Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What will be the future car tread?

Since the time of the Automobile it went from being a wealthy privilege status symbol to a mainstream source of transportation to do away with the horse and train. It's indepandance helped more folks develop more options and opportunities for themselves and their families however once the car became affordable to the middle class it was only a matter of time when a young buff would want to modify his car and the birth of the aftermarket industry was born.

From the early 1940's to the late 50's was the hotrodding generation were young guys mostly in their late teens to early 30's would often take something like a 57 chevy, a 40's ford roadster and either put a larger engine, supercharge it and even turbo. Cool crazy flat black paint jobs with red and white wheels were often the look to achieve. Flat head V8's and iron blocks set many land speed records during these years and were very successful in motor sports in European racing in which caused world famous car designer "Carroll Shelby" to stand up and take notice.

The 1960's brought us the Muscle car age with the appearance of the Pontiac GTO and Ford Mustang of 1964. Followed by the appearance of the Chevelle in 65, Chevy Nova, Camaro/Firebird, Challanger along with many other soon set the standard of the automotive generation from the early 60's to the late 70's. American muscle was growing very strong at that time with different type's V8's offered in these road warriors that offered performance that are even impressive by today's standard's. Sadly with the oil crisis of 1976 and the later economical issues the muscle car tread ended and the baby boomers by then were fresh out of college typically with a mortgage, a wedding date with a child on the way which meant it was time for more economical cars.

However during the 1980's and 90's we saw the appearance of the sportscar generation starting with the famous 1984 Corvette which thought to be the most advanced car on the road and could even rival the performance of the Lamborghini Countach which also was later proven false. Cars like the Dodge Daytona Turbo, Toyota Supra, and the later Dodge Viper of the 90's soon became the cars to own. Many wanted exotic cars like the Countach, Testarossa and Esprit however during those day's it was tough and very diffcult to attain a Supercar so the best alternative was to spend $45,000 and have a 3000GT VR4 with identical performance to match a Porsche 911 Turbo. As the 1990's progressed so did the aftermarket indistry along with the street racing scene and soon many of these cars started seeing dealership sold tuner cars such as the Corvette Callaway Supernatural, the Mustang Saleen or the Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom. Although very expensive most were very fast more than capable of catching their 200 thousand dollar european counterparts.

With the aftermarket indusitry beginning to grow like never before and kids as young as high scholars buying and modifying honda's it was only a matter of time before the next automotive tread began with the street tuner scene. Mostly consisting of high school to college age many of these kids will take their first car and modify them with turbo's, superchargers, body kits and wild paint jobs. Very similar to the Hotrodding day's from the 1940's however instead of using power from a V8 engine most of them are using 4 cylinder motor's backed by Turbo chargers or Nitrous injection. With the 2001 movie "The Fast and the furious" and the Playstation 1 video game "Gran Turismo 2" we saw the tuner market explode in the early 2000's making the Toyota Supra and Nissan Skyline not only instant modern classics but they very car to own and modify today.

In 2011 it's been over 10 years since the import tuner market has taken off and has had influence even over American made cars like the Chevy Cobalt SS. It continues to grow strong today however like the Muscle car age we yet face another oil crisis that threatens our hobby and with "CAFE" laws in force after 2012 it will make it harder for cars that produce big horsepower to pass admissions or even be street legal.

What does the future Automotive tread and Supercar industry face beyond 2012?

Fuel Economy is going to be the key to survivability here. Emissions would be the secondary issue as they must be low however making any Tuner car, Muscle car or Supercar "Eco Friendly" is simply cutting its balls off. We can't imagine a "Go green Ferrari" or even a Go green Nissan GTR however with cars like the Tesla Roadster being electric and offering performance that rivals almost any gas powered supercar we could only guess thats were the future of tuning will be along with Supercars.

The up and coming "Generation Green" must continue to be the same basic tread since the early 1940's and offer something to it's consumer that has never been offered by previous generation in order to catch our interests for the future and I'm not talking about pimped out smart cars with lambo doors or a $70,000 Aston Martin Cygnet & Colette.

One thing's for sure It will not be easy to innovate a new tread with were things are headed I suppose we could design a fuel cell chassis and build interchangeable body panels to were we can simply design our own cars at the dealership showroom but that won't happen. The bottom line is we have been brought up to think a certain way about our hot rods and supercars and by breaking a tradition may very well put the car hobby back in the closet for a couple of years during this technological transition. When it becomes mainstream in the near future we can only guess that the same way current old school muscle car enthusiasts that view Import cars will soon be Import guys will often look down upon these go green cars.

I hope to look back on this in 15 years from now and see if my wild guess becomes a reality. Stay tuned folks the truth is coming in the near future.

VF1Skullangel with Acceleration Media

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Bugatti End's production of the veyron.

GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE!


The Veyron comes to an end finally as Bugatti begins on building its new 2+2 coupe which plans on having the same blistering performance as a Veyron.


From the time the Veyron was conivced back in the earily 2000's as a "V-16" Supercar to dominate the Mclaren F1 and the Lamborghini Diablo I knew it would become a classic someday however it will never be in the same level as the big MAC.

Sure it was the car to take the record away from the F1 and CCR in the first place then regain its title of being the fastest street legal car once again from the SSC Aero BUT it will never get the same respect as the Mclaren F1. Had Bugatti invested in a racing program and took this car out to lemans and showed the rest of the world this car is worth the million dollar price and it won it's class perhaps it may have been as respectable. However the Veyron will never gain the respect because of its asking price and lack of hertiage. It's not any different than a Rolls Royce except it's a sporty version of a luxury car but do you really need a 16 cylinder engine with 4 turboes? Not really. Today with 1000+horsepower Vipers, Supra's and even Lamborghini's are now getting into the game of tuning were the performance is very attainable for almost anyone.

Styling is poor. It reminds me of a Beetle of roids. At a million dollars they could have at the very least included some cool swing up doors or something but no they are the exact same conventional doors found on a little 12 thousand dollar Hyundai Accent or any car at that. What your really buying this car is for the engineering masterpeace found behind seats. Sure it may hold the top speed record of being the fastest car to date but I can promise you that will be broken sooner than later.

The Bottom line

The Veyron is a giant june bug and like june bugs that come out during a season this will only be a popular supercar for it's generation. Car's the Mclaren F1 and even the Porsche 911 can brag for many generations about how many race's they've been in and won, not to mention have made history manytimes before. On the other hand the Veyron gets to be a proud part of the Dan Marino Club.

Were's your superbowl victory? but in this case were's your racing hertiage?

VF1Skullangel with acceleration Media.

The 458 is the best Ferrari to date.

Ferrari began looking to replace it's F430 Supercar back in 2009 and what they came up with has been unbelievable! The F458 is without a doubt the best looking ferrari in my opinion since the 355. I haven't been this excited about a Ferrari since the 1990's. They really have lost their ways trying to keep up with the best of Lamborghini's Diablo, then the F/A-22 like Murcielago in the 2000's and a Gallardo which was almost certain to put the prancing horse in second place to the raging bull. Now it appears they have taken a completely different approach.

It's powered by a 4.5 V8 engine making just over 570horsepower and backed by a 7 speed transmission pushing its overall top speed beyond 200mph.

Ferrari did not stop there were they have already invested and built a GT3 version and also have a Challenge model on the way. We can only expect a roadster model to be built next although it wouldn't hurt Ferrari to consider a targa model instead. Either way it currently puts them ahead of everyone else in the secondary supercar class such as the Mclaren 412MP4C, The Replacement Lamborghini Gallardo and porsches 911. For sure this car is going to be a winner in this new generation of supercars.

We can only expect if this is what Ferrari's secondary Supercar looks and performs like today which currently blow's our minds away at acceleration media what does the Enzo replacement have in store for us? Only time will tell but I speculate this will be a future classic!

VF1Skullangel with Acceleration media.

Mercedes Benz SLS AMG The SLR Replacement.

When we typically think of a company like Lexus, Caddillac or Mercedes Benz we can't but think Luxury and Quality. It can't be quite called a Supercar right? Wrong! Over the years companies like Mercedes have been building Masterpeace engines for companies like Isdera, Pagani and even chrsyler's ME412 concept that rivals the Mclaren's Top Speed record of 242mph.

Previously Mclaren and Mercedes benz created the SLR which was retro styled after the 1950's SL500 Gullwing. The SLR proved to be worthy challenger to anything on the road like the Murcielago and Carrera GT with it's 5.4 Supercharged V8 putting out 617 horsepower well within Enzo range. With a much faster plus plus version known as the 722 edition which brought the numbers up from 617 to almost 630 horsepower and the zero to sixty time of 3.2 Seconds. It was the first major front engined supercar from Mercedes since the SL500 gullwing.

In 2010 it was discontinued however Mercedes was not done with their front engine supercar dominating against Ferrari's 599 and Chevy's Corvette Z06 or the Dodge Viper ACR. They needed a newer and more improved model that was going to take them well into the next generation of Supercars in which that Ferrari, GM and Chrysler all have next generation models on the way also.

Mercedes benz delivered a newer more improved model called the SLS. It's now powered by a 6.2 liter V8 making out 575horses. Now we at acceleration media do not believe for one bit that horsepower alone wins races and with it tipping the scales at just 3,600 pounds it should have an advantage over the new Aston Martin DB9 V12 or the Ferrari 599 Replacement. The SLS AMG is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds, and can reach an electronically limited top speed of 197 mph (317 km/h) and smash through the in under 12 seconds at over 125 mph. We don't know for sure how it will hold it's own against the Corvette C7 or the return of the Dodge Viper in 2013 for now we can only speculate on it's overall design which we liked a lot with the gullwing doors and retro styling.

There are plans of a GT3 model for FIA racing, a Roadster, and even an E-cell version for enviroment friendly use. We can expect a 722 follow on model to be more competitive as time passes on and the next generation of supercars settles in but for now this is a car not to be taken lightly at any track meet or show. Anyone driving a new Nissan GTR or Corvette ZR1 may have their work cut out for them against this.

VF1Skullangel with Acceleration media.