Lotus Esprit Concept @2010 Paris Auto Show

Lotus Esprit Concept



• Lotus is ready to make a big impact at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. It brought five concept vehicles to the show (more on the other four in short order), and one in particular has us salivating. Lotus plans to revive the much-loved Esprit for the 2013 model year. Before we see a production version of that car, the automaker is showcasing its Lotus Esprit Concept.
• Taking cues from the old Esprit, the Esprit Concept plunks its engine amidship, though instead of honoring the turbocharged four-cylinders that powered the originals, the concept makes do with a meaty supercharged 5.0-liter V8. That V8 will look familiar to fans of the Lexus IS-F. The two-seater will produce 620 horsepower, accelerate from 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds and then blast onward to a 205-mile-per-hour top speed. The plan is to bring the production version to market in the spring of 2013 with a price tag around $175,000.
• In addition to the massive, and massively exciting ,V8 power, the Lotus Esprit will also be offered with KERS as an option. KERS, or Kinetic Energy Recovery System, is a system used by Formula 1 cars to recover heat energy generated during braking. The energy is stored until the driver wants a powerful boost and with a push of a button propels the car with more force than two bottles of NOS... the big ones.
• Stay tuned as we'll update this post with more official images as well as live shots from the show floor soon.
• More...http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/30/paris-2010-lotus-esprit-concept-previews-upcoming-revival-of-a/

Honda to revive the Insight as a Prius-fighter

The Insight Concept represent's Honda's next attempt to dethrone the Toyota Prius.
(Credit: Honda)

• Honda introduced the first gas-electric hybrid for purchase with the Insight in 1999, then came Toyota's Prius and everyone forgot about Honda's little hybrid that could. We all knew that Honda was working on a larger Prius-fighting, dedicated hybrid vehicle, but Honda has denied that they'd be reviving the Insight moniker for this new vehicle. On Thursday, Honda released the first official information and images of their Prius-killer concept and it's called, you guessed it, the Insight.
• The Insight Concept carries over the styling cues of Honda's fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Clarity. It looks to us that Honda has been taking lessons from the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" school of thought, as the five-door, five-passenger hatchback configuration of the Insight is the same as that of the Prius. Squint your eyes and you'll see that the proportions from the a-pillar back are decidedly Prius-like. It's almost as though someone slapped the nose of the FCX Clarity onto Toyota's hybrid and called it a day.
• Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

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Crave.com

Assystem shows off its vision of the City Car

• One of the more inventive concept vehicles on display at this year's Geneva auto show is the City Car from the unfortunately named Assystem, which touts the project as a way of exploring "different thought strategies on the future of the city car." The most obvious of these strategies from the outside is the layout of the car's wheels in a diamond formation--a principle that has been patented by Franco Sbarro, Assystem's partner on the project. The car's doors open upward in gullwing-style, not just to show that it is a concept car, but to allow the greatest access with the minimum footprint area.(Credit: CNET Networks)
• It is inside, however, that the City Car really gets our attention. In place of a windshield, the City Car has an LCD display, which can apparently be rendered transparent for regular driving (we're not sure how) or turned into a monitor showing camera footage of the road ahead in difficult driving conditions or at night. To help with night driving, the City Car also has an infrared camera. In the latter mode, the system relies on four external cameras that reproduce real-time imagery of the road, onto which is then projected information on key road markers and obstacles, such as traffic lights and pedestrians. According to its designers, the screen can also be connected to the City Car's onboard GPS navigation system to give drivers an "augmented reality" view of the road ahead, complete with turn arrows projected onto real objects.
• Assystem also suggests that the City Car can identify specific road signs such as those for speed limits and one-way streets, and give a warning notice if the driver's behavior is contravening them. To complete the futuristic vision, the City Car's designers envisage an iris-recognition system for turning the vehicle on and for detecting when the driver becomes tired. If all this sounds too good to be true, it very probably is--when we first asked for a demonstration of the system, the Assystem rep was having trouble even turning the screen on. Not quite ready for prime time, but an interesting view of the future all the same.
• Click here for our coverage of the 2008 Geneva auto show.

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Kevin Massy, Crave.com

Biking the Web with Yamaha.

• If the robust HyperBike is the bicycle equivalent of a Hummer, then the high-tech Yamaha Bobby is the BMW one.

Yamaha Bobby concept bike connects to the Internet.(Credit: Yamaha)

• The Bobby prototype from Yamaha Motor is an electric bicycle that lets riders connect to the Internet. Ubergizmo pointed out that the bike can also be turned on and off from select cell phones.
• Bobby is one of 19 concept bikes Yamaha Motor plans to show at the 2007 Tokyo auto show. The Bobby is part of Yamaha's "Art of Engineering" theme for this year's show, according to Yamaha.
• Yamaha Motor also seems to be partnering to build a motorcycle engine for a Toyota, according to earlier reports.

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Crave.Com

Photos: Frankfurt auto show

Behold the four-cylinder VW Tiguan.
(Credit: Volkswagen)

• The summer driving season has come and gone--just in time for us to give our undivided attention to the Frankfurt auto show.
• On the home turf of BMW, Audi and Volkswagen, the 62nd International Motor Show is playing host this week to carmakers from around the world. They've promised to bring scads of new rides, from the green to the lean to the turbocharged driving machine.
• Consider these, for starters: Ferrari's 430 Scuderia has classic sports car lines, Nissan's Mixim packs a pair of electric motors, Volvo's ReCharge is a plug-in hybrid and Ford is trotting out names like Econetic and Kugo.
• To see those models and more, click here: "Photos: Cleaning up at the Frankfurt Auto Show."

To see CNET Car Tech's coverage from the 2007 Frankfurt auto show, click here. [...]

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Crave staff. CRAVE

GM goes electric in Frankfurt

The future of electric propulsion...
(Credit: CNET Networks)

• We're not convinced about the wisdom of this one. GM is using this week's Frankfurt auto show to reiterate its commitment to alternative fuel cars with the unveiling of the Opel Flextreme, a concept plug-in car that builds on the buzz of the E-Flex drive train from the Chevy Volt. The car itself relies on a series hybrid drive train, which combines a lithium-ion powered-electric motor with a biodiesel combustion engine that is used solely for running the electric motor when the battery's charge runs out.

...or the past?
(Credit: CNET Networks)

• However, as blue-sky as the vehicle's power train may be (lithium-ion batteries have a long way to go before they're ready for production vehicles), that is not the main cause of our concern. What troubles us is the fact that the GM has integrated two Segways into the back of the Flextreme--presumably to highlight its electric-mobility message. Now, we're no marketing mavens, but we suspect that a company trying to promote a fledgling technology would try to avoid association with a device that ended up falling--commercially and physically--flat on its face. [...]

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Kevin Massy. CRAVE

Audi A4 photos show bling LEDs

• Audi has released photos and some spec info on its new A4, which will officially debut at the 2008 Frankfurt auto show in September.
• Most notable to tech enthusiasts may be the optional xenon headlights that include 14 LED lights. These are "daytime driving lights," aka LED bling, for your car. Audi refers to them as "wings." I think they look more like eyelashes. You can see what they look liked turned on below.
• As for the goodies for the driver who's into automation, the new A4 will include lane departure warning, blind spot detection and adaptive cruise control.
• The A4 also has a an electro-mechanical parking/emergency brake button in lieu of a parking brake lever. With more room in that area, Audi offers an armrest with two 12-Volt power sockets beneath it as an extra. A new radio-operated key can store car settings, lock and unlock the car, and start the ignition with a button push.

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Nissan Mixim concept

• It's showtime again in the auto world--that time of the year when manufacturers trot out their latest fleets of new models and wacky concepts. In preparation for the forthcoming Frankfurt auto show, Nissan this week unveiled details of its Mixim electric concept car. According to Nissan, the Mixim (which is unlikely to make it to production) is aimed at young, Web-savvy, digital-age drivers with a penchant for gaming. Check out our photo gallery here.

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