By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Wearing your heart on your sleeve is one thing, but wearing your car on your butt? Yeesh. Via PoorlyDressed.

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Man, it’s been a crazy few days. Lots of cool cars have shown up (All in my driveway…. slight exaggeration, as in the driveway of the mind!) But, there are SO many doodads of coolness out there, it’s really hard to pick what gets the major super duper cool status of being one of of my CDW’s. (See, another acronym… I keep doing that for some reason.)

So, without further do doo… Feast in the pure bitchiness of the soul. Cars of heaven, direct to your door, yo.

1. THE AUDI LOCUS CONCEPT

Gorgeous, right. I mean, here’s a woman that knows your weakness. Although, most likely a 3D image, this Audi concept evokes style and charm with added sass. Like a woman who knows just how to get into that sweet spot of yours. ‘Course, dangling it first to get your attention until you melt like warm chocolate. Oooooo……

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Fireball's "Cool Designs of the Week!"" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Peugeot has been throwing a serious monkey wrench into Audi’s perfect program, coming out ahead of both R10′s yesterday in practice, and even thrashing the fabled Germans in qualifying today by winning the overall pole position with a lap of 1 min, 6.242 seconds—the fastest lap time recorded at Road Atlanta, ever. And the kicker? Peugeot’s not even competing for real—they’re simply testing their car and their team for what’s sure to be a blistering full season of ALMS racing in 2009!

Yesterday I talked to Bruno Famin, the technical director for the Peugeot team. He told me about the car’s all-aluminum 5.5L turbo-diesel V12, and explained how they’re working on going hybrid, adding a secondary electric motor to improve accelleration and efficiency on the 700-hp mill. I got a bit of a look at the Peugeot 908 today and yesterday in the garage—it’s clearly packing some state-of-the-art-technology, and the team is pretty secretive about it, even draping a sheet over the car’s internals any time they have it apart. Peugeot may run the new hybrid during the 2009 season, depending on whether possible changes in ALMS weight regulations allow for the heavy li-ion battery. The hybrid racecar would serve as a testing platform for the development of diesel-electric hybrids for the consumer market, like the Peugeot RC Concept making its debut at the Paris Motor Show. But since Peugeot doesn’t sell cars in the US, their full-season entry into American Le Mans Series has been a long time coming. And even once they do jump in with both feet, their participation in the series will be primarily geared toward preparation for the big one—the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Nonetheless, it’s going to be really interesting to see them rough up Audi’s reigning champions. Click below the jump to see more of the 908 and its team.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Diesel Dogfight: Peugeot 908 Is Up In Audi's Grille" »

Hybrids are hot in Paris this year. Our buddies at Road & Track took a closer look at some of the concepts unveiled at the show, from the mild Honda Insight Concept to the wild Peugeot RC Concept pictured below (photo by John Lamm). After driving the Tesla last week, I think I’m ready to jump straight from gasoline to electric, without this intermediate step. But check out the article at Road & Track and see what you think.

By Jen

AKA SusyBruisy

Here’s a few snaps of the American Le Mans Series cars in the pit lane waiting to get out on the track for afternoon practice. There was a bit of a shuffle following that session—the clean-diesel Peugeot 908 LMP1 ran the fastest lap, unseating both the Audi R10s, who tend to run at the top, with a lap time of 1 min, 6.952 sec. That beats the No. 2 Audi’s record-setting lap time of 1:07.091, run yesterday. Impressive, green one! More on Peugeot’s race program shortly, as I managed to make it to their "meet the press" shindig this evening. In the meantime, check out the Piloti Ford GT and a bunch of other ALMS cars in their pit stalls, below.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "In The Pits At Road Atlanta" »

There are a lot of videos of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb floating around on the web, but the Peugeot-produced Climb Dance is the best one I found. The combination of perspectives—I love the overhead shots—gives you a real sense of how difficult and treacherous this twisty 12.4 mile course is. Just watch the driver’s hands as he wrestles the car through the turns! I’m getting ready to head to the airport right now, but I’ll be in Colorado Springs by early afternoon. Stay tuned for full coverage from America’s Mountain!

Arthur Dent, a member on the Grassroots Motorsports forums, just paid a visit to the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum and posted a ton of great pics on Flickr. The museum focuses on the "pioneering front wheel drive and rear engine cars from the 1920s and 1930s, and each vehicle was chosen based on the engineering achievements that made it an important part of the evolution of the automobile." Below is a beautiful Peugeot 402 Darl’Mat Roadster. 

Looking at the old badging is one my favorite parts of car shows, and this site has a cool page documenting how emblems have evolved over the years. While BMW’s spinning prop has been essentially unchanged since the ’20s, and Aston Martin has used the same winged badge since the ’30s, brands like Buick and Mazda have seen dramatic changes, and the story behind the Cadillac logo is pretty fascinating. What’s your favorite?

Putting a new twist on the "green" theme is French automaker Peugeot with its H20 concept. The vehicle is envisioned as a quasi-functional fire truck, complete with a water storage tank and retractable ladder. Its real purpose, however, is to serve as a platform for Peugeot’s innovative fuel system, which combines onboard electric power with a fully functional hydrogen fuel cell, a truly clean technology whose only byproduct is water. The details on this red-green machine are minimal and highly conceptual at the moment: take a look at the diagram, which gives component names in both French and English, and not much else. Personally, I think hydrogen is not the way to go in the race for alternative power, but it’s encouraging that so many manufacturers are looking to broaden the market for alt-fuel cars. Which alternative-fuel technology do you think is the most feasible so far?