Monthly Archives May 2014

Yesterday VW revealed the A3 Clubsport Quattro – which is believed to be a concept prototype of the upcoming RS3 sedan.

The biggest news comes from the concept car is its 525hp 5-cylinder turbo engine. From my point of view, this is a revolution in the market. The reason is: VW is able to pump out 525hp from the 2.5-litre displacement, using only 1.5 bar pressure of turbo boost, this translates to 212hp per litre. For comparison, the Mercedes-Benz M133 engine which is used on the CLA45AMG, is using a much higher 1.8 bar of boost, but can only achieve 181hp per litre.

The VW engine has excellent torque curve too: 443 lb-ft available from 2300 to 6000 rpm...

When you are claiming your product is a luxury car, you need to have some distinct features that those “normal” cars don’t have.

10 to 15 years ago the claim is much easier. Back in that time, if you can made a beautiful car body, have good assembling accuracy, sharp headlight/rear lights, rear-wheel-drive, silent cabin, fancy electronic features such as navigation, automatic AC etc., then you can safely claim your car is a luxury car.

But situation is totally changed recently: for example many daily-driving cars looks really nice; the previous Hyundai Genesis already claimed better assembling accuracy than BMW, which you can buy one for less than $30k if you negotiate we...

The ordering guide and also price estimate on some of the options are available yesterday. If you are planning to buy one soon, it worths your time to go over the 21-page PDF document, which can be downloaded below.

2015 Ford Mustang Order Guide

Order Guide with Price Estimates

In a nutshell, a linear generator (full name: Free Piston Engine Linear Generator, FPEG) is an internal combustion engine that generates electric power directly.

Recently R&D engineers in Toyota has made breakthrough in this area, and presented the concept at the most recent SAE meeting in Detroit.

Below are three illustrations from Toyota R&D, that explained the idea briefly.

Just like BMW introduces virtually all car models with different styling they can think of during the past few years, the Mini brand is also expanding its product line too.

Currently for all Mini’s non-SUV products, passengers all need to use the front door to get access to the backseat. Although most of the Mini Cooper Hardtop buyers usually only use the front seats, Mini management are apparently considering potential customers that may want to use the backseat more frequently.

So here comes the 5-door hatchback version of the Mini Cooper Hardtop. It has a 2...