| McLaren 650S (2014) first official <b>pictures</b> <b>...</b> - <b>Car</b> Magazine Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST By Phil McNamara First Official Pictures 17 February 2014 13:00 Punchier, a few kilos lighter, more incisive to drive yet more luxurious, McLaren has overhauled the 12C to create the 650S. The new supercar â€" which makes the 12C look obsolete â€" is in production now, and will cost punters around £195,000 for the coupe. A folding hard-top spider will also be available, for around £215,000.
In a strategy reminiscent of Aston Martin’s continuous improvement of the DB9 and its transformation into the Vanquish, McLaren has revamped the carbonfibre 12C with 25% new parts. The engine is more powerful, transmission crisper, suspension and electronics overhauled, brakes beefed up and aerodynamics transformed, in response to customer feedback and media criticism of the 2011 MP4-12C. Read on for more details. Pumped up powertrain The 650S name combines the power output in PS â€" 650 (641bhp) â€" with S for sport. Peak power increases 25bhp over the 12C, from the twin turbo 3.8-litre V8 engine which has a revised cylinder head and pistons. Peak torque, which surges in from 3000 to 7000rpm, climbs from 443lb ft to 500lb ft.
No-one ever accused the 12C of being a bit ponderous, but the Pirelli P Zero Corsa-tyred 650S knocks a tenth of the 0-62mph sprint, dropping it to 3sec flat. Some four tenths come off the 0-124mph, which is now 8.4sec. Top speed remains 207mph.
The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission shifts more quickly, and there are other tweaks to enhance performance and driver enjoyment. In normal driving mode for example, upshifts under part throttle are accompanied by a millisecond cut of two cylinders, which amplifies the exhaust note. In track mode, ‘inertia push’ harnesses the engine torque levels, raising the engine speed for each gear, to maximise acceleration.
McLaren says revised transmission software and exhaust cam phasing make the 650S smoother to drive under low throttle inputs too. Enhanced dynamic performance The chassis has also been significantly overhauled. There’s less body roll, thanks to 22% stiffer springs front:rear, which improve turn in and enable higher cornering speeds. The dampers are modified to improve impact response. None of this compromises the 12C donor car’s exemplary ride comfort, says McLaren: drivers will feel more confident to drive harder, thanks to the 650S’s increased stability. This is also enhanced by the wider, stickier Pirelli P Zero Corsas, whose construction is derived from the P1’s tyre.
McLaren promises that the 650S is more fun too. After CAR’s first track test of the 12C, racing driver Ben Collins noted: ‘Every time I accelerate and get some yaw into the chassis, the traction control cuts power and a series of jarring wiggles ensues... [and] the ABS is inconsistent and intrusive: it cuts in too much.’
The 650S shouldn’t frustrate us in the same manner. In Track mode, the Electronic Stability Control now allows a greater slip angle before throttling engine torque. And the 650S is fitted with standard carbon ceramic brakes and a new brake booster: low speed braking is said to be much more linear, and the anti-lock braking far better calibrated. New look and aerodynamics Design boss Frank Stephenson inherited the 12C when he joined McLaren, so the 650S gives him an opportunity to properly shape the car’s look. The new supercar’s nose resembles the P1 hypercar’s, in its brighter LED headlamps and enlarged air intakes which help suck the car to the ground. The bigger side intake is needed to cool the more powerful mid-mounted engine.
The revised aero boosts downforce by 40% at 150mph. The rear airbrake automatically shifts position according to what the 650S is doing: it slides flat under full acceleration to reduce drag like an F1 racer’s Drag Reduction System, or if you slam on the anchors, stands on its end to maximise braking force.
Don’t think of the 650S as a track-focused, stripped out racer: it has more kit than the 12C. The interior is swathed in Alcantara, there’s next-generation sat-nav and standard DAB radio, and new forged alloy wheel designs and paint options. Owners will be able to personalise the car with carbonfibre details inside and out, carbonfibre seats, additional leather on the upper dash and contrast stitching. Does all this mean the end for the 12C? The firm vows the car will remain on sale as an entry-level McLaren, but it's looking as lame a duck as President Obama.
Jamie Corstorphine, McLaren’s head of product, says: ‘The 650S reinforces our class-leading performance credentials. It majors on driver engagement and enjoyment. And it extends the 12C’s breadth of capability, to a level unparalleled by any other supercar in the market.’ We’ll find out if it lives up to McLaren’s billing when we drive the 650S in late March 2014.  |
| Fiat Panda Cross (2014) first official <b>pictures</b> <b>...</b> - <b>Car</b> Magazine Posted: 19 Feb 2014 03:20 AM PST By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 19 February 2014 11:20 This is the new Fiat Panda Cross â€" a Panda 4x4 with a Bear Grylls attitude and a dual personality. Fiat claims this high-riding city car is as happy in city traffic as it is taking on ‘the toughest off-road conditions’. Is this really a credible off-roader, or a cutesy crossover? Read on for more about Panda Cross, which will be exhibited at the 2014 Geneva motor show. A Fiat Panda becoming a serious off-roader? Don’t make me laugh… Stifle your guffaws for a moment. The existing Fiat Panda 4x4 is already a rather good little off-piste-mobile: its skinny tyres, low mass and generous ride height mean it’s less likely to get stuck off road in a sticky patch than a bigger, bluffer 4x4. The Panda Cross rams home this advantage. The all-wheel-drive system remains an on-demand drivetrain, splitting power between the front and rear axles via an electronic locking differential. However, the driver can override the automatic brain, locking the Panda Cross into AWD mode at speeds of up to 30mph. Still slipping? The car’s brakes intervene if one wheel is struggling, forcing more power to the tyres with the most traction. Sounds like the Panda Cross takes its off-road ability seriously There’s more. If you’re tackling a really steep drop, there’s a ‘Hill Descent’ mode â€" no prize for guessing it automatically brakes each side of the car to keep the Panda Cross straight on a nasty slope. A shorter front gear in the six-speed transmission acts like a low-range gearbox, offering easy access to the torque band when driving uphill and making the Panda Cross easier to modulate when descending. It sounds a bit Heath Robinson, but the Dacia Duster uses an identical solution to improve its own off-road credentials, rather successfully at that. ‘Squircle’-themed body cladding also adds to the Panda Cross’s rough-and-tumble attitude â€" and makes it less susceptible to parking dings. To us, it looks like a Panda 4x4 wearing a scuba mask, while that holey front bumper takes the Nissan Juke’s ‘wine rack’ frontage to extremes. Somehow, it’s still a charming little upstart â€" and it should have the grip to match the show. Go on… Pick a Panda Cross and your little 4x4 comes as standard with chunkier rubber than a standard Panda 4x4: those are 185-section, 15in tyres. With up to 16cm of ground clearance, the Panda Cross will reportedly scramble up a 24-degree climb, manage a 20-degree breakover angle, and climb a 31.5-degree gradient. Enough for even the steepest of driveways! You can spec two engines: the 89bhp 0.9-litre two-pot Twinair, or a 1.3-litre four-pot diesel with 79bhp, 140lb ft and a claimed 60.1mpg economy figure. Not laughing any more… You’ll be able to buy your own Panda Cross in the UK in time for the weather to turn nasty â€" it’ll reach our shores in autumn. Official prices, expected to be around the £15,000 mark, will be announced nearer the on-sale date. Is this the world’s most politically correct 4x4? Add your thoughts in the comments below.
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| Audi S3 Cabriolet (2014) first official <b>pictures</b> <b>...</b> - <b>Car</b> Magazine Posted: 19 Feb 2014 06:30 AM PST By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 19 February 2014 14:30 You can’t fault Audi for lack of choice. You can get your 296bhp all-wheel-drive kicks in the S3 three-door, S3 Sportback, S3 saloon, and now this: the Audi S3 Cabriolet. It’ll go on UK sale this summer, and cost around £35,000. Using the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-banger to drive all four 18in wheels as the rest of the S3 range does, the S3 Cabriolet doesn’t hang about. It’ll go from 0-62mph in 5.4sec, aided by a fast-shifting dual-clutch S-tronic transmission as standard. The gearbox is revised from its more humdrum applications elsewhere in the Audi A3 family. Here, it uses shorter ratios for the first three gears for maximum acceleration, and longer top ratios for improved fuel economy. Audi claims the car will return up to 39.8mpg. >> Click here to see CAR pitch Audi S3 against BMW M135i and Mercedes A45 AMG This is the first S3 Cabriolet â€" the last-gen model never got a go-faster version. Thanks to the use of magnesium in the soft-top mechanism and aluminium body panels, the S3 Cabriolet is lighter than you might expect for an automatic, Quattro-drive drop-top: 1620kg to be exact. That’s not the full story, however: the S3 drop-top weighs a porky 225kg more than a basic front-drive Audi A3 Cabriolet. >> Click here to read CAR’s review of the 296bhp Audi S3 Sportback You can drop the S3 Cabriolet’s canvas roof in 18sec at up to 31mph. The car rides 25mm lower than a standard A3 Cabriolet, and sports 340mm front brakes, a subtle bodykit, and quad exhaust pipes to signal its intent. But can it outpace and out-pose the new BMW M235i, which develops a handy 322bhp and has an extra two cylinders to enjoy listening to? Over to you in the article comments below…
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| Peugeot 108 (2014) first official <b>pictures</b> <b>...</b> - <b>Car</b> Magazine Posted: 13 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 14 February 2014 07:00 This is the new Peugeot 108 â€" the replacement for the Peugeot 107 city car. Like its predecessor, the 108 will be sold in Toyota guise as the new Aygo, and be restyled to become the new Citroen C1. All three will make their first appearances at the Geneva motor show in March 2014. Peugeot’s shown its hand first, so let’s take a closer look. New Peugeot 108: the engine spec You’ve a choice of four powertrains for the new 108 â€" the old car only had a single-spec 1.0-litre triple developing 68bhp. It’s all three-pot power this time around too, but top-spec models get a 1.2-litre version with 82bhp. It emits the most CO2 of any new 108: 99g/km. The other three options are all 1.0-litre triples, good for, once again, 68bhp. Efficiency is up, however. There’s a super-clean 108 emitting 82g/km, a regular one that spits out 95g/km, and a five-speed automatic version that emits 97g/km. Claimed fuel economy should top the outgoing 107’s best of 65.7mpg. Unlike the new rear-engined, rear-drive Renault Twingo (also due at Geneva) Peugeot is sticking resolutely to a front-engined, front-wheel drive chassis. Has the new Peugeot 108 put on lots of weight? Thankfully not. Peugeot claims the most basic 108 (not the sunroof-equipped, alloy-wearing 108 ‘TOP!’ models you’re looking at here) weigh as little as 840kg. That’s a 10kg increase from the most spartan 107. At least there’s been no dimensions overgrowth: the new Peugeot 108 is 40mm longer but 10mm narrower than the 107, and can be specced as a five-door hatchback for an extra £400 over the three-door. What kit do I get on-board the new Peugeot 108? All 108s get six airbags, four seats, and a boot capacity of 196 litres. While that’s up from 137 litres in the 107, it’s far from the biggest in this sector. The three-door VW Up/Skoda Citigo/Seat Mii gang all have 251 litres, and the 252-litre Hyundai i10’s takes the best-in-class medal by a measly single litre. The new 108’s steering column adjusts for height, also moving the speedometer which is faired onto the column cover. The instrument pod includes a stack of lights to show engine revs, and a gearshift indictor to maximise economy. Though official cabin pictures won’t be revealed until March 2014, we can see a crucial change aboard the 108 versus other Peugeot models… Spot the steering wheel? It’s a normal size! No miniature steering wheel, and no having to looking over it rather than through it to see the dials. Why the cabin design U-turn? This car has to be sold as a Citroen and a Toyota too, and those guys don’t do the mini-steering wheel gag… What else do we know about the new Peugeot 108’s interior? There’ll be a central touchscreen infotainment centre, measuring seven inches across. It’s an option on the basic ‘Active’ models, and standard on every other 108. Its most clever feature is the ability to show an exact replica of your smartphone’s screen, whether you’re an Android or iOS user. Once the car is moving, it’ll only allow access to apps it deems safe. So, you can use the navigation, play music, and make calls, but playing Angry Birds will have to wait until you’re parked. Anything else? ‘Claw’-effect rear lights, the chrome glasshouse embellishment and ‘floating’ front grille are cues pinched from the existing Peugeot 208 and 308 hatchbacks, and are all intended to make the new 108 look wider and lower, giving it a squat, taught look. It’s still a boxy city car, but so was the old one, and that sold in bucketloads. We’ll find out if the 108 can do the same when its UK order books open on 1 July 2014. How much? Peugeot insiders promise the most basic 108 will cost less than £8500. The exact size of that undercut is unclear, but we expect the entry-level 108 to cost a little more than the 107’s current £8095 base price. Meanwhile, a 108 fitted with the retractable fabric roof will cost less than £1000 extra over than its hard-top equivalent. >> Do you like the look of the new Peugeot 108, and the big-car features inside? Drop your thoughts in the comments box below
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| Renault Twingo (2014) first official <b>pictures</b> <b>...</b> - <b>Car</b> Magazine Posted: 13 Feb 2014 03:01 PM PST By Damion Smy First Official Pictures 13 February 2014 23:01 This is the new Renault Twingo that’s due to arrive in showrooms this September. Renault’s smallest model bar the quirky Twizy, the third-gen Twingo is the first in the car’s 24-year history to come with five doors. The all-new model has been co-developed with Mercedes, which will use it for its Smart ForTwo and ForFour models. Haven’t we seen this car before? The completely new look is clearly a polished, showroom-friendly mix of the Ross Lovegrove-massaged Twin’Z concept, and the rally-centric Twin’Run concepts shown in 2013. Renault’s head of design, Laurens van den Acker, makes no secret of the fact that both of these concepts, in turn, are influenced by the legendary Renault 5 from the 1980s and that has carried over into the Twingo. If it’s only half as cool… With next-to-no front and rear overhang, the new Twingo looks like a potential return to form for Renault, after the luke-warm reception of the Clio and the recent crook corporate nose slapped onto the Megane. The Twingo’s diminutive size also bodes well for supermarket carparks as well as the handling circuit. There are also touches like the concealed rear door handles, like big-brother Clio, with personalisation high on the agenda, as per the Vauxhall Adam, Fiat 500 and the one they’re all imitating â€" the Mini. The Twingo can be had with colour coordinated profile graphics to match wing mirrors, grill inserts and cabin trim â€" although Renault haven’t shown any interior images so far. What’s beneath the funky skin? That biggest single change is that the Twingo has gone from a conventional front-wheel drive, front-engined hatch to become a rear-drive mite sporting a rear-mounted engine, tilted for better packaging, including more interior space. Following the trend of downsizing and turbocharging, there’s new powerplants, too: an 898cc three-cylinder turbocharged engine that’s already on sale in the Captur and Clio. It will make 89bhp, while there’s also an entry-level 69bhp naturally-aspirated engine too. Renault says that the new set-up will provide more agility and give the Twingo a more playful character â€" but we’ll wait until we drive it to judge that. It should also easily eclipse the current car’s best of 62.8mpg and 104g/km of CO2 â€" the three-pot turbo already achieves a claimed 65.7mpg in the larger, heavier Clio. So that makes a great case for a Twingo RS, yeah? Sure does. We’d love to see what a Renaultsport-honed rear-drive hatch could do â€" the old Twingo RS was an absolute pearler. Renault ditched the Twingo RS mid-last year, and while it won’t confirm a new version will appear, it hasn’t ruled out handing one over to most talented tuners in Dieppe. We’d wager on a new Twingo RS appearing later this year with more power and less weight than the old 133PS (131bhp) version… How much? The new Twingo will be offered in more trim levels than the current model, which is down to a single mid-spec variant. Renault’s value-driven Dacia brand has taken up the slack, but for the 2014 Twingo there’s scope for more trim levels to be offered. The other good news? It should start at less than £10k â€" a handy £715 less than the Twingo’s current ask.
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| 27 Electrifying <b>Car Pictures</b> - Mind Blowing World Posted: 19 Feb 2014 08:26 PM PST I have been in love with cars since I first drove my father's car. Since then, there was no come back for me as I kept involving in this with the passage of time. I met some people who inspired me more than anything and now I just cannot stop love driving. There are many others like me who are freaking mad about cars. Cars have been transformed into a very new thing with the help of science and latest technology. Scientists are trying their best to make cars with maximum safety and speed considering consumption in mind as well. Here are some of the very unique cars, some of these are yet to released, which bring the car industry to another new level. These cars are not only fast but they also provide best safety features and a thrilling experience to drive. Check out the pics and let us know what you think about these car's looks, performance and technological advancements. 
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