CITROEN DS5!!

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Volkswagen brings there NILS Concept at franKfurt auto show 2011

Designing a technically sound vehicle that flaunts all the glitterati and gizmos of the modern era, while at the same time filling its belly with as little of the world’s precious fuel as possible is very simply put, every major car makers dream for the near future. And while, it is a known fact that Volkswagen’s top boss Dr. Ferdinand Piesch has pioneered this movement to a great extend for the company and indirectly for the world, the scope and bandwidth of this vision was exemplified in the form of the XL1 concept car, that in real world conditions managed to cover an astonishing distance of a 100 km on a single liter of diesel.

That is to be quite frank, the true quest for super efficient small packaging, which now as we see it is slowly moving a step forward as Volkswagen unveiled for the very first time in its history, a single-seater all electric urban city concept that according to the auto giant is quite easily the newest and most fine specimen of a car flaunting the ‘minimalist mobility’ moniker.

Gaining a lot of attention at the very eve of the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show, where it will be looked upon a lot more closely and without doubt a tad of speculation, this racing car design inspired one man seater is what the company likes to  call the NILS Concept.

The first thing that ought to catch your attention is the fact that the car has four free-standing wheels, just like that of an F1 car. But, it’s not built for race track, but rather for transportation within the city, which as per German Traffic Demography data seems to make a lot of sense.

Built to be as compact as possible, the NILS will definitely make city drives a lot more hassle free thanks to its meager proportions. It is 3.04 metres long, which is about 50 cm shorter than one of Volkswagen’s latest urban hatch offerings for the world, called the up!

Just 0.39 metres wide from wheel to wheel, and a mere 1.2 metres tall, the NILS’s lightweight 460 kg body houses its 19 kg engine at the rear, where like all plug-in electric cars of the modern day, the 15 kW lithium-ion battery pack can be recharged at an electric vehicle charging station.

NILS Concept designer Thomas Ingenlath, has kept the proportions of this single-seater quite bare minimum, but curvaceous and aerodynamic at the same time, which brings us to what sort of performance one can actually expect for a one man city car like NILS.

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Porsche's new range with your choosen colour

A hot version of the 911 will also be on the stands in the form of the new 911 GT3 RS which comes with a 4.0 liter naturally aspirated engine which is the largest displacement engine ever fitted in a 911. The new engine will produce a whopping 500 horsepower. Thanks to all its technical wizardry new GT3 RS has lapped the Nurburgring in 7:27 minutes which is mighty fast. The 911 GT3 RS will be limited to a production run of just 600 cars, time to rush and book one if you are a 911 enthusiast and have the cash lying around as the GT3 RS has always been the fastest kind of 911.

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2012 Ducati 1199

2011 hasn’t been a distinguishing season for Ducati on the race tracks. Sure Carlos Checa has taken a couple of sporadic wins in World Superbikes on the works-supported 1198s but singularly telling has been Valentino Rossi going not just winless to date on the MotoGP circuit but also being way off the pace. Now this is something that isn’t all down to engine power, or the lack of but the fact that the Ducati makes more than enough power to compete against the best of the Yamahas and Hondas but it just can’t put down all that power down on to terra firma without being a nuisance for its riders.

Ducati knew that it was trying to get the chassis stiffness it needed for its riders to get the best out of the Desmosedici by trying to bring in F1-style technologies wherein its carbon-fibre frame cum airbox design semi-monocoque was a novel approach. However as has been proved in over a century plus of motorcycle design, there have been few big steps in the way the designers and engineers have got to joining the motorcycle’s front to its rear but Ducati is doing something it shunned all along – be inspired by the Japanese!

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Ferrari Italia gets 9.5/10 ratings

There are many supercars built with the sole purpose of blowing your mind, but none of them can quite stir your soul and make you fall in love the way a ferrari can. The 458 italia is testament to just that and there is no better place to experience that than in the hills around its birthplace resonating with glorious V8 symphony.

 Many a time I have been to the gates of supercar heaven and have always been richly rewarded. Yes, I know the almighty has been kind to me and I thank him every moment of my existence here. On my previous visits, I did get to sample and experience small bits of the sanctum sanctorum and it was both amazement and obeisance which followed me to the hallowed industrial district of Maranello where the Prancing Horse is stabled. This time round it was much more of the same but there was more to reveal, more exploratory stuff within the confines of the Gestione Sportive (no, not the F1 set-up but the equally impressive Corsi Clienti) along with well laid out visits to the V8 assembly line, the Ferrari design centre (Centro Stile to give it its exact calling) and also Ferrari Classiche.

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Maserati gran turismo mc stradale on indian tracks

Maserati has always been like the Ralph Schumacher of the automotive world - glamorous in his own right but always taking a back seat to Ferrari as part of the Fiat Automotive group. With the GranTurismo MC Stradale, Maserati's sportiest model in its current line-up, the brand with the trident badge takes a big step towards endearing itself to enthusiasts who want a car that can balance track duties with daily driving activities.

The MC Stradale is much more than just a GranTurismo S with an extra 10hp and 20Nm. The car is an astonishing 100kg plus lighter, thanks to various weight-saving measures such as the removal of sound insulation (-25kg), carbon ceramic brake discs (-18kg), and carbon fibre race seats (-26kg). The MC Stradale is inspired by the Trofeo GranTurismo MC, but it needed to be modified in order to become road legal. For that Maserati needed a car with great aerodynamic downforce at high speed without creating more drag, even while it is diverting airflow into effectively cooling its brakes.

So, the MC Stradale has received a new front splitter and a redesigned rear bumper that adds 48mm to the total length, while the front splitter, side skirts and the front guard panels all combine as one unit in order to push the nose of the car down at high speed, to cool the brakes, extract the hot air from the braking system and to provide downforce along the length of the car.

Also, the car gets two hot air extraction outlets in the bonnet and the rear bumper has also been re-profiled, with the exhausts emerging closer to the centre of the car. The entire look is completed by a new set of flow-formed 20-inch wheels.

 The interior also needed to be adapted for a high performance sports car. The shell seats are made in carbon fibre combined with hi-tech padding and materials and a Trident logo stitched into the headrests.

But the most impressive feature with the new MC Stradale is the Human-Machine Interface that allows driver to change the driving mode. The car will start in Auto mode, but there is also a Sport and a Race mode.

The instrument clusters have received the traditional Maserati blue background colour, the pedals are made in aluminium, while Alcantara is used to trim the centre console, the armrest lid, the door armrests and handles and the curve above the instrument cluster.

This lighter, more focused MC Stradale goes 0 to 100km/h in just 4.6 seconds and is the first volume production Maserati to break the 300km/h barrier. Changes to the aerodynamic efficiency of the car results in a whopping 25 per cent front and 50 per cent rear increase of downforce at 200km/h without any drag penalty. When the car was unleashed on the Shanghai International Circuit under Maserati’s Deep Passion Cup track day program, its weight reduction and keener response were apparent.

Turn-in is sharper with less understeer. The 1,670kg car also makes it response for better for throttle input. Lifting off on the decreasing radius curves helps the front end bite in a lot more. The 4.7-litre all-alloy V8 giving it 440hp in standard trim so the additional 10hp in the MC Stradale cannot really be felt but the 60-millisecond gear change certainly can. There are three gear-change speeds - from the brutish 60ms in Race, to 100ms in Sport and 140ms in Auto.

 When the driver holds the left downshift paddle while braking, the car will keep changing down gears at exactly the right moment as speed bleeds off. Very useful when braking hard from a high-speed section onto a slow corner such as Turn 2 of the Shanghai F1 circuit.

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BMW i3 and i8 concept visionary vehicles

BMW i3 and i8 concept visionary vehicles

BMW i stands for visionary vehicles and mobility services, inspiring design and a new understanding of premium that is strongly defined by sustainability. With BMW i the BMW Group is adopting an all-embracing approach, redefining the understanding of personal mobility with purpose-built vehicle concepts, a focus on sustainability throughout the value chain and a range of complementary mobility services.

The long term goal of BMW EfficientDynamics is to combine efficiency with increased driving pleasure. The continuous optimization of the vehicles, such as systematic weight reduction, innovative aerodynamics and engine efficiency measures, as well as the use of alternative drivetrain solutions and the research of new technologies, to provide sustainable mobility already today.

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