Porsche buyers put the brakes on stop-start technology

By Chris Chilton Motor Industry 23 June 2008 18:56 Direct injection and a clever new PDK dual-clutch gearbox have cemented the new 911’s reputation as the greenest performance car around, but Porsche engineers are being hampered from making the iconic sports car even cleaner by the public’s reluctance to accept further green technology Engineers at the launch of the facelifted 911 told CAR that fitting a BMW-style start-stop system could chop a further 10g/km from the Carrera’s 225g/km CO2 rating but that performance car buyers weren’t keen on having such overtly planet-conscious tech on their cars. Start-stop works by cutting the engine when the car’s stationary in traffic, and restarting automatically when you touch the pedals to move off again. Every manual transmission-equipped BMW 1-series comes with the technology, excepting the truly high performance versions.

'We just did it': The story of the Viper

With the public debut of the 2013 SRT Viper scheduled for the New York auto show, we've scoured the Autoweek archives to bring you some classic Viper stories from our past. For exclusive Viper Week content including the latest news as it happens, check out Autoweek.com/viperweek By Robert A. Lutz, originally published in Autoweek 10/5/98 The most famous Chrysler turnaround, the one fueled by the invention of the minivan and the K-car and supported by government loan guarantees, was followed by a second, less-celebrated escape from the brink of disaster.

UK drivers change cars as often as their mobile phone

DRIVERS in the UK change their cars as often as they swap to a new mobile phone. In the past 10 years, the average British motorist has owned four mobile phones and four cars. A study by Privilege shows that most drivers own an average of seven cars in their driving career, even though that figure includes four cars in the past decade.