Detroit Auto Show: Green driving comes to Cobo's basement
Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Hybrids/Alternative, Green
Unless you're trying to outrun a Corvette in a Fiesta, driving indoors is not typically recommended, what with the toxic fumes and all. Low-emissions vehicles may change that and the Detroit Auto Show's organizers will illustrate it by converting Cobo Center's Michigan Hall into a green test track. Sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the MEDC EcoXperience will offer show-goers the chance to drive a variety of environmentally-friendly new vehicles around a forested 1/8-mile test track.
The list of participating vehicles has yet to be confirmed, but it could include some six to twelve different (almost assuredly all American) vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. Public visitors will have the chance to put-put around the track at 10 mph with a professional co-pilot in between trees and waterfalls. And just in case the low- or zero-emissions vehicles manage to spew a bit more fumes than the trees can convert, there will be air quality monitoring devices in place.
Of course, none of this would have been possible if all those automakers hadn't withdrawn from the show, allowing the Chinese companies that were previously relegated to the Michigan Hall to move upstairs, thus clearing the way for the forest track to be installed. We'll check it out for you next week when the Autoblog caravan rolls into Detroit.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Detroit Auto Show: Green driving comes to Cobo's basement originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�CommentsFirst Drive: 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h
Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Crossovers/CUVs, Lexus, First Drive
Click above for a high-res image gallery of the 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h
Few vehicles have done more to establish a genre and define a brand as much as the Lexus RX. Introduced over a decade ago to suburbanite real estate agents and their Napa-weekending friends, the original RX300 helped boost Lexus sales by 60% when it hit dealers in late 1998. Over the ensuing years, Lexus' posh people mover slowly evolved to include a hybrid drivetrain, a refreshed exterior and tasteful appointments that helped solidify its success. For 2010, the RX plays the same tune but adds a few more instruments, a new backbeat and reworked crescendo.
Photos Copyright (C)2008 Damon Lavrinc / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading First Drive: 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h
First Drive: 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink�|�Email this�|�CommentsAutoblogGreen for 01.08.09
Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green
click to visit AutoblogGreen
Psst, wanna see some vaporware? Or at least ideas for vehicles that have a long way to go before they move from rendering to the real world? Well, then we've got the posts for you. Try on the RORMaxx Formula AE or the Lampo electric roadster for size. Sadly, the Aptera also joins the ranks of the delayed, but there might be good news in a surprise announcement from Ford in Detroit. Two words: Focus EV.
- Detroit preview: Ford's electric line-up might include a Focus EV
- Aptera pushes back retail deliveries to October 2009, looks for cash
- RORMaxx Formula AE looks good on paper
- Th!nk thinks outside investors will step up to save Th!nk
- Lexus refines hybrid drivetrain for RX450h, 28 mpg city/27 highway
- A123 applies for $1.84 billion in DOE loans for battery manufacturing
- Stimulus package could include big bucks for advanced batteries
- Geneva Preview: Protoscar teases Lampo electric roadster
- Nissan and Renault officially launch new diesel V6
- Plug-in Prius converters 3Prong Power offer 10 miles of EV power for $7,000
- Motorcycles and scooters compete for fuel-efficiency bragging rights in Philippines
- Land Rovers to get same new diesel V6 as Jaguar XF, but not here
- Solar-roofed REVA L-ions go on Indian Climate Solutions Road Tour
- Ferrari denies working with Peugeot on KERS development
- Daimler looking to sell batteries to third-parties
- Beijing ban could fuel electric vehicle demand
AutoblogGreen for 01.08.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�CommentsW3 Triposto: Summer Days Driftin' Away
Filed under: Aftermarket, Concept Cars, Convertibles, Supercars, Porsche, Special/Limited Editions
Click above for a high-res gallery of the W3 Triposto
Living in Montreal, you spend most of the year indoors dreaming up what you're going to do with those few weeks of summer when the skiing is bad. Now that the Grand Prix isn't around anymore, Canadian gearheads are looking for other ways to get their kicks. And when a retired engineer and a racing driver are penned up together in a snowstorm, this is what you get: the W3 Triposto.
The brainchild of Clyde and Hugh Kwok, the W3 Triposto takes a Porsche 911 and turns it into a unique speedster. Its open-air cockpit features 1+2 seating, like the McLaren F1, wrapped in pseudo-retro bodywork reminiscent of the 1958 Porsche 718 RSK (albeit one realized in carbon-Kevlar and aluminum). The flat-six has been tuned to deliver 300 horsepower, which propels the W3 to a face-shredding claimed top speed in excess of 300 km/h (186 miles-per-hour). Kwok and Son prefer working with 90's-era Carreras, but will gladly perform the conversion on any 911 for a princely $250,000, or $300k for a turn-key model. You'll just have to wait until the snow melts to take it for a spin.
[Source: W3 Triposto via Jalopnik]
W3 Triposto: Summer Days Driftin' Away originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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