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Top speed of gas-powered cars

To put an automotive spin on an old axiom, 40 really is the new 30—in miles per gallon. What’s particularly remarkable is that this impressive highway-mileage figure is increasingly being achieved not only by hybrids and other alt-fuel cars—which post their best numbers in the city—but by regular gasoline-powered vehicles with relatively low price tags.

A look at eleven current and forthcoming cars that deliver 40 mpg highway reveals MSRPs ranging from $12,490 (for a two-door Smart car) to around $20,000 (for a four-door Ford Focus SE). With global turmoil continuing to push pump prices higher, it’s clear manufacturers understand they can boost sales by focusing on a statistic that for most of the past few decades was a non-issue for the American automotive consumer. In fact, Ford recently started running ads that specifically boast about reaching the 40 mpg mark. (more…)

admin
August 30, 2010
Car
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Cars hacked via wireless sensors of tire

The tire pressure monitors built into modern cars have been shown to be insecure by researchers from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina. The wireless sensors, compulsory in new automobiles in the US since 2008, can be used to track vehicles or feed bad data to the electronic control units (ECU), causing them to malfunction.

Earlier in the year, researchers from the University of Washington and University of California San Diego showed that the ECUs could be hacked, giving attackers the ability to be both annoying, by enabling wipers or honking the horn, and dangerous, by disabling the brakes or jamming the accelerator. (more…)

admin
August 20, 2010
Spare part
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Safe winter driving depends on tire at most

Find the best winter tires so you can be ready for safe winter driving. I think the Goodyear Nordic tires are the best and you might think that too…read this article to find out what makes these winter tires the best…better than all the rest. Photo Caption: Interesting Fact: When equipped with a set of Goodyear Nordic winter tires, you are able to stop shorter on average up to a distance of 60′ while traveling at 60km/h. (NC)—As winter approaches, Canadians begin to prepare not only for winter, but for safe winter driving. For all drivers this should include changing all-season tires over to winter tires.

Winter tires are designed for winter driving conditions – colder temperatures, snow and ice – and are therefore safer for winter driving than all-season tires. At temperatures below 7 C, all season tires begin to lose elasticity and traction. Winter tires are made with a compound that retains elasticity and gives better control and traction not only in ice and snow, but also on cold, dry pavement. The Goodyear Nordic, for example, stops on average up to 60 feet sooner than a best-selling all season tire travelling at 60 km/hr. (more…)

admin
August 15, 2010
Traffic
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Danger driving style

What are risky driving behaviors? Do you engage in any of these dangerous practices while you are driving your car? Read and find out more about these dangerous driving practices and if you do any of them…stop!

You are not paying attention to the road and the other vehicles around you if you are doing any of these 5 dangerous and risky driving behaviors while you are behind the wheel of your car. Most people assume when they get into their car to travel, they’ll return home uninjured. But with the increasingly complex and time deficient lives most Americans are subject to, multi-tasking is the norm.

admin
August 10, 2010
Traffic
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Air-Powered Car released in America in 2010

The Air Car caused a huge stir when we reported last year that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year. (more…)

admin
August 5, 2010
Racing
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Wind-Powered Car Actually Moves Faster Than Wind Speed, Answering Tricky Physics Question

A California team recently tested a wind-powered car that can actually outrun the wind, adding more fuel to a lingering physics debate. In a test two weeks ago, the car hit a top speed 2.86 times faster than the wind, according to its creators. Some physicists say this should be impossible, but car-builder Rick Cavallaro says that’s exactly what happened on May 16. What gives?

Cavallaro had funding from Google and Joby Energy to build the car, basically an aerodynamic foam chassis attached to a wind turbine, with the San Jose State University aerodynamics department.

(more…)

admin
August 1, 2010
Engine