Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Chicago Interceptor for Local-Motors Competition


VOTING IS OVER, winner is.... NOT ME :-/ looks like I came in 9th place.
video of the winners
Congrats to Giulio Partisani for his wild and sculptural entry 'Socom' for 1st place
I had entered another car design into the Local Motors competition, this one was for Chicago. The competition was to design a car that looks cool, but is practical enough to run in the snow and Chicago's not so smooth roads and fit the classic 'gangster' mentality. Mine was the 'Interceptoor'.


See My Design!


-Alx


here's my write up on the Interceptor:
About my Design:
The Chicago Interceptor is a multi-purpose low slung cruiser. I works as a sleek family sport wagon with it's cool low stance, space for up to 5 adults and storage. It can also serve as a Police cruiser in the same fashion as the 'Paddy Wagon's' of old. Then there's the interceptors darker side... the sinister gangster ride. With it's minimal dark windows, unique reverse sloped windscreen and classic lines the interceptor calls on the 20's and 30's dark rides of the mafia. To handle Chicago's adverse weather and not so smooth streets the Interceptor is equipped with performance Haldex all wheel drive linked to a slick 7-speed DSG gear box and all powered by a clean burning torque filled turbo diesel TDI engine. To save some fuel in the stop and go traffic it is also equipped with Hybrid drive. Sinister angry eyes made of L.E.D. technology use less energy than H.I.D. lamps and pierce the dark city streets.n The Interceptor can be many things....which one will it be for you?

Monday, January 19, 2009

DAS AUTO! VW RULES DAKAR!!











The Dakar is a grueling 2 weeks long cross continent race that is run by both Factory sponsored professionals and individual privateers. It is usually run in Africa, but this year marks the 1st year it was run in South America. It also marks the 1st year that is was won by a diesel powered vehicle. That TDI machine was non other than the VW Race Touareg 2, and not only 1st place, but second place as well! The 15 stage race across more than 9,600km of rough terrain proved to be a tough one indeed. VW's main rival Mitsubishi started the race with 4 cars, and ended it with only one. BMW looked strong from the start with their lead driver Nasser Al-Attiyah paving the way with a strong lead, but in stage 6 he missed several waypoints by going around the dunes and was hence disqualified. VW would've had a 1-2-3 domination of this year's Dakar if it were not for a poorly marked dry river bed that swallowed the dominating leader VW's Carlos Sainz in stage 12. He and his co-driver fell 13 feet into a waddy and landed on their roof. Remarkably the VW was still viable but the crash left co-driver Michel Perin with a broken shoulder and therefore their race was over.


The lead spot then fell to VW's Giniel De Villiers and second to VW's Mark Miller with Robby Gordon in his Corvette powered Hummer in third, but well over an hour and a half behind the 2 lead VW's while the remaining VW driver Dieter Depping finished in the top ten at 6th place overall. There were many ups and downs throughout the 2 week race across some amazing terrain of Argentina and Chille. If you missed the action check out the highlights on the Dakar site in the video section!

Friday, January 16, 2009

VW Bluesport!



Wow, it's not a Karmann Ghia, but it's pretty darn close. At the Detroit International Auto show VW unveiled this sweet little roadster that, like my previous post called for, a mid engine rear wheel drive VW. This car looks amazing and shows that VW may actually produce a more sport oriented coupe with light materials, the right type of drive-line layout and some sweet styling!
Check out more of VW's Bluesport concept at VWvortex.com
 

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