Memyius' Cars

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Memy

Video: Chevrolet gives a glimpse of the engineering behind the 2014 Stingray

Coming up with a design for a new vehicle is a very complex process. This is the case for the 2014 Corvette Stingray that will sport a new styling and architecture. The engineers that were tasked to build the 2014 Stingray had to start from scratch to build its frame and body panels.

The new Stingray will make use of an aluminum frame that will see the car’s stiffness improve by 57% compared to the C6 The C7 also has a composite body with a roof and hood made from carbon fiber. The undertray of the C7 is also made from a material called carbon nano hybrids.

The body structure of the Stingray makes it around 99lbs lighter than the body of the C6 but this does not make the new car a lot lighter than its older sibling.

The C7 however feels solid while managing not to add weight to its overall structure. The use of the carbon composites and carbon fiber also help a lot with the panel fitting as these materials do not shrink or expand like other conventional materials.

Comparing the built to the choreography of a ballerina, the Stingray is really about craftsmanship and excellent precision.

It is amazing to see how C7 is a big jump from its older C6 sibling. We just cannot help but think how much more expensive will the C7 be with all these improvements.

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Posted on December 12, 2012 by Memy

Car Review: 2013 Aston Martin DBS

The 2013 Aston Martin DBS will soon be replaced by the 2014 Vanquish. This will happen when the latter starts rolling out by the first quarter of next year. But for now, the DBS is still the flagship vehicle of the brand.

As it goes, Aston Martin made sure the 2013 DBS will be remembered. It offers the Ultimate Edition in either roadster or coupe body style, black or silver body finish, and a whole lot of upgrades for the equipment and appearance. The price tag of the Aston Martin DBS is pegged at $290,000.

If you are not familiar with the lineup, you might take the DBS as the Vantage or the DB9. It sports the modern day styling of the brand with an oblong grilles, muscular haunches, swept-back headlamps, and long hood proportions. In suhc case you are looking for some more good dose of exclusivity, then you can opt for the Carbon Edition that gives you a better feel and looks.

Under the hood is a very potent V-12 engine with a six-liter displacement. The engine can give out 510 horses and a torque of 420 lb-ft. While you may not be totally be impressed with these numbers, the thrust you feel when your driving the DBS. The car just tips the scale at 3,800 pounds and by no means you can say it handles perfectly even when negotiating a tight corner.

Do not expect the fuel mileage to be magnificent. You have a V-12 so the best numbers go 12/18 mpg city/highway. This should be the case if you have a six -speed automatic gearbox. The manual transmission will see more fuel consumption at 11/17 mpg.

The interior of the vehicle is simply amazing, You have leather treatment that has been hand-sewn. It has that old-world magic seen through the modern eye.

The Aston Martin is not a vehicle for everyone. If you have the means , then write a check for at least $275,000.

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Posted on October 24, 2012 by Memy

Jaguar to unleash the new wild cat in the form of the XFR-S

Are you looking for a fast ride? A wild cat will soon be unleashed from the Jaguar garage. It promises to be a beast in terms of power and speed. The new flagship model XFR-S will be unlike its tamer XFR sibling that supports a supercharged V-8 that gives out 503 horses. It will be sporting a more aggressive styling with an eye-catching spoiler that you often see on STIs and EVOs but not from Jaguars.

The Jaguar XFR-S will also don a restyled front bumper with more muscular lines, and a lower and bigger grille. The car will also roll on newly designed alloy rims hugged by performance tires specifically designed for low profile driving.

The side skirts of the XFR-S are also beefier. They forego of the chrome trim and instead uses black paint. The car als make use of bigger disc brakes paired with red calipers.

The interior is also expected to get a good amount of pampering from Jaguar designers. The production version will get different seat options, trims, and colors.

Under the hood, the Jaguar XFR-S will get the supercharged 5.0L V-8 engine from the XKR-S coupe that can crank out 542 horsepower and a torque of 501 lb-ft. We can expect higher numbers on the sedan model.

According to a reliable source, Jaguar is finishing its work on the XFR-S and the car be officially revealed before the end of the year.

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Posted on April 26, 2012 by Memy

Great eBay Find: 1971 Plymouth with V10 packed under its hood

Simplicity is what makes the American classic muscle and pony cars great. This quality allows you to do what you want to do with them with the restrictions only set by your wallet and your time.

A 1971 Plymouth turned into a ViperCuda has been spotted on eBay. As the name indicates, the vehicle is powered by a V10 powerplant sourced from the Dodge Viper of today. There is more to this vehicle beyond what you see which started as a convertible 1971 Plymouth Barracuda from 1971 that is dependent on a potent 5.2L V8 engine.

The conversion was done by Hudson, Florida firm Time Machines. The team started with the acquisition of the V10 engine and chassis of a wrecked Viper from 2001 with an odometer reading of 23,000 miles.

After stripping the body of the Barracuda from its original chassis, Time Machines fabricated the hybrid platform which incorporates a lot of parts from the chassis of the Viper including the independent suspension.

The rear seat was removed and the designers customized the interior as part of the ViperCuda conversion.

The V10 that gives out 450 horsepower is connected to the six speed manual transmission of the Viper while the ‘Cuda still rolls on its stock 18 inch rims in front and 19 inches rear rims hugged by 275/35/28 rubbers in front and 335/30/19 Pilots by Michelin.

The ViperCuda has a tag price on eBay of $179,900.

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Posted on October 27, 2011 by Memy

Kia Picanto’s amazing nail ad targeting female car buyers

The Korean car manufacturer Kia wants everyone to think that their 2012 Picanto is not your ordinary small car but a small vehicle that you can make most of. Let us just say they pay attention to details as they produced a marketing ad for the new Picanto involving weeks of work, more than a thousand bottle s of nail polish, and 900 frames of animations done on press on nails.

Yes, Kia tapped nail artists to do the commercial for the Kia Picanto . They did not print them on the nails or transferred the graphics, but hand painted them. Each frame took two hours on a press on nail.

Watch the videos below and see for yourself what Kia went thru to push the Picanto to its target market:

The Kia Picanto was first unveiled back in 2004. So far it has gone thru two facelifts, and the latest of which was in Geneva last March. The redesigned Kia hatchback follows the modern design lines of the rest of the range. The 2012 Picanto will be offered as 3-door or a 5-door.

Buyers can also choose from three variants of the engine and two transmissions. The entry level powerplant is a small 1.0L unit with 3-cylinders which will come in two versions.; a gas variant and a bifuel enine that runs on LPG and petrol. The gas variant will give out 68 horsepower and a torque of 70 pound-feet. The bi-fuel version can produce 81 hp and 69 lb-ft of torque.

A bigger inline-four 1.25L engine will also be available. This engine will give the Picanto 83 hp and a torque of 89 lb-ft.

The three powerplants for the 2012 Picanto are coupled with a 5-speed manual transmisison. There is an option to get an automatic gearbox with the 4-cylinder engine.

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Posted on December 10, 2010 by Memy

The Aston Martin DBS

Aston Martin DBS is a sports car of high performance that is manufactured by the UK automaker, Aston Martin. The Aston Martin is perhaps one of the most widely recognized names in automakers that are synonymous with performance. This may be due to the fact that the Aston Martin is considered the car to have if you are a huge James Bond fan. The car actually appeared in the 2006 James Bond movie, which helped it to reach a higher level of popularity. The performance of the DBS is outstanding. The engine is a V12 that delivers around 510 horsepower. This allows the car to have a time of 4.3 seconds going from zero to sixty. The top speed of the DBS is around 191 miles per hour, which is not the fastest car, however, it is definitely in the top five sporty cars for speed.

The car comes in a 6 speed transmission. Most common is the manual transmission, however there is an automatic version that many people prefer. However, a common complaint of those that drive automatic transmission high performance vehicles is the loss of power because the car does not have a manual transmission. Fuel economy wise, the car gets an estimated eighteen miles per gallon on the highway, and twelve miles per gallon in the city. This mileage is actually better than most performance cars of this caliber receive, which puts the DBS at the head of many people’s list of dream cars to own.

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Posted on September 2, 2010 by Memy

The Pagani Zonda

The Pagani Zonda is manufactured by Italian auto maker Pagani. These cars began production in 1999 and continue to this day. Owning one of these cars is as honor, simply because the auto maker only manufactures around seventeen or nineteen Zonda’s every year. The Zonda is the only car that Pagani manufactures, which makes the vehicles even more of a gem. However, Pagani is in the process of building a new car that is supposedly going to replace the Zonda.

There are many different versions of the Zonda, including the Zonda Roadster, Zonda Cinque, Zonda F Club and so on. The difference between each version is usually the engine size and the amount of horsepower that the car can deliver. However, the overall design of the Zonda was inspired by jet fighters, this can be seen in the looks of the car. If you have never seen a Zonda, then picture the famous Batmobile that Batman used in many movies, then take this a step further, with four pipe exhaust, huge rear spoiler, and a wide front end like the Chevrolet Corvette. The car was rumored to have been influenced heavily by the look of jet fighters as well as leaning on the Sauber-Mercedes Silver Arrow Group C cars. The jet fighter aspect of the car is readily seen with the design of the car.

Engine wise the car varies with each year. At the beginning of the Zonda, the engine was a 6.0 liter engine. The car could do a quarter mile in 12.1 seconds, which is extremely fast. What makes these cars even faster is the material that they are made of, which is carbon fiber. This is one of those aspects that has carried forward to current generations. The 2000 Zonda utilized a 7.0 liter engine, while the 2002 Zonda used the largest V12 engine that has ever been made. Needless to say, power is a main concept of these cars, which is why so many sports car lovers drool over this car.

Price wise, these cars cost a pretty penny, which is to be expected given that there are a limited number of vehicles produced each year. The first version of the Zonda cost around $400,000 in US dollars. However, as they improved upon the car and engines became bigger, the price increased. Right now, the current Zonda would cost around $1.2 million US dollars. Hence, it is very uncommon to see these vehicles driving around on the roadways.

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Posted on June 2, 2010 by Memy

New Generation of Lignocellulose-based Biofuels discovered by Shell

Researchers of the oil giant Shell said that they discovered a new generation of biofuels which are based on the hydration of y-valerolactone (GVL). This is a substance that’s intermediately created by the hydrogenation of levulinic acid, a derivative of lignocellulosic feedstock’s simple acid hydrolysis. Depending on the reactants used in the process, possibly good fuel properties may then be mixed with gasoline or diesel.

The paper based on the work of John Paul Lange and his co-researchers at Shell Amsterdam, Cheshire and Hamburg was published in on online journal called Angewandte Chemie International Edition last May 5, 2010. According to the study, when gasoline is blended with 10% and 20% of EV (ethanol valerate), it complies with the European gasoline requirements. Further, EV blended fuel increases the octane number without deteriorating properties.

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Posted on May 5, 2010 by Memy

Krug Champagne’s Rolls Royce Van is Back Home

A lot of people had custom-made Rolls Royce vehicle in their time. In 1984, the rich and famous’ champagne maker has his own Royce van created. After all, if you’re dealing with people like Louis Vuitton, it’s highly inappropriate for your product to be seen in a Bedford van. However, the famous Krug Champagne Rolls Royce which was created for commercial purposed was sold to someone by the company somewhere along the way.

After years of being away from home, the Krug Champagne Rolls Royce bread van is finally home. The family bought the vehicle back and it not sits safely in the House of Krug in Reims. Champagne’s Royce van is no longer delivering champagne to the stars, though. It now rests in its France home as a valued museum piece.

According to the report, the Rolls Royce van was actually a 1979 Silver Shadow II sedan before it was converted into a three-door commercial vehicle. The front seats were allotted for the driver and one passenger, and two refrigerators were fitted into the van’s open rear compartment. The iconic vehicle holds the Krug Crest and it retains its special cork key ring.

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Posted on April 10, 2010 by Memy

First Time: Audi outpaces Mercedes-Benz on global quarterly sales

Audi AG makes history by overtaking Mercedes-Benz in global sales for the first time. The Ingolstadt-based carmaker was able to roll out 264,100 vehicles for the first quarter of 2010 while Mercedes-Benz moved 248,500 units. The Q1 achievement is an improvement of 25.9% compared to the sales figures of for the first quarter of last year.

The goal of Audi is to become the leading luxury car manufacturer in the global market by 2015 and during which they should be selling about 1.5 million cars annually.

Audi ranked third in sales for premium new cars sales in 2009 with Mercedes taking the second podium next to the top spot earned by BMW.

According to experts, Mercedes-Benz might have tough time trying to regain the number two spot this year with the way things are going. Audi, at the very least should get the second spot. Audi executives expect a continuous upward trend on their sales graphs for the rest of the year.

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