Etc : Car News And Reviews

Pikes Peak champion Jeff Zwart won the world famous hill climb seven times, driving ten different Porsches over a period of 14 years. In this short video from Porsche, Zwart talks about his history with the 911 line, from first learning to drive in his father’s second-hand 911 to the rally racing he loves.

Volvo is a car company that has been obsessed with safety for quite a long time and has an excellent reputation for delivering on their goal of making some of the safest production vehicles available. Volvo has announced a new vehicle architecture that is designed to reinforce its leadership in vehicle safety.

When the roads are covered with snow and ice, do your thoughts turn to “time to get my $200,000 Bentley out of the garage and go for a spin?” If so, then the Bentley “Power on Ice” winter driving experience is for you.

Toyota asked two typographers to design a font using a Toyota car. The idea was to track the motions of the vehicle using overhead cameras and custom software to create the font. The typographers, Pierre and Damien, chose to work with driver Stef van Campenhoudt and interactive artist Zachary Lieberman, who created the custom tracking software.

Renault is showing off what it has achieved with its autonomous vehicle technology, knows as “PAMU” (Advanced Urban Mobility Platform). In this video, we see the PAMU test vehicle, a Renault Fluence Z.E. all-electric car, summoned by a driver as it leaves its designated parking space and picks her up on the roadside.

A fascinating and beautifully shot short film by Maiham-Media and Motorhead.jp about three automotive enthusiasts who drive cars previously used in Le Mans racing. More specifically, a track-ready Mazda 767B, a Jaguar XJ220LM and a Porsche 962C.

We’re guessing that YouTuber SimplyBored was simply bored when he decided to mount his GoPro HERO 3 action camera to the wheel of his car and drive off. The result is a dizzying 56 seconds of video providing a new and unusual perspective on driving.

The Pebble smartwatch, which was originally developed via a successful Kickstarter campaign, allows users to receive text messages, view caller information, get sports scores, and much more thanks to Bluetooth integration with the user’s smartphone. Mercedes-Benz has announced a partnership with Pebble to create an app for the watch that will interface with Mercedes’s existing Digital DriveStyle smartphone app.

Auction house Gooding & Company is offering this 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail race car at its Scottsdale auction on January 17-18, 2014. This exceptional car was raced competitively for many years, including wins at Hockenheim and Helsinki, as well as several other podium finishes.

The Top Gear test track may be the track most familiar to the average driver and most frequently seen on our televisions. Located at a “top secret” facility just off the A281 between Bramley and Bucks Green, the track is often navigated by celebrities in the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment, used by the stars of Top Gear in their reviews, and is the track used by the Top Gear tame racing driver, Stig, to compare vehicle performance.

Each and every engine that rolls off the line at Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division is handmade. YouCar managed to go behind the scenes in AMG’s Affalterbach factory to watch the painstaking assembly process of these works of precision German engineering.

German automaker Opel took an amusing approach to its latest advertising campaign for the Opel ADAM. To show off the new range of 16 body colors and six roof colors available for the vehicle, Opel created miniature versions of the already quite small vehicles and photographed them in a variety of situations.

As many car manufacturers are shifting to all LED lighting for their top-end vehicles, BMW is taking the next step and offering laser lighting as an option in the BMW i8 for its high-beam lighting. The optional high-beam headlights with laser light technology includes a typical BMW i U-shaped frame, from which the running lights and the built-in indicators are operated. 

On the surface, video games franchises like Forza Motorsport and Grand Turismo have reached a point of realism that’s so spot-on that they’re the next best thing to actually racing on a track. But is that an accurate statement?

After having to recall its pricey 12C coupes for a defect in their windshield wipers, it turns out McLaren is now working on a technology which they hope could do away with the need for wipers entirely.