CAR REPAIRE: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Racing Festival At Carlsberg 2010 - Sports Cars Drifting

Racing Festival at Carlsberg 2010 - Sports Cars Drifting

HD-Video, pictures and sound from Racing Festival at Carlsberg 2010. A charity race collecting money for Dansih Red Cross Filmed on Canon EOS 7D ...

Honda May Push for an Early Facelift for its North American 2012 Civic to Address Criticism

To say that the reception for the North American market 2012 Honda Civic was cold would probably be the understatement of the year. Pundits were very harsh on their comments for the New York Motor Show-revealed sedan and coupe models, making negative remarks about its stale styling and its cheap interior plastics.

Consumer Reports gave it the final blow: in a recent report, the publication described the 2012 model as “insubstantial” and with an interior that “feels cheap, a letdown from previous Civics”.

As a result, the 2012 Civic ranked second to last in CR’s report and lost its “recommended” tag for the first time in, well, as long as we can remember.

Adding to a long line of leaks these past few days, the specification sheet along with a few more brochure shots of the JDM 2012 Toyota FT-86 made their way onto Japanese forums revealing new details on the firm's rear-wheel drive coupe.

Cutting to the chase, the FT-86 measures 4,240mm (166.9-in.) long, 1,775mm wide (69.9-in.), and 1,285mm (50.6-in.) tall, while riding on a 2,570mm (101.2-in.) long wheelbase.

In its home market of Japan, the FT-86 is powered by a Subaru-sourced 2.0-liter flat-four churning out 200-horses at 7,000 rpm and 205Nm (151.2 lb-ft) of peak torque at 6,600 rpm. It is very likely that the output numbers will remain the same for the global Toyota FT-86 and the North American Scion FR-S.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave these past few months and were completely cut-off from the outside world, you’ll surely have heard of the European economic crisis that started with the Greek debt and is now threatening to engulf many more European countries.

For the past two years, Greece taken extremely severe austerity measures to reduce its debt – though their implementation has left a lot to be desired. Italy and Spain are considered by many analysts to be next in line.

Yet the Italian Ministry of Defense recently ordered 19 range-topping Maserati Quattroporte limousines for government officials!

After Toyota, Honda is the next Japanese carmaker to announce significant production cuts at its North American plants due to component shortages caused by three months of disastrous flooding in Thailand.

And is the case with Toyota, the production cuts for Honda come just as the company was recovering from the effects of the March earthquake and tsunami.

Honda said that as the flooding in Thailand continues, a number of its suppliers in Asia are currently unable to maintain parts production to its assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada.

It's all about fun and games when it comes to Kia's 2011 SEMA Show displays as the Korean manufacturer has arrived in Las Vegas with a roster of six sports-themed vehicles.

These include the Surfboard Rio and Hockey Forte hatchbacks that we showed you earlier today, plus the golf-themed Soul, Rio 5-Door B-Spec Racer, USTCC Optima Hybrid Pace Car and the “Slam Dunk” Blake Griffin Optima Hybrid featured here.

MINI's marketing team wants to bring an international flair to the new Coupe and Roadster models with its latest advertising campaigns.

Much like the first video of the helmet-roofed Coupe that was shown driving through various parts of Brazil, Iceland and Hong Kong, the Roadster's first action footage takes us on a trip to the streets of Turkey.

Toyota has had more than its fair share of problems in 2011, from the devastating March earthquake to the rising yen and the recent Thailand floods that have curtailed the brand's production.

However, despite all these setbacks, the troubled Japanese carmaker still has a couple of reasons to celebrate these days. The first of course is the eagerly awaited FT-86 RWD coupe.

The second reason is that last Friday, October 28, the two millionth Yaris rolled off the Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF) plant in Valenciennes, France.

A traffic camera located at an intersection in the small Russian town of Timashevsk in the Krasnodar region captured a terrifying accident involving a Mercedes-Benz ML350 SUV.

The driver of the German luxury crossover blew right through a red light at speed and was hit on the rear passenger side by an oncoming Daewoo Nexia, which sent the Mercedes rolling over towards a pedestrian on the sidewalk.

Amazingly, the alert woman saw the Mercedes-Benz SUV coming her way and she instinctively jumped to safety literally at the last moment. The ML350 came to a stop on an electric pole with the video showing the careless driver jumping out of the car, apparently unhurt.

The Fiat Group may be constantly delaying Alfa Romeo's return to the U.S. market but at least it's keeping its word with the 500 range.

After the regular three-door hatchback and the rolling soft top 500C, Fiat is now introducing the most stimulating (from a driver's perspective) version of the series, the sporty Abarth model, which will be making its debut at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show on November 18.

Mercedes' big hardtop roadster model is entering its final development phase as we near closer to the next generation SL's launch date in the second half of 2012.

The current iteration of the SL, codenamed R320, has been in production since 2001 having received two facelifts, one in 2006 and another, more extensive makeover, in 2008.
The next SL will be brand new from the bottom up sporting a new platform architecture while sharing certain key components such as the suspension bits and electrical systems with the SLS AMG.

Saab Presents New Restructuring Plan to its Creditors

On Monday, Swedish Automobile presented the restructuring plan of Saab Automobile to the company's creditors at a preliminary meeting in Vanersborg, Sweden.

Saab’s management informed the creditors about the key points of the reorganization process, which has the support both of the administrators who are overseeing the process as well as future owners Pang Da and Youngman.

Less than 24 hours before the doors open at the 2011 edition of the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) Show and Kia Motors has revealed a pair of tricked concept models that will make their debut in Las Vegas.

Both the Rio 5-Door Surf and the Forte 5-Door Hockey were built in partnership with Antenna magazine.

Starting with the 2012 Rio, the surf-themed tuning project features a sunset-metallic golden-brown paint along with a custom body kit with a front splitter made of wood that matches the surfboard on the roof, and rear fascia with center-mount exhaust. A set of 17-inch three-piece gold wheels and a Thule roof rack that holds the surfboard complete the look.

On the second day of the Targa New Zealand race, competitors and viewers alike witnessed a rather unusual spectacle: a sports car racing against a helicopter.

The vehicle in question was a Stillen R-35 Nissan GT-R driven by Steve Millen while acrobatic racing pilot, Leigh Hopper, controlled the Eurocopter “Squirrel”.

Now, this isn't the first time a sports car has lined up against a flying machine. But this spontaneous road-and-sky-racing during a pit stop was unexpected – especially as they made two runs instead of one.

Niki Lauda may have been wrong in our opinion about Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula1, but as far as the latest world champion is concerned, his predictions appear to be spot on.

The Austrian had said that, given the right circumstances, Sebastian Vettel has the potential to match and even surpass Schumacher who so far, has broken nearly all records in F1.

On Tuesday, New Yorkers will get their first taste of the Big Apple's new taxicab, the Nissan NV200 minivan, at a special exhibition that takes place from November 1 to 5 on the pedestrian plaza across from the Flatiron building at Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

We'll remind you that the NV200 was selected as the exclusive cab of New York City for the next 10 years, starting from late 2013.

Today, Nissan organized a special event for a host of New York City officials, including Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Yassky, to preview the vehicle's interior design.

Remember the XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle (SEV) diesel-electric hybrid concept that Volkswagen unveiled at the Qatar Motor Show this past January? Martin Winterkorn, CEO of the VW Group, told to Autonews Europe that development plans for the ultra-efficient two-seater model are proceeding.

"We will start small series production by 2013 – in Germany," Winterkorn told the publication.

The freakish October snowstorm that hit the northeast this weekend took its toll on Carscoop as we were among the many millions of people without power or internet access since Saturday. Fortunately, power was just restored in our area so we're back to our normal schedule...

GM issues a recall for SUV's

General Motors issues a recall for nearly 36,000 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossover SUVs to fix tire pressure monitors.

GMC Terrain crossover SUVs

Models being affected in this recall are the vehicles which were built between 28^th of July and 6^th of September 2011.

GM says that the system designed in 2012 will warn drivers when tire pressure goes down 25 percent underneath the recommended pressure whereas in the recalled vehicles the warning light is not getting displayed until the tire pressure falls more than 25 percent.

Federal safety regulators says that the over heat from the underinflated tires can lead to a blowout and a crash.

GM also announces that as of now there is no report of injuries or deaths related to this condition.

The Boys In The Bright White Sports Car!

The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car!

We've been so busy lately with shows and recording that we didn't have time to make a performance video this week. So instead we just brought the ...

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Mercedes Gullwing 300 SL - Greatest Ever Sports Cars Nº6

" Inspired form and revolutionary function come together in the Mercedes Gullwing SL at number 6." " It's such a work of art. It really is, you ...

Birthday Suit Fun!

Looks like she means business

You best be getting into your Birthday Suit!

Unless you want to find yourself frantically dancing around the room

holding your very sore behind after she's given you a sound butt blistering…

Time for a little Birthday Suit Fun!

Weather you like a good hard spanking or just good clean fun…

It always much better when you play in your nice clean birthday suit.

********

*New* Blog Supplementary Post: (This space will be used by the Blog Administrator for personal comments and add on's concerning the this post.)

Playing in our Birthday Suits!

...It's Just our way of having fun!

Happy Spankings to you and yours!!!!!

********** Come on Spankos! I want hear what your thinking? Your comments, concerns, suggestions and naughty thoughts are always welcome... **********

Tesla Motors: UCLA Investor Boosts Electric Sports Car

Tesla Motors: UCLA investor boosts electric sports car

UCLA alumnus Ira Ehrenpreis is helping Tesla Motors produce the first highway-ready electric sports car. Join Jeremy Snyder, Tesla's West LA ...

Saturday, October 29, 2011

happy Halloween!

Xoxo

Princess Kelley

All-New MINI Roadster Makes its Official Debut, wants to Challenge the MX-5 [254 Photos]

With its eyes set on conquering a slice of the convertible market from the popular Mazda MX-5, MINI has revealed the final production version of the Roadster.

The Roadster is the soft-top variant of the Coupe introduced earlier this summer, and is the sixth model to be added to MINI's line-up as well as the first open-top two-seater in the brand's history.

As is the case with the Coupe, the Roadster is based on the current Mini hatchback so it doesn't come to much of a surprise that its dimensions largely mirror those of the Mini Convertible at 3,734mm long, 1,683mm wide and 1,390mm tall.

A patrol car dashboard camera video showing a woman being arrested in Sioux City has sparked allegations for police mistreatment.

Dacota Daniels, 34, was detained on August 8 at Sioux City by two officers, one in uniform and one in plain clothes after they stopped the rental car she was in as a passenger.

The plainclothes drug task force officer said in the report that he spotted Daniels’ fiancé, Christopher Robinson, driving the car despite being "known to have a barred license."

This weekend, India hosts its first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix at the newly constructed, 5.1 km (3.17-mile) long Buddh track in New Delhi. Along with being a big event for the country it also marks a new record for this year’s world champion.

The unstoppable Sebastian Vettel scored his 13th pole position this year, matching Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost for most poles in a season. He needs just one more to equal Nigel Mansell’s 1992 record of 14 poles, while his team has already set its own record in F1 with is 16th pole position in a season.

While there's only a single digit gap between the E30 and E31 codenames, in reality, these two BMW models couldn't be more different from each other.

The E30, a.k.a. the 1983-1991 3-Series, represented the firm's entry-level family car in the 1980s, while the E31, more widely known as the 8-Series, was the brand's flagship GT coupe in the 1990s.

But one German owner had the bright idea of taking a 1989 325i Convertible (albeit with pre-1987 tail lamps) and fusing the front end of an 850i Coupe on its nose. Of course, there was a slight problem with the width of the 8-Series fascia that was solved by…removing one of the BMW kidney grilles.

Over the past few months we've brought you pictures of camouflaged prototypes, the loosely disguised concept and even the patent designs of the next 2012 Honda CR-V, but today, thanks to our tipster Andy Ye, we bring you the first official images of the final production model.

Not surprisingly, the styling changes over the concept CR-V we saw this summer are restricted to the matte finish of the plastic cladding on the body, the smaller wheels and the clear graphics on the headlamps and tail lamps.

Honda has previously said that its new SUV will be "more sophisticated and dynamic" than its predecessor while also offering improved interior space and versatility as well as a suit of new technologies.

Just because I love quotes

Xoxo

Princess Kelley

Friday, October 28, 2011

2012 Toyota FT-86: New Photos Surface Online

When we brought you the first brochure images of the production version of the JDM Toyota FT-86 coupe on Thursday, we rightfully assumed that we should see more pictures of the rear-wheel drive model in the coming weeks before the official presentation at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show on November 30.

Better make that a little over 24 hours as we just discovered yet another collection of scanned images on a Japanese forum, providing us with an even better look at the exterior design of Toyota's mainstream sports car.

While the previous photos showed us a Modellista-prepped version, this time we have the standard FT-86 with or without some optional accessories such as the front panel air vent trims and rear diffuser accents.

For better or for worse, tuning shows are as much about modified cars as they are about booth babes - and that's regardless of where they take place. Just wait and see at next week's SEMA Show.

But just to get your engines running – or so to speak, we have a special treat for you, and no, we're not referring to the Nissan 180SX/200SX ...

It seems that nature's forces do not like Toyota. The March natural disaster in Japan affected Toyota the most and now, just as it is gearing up production to make up for the lost time, a massive flood in Thailand has plagued the automaker's three local factories forcing the company to change its plans once again.

Toyota issued the following statement: “Parts availability from Thailand is not predictable at this time and is changing with the continued severity of the flooding.”

Download