Volkswagen GTI Roadster Concept Vision Gran Turismo
– As the all new 2015 Volkswagen GTI is arriving at dealerships, a GTI Roadster Concept is shown at the annual GTI festival at Wörthersee, Austria.
– The Vision Gran Turismo is a Golf GTI concept originally created electronically for the Sony PlayStation3 game, Gran Turismo 6.
– The real life two-seat convertible has a twin turbo 3.0 liter V6 with 503 horsepower and seven-speed DSG transmission, putting power to all four 20″ wheels.
– Volkswagen says the still rather heavy 3100 lb roadster can rip from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 192 mph.
– Volkswagen has been known for creating special show cars for the GTI festival at Wörthersee, Austria and this one is top notch. Don’t look for this one at your local dear anytime soon though.
New 2015 Subaru BRZ Series.Blue
– Subaru this week announced a limited production of their BRZ sports car known as Series.Blue.
– Limited to only 1,000 copies, the Series.Blue has a number of STI branded visual modifications that well makes it unique.
– There’s an aero body package, more aggressively styled black 17-inch wheels and significantly upgraded interior trims.
– 500 painted WR Blue Pearl and 500 in Crystal White Pearl and only available with a 6-speed manual transmission.
– Unfortunately, there isn’t the STI’s turbocharged engine or any additional performance enhancements.
Series.Blue arrives in July priced at $30,285 including destination.
A California octogenarian couple shows there’s is no age limit for the Tesla Model S
– Chet and Robin Brisco of Southern California recently may have become the oldest couple to own two Tesla Model S sedans.
– The couple both in their late 80’s have been car enthusiasts all their adult lives, owning several brands including Ford, Nissan, Chrysler, BMW, Lexus, and Porsche models.
– He bought his Model S on the day he first test drove one. His wife Robin liked it so much three months later, she ordered her own matching one.
– They also have matching license plates reading “HIS TSLA” and “HER TSLA”. Very cool.
Feature: 2015 Volvo XC90 Interior
– Volvo this week released the first volley of interior images and information on their first all-new product launch since the company was bough by Chinese auto maker Geely.
– The new 2015 XC90 SUV will be one of the most pivotal new products from Volvo, based on their all-new Scaleable Architecture which is developed without technology from previous owner Ford.
– Volvo says the new interior will be the most luxurious ever from the brand.
– Playing on the Swedish reputation for design and technology, it will feature top end materials, telematics systems, and new seating options.
– The three-row SUV will get larger inside and most notably looses the well known waterfall center console design for a more traditional layout. What isn’t traditional is the portrait format touch screen and button-less control interface.
Test Drives:
Volvo XC60 Tc Drive-E – Watch Now
Hyundai Elantra GT – Watch Now
Next week we test Lexus LX570, Volvo V60 and Hyundai Santa Fe 2.0T and the all new Chrysler 200.
Reality Check: Fords new advanced steering technology to make vehicles more fun to drive.
– Ford is bringing to market in the next 12 months a new motorized steering wheel they say will make vehicles easier to maneuver at low speeds and at higher speeds more agile and fun to drive.
– Called Adaptive Steering, an electronically controlled gear motor is placed inside the steering wheel, replacing the solid connection between it and the steering shaft.
– In a nut shell, the gear motor can basically add to or subtract from your steering inputs based on the computer’s wisdom.
– The motorized wheel can continually change the ratio depending on speed and other driving condions.
– Ford says that at lower speeds, like when parking, the system uses the motor to speed up the turning requiring you to make less motions at the wheel.
– At faster speeds like on the highway, the system can be programmed to be less responsive and even correct for various things as the software becomes more enabled.
– Ok folks, for way too many reasons to list this make me very nervous. While the effects on driving feel and handling alone could be discussed for an hour, safety is the thing I worry about most.
– What kind of surprises is this system going to give its drivers 5, 10 or 20 years down the road when this gear motor starts to wear or fail, let alone the computer getting a little hinky.
– Case in point, this gear motor looks virtually identical in design to the power window motor which just failed in my Ford Mustang. When it failed, it began skipping gear teeth, jambing, and eventually the motor spun round and round as the window stuck half way up.
– Thus I hope Ford is thinking long and hard about how we replace the solid connection between our hands our tires with gear motors and computers.
