Monday, April 30, 2007

Video: Sauber BMW F1 car on Nurburgring

Heidfeld Runs Sauber BMW F1 Around Nürburgring

For the first time in over three decades a Formula One car has lapped the Nürburgring circuit. Driver Nick Heidfeld pummled the BMW Sauber F1 car around the legendary course, managing 170 mph through the Döttinger Höhe straightaway. Heidfeld said he really wanted to empty the tank, but cautious owners, hard tires, and official slowdowns for photographers prevented any eleven tenths driving. Team Manager Beat Zehnder was in the same helicopter that shot this video to assure proper Green Hell behavior via radio contact. – Mike Bumbeck

Video: Maybach Excelero Going Over 200 mph

It Moves Fast: Maybach Excelero Going 218 MPH!!

Sure, they had to tape the wheels up a bit. But 218 mph makes this ringwraith looking ride as fast as an Enzo. We've known that if the car Maybach really ought to build got itself built, that the battle-tested twin-turbo V12 would make the Excelero as potent as Tom Brady's sperm. So are they gonna build it? Who knows, but the fact that the (supposed) one off not only moves, but flat out hauls, is surely great news for Billionaires the world over. As we and countless other journos have said, Maybach has to do something, and fast. And turns out this Excelero is pretty dang fast. – Jonny Lieberman

Dodge Challenger preproduction body shells caught on camera

Posted Apr 30th 2007 1:28AM by John Neff
Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Etc., Chrysler

click above image to view more pics of these Dodge Challenger body shells

These pics showing multiple preproduction Dodge Challenger body shells are what you might call radioactive. They were originally posted in a thread on the Newhemitech.com forums on Saturday night at 9:25PM EST. We learned about them shortly afterward when a link was posted in a thread on the GMInsideNews.com forums. We've been in contact with Chrysler about them, who obviously view the pictures as a very serious breach in security. They were clearly taken illegaly on private property, which at first gave us serious pause. Since then, however, they've begun to show up on more and more websites. We have no one to which we can attribute the photos, and considering their radioactivity, likely never will.

From our perspective, however, these pics are actually a good thing for Chrysler. We haven't heard much about the Challenger in a while, and these images are sure to spark up interest again in the automaker's forthcoming pony car. We should be straight with you and mention that the production Challenger is still a ways off and these shells do not necessarily reveal any reliable information about what the production car will be like. The only appreciable difference that we can identify between the concept and these shells, in fact, is the addition of a fixed B-pillar. Still, it's great to see hard evidence that the Challenger project is moving forward, bringing all of us closer to the day when we can roll down to the nearest Chrysler dealer and pick one up for ourselves.

[Source: Newhemitech.com via GMInsideNews]

Gallery: Dodge Challenger preproduction body shells

Gallery: Dodge Challenger Concept

Read

Shaq Gets A Stretch Lambo Gallardo

Shaq Attack: Metalworkers Make NBA Player's Lamborghini an XXL

Date posted: 04-27-2007

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Basketball great Shaquille O'Neal got special treatment for his Lamborghini Gallardo — a stretched version thanks to Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters, a supplier for such corporations as the Boeing Company and PPG Aerospace Glass. The longer Lambo has 12 inches added through the middle, surely a relief for the 7-foot-1-inch athlete.

The Gallardo received custom extended doors, roof and side windows. The company says it strove to maintain the car's "visual integrity" with the changes. Glass fabrication was a particular challenge, the company said. "We relied on our aerospace and coachworks divisions to make sure Shaq could fit in the car, but the naked eye could not detect any differences from the original Gallardo," Gaffoglio CEO George Gaffoglio said.

What this means to you: Great minds working together help Shaq fit in his luxury car. Two points!

Honda's Secret Garage

Honda’s Secret Garage Photos

Honda certainly had humble beginnings in the U.S.

Photos by By Douglas Kott

June 2007

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Web Exclusive: Honda’s Secret Garage

Quite similar in mechanical specification to the N600, the 1375-lb. Z600 Coupe was impossibly small and not well-suited to U.S. driving conditions. Easy to park, though.	The rare Honda without an internal-combustion engine. This Soapbox Derby car is finished with the sort of attention to detail bestowed on Acura/Honda production cars.	The early-1970s’ N600, with 36 bhp of twin-cylinder, air-cooled fury. This tiny front-driver has MacPherson-strut front suspension and a beam rear axle on leaf springs.
VTEC has become almost a generic term for variable valve timing and lift systems, because Honda pioneered the concept. Here, a cutaway B18C1 powerplant.	Honda-powered Indy cars, stacked two high. Company founder Soichiro Honda would have been proud of his company’s recent competition successes.	Honda has cut its engineering teeth on high-revving, high-tech engines, so the Indy Car V-8 program was a natural progression. The Garage has five or six on display.
The Garage currently has a sampling of just nine Honda scooters and motorcycles, but that will change when a mezzanine display area is built against the wall.	In 1986, Honda rocked the establishment with its upmarket division, Acura. Here is the Legend sedan…audaciously named, with an ultra-smooth 2.5-liter V-6.	A poster for the original Honda Civic, in all its expressive and kitschy 1970s’ glory. The Civic brought Honda into America’s small-car consciousness.
This blister-flared CRX 2-seater from the mid-1980s showcased numerous offerings from the company’s internal performance-parts division, Mugen Racing.	The original 68-bhp Honda Accord, with its unexpected refinement and convenience features, made Americans take Japanese cars seriously. Its price in 1976? $3995.	A Super Cub 50, vintage 1960 or 1961, the motorcycle that first gave Honda the tiniest of footholds in the U.S. market. Honda still makes a version for sale in Japan.
Honda’s “Secret Garage” serves as a corporate meeting place where employees are surrounded by significant examples of the company’s cars and motorcycles.

Porsche Makes Formal Offer To Buy VW

Porsche proposes to Volkswagen

Posted Apr 30th 2007 12:28PM by Noah Joseph
Filed under: Government/Legal, Porsche, Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials

It's official, Porsche has submitted an offer to buy the Volkswagen group. Unless you've been living in a cave, you probably already know that the erstwhile sportscar manufacturer is more profitable than the megalithic auto consortium, with all its subsidiaries, and has been steadily increasing its stake in VW.

When Porsche raised its stake in Volkswagen past 30%, German law mandated that it submit an offer to Volkswagen shareholders to buy them out and take over the automotive conglomerate outright. The mandatory offer has now been officially submitted, and subsequently approved by the German Federal Agency for Financial Services Supervision.

Porsche is offering Є100.92 per common share, and Є65.54 for preferred shares, coming in at the bare minimum required by law. Volkswagen shareholders have until May 29 to accept or refuse the offer. If they accept, Porsche will have full control of Volkswagen and all its subsidiaries, including the Audi, Skoda, Seat, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley brands, turning what was once the niche sportscar maker into one of the largest automobile makers in the world. It's unlikely that the VW board will accept, however, considering Porsche made the bare min bid.

Related posts:

Press release after the jump.

[Source: Porsche]

PRESS RELEASE:

Porsche submits mandatory offer for Volkswagen shares

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, Germany, submitted its mandatory offer to acquire shares of Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg, Germany, on this Monday after the offer documentation was officially approved by the Federal Agency for Financial Services Supervision (BaFin) for publication. The acceptance period is limited to approximately four weeks and ends on May 29, 2007. The price offered to the Volkswagen shareholders amounts to €100.92 per common share and €65.54 per preferred share, which represents the minimum price required by law. Porsche does not consider a premium on the minimum price to be appropriate, as the price of Volkswagen shares has risen significantly since the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer took an interest in the company. The mandatory offer, which is not conditional upon attainment of a minimum acceptance level, can be found on and downloaded from the Porsche website at www.porsche.com/germany/aboutporsche/investorrelations/.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Supercar Video

Porsche Carrera GT: Video comparison against Maserati MC12 and Mercedes McLaren SLR

Great video here with the Maserati MC12, the Porsche Carrera GT and the Mercedes McLaren SLR. Enjoy!

Shop Tour: Foose Design and Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters

One of the pitfalls of being immersed in the constant barrage of all things automotive is the danger of becoming jaded. Walking the line between facilitating inadvertent product placement and conveying genuine enthusiam about automobiles can be a tricky balance. Just when we think we've seen enough and seriously contemplate going to get a job driving a flower truck, something comes along so astounding as to completely restore complete faith in the fine art of building automobiles and the enthusiasm this craft creates. A recent trip down to Foose Design world headquarters and then onto the Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters infused us with enough wonder to repel even the worst automotive kryptonite back into outer space for a long time. More after the jump.

Foose Design and Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Shop Tour

On Tour

The occasion was being invited to tag along as Chip Foose and George Gaffoglio of Metalcrafters welcomed car collector Roger Burgess, who was the proud winner of recent auction of the Hemisfear Foose Coupe. Mr. Burgess would get a tour of both Foose Design and Metalcrafters, then work with the pair to hash out exactly how he wanted his coupe constructed. The Hemisfear Foose Coupe is the end result of a design first penned when Foose was still at Art Center College of Design in 1990. Originally an exercise in niche market design for Chrysler, the Hemisfear Foose Coupe is now in limited production at the Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters, and will be sold through Unique Performance.

Fine Suits

The Hemisfear Foose Coupe scales in at a mere 2600 pounds thanks to a composite construction of alumininum, carbon fiber und schteel. Power comes from to a 392 cubic inch Hemi sporting Hilborn Injection, or available Ford GT powerplant mounted amidships. Gear rowing will be by way of a ZF 5-speed. The car rides on a suspension designed specifically for the coupe by John Hotchkis of Hotchkis Sport Suspension. Whoa comes from a massive set of Foose labeled Baer brakes. Air conditioning, power windows, and the usual luxury items are also part of the deal. "Buying the Foose Coupe will be like buying a fine suit as it will be made to order," said George Gaffoglio, Chief Executive Officer of Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters. This suit will run you a shade over 300 large.

Art Work in Progress

First stop on the tour was Foose Design World Headquarters. Let it be said now that Chip Foose clearly enjoys his work, and clearly has plenty of work in progress. A Morrison-Chassied 54 'Vette in in the lay in beginning stages in the paint booth. An upside down 'Cuda was getting ground on a rotissere. A car under construction sat with a Meyer-Drake DT160 in the middle of the chassis. Foose said as it turns out one of the only Drake engine specialists in the country had a shop right around the corner in Huntington Beach. Vintage Go Karts were hanging from the walls and an even older bumper car sat out front of Foose's office. Even 'Vannin was represented by a flared fender and slot magged Chevy out front. The whirlwind Foose Design tour wrapped quickly and the caravan headed over to Fountain Valley - home of the Metalcrafters.

Metalcrafters

Once at Metalcrafters George Gaffoglio rolled a video of the Chrysler Me412 Concept fabrication condensed down to four minutes. In went the 12-cylinder Quad-Turbo. On went the panels. Out rolled the concept car. Metalcrafters builds many of the concept cars we feature here at Jalopnik, and has been doing so since 1979. Next stop was a trip to the design room. There the Hemisfear Foose Coupe spun about on a computer screen, showing detials of every system and subsystem. Chassis and rear subframe. Coolant tubes running through a structural conduit. The central mounted radiator and how it gets air though low pressure air path venting. The body parts lowest to the ground are serviceable in case of ground contact or damage, as Foose himself interjected. Working out the design of the car digitally using Catia V5 allows the various sub-assemblies of the car needed to be constructed individually for production assembly. We were then instructed by a large man in a pinstripe suit squeezing a lemon peel into his espresso, that there were things that could not be photographed. Actually it was George, so we listened.

Phenomena

With every turn on the production floor came the wonder we spoke of earlier. CNC machines churning out automotive jewelry. An entire building stuffed with Italian machinery and craftsmen whose sole purpose is to manufacture glass for aerospace and automobiles. Complete and in progress concept cars appeared and disappeared. An autoclave the size of a Zeppelin stood in wait for the carbon fiber Funny Car bodies being assembled by hand. These bodies feature the strength to stand up to 300 mph, yet weigh only 104 pounds. Looking like the car Green Hornet had was a Foose designed 1966 Chrysler Imperial. The heavy is owned by Detroit Casino mogul Gregg Solomon and packs a Hemi along with LX-platform running gear grafted in place of the original '60s-era suspension. Ending up the tour was the shop where the Hemisfear Foose Coupes are assembled. The awe of the day was wrapped up in one phrase by Roger Burgess who stated simply, "this is phenomenal". – Mike Bumbeck

Foose Design [chipfoose.com]; Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters [metalcrafters.com]; Unique Performance [uniqueperformance.com]

Tiff Needle Driving McLaren F1 LM & Enzo

Still, any man having a cargasm on camera is worth watching. What's he so excited about? Well, at first Tiff putters around in an Enzo. Which he thinks is OK. You know, just your average run of the mill supercar. But then he gets into the goofy center-seat of a McLaren F1, and well... you should watch. We will warn you, it is not just a "regular" McLaren F1, but one of the extra lust-worthy examples that started life as racecars and were converted back for street use. Meaning that they weigh hundreds of kilos less and sound like heaven filtered through hell. And if you like Tiff here, we've got more of him below the jump. – Jonny LIeberman

Chrysler Thinking About Building a Cuda On The Challenger Platform

Photo illustration by George Achorn / Brenda Pridd

Sneak peek: Chrysler Cuda

Our illustrator nearly fell off his feet when he heard mention of a possible Chrysler Cuda -- twin to the upcoming Dodge Challenger -- during an interview with Chip Foose, hot rodder, television talent and all-round good guy, at the New York auto show.

Though Plymouth, the original brand to sell the Cuda, has long been out of business, Chrysler seems to be the apparent heir. Whether the market needs yet another muscle car remains to be seen. Chrysler could likely bring such a car to market with relative ease.

This photo illustration takes elements of the Cuda and adds them to the Challenger model. The six-opening grille was a '72 Cuda signature, as were the shaker hood and the lower driving lights. Single round headlights are more characteristic of the '70 Cuda, with Gatling gun LED design similar to those seen on the Challenger concept. Wheels from the Chrysler SRT8 complete the look and are more indicative of the badge that the new Cuda would now call home.

Dyno Test Between Audi R8 and RS4

Dyno Test: 2008 Audi R8 vs. 2007 Audi RS4

By Jason Cammisa

Our Four Seasons Audi RS4 has a lot of fans around the office. While it's a great all-around car, it's the 8,250-rpm, 420-hp, 4.2-liter engine that really gets our attention. The V-8's power delivery is so linear that it feels like an electric motor, except of course no electric motor could ever sound this good. I once described its staccato exhaust note as sounding like a thunder cloud. Assistant editor Sam Smith said it sounded "like an angry, drunken bear being shot from a cannon." One of us is obviously a big fan of hallucinogenics.

Anyway, Audi's new R8 shares the RS4's engine, albeit with a couple of small changes. First, it has different intake and exhaust paths due to its mid-engine layout. Then, its dry-sump lubrication system allows the engine to be mounted lower in the chassis, permitting the use of a smaller, and lighter, flywheel.

The lightened flywheel is evident as soon as you turn the key. The R8's V-8 revs much more quickly than the RS4's. So quickly, in fact, that it seems the flywheel must be made of helium. Teensy little prods of the throttle result in huge surges of revs, with sharp barks of anger shooting out of the short exhaust pipes.

In gear under load, the R8 sounds frenetic, evil, and pissed off. By comparison, the RS4 sounds happy, refined, and non-threatening. Never thought you'd hear those words about an RS4, did you? The R8 sounds that good.

On the road, the R8's power delivery felt similar to the RS4's - it has a huge amount of torque available at any speed. Unlike the RS4, though, which hits hard at 3000 rpm and stays there, the R8's torque output builds with revs, gradually coming to its peak.

This isn't surprising - the RS4 uses long intake runners, which help boost low-end torque, while the R8 uses short runners that favor high-rpm breathing. That small difference was enough to convince me to take both cars to a chassis dyno to find out how much of a difference there really is.

We had to massage the final chart because the R8 exhibited a big drop in output between 2000 and 4000 rpm on the fourth gear runs, caused by a glitch in the European-specification, pre-production powertrain computer. The curves shown below are corrected using the fifth gear curves as a guide. The dyno used was a Dynapack 5000, which typically reads a little lower than the more common DynoJet unit.

Since everyone asks about peak numbers first, the RS4 put down 331 hp to the wheels, the R8 put down 338. The difference between those two numbers, which is about two percent, is insignificant. Given the 420-hp rating at the engine, their output corresponds to twenty percent drivetrain loss, which is commendable for an all-wheel drive setup.

The dyno chart confirms what we felt in the seat of our pants - the RS4 has a bigger torque plateau in the mid-range, where the R8's torque curve rises more slowly. Both engines, however, have a torque curves so robust that they would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.

And both sound incredible.