Transeum – Page 15 – Transeum – the blog about Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Saab Aero-X concept

January 29, 2008 by Wattsy

Saab premiered its Saab Aero-X concept at the Paris Motor Show. This 2.8 litre twin turbocharged V6 produces 400hp and an impressive 0 to 100km in 2.9 seconds and runs on pure ethonol. The 7 speed manual transmission is controlled by paddles mounted on the steering wheel and the gages are all use LED techology displaying on clear acrylic panels. The body is made of carbon fiber and as you can see from our photo the gullwing like doors are conected to the windscreen making a cockpit canopy. Saab have been quoted as saying something very similar may reach production, and expecially after the great reaction it got in Pairs chances are looking pretty good word is it will probably based on a shortened Epsilon 2 platform.

Argentina’s Ford Falcon

January 28, 2008January 28, 2008 by Rocky

The Ford Falcon is Ford Australia’s flagship with 48 plus year history, Before becoming a uniquely Australian model in the late 1960’s the early vehicles were based on the 1959 US Ford Falcon. The same thing happend in Argentina, but unlike Ford Australia they kept pretty much the same design with a few modern tinkers up until 1991. Nearly half a million Argentinan Ford Falcons were produced, there was a facelift in the 1980’s which morphed a Ford Cortina like front and rear to the car and a new dash panel which looked like it came straight out of the European Cortina. The Falcon was very popular with the Police in Argentina and trusted design proved fairly reliable. Today Argentina sells many of the European Ford products like Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta and a facelifted version of the Ford Ka, which appears to be only for the South American market.

The Obvio 828- cute and colourful

January 27, 2008January 24, 2008 by Rocky

The Obvio 828 is from Brazil and after a few delays will go on sale later this year for a street price of about $14,000 US. The cute little vehicle is being marketed as a high performance microsport car with seating for three, side by side on a what has been described as a comfy sofa. The car’s overall length is only 2650 mm long and weighs in at only 600kg and has most of the features you would want from a modern car with exceptional safety and good comfort and an impressive aluminum chassis . The car has been developed by Lotus Engineering and will feature an engine which will run on any mix of ethanol and petrol and has a manual ZF continuously variable transmission and the engine is built by Tritec which is a joint venture between BMW and DaimlerChrysler. There will be an electric plug-in version released early next year but the price will skyrocket to about $49,000 US. It will be able to reach speeds of 120mph and will charge in around 5 hours using some innovative lead cobalt battery technology. If you think the outside is a bit out there, wait until you see the inside, the body colours move inside and it looks very funky. There are going to be a huge range of add on accessories including IMobile which is a internet system and plenty of MP3 and video ad ons, they are really going to appeal to the beautiful and young who want to be seen.

Cars of the Stars

January 26, 2008January 22, 2008 by Rocky

Keswick is a small town in the lakes district in the North West corner of England and is home to the Cars of the Stars Museum. They have an interesting collection of classic cars which have appeared in film and television all displayed in specially themed panoramas and many of them are very well known. Some of their vehicles include Mr Bean’s Mini, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a De Lorean from Back to the Future, the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mad Max’s XB GT Falcon, the Munster’s Koach and a even a Batmobile. Opening in 1989 after the museum’s founder was approached by a film studio to use one of his vehicles the museum is one of the more popular in the top end of England. The museum features a good little souvenir shop which sells cards, models and other movie and car memorabilia.

The Volga – with a Ruski Jeremy Clarkson

January 25, 2008January 21, 2008 by Rocky

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Russian vehicles are so interesting and ‘stylish’, so lets do another, Today it’s the Volga, based on the Gaz-24 first introduced in 1967 the GAZ Volga has been in production constantly since then and has been modernized several times over its lifespan but keeps the same basic shell as the 1967 cars. While traditionally used by taxi cabs, the police, the KGB and party officials some Volga’s were sold to private buyers and since the fall of the Soviet Union the GAZ company have been trying to lure more buyers away from modern imports to the home grown Volga. Recently GAZ announced they were getting out of car production to concentrate on trucks, but then back flipped by buying the rights to the US Chrysler Sebring platform. They plan to develop new cars of the Chysler platform while continuing production of the Volga, targeting the retro vehicle market. The video above is a Russian motoring show road test of the late 90s GAZ-3110 we don’t know any Russian but we are sure this guy is as funny as Jeremy Clarkson.

Click to the next page to see the very special current model known as a GAZ-31105

Was that you screwing around, Comrade?

January 24, 2008January 21, 2008 by Rocky

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This is amazing you have got to check the video out for this one!

This odd screw propelled vehicle is an all terrain vehicle that was produced by Zil in Russia. While not known too well known outside Russia, Zil is known for producing limousines that were favorites of high ranking soviet officials and leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Fidel Castro. Zil also produce heavy road, offroad and military vehicles, some of these heavy machines are not like any thing you have seen before like the propeller driven snow mobile known as an aerosan and this odd contraption in the video above that can only be described as a cross between a tank and a ships screw. The beast is known as a ZIL-29061 and judging by the video was produced some time around the seventies.

Verve in Detroit

January 23, 2008January 21, 2008 by Rocky

Just a few weeks after the 3 door Ford Verve concept stunned crowds at the Frankfurt Motor Show, it and a stylish 4 door version has taken centre stage at the Ford stand at Detroit’s American International Motor Show this week. With the rising fuel prices and the global warming problems Ford think this small, practical and stylish type of car might just be the next big growth segment in the industry. Industry figures predict 38 million units of this size car will be sold worldwide by 2012 and if this lovely little Verve is any indication of what Ford has in mind they will be after a pretty big slice of the business. Ford have built the Verve concept to showcases the style, technology, premium materials and more substantial content that will set it apart from other offerings when Ford’s new small cars go on sale in North America in 2010.

Cute and the rainbrush is standard equipment

January 22, 2008January 21, 2008 by Rocky

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It looks like the Chinese have brought the wackiest cars to the Detroit Motor Show this year. The Tang Hua are straight out of a comic book in their bright yellow paintwork. These little electric vehicles are do about 28 miles an hour at normal speed and a whopping 40 mph at performance speed and have some great features if they work, including air conditioning, rain brushes- which we think might be windscreen wipers, alarm of remnant quality of electric/voltage- perhaps that’s the battery meter and even have upgrading vision- might be the big windows- who knows. Other highlights are a picture of Chairman Mao on the steering wheel, what more could you want, and they use electric storage technology- sounds good eh?. They wont pass the design rules to be sold in the US, but im sure the theme parks will want them. Check out the You Tube video we found, and pay particular attention to the caterpillar looking one in the background, that’s the one I want.