Automotive

2015 Aston Martin Vantage GT Texas Direct Auto 2015 GT Used 4.7L V8 32V Manual RWD Convertible Premium

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AutoSens Detroit 2019 Begins This Week With Major Announcement

AutoSens Detroit 2019 Begins This Week With Major Announcement AutoSens, a leading and influential global summit on autonomous driving, is returning to Detroit.
Technical sessions and presentations from from Microsoft, Sony, General Motors, and MIT are planned.
AutoSens takes aim at the biggest challenges facing autonomous driving by encouraging collaboration.
As AutoSens Detroit 2019 begins, conference organizers say they are now expanding to a third location.
The Michigan Science Center will host AutoSens Detroit 2019 as the global conference on autonomous driving returns to the Motor City starting today, May 14th. Attendees, speakers, sponsors, and participants leverage each other’s expertise during the event, which examines the biggest challenges facing self-driving and vehicle perception technology. AutoSens serves as a venue for engineers, researchers, and other experts in the field, and provides them a detailed picture of what is happening across the industry.
“The challenge of the automotive industry is to design computers and robots that can perform tasks better than humans can, while also causing minimal disruption to a system that will include human-driven vehicles for many decades to come,” said Robert Stead, Managing Director, Sense Media, the parent company of AutoSens. “It’s no easy task.”
Auto Sens Detroit 2019 Agenda
AutoSens Detroit returns with another robust agenda for conference attendees. Highlights include the opening plenary with presentations from the U.S. Highway Loss Data Institute on the impact of current ADAS technologies on road safety. Technical workshops include a session from Osram about infra-red sensing and a hands-on demonstration from 3M regarding material-sensor interaction systems. Microsoft will host a tutorial on the Robot Operating System, while DeepScale will present energy-efficient approaches to autonomous driving.
“The technical presentations focus on these topics, but we also cover the wider issues facing development of ADAS and autonomous vehicles in the conference plenary sessions that open and close the event,” Stead explained. “This might include the regulatory, financial, or legal context for the development of vehicle perception systems.”
Keynote for AutoSens Detroit this year is Ed Bernardon, VP of Strategic Automotive Initiatives at Siemens. Bernardon will examine how autonomous technology will impact the future of transportation. In preparation, he and his team interviewed experts working on 3D-printed autonomous shuttles, intelligent traffic systems, and even flying cars. In addition, technical presentations from General Motors, Changan, Aptiv, Daimler, NVIDIA, Valeo, Sony, and TomTom are planned. Academic sessions include those hosted by Wayne State University, University of South Carolina, and MIT.
AutoSens Detroit attendees prepare for a self-driving vehicle demonstration as part of the event last year. A track was set up on the campus of Wayne State University where attendees could experience the technology firsthand. Photo: Alex Hartman for Sense Media.
For Engineers, By Engineers
Different than other conferences and events on autonomous driving, AutoSens keeps its focus on the engineering community. By combining cutting-edge academic research, industry R&D, and OEM insights, AutoSens is an invaluable resource for those in the field, and why it remains the world’s most influential summit on autonomous driving.
“Engineers can ‘take the boxing gloves off’ and just be engineers and scientists working on shared challenges and pursuing high-quality technical work,” Stead said. “We strive for high-quality technical presentations at AutoSens every year, so all attendees will go back to their office or lab with some new solutions, food for thought, or novel information.”
Between two yearly events (Detroit, Michigan and Brussels, Belgium), AutoSens draws in over 1,000 engineers and technical experts throughout the world to network, collaborate, and ultimately address the biggest challenges facing autonomous driving.
“AutoSens exists simply to support and help engineers and scientists, and when we hear stories from attendees about the new people they met, the things they learned, the business connections made – that’s what keeps us motivated,” Stead continued. “It’s about creating a meeting place and community that can be a catalyst for others, in their pursuit of good science.”
Attendees sit in during one of the many technical presentations that took place at AutoSens Detroit last year. The conference will return to the Michigan Science Center beginning on May 14th. Photo: Alex Hartman for Sense Media.
AutoSens Hong Kong 2020
With the success of AutoSens in both Europe and North America, the conference is now seeing increased demand from the automotive industry and corresponding technology sectors. As a result, a third conference in Hong Kong is set to join Detroit and Brussels next year. Organizers say Asia is an important market for autonomous technology, and an international hub for engineers, researchers, and other automotive experts. Hong Kong, with its accessible transport links, allows visitors from across the Asian continent; as well as international attendees the chance to examine autonomous vehicle technology and its impact on the Asian market.
“AutoSens has quickly established itself as the event in this space to see, hear and meet the key companies and people that matter in the autonomous vehicle sector,” said Rudy Burger, Managing Partner, Woodside Capital Partners, and frequent AutoSens speaker. “Launching a third edition in Hong Kong is an exciting and valuable proposition for the industry.”
“I can’t think of a better combination,” added Abhay Rai, VP of Product Marketing, Visteon. “The latest innovations from Asia, the backdrop of one of the world’s most famous cities, and the global AutoSens community convening for the latest addition to the world-class event series.”

Continued Industry Support For Hong Kong
More than a year and a half out, AutoSens Hong Kong already has a number of highly invested stakeholders. Expert advisory board members include representation from Aptiv, Byton, Valeo, Visteon, and Robert Bosch with founding partners from top companies such as Visteon, IAV Automotive Engineering, Siemens, OmniVision, Kalray, ON Semiconductor, Viavi, Woodside Capital Partners, and XenomatiX.
“We are incredibly proud to announce 13 founding partners and advisory supporters,” Stead said. “It’s very encouraging to see the level of support that’s been shown upon sharing our vision for the next phase of the AutoSens journey.”
Organizers will take the rest of the year to develop the agenda for AutoSens Hong Kong, but say attendees can expect sessions on sensor hardware, image processing, driver monitoring, computer vision, and regulatory challenges among others. AutoSens Hong Kong will feature over 300 delegates, 45 speakers, and nearly 12 hours of networking. The conference is set for November 2020.
“We are already dedicating significant resources to building momentum in Asia, and to see the recognition of these efforts by such a high level of early support is testament to our brand, achievements, and reputation to deliver,” Stead continued. “We place a high value on the confidence shown to us by our customers, and we are committed to delivering above and beyond.”

Tickets, Location & More Information for AutoSens Detroit 2019
AutoSens Detroit 2019 begins today Tuesday, May 14th at the Michigan Science Center and runs through the 16th. Organizers say they are happy to see so many returning exhibitors alongside plenty of new brands. A demonstration event is also planned for the 14th, where attendees can take laps in vehicles equipped with autonomous technology.
Tickets, including discount packages for females in the engineering community, are available now.
“AutoSens is all about nurturing the global community of bright minds who are driving forward this revolution in automotive,” Stead said. “A truly international audience will assemble in downtown Detroit to collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences, meet new people, and catch up with old friends.”

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Inside The Street Legal Race Cars From Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus

Inside The Street Legal Race Cars From Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus

Remember Cameron Glickenhaus? He was that rich, but seemingly very nice guy that, a while back, took a Ferrari 458 Italia, re-bodied and tweaked it here and there and made what he called a “continuation” of the Ferrari P4 prototype racers from the 60s. Yeah, it wasn’t nearly as pretty as the P4 (what is?) but it was very, very quick and Ferrari was cool with him making and racing it. Turns out that Mr. Glickenhaus hasn’t even thought of slowing down, let alone stopping his fiddling with high-powered cars.
Minor Miracles & Model Lineups
His racing outfit, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (rolls of the tongue, don’t it), has been out there ever since, pounding around the world’s race tracks, and doing okay. They have, like a lot of us, a slight obsession with the Nurburgring, and always compete in the 24 hour endurance race there every year. Anyway, seems that Glickenhaus, both the guy and the team, wasn’t content with that, oh no. Seems like they wanted to put their race cars into series production and, I hope you’re sitting down, even make a road legal version. So they asked the U.S. Government if that would be okay and The Government said yes!
To make this minor miracle all the more sweeter, Glickenhaus will be making not one, but three series production cars; two of them will be road legal. No, they will not be cheap. No, they will not be making many, but who cares at this point? Gearheads can dream, can’t we?
Photo: Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus LLC.
SCG003S Stradale
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (also known simply as SCG) will manufacture the SCG003S, SCG003CS, and SCG003C. The SCG003S is the Stradale, the SCG003CS is the Competizione Stradale, and the SCG003C is the full-blown Competizione. The preliminary specs for each are knee-weakening in what they portend.
Take the “basic” (and I am using that word very loosely) SCG003S Stradale. It is a fully trimmed, road legal GT hypercar. The SCG003S is powered by a twin turbo 4.4 liter reverse flow V8 engine, putting out more than 750 horsepower and more than 590 ft-lbs. of torque. That grunt is put to the pavement through a 7-speed electro-hydraulically actuated dual disk clutch gearbox, complete with paddle shifters. All of this resides within a carbon fiber chassis and the whole shee-bang tips the scales at less than 2,866 pounds. The suspension is a front and rear double wishbone push rod and rocker operated setup with adjustable dampers – just what you’d expect from a racing team.
Stop? Oh yeah pal, this thing will stop like you threw out an anchor thanks to Brembo carbo-ceramic discs.
The performance specs are just as mind-reeling as the overall design. Zero to 60 mph in less than 2.9 seconds. Speed tops out at more than 217 mph (which Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus charmingly lists under the engineering term “VMax”). The skid-pad number is a gray-out inducing 2.0Gs plus, and the aero downforce is rated as being greater than 1,550 lbs. at 155 mph. In other words, this thing is going to go, turn, and stop unlike any other road car out there. The performance numbers are closer to something you’ll find atop the podium at Le Mans or Sebring.
Photo: Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus LLC.

SCG003CS Competizione Stradale
For those of you that find the SCG003S lacking in “oomph” and overall performance, the SCG003CS Competizione Stradale is your ride. Then again, if you are one of those people, I’d want to check and see if you have a pulse, because you just might be dead if the SCG003S isn’t enough. The Competizione Stradale will be trimmed closer to the outright racing version, the Competition Model SCG003C.
However, the SCG003CS will still be fully road legal with similar specifications to the SCG003S. In case you want to lay your eyes SCG003S, the first road registered example will be displayed at The Quail Motorsports Gathering on August 18th, part of the Monterey Vintage Races, which you should really attend if you ever get the chance.
SCG003C
Although sadly it is not road legal, it is still a full-blown race car you can buy. And this is not some half-thought out ride that would make Porsche and Ferrari laugh with derision, oh no. The SCG003C took the pole and finished first in class at the 2017 24 Hours of Nurburgring, running a 6:33 lap on the Nordschleife. That lap is within sight of Niki Lauda’s outright record. Let that sink in for a while. Put your feet up. Slowly shake your head. Now do you get it?
Photo: Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus LLC.
Pricing & Availability
The Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus S, CS, and C will be priced at 2 million in American dollars and will be rolling out of the works in New York. 2018 production will consist of 4 to 6 cars; the 2019 run will be about 8 to 10 cars. SCG notes: “we will likely sell out our productive capacity very soon.” I bet they will. I will be getting one, and so will management here at this publication. That only leaves another one to three left for the rest of you plebes, so call now.
“SCG may also develop other models and is considering offers to raise additional capital to fund this development, as well as additional racing and the building of a second U.S. manufacturing facility capable of producing 100 cars per year,” reads a statement from the company.
Thank goodness they’re making these things in such small numbers and asking so much money for them. Any less and Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus wouldn’t be able to weed out the nutzos and ya-yas. If they made these things by the dozens and cut the price in half, it would be like handing out bazookas at a daycare. You’d get flaming rubble within seconds. At best.
Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.
Photo: Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus LLC.
Photos & Source: Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus LLC.

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How Formula 1 Teams Move About The Planet

How Formula 1 Teams Move About The Planet

There’s an old phrase in military colleges: “amateurs think about tactics, professionals think about logistics.” I’ve been around racing my entire life and, by and large, Grand Prix has been at the top of the heap for me. So I have known, for a very long time, that these teams have gotten larger and larger over time, and that the races have gotten much more far flung. Ergo, I know, on some level, that moving all the people and materiel from one track to the next is a real hassle, but now that I’ve delved into a recent ingenious infographic, courtesy of our friends at Storage Centres in the United Kingdom, I realize this is far from a hassle.
This is a logistical nightmare for any given Formula 1 team to contemplate, let alone envisage on a week in, week out basis. Now realize there are ten F1 teams. It’s like coordinating the Normandy landings every couple of weeks. This is how they do it.
Packing Frenzy
For simplicity’s sake here, let’s just say we’re looking at this process from the end of any given race. All the cars finished, there were no accidents, and nothing was destroyed.
First, the teams start to pack up everything except the cars. The cars are kept in parc ferme conditions, that is, impounded, so they can pass through tech inspection to make sure no one cheated (no lightweight cars or something goofy like hydrazine in the fuel). While the cars are being checked over by the race stewards, everything else is being packed up, most of it into these totally cool anvil-like flight cases you see rock bands use on tour. Jacks, laptops, spares, spares, spares (racing teams carry spare everything) alignment plates, crew helmets, the lot.
By the time the cars roll out of parc ferme about three hours later, most, if not all of the accouterments are crated and ready to move.
They start unbolting everything – okay, most things – into smaller, more easily wrapped and transported bits and pieces. So, the front and rear wings, for instance, get pulled and inspected for any race related damage or fatigue issues, then swathed in bubble wrap to protect their delicate aero surfaces. The mirrors are pulled off as are the wheels and tires – the tires are given back to Pirelli to be examined, checked for flaws, wear damage, and the like, then recycled or, in some cases, sold after the season to collectors (I had a pair of Damon Hill’s tires from the Canadian GP for many years, they made a great coffee table base). The steering wheel is pulled, checked, then placed in its own flight case. I know that seems excessive, but a modern F1 steering wheel runs you around $55,000, so you don’t want to screw it up.
As the car gets broken down further, you get to what’s known as “integral parts.” That’s another way of saying “very important and expensive parts,” and is also a way of saying “the stuff the FIA (the sport’s governing body) watches very closely.” This includes stuff like brakes, suspension pieces, the engine and gearbox, and finally, down to the chassis itself.
Photo: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.

Expensive Endeavors
As a way to keep costs down, the FIA limits the number of engines and gearboxes a team can use during the year. I know, it seems kind of silly, you say. “How many engines can a team go through?” you might ask. The answer to that, as it turns out, is as many as they can buy. And since F1 teams have suitcases full of money, you’d be amazed at what they will spend it on, given the chance. Even a small team these days has a yearly budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars. You can imagine what Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz or McLaren spend.
Before rules like this were put in place, teams were known to run special “qualifying engines” for that extra little advantage. They were referred to as “grenade engines” because they were good for three, maybe four laps at full song before blowing up like, well, just like a grenade. They cost $250,000 each. So what? We’ve got a budget of two million dollars a day (that’s no exaggeration), who cares what they cost? Put another one in, let’s make another run for the pole. Before the FIA cracked down on this, there was talk of some teams making entire cars just for qualifying. Cars that were right on the edge of what the composite tubs and structures could withstand. They would only survive for around 10 laps max before they were thrown away. Multiply that by the numbers of drivers on the grid (in today’s case, that would be 20) and you could see where operating costs would grow so high that even NASA would shake their head.
Photo: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.

Careful Movements
The brakes are completely disassembled and inspected. The pads and discs are checked and analyzed for wear and stress before being junked (they last for one race, and cost about $100,000 per corner X 4 corners X 2 cars per team X 10 teams X 20 races = The GDP of Burundi). All the fluids from the car are drained, checked for particulate content, then recycled. The suspension: A-arms, bell crank bits, wheel tethers that hold the wheel/tires to the car in the event of an accident, are completely taken down to the individual components. Everything is inspected. If it’s damaged, it’s junked. Foam spacers are inserted into the A-arms to prevent them from expanding and contracting while being flown to the next race.
Material engineers (and top teams have more than one, I assure you) want to keep the usage cycles to a minimum. The engine and gearbox are separated, drained of all the oil, fluid, and gunk. They are inspected for signs of wear leading to possible failure, put under FIA seal, and loaded into their individual flight cases. The chassis, although not taken down to the bear tub, is pretty well stripped down, then wrapped in its own, custom tailored Lycra cover for protection. Carbon fiber, although very strong, is susceptible to puncture damage, so an inattentive swing of a mechanic’s arm with a screwdriver can trash the whole thing.
Photo: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.
Logistics & Assembly
Once everything is disassembled, packed, and crated, the teams turn their stuff over to DHL, F1’s logistics partner for getting it from this track to the next. For DHL, this requires transporting 600 tons of materiel, nine days worth of planning, 240 employees, and 100 trucks just to move the stuff to the airport.
Once at the airfield, the parts are loaded onto different planes. One plane gets the critical parts – the cars themselves, engines, gearboxes, IT rack-mounted gear, electronics, things along those lines – and some of the non-critical parts are loaded onto those cargo modules you sometimes see at airports. From the ramp at the next location, it takes DHL around 4 hours to get all the gear through customs and to the next track using 30 freight containers that amount to, on average, about 30 tons of stuff per team. Remember, there are 10 teams.
The non-critical stuff – fuel, marketing swag, work benches, tool carts etc. – gets shipped in 40-foot containers, 4 per team via sea routes or over-the-road. This works out to around 1,000 tons of stuff per team. If a team needs something fast, DHL can overnight it directly to the pit garages, anywhere in the world.
Once teams show up at the new track, it is, as the U.S. Army would put it: “assembly is the reverse of disassembly.” Up to 40 mechanics per team are there just to see stuff unloaded and put in its proper place in the garage while other mechanics start bolting stuff back together again. All the while, car parts and components are checked, checked, checked, and checked again. The last thing a team wants is for a “bad” piece – something beyond its useful life or something damaged – to make it onto a car and break, possibly costing the team a win or injuring the driver.
See? Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! The handy graphic below from Storage Centres explains more.
Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.
How F1 Teams Move Across The Globe In 48 Hours by Storage Centres.

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Clean Trail Grant Program Advocates Conservation, Benefits Off-Road Clubs

Clean Trail Grant Program Advocates Conservation, Benefits Off-Road Clubs

Off-road going types really enjoy the great outdoors. Many of the Jeep enthusiasts I know can’t wait to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon. They have pictures of Moab on their desktop or a Wranger poster in their cubicle; they even have a Jeep hat or coat draped over their chair. Our friends at ExtremeTerrain are like this – they eat, sleep, and breath the off-road lifestyle, so much so, they turned their passion into a profession. Over the years, we have gotten to know the team at ExtremeTerrain by working with them in various capacities during that time.
The Pennsylvania company provides aftermarket Jeep Wrangler parts for the off-road enthusiast. While Jeep parts and accessories are their passion, so is the conservation and protection of our nation’s great trails.
Restoration & Improvement
ExtremeTerrain is accepting applications for their Clean Trail Grant Program, an initiative advocating the responsible use of recreational trails. The Clean Trail Grant Program provides eligible groups the opportunity to have their next trail improvement project funded, be it clean up, restoration, or expansion. To date, ExtremeTerrain has approved over 22 grants for trail improvement projects, totaling nearly $10,000. This year, an additional 10 grants have been approved with more expected.
Eligibility & Requirements
Various Wrangler outfits, 4×4 groups, and Off-Highway Vehicle Organizations (OHV) are eligible, provided five or more members are currently active. Publicly and privately owned off-road trails are eligible to apply as well. The Clean Trail Grant money can be used for purchasing the tools associated with trail cleaning, restoration, and expansion; promotional materials to recruit volunteers, food for said volunteers, and to cover over miscellaneous expenses.
“We you can get the tools you need to clean, restore, or expand your local trails, helping to maintain the trail system and improve it for future off-roaders,” reads a statement from ExtremeTerrain.
Recent Clean Trail Grant winners and participants include The OffRoad Misfits, Onslow County North Carolina Boy Scouts, Dauntless Jeepers, and the Kentucky Off-Roaders. The grant money for these individual entities was used for a range of things, from dumpster rental and cleaning supplies, to purchasing a camera to catch litter bugs in the act. Along with the grant money, industrial strength trash bags for garbage and debris removal were provided.
Those interested in applying can do so by filling out a brief questionnaire. The Clean Trail Grant Program was established in 2015.
Carl Anthony is Managing Editor of Automoblog and resides in Detroit, Michigan.
Cover Photo: FCA US LLC.

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The Evolution of Automotives: Part 2: Thowbacks, Dream Machines, And Pretty Girls

The Evolution of Automotives: Part 2: Thowbacks, Dream Machines, And Pretty Girls

Automoblog’s Katie Kapro examines how imaginative thinking and creative risks have influenced the modern automobile in this three-part miniseries. Part one of this series here.
Every vehicle is made up of certain fundamental elements — the engine, tires, frame, and even a windshield if you want to get really fancy. These things are to a car what the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are to the human face. They exist to serve a utilitarian purpose to be sure, but their variations from one “model” to another is the stuff of individuality and intrigue.
It’s what keeps the road, and the world, interesting.
Automotive styling over the years has taken some wild twists and turns. From the awkward, lady-only Dodges of the 1950s to the deja-vu inducing Chevrolets of the late 1990s, time has proven that some styling choices stand the test of time better than others.
Assumptions Gone Awry
There are three kinds of car: one built to be a utilitarian workhorse, one built for speed, and one built to be, for lack of a better word, sexy. Ford pretty much cornered the utilitarian market with the Model T tractor adaptation back in the day, while ever-increasing speed has been an aspiration of car manufacturers for as long as wheels have been attached to axles. In terms of design, the more utilitarian the vehicle, the chunkier its styling. The faster it needs to go, the lower, sleeker, and more reptilian it becomes. It’s the sexy cars though which historically get automotive marketers and stylists into trouble.
Essentially, the problem they’ve run into is one of poor assumptions. Trying to tap into a group identity is a challenging enough endeavor on its own, but when your audience is a giant swath of humanity, aka all drivers everywhere, the opportunity for falling flat on your face is pretty high.
Take for example the failure that was the Dodge La Femme. The automotive stylists of the 1950s created it thinking it would be a woman’s dream: Regal Orchid finish, loop pile carpeting, and of course built-in purses for those lady passengers who just never could remember to grab them when they ran to the grocery store for that gallon of milk they oh-so-absent-mindedly also forgot. Insert era-appropriate giggle and eyelash flutter. Trying to understand what women wanted in a vehicle was just too large a task for the time, and it’s not simply the fault of a few misguided designers.
Photo: FCA US LLC.

Practical Over Pretty
The La Femme is representative of the times. Not only did chauvinism run rampant in the 50s, but the design engineers still had a lot to learn about customers. They had just begun to understand the importance of asking their target audience questions about what they wanted and taking their responses into consideration when styling the newest model. But what they had yet to figure out was how to translate that information and find the underlying desire and need behind their customer’s responses.
When a woman in the 50s said, I want a practical car, she meant a vehicle with a mechanically sound engine and reliable tires. Radial tires — tires with cords arranged in the direction of travel — were the newest rage and safety feature in USA-made cars of the era. A female driver in the 1950s wanted something to get her around safely. Not something to hold her makeup. If the car designers of the age hadn’t fallen prey to their own assumptions and really understood the underlying desires of their customers, they probably wouldn’t have made the mistake of creating a purse on wheels.
The back page of the brochure of the 1956 Dodge La Femme. The La Femme package was offered in 1955 and 1956 and was marketed toward female buyers. It was painted pink and white and came with a makeup bag and umbrella. Photo: FCA US LLC.
The Throwback
Tapping into the emotion that a car evokes, when done in just the right way, can be a powerful design tactic. It’s called the throwback. The Chevy Silverado, when launched in 1999, was a truck built for comfort and personal use. It was capable of hauling big loads and navigating rough terrain, but also had a cushy interior suitable for passengers and long trips. The Silverado was far from the first truck to try and meet the needs of comfort-seeking drivers. In fact, the first was Chevy’s Advance Design half-ton pickup, the first completely redesigned GM vehicle to hit the market after World War II.
Owners of pre-WWII pickups asked for a roomier, more comfortable cab. Not only did they get it, which of course led to increased truck sales for Chevrolet, but the style lines of models like the 1955 Task Force became synonymous with post-WWII prosperity, hard work, and security. It’s no coincidence the design of these particular trucks has made a comeback in the last several decades. The design of Chevy trucks has come to represent nostalgia for more prosperous times in the U.S. and our collective aspirations for the future.
In terms of design choices, the throwback works because it raises a vehicle to the emotional plane. Drivers inherently trust a vehicle that looks like a reliable truck of the past.
1955 Chevrolet 3300 Series Standard Pickup. Photo: GM Media Archive.

The Dream Machine
The final play in the vehicle design and styling game is to give drivers a car that feeds their desire for speed and imagination — aka every concept car ever. Speeding head-first into the future is as invigorating as it is inspiring, and as technology continues to advance, there are fewer limitations than ever before.
One might think the future dream machine is a driverless car, and perhaps it is for a certain segment of the population, but for people who truly love driving there’s no reason to be hemmed-in by gravity. Instead, they can set their sights on the sleekest and most aerodynamic vehicle of all: a flying car. There will be some kinks to work out before flying cars are commonplace — like figuring out how one goes about insuring a flying vehicle and how exactly to bring the price tag down from the multi-millions — but those logistics can be saved for another day. For now, a driver’s greatest dreams are often a reality thanks to today’s technology; all that’s left is to imagine zipping through the sky in a vehicle that would put even the sleekest sports car to shame.
Vehicle design is for the bold of spirit. It takes vision and creativity to reach into the emotional past and future for design inspiration. Not every attempt will be a success, but hey, it’s what keeps the road, and the world, interesting.
Katie Kapro spent her childhood handing her dad tools under his Datsun. She loves thinking about the social aspects of motoring, and dreaming about the future of automotives. Follow her work on Twitter: @kapro101
Cover Photo: FCA US LLC.

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2018 Honda Accord Gets Thorough Redesign

2018 Honda Accord Gets Thorough Redesign

The Honda Accord has, for many years, been many things. It’s affordable, reliable transportation for many people. It is a market leader and a vanguard as to what a large segment of car buyers want and expect, and therefore, if you’re smart and observant, a signal to other automakers as to what people will buy. But more than anything else, the Honda Accord is a virtual license to print money. It would have been more efficient if various governments from around the world had simply shipped Honda a bunch of printing presses from their mints, and cut out the middleman, so to speak.
So, when Honda gives the Accord a major redo, the world best pay attention.
Before digging into the 2018 Honda Accord, I should first go into what is not said in any of the Minato-based company’s press materials. Completely absent is any mention of the Honda Accord Coupe. And that is because, sadly, Honda will no longer produce a coupe version of the Accord. Yes, I know it’s hard out there for coupes. It’s a crowded market segment, and profit margins are blade thin, so pour one out for the Accord Coupe, because we won’t be seeing it on the road any time soon.
The Accord’s new body is lighter and more rigid, with 29 percent ultra-high-strength steel, the most extensive application of this weight-saving material in any current mass-produced Honda car. Pictured here is the 2018 Honda Accord Touring. Photo: Honda North America.
Styling & Design
The 2018 Honda Accord, coming this fall, is the tenth version of Honda’s bread and butter sedan. Indeed, the Accord is the best-selling midsize sedan in America, and given Honda’s conservative engineering and styling nature, they are not going to mess up a good thing. Honda’s designers and engineers took a “back to fundamentals” approach when it came to reimagining the gen-10 Accord. Overall, they went with proportions that give the 2018 Accord a “sporting and athletic appearance.” In other words, longer, lower, and wider, while trying to keep the lines, creases, and proportions taut.
The new Accord’s wheelbase is more than 2 inches longer, overall height has dropped more than half an inch, and the body is nearly half an inch wider. Similarly, the track has expanded, gaining 0.20 inches in front and 0.79 inches out back. The overall length, however, has dropped by 0.39 of an inch, so overhangs front and rear are less. There’s a lower, sportier seating position, while the greenhouse (windshield) is positioned farther back on the body to be more “sweeping.” The combined effect Honda wants is that of a more premium look, highlighted by shorter overhangs, a bolder front fascia, a long and low hood, and a visual center of gravity moved closer to the rear wheels.
Whether Accord buyers will find this appealing will be up to them. Honda has been known to miss the mark with styling in the past, so the jury is still out.
The front fascia sits more upright for 2018, highlighted by Honda’s now signature chrome wing front grille, positioned and flanked by available 9-lamp LED headlights and LED fog lights. Honda calls the hood “chiseled” with its raised center; the sides are deeply sculpted to give the 2018 Accord visual length. Honda also cleaned up the roof/body thanks to a new laser brazing process that creates a clean appearance without a garnish over the car’s rain channels. Out back, the whole “low and wide” thing keeps up with an upswept decklid, distinctive LED taillights, and integrated dual exhaust ports. Overall, this increased aerodynamic efficiency by approximately 3 percent.
Along with the first application of structural adhesives to the Accord, cabin quietness is further enhanced by a comprehensive sound-insulating package that includes full underbody covers (which also aid aerodynamics), front and rear fender and engine compartment insulators, alloy wheels with Honda-proprietary resonator technology, sound-absorbing carpet, acoustic laminated windshield glass – plus front door acoustic glass on EX and above trims – and a new, three-microphone Active Noise Control system. Photo: Honda North America.

Interior Treatments & Technology
Honda has used those new chassis and body hard-points to extract more room. Beneath the greenhouse that angles inward more dramatically, the seats have been moved slightly inward for better hip, shoulder, and head room. The longer wheelbase allows second row seats to be pushed rearward, giving almost 2 extra inches of rear leg room. Honda says there’s an extra 2.5 cubic feet of interior volume, and trunk space is up by nearly one cubic foot on the 1.5-liter and 2.0-liter Accords.
If you go for the Accord Hybrid, you’ll gain 3.2 cubic feet of trunk space for 2018.
The new soft-touch instrument panel features an ultra-thin profile and three-tier design that describes a continuous arc, from its outboard section through the side door sills. Honda says this is to give a sense of strength and visual continuity. So it goes. The “sport inspired” (gag) steering wheel is more contoured with deep-set thumb rests and available paddle shifters. Honda, an outfit always known for its knobs and switchgear, keeps up the tradition by paying lots of attention to the tactile and visual quality of surface materials throughout the cabin.
The 2018 Accord has an ultra-slim, 7-inch TFT driver’s meter and a new 8-inch Display Audio touchscreen with physical volume and tuning knobs. Of course it’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible with the next-gen HondaLink telematics which includes emergency roadside assistance, remote locking/unlocking and engine start, stolen vehicle tracking, remote diagnostics, geofencing, and speed tracking. Higher trim levels get a new 6-inch Heads-Up Display. There’s wireless device charging, automatic Bluetooth phone pairing, 4G LTE in-car Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi-enabled over-the-air system updates.
The 2018 Accord’s turbocharged engines utilize a host of new technologies, including high-efficiency low-inertia turbos, variable valve timing, low-pressure-loss air intake, and high-accuracy direct injection to deliver immediate response. Honda anticipates solid fuel economy ratings from the EPA with the new engines. Pictured here is the 2018 Honda Accord Touring. Photo: Honda North America.

Power & Performance
For those of us that care about things like engine specs, we’ll all be glad to hear the 2018 Accord gets three new powerplants: two turbocharged 4-cylinder engines and a two-motor hybrid powertrain setup. There’s a new, Honda-developed 10-speed automatic transmission for the 2.0-liter turbo mill, and an available 6-speed manual transmission for both turbocharged engines. Hooray!
The 1.5-liter plant puts out 192 horsepower and 192 lb-ft. of torque. The 2.0-liter produces 252 horsepower and 273 lb-ft. of torque. Both of these plants are substantially up from the engines they replace – we’d buy the 2.0-liter, of course. Honda does not mention exactly when this fall the 2018 Accord will be in showrooms nor how much it will cost, but c’mon, it’s a Honda Accord; it’ll probably be right within your budget.
All variants of the 2018 Accord will be produced at Honda’s Marysville, Ohio plant.
Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.
2018 Honda Accord Gallery

Photos & Source: Honda North America.

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New Michelin Video Accurately Shows Why We Love Motorsports

New Michelin Video Accurately Shows Why We Love Motorsports The Goodwood Festival of Speed is billed as the largest motoring garden party in the word. In 1993, Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara, established the Goodwood Festival of Speed; he wanted the motor racing spirit on the grounds of Goodwood House. The Festival of Speed allows enthusiasts direct and intimate access to the machines and drivers that make the sport famous. Automakers from around the globe make an appearance and often display special edition models for their fans.
The event is held in the surrounding parkland of Goodwood Estate, located just to the north of the West Sussex cathedral city of Chichester. Outside of the Festival of Speed, the area is used as farmland for the Goodwood Farm livestock.
Superstar Moments
Michelin recently released a video documenting this year’s edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, featuring Paul Wallace from Supercars of London and Sam from Seen Through Glass. We join the duo as they meet and interview some of the most respected names in Motorsport, including Le Mans champion Tom Kristensen, rally legend Mikko Hirvonen, and motorcycle extraordinaire Freddie Spencer.
Over the course of seven minutes, Paul and Sam receive insight on how each form of racing differs and what strategies are needed to be successful. Kristensen explains how an engineer will approach racing while Spencer talks about how he grips the handlebars on his motorcycle while racing. Hirvonen even obliges and gives Sam a ride after he defeats Paul for the privilege after a game of rock, paper, scissors. After ripping around the rally course, Sam declares things on his body he didn’t think could “jiggle” where, in fact, jiggling.

Powerful Pursuits
The underlying theme revolves around the passion we all share for anything with wheels. When it comes to our love of cars particularly, we can usually pinpoint why. It might be for enjoyment, like attending classic car shows or turning wrenches on that old GTO in the garage to restore it. It might be a love for driving a light and agile roadster through rolling hills; it might be that feeling of success a fine luxury car can portray, or it could as simple as appreciating the everyday SUV because it’s reliable for the family.
Whatever the reason, Michelin’s video recapping the Goodwood Festival of Speed, shows how such passions are, and will continue to be, one of the greatest things we can experience.

More information on the Michelin Car Connections MSN Hub.
Disclosure: This article is sponsored by Michelin. All views and opinions expressed here are my own. Check out our advertising guidelines to see why we’d never steer you wrong.

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Rolls-Royce Phantom: Overstated Finesse or Elegance Pinnacle?

Rolls-Royce Phantom: Overstated Finesse or Elegance Pinnacle?

Who buys a Rolls-Royce these days? I guess somebody does, because they’re still being made and sold, but it also seems like their choice as a viable luxury and performance ride peaked many, many decades ago. In a lot of ways, driving a Rolls today is seen as gauche and extremely declasse. Back then, a Rolls was as subtle as anything else British. It was all about understated luxury, not about “look at me, I’m filthy rich” with an emphasis on filthy. So what is the new Rolls-Royce Phantom, and why would one consider buying it this day and age?
Perception Versus Reality
In their heyday, a Rolls was like a Savile Row suit or refurbishing the roof on the olde family manse that great-grand-Ma-Ma left to you. It was something that one, one of a certain peerage and lineage, did. But then the New Rich clocked to the idea that if you could buy the trappings of the Old Rich, you could, in theory and to some people, be perceived as having class. You could simply buy your way into the ornamentation of a title and not worry about the title itself.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards both bought fine old English mansions back in the 60s. John Lennon bought a Rolls and painted it all psychedelic as a rather nice ironic statement. Keith Moon bought a Rolls and drove it into the pool of his old English manse because he’s Keith Moon. Now, it’s all sheiks and minor princes and heirs from minor oil-soaked fiefdoms and the occasional rapper that seems to be Rolls-Royce’s stock in trade.
Photo: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC.
Architecture of Luxury
Admittedly, you’ll be getting something screwed together more like a bespoke luxury yacht than a car. Rolls’ attention to stuff like carpets and leather and wood and such has been well known for the better part of a century. The obfuscation of technical details is just as well known, but that, like so many things RR, is a thing of the past. Now, Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW and that, in a lot of very important engineering ways, has been good for the company.
The new Rolls Phantom sits on an all-aluminium spaceframe architecture. This all aluminium spaceframe will underpin every future Rolls; no future model will rely on the monocoque construction used by the “mass-manufacturers and some mass-luxury brands.” Oh SNAP! The new Roller is approximately 30 percent more rigid than the spaceframe architecture found on the outgoing Phantom VII. Naturally, all this stiffness results in “the Rolls-Royce experience” in ride, acoustic, and seat comfort, along with a particular exterior and interior presence.
All of this is part of RR’s new “Architecture of Luxury” and if you thought the builders from Crewe would leave it at that, you’re sorely mistaken. Rolls hits on that phrase relentlessly from here on out. This new focus is concentrated on making the new Phantom lighter and stiffer, with more efficient standards of production.
The new spaceframe rides on an air suspension and features state-of-the-art chassis control systems. Rolls-Royce says this results in “peerless, effortless ride and handling and optimal vibration comfort performance.” The front suspension is a new double-wishbone setup with a 5-link arrangement at the rear. This offers better control over lateral roll and shear forces, while delivering increased agility and stability. The new Phantom also gets four-wheel steering.
Photo: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC.

Sound Performance
As with all Rolls-Royce models, the new Phantom is as quiet as a drawing room, thanks to the 6mm two-layer glazing on the windows, more than 130kg of sound insulation, cast aluminium joints, and the use of other high sound absorption materials. There’s double skin alloy on areas within the floor and bulkhead of the spaceframe for better acoustic insulation from road noise.
Rolls has inserted dense foam with felt layers between panel skins for further sound insulation. They’ve even added sound deadening to the headliner, in the doors, and in the boot (trunk) cavity. They even spec’d new “Silent-Seal” tires that feature a foam layer inside to see to tire cavity noise and drop road noise by another 9db. All of this results in what Rolls calls “the most silent motorcar in the world.”
Performance & Technology
Motivating this boat is a new twin turbocharged V12 Phantom engine that puts out 900Nm (over 660 ft-lbs.) of torque and 563 horsepower. The 12-banger’s power is put to the tarmac through something called a Satellite Aided Transmission, married to a ZF 8-Speed gearbox.
And since it’s 2017 and not 1917, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom is dripping computer technology. Rolls refers to this as an “Electronic Architecture,” complete with an electronic nervous system that connects and controls all the various intelligent systems of the Phantom. Rolls says it’s the most advanced luxury motorcar available today and sure, why not. There’s the Alertness Assistant which is a 4-camera system with Panoramic View for all around visibility, including a helicopter view. There’s Night Vision and Vision Assist, Active Cruise Control, collision warning, pedestrian warning (should you actually care about the wellbeing of your lessers), cross-traffic warning, lane departure and lane change warning, and a 7×3 high-resolution heads-up display. WiFi hotspot? But of course, sir! The latest navigation and entertainment systems? Need you even ask, sir?!
Price? Well if you have to ask about that, perhaps you should run along with the other reach-me-downs and chuckaboos to the Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar dealership. That might be more befitting someone of your, a-HEM, station, sir. I said good day sir!
Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.
Rolls-Royce Phantom Gallery

Photos & Source: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC.

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