29th May 2008

What’s Your Favorite Fuel-Sipper?

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29th May 2008

CBS on Auto Industry Woes

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29th May 2008

Offensive Driving Lessons: More Fun, More Punch, More Crunch

Mashing the accelerator, I goose my Mercury Grand Marquis up to 30 miles per hour, closing fast on a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. The Crown Vic is crossing an abandoned airstrip at the Quonset State Airport in Rhode Island. I've been preparing for this moment for days and suddenly feel a sense of transcendence. I knowwithout looking how fast I'm going. My shoulders are back against the seat, elbows crooked, hands at 9 and 3.

Riding shotgun is Anthony Ricci, owner of Advanced Driving & Security. Ricci teaches evasive driving techniques to SWAT teams, Fortune 500 security firms, and private contractors bound for Iraq. He's giving me the short course: navigating cone slaloms, slamming on the brakes at freeway speeds, executing neck-snapping J-turns (spinning a car 180 degrees and reversing course within a single lane). Such skills could help me flee, say, an ambush in an alley. And that's all well and good. But I don't want to just escape. I want to learn how to use a car to kick ass. At a meeting this morning, Ricci bashed toy cars together to illustrate how to get Newtonian on the bad guys. "This person has come up to kill you," he said in a thick Rhode Island accent. "You are gonna fuck this motherfucker up."

First, a little physics lesson. Accelerate a car's mass enough and turning the wheel won't alter its forward inertia. Basically, if you go too fast and turn too hard, the tires lose adhesion, causing the car to skid. Gearheads call it understeer. And it's why I blasted most of the cones in a 60-foot slalom at 45 miles per hour.

Wired’s Ben Paynter learns how to drive like the Secret Service. The training school teaches drivers how to make J-turns away from shoulder-launched missiles and ram into bad guys. Definitely more fun than driver's ed.

Video produced by Annaliza Savage and edited by Michael Lennon.
For more, visit video.wired.com.

Now, if I want to induce that effect in another car, I have to clip my opponent's rear bumper or his fender right near the taillight. Getting overeager and bonking the door or even too far up the fender will induce what Ricci calls "crush-kill-destroy" mode, T-boning the car. The subtler version, called the PIT maneuver, or "precision immobilization technique," is a staple of police porn. It involves knocking your quarry's rear end off balance to send him fishtailing off the road, ideally facing the wrong direction.

I accelerate nervously toward my target. Ricci's last words of advice are more Zen than scientific: "Hit him in one smooth motion. It's all finesse." I pull along the passenger side of the Vic and wait until my front bumper is just past his taillight. Then I turn my steering wheel to the left until I feel the dull thud of contact with his fender. I keep turning against the pressure. In one squealing motion, the Vic spins back toward me, then whizzes across my path as if I've blown through an intersection against the light. It misses my front bumper by inches and makes a full rotation in the rearview. Me? I'm fine.

For my final exam, Ricci positions the mangled Vic behind a beat-up Chevy Lumina, forming a roadblock roughly 15 feet in front of me. Then he tells me to plow through it. The cars are parked end-to-end, their bumpers nearly touching; I don't see how I can break through. Then, suddenly, the answer unfolds in front of me. The Lumina touches the ground in only four places. If I hit the car on the rear bumper, it will pivot on the front wheel. And the Lumina's trunk will be far more forgiving than the Vic's engine block. I point my driver-side headlight toward the Lumina's axle, grit my teeth, floor it, and bam! The roadblock swings open like a hinged door. The Lumina skitters across the pavement.

I emerge from the wreckage towing the Chevy's bumper, honking wildly. Ricci gives me a stoic thumbs-up.


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29th May 2008

Jules Verne Could Make Europe a Major Player in Space

European aerospace consortium EADS Astrium says it could have a manned space vehicle based on its Jules Verne spacecraft sending astronauts into orbit by 2017.

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29th May 2008

Seat Ibiza Sport Pack unveiled


Posted on 05.29.2008 16:51 by Simona
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The newly-launched Ibiza will be available with a new Sport Package. The price of the new package is 3500 euro. The Ibiza Sport Pack will feature re-designed front bumper, new side skirts, re-designed rear bumper with integrated central exhaust pipes and a rear roof spoiler. The car will sit on 17" alloy wheels. On the interior there will be a sport steering wheel, aluminum sport pedals, sport gear knob and door panels featuring aluminum insertions. (...)

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29th May 2008

Weekend Athlete: 2009 Subaru Forester

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29th May 2008

Exclusive SLR set to be unveiled?


Posted on 05.29.2008 16:01 by Simona
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We do not know if this is a joke or not, but it looks to good to be ignored! According to AutoGespot there will be a new model from Mercedes, something like a final SLR. It will be limited to only 75 units and will have the same price as a Veyron. The car is a modern interpretation of the car which Stirling Moss driven in the Mille Miglia with two small frontwindows and a little bit of SLR-flavour. It will have no roof at all, so it's not going to be a targa and it's not going to be a (...)

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29th May 2008

$60,000 Valvoline Mustang GT-V give away

ford mustang

Posted on 05.29.2008 15:57 by Panait
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Designed by RJ de Veja and built by Roush with VeilSide body kit the $60,000 Valvoline Mustang GT-V can be yours if you enter the contest and respond the questions until 21 October 2008. The vehicle comes with a Veilside's D1GT body kit, a Roush 427R engine package, H&R sports spring system, Diamond audio system and Volk Racing wheels. “The overall theme developed for the Mustang GT-V was ‘Modern yet Classic'. Since we were hoping to bridge the gap between different car enthusiasts we decide (...)

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29th May 2008

BBC asked to sack Clarkson after he admits speeding at 186mph on public road


Posted on 05.29.2008 15:26 by Simona
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No matter what you are, how famous you are, the laws are the same for everyone! Even when you are Jeremy Clarkson and you have admitted driving at 186 mph on a public road you have to know that there will be consequences to your actions! In a recent interview with Daily Mail, Jeremy Clarkson admitted that his top speed on a public road was 186 mph (that's 120 mph over the speed limit!) And as a response, BBC was asked to sack the famous Top Gear presenter. If you were wondering what he (...)

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29th May 2008

Samsonite unveils car-inspired luggage

ford gt

Posted on 05.29.2008 14:58 by Panait
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Did you ever think at a luggage inspired on the automobiles design? Well, now you can make your trip easier and nicer with the new Spinner line from Samsonite. Just like a car, the new luggage model is equipped with 4 wheels, one at each corner which makes it very maneuverable. In terms of components, they are all high tech inspired by automotive models, some of the gear being made of a composite material CURV, which lightweight but strong in the same time. The greatest feature of the (...)

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