Cars and other kinds of motoring gibberish

Oh dear. Taxpayers' money going into reservicing the roads to make 'em F1 usable. :sweat:

No that the roads are bumpy or cracked, but Singaporeans are just 'kiasu'. Everything has to be purrrrrfect.

Remind me to drive more often along the night circuit stretch after F1 season. I wanna experience smoothly tarred roads too! ^^"

Bleh, my potential car selection has increased to include the A3 Quattro, IS250 AWD, 135i... :sweat:

krim wrote:Bleh, my potential car selection has increased to include the A3 Quattro, IS250 AWD, 135i... :sweat:

Wow. :victory:

135i? Not the 128i?

I'm really disappointed with the pricing... I was expecting mid-20's, not upper 20's/low 30's... :shakehead:

no way i'd get the 128i, i want both turbos. :hehe:
But i still have to test drive a few more cars before I make some cuts. G37 is possible if I can get a good price thru Costco.

krim wrote:no way i'd get the 128i, i want both turbos. :hehe:

That's gonna cost... It wouldn't be that much cheaper than the 335i, I'd bet. :sweat:

You can buy cars at costco? Does it come in 6 packs? :sweat:


Now, that's a car: [image]

tabana wrote:Now, that's a car: [image]

Until another car hits it... Then it's a road apple. :sweat:

From Forbes.com ( http://tinyurl.com/27m2m4 ):

Ten Best Cars For City Dwellers

Jacqueline Mitchell
02.13.08, 6:00 PM ET

Chances are you won't find too many Ford Expeditions and Hummer H3s in cities like Seattle, San Francisco or Boston. That's because, while they can be pleasant to drive, they're a pain to park, and more difficult to maneuver around potholes, pedestrians and bicyclists.

The Audi A3 performs these tasks with ease. Because it moves well in tight spaces, handles well and is loaded with safety features that help to prevent accidents and help save you in a crash, it tops our list of best cars for city dwellers.

The Mazda3, MINI Cooper, Scion Xb and Honda Civic round out the top five.

With rising fuel costs and the rigorous demands of jam-packed cities in mind, auto makers--particularly the Detroit "Big Three," GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler--are developing products that satisfy the needs of city drivers.

That's a good thing. Traffic congestion continues to worsen in American cities, creating a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours of productivity and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2007 Urban Mobility report, which is based on 2005 data (the most recent available).

The report also notes that congestion causes the average peak-period traveler to spend an extra 38 hours of travel time and consume an additional 26 gallons of fuel each year, amounting to a cost of $710 per driver.

But city dwellers want choices beyond the fuel-efficient subcompacts on the market. That includes comfortable vehicles with ample storage space, good road handling and good brakes.

Behind The Numbers
To find them, we looked at vehicle turning radius, car length and width, accident avoidance, routine handling, acceleration and fuel efficiency as key measures in compiling our list.

The first, a vehicle's turning radius, shows how well it can maneuver in tight conditions and into pint-size parking spaces. The tighter a turning radius, the better it can handle small spots. Look for less than 42 feet for SUVs and less than 40 feet for cars, says David Champion, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. Anything above that creates a wider turning radius that makes it more difficult to park. The Audi A3 and the Toyota Rav 4 boast our list's lowest turning radius, both at 35 feet.

A vehicle's overall size is also important. Long and wide vehicles may be comfortable for passengers, but they aren't as agile as shorter, narrower vehicles. Champion says anything longer than 200 inches or wider than 74 inches becomes difficult to slip into a parking space or maneuver in tight, congested traffic. The BMW Mini Cooper, with a length of 146 inches and width of 66 inches, is our smallest pick. Our shortest SUV is the Hyundai Tucson; it measures 170 inches long and 71 inches wide.

Taking into consideration that city drivers often need to make sudden stops, swerve around potholes and dodge distracted drivers or pedestrians, we also measured accident avoidance and routine handling ratings provided by Consumer Reports. There are five grades in these categories, with "excellent" being the best and "poor," the worse. All of our vehicles earned ratings of "good" (the third grade) or higher. The Mazda3, Audi A3 and Mini Cooper earned "excellent" in both categories.

It is also important that city drivers are able to accelerate when they need to enter fast-moving freeways or suddenly change lanes. With this in mind, we measured our vehicles against Consumer Reports acceleration ratings. Acceleration was graded on the same scale as handling, with "good" as the cut-off.

The MazdaSpeed 3 is freakin' awesome. 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. I wanted to get one of these but don't know how to drive a manual transmission and had to settle on a CX7.

At the track our tester racked up some impressive performance numbers — both in a straight line and through our handling tests. Probably the most outstanding number is the 60-0 braking distance of 116 feet. This often overlooked bit of data proves how thorough Mazda's overhaul of the 3 actually is. And even though this is a single-stop number, our abuse of the brakes during aggressive street and track driving proves them worthy of contending with excessive heat.

At the drag strip, we recorded a 0-60 time of 5.9 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 14.2 seconds at 100 mph. That's 0.4 second slower to 60 than the last Subaru WRX we tested, but a staggering 1.3 seconds quicker to that speed than a Honda Civic Si. Plus, the Mazda is at an obvious launch disadvantage in the sprint to 60 against the WRX given the Subaru's all-wheel drive. By the end of the quarter-mile the Mazda's added power makes the contest a dead heat against the WRX and blows the Honda out of the water by almost a full second.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=116868

Bill Cosby talking about Cobras: http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/meandstriker/f2ad41abac524db736ca1a8150b45bc1?index=0

[image]

Coming Soon from VW: A 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid
By Chuck Squatriglia
February 28, 2008 | 10:04:10 AM

It's official - Volkswagen is unveiling a hybrid to challenge the mighty Toyota Prius. And not just any hybrid, but a diesel-electric hybrid it says will deliver 69.9 mpg.

VW's been experimenting with hybrids of the gasoline-electric variety since the early 1990s, but the Golf hybrid it will unveil next month at the Geneva Motor Show is the first production model the German company's rolled out. Volkswagen isn't offering much in the way of details, but the car is expected to have a parallel hybrid drivetrain with a 2.0 liter engine. Look for it to have an all-electric mode at low speed, start-stop capability, regenerative braking and a 7-speed DSG double-clutch transmission, according to Auto Express and AutoBlog Green.

What's all the techno-jargon mean? The Golf Hybrid will get almost 70 mph while meeting Europe's stringent Euro V and America's Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions standards, making it green enough even for California. The car is said to emit just 89 g/km of CO2. (For comparison, the Prius emits 104 g/km and Honda Civic Hybrid emits 116.)

The hybrid Golf may be just the start.

According to Britain's Channel 4, VW is considering the hybrid drivetrain in a Jetta and Audi A3. DailyTech says it also could appear in the VW Tiguan and Audi Q5 crossover utility vehicles.

Auto Express says the Golf hybrid will be offered for sale in Europe by the end of next year. No word yet on when we might see it on this side of the pond. VW hasn't released a picture of the hybrid, so we're offering a shot of its diesel Golf Bluemotion.

Hamilton Wins in Australia[/list:u]
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:34:50.616
2 Nick Heidfeld BMW 5.478
3 Nico Rosberg Williams 8.163
4 Fernando Alonso Renault 17.181
5 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 18.014
6 Kazuki Nakajima Williams at 1 lap
7 Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso at 3 laps
8 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari at 5 laps
[/list:u] Kind of a carnage filled race, good drive by Heidfeld to finish 2nd, former Champ Car champion Sebastian Bourdais gets points in just his first F1 drive. :applaud:

gaijinmark wrote:Hamilton Wins in Australia[/list:u]
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:34:50.616
2 Nick Heidfeld BMW 5.478
3 Nico Rosberg Williams 8.163
4 Fernando Alonso Renault 17.181
5 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 18.014
6 Kazuki Nakajima Williams at 1 lap
7 Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso at 3 laps
8 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari at 5 laps
[/list:u] Kind of a carnage filled race, good drive by Heidfeld to finish 2nd, former Champ Car champion Sebastian Bourdais gets points in just his first F1 drive. :applaud:

:doh: :doh: :doh:

I campletely forgot that the F1 season started today... :sweat: :sweat: :sweat:

Yay! A podium finish for Nick the Quick... :victory:

Yow, I didn't realize the F1 cars had sooo many aerodynamic appendages sprouting from their bodies.... It's like Medusa. :sweat:

[image]

LOL, they're going a little overboard with this hi-tech aerodynamics. That thing looks like an alien spaceship.

boris wrote:LOL, they're going a little overboard with this hi-tech aerodynamics. That thing looks like an alien spaceship.

I think the cars are getting satellite TV... They need something to do during those 100mph straightaways. :beaten:

The car is said to emit just 89 g/km of CO2

Now all they have to do is make it look like this:
[image]
This looks much better than that alien spaceship too.

The black and gold must be a nod to those old JPS Lotuses from its F1 days... And it looks rather dated, especially those gold-toned rims. :bleh:

bmwracer wrote:The black and gold must be a nod to those old JPS Lotuses from its F1 days... And it looks rather dated, especially those gold-toned rims. :bleh:

Black is not my fav. color but it's shape is stunning. And ofcourse it's handling. i think i'd take those rims in white (if driving a black one).

mpm wrote:Black is not my fav. color but it's shape is stunning. And ofcourse it's handling. i think i'd take those rims in white (if driving a black one).

I'll take mine in red with plain silver/gray rims, thank you very much. :victory: