Blog

2011 Porsche 911 Turbo S Revealed

Porsche will be pumping out an additional 30hp in the newest 911 model dubbed the “911 Turbo S”. The new 2011 Porsche 911 Turbo S will debut at the Geneva auto show next week.

The new Porsche 911 Turbo S features the same goodies that can be had with the current 911 Turbo with the addition of 530hp and 516lb-ft of torque pushing the envelope even further. The Turbo S has an edge over the normal Turbo 911 by consuming the same amount of fuel (26.8 mpg avg.) yet improving performance where the 911 Turbo S can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.3 seconds via the PDK 7-speed double-clutch transmission (launch control enabled) and reach a top speed of 195mph. That would make the 911 Turbo S one of the most fuel efficient sports cars for its class.
The Porsche Turbo S will be available as a coupe and cabriolet (convertible) and go on sale in May of this year in European countries and expected to arrive in the U.S. later in 2010.

Specially modified car from Red Bull Racing

To help celebrate the return of F1 to Canada, Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Buemi raced a specifically adapted car over ice courtesy of Red Bull Canada. Racing has never been cooler as Buemi put rubber to ice, speeding across an icy lake just outside of Montreal, QC for the ultimate winter drive!

In order for this chilling thrill ride to go down, Red Bull Racing revved up some exclusive adjustments for Buemi’s car from the ground up. The specially modified Red Bull Racing Formula One car was fitted with Bridgestone Potenza F1 snow tires to ensure the best possible traction. These exceptional Bridgestone F1 snow tires, produced by Bridgestone Motorsport’s Technical Centre in Tokyo, featured 420 studs on each of the front tires and 588 studs on each of the rear tires.

Got your wheels spinning? Catch the video of this chiller drive at this Link

Jaromir Cech Talks FT-86

The senior designer of the FT-86 project Jaromir Cech talks to Autocar UK about the design philosophies and ideals behind the European-designed Toyota concept. Interesting to see the enthusiasm for the concept to go directly into production ‘as-is’ from Toyota Japan’s directors, with the hope of not changing much (if anything) from the concepts exterior look. Lets hope they can get it past pedestrian safety checks and onto the road!

Body Kits are becoming the new trend in the aftermarket

As far as trends go, the import movement had it’s fair share of cars that were sporting body kits, but almost all of them also had some kind of performance modification.  Cars would have exhaust systems, intakes, nitrous, and various other things, because it was still the fastest that held got the respect at the local street races.

As times change, and cars become more expensive to modify, the economy doing poor, and people afraid of ruining their warranty, the shift has been toward body kits such as front bumpers, rear bumpers, side skirts, fenders, wings and the such.  Body kits are looking better as technology improves, has better fitment, and almost no worry of any sort of cracking due to superior technology.

What do you think? Have you noticed any shifts in trends? Are people in your area still more go than show?

Skyline R34 vs Skyline R35

The new Hot version Volume 103 just hit the shelves and is a must see for all you GT-R enthusiasts out there. It features the Mine’s R34 against the MCR R35, Esprit R35 and the Garage Yawata R35. The drivers are Keiichi, Nobuteru, Orido and ‘Tarzan’ Yamada in the R34. It amazes me to see how these guys push their cars to the absolute limit.

I wonder how many of you guys guessed the right outcome before seeing the video.

How JDM you are Contest for all ttech members

We are proudly to present that our new Sponsor automotive stickers automotodeco.com has arranged a competition for all the tunedtech readers and forum members.

This Competition is very easy and simple to follow. All you have to do is express How JDM you are. to us. You can create videos, songs, drawing, Or even write a poetry serious or funny, anything you want will be accepted. You have your full freedom of your own imagination and creativity.

Regards about the prizes. tunedtech decals and Original Decals on the development and production studio of automotodeco.comwe will award three most original participants winners with shopping vouchers worth $15 (free shipping) for buying yourself something from automotodeco online shop.

You can write your ideas and creativity material here in our forum page. This contest will end March 26, 2010. We give it a month so that you have lots of time to express yourself, how JDM you are. So what are you waiting for, hurry up and make sure you get the hottest ideas.

Click here to participate.

Sample how you can express yourself using video:

Honda, where are you going?

 

The recent global economic storm has caught us all by surprise. We see entire nations & communities struggling to make sense of the downturn and adjust to the consequences. The paradigm of constant growth has proven to be a mirage and the situation calls for an assessment of where we are headed and what needs to be done.

Like us, Honda too has been affected by this storm, and being the conservative company they are, seem to be slowing down and changing course in terms of the offerings they plan to bring to us. No doubt, we were all excited by the spy images of the next NSX lapping the Nurburgring over a year ago or of Honda bringing Ross Brawn on board to transform them into a credible F1 team. There were rumors abounding that the S2000 as we know it could change, perhaps be replaced by a roadster with a v-6 and very well become the S3000. Lost in that millieu was the CR-Z concept that evoked the memories of the old CRX, a car that many of us admire and the lucky few owned. As things came to pass, one dream after the other became an unattainable pipe dream. The macro situation changed such that Honda killed the NSX, sold the F1 Team to Ross Brawn and went on further to announce the demise of the S2000 with no replacement planned for it. Honda CEO, Takanobu Ito, went on to say that Honda will be focusing more on Hybrid technologies, and used the term “smart-luxury” (whatever that means) to denote the direction in which Acura will be going while confirming that any dreams of V8 or RWD Acura’s were no longer going to happen.

To add insult to injury, we’ve been subject to products like the Insight, the Accord Crosstour, and the Acura Alphabet Soup (ZDX). It hurts more when we see Nissan launching a star like the GT-R (what the NSX should have been) and Lexus trying to build super car cred by building the LF-A and tweaking their IS offerings. What does Honda have to counter them?

Competent sporty car, but is that all?

Im sure you felt that Honda’s ability to dream is dead (as I did). The power of their dreams no longer captivates us and the future is looking bleak, leading to the question – Honda, where are you going? What about the dreams? But there is a slight hope. A sliver of light that makes me feel that all will be well in the years to come. I probably have you thinking, what then makes me feel positive about the direction Honda seems to be going in. They seem to have laid off their dreamers and replaced them with  tree-huggers and soccer moms designing bulky yet versatile family cars.

Here is why:

1. The CR-Z – A sporty hybrid with a manual transmission, 122 HP, 128 lb-ft of torque at 1000 RPM, and a curb weight estimated at 2670 lbs. Oh! did I mention the EPA estimated gas mileage is 31/37/33 miles per gallon for the MT equipped car while the CVT version fares slightly better. This car appears to be (on paper) neither too sporty nor a mileage champ and seems to be a flaming disaster quite like the other tepid offerings from big H.

It must remind you of the CRX

- Yet Honda engineers have benchmarked the car against the the best handling light-weight cars out there (the MINI, the Lotus Elise & the VW Scirocco). According to Terukazu Torikai, the chief engineer for chassis dynamics on the CR-Z, “the performance of the Elise kept on inspiring us throughout the whole development process“. Knowing Honda, I hope that has translated into something substantial.

- A first ever Sport Mode button. This button per Honda’s press release “sharpens the throttle response, changes the behaviour of the IMA hybrid system to provide more electric motor assistance, and increases the weight of the electric power steering“.

Will it live up to the “Dream”? 

- Japanese Magazine’s first driving impressions as translated by Inside Line “the CR-Z’s handling is in an entirely different class. In this department, the car truly feels worthy of the sporty-car label. “The biggest difference is how the rear end feels through corners. Unlike rear suspension in the Fit or the Insight, the stroke of the rear dampers have been increased, resulting in increased stability through corners and over bumps. And thanks the to the CR-Z’s wider track, the car exhibits less body roll and better overall balance than either the Fit or the Insight, making it a delight to drive through turns. And despite possessing firmer dampers and springs than the Insight, it rides just as smoothly”.

- Unknown Honda engineers stated that the CR-Z should remind people of the CRX and therefore should handle like one.

Keep dreaming and I may show up at a dealership near you

2. The Honda HSV 10 GT – The NSX replacement was resurrected and renamed so Honda could continue competing in the Super GT championship in Japan. Rule changes required Honda to step up with a new car and they seem to have delivered. This could be an indication that the next NSX could be 4-5 years away and we could very well have one at a lower price point as I’m sure Honda would want to one-up Nissan.

Now that’s what we need from Acura

3. The TSX wagon – All of us here in North America love the way the Euro Accord looks and are we glad that Honda is bringing us the cool looking Accord wagon as a TSX wagon. Now all they need do is to remove that silly nose they stuck on all the Acuras.

The thought strikes me that the wise druids at Honda seem to have deciphered the path. The path forward is to go back to their roots. Build small cars that are beggars for punishment and fun to be thrown around a track in pursuit of the perfect lap time. Who knows, we could very well see the return of the S2000 with the same 2.2 liter engine, but faster because its lighter and built using more composite materials. Who knows, it could have a retractable hard top and put the likes of the pretenders from Mazda & BMW to shame.

So keep going Honda and enable us to keep powering your dreams!

Props to aashish2 , images courtesy of Triple-H and Honda Motor Co.

Alfa Romeo 2017 Executive fastback saloon

This car is a wild missile for heck. It’s the 2017 Alfa Romeo Executive Fastback Saloon. What a mouthful! What an eyeful, you’re about to witness. Designer Jacob McMurry’s whipped up this magic machine to compliment the Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione in Alfa Romeo’s return to the North American market.* In this project, inspiration’s drawn from Carnevale di Venezia, aka the Carnival of Venice.

*This project was done before the Fiat/Chrysler partnership.

All glass roof, smart glass panels. These smart panels have the ability to go all opaque or transparent. Helpful if you’re Batman, or if you’re Dexter Morgan. Lines drawn directly from Italy, drawing inspiration again from the 2900B Type 35 racers of the 1930’s.

Power plant: Diesel V8 with rear wheel drive, optional bio-diesel conversion.

**As for the title of this post: this car may look like a fancy club, all elegant and seductive, and it’s name is Saloon, but it’s just a car! You’d better be in your garage if you plan on drinking in it. Be safe!

Source: High-Tech 360

Honda New Viral Dream

Honda Motor Company has launched an amazing viral campaign discussing subjects almost no company would ever consider for an ad. Failure. Its a widely accepted principle that failure breeds innovation. As seen in this video, the best and brightest engineers and drivers from Honda discuss the failures they have encountered in their professional lives. One of insights in the feature discuss the entry of Honda into IRL in 1994. It was safe to say, that could have been one of the worst seasons of racing Honda had ever encountered. After taking the lessons learned, Honda won their first race in 1995 and followed it with a series championship in 1996. Takeo Fukui, CEO of Honda Global, said it best, speaking in regards to the late Soichiro Honda, “We can only make fantastic advances in technology through many failures.”

Toyota suspending sale of eight models immediately

In an unprecedented move, Toyota has suspended sales of eight models until it fixes the stuck accelerator pedal problem that has led to a huge recall.
“Helping ensure the safety of our customers and restoring confidence in Toyota are very important to our company,” said Group Vice President and Toyota Division General Manager Bob Carter in a press release. “This action is necessary until a remedy is finalized. We’re making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible.”

The models include the 2009-2010 RAV4; 2009-2010 Corolla; 2009-2010 Matrix; 2005-2010 Avalon; certain 2007-2010 Camrys; 2010 Highlander; 2007-2010 Tundra; and the 2008-2010 Sequoia.

Toyota is in danger of losing its top quality ranking to Hyundai, according to a test engineer at Consumer Reports, which releases it annual rankings in April.

Next Page »