The New Acura NSX

 

    





 About 100 Honda North America associates will be picked from however many current employees apply to build the Acura NSX. The guy in charge of development is an American, too. Suspension specialist Ted Klaus is the Large Project Leader on the Acura NSX.

 Ted Klaus didn't list his BS in mechanical engineering from Notre Dame or his 20-plus years with Honda and Acura as, among other things, HRA's first Vehicle Dynamic Evaluator. He is both a test driver and a suspension engineer, both of which bode well for the coming Acura. Ted Klaus is a racer, too, as are many engineers at Honda R&D. The price? “Amazingly affordable, within the range of the Porsche 911.”

 “The drive-train is being developed in Japan. (The chassis tuning is being done in the U.S.)
Could the NSX lead to other performance cars? “Our mandate was to make a halo vehicle. The guys saying to do that are making product plans. This is an opportunity to leverage the NSX and S2000.”
How may are you going to make? “The car will be rare, that's important.” 

Lamborghini Egoista Concept

   

The Lamborghini Egoista's 5.2-liter V10 with a reported output of 600 hp will always be a lonely affair. The car has one seat. It is like a cockpit of a jet fighter. It does not have a stereo system. Lamborghini refers to the Egoista as a “four-wheeled UFO".






An official press release calls the concept “…a car for itself, a gift from Lamborghini to Lamborghini, resplendent in its solitude.” It's also hard not to love the car's spaceship-like form. It's absurd, yes, but it's also honest -- Lamborghini named it Egoista, which is Italian for “selfish,” for a reason. The concept reduces the super ultra hyper-car.

2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Supercab Review

 

 

  The 2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Supercab is one of the few gas guzzlers that makes a trip to the gas station exciting. In the Raptor, buying more gas is like buying more fun. The first genuinely brave thing an American automaker has done in years. it is hard to imagine you in a truck that's built to fly through the desert at 100MPH. It's going to cost you a fortune in gas but it is very comfortable & rides far better than you'd expect it to on the highway. It is like driving a monster truck.

 Once you have one, it's tough to go back to a car. It's a big, meaty, imposing truck.It reminds me of a truck that Hanna-Barbera would draw up. The 6.2-liter V8 is a gem. More than enough power and terrific hot rod sounds. Some of the dash materials could use an upgrade, and the buttons for climate are too small and packed too tightly together. They can be hard to see, especially in the dark, and take a little too much concentration away from the road when driving.

It features a higher ride height sitting on the long-travel Fox Racing Shoxs and 35-inch BFGoodrich tires. The fact that the tires are all-terrain instead of being full-fledge rubber helps, but the off-road-focused suspension does an admirable job keeping the body controlled when going around turns and bumps. Steering isn't overly heavy or light. The brakes are very good.

Everybody's likes the SVT Raptor and look forward to driving this bad boy again on- or off-road.

2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Supercab

Base Price: $44,786

Actual Field Price: $50,987
Drive-Train: 6.2L V8 with a Six-Speed Automatic Transmission; 4WD.

Output: 411HP & 434Lb-Ft.

Curb Weight: 6,260 Lbs.

Fuel Mileage: (City/Highway) 11/16 MPG

Average Fuel Mileage: 11.8 MPG

Options:  Equipment group 801A including SVT Raptor, luxury package, power drive and passenger seat, heated and cooled front seats, electronic auto temperature control, power adjustable pedals, body-color power-folding and heated side mirrors with turn signals, remote start, Sony single-CD stereo system with SYNC, trailer brake controller, universal garage door opener, HID headlights and navigation ($4,760); box side graphics package ($1,075); front and rear camera system ($525)

2013 Ford F-150 Limited Supercrew Review

 The Red 13' Ford F-150 Limited Super-crew with EcoBoost Engine.

Everybody needs some kind of sports car to balance the fleet, but a big truck does most everything I'd want in a member of my personal fleet. I do not understand the EcoBoost Engine but the power is there & plenty of it. The F-150 Limited Super-Crew has the power for towing & stump pulling. Finally a V6 with aV8 Performance from a Ford Truck with better gas mileage. Not to mention I want a little V6 growl with my big truck, and this truck doesn't have it -- sounds flat. In fact, it sounds more diesel than like a gas engine. Maybe the mpg advantage is all out on the freeway. Around town, where's the EcoBoost?

The Transmission is smooth and the steering acceptable. The interior and My-Ford-Touch is OK. The seats are outstanding. Overall, very good for Ford's lines of trucks. There is no Eco in the EcoBoost.

2013 Ford F-150 Limited SuperCrew

Base Price: $53,879
Actual Field Price: $54,150
Drive-Train: 3.5L Twin-Turbocharged V6 with Six-Speed Automatic Transmission, 4WD.
Output: 365HP & 420Lb-Ft.
Curb Weight: 5,615 Lbs.
Fuel Mileage: (City/Highway) 15/21 MPG
Average Fuel Mileage: 11.8 MPG
Options: White platinum metallic tri-coat exterior paint ($495); spray in bed liner ($475); tailgate step ($375); bed extender ($250)

Nascar Reduce Joe Gibbs Racing Penalties!!

The three-man NASCAR appeal panel has significantly reduced penalties imposed on Joe Gibbs Racing for an engine-related rules violation when Toyota driver Matt Kenseth won April 21 at Kansas Speedway. The panel overturned altogether or dramatically reduced most of the penalties against Kenseth and members of the No. 20 team. Kenseth's 50-point penalty was trimmed to 12 points and crew chief Jason Ratcliff's suspension was reduced from six Sprint Cup races to just one.

 The only major penalty that was upheld was Ratcliff's $200,000 fine. But the Nascar panel ruled that Kenseth's win will now count as an official win and award points toward the Chase for the Championship bonus points. Kenseth's team was originally penalized for having a connecting rod lighter than the minimum weight. Specifically, it was 523.3 grams, a mere 2.7 grams below the 525-gram minimum. Toyota Racing Development manufactured the engine and has accepted responsibility. Nascar held the team accountable for the rules violation.

Supercar Battle for Price Tag Supermacy

   Ferrari, McLaren, Pagani & Bugatti Battle for Price Tag Supremacy. I am zeroing in on the $1-$3 million price tag range, which fits the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Pagani Huayra and the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. The first three fit neatly, pricewise, at about $1.3 million.The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport breaks the price range at a stratospheric $2.4 million.The McLaren P1 is the only supercar in the group to have an eight-cylinder engine, the Pagani and Ferrari get 12 Cylinders and the Bugatti has 16 Cylinders!!

The Super Lightweight Ferrari LaFerrari has 950 horses with only 2764 Curb Weight Approx. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport & McLaren P1 are almost equal at Bugatti with 3211 Curb Weight Approx. & McLaren P1 with 3139.5 Curb Weight Approx. The Pagani Huayra has 3961.5 Curb Weight Approx.

The Ferrari LaFerrari is the best value, costing the buyer only $1,368 per HP.
The McLaren P1 is the second on the list with $1,479 per HP
The Pagani Huayra is the Third on the list with $1,806 per HP
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is Fourth on list with $2,023 per HP
From a different perspective, Ford charges you $74 dollar per pony in the Mustang GT.

 This data proves the fact that the Ferrari LaFerrari is the best performing car in the world, and will be for the near future. Based wholly on the numbers the McLaren P1 would be next.

If you disagree that the Ferrari LaFerrari is not the best performing car in the world. Tell us what you think is the best performing car in the world in the comment area.

The Kustom Kar King's Dean Jeffries Dies!!

Dean Jeffries, a contemporary of California's great kustom kar kings in the early 1950s, Who dies Sunday, May 5 at age 80.

Dean Jeffries grew up in Lynwood, Calif., across the street from Indy racer Troy Ruttman and around the corner from Sam and George Barris' shop. He spent his days hanging around the greats: George Cerny, Von Dutch and Big Daddy Roth. Dean Jeffries landed his first contract job striping cars for Barris where, among many Indy-Car bodies and racers' helmets, he painted the “Little Bastard” logo on James Dean's Porsche.


 Dean Jeffries moved out of the Barris enclave and opened his own shop in Hollywood, eventually settling in the famous Cahuenga Boulevard location. Dean Jeffries was perhaps most famous for the Mantaray, a bubble-topped creation built around a Maserati chassis and a Cobra engine. The car was the height of kustom kar extravagance in the early 1960s.

He made big money making movie cars, most famously the Green Hornet, Monkeemobile and the beginnings of what would become the first Batmobile, the car George Barris famously finished. Dean Jeffries was preceded in death by his second wife, Rosalee “Row” Berman, who died in 2008. He is survived by one son, Kevin Dean, from a previous marriage. A private family burial will be held, and a celebration of life is being planned for later this month.