class design language a bit on the exterior, but looks like a B-Class/CLA on the interior.  I’m not too crazy about MB interiors these days.  Although it really has no effect on how the car drives, I don’t like the steering column stock gear selectors, nor am I a fan of the touch screen slab pasted to the top of the dash board.  But that’s just me.  Otherwise, this car looks pretty sweet. 

And back to McLaren again.  Apparently they’re working on a wiperless windshield system that will use jet-fighter technology to remove rain, snow and dirt from the front facing glass of their cars.  This sounds awesome and crazy all at the same time.  Their development people are being pretty hush-hush about how the system will actually work, but they seem pretty confident they can pull this off.  If it does make it into production, expect the trickledown effect to put similar systems in compact cars by say, oh, 2047. 

And that’s it for today.  I’m still working away at my car review.  I’m just ironing out the details and picking out pictures... I know, I said I would be done a while ago, but life happens. 

Now I’m going to go back to watching Diamonds Are Forever on DTour.  Forgot about the cool Mustang chase scene... especially the strange physics at work (skip to 4:17... one the great film blunders!). 

TTFN        

   


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