Alex Roy’s Official Team Polizei HQ Blog: Covering Cars, Driving, Races, Rallies, Technology & All Things Automotive. Facts & Figures? Go Somewhere Else.
Even though photo ticketing is illegal in Florida, Sarasota County’s board of commissioners unanimously voted in favor of an ordinance that would allow the county to seize the home of anyone who has failed to pay a red-light camera ticket, and this is before any red-light cameras have been installed. The lien would be placed on the vehicle’s registered owner, regardless if the owner was driving the during the accussed infraction. And if they don’t own a home, then other personal property would be seized. Not draconian at all.
Pirelliplans to introduce two tires in 2010 with computer chips either glued to the inner liner (Cyber Lean) or embedded into the carcass (Cyber Tyre). The simpler Cyber Lean will gather data such as pressure, temperature and average load. Data can then be sent to the car’s on-board computer to inform the driver. The chip will be powered by the mechanical vibrations from the tire as it turns, perhaps like a self-winding watch. The Cyber Tyre will feature a chip with a triaxial acclerometer and will be able to give data actual on potential friction coefficients, the force of contact and load. Pirelli engineers are trying to integrate this data with a car’s safety systems such as traction, ABS and stability control to help "correct wrong behaviour in advance."
Two-hundred-and-forty mph is the projected top speed, but that’s not really the point. The point is the designer and engineer, Joe Harmon, is using wood in every area possible to build this car, which he calls, the Splinter. He’ll be using a twin-supercharged Northstar V8 to push the 2500lb. car, so if it’s got a small frontal area and proper gearing, 200-plus shouldn’t be a problem. On his site and blog, Harmon states he’s using wood in ways similar to carbon fiber (weaving) and that wood has a strength-to-weight integrity that’s better than steel or aluminum. He also addresses heat and other issues in his FAQ section.
According to the Transportation Research Institute at the Univ. of Michigan, high gas prices have helped reduced the number of fatalities to their lowest levels since 1961. The study’s author, Michael Sivak, says $3.00-plus per gallon gas has caused a tipping point not only in how much they drive but also where, when and how they drive. Accoring to the AP story, if the pattern continues it could lead to "an unheard of improvement" in motor vehicle fatality statistics. Based on data from three government agencies, Sivak predicts predicts 2008 will drop below 37,000 deaths.
We just played it. It’s pretty primitive. Don’t expect PSP graphics or user friendliness or an in-car view. Do expect to be confused for the first few laps as you adjust to the overhead view and counter-intuitive responses. We expected more from a company who claim "Advancement Through Technology" (Vorsprung durch Technik) and have given the world gems like the Quattro, LeMans-winning diesels and the R8. And, yes, we know it’s just a marketing gimmick to drive traffic to the new A4 website but this might be more harmful than helpful to Audi’s brand image.
ALEX WRITES: I’m hijacking Peter’s post. I know Audis. I love Audis. I’ve owned several Audis - a ‘96 A4 & a ‘00 S4 - yet however improved the B8 chassis, whoever greenlit the budget for this thing should be fired, forced to pay back the money wasted, and his boss forced to play it for 31 hours and 4 minutes. Non-stop.
Diesels are coming on strong lately, with the Alpina D3 we posted earlier and Audi having announced that their A4 diesels can get over 900 miles on a tank (or appox. 52mpg), there’s little doubt why European carmakers have been such boosters. The car pictured above, is a protoype by Trident Inceni, a start-up car maker based in Norfolk, England. It uses a GM 6.6-liter turbodiesel that’s been converted to run on biodiesel. Trident claims it can achieve up to 80mpg while delivering supercar performance due to it’s relatively low weight of 3262 lb. being moved by 550hp and 950lb.-ft. of torque. Trident is currently looking for investors to bring this car to the market.
Still hot from the buzz created by the geo-broadcast of Team Polizei’s I-80 in 40 run, Seero recently got some love from Wired’s Autopia blog for their GPS map of the chase scene in Bullitt, arguably, the best car chase scene in cinematic history. Car movie buffs can now follow the exact same route as McQueen’s flying Mustang turn for turn, jump for jump. No word yet on when the French Connection or Ronin maps will be coming out, however, someone tried to map out Rendezvous.
I’ve left New York. What started as a ten-day trip to hammer out some business with Alex turned into five weeks of sleeping on his blue velour sectional, plenty of brainstorming, a ton of new friends and adventures the wooly world of startups that I couldn’t conceive of when I boarded that eastbound redeye in Sacramento over 4th of July weekend. But come to an end it has. We’re off to Monterey in 144B. We’ve enlisted the talents of Autoblog’s resident Northern California boy, Damon Lavrinc, to handle additional driving duties. We’re also attempting to warp the poor man’s brain. We’ve never attempted a driveplan that involved meeting an airline flight before, but that’s exactly what we’ll be attempting this time when we pick up Liz Moses.
She claims that she’ll bring some much-needed sense to the proceedings, but we’re a bit curious as to how much sense anyone who hitches a ride in a fake German police car crewed by a bald man, a bearded man and a blogging man could possibly have. Nevertheless, we intend to make our trek a memorable one. We’ll be broadcasting live video from Seero, as well as putting together one of our signature maps. We’ll be ruminating on the nature of driving in today’s America, passing through hamlets large and small as we travel the entire length of Interstate 80 — from the George Washington Bridge in New York to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, then tooling down 101 through Silicon Valley and south to Steinbeck Country — where we’ll take in the goings on during what’s internationally recognized as the most fantastic collection of automotive events in one weekend. If you call yourself a car guy and haven’t made it to Monterey, mark your calendars. And once you experience it, you’ll want to come back every year.
We’ll see you on the shores of the Pacific. Meanwhile, consider 80 in 40: NY/SF a go.
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