Something Interesting

I’m sad to say that hot rod building legend Boyd Coddington has died at he ages of 63.

Body was shot to international fame through the cable show “American Hot Rod” and helped to introduce the world to the West Coast Hot Rod scene, building cars from the ground up with a price tag of anywhere in the region of $500,000. Body was recognised as one of the best hot rod builders in the world, with critically acclaimed creations including the “Cadzilla” car, which was a modified 1950’s Cadillac built for ZZ tops Billy Gibbons, and twice winning the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence Award for his designs.

Boyd Coddington died at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier at 6:20 a.m. The cause of death has yet to be released.

I say Rest In Peace to one of best custom car designers in the world.

If your anything like me you have been waiting for the new Grand Turismo game to come out since it was announced for release on the PS3 all that time ago.Since then we have been bombarded with endless screen shots and preview videos showing the game shapping up to be the most realilistic of the 5 games so far making full use of the next gen consoles speed and power.

Now, to top it all off they have annouced that GT5 have teamed up with the guys and gals at the BBC show Top Gear and are replicating the ‘Top Gear test track’ to be included in the new game.

I for one cant wait.

I was just watching this video of 5th gear reviewing the new Mazda 2 on youtube, and its got me thinking about stopping distances.

Now, in the clip Jason Plato is testing the new Mazda’s acceleration, handling and stopping in several tests. The test that interests me is the last test of braking. Jason accelerates to 70mph heading towards a designated point, and when at that point hits the brakes hard to bring the little hatch to a stop as quickly as possible. This is a simple test, and no means a scientific one, but is effective at showing the little cars stopping performance.

Now, the Mazda 2 manages to stop dead in just 25 metres. That’s with just Jason in the car. Then he continues to do the test again with the extra weight of 200kg in the car (in the safe of strong man Terry Holland) and the Mazda 2 manages to come to a stop in 41 metres. This in itself shows the benefit of shedding weight when it comes to performance, but that’s not my point.

My point is this, below is a chat showing the ‘typical stopping distances’ stated in today’s Highway Code:

As you can see, the ‘typical’ stopping distance stated by the highway code is (excluding the thinking time) 75 metres. But, as you can see from the Mazda 2 test, new cars can stop in a third of that distance. and even with an extra 200kg of weight it stopped in almost half that time.

I know that there are still some old cars on the road in the UK (I drive a 17 year old car), but I doubt even these cars would be that much worse then the Mazda (the Mazda even has drum brakes on the rear).

So, when were the current highway code stopping distance last checked, and how accurate are they?? Do we even need to know them, as every car will be different depending on the wear on the drakes, tyres etc, and the amount of people in the car, and even the luggage in the boot.

I’d say that having stopping times in the theory test is a massive waste of time, given that the information will never be used by those taking the test, and are not even accurate.

Well, yes actually.

Audi have presented a new concept at the Detroit motor show 200, and its a diesel Supercar.

This new supercar design is based on the hugely popular Audi R8, but hides a 5.5 litre diesel V12 under the bonnet (well, in the middle really, but you know what i mean). The newly designed 5.5 V12 kicks out 500bhp with a massive 737lb/ft of torque. With all that derv power the R8 concept accelerates to 60 in just 4.2 seconds, and carries on to 186mph. Not bad for something that runs on lorry fuel lol.

Enough of me babbling on about it, heres some pics,

Heres a link to an article with more about the R8 TDI.

Once again i have stumbled upon a rather interesting site. This time its a site that shows a new inovation in car door design.

Now, when i say ‘car door inovation’ i don’t mean anything as simple as suicide doors, lambo doors or even gullwing doors. The people at JATECH have invented a great new way to open and close your car door. The system id called (as silly as it sounds) ‘Disappering Car Door‘ lol.

As you can see from the video on the page above the Disappering car door system takes standard door design and turns it on its head. The system makes the whole door drop and slide under the car, allowing the occupant to exit the car with no obstructions what so ever. Another plus (as shown in the video) Is that because the door neatly slides under the car theres no way that you can park too close to someone in the supermarket and damage their car getting in or out of your car.

As good as the idea of this product is, i can still see some negative points in its design. Firstly the mechanism would be very heavy, and therefore would have a major effect on the cars performance. Also, what would happen if the car was in an accident?

It would be great if these questions could be sorted out, and the design taken on by one of the big manufacturers, but i have a feeling that could be some way off.

I have just been looking through the Audi site and spotted this press release on a new “design study” from Audi paying homage to Japan’s flair for miniaturisation. The concept is for a supermini that fits in between the A3 and the A2 , its going to be powered by a combination of a more powerful version of the 1.4 TSFI petrol engine found in the current A3, and a 30kw/41ps electric motor driving the rear wheels, reducing the fuel consumption by up to 15%. With this engine combo the car will be propelled to 62 in 7.8 seconds, and reach 124mph, and still get 57.6mpg. Now that sounds pretty good to me.

The article on the new Audi supermini concept is here if you wish to read more.

here are some of the concept images,

As i mentioned in an earlier post, the new Nissan Skyline GTR has now been unveiled at the Tokyo motor show last Wednesday. Although there were many spy photo’s of the car before the launch, this was the first time the whole car had been displayed with no coverings on.

I think the car looks great, very powerful and imposin, but more modern then the older R34.

the new Skylines doesn’t just look great, its fast too. The cars has recently displayed its pace by completing the legendary Nurburgring circuit in a very quick 7.38.

Here’s the lap in question. Just a quick note, this was not done on a tourist day, the track was closed.

Here’s some photos of the new GTR at the Tokyo show,

As i have cracked on about the new Audi R8 before in one (or more) of my post, i thought i’d post up this video i found while frequenting one of the many VAG forums that i go on. Its an R8 lapping the Nurburgring in Germany with someone that knows their way around.

Enjoy,

As said before in my blog, i have finished the rebuild of my Corrado G60 last week, and i have been running the new engine in over the last week.

So i was driving up the Outter bypass on Saturday, just overtaking a van and a huge stone chips up and hits my windscreen.. making a massive crack in it

So now, having just finished rebuilding an engine that went bang only 5days after buying the car, i have to replace the windscreen. which i have got quotes in the regon of £360.

Just my luck.

Its taken 3 months, and more money then i’d like to mention, but my Corrado G60 is now rebuilt and back on the road outside my house. Happy day.

Heres a quick pic of the old girl outside my house, and heres the thread covering the twists and turns of the build… linky