Blog on 2040Parts

How Google's autonomous car navigates city streets

Google's self-driving car has been on the road for five years now, at various levels of autonomy. From the ease and relative serenity of California's arrow-straight highways, the car drove hundreds of thousands of miles with a greater level of concentration and mastery than the wandering attention spans of humans could accomplish. In 2012, Google shifted from the freeways to the cities, navigating a far more convoluted set of challenges: the slow-speed chaos that comes with any city, any suburb, any place with people and cars in it.

McLaren MSO reveals MSO 650S Coupe Concept

The McLaren 650S MSOP Concept (pictured) showcases McLaren’s custom options It’s only a few months since we had a McLaren MSO 12C Concept from McLaren Special Operations (MSO) – Maclaren’s division that titivates cars for a significant wad of cash – to showcase just what MSO can do for the 12C. But with McLaren deciding that the 12C is biting the dust in the face of the new 650S, it’s time to update that concept to one that’s current, hence the arrival of the McLaren MSO 650S Concept. The changes to the 650S by MSO are designed to illustrate what McLaren can do to make your 650S as individual as you are, and the updates included on the concept can be applied to both the Coupe and Spider versions of the 650S and even the 12C.

The best taxi in Havana

Havana is a place of beautiful contradictions. Its government claims world-class health care and 100-percent literacy. However, many of the buildings are in hazardous condition, there's widespread poverty and somehow the automotive population has survived for decades beyond its design life.

Lifetime of commuting 'costs £50,000'

A CAREER-LONG commute is likely to set a worker back an average of £50,000, according to a survey. For a Londoner starting work at 18 and finishing at 65, the cost of commuting could reach as high as £66,000, the poll by investing service Nutmeg.com found. Overall, commuters will spend an average of 10,634 hours travelling to and from work in their lifetime - the equivalent of 443 days.

Survey Finds Honda’s Jazz Hits All The Right Notes

YOU won’t usually find much fanfare accompanying Honda’s Jazz supermini, but the compact hatch clearly hits all the right notes as far as its owners are concerned. And this has been confirmed by the latest Auto Express Driver Power survey, with the Jazz scoring an impressive reliability score of 98 per cent. Up 1.2 per cent on its 2013 score, the British built Honda Jazz climbed two places to take the top podium finish in this year’s results.

2015 Corvette gets luxury Atlantic and track-focused Pacific options

Chevrolet will offer two special packages on the 2015 Corvette Stingray when it hits dealerships later this year. The Atlantic convertible features a luxury/GT-focused option, while the Pacific will be a track-focused coupe. “One of the design goals for the Corvette Stingray was to provide customers with the flexibility to tailor the car to their personality,” said Kirk Bennion, Corvette exterior design manager.

Mustangs rule at Fabulous Fords Forever

Mustangs ruled the day at the 29th annual Fabulous Fords Forever car show. “This is the Mustang year,” said Fabulous board member Marc Bodrie. “From 12 months ago, we knew we were going to center this show on 50 years of Mustang.” You could argue that every year is a Mustang year at FFF, with the storied two-door often making up more than half the entries.

Festival of the Unexceptional: the bad cars we love

Ever been to a classic car show and noticed how many old MGBs and sports cars of yesteryear have turned up, driven by their proud owners, but wondered what happened to all the more mainstream stuff? There are twice as many Ferrari 308 GTBs on the roads in the UK than Austin Allegros, because the everyday cars of the past fail MOTs, get chucked away and replaced with shiny new hatchbacks. Fortunately, there is a select group of people in the UK who care for the mundane stuff of yesterday and, because of this, a new event for “unexceptional” cars will be taking place this summer.

One Lap of the Web: The Markchurian Candidate

-- When does a cartoonist become a short-track racer? When he's Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant, and he writes a book about his childhood in and around Indiana, a childhood spent fixated on oval racers. Englehart, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his political cartooning, explores why America's youth are willing to risk their lives to drive in circles -- and why he himself is so addicted to it.

Ford unveils Everest SUV concept at China motor show

While the Ford Motor Co. has no shortage of SUVs large and small in the U.S. market, here's a nameplate that you're probably unfamiliar with: Everest.

Why aren’t Porsche 911 GT3 owners in the UK being compensated?

UK owners of the 911 GT3 aren’t getting compensation It does seem reasonable that if you buy a car you subsequently can’t use because of a design flaw, that the car maker pays you compensation for loss of use. So when Porsche ordered owners of the 911 GT3 to stop using their cars after a fire risk was revealed thanks to a faulty connector, it seemed certain owners would be in for some payback from Porsche. But despite offering US owners of the GT3 $2,000 a month for loss of use, up to $4,000 a month for those in the Middle East and €175 a day for German owners, UK owners of the GT3 aren’t getting a penny.

The Ferrari 250 GTO and TR

Sitting in a line under the unforgiving rays of the sun was an astonishing sight: A 375MM Ferrari followed by a four-cylinder Ferrari 875 and three of the most famous cars of all: A 250TR, 250GTO and a 250LM, the last car to win Le Mans for Ferrari. They were not roped off, and the enthusiastic but respectful attendees were free to get as close as they wanted to better admire and take photographs of them. But this was only the beginning.

Merc-powered Corvette ZR-1 featured at Mercury Marine Museum

Chevy's LT5 engine was one of the most celebrated in Corvette history. In 1988 it generated 375 hp under the hood of the then-new ZR-1 from 5.7-liters of displacement. It wouldn't have been possible without Mercury Marine.

Renault teases extra hot Megane RS

Renault has teased a new, more hardcore version of its Megane Renaultsport coupe on its Facebook page, hinting that the French firm is developing an even more focused version of the sporty hatch to rival the SEAT Leon Cupra 280. The picture appeared with the hastag “#Under8”, meaning the SEAT is a logical target. The Cupra 280 model recently set the front-wheel drive Nurburgring production car lap record with a time of 7 minutes 58.4 seconds.

Wide-ranging, weird and wonderful John Scotti Collection to cross block in Auburn

The John Scotti Collection is, we'd like to think, exactly the sort of assemblage of cars we would put together were we a mechanic who earned his fortune building a group of successful Montreal-based car dealerships. To be sure, the collection of roughly 450 cars represents Scotti's tastes, which seem to tend toward the muscular. But the man, who sells everything from Mitsubishis to Lamborghinis, did an admirable job branching out from the standbys that seem to fill the ranks of every large collection, finding room for both the commonplace and the strange.

Toyota U.S. operations moving to Texas

After 57 years in Los Angeles, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. is moving its sales and marketing headquarters to Plano, Texas, sources close to the matter said. The move will occur in stages and take two years to complete, according to sources.

Bentley Hybrid setup works across Bentley’s range of engines

You’ll be able to have a hybrid powertrain across Bentley’s range of engines With car makers increasingly hidebound by ever more stringent economy targets, even makers of the world’s most expensive, luxury cars are having to play ball. Which explains why Bentley has decided to go the hybrid route for their cars, with the debut of the Bentley Hybrid, a Mulsanne with the 6¾ litre V8 under the bonnet aided by an electric motor and a bank of batteries, at the Beijing Motor Show. It seems the Bentley hybrid solution – which is claimed to increase power by 25 per cent and improve emissions and economy by 70 per cent – is very similar to that used across the VW Group range, with an electric motor between the engine and transmission fed by a bank of batteries.

Check out British classic cars from The Queen's English

Some years, they get real English weather at The Queen's English car show, a gathering of the Empire's best (and few still running) British cars. Even though it's held in Van Nuys, in sunny Southern California, it has been rained out three of the last six or so years, with only a handful of hearty Land Rovers showing up and peeping out of their SUVs beneath bumbershoots. But this year was all glorious sunshine, the likes of which might never have been seen back in Jolly Old.

Peugeot recall over airbag scare

CAR COMPANY Peugeot is recalling some of its 5008 models in the UK due to a possible airbag problem. Friction wear can occur on the driver's seat wiring harness. This can lead to an electrical malfunction and may cause the unwanted triggering of the driver's seat airbag.

Pagani Huayra Roadster still 2 years away

The Pagani Huayra Roadster is still 2 years away (Coupe pictured) The Pagani Huayra arrived three years ago as Pagani’s replacement for the Zonda (in fact, is was three years ago in January we exclusively revealed the first ever Huayra photo), and despite assurances from Pagani that a Huayra Roadster would arrive by 2014 there’s still no sign of it. We did have a little moment of anticipation that the Huayra Roadster was on its way when Pagani teased something new for Geneva 2013, but that turned out to be nothing more than a (posh) new set of speakers for the Huayra Coupe. In fact, the Sonus Faber Sound System for the Huayra Roadster is about the only Pagani news on anything new we’ve had in the three years since the Huayra arrived – although there have been plenty of problems for the Huayra along the way.

2014 BMW i8 drive review

What Is It? The i8 is BMW's best combination of ecology and flat-out fun. It's a hybrid electric sports car that maximizes both.

Koenigsegg planning an entry-level car – but it’ll still cost £500k

Koenigsegg are planning an entry-level car at half the price of the Agera R (pictured) Think of the cars that Christian von Koenigsegg has made since he started with the CC8S in 2002 and you think of them as extremes of the supercar genre; the Swedish engineering take on the bloated and massively complex Bugatti Veyron. Christian’s men in a shed in Sweden have gone on to make a series of progressively quicker and more impressive supercars, through the CCR, CCX and the Agera and on to the current most extreme iteration – the Koenigsegg One:1. But it looks like Christian has decided that his ambition to create the world’s greatest hypercar leaves room for a ‘Lesser’ Koenigsegg, a car that still has innovative engineering and extreme performance but comes at a lower price.

MINI Paceman Adventure Concept – it’s a Countryman Pickup

It’s a MINI Pickup – the MINI Paceman Adventure It’s always hard to decide if a MINI concept – and they’re not exactly as rare as hens teeth – is a real one-off or a pointer to a future production MINI. A good example of that is MINI’s April Fool in 2012 for ‘Camping MINIs’ which turned in to a fully-blown official concept in 2013 as the MINI Clubvan Camper, Countryman All4 Camp & Cowley Caravan. Now we get the MINI Paceman Adventure Concept, a pickup based on the Pacemena (itself based on the Countryman) put together by BMW students and instructors at plants in Munich and Dingolfing and built as an exercise to show the skills and talent of the apprentice programme.

Top 10 car adverts revealed

THE UK’s favourite television car advertisements have been revealed and Honda has grabbed the top two places. Its Hands advert was an easy winner with more than 12 million views, followed by the Japanese firm’s An Impossible Made Possible ad in second spot. Third place went to one of two Chevrolet adverts in the top 10 with the American company’s Outstanding Design ad in third followed by its LifeTest promotion in fourth.

Audi range to expand with flagship 4x4; no new city car (2014)

By Ollie Kew Motor Industry 25 April 2014 07:35 Audi is looking to add a new flagship Q9 SUV to its model portfolio, and has confirmed to CAR that, at the opposite end of the range, there will be no Audi city car. No, according to Audi's Chairman of the Board and CEO, Rupert Stadler. Speaking at the Beijing motor show, where Audi revealed the new TT Offroad concept, Stadler said, 'There is no need for a car [below A1 in the range].’ Quashing rumours of an Audi-badged version of the VW Up city car, Stadler said: 'We are quite happy with A1.

Film Friday: Auburn Speedster tackles the Bonneville Salt Flats

Inspired by a recent trip to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Ind. (more to come on that soon!), we're diving into the historical film archives for some A-C-D goodness. And it doesn't really get any better than vintage footage of the classic Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster tearing up the Bonneville Salt Flats circa 1935 followed by a demonstration of the big Duesenberg streamliner, “The Mormon Meteor” thundering across the lake bed.

Top seven notes from Beijing’s 2014 VW Group motor show

By Ollie Kew Motor Industry 25 April 2014 07:30 On the eve of every major motor show, the Volkswagen Group steals a jump on the competition by staging its own mini motor show to reveal its big-hitters for the imminent event. Here are seven things you won’t have heard from Beijing’s ‘Group Night’. As soon as the floor was opened to journalists, the Chinese media made straight for the stunning new Lamborghini Huracan and Bugatti’s latest Veyron Vitesse Legends Edition, the ‘Black Bess’.

One Lap of the Web: World of Wheels Edition

-- We reported on carbon-fiber wheels almost exactly a year ago. Back then, our Carbon Revolution test also came with a gaggle of obsequious matte-wrapped BMWs against a soundtrack of David Guetta and overpriced exhausts. This latest episode of "Inside Koenigsegg" examines the art of carbon fiber wheels at 280 mph.

Nissan developing the self-cleaning car

Motorists may never need to wash their cars again, as Nissan is helping to develop paint that repels mud, rain and dirt. The technology, which Nissan tells us is “super-hyrophobic and oleophobic”, creates a protective layer of air between the paint and the environment, preventing dirt sticking to the car. Nissan Nissan Note already uses self-cleaning technology Called Ultra-Ever Dry, the tech is currently being tested on the Nissan Note, which already features a ‘wash and blow dry’ function on its rear view camera.

Apple CarPlay to be available on older cars

AFP | Getty Images Drivers will be able to add Apple’s CarPlay iPhone connectivity to their existing car stereo, meaning it won’t be exclusive to the cars already revealed with the system at this year’s Geneva Motor Show. The radio manufacturers Pioneer and Alpine have both already said they’re working with Apple to introduce the CarPlay software to their existing and new car stereo head units. Apple CarPlay lets you text on the move CarPlay allows you to pair a compatible iPhone (so the iPhone 5, 5S or 5C) with your car infotainment system, controlling the voice, touchscreen and buttons through the car’s in-built screen.