Is VW killing Porsche?
In modern motoring world, what was very unlikely to happen 2 years ago, now is becoming reality. As all car makers race to release as many electric/hybrid vehicles in the shortest period of time, you could feel this coming.
Porsche… brand that had only 1 model in production for the most of it’s existence time, stubbornly putting the engine in the wrong place of the car… at the same time proud brand, famous of it’s history, consistency, heritage, sport image… is testing a new model equipped with 2.0 liter engine. Read more…
5 stroke engine - made by Ilmor Engineering
Below You can find some “green” news (source: Automobilemag.com). As far as I don’t really like to publish purely technical content – as this blog should be about fun cars and performance, not some boring engineering stuff, not mentioning green propaganda. The topic described above might be a quite a milestone in the motoring world. Besides the “green” background, it also has one interesting aspect: 150 HP from a liter capacity. Enjoy! Read more…
Mazda 2: step in the right direction
Just watched this video (found it HERE originally). And I really liked what I saw… The topic is worth mentioning as the continuation of the thought stated in some previous post: Old vs New – are the cars getting better?. Video below, made by the Fifth Gear team is showing in a pretty straightforward way what weight does with the car. Especially a small one… It’s a about doing the right thing by a car maker… finally.
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Forget about reaching these values - it's time to save some fuel
I’ve decided to write few words about Ecodriving. As far as I don’t really buy all the “greenwashed” efforts the car makers do to sell more cars, it doesn’t mean that You (We) shouldn’t try to be “greener”… We don’t have to throw away the fun cars and buy some horrid hybrid, or any green- eco- blue- line of cars to have aerodynamic tiny alloys, longer gears and body patched everywhere to cut through the air better. All this to save 5% of fuel (of course at the same time loosing extra 10 – 20% of cash when buying the car).
The key to the best efficiency is in driver’s foot. I recently watched again the Top Gear: BMW M3 vs Prius mpg test for inspiration. Also they just announced some social research results about eco-awareness among Polish drivers.
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Subaru can be "Eco"
Today I would like to introduce a post from friend blogger – http://nohybrids.blogspot.com/. You can check out some interesting facts about real car ecology there. He writes also about “greenwashing” the cars by producers and the media, instead doing a really good job for the environment.
Did You hear any mentioning of Subaru in this hybrid – eco war between other car makers? No? Good. Now check the following post, what Subaru actually DOES for the environment (not only SAY they do, like my favourite Toyota and their Prius toy – Sorry I just don’t “buy” this car).
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Recently I wrote a little “aggressive” comment about Prius, not being Eco friendly and expensive and ugly etc (link). I think that I had a bad day and the post didn’t sound as it should have:) I wasn’t against Toyota in this one. Well… excluding it’s ugliness… The topic was about Prius, but You can compare it to all this class Hybrid solutions that are branded as Eco. Ofc not including luxury cars like Lexus “h” models, which use electric engines to deliver extra power 
You don’t talk about ecology when You have 3 liter gasoline powered engine In this case: electric means fun.
But in this post I would like to think about the big picture: Diesel vs Hybrid. To find that “Vs” word, doesn’t actually fit here. These two are not actually against each other. I believe that soon enough we will see a diesel powered hybrid cars, which will make the best of these two.
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Few words about my favourite marketing product: Toyota Prius. I want to underline the marketing word as in opposite to Eco. I have to admit that it was the first of a kind (or at lease one of the firsts) – hybrid sold in numbers. And despite it’s ugliness – it was successful here and there. You can treat is as a regular car to drive everyday. Everything would be ok if it wasn’t for the aura of greatness, innovation and Eco label – that are being sticked to this piece of metal. The truth is this is not an “eco car”. It is sold as one, so California citizens can calm their conscience of having 6 liter Corvette as a husbands/sons/aunts second car
To the point… I would like to divide this post:
- About usability, economy – regular car characteristics
- Ecology in wider aspect
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