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A glimpse of the Toyota FT-1 Vision GT concept coming soon to Gran Turismo
Toyota has released a teaser video for their FT-1 Vision GT, a continuation on the popular concept car design shown earlier in the year. Building on the wildly popular FT-1 concept, the new car will soon enter the digital realm of Gran Turismo 6.
When the wild Toyota FT-1 concept was unveiled in January, the online world was buzzing with hype. Toyota used to be known for their exciting sports cars, but over the years had fallen into a continuous cycle of tasteless sedans and minivans. With the FT-1, people were suddenly reminded of the company’s earlier sports cars like the Supra, MR2, and the Celica. Now, with a more aggressive take on the FT-1, it looks as though the sporting pedigree of Toyota could return.
Here is a sneak peek of a very special version of the Toyota FT-1 sports car concept vehicle that will soon be available for download in Gran Turismo®6, exclusively on PlayStation®3.
This exciting concept was designed by Toyota’s Calty Design Research in Newport Beach, CA.
Audi R8 4.2 FSI Quattro test-drive – Audi R8 in drive test in Brasov, Poiana Brasov
Beauty is in the details. Take a closer look and discover why every Audi is worthy of wearing the four rings. Follow the progressive lines through the subtle curves to the distinctive profile.
The interplay yields an aerodynamic brilliance that’s as pleasurable tearing down an open stretch of road as it is staring at it in the driveway.
The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi’s trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German automaker Audi AG in 2006.
The car was exclusively designed, developed, and manufactured by Audi AG‘s high performance private subsidiary company, quattro GmbH, and is base to the Lamborghini Gallardo platform.
The fundamental construction of the R8 is based on the Audi Space Frame, and uses an aluminium monocoque which is built using space frame principles. The car is built by quattro GmbH in a newly renovated factory at Audi’s ‘aluminium site’ at Neckarsulm in Germany.
Press Play and drive safe!
Guerlain Chicherit attempted to beat the world record for longest ramp car jump: “Longest Jump Story “
“When I woke up the morning of jump day, I called my wife and told her that I had a bad feeling. I’ve traveled the world for motorsports and seen hundreds of crashes – multiple car pile ups at high speeds, race cars rolling end-over-end, sometimes on fire.”
James Kirkham, the 4 Wheel Motor Sports Creative Team Leader for GoPro Original Productions, wrote of the experience on the scene that day.
Professional skier and rally driver Guerlain Chicherit attempted to beat the world record for longest ramp car jump. The result was not what he had hoped for, and the video that came from it was not just a crash video.
“The life of a professional stunt athlete is rarely without consequences,” James explains. “We see them fall, crash, get hurt and, yes, sometimes they die. But what we captured inside of Guerlain’s car was very different than a crash video — it was a deeply ethereal, intimate human experience. We captured ‘that moment’ – A look on a man’s face and a light in his eyes when he realizes, ‘this is it. I am going to die’. Three or four seconds that seem like minutes, without time. Where I expected to see fear, panic, contortion, and pain, Guerlain shows us a deep existential calm.”
It was a record of one man confronting his own mortality, and ultimately experiencing a moment of what we can only describe as grace.
Source & credit for image.
Audi Vets to Techs (with US Marines)
The Audi of America Veterans to Technicians program now employs more than 100 veterans from the U.S. armed forces at Audi dealerships across the country.
The milestone was reached at the one year anniversary of the program launch.
Subaru WRX STI vs The Drones
The new-generation 2015 Subaru WRX STI is engineered to perform. In this brand new course concept, power, precision and agility are put to the test as the WRX STI navigates through an autocross track made entirely of moving drone quadcopters.
It’s pure performance, pushed to the limit …
The amazing future of car tires?
The high performance tyre of the future will be very different to the tyres we drive on today, if the results of a recent design competition are a guide.
A Hankook Tire competition in the US has challenged some of the country’s brightest industrial design students to imagine the role of tyres in automotive design from new angles.
The winning entry by University of Cincinnati student Ben Zavala took the brief somewhat literally, with his Tiltread car tyre rolling into corners at an angle like a motorcycle tyre.
Zavala’s breakthrough idea was to split the tyre into three parallel ring sections, each mounted on a corresponding split section of wheel.
As the wheel turns and leans, the three tyre sections are individually raised or lowered, allowing them all to maintain traction with the road surface.
Tiltread’s wheels are hubless and contain an electric drive motor which varies power to each tyre section, allowing the sections to spin at different rates during cornering.
University of Cincinnati associate professor Ralph Zammit said the competition demonstrated just how great an impact improvement in tyre design could have upon the overall efficiency, ecology and economy of road transportation.
“Hankook proposed a very challenging assignment that provided the students with real-world insights as to how tyres are currently designed, manufactured and the performance issues they must address,” said associate professor Zammit.
“Students were especially encouraged to consider sustainability needs such as reducing and reusing raw materials.”
Second place in the competition was taken by Mark Hearn who imagined an off-road tyre called Motiv, which features numerous height-variable, non-pneumatic tread blocks that can adapt to extremely rough terrain without risk of blow-out.
Third-placed Miranda Steinhauser’s proposal for an eco-friendly tyre also impressed the competition judges.
The Tessela tyre’s easily removable tread components allow consumers to replace worn-out tread when required, rather than the whole tyre carcass, reducing tyre waste and landfill.
Models of the first, second and third placed tyres were displayed on the Hankook stand at the 2012 SEMA automotive show in Las Vegas.
