Hyundai Genesis shown at Melbourne

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Fresh from the stand at the LA Motorshow the Hyundai Genesis Coupe Concept is now wowing the crowds at the Melbourne Motorshow in Australia. Hyundai have been a major player in the Australian market over the last decade and are know for cheap affordable small family cars. The Genesis Coupe is a major departure with an exciting look and some pretty impressive features. Sure its only a concept at this stage but it shows the future direction of the Korean manufacturer and if the recently released I30 is anything to go by things are on the up. Hyundai are claiming a version of this car will be built and on sale next year it will be interesting to see how far a departure it is from this lovely concept but Hyundai are promising most affordable 300-plus horsepower car on the market. This car features a 3.8-liter V-6 under the carbon fiber hood, it also has a six-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and a limited-slip differential. It will be very interesting to see the production car in the flesh.

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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New GT Falcon on show at Melbourne Motor Show

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Ford Performance Vehicle’s brand new muscle car the FG GT Falcon is being showed for the first time at the Melbourne Motor Show. Due to go on sale in May 2008 the V8 GT Falcon comes in a complete new body and interior and a range of bright colours. Price and performance figures are  yet to be announced but it is expected to be the most powerful Falcon ever overtaking the current 302 KW engine. For the first time in Falcon GT history the Ford badge is replaced by the Ford Performance Vehicle stylised Falcon badging. There will be 3 models of the GT they will be the GT and GT-P which have been available in earlier models and for the first time a stylish new luxury GT-E sedan. The vehicle is also sold in a utility vehicle and called the Pursuit. Other Ford Performance Vehicle Falcons on offer include the Turbo 6 Cylinder F6 range.

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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Landrover concept at Melbourne Motor Show

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Fresh from its unveiling on a few weeks ago at the Detroit Motorshow the Landrover LRX concept car has been put on display at the Melbourne Motorshow in Australia. The LRX Concept is a compact 4×4 vehicle with a three door bold look, but still with plenty of Landrover DNA. The car is powered by a 2.0 litre turbo diesel electric hybrid motor which can also run on bio diesel. The car has an integrated electric drive rear axle called ERAD which allows the vehicle to use the electric drive when at lower speeds and offer emissions similar to a micro car. The concept is 149 shorter than the Landrover Freelander 2 and sits 205mm lower and has a very striking appearance. There seems to be a trend with these nearly coupe 4×4 SUV vehicles at the moment with Audi and BMW also showing similar types of cars at recent shows. There is also a plan to release another exciting version of the LRX at the Geneva Motorshow which starts later this week.

Would you go flying in a Ford Pinto?

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The first in our series of the world’s worst cars is one of the worlds worst cars mated to part of a plane to become the AVE Mizar. It was a project by a former Northrop engineer in 1973 to develop a flying car, It consisted of a Cessna Skymaster rear attached to the Ford Pinto with production scheduled to start in 1974. AVE planed to sell the Mizar for between US $18,300 and US$29,000. A few prototypes were built but the project ground to a halt when the developers of the Mizar were killed when the the wings of the craft broke away from the car mid flight resulting in a fiery crash. This would have to be the first time a Ford Pinto’s explosion was not caused by someone ramming them from behind. The National Transportation Safety Board reported in addition to poor design and loose parts, that bad welds were partly responsible for the crash, a bad idea was naturally assumed.  

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The de Havilland Comet

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Today’s video is a promo video of the de Havilland Comet. This one is one of those classic news real type footage of a real classic jet. Launched in 1949 the Comet was the first passenger jet plane and was tipped to be the next big thing, sadly today it is often forgotten about, thanks to the dominance of Boeing. What went wrong was a series of accidents caused by the planes tearing apart in mid flight, the stress fractures were traced back to the design of the large square windows and by the time de Havilland managed to get its aircraft back in the air with modified windows, Boeing had already gained a strong foothold in the jet airline business with it’s 707. Boeing had learned from the Comets mistakes while the Comet lost consumer confidence. The Military version known as the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is still in use until 2020. Only a handful of Comets survive today a good example is at the RAF Museum in Cosford in the UK, it’s the only Comet 1 in existence. A Comet 4 is also under restoration for future display at the excellent Museum of flight in Washingtion.

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Borland Racing Daytona Sportscar

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The Borland Racing Daytona Sportscar is a replica of Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe built in 1964. The Borland version features a body that sits space frame with mechanicals from the Holden SS Commodore, but at 1100 kg the 6.0 litre LS1 Gen III V8 certainly packs a punch. The car has been in limitated production since 2001 with only a handful of them built, one of them going to Aussie legend racing driver Peter Brock, he crashed his into a tree killing himself during the Targa West on September 8 2006. The video above is of the last lap recorded before that fateful day, as you can see it takes great skill to keep the thing on the road and unlike Bathurst where you can bounce off the concrete barriers you can easily wrap yourself around a tree. Interestingly the body of the original Shelby Daytona was designed by a guy named Pete Brock, no relation to the Peter Brock of Oz. 

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