Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Aston Martin Rapide official rendering

Aston Martin Rapide official rendering

Usually it’s the automotive press who makes the renderings of future cars, but this time Aston Martin made a rendering for the press. According to CAR Magazine, Aston dropped off an early Christmas gift and gave them its rendering of what the production Rapide will look like.

There isn’t much of a difference from the concept. Minor things have changed such as the three-piece lower grille is now solid, the door mirrors are bigger, and there is a more pronounced crease for the doorline.

Aston’s sedan should be powered by a 6.0-liter 500 hp V12. CAR is reporting that the Rapide should cost between £130,000-£150,000 (about $200,000-$230,000 at direct current rates) when it arrives in about a year. This would be a welcomed price compared to the rumors that Aston Martin is trying to go upmarket and make the Rapide cost as much as $400,000.

[ Source:CAR Magazine ]

Speed Tuning the SCX Morgan Aero 8


The unusual, long-anticipated Morgan Aero 8 has been released by SCX. Shiny, well-detailed, with fine tampos, accurate shape and contour (except for the rear tires projecting out of the fenders), the car presents an excellent appearance. But, how does it run?

Test laps out of the box revealed a smooth driving feel, on wood, no magnets. The original tires barely gripped my track, so I quickly found a pair of Slot.It S1 silicones, which are a perfect fit on the original rear wheels. The car woke up, and developed a solid feel. A noisy drive train grew slightly more quiet as it ran. Motor is an RX-42B, rated 18,000 RPM on 12 volts, and gear ratio is 3:1 (9:27). Stiff competition from Scalextrics in GT2 class would be expected; on some tracks, a slight decrease in reduction may help (say, 2.8:1 rather than 3:1). The motor pod is a four-post, snap-in rocker, one of the better designs SCX has created.


A few small adjustments to the chassis and the car became more rapid, and very easy to drive near its limit. I removed the small locating pins which project from the body and engage holes in the chassis, under the running boards (just ahead of the rear wheels). I removed the two forward body mount screws altogether. The interlocks in the nose, and the rear body screw, are sufficient to keep the car together. The rear screw was backed out a half-turn. To allow a little more isolation of chassis vibration from the body, I bent the head and tail light contact tabs upward, to lessen the pressure on the chassis slightly. Between the lessened pressure and the loosened body, the lights began flickering as the car ran. But the speed picked up, and soon the car was clicking off lap times in the range of 5.5 sec. per 61 foot lap.

Careful inspection showed one rear wheel was slightly wobbly. Rather than attempting to true it, I installed short-projection hubs from a Slot.It Ferrari 312PB (size 15x8, part #PA17al), with SCX Pro inserts. SCX Pro wheels will not fit, due to their long hubs, and the set screws hitting the chassis. A very slight trim of the plastic chassis was necessary to bring the tires into the body, where they belong. The elimination of wheel-induced vibration resulted in a return to steady, bright lights. Speed improved, and the car was quieter.


The stub-axle front wheels on this car were examined closely, but did not need to be adjusted in any way. One headlight LED was pushed forward, into its "bucket", to eliminate scraping on the tire. Careful smoothing of the braids in the guide resulted in both wheels rolling on the track, providing a stable chassis platform through the corners. The independent-rotating wheels have little wobble, spin freely, and work well without any tuning.

A final upgrade to Slot.It rear axle, SCX Pro bearings, 28 tooth crown, and 10 tooth SCX Pro pinion (2.8:1 ratio), led to a best lap time of 5.387 sec. per 61 foot lap, a substantial improvement indeed. No weight was added or removed. And after a hundred laps of practice, with the motor up to operating temperature, and the brushes starting to bed in, the Morgan turned 5.303.


With increasing interest in GT2 cars, with motors rated under 20k RPM and under 150 gcm torque, this car is a fine competitor in its class. Appearance and handling is excellent, with need for only minor adjustment, as we have come to expect from SCX. Thanks to Dave K of SCX for providing a production sample of the Morgan Aero 8.

Ford gt camilo pardo


Ford gt camilo pardo, originally uploaded by jarapet.

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2009 Cadillac CTS New purchase now



2009 Cadillac CTS New purchase now!

three Model of 2009 cadillac CTS
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Estimated Payments:
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Honda CBR 150




Spek detail dari Honda CBR 150
Detailed Specs of Honda CBR 150 ADA disini

It is said that Casey Stoner, Australian MotoGP rider started out on a Honda CBR150. What is the Honda CBR150 technical; the CBR150 comes with a 4 stroke, DOC 4 Valves, water-cooled 149.4cc engine. The cylinder bore is 63.5mm and the stroke is 47.2mm (We can several other smaller cc motorcycle from Honda with the same bore), the compression ration is 11:1 and the ignition is by CDI Direct.

The standard spark plug is an NGK CR8E, but seen also CBR150’s with a Denso U24ESR-N.

The transmission of Honda CBR150 comes with a 6 gear transmission, with a gear ratio from 3.038 for the first gear and a ratio of 0.923 for the last (6th) gear. Honda is using a wet, multiple disk clutch type for this motorcycle.
The dimensions of the bike are 652mm wide by 1,910 in length and 1,065 mm high. With a wheelbase of 1,286mm, all this specification indicates that it is a well-suited motorcycle for some road racing.

The dry weight of the bike is 115kilograms; the full fuel tank capacity is 10 liters unleaded gasoline octane 91 and up.

We need to keep focusing on performance that’s affordable. This keeps us from manufacturing some tailor made individual parts to get the exact performance needs; also changing the bore or coating the cylinder bores with a Ceramic Coating is off they all fall out of the budget.

Okay looking at the standard bike, we are thinking what can we change to get at least some better performance. In the corner of my eye I see my girlfriend walking around with a block of aluminum, assuming that we are going to make a whole new cylinder. But after a quick telephone call with the bike owner, we concluded that it was far out of the budget.

So without the manufacturing of custom made parts we are restricted to the exhaust pipe, air-intake and carburetor. The exhaust pipe is the easiest part, we just bough a racing exhaust set. The air-intake was also easy; we just made the holes bigger so the air can flow much easier into the carburetor. Adjusting the main carburetor main fuel jet, and keeping track on the max and idle performance we got almost 32km/h more speed out of this bike. As we where examined the bike we also found that the chain and sprockets had to be replaced, as the bike clearly ad some more power we selected a small rear and a few teeth bigger front sprocket. The bike was now a fast little monster.
Upgrading a Honda CBR-125R to a CBR-150R

Modify & MaintenanceAs the Honda CBR-125R get more popular, the Honda CBR125 is Britain's top-selling motorcycle for several years. The Honda CBR-125R is a fantastic road legal learner bike perfect for first time rider.

The Honda CBR-125R with its Liquid-cooled, two-valve, single-cylinder, four-stroke, 124.7cc engine produces enough power to get first time riders experience the feeling of riding a sporty bike. But after about one year, most Honda CBR-125 owners want to sell the bike as the 13 horsepower engine doesn’t provide enough power.
But why sell the bike, if you can for as little as 10,000 Baht (217 Euro, or 294 US$) can upgrade the big to a CBR-150R, with original Honda parts. The differences between the Honda CBR-125 and his bigger Thai brother the Honda CBR-150 is only the cylinder, piston and cylinder head assembly.

Buying the original Honda CBR-150 part is for people who plan to visit Thailand for a holiday no problem at all, it is not uncommon that foreigners buy this ‘150cc upgrade kit’ says a shop owner who also shows us quickly several more Honda CBR upgrade variants starting from 130cc to all the way up to 195cc. This third party bore-up sets are even cheaper then the original Honda 150cc set.

The shop owner explains us that with the 195cc bore-up kit, which includes a sport camshaft, piston, cylinder, cylinder head assembly which includes larger DOHS 4-valves and an un-limited ECU/CDI with a simple manual, the modified Honda CBR can produce twice the amount of horsepower compared to the stock Honda CBR-125.

Just when we want to leave the owner of the shop, points out that with more power ‘over 26 horses’ we also need to consider other modifications. And he shows us racing front forks and Brembo brake assemblies with disc brakes that are much larger then standard on the Honda CBR-125. Other stuff we get to see are rear swingarms, racing, air-filters, exhaust pipes, gas rear shocks, and the guy is not stopping ….we need an excuse to get away…

2009 BMW Z4 rumored to debut next month, Z2 on the way

Alfa 8C GTA

One of the vehicles that was teased in the run-up to the LA Auto Show, but never made it to the floor, was the redesigned 2009 BMW Z4. Rumors of the Z4's impending arrival have been circulating for months, and according to a source inside BMW, the automaker might reveal the restyled coupe and convertible next month.

Drivetrain choices will include either a naturally aspirated or twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, found in the 328i and 335i, respectively, with an M version packing the M3's V8 and a carbon fiber roof. In addition to new front and rear fascias, a lower roofline and a ducktail spoiler, BMW is expected to employ a handful of stylistic differences to separate the Z4 coupe from its folding hardtop sibling. For 2009, BMW is expected to drop the soft-top Z4 and only offer the folding hardtop.

The rumored Z2 is currently in the works and could be available in both coupe and cabrio variants, and equipped with some form of BMW's EfficientDynamics system. The 1-series-based two-door is expected to be powered by either a naturally aspirated or turbocharged 2.0-liter four, and there's also talk of a hybrid version utilizing BMW's eDrive system.

[Source: GermanCarZone via BMWBlog]