To the five of you that actually bother to read Driver’s Life, I’d like to wish you a merry Christmas! (Or a happy Jews go to the movies day. Or whatever floats your secular, heathen boat!)
Keep reading Driver’s Life. I swear to god, it is my new year’s resolution to start posting on a semi regular basis once again.
If I find more auto related comics, I’ll throw them up here every now and then…
Mostly because its a copout for me to not have to try and be funny. Do you think living a life as hilarious as mine is easy? No sir, it is not.
Yes, its true that there is no human being on this planet who is funnier than I am… I once told a joke so funny that Chuck Norris could be heard laughing hysterically. From space. True story.
To all of our RSS subscribers, I’d like to say I’m sorry.
Due to computer problems, and general challenges in life, I’ve been pretty neglectful of Driver’s Life.
Trust me, its not due to a lack of interest on my part. I’ve just been dealing with a lot of stuff.
Moving forward, Driver’s Life should have fresh content flowing through its veins pretty soon, as well as some new features that we’re pretty excited to launch.
We appreciate your readership, so please keep checking back!
Perhaps Hennessey Performance Engineering is best known for their twin turbo Hyper-Vipers. Indeed, nobody can make the Dodge Viper more more potent then the boys over at Hennessy, but the company is about to show you they are more than a one trick pony. They are preparing a mid-engined supercar of their own, called the Venom GT.
Built from lightweight composite materials, Hennessy hopes to shoehorn their 1000hp twin turbo Dodge Viper V10 engine into a package that tips the scales at no more than 2700lbs.We’re pretty bad at math, but fortunately someone else figured it out for us. The weight/power ratio is an astounding 2.7 lbs/horse. Figures like that translate to a 0-60 time of roughly 2.5 seconds, and a top speed that could make a bullet weep from inadequacy.
Now, if you’re looking at the concept photo shown here, and thinking “Hmm, that looks like a Lotus” you’re not alone. That sketch was penned by a British auto designer named Steve Everitt. Evidently, Steve was inspired by the Lotus Elise/Exige, but probably figured he could butch it up a bit.
Hennessy plans on creating 2 different concept cars by 2009 to gauge public interest in the vehicles. Their plan is to begin production at their factory in Houston shorty after, and are hoping that existing Hennessy Viper owners will make up the beginning of their customer base.
Now, I honestly did want to remain professional here, but then I remembered that I don’t actually make any money from this site so screw it. HOLY CRAP, This car is wild!
What are your thoughts on it? Love it or hate it, please leave a comment.
[Source: Autoblog]
(Make the jump for the press release)
Popular Mechanics has chosen the new BMW M3 as the winner of the 2008 Automotive Excellence Award in the category of Performance.
One of the deciding factors for the M3’s victory was its versatility both on and off the track as well as its “mastery of refining and redefining the entire performance envelope.” In case you forgot, the M3 is propelled by a 4.0L V8 that produces 414 horses. A feat of engineering mastery in itself, this engine gets over 100hp/L of displacement, something that once upon a time was only achieved by the likes of Ferarri.
Other categories included design, which was won by the Nissan GTR, luxury, won by the Cadillac CTS, Versatility, won by the Chrysler Town & Country/Dodge Caravan.
Congrats to all the winners. We’re sure you deserve it. Maybe not as much as Driver’s Life deserves to win Blog of the year, or its author (yours truly) deserves to win “most eligible bachelor” but probably pretty close.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]
Hey you. Yea, YOU! You’re reading this right? So what are you waiting for? We want to know what your dream car is.
Here’s the scenario:
Your great great Aunt Chloe (twice removed) has just passed away, and left her vast 3 million dollar fortune all to you. Due to your insurance company being the evil, ruthless corporations they are, you’re only allowed to insure one more vehicle on your policy.
What is the one car will you buy with your newfound fortune and why?
Well, folks. What can I say? Its Saturday, my internet connection is about as sketchy as the guy with a moustache parked in a rusty brown van outside my house with binoculars aimed at my window, and there’s not much going on in the automotive world today.
Therefore, I decided to hit up the Tube of You and try and find some content interesting enough for y’all to keep subscribing to my RSS feeds. I know, I know… its a hard life.
This video shows a clip of Ken Block jumping a Subaru WRX STI over 170 feet.
Retardiculous, eh?! Make the jump to see another video of Block’s latest…uh…jump and then a bunch of Kiwi’s snowboarding.
You know, aside from a few problems, such as self-immolation, shoddy build quality, and lackluster power, the Pontiac Fiero was a pretty cool car. But nothing as cool as the commercial you’re about to watch. This video makes me want to bring back the 80s in a big, bad way!
Scientists are working on a technology called ‘paramagnetic’ paint that has the ability to change colors at the touch of a button. With any luck, this technology should be publicly available by 2010, and a few car makers including Nissan are looking into the possibility of applying the technology to future vehicles.
How does it work? A special polymer containing ‘paramagnetic’ iron oxide particles is applied to metal objects like the body of cars. When a mild electric current is run through the body, the spacing of small crystals within the iron oxide particles change, therefore affecting their ability to reflect light and change color. A a continuous small current is needed to maintain the desired color, so when the car is turned off, the vehicle returns to a default white color.
Supposedly, the coating can reproduce almost any color in the visual spectrum, and only takes around a second to change the entire car’s color.
Now for the important question… if you touch the car, do you get a shock? And if so, how long before one of your dumb little buddies tries to pee on one?
[Source: Motor Authority]
According to the Detroit News, Chrysler’s board met today to decide the fate of some of their slower selling models. The word is that we’ll be seing an end to the PT Cruiser, Pacifica, and the Dodge Magnum. Ever since Chrysler’s new CEO Bob Nardelli took on his role at the company, there have been rumors that slow selling models, and overlapping models will be trimmed from the manufacturer’s portfolio. The three models who go the death sentence seem to foot this bill pretty well. The PT Cruiser has been a slow seller since its initial hype wore thin, the Pacifica crossover will overlap with a new vehicle to be released by Dodge, and the Magnum failed to live up to its promise of power, utility, and styling. All three models have seen sales drop an average of 30% this year alone.
Further rumblings from Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills suggest that more vehicles will be snuffed out too, specifically the Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Avenger, Jeep Commander, and Dodge Dakota.
We just hope that as Chrysler embarks on a new era of its life, we’ll start to see some progressive thinking from them, and a renewed hope that the once proud automaker can regain its footing on the sales floor and in the hearts of the American people.
What are your thoughts on these developments?
[Source: The Detroit News]