Automotive News & Concepts
Jaguar has given the XK range a makeover after six years on sale and will cap the new line-up with what is probably the company鈥檚 fastest production car yet. The XKR-S is powered by a 543bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 and can sweep to 100mph in just 8.7sec, says Jaguar. It features extensive changes to the chassis as well as to the exterior styling. The XKR-S heads a revamped 2012 model year XK range that benefits from a redesigned nose with a new bumper and grille and new, smaller headlamps, with LED running lights. The front wings have been changed and now feature horizontal vents, something avoided until now because it was a styling signature associated with Aston Martin. There will be a choice of 17 exterior colours, six new interior colourways and three new veneers. The XK interior gets a new steering wheel and switchgear, a rotary gear selector, upgraded instrument cluster and blue LED interior ambient lighting. The flagship XKR-S is marked out by a much more aggressive exterior treatment, with a new front bumper and carbonfibre splitter, new sills, a prominent rear spoiler and a carbonfibre lower rear valance. Inside, it gets 16-way adjustable performance seats and leather embossed with a carbonfibre weave pattern. The XKR-S uses an updated version of Jaguar鈥檚 familiar V8, with eight per cent more power than the XKR and nine per cent more torque. This means that it has five per cent more torque than the Porsche 911 Turbo and 10 per cent more power. It also gets a revised exhaust, to reduce back pressure and provide a more appealing engine note.
The Germans are Coming! Until recently, German manufacturers had a pretty conservative approach towards Electric Cars and Alternative Fuels in general, with the only production EV being the french-german Smart Fortwo ED, and even this had limited availability. The new additions (Roewe E50, Springo EV) were flops, selling little more than a hundred units, while the promised gamechanger BYD Qin was successively postponed and went on sale just a few days ago. Could 2014 be any different? With the McLaren P1 in Geneva and Porsche 918 in Frankfurt ready for production, a new trend started to emerge in SportsCarLand: Electrification. Besides the two above, there's also the hybrid Ferrari LaFerrari (Dumb name, awesome looks) and the soon-to-be-released BMW i8, along with others still-in-concept-car-form projects (Honda NSX, etc). The reason for this? Yes, there is the matter of fuel consumption, but perhaps most importantly, it's a new way to increase power and a technological achievement that puts them ahead of the competition.
A metal support has a potential to improve an engine output and the conversion efficiency. In order to satisfy both requirements, the back pressure drop should be reduced and the high-temperature use of the catalyst converter has to be a must. To develop such a metal support, a manifold converter without a retainer is the best choice. Removing a retainer resulted in joining the metal honeycomb-core to the jacket. Brazing was selected. Installing as a manifold converter led a metal support to the severe environment in which the high mechanical durability was required. The back pressure drop, the adhesion of the washcoat and the conversion performance have been investigated for the high-temperature use. To develop the brazed structure to meet the high mechanical durability, analyzing the temperature distribution and the fracture modes in a metal support has been conducted through the endurance engine-bench test. As a result, a highly heat-resistant metal supported catalyst has been successfully developed.
Porsche cayenne or BMW x6 or a sports coupe like an Aston Martin db9 or Audi r8.Any ideas? Secondly, what type of car you need depends on your lifestyle. If you have kids, or haul around lots of things get the X6. The the new generation Porsche Cayenne has just been introduced and won't be on sale for another couple of months, making any Cayenne you may buy right now old news. If you don't really care about that, great job, you probably saved yourself a lot of money off the MSRP as dealers are trying to make room in their lots for the newer cars. I personally would never get a car that's just been replaced by a newer generation. The X6 is a great car. I think it looks very nice (contrary to the opinions of many other people) and it drives like a sedan. An even more practical car would be the X5, as the X6 is short on rear headroom, seats only four and has a smaller trunk. However, the X6 is much better to drive. I've driven an X5 xDrive35i and it felt sluggish. The Mercedes ML 550 is aging, but it is a very great car to own and drive. I have a ML 500 and I can tell you it is a great car to drive and very practical for many things. However a replacement is due in 1-2 years. What kind of car you should get is entirely up to you.|||The Aston is the least practical. Just really depends on what you do with your car. My mother drives a Cayenne and loves it. I drive a Lotus Elise and a BMW X3. Both nice, relatively cheap and fun cars to drive. SUV - None of those. The BMW is really a crossover. I'd shoot for a Land Rover or Lexus. Sport Coupe - Also none of these. The R8 gets dreadful MPG. I'd go for a used Bentley Continental or Maserati.