mini coupe concept: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Smart Car Custom Flat

Smart Car Custom Flat. Yellow Smart car custom body kit with a flat

27 CENT PETROL PRICE INCREASE ON WEDNESDAY

The government has announced that a 27 cent/ litre rise in all grades of petrol is on the cards for Wednesday 2nd of December 2009. The price of wholesale diesel will increase by 25 cents a litre while illuminating paraffin will increase by 29 cents.

The Department of Energy says consumers are simply carrying the international price increases for these liquids as well as suffering from a weak Rand/ US dollar exchange rate.

“The average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate for the period 30 October 2009 to 26 November 2009 was 7.5722 compared to 7.4988 during the previous period,” said the Ministry.

No indication has been given as to which direction these commodities will take in January, but because of signs of economic recovery in many parts of the world, as well as the winter that’s upon the northern hemisphere which will increase demand and prices, it would be safe to assume another increase.

Picture courtesy of www.driving.co.za

2010 VW POLO WINS EUROPEAN CAR OF THE YEAR

The new Volkswagen Polo has just been voted the 2010 European Car of the Year. The votes were carried out by a jury of 59 motoring journalists from 23 European countries. This is the first time in 18 years that a VW car has won the title. The last time was in 1992.

VW SA will launch the new Polo towards the end of January 2010, possibly with a 1.2 TSI and a 1.6 TDI worth 77kW each.

This is how the voting points went:

Volkswagen Polo 347 points

Toyota iQ 337 points

Opel/Vauxhall Astra 221 points

Skoda Yeti 158 points, 54 votes

Mercedes-Benz E-class 155 points

Peugeot 3008 144 points, 49 votes

Citroen C3 Picasso 113 points

GAVIN CRONJE TESTS LM P1 IN FRANCE

Gavin Cronje, a South African motor sport champion in international competition in 2009, completed a successful LM P1 prototype sports car test with French Le Mans 24 Hours winners Team Oreca Matmut AIM in the south of France this week.

The test, which saw the 30-year-old from Johannesburg joined by three other Formula Le Mans winners in a two-day programme at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet, was Cronje and Belgian co-driver Nico Verdonck’s prize for winning the inaugural Formula Le Mans Cup. The other two drivers, Valle Makela of Finland and Mathias Beche of Switzerland, were the runners-up.

The six-round series, in which Cronje and Verdonck scored nine victories in 12 races, is a dedicated launch pad for the top echelon of endurance racing and the car Cronje drove is the one campaigned by Bruno Senna, Olivier Panis, Stephane Ortelli and Nicolas Lapierre in this year’s Le Mans Series.

Lapierre, winner of the last Le Mans Series race, the Silverstone 1000 km, was on hand to offer advice and instruct the four drivers. The aim of the test was not to evaluate their outright speed, but to give them a taste of what it’s like to drive at the highest level of sports car racing.

The first day started with a visit to the French prototype constructor’s workshop, a briefing with technical staff plus seat and driving position fittings.

The next day the four Le Mans Series hopefuls got down to the serious business of sampling the LM P1 Oreca around a 3.8km version of the main circuit. In an all-too brief 25-laps during the day, split into three sessions of five, 10 and 15 laps, Cronje warmed to the task at hand as the circuit, slowed by due in the opening session, warmed up and lap times came down.

Gavin Cronje: “It’s been a great pleasure to drive this car. I was very impressed by the performance of the Oreca prototype; it’s obvious that it’s very different to the Formula Le Mans car. It goes a lot quicker and the most striking difference is the aerodynamic package, which generates enormous grip. For safety reasons there was no question of any of us trying to find the limits of the car, and I think we all played fair.

Nonetheless, it gave us an opportunity to glimpse this car’s potential and I’m really delighted to have taken part in this test. It’s the result of Nico’s and my great season with the DAMS team. This test is clearly the most interesting experience I’ve had in motor racing so far, and I’d be all the happier if I could orient my career towards an LM P1 programme. It’d be the next step and that’s what I’m working towards, but it’s still a bit too early to say what I’ll be doing next season.”

STORY BY: Peter Burroughes Communications

PICTURE BY: GavinCronjeRacing.co.za

Cheap Car : Pink Smart Car Posters

Cheap Car : Pink Smart Car Posters>> Smart Car Posters, Smart Car Wallpaper, Smart Car Picture

Sunday, November 29, 2009

THREE MERCEDES-BENZ MODELS SCORE 5 STAR SAFETY

MERCEDES-BENZ SAYS: No less than three Mercedes model series at once have achieved the highest rating of five stars in the more stringent EuroNCAP test - the E-Class, GLK (not sold in SA) and C-Class.

“We are very pleased about this good result. It confirms the correctness of our real-life safety concept, even in standardised rating crash tests,” says Professor Rodolfo Schöneburg, Head of Passive Safety at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

In line with the claim that 'One star is sufficient', Mercedes-Benz has always taken a comprehensive safety approach that reflects what actually happens in real accidents. “Real Life Safety is far more than performance in standardised crash tests or the number of onboard airbags. The innovative PRE-SAFE system for example, which improves safety shortly before an accident occurs, is not assessed at all by EuroNCAP,” Schöneburg explains.

During the course of its development to date, the new E-Class has successfully come through over 150 high-speed crash tests and more than 5000 realistic crash simulations. These not only included the various impact configurations prescribed for rating tests and worldwide operating approvals, but also the in-house, Mercedes crash tests derived from accident research findings.