Honda Uni-Cub Personal Mobily Device

The Honda Cub line of motorbikes has been a major part of Honda’s legacy to the automotive world, the Super Cub having been in constant production since 1958. obviously it has seen some upgrades and redesigned as the decades passed but having produced over sixty million units in 2008, the Super Cub is by far the most produced motor vehicle in the history.

We can’t expect Honda not to cherish their heritage and work towards bettering their legacy, and this is where the new Uni-Cub personal mobility device comes into play.

The Honda Uni-Cub is a very compact individual transport device which looks a lot like a unicycle as far as general looks and function go; the device basically offers the same freedom a movement a person would have just walking, the difference being that you will be seating on a comfortable saddle-style seat. The world’s first omni-directional driving wheel system uses Honda’s proprietary balance control technology so as to make this functionality possible.

The rider can control the speed, as well as the direction that they’re heading in, and of course the ability to turn and stop, all of which can be done by shifting one’s weight in the seat. The weight shifting is done very easily which in turn allows for the user to weave in an around other people quite easily.

The futuristic machine is propelled by a Lithium-ion battery and can generate speeds of up to 6 km/h and can go for about six kilometers. Considering the size and capabilities of the machine, users must be somewhere between forty and a hundred kilograms and between 150 to 190 cm tall.

It’s interesting to note that this trend towards electric individual mobility is not limited to Japan, with things like the Smart eScooter and eBike as well as Audi’s e-bike concept being recently revealed.

1965 Shelby GT350

We mentioned earlier in the week, when we made our quick overview of Carroll Shelby’s career, that we’ll be talking about him and some of his machines later on in the week, well this is that day, we’ll be taking a similarly quick look at some of the machines that make up his legacy.

He is a legend because of one simple truth, at least some of the things that he did worked extremely well. We’re not saying that everything he did was worthy of the record-books, but there are quite a few things that are, such as winning Le Mans as a driver, a team manager and a constructor – the only man to have done this – and also he’s mostly to thank for the Mustang‘s reputation as a performance car. Obviously there’s the Cobra, without which the Viper would have never just sprung up from the ground, not to mention that he worked on the Viper as well.

1962 AC Cobra

What made this car unique at its launch and a very important point of reference since then, has been its stylish look and shape. While the basic idea behind the style can be found in the 1953 AC Ace, the Cobra is still the loveliest of the British-American hybrid cars not to mention one of the most important cars of the muscle decade. It is probably the most popular kit car model out there.

1964 Cobra Daytona Coupe

This variation on the initial Cobra was designed by Pete Brock, and replaced the British influences with more Italian ones. The vehicle worked as planned and beat Ferrari’s equally-legendary 250 GTO, however only six of these cars were built, so it is actually rarer than the 250 GTO.

1965 427 Cobra

For this Cobra, Shelby applied some of his Texan values, meaning more of everything is always better, this is why this Cobra features the 427-inch side-oiler from Ford. The chassis had to be upgraded as well, in order to handle the extra power and bulk of the thing and the coil springs were replaced with the leaf jobs from the AC.

1965 Shelby Mustang GT 350

This is the model that turned the Mustang, from a ‘secretary’s car’ as he used to call it, into a performance beast, just as John DeLorean was starting the muscle-car wars with the early versions of the Pontiac GTO.

1992 Dodge Viper RT/10

We skipped a few decades to reach this modern interpretation of the Cobra. The car was built with Shelby’s input, and to strengthen the link to the original, this one got the name of an aggressive snake as well.

These have been just five of the many more models that Shelby has worked on during his career, some might not even consider these to be his most important, we’re not saying they are, just that they are part of his greatest creations.

Recently, a consulting firm from Virginia that specializes in advertising, made a forecast related to the advertising spending for the American car making industry. They projected that the industry will increase spending for advertising by about fourteen percent this year, with around forty percent of that going towards digital media.

At odds, apparently, with this forecast is the even more recent news that General Motors is going to stop advertising on Facebook due to not seeing as big of an impact on sales as they were expecting from the endeavor.

GM’s marketing chief talked to the Wall Street Journal and said that they are in the process of reassessing their advertising on Facebook, even though the content is effective and important. By content the marketing chief was referring to the free Facebook page, which is used to promote their products without any additional costs.

Further on in the article it is revealed that GM has started the process of reassessing their Facebook advertising costs earlier in the year after the company’s marketing team started questioning the effectiveness of the Facebook ads. A meeting was held with Facebook managers in an attempt to alleviate the concerns of the marketing executives of GM, however they left the meeting feeling unconvinced.

Contrasting with this decision is that coming from Subaru America, who has increased their commitment for ad spending on Facebook to almost five million dollars, their chief marketing officer planning to play the long haul game, saying that “half the US population is on Facebook, you have to work it to learn it”.

However GM have spent double that, last year, as their Facebook advertising budget, though one has to keep in mind that their total advertising budget amounts to almost US$1.8 billion, just to keep things into perspective.

With Facebook’s first public offering of shares about to start on Friday, the decision from GM will surely raise doubts about the social networking site’s ability to maintain the 88 percent revenue growth it managed in 2011.

Automotive manufacturers have been fiddling with the way their products sound, both on the outside and on the inside, for a few decades now. This practice might be a bit better known in regards to motorbikes, but it is not strange to cars either.

In recent times, BMW has employed an actual digital sound file, sound inspected and digitally perfected, to offer the M5 owners what they consider to be the proper sense of aggressiveness when driving at pace.

Porsche as well did something similar, however they went with a more old-school option, employing a sound symposer in order to feed the growl of the 911′s flat-six into the cabin.

What is a sound symposer, you might ask?

A sound symposer is a diaphragm that is electrically controlled which is placed in a specially tuned sound tube meant to funnel the proper engine noises into the passenger compartment. The electrical component of the diaphragm means that it is opened and closed by the vehicle’s on-board electronics so that you can basically turn the engine snarl off and on, at the push of a button.

For some this might sound as a bit of a gimmick, and as far as performance goes, it is, but driving a car for many of us is much more than just using it as a means of transportation.

Actually the sound symposer technology has been on the minds of other car manufacturers as well, a former GM employee mentioned that he wanted for the system to be installed in Cadillacs, but the financial part of GM shot that idea down because of costs – we are aware that GM has been going through a lot of financial hardships in the past few years.

However it would appear that it is not too expensive for Ford, considering that they have added the sound symposer technology to their upcoming Fiesta ST model.

Two Shelby GT350 Mustangs

This past week, one of the legends of the automotive world has passed away; Carroll Shelby died Thursday night in Dallas, at the age of 89.

Shelby has been a constant presence in the world of car making for the past fifty years, however he started his carrier in the world of cars much earlier than that, starting out as a race driver. And he was very good at it, winning three U.S. Sports-car championships as well as the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with British co-driver Roy Salvadori.

While he’s much better known by the older generation, and more-so in the States, Shelby has had a very real impact on the entire world of car making. He is the one who created the Cobra, a rather crude Anglo-American hot rod which went on to prove extraordinary effectiveness, so much so that it took the world manufacturer’s title from Ferrari.

He then went on to re-imagine the Ford Mustang – possibly the most iconic muscle car ever – which in turn resulted in Trans-Am racing titles and then the creation of the aggressive Shelby GT350 street car. During his stint as the Ford’s car driving team, they won Le Mans in ’66 and ’67.

His legacy in regards to Le Mans is quite the unique one, it is considered that Carroll Shelby is the only person to have won Le Mans as a driver, a manufacturer – with the Cobra Daytona coupe – as well as a team owner.

He also had a talent for being a good promoter of his achievements and this helped to make his name into a worldwide icon of high-performance, even though not everything he got involved turned into gold.

His business turned towards doing advanced research and development for many clients, in many various fields, but one has to also be aware that his accomplishments are not limited to the car making scene, he showed a great talent and skill in a large array of other industries, such as ranching, real estate and even aircraft dealing.

Regardless of which field he chose to focus his attention on, he brought a powerful combination of intelligence, vision, curiosity, guile and charm as well as what he described as “the work ethic”, a unique combination that only he had and which allowed him to be as successful as he was.

There would be so many more things to say about both the man and the legend that Carroll Shelby was, however we only wanted to mark his passing and remind people of who and what he was, we might be talking about some of his car making achievements later on in the week.

Google Autonomous Vehicle

Google tends to be in Internet related news usually, or more recently space mining, however we’ll be talking about it related to automotive news today.

In case you didn’t know, Google has been working one something that has been more science-fiction than actual science, a car that drives itself. However considering how in recent years, with the development of smartphones, tablet devices and many other incredible technologies, the line between the fiction and the actual science is starting to blur, and as such the autonomous car developed by Google is actually a thing now.

Not only is the self-driving car, autonomous, but it is also an environmentally friendly one, being a Toyota Prius. Having undergone a rather well publicized and successful street test when Google placed a legally blind Californian man behind the wheel of the car, we can now report that the autonomous vehicle has now been issued its license to drive in the United States.

The decision of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles came only after a slew of test were done, which pit the driverless Google car on a variety of street types, freeways, highways as well as local roads.

The Nevada DMV director, Bruce Breslow was the one who issued the first autonomous vehicle license plate – AU-001, which features an infinity symbol on a red background – he described the automobile as being the “car of the future”.

The plate was made red in order for it to be easily recognized by the public and law enforcement and will be used from now on for all licensed autonomous test vehicles. Then, when it comes time for vehicle manufacturers to market these autonomous vehicles, the infinity symbol will appear on a green license plate.

Google is the first company to do a lot of things, and many have followed it in the IT field, this stays true when it comes to this autonomous car enterprise. Quite a few other car makers have reveled their plans to develop their own technologies for autonomous vehicles in Nevada.

Porsche Boxter E

Porsche has been in the news lately for a variety of reasons, one would be its rather massive revenue from this year’s first quarter, most of it being attributed to the extremely successful 911 911, which sold far better than the previous model, the 997.

While many other industries, and frankly, manufacturers in their industry as well, are seeing losses and enacting cutbacks, Porsche has had an increase in worldwide sales, and have actually hired on an additional 725 employees across the globe.

The other reasons behind it featuring in automotive news being the rumors regarding its development of various models, and we’ll be talking about one such future possibility, namely a diesel-powered Boxster.

Of course this wouldn’t be the first time that Porsche has offered diesel engine variations of their models, as evidenced by the Cayenne and Panamera diesel versions. However doing this with two large models and then jumping to a tiny sports car is quite the leap, and at first thought it sounds rather crazy, but there are indications from Porsche that it is going to happen.

The Chief of Porsche R&D, Wolfgang Hatz, who is also VW Group’s engine guru, has recently said that diesel is becoming a solid part of their manufacturing strategy and more powerful versions of Porsche models should be expected in the future.

Actually this should come as little surprise considering that the Porsche Boxtser E was announced to debut in 2013. This model has been in the prototype stage for a few years now and its main claim to fame is that it will be powered by two independent electric motors, one for each axle. The motors will be developing a total power output to 241 HP and a maximum total torque of 398 lb-ft once it reaches the engine’s maximum 12,000 rpm.

So with a full electric model coming down the pipe and a diesel one following it, it seems that Porsche isn’t going to slow down any time soon.

2013 Audi Q5

Even though the title says “face-lift”, the new look of the Audi Q5 has only seen minor rearrangements. A bit of tweaking with the interior and some small changes to its face, however where the real changes occur is under the hood.

While not all the engine options will be available everywhere, however a couple of the now six different options will surely make it through; worth to mention the fact that four of the six engine options will feature some sort of 2.0-liter turbo four.

The diesel varieties will generate either 143 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque or 177 hp and 280 lb-ft; the gasoline counterparts on the other hand will offer 211 hp and 258 lb-ft or 225 hp and 258 lb-ft.

What should be noted is that the 211-hp version will get a bit of a boost from an electric motor, yes you read that right, the Q5 will also feature a hybrid option; it seems like absolutely everyone is trying to have their presence felt on the hybrid market and this is a trend that is only going to get more prominent, with even Ferrari announcing a future hybrid limited high-end model.

Returning to the hybrid Q5 option, the total power-train output for that version will be of 245 hp and 345 lb-ft of torque.

Amongst the six options, there are two six-cylinder versions, a 3.0-liter diesel generating 245 hp and 428 lb.ft of torque, and the other is a supercharged gasoline six plucked from the A6 and A7. It is however slightly detuned to only create 272 hp and 295 lb-ft. The company says that the car will get to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds and top out at a bit over 145 mph.

Audi haven’t announced yet which of the models will be available where, but one could speculate that the 2.0T gasoline engine, the hybrid option, and maybe even the V6 diesel as well as the gasoline six to be available in the U.S

Lotus Esprit John Player Special by Cam Shaft Germany

The 1 of May has come and gone, and while most of us celebrated Labor Day by not laboring, others celebrated a man who died on the 1^st of May 1994, a man named Ayrton Senna da Silva.

Since we will be talking pretty much exclusively about cars and the automobile world on this blog, it only makes sense to acknowledge one generally considered to be one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers to have ever raced.

This Brazilian showed great promise from the very moment he raced a kart for the first time at age 13. He had been infatuated with racing ever since he received a miniature go-kart as a present from his father on his fourth birthday. His meteoric rise through the ranks of the racing world took everyone by surprise. The man was driven to extend his limits and go faster than the last run, it is said that he was obsessed with constantly bettering himself, a goal that would eventually make him into something of a martyr.

He drove for Lotus for three seasons, in which he starter from pole position sixteen times and won six races, and our story revolves around Lotus.

The German customizer Cam Shaft chose to celebrate Ayrton Senna by creating a vinyl wrap for an old Lotus Esprit. Back in 1985 Senna drove for the Lotus team in a black-and-gold John Player Special Lotus 97T.

The Lotus Esprit is the only Lotus production car to feature a V8 engine and developed 285 lb-ft of torque from a 354 hp engine. Weight in at 3,042 pounds, it only needed 4.9 seconds to reach 62 mph.

The wrapping itself features the John Player logos as well as a reproduced gold signature of Ayrton Senna alongside a hold number 12 on the side, this being Senna’s race number.

There would be many more things to say about Ayrton Senna’s life and career, despite living only 34 years, those were very intense and interesting years, he is still missed by those who loved him and who admired him on the racing track.

Volvo hybrid - Mean Green

When it comes to automobile hybrid technology there’s a very valid conversation being held in regards to whether or not they are indeed more energy efficient when you take into account the entire production process, especially when you look at the environmental impact of producing and transporting the actual hybrid car batteries. We’ll talk about this issue in a future article, today however we’ll take a quick look at one of Volvo’s newest hybrid solutions, the hybrid truck known as the “Mean Green” at the moment.

The new Volvo truck combines a diesel engine with an electric motor and can accelerate solely under electric power, thus promoting lower fuel consumption, emissions and of course lower noise levels as well. Preliminary calculations indicate that the fuel savings can amount to somewhere between twenty and thirty percent, with a similar reduction to its environmental impact.

Recently the mean Green broke two world speed records at the Wendoveer Airfield in Utah. While it didn’t reach its planned top velocity of 165 mph, it did achieve the records for the standing kilometer and the flying kilometer. The 147 mph that it did reach is quite a respectable speed, especially when you consider that this is basically a truck meant to haul trailers down a highway, those are hardly the types of speeds that it is expected reach normally – however when taking into account the resistance of the carry load, it’s good to know what type of power the truck can develop.

The standing kilometer is measured from a stop, and the Mean Green topped 95 mph in this category.

The flying kilometer means that the drivers get a small distance to gather up some speed before starting the run.

The previous records for the truck were 135.9 mph for the flying kilometer and 94.6 mph in the standing one, runs which were completed in June of 2011 in Sweden.

While the truck did feature a modified aerodynamic body it was still mostly made up of Volvo production components and the engine was a tuned Volvo D16 coupled with a modified version of the I-Shift gearbox, also of their own design. The electric motor develops about 200 HP and 885 lb-ft of torque – it should be mentioned that the total HP the truck develops is 2,100 and 5000 lb-ft of torque.

The truck’s driver and owner, Boije Overbrink mentioned to be very pleased with his truck’s performance, especially considering that the tests took place at more than 4,200 feet above sea level.

The new speed records, which were verified by the United States Auto Club should be recognized by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile in thirty to sixty days.