Insider news indicates BMW Group’s high-end brand Rolls-Royce, is currently busy with the design of the first SUV model in the brand’s history. The project’s internal name is called “Cullinan”.

The SUV will be positioned above the Ghost sedan, and below the Phantom flagship. The company is expecting to sell 2,000 unit annually, and the production version will be debut in 2018, around the same time that BMW rolls out its X7 SUV.

As you may know that the Rolls-Royce Ghost sedan is sharing the platform with the BMW 7-Series, there is no doubt that the Rolls-Royce SUV will have something in common with the BMW X7.

Meanwhile there is further information available, but please e...

Automobile Suspension Design 101 (Part II)

In Part I of this article, I provide a general review and some background knowledge of the automobile suspension system. There are four types of suspension geometry. In this article we will briefly analyze the first type: trailing arm.

A trailing arm system is using a solid arm, which connect one end to two locations of the car chassis (so it can only “swing” in a 2-dimensional plane); and the other end is connected to the wheel hub, with the wheel hub fully fixed to the arm.

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To most people, the meaning of suspension systems are: something that can absorb unevenness of the road surface, which makes it comfortable to ride in the car. Although this description is correct to an extent, it is a quite shallow understanding though. There are much more interesting facts that we can explore.

First let’s go to the root of the topic, we look at the car’s wheel hub: assume there is no restriction/connection to the wheel hub, which means it is a totally independent object to the car body, what property will it have?

Six Degrees Of Freedom

The answer is: the wheel hub will have 6 types of movement, we call it 6 degrees of freedom...

While most of the luxury cars are still using 6/7/8-speed transmissions, and Mercedes-Benz may still consider their latest 9-speed 9G-tronic to be state-of-the-art, how about the idea of 10-speed transmissioni?

Well, Toyota not only get this idea, but it has also turned this into reality now. They are working on a production version of the 10-speed unit (to be accurate, it is Aisin that working on it – Aisin is a subcompany of the Toyota group), and it will be debuted in the 2017 Lexus LS flagship sedan and the new SC coupe (yes, Lexus does not give up the SC nameplate). This will be the world’s first production 10-speed automatic transmission.

The Lexus LS is always Toyo...

We got some latest news for the next generation of Mercedes-Benz’s serious off-road SUV: the G class. Below are what we know at this moment:

– Weights around 825 lbs lighter than the current G class;
– Modernized interior styles, higher quality materials and more advanced infotainment system;
– G550 will have a 4.0L twin-turbo V8n engine, outputs around 460hp (compared to the current G550’s 5.5L naturally aspirated V8 rated at 382hp);
– G63AMG will come with the 5.5L twin-turbo V8 which can be also found in other AMG models. Output is at around 570hp;
– Other markets will have more powertrain choices