The Fastest & Widest Jaguar XJ220
In early days Jaguar company employees make a gathering on weekends and work on those projects which are not related to them officially. Jim Randle was also a member of that group, a dreamy idea came into his mind by seeing the cars in competition such like Ferrari F40 & Porsche 959.
Randle worked on his idea and focused on four wheels and tried to increase:
a) Traction
b) Handling
c) Integral safety-cage
He has a determination that car will be able to run on a tremendous high speed of 200 mph.
Impressive Concept:
When Randle completed the outline of his project he chalked it out to the company’s executives. The executives impressed by this concept and think that by the company’s resources a car may be produced for the British Motor Show which will be held in 1988.
In this way several workers took part in the project like:
a) 6.2-liter version…produced by Walkinshaw Racing.
b) The all-wheel drive system…produced by FF Developments.
c) The styling of the car…created by Keith Helfet.
The target of the speed was 220 mph with scissor-style doors previously used by Lamborghini. When produced, the car was 170 kg lighter than the XJS. In 1989 the car was announced by the company having a price of £361,000. It was planed that the production would not exceed 350.
Production:
The company made several changes like:
a) The scissor doors were eliminated.
b) The car was driven by rear wheels instead of all wheels.
c) The higher speed was 200 mph in 3.6 seconds.
d) Possibly the lightest weight.
Then the public have seen this outstanding car in Oct.1991. The factory started its production in 1992 in a factory at Bloxham which was purposely built for production. In July the first cars were delivered to its customers. Elton John & the Sultan of Brunei were its original customers.
The initial customers were not satisfied with the modifications and also the increase in price from £361,000 to £403,000. It was another setback that the car came out years after the original announcement. Thus a number of customers refused to buy the car.
After the dilemma of its production 281 cars in total were produced up to 1997. At present it is on sale at £100,000. Surely it is not only the fastest, but the widest car, because its width is near about 7 feet.
Pininfarina-Designed Version
The Sultan of Brunei and his brother Prince Jefri is real car lover, so they ordered for hundreds of sports car in mid-nineties. One of these sports cars was Jaguar XJ220 and a number of alterations were made by Pininfarina. The alterations included:
a) Fixed headlights.
b) Originally installed pop-up versions replaced.
c) Double-vane rear wing which was redesigned.
Record Of Speed:
The XJ220 was driven up to a speed of 212.3 mph by Martin Brundle at Nardò Ring in 1992. The car’s catalytic converters drag the engine of an estimated 45 kW, the catalysts were taken off afterwards and the rev limiter was increased 7200 rpm-7900 rpm, so that the XJ220 find a top speed. With alterations the car was run on a uniform & steady road, Brundle run the XJ220 up to 223 mph approximately.
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McLaren F1
Its design was carried out by the famous car designer Gordon Murray. It is lighter than the cars in its competition. The other specialty of the car is that it has one seat extra in front as compared to the other sports cars. The driver’s seat is in the middle. This super model car has won many races including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.
The magazine furthermore wrote in golden words that: “The F1 will be remembered as one of the great events in the history of the car, and it may possibly be the fastest production road car the world will ever see.”
۞ Design And Implementation:
Actually the three seats sports car idea was a dream for Gordon Murray, taking a shape in his mind from his youth. This idea was approved by the company and the car was produced and showed in May 1992 at the Sporting Club in Monaco.
۞ Chassis And Body:
The McLaren F1 was the first produced road car in which a complete carbon fiber built plastic chassis structure was used. Aluminum & magnesium were used for attachment points for the suspension system.
The seat of the driver is settled in the middle, in front of the fuel tank and the engine, with a passenger seat a little bit behind and on each side. When open, the doors on the vehicle move up and out, so they may classified as butterfly type.
۞ Suspension:
The suspension system of the car was designed by Steve Randle. It was decided that the ride should be comfortable as that would involve reduction in practical use and comfort as well as increasing noise and vibration. The suspension is a double wishbone system with an unusual design. Longitudinal wheel compliance is included without loss of wheel control, which makes the wheel to go backwards when it hits a bump, increasing the comfort of the ride.
۞ Brakes:
The rear brake calipers do not have any handbrake, however there is a mechanically actuated, fist-type caliper which is controlled by the computer and thus used as a handbrake. Brakes have a simplified application kept in entirely racing environments which allows for the racing model of the car.
۞ Interior And Equipment:
Performance headlight system, rear fog and reversing lights, courtesy lights in all compartments, map reading lights and a gold-plated titanium tool kit and first aid kit In addition, tailored, proprietary luggage bags specially designed to fit the vehicle’s carpeted storage compartments, including a tailored golf bag, were standard equipment.
۞ Purchase And Maintenance:
Only 106 cars were manufactured:
64 were the standard street version (F1)
5 were LMs (tuned versions)
3 were long tail road cars (GT)
5 prototypes (XP)
28 racecars (GTR)
1 LM prototype (XP LM)
Until 1998, when McLaren produced and sold the standard F1 models, they had a price tag of around 970,000 USD. Today the cars can sell for up to nearly double that of the original price, due to its high performance.
The production of the car was stopped in 1998, but McLaren still maintains support and service network for the F1. There are 8 authorized service centers all over the world, and McLaren will on occasion fly a specialized technician to the owner of the car or the service centre.
۞ Ameritech:
The American model of the McLaren F1, the Ameritech McLaren F1 is a modified standard McLaren F1 to meet the U.S. regulations; to comply with said regulations the car had to meet stricter emission requirements which increased the weight and also reduced the power somewhat. Due to a lack of airbags for the passengers, the Ameritech edition only has the single driver seat in the middle.
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Gumpert Apollo
Roland Gumpert suggested introducing a latest sports car to the new generation. The purpose of introducing the car was to make it street-legal car as well as sports car to run on tracks, in 2000. After taking a business tour when he returned to Germany he asked Audi to co-operate in his new venture. Audi sanctioned his plan to develop a new sports series car. A company was established in 2004 having a title of GMG Sportwagenmanufaktur at Altenburg. After take a remarkable guidelines Marco Vanetta produced model of Gumpert’s car.
Gumpert was continuously developing the Apollo with the help of Technical University of Munich and secondly Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. They helped in all respect and finally the production of Apollo begin in October 2005.
Motor Sport:
The introduction of Apollo racing was made during April 2005 in Divinol Cup. The driver of the car was Ruben Maes. The car stood at number third on the racing track of Hockenheimring. After three years Gumpert declared that will introduced a new edition of Apollo in 2008. An expert driver drove the Apollo in the 24 Hours Nürburgring in May 2008.
The hybrid Apollo consists of:
1-382 kW; 512 hp
2-Twin-turbo engine coupled with a 100 kW (136 PS; 134 hp)
3-The surprising thing was that the car has quality to recharge the battery under braking.
Apollo sports was introduced in UK show Top Gear. The car was driven by Richard Hammond and it was fastest on the ‘Power Lap Board’ for a while but was beaten by:
a) The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport
b) The Lamborghini Aventador
c) The McLaren MP4-12C and Ariel Atom V8
Design:
The Apollo is a 1,100 kg to 1,200 kg, street-legal race car. It is a middle-engine, rear wheel drive having two-seats, constructed on a tubular frame, with carbon fiber body panels.
Engine:
Leipzig-Altenburg Airport was selected for testing the speed of Gumpert Apollo. It was a good track. The following qualities had been found in the car:
1- Electronic accelerator system
2- Four overhead camshafts
3- Modern controls with an on-board diagnostic system
4- The light metal cylinder heads have five valves per cylinder
5- Hydraulic valve clearance compensation
6- Eight-coil electronic ignition
7- The 90° V8 has a closed-deck light metal crankcase with dry sump lubrication
8- Direct variable valve timing on the intakes
9- 3-way catalytic converter
10- Sequential multipoint fuel injection
11- The double-flow exhaust system has four oxygen sensors to monitor the gas mixture
There are 3 engine types available:
Race version – nearly 800 PS
Sport version – nearly 700 PS
Base version – nearly 650 PS
Speed:
Top speed is 360.4 km/h
0-100 km/h reached in 3.0 seconds
0-200 km/h in 8.9 seconds
Dimensions:
Length: 4,460 mm
Width: 1,998 mm
Height: 1,114 mm
Wheel Base: 2,700 mm
Weight:
Curb Weight: Less than 1,200 kg
Total Allowed Weight: 1,500 kg
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2011 MAZDA2
When
anyone say the word economy car your mind runs run up towards the
bare-bones cars and make interesting images, like horrible road noise,
uneasiness, absence of radio and hypertension-able acceleration. But it
will be an interesting story for you that nowadays economy car keeps
other kind of meaning.As you know the price of the oil is going rapidly high up towards the sky, so the only choice for the car maker is that they produce smaller cars which consume less fuel.
The car makers have introduced so many cars and claming unbelievable things about their products, whereas the car lovers demand so many facilities, which are not available in these cars. But one and only one car is meeting their demands is Mazda2.
By testing the Mazda2 with a touring package you will find leather wrapped steering wheel with audio controls. There are also alloy wheels of 15 inches of diameter. Give a deep look of the interior and exterior of the car; you will come to know about the cruise control, fantastic trip computer, romantic loudspeaker system and surprising fog lights.
And all you will get in only a reliable price of $16,430. I am not any agent of any car dealer, but I am telling you the truth that there is a stability control, key-less entry, a light weight air conditioning system, power windows, locks and mirrors. These are the standard equipment on Mazda2 Sport.
Once you look the car from outside, you will say at once it is sporty, but from the interior it has a high quality and a best reward for your money. When you see towards the switches and dials of the dash-board you feel there is an admirable quality. For example the front seats, they have a high level of support which helps the drivers, and are well-to-do side long pillows.
If you are going for a long journey you will find the seat bottom very soft & comfortable. The back seat is very flat and gives uneasiness with headrests if raised, block the rear window visibility of the driver.
Don’t worry for the engine, because it gives very less voice. The clutch is light in weight and easy to handle, so we may say that they are perfect in there performance. I want to tell you about the shifter, they are smooth and light in weight and may be shifted easily.
By Mazda2 you will not be able to win any race, but it will keep an easy going in traffic. It’s steering feel like a feather; when you grip them in hands, feel nice and confident. One thing more that the Mazda2 feels solid according to it’s size.
In short we may say that Mazda2 is a best return for your money, because it is economical in fuel consumption. It is attractive and nice in shape. But buy it at once, deal with a dealer and discuss with him for a long time on advantages and disadvantages of Mazda2.
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Ferrari’s New FF
If the manufacturer followed the demands of the car lovers that may resulted in a humpty- dumpty and unsymmetrical car, ugly looking & clumsy. The produced car may become very complicated and awkward. Public demanded that it should have heavy 4WD transmission. If the manufacturer succeeded to produce a car from the images of their customers, that may have run only a few miles.
A long discussion has been made with Amedeo Felisa, the designer to produce a unique car of public dream car. Surely he is a super car genius. He gave valuable advices and told the manufacturer what to do. From his opinion an agile & fast car could be produced which may get 660bhp. But he was uncertain about the 4WD for security.
A compact lightweight unit keeping a set of clutches that can increasingly feed the twisting force to every front wheel separately with a small integrated gearbox. Interesting thing is that there are only two gears in it. The clutches always work under electronic control.
Electrical control means that when anything loss of grip at the back portion; the electronic system of the car will take help from the front portion of drive. It is interesting that the portion predicts & reacts as well. There is a condition that the controlling system does this only in slippery-road settings. In the odd situations you may drive it well with almost rear-drive.
At last, why not we see the car from inside & outside as well? Surely they did a fine job, because they provide you a nice long-roof sports car, having a magnificent design, proportioned structure and after all there is not anything worry able. Whenever you will hold the steering you will be happy. It is nice vehicle to go.
When you will see the car from inside you will find it fully equipped & have a excellent accommodation which every buyer wishes to grab.
The car has a sloping rear door that is lifted to open upward. You may fold two back seats, and it managed to give a lot of space of to put your luggage in it. If you are keeping a long drive then you may look at the entertainment screens which are installed on the backside of the front headrests. To avoid the boring hours you may run a movie on the screen.
Ferrari will comeback surely in whiter than snow color. This color will be long lasting & you are no need to wash it and polish it every time. The color will be glittering & shinning. If you want to get more detail then buy the new issue of Top Gear magazine which is on sale.
