Wattsy

2009 Ford Fiesta

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Drawing styling from the flash ‘Verve’ concept which has been doing the recent motor show rounds the new Ford Fiesta is a stylish and exciting little package. Designed using Ford’s kinetic design cues the car will go on sale in the Autumn of 2008 in Europe and will also commence manufacture in other sites across the globe in the following year including Asia and America. The car has the same underpinnings as the recently released Mazda 2 and is lighter, safer and stronger than the current model Fiesta, and includes some clever safety systems including driver knee airbags and E-Pas power assisted steering. The car promises to be more environmentally friendly than its predecessor both in terms of fuel usage and emissions. The Fiesta ECOnetic ultra-low CO2 model will deliver less than 100g/km emissions. Some other innovative inclusions will include new technology highlights include keyless vehicle technology, ‘Ford Power’ engine start button, Ford Easyfuel capless refuelling, USB connectivity and ambient interior lighting.

Brocky’s Opel Monza

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Any full blooded Aussie can tell you that the Holden Commodore of the 80’s was based on an European Opel, they will also tell you how much of a legend the late Peter Brock was and how much he loved Holden’s. In about 1984 Brocky saw the potential in the Opel Monza, a two door hatch based on the same car the Aussie Commodore sedan was based on, Compared to the Aussie version it had a few good bits like a independent rear end that Brocky liked the idea of so he come up with a plan to import them down under and whack a decent V8 under the bonnet. At the time the concept got a lot of publicity, but it was never to happen. Brock did import one over for evaluation and kitted it out with an array of hot bits including his infamous Energy Polarizer, today the car is in the hands of a collector who has decided to part company with it. So if you got an endless bank balance and want a piece of Brock history check out the full story. The video above is of a Opel Monza from a similar era, if you are from down under would have you bought one back in 1984? let us know in the comments field.  

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Toyota IQ at Geneva

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Toyota has put a cute and revolutionary ultra compact vehicle on it’s stand at the Geneva Motorshow. Called the IQ Concept this little car is less than 3 metres in length and is Toyota’s solution to over crowded city streets. Designed at Toyota’s design studio in the South of France the car although very small has good package space and even a good size luggage compartment compared with similar size micro cars. The interior styling is even as daring as the exterior with a centre console which looks more than a manta raw and striking vents, switches and dials. The steering wheel even has a mock snake skin leather cover which looks surprisingly stylish. The vehicle has a pretty clever GPS system which is clear, and allow the drive to see through when it is turned off, and there is a clever sun roof which darkens at night time with some clever technology in the glass. Toyota hasn’t’ said too much about whether this car will go into production but it is pretty obvious most of that is not too far away from hitting the showrooms and a show room ready version would not be too much of a stretch from this concept. Time will tell so start saving those pennies.

The Dodge Zeo sports wagon

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The New York Motorshow starts this weekend and one of the star concept vehicles will be the Doge Zeo which is a interesting four passenger sports wagon which is equipped with an all 200 kw electric lithium ion battery which powers the car for 250 miles without a charge. The performance figures are pretty impressive too, with its light weight aluminium body and aerodynamic wedge design it will do 0-60 miles an hour in under six seconds which is astonishing for this type of a vehicle. The American motorshows so far this year have had quiet a few models which are a bit kinder on the environment but they have also had their fair share of fuel guzzling SUV’s and the like which the Americans still love, but with petrol prices increasing, the mood is very slowly starting to swing.

MOTAT Museum of Transport & Technology

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MOTAT is the largest transport and technology museum in New Zealand with over 40 acres of exhibitions. Opening in 1964 the centre is built on a site where a pump station pumped water from Western Springs to the centre of Auckland. The centre has hours of educational entertainment for all ages, there’s an activities centre with over 20 displays including a huge Hand’s on Science Centre. There are all forms of road transportation, trams, railway stock, aviation, military, busses you name it- if it moves they have it. Some of the more notable items in their collection include the only Solent Mark IV Flying Boat in the world and one of only a handful of WW2 Avro Lancaster Bombers in the world, the first chilled beer tanker in the World and Billy T James’ 1954 Chevrolet. MOTAT also has one of the largest fire engine collections in the world. A very impressive collection indeed.

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The Queen Mary

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The Queen Mary is one of the few pre world war 2 ocean liners to survive to this day. Originally used as an ocean liner from 1936 to 1967 the RMS Queen Mary was at one point the fastest way to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean liner business was huge in those days but after the war when long distant faster aircraft developed numbers on the pre war ship dwindled and she was finally retired in  1967. Fortunately she was saved from the scrap heap like many grand ships before her. The city of Long Beach in California wanted to set up a maritime museum and what better building to do it in than a ship with such a grand history. Today much of the ship has been converted into museum, hotel or function facilities. The attraction has had a chequered past of financial success but its future looks bright with a new company recently taking over the lease with plans to refurbish. One interesting thing to note is that the new Queen Mary 2 has been fitted with one of her original horns.

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The Cadillac Eldorado

The Cadillac Eldorado was built from 1953 until 2002 but the classics were the early years up to the early 60s which feature huge amounts of chrome and fins. It was in a 1954 Eldorado Convertible (not too much dissimilar to the one in the video above) that Sammy Davis Jnr ran off the road and poked his eye out with chrome centre of the steering wheel. These were the days when car manufacturers built cars for looks alone, today the wheel would be made of soft foam not steel and contain an airbag, he probably would have been held in by his seat belt something people didnt worry about in the 50s. Back then you could mount huge spikes on the cars bonnet and it would of been OK. Today car manufacturers are even designing their cars to be safer for pedestrians as well, we thought pedestrian safety was fitting a horn to every car. 

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AMC Gremlin – what were they thinking?

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The AMC Gremlin has to go down in history as one of the worst ideas in automotive marketing history, named after creatures that cause mechanical problems it was released on April fools day 1970. AMC had very little money to invest at the time so when they need a car in the subcompact market they cut the rear off their compact Hornet model and created this horrid looking box. It could come with either a 2l 4 cyl or a 3.3, 3.8 or a 4.2 6 cyl and a 5 lt V8 engine and this was in a market that was compeating against the VW Beetle, despite all that seems wrong on the surface the car sold well and was one of AMC’s largest production runs with just over 670,000 cars produced over 9 years. The car even has developed a cult following partly thanks to its over the top 1970s looks and the fact that the larger engine cars are resonable performers if not a bit thursty. But many think this along with a few of AMC’s other products are dogs and is probably the car that marked the start of AMC’s downfall.

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