Auto Parts: More than a pretty face: Bertone puts a Ferrari e...

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More than a pretty face: Bertone puts a Ferrari e...: More than a pretty face: Bertone puts a Ferrari engine in its Nuccio concept car April 26th, 2012 | Author: Faraz Ali Malik Most of...

More than a pretty face: Bertone puts a Ferrari engine in its Nuccio concept car

April 26th, 2012 | Author: Faraz Ali Malik

Most of the time, concept cars aren’t really cars. They have no engines, or can only move at very slow speeds. Sometimes, the door don’t even open. Concept cars are all about visual impact; they show what car companies are capable of with their styling. However, there is at least one concept that makes noise when you press the starter button. The Bertone Nuccio was originally unveiled at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, as a celebration of the Italian styling house’s 100th anniversary. Now, the Nuccio is making a second appearance at the Beijing Motor Show, and Bertone says it is fully drivable.
Underneath the stylish skin is the chassis from a Ferrari F430, the car that preceded the 458 Italia. The Nuccio retains the F430’s 4.3-liter V8, but the engine has been tuned to produce 480 horsepower instead of the Ferrari’s 490. However, Bertone says the Nuccio is lighter than an F430, so it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in straight-line performance. The V8 is mated to the Ferrari’s six-speed transmission, which features Formula 1-style paddle shifters. The transmission is less sophisticated than the double-clutch unit in the 458, but it’s better than nothing.
Bertone made one unorthodox alteration to the Nuccio’s lights to make the car road-worthy. The running lights glow brighter when the car is braking; Bertone says this is to alert pedestrians that the car is slowing at intersections. After all, isn’t it better to have more, even when it comes to brake lights? The Nuccio’s headlights appear to be taken from the same F430 donor.
The Nuccio is one of the only concept cars to have a full interior. It is toned down a bit from other concepts, but it’s also more functional. You don’t control the throttle with a touch pad, but you do get heavily bolstered sport seats and an inclined center console that brings controls closer to your right hand. Like the outside of the car, the interior gets a splash of orange to contrast with the mostly gray surfaces.
The Nuccio is named after Nuccio Bertone, the son of company founder Giovanni Bertone. Nuccio ran the company from 1950 until his death in 1997, and produced some of Bertone’s most memorable designs. To honor him, current Bertone designers took styling cues from three of the styling house’s greatest cars: the 1968 Carabo, 1970 Stratos Zero, and 1973 Lamborghini Countach, to create the Nuccio.
It’s easy for a concept car to look good while rotating on an auto show stand, but these vehicles are usually too fragile for the real world. Bertone tried to change that, and hopefully the Nuccio will turn as many heads on the road as it did at Geneva and Beijing.

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Ford showcases wide-opening Easy Access doors on new B-Max

February 14th, 2012 | Author: Faraz Ali Malik

Every year the auto show circuit is packed with concept cars (usually crossovers and minivans) that do away with the B-pillar to tease us with easy access and a wide aperture to the cabin. It’s what Ford’s European exterior design director Stefan Lamm calls “a designer’s dream”. But none of them ever make it into production. That is, until now.
Ford first showed off a compact MPV concept called the B-Max at the Geneva Motor Show last year that, like many others, did without a B-pillar altogether. Earlier this month, the Blue Oval automaker announced it was putting the Fiesta-based minivan into production – and that the pillar would stay out. But this is the first image we’ve received of the production B-Max with its wide-opening doors actually, you know…open.
The combined aperture of the conventional front-hinged doors and sliding rear doors, unencumbered by the pillar you’d usually expect to find there, comes in at a whopping 1.5 meters (nearly five feet) wide – nearly twice that of the Opel Meriva with its innovative rear “suicide” doors – and is made possible by strategic use of high-strength steel incorporated into the doors.
Follow the jump for the full press release and stay tuned for the vehicle’s debut at the upcoming Geneva show. While we might hope for the Easy Door Access System to find its way into Ford’s American offerings in the near future, we wouldn’t expect to find the B-Max you see here in U.S. showrooms any time soon.

1,325 MPG Hypermiling Car

June 29th, 2011 | Author: Faraz Ali Malik

As gas prices continue to skyrocket, the importance of fuel-efficient vehicles can’t be emphasized enough. Luckily, the Cambridge Design Partnership just unveiled a hypermiling concept car that can travel an astonishing 1,325 miles on a single gallon of diesel! While most green vehicles are tested through a series of intense trials, this concept car was put through its paces by an 11 year old Cambridgeshire girl at the annual Mileage Marathon Challenge at Mallory Park.
The vehicle was designed to promote engineering and technology and to educate school and college students about the benefits of eco-friendly vehicle concepts. Test driver Kitty Foster, 11, of Kings School, Ely said of the test drive, “When I told my parents how far this car could go on a gallon of fuel they were absolutely amazed! It wasn’t too hard. The Go system helped me use as little fuel as possible. It monitored the car’s performance, which helped us know when to stop the engine and start coasting.”
“The GPS information made a big difference and added 150 mpg. The whole car was great fun to drive. It’s good to see cars getting more environmentally friendly, and I’m really pleased we’ve done so well in the challenge’.
Cambridge Design Partnership used elements from its own lightweight oxygen concentrator, as well as other in-house technologies, to create the unique car. The oxygen generator system was originially developed to treat injured soldiers, but in the car it is powered by an innovative micro-diesel-engine. The car also features low-friction tires to increase mileage.

The car also uses a unique ‘Go’ real-time tracking service that allows the Cambridge team to optimise the car’s systems. The Go technology has previously been used to track the Tour of Britain cycle race. Stephen Lamb, the MoD project leader from CDP added: “This is about more than just an ultra-eco-friendly car. This supports what our technologies can achieve.”
“We quickly realized that our R & D work for the MoD, creating an oxygen generator, was highly applicable to the Mileage Marathon Challenge. Both required an extremely efficient system that used very low power and could run off diesel. Now I just need to figure out how to make my own car get the same kind of mileage!”

Here’s hoping they can make a version with more than one seat.