The unique iteration of the VQ engine was current in vehicles like the Nissan Skyline, the place it made fairly a splash. The engine sported an aluminum physique with choices for two.0, 2.5, and three.0-liter displacements. When outfitted with the three.0 displacement, you might get round 205 lbs-ft of torque and 190 hp. The engine’s light-weight physique and elements made it a very good standby choice for mid-range vehicles, although in comparison with different engines in the marketplace on the time, it was, sadly, a bit missing in a number of key departments.
Following the preliminary lackluster look of the VQ engine, Nissan shelved the idea for eight years, bringing it again in automobiles just like the Nissan 350z, Pathfinder, and Altima, in addition to trendy Infiniti SUVs. This up to date model of the engine featured a brand new 4.0 displacement together with improved fuel efficiency, up to date emissions requirements, and a pleasant little velocity increase getting it as much as a fierce 300 hp.
A comparatively entry-level machine, the Monster is, at its coronary heart, a no-frills bike. The authentic Monster 900 (aka M900) was powered by an air-cooled L-twin engine producing 73 hp from a 904cc engine. Manageable sufficient for newbie riders however highly effective sufficient to maintain skilled riders entertained, the Monster 900 supplied nice steadiness. And, it seems, balancing energy and rideability is a superb formulation.
The authentic designer of the Ducati Monster, Miguel Galluzzi, as soon as stated, “All you need are: saddle, tank, engine, two wheels and handlebars,” and you would be hard-pressed to disagree with him. The Monster adopted that formulation, with a easy design from a distance and a easy consumer interface. There’s a big and simply seen gauge cluster, a couple of warning lights, and never a lot else to distract the rider. Accessibility was a part of the design as nicely, with options like a quick-release gas tank mechanism that enables for entry to the battery, air filter, and fuses.
Over the following few years, Ducati expanded the Monster lineup by including 600cc and 750cc fashions and a few particular version trims for the M900 referred to as the Monster Cromo and the M900 S. In 2000, the Monster obtained some important updates (gas injection and a digital sprint), however the massive change got here in 2001 with a brand new 916cc engine and water cooling as a substitute of air cooling.
A counterfeit battery is unlikely to have undergone the identical standardized testing as unique gear producer (OEM) batteries, that means commonplace security measures will not be current. In the case of lithium-ion batteries, thermal runaway may end up in uncontrolled heating as much as excessive temperatures, inflicting electrolyte leakage, smoke, hearth, and probably damaging the machine and igniting bigger fires which will injure individuals too. Most correctly examined batteries from the best brands have controls that forestall the battery’s inner temperature from breaching this threshold and resulting in thermal runaway, however counterfeiters aren’t deeply involved about doing that a lot work earlier than producing them.
So, what do you look out for? As the FBI notes, it is best to keep away from third-party purchases of batteries and get them from approved sellers or distributors that check with nationally acknowledged testing laboratories. Many producers promote straight and/or will present an inventory of trusted distributors. Any battery that appears too low-cost, ships too quick, or makes out-of-the-ordinary endurance guarantees might be not the upstanding battery it claims to be. If the batteries are already in your fingers, you will wish to look out for poor packaging, misprinted or misspelled labels, and ensure the batteries have a “UL” in a circle image to adjust to certification necessities, not that these symbols cannot be faked. A couple of of the above precautions may help make sure that when your battery dies, your machine is not taken with it.
You won’t know the Meyers Manx identify, however you positively know its form.
This is the unique seaside buggy: designed within the Nineteen Sixties as a no-frills, Beetle-based interest automobile that could possibly be assembled cheaply at house. It is, in case you like, America’s tackle the Caterham.
It’s the brainchild of the legendary Bruce Meyers, who accomplished his first automobile in 1964 and was 94 when he and spouse Winnie lastly retired in 2020, and continued to contribute to its story till he died a yr later.
“We got some time with him before he passed, which was great,” says Michael Potiker, a accomplice at Trousdale Ventures – the enterprise capital agency “that’s basically incubating Meyers Manx”, having acquired it from Bruce in 2020.
“He wasn’t ill when we did the deal. It wasn’t something we needed to get done because he was going to pass away. It seemed like he was going to live forever. He had that vibe to him,” says Potiker.
Meyers’ authentic firm, BF Meyers & Co, was really a comparatively short-lived enterprise, folding in 1971 after simply seven years because of monetary points.
He resurrected the identify in 2000 when he based Meyers Manx Inc and restarted manufacturing of his Beetle-based creations, including the longer-wheelbase Manxter 2+2 and Dualsport, and the new-look (effectively, newer) Manx Kick-out, constructing the corporate’s profile over the subsequent twenty years and establishing a group of loyal clients and followers.
Potiker says Trousdale founder – and now Meyers chairman – Phillip Sarofim “grew up driving Manx buggies and always had an affinity for them”.
When Potiker had his first go, he was rapidly offered on the Manx’s broad attraction, which transcends social class and has turn out to be virtually as recognisable and beloved because the Beetle on which it’s based mostly.
He says: “When I drove the car around downtown San Diego, I was getting thumbs up from everybody on the street, and then I took it to an upscale area and it was the same thumbs up. It’s a classless car.”
Steve Jobs’ original conception of the iPhone ringtones was to permit customers to create snippets of songs of their iTunes library. But to drag this off, Apple would’ve needed to soar via all types of authorized and copyright hoops. They would’ve needed to strike utilization offers with the most important document labels, the most important mobile firms, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA was in the midst of their very own hoop-jumping, determining find out how to legally classify a ringtone with the U.S. Patent and Trademark workplace.
To keep away from this hullabaloo, and maintain the iPhone supply date on observe, Jobs pivoted to a self-contained, extremely curated, in-house development of simply 25 default ringtones. To assist shepherd the iPhone’s aural vocabulary, Jobs enlisted Dr. Gerhard Lengeling, Apple’s Senior Director of Software Engineering of Musical Applications.
In Jobs’ phrases, Dr. Lengeling was desirous about making the typically esoteric strategy of music accessible for “the rest of us,” and he was tantamount to Apple’s very accessible digital audio workstation GarageBand. Because of this deal with the final populace, Dr. Lengeling was the right candidate to find out sounds that break up the distinction between innovation and luxury.
The quirkiness and sense of enjoyable of the unique Juke’s inside design was toned down just a little this time round, and it was augmented by a fairly clear effort so as to add some richer materials and technological attract. There’s nonetheless loads of visible character and just a little little bit of enjoyable consider proof, although, and each may be dialled up past the extent of our check automobile in case you go for range-topping Tekna+ trim.
While the design aptitude hasn’t been allowed to take over, or to stop the Juke from delivering passenger area or ambient perceived high quality to make it aggressive with its rivals, there are nonetheless loads of curved, bulbous surfaces distributed all through the cabin. That’s fairly a distinction towards the flat-faced Kamiq and the drab Vauxhall Crossland. The gear lever’s encircling inside a hoop of ambient lighting is a pleasant contact, too.
You sit excessive and barely bent-legged on the controls, with higher visibility of the world exterior than you get in a conventional hatchback just like the Clio. The devices are analogue dials, with a good-sized digital drive pc display screen positioned between them that may show the same old alternative of journey pc or in-car leisure info. The ritziest small crossovers now provide absolutely digital clocks, after all – however the Juke’s instrument binnacle is much from antiquated and it’s clear, easy and simple to configure to your liking.
Nissan’s use of leather-based and chromed plastic smacks of an try and elevate the Juke’s atmosphere upmarket, which is reasonably profitable, though perceived high quality is just a little inconsistent. More spectacular is how a lot additional area has been discovered contained in the automobile relative to what was a fairly impractical displaying beforehand.
Although the Juke isn’t the best-packaged or most accommodating automobile in its class, it now not will get the picket spoon for second-row occupant room or for boot area. Taller adults can sit line astern now fairly comfortably, whereas they wouldn’t have had a hope of doing so earlier than. The automobile’s 422-litre boot is respectable for capability, too – up 20% for quantity on the final automobile, higher than the Puma (401 litres, discounting its underfloor Megabox) and equal to the Captur (422 litres) and made accessible by an adjustable-level flooring.
The hybrid loses 68 litres of area, owing to the location of its 1.2kWh drive battery, nevertheless it’s nonetheless bigger than that of the Captur E-Tech (326 litres). Rear seat area is extra beneficiant than in that automobile, too.
Nissan Juke multimedia
Only the very least expensive, Visia-grade Jukes go and not using a 8.0in touchscreen infotainment system. You needn’t enterprise past one-up Acenta trim to get that, and it contains smartphone mirroring for each Apple and Android telephones, in addition to NissanJoin dwell info providers and a rear-view digicam.
N-Connecta spec contains TomTom sat-nav with dwell site visitors info, and it’s a fairly good system that’s easy to programme and arrange and simple to comply with – a lot as most are seemingly to make use of it.
It’s a disgrace that the addition of the hybrid to the Juke line-up didn’t convey with it the combination of the extra fashionable display screen used within the newest Nissan Qashqai and Nissan Ariya. As it stands, the 8.0in system feels outdated graphically, though it’s unlikely to offend both.
You solely get the Bose Personal Plus encompass audio set-up in case you climb all the way in which to Tekna grade. It’s not one of the best purpose to spend the additional cash, though it does create a convincing sense of width to its encompass sound music copy.
This is in actual fact the second-generation EL6; the unique one by no means made it out of China.
Styling clever, it’s arduous not to attract comparisons between the brand new EL6 and the super-smooth, computer-mouse styling that Tesla has made its personal, though there’s greater than a touch of Hyundai on the entrance, too.
Sleek and inoffensive but generic nearly sums it up, though that digital camera housing above the windscreen is distinctive, if maybe not in a flattering approach. Taxi, anybody?
Underneath, it will get extra attention-grabbing. The EL6 relies on the corporate’s new NT2.0 (brief for Nio Technology 2.0, in case you have been questioning) platform, full with two battery choices: a 75kWh or a 100kWh pack, that are good for a variety of 252 or 329 miles respectively.
Charging is capped at 140kW for the smaller-battery automotive, 180kW for the bigger-battery mannequin that we drove, which is a approach off Tesla, Hyundai and Kia however nonetheless roughly on par with many different EVs.
However, Nio additionally has its patented battery-swap tech, which permits the EL6’s battery to be modified out for a contemporary, absolutely charged pack in round 5 minutes at one in all Nio’s roadside battery-swap stations. There are 120 of those deliberate for set up throughout mainland Europe, and the corporate intends to have a number of within the UK forward of its launch – though we will’t assist however really feel that the UK’s notoriously awkward street infrastructure and planning legal guidelines may show one thing of a problem. Good luck to them, although.
The firm has simply reached the milestone of 30 million battery swaps because it launched the system in 2017, so these stations are clearly working nicely in China.
The EL6 will get a 201bhp induction motor up entrance and a 282bhp everlasting magnet electrical motor on the again for everlasting four-wheel drive and a mixed output of 483bhp.
There’s additionally commonplace Intelligent Chassis adaptive damping, which might make 500 changes per second, and no fewer than 9 driving modes.
Notably, this newest platform additionally brings 33 ‘sensing units’, one long-range lidar and 4 Nvidia Drive Orin X chips for computing energy of 1016 trillion operations per second. Yes, trillion.
If you have been in any doubt that we have been deep into ‘tech before automotive’ territory with EVs, you aren’t any extra.
The unique BMW 8 Series graced the automotive stage in 1989, showcasing cutting-edge design and groundbreaking options. Despite its outstanding attributes, nonetheless, the grand tourer confronted challenges available in the market and didn’t obtain the eye it deserved.
Welcome to Timeless European Treasures, our weekly look again at vehicles from the European market that outlined a motoring technology.
Why Do We Love It?
The BMW 8 Series earned admiration for its substantial efficiency enhancements over the unique 6 Series. With a drag coefficient of simply Cd=0.29 (versus 0.39 for the 6 Series), a V12 engine paired with a six-speed guide transmission, and pioneering digital drive-by-wire throttle know-how, it set new requirements within the phase. The unibody design, lighter than its predecessor due to CAD modeling, contributed to a singular driving expertise. Enthusiasts recognize its luxurious options and groundbreaking engineering that signaled a brand new period for BMW.
The unique Defender got here in a number of flavors, however its modern-day equal is proscribed to the 90, 110, and the bigger 130. The lineup not solely lacks a pickup truck, however Land Rover has additionally shunned producing a convertible. For these searching for open-top thrills, there’s excellent news – Dutch coachbuilder Heritage Customs has achieved away with the off-roader’s roof.
Derived from the Defender 90, the Valiance Convertible incorporates a folding cloth high that contrasts with its Sunbeam Yellow physique. This marks the corporate’s second conversion, following a distinct construct launched almost a yr in the past with glorious white steel wheels. The newest iteration is flashier, showcasing greater two-tone alloys, together with a spare one hooked up to the fifth door.
An all-electric version of the RS6 goals to do exactly that. From effectivity to a singular design construction spearheaded in partnership with Porsche, the RS6 is about to revive an period all whereas doing it sustainably.
In the previous, Audi made a reputation for itself with its sports activities wagons. Does the present Audi RS6 Avant reside as much as its heritage?
In order to provide the most recent and correct info attainable, the info used to compile this text was sourced from varied producer web sites and different authoritative sources, together with Car and Driver and TopGear.
The RS6 e-Tron Is An Ode To The Audi RS6
When the RS6 first got here into fruition within the early 2000s, it introduced with it a wild bundle: pace and energy in a seemingly regular station wagon. As generations of the automobile debuted, it started to have a status for high speeds inches in direction of 200 MPH and a horsepower and torque combo that blew straight previous you. After 23 years, the Audi RS6 is set to return in 2025 with an all-electric powertrain and that very same status to keep up.
In 2008, the RS6 was thought of “the most powerful series production Audi and, as an Avant, also the most powerful series production station wagon in the world to date.” Switching over to a direct injection twin-turbo V-10 engine made all of the distinction.
Suddenly, an unassuming enterprise wagon put 479.4 pound-feet of torque and 174 MPH of pace into the fingers of on a regular basis commuters. The automobile even supplied the common individual a style — or quite hint — of the monitor. While carbon fiber is all the fashion in auto manufacturing now, the German-born producer used carbon fiber ceramic brake disks with particular buyer requests. In 2013, Audi stated goodbye to the unique RS6 sedan and debuted a 3rd era of the RS6 Avant. The wagon strayed from its predecessor’s power-hungry methods and, as a substitute, opted for a high-tech imaginative and prescient.
While specifics are undisclosed, the automobile goals to grace the stage in 2025 because the automotive and particulars are revealed. In an interview with TopGear, Marc Lichte, head of design, painted a picture of a large wagon with “a wider track and bigger wheels.” Lichte went on to tease a bit in regards to the RS6’s efficiency by saving it might be completely different than the opposite E-tron fashions, particularly the A6 E-tron.
While suspension particulars aren’t launched, it was an space Audi cherished on the daybreak of the RS6.
“Even in the first RS6, a major focus was placed on the suspension,” Audi detailed in a press launch. “The hydraulic pitch and roll compensation, Dynamic Ride Control (DRC, which is still purely RS-specific suspension technology today, was a pioneering innovation here.”
The 2023 Audi e-tron S redefines electrical luxurious, providing a tri-motor setup for a harmonious mix of effectivity and magnificence.
Keeping A Reputation For Performance Alive
Audi
As beforehand acknowledged, specifics aren’t fairly accessible but. However, because the one hundred pc electrical RS6 rolls out, so do a handful of different electrical station wagons that threaten to dethrone Audi’s RS6. While the 2024 RS6 Avant is gas-guzzling, it does set a excessive bar of efficiency combined with energy.
But what about placing all of these attributes in a single automotive? The RS6 e-tron goals to verify all of the containers while taking inspiration from the original RS6 and the 2024 RS6 Avant. The 2024 Avant reaches 60 MPH in simply 3.3 seconds, carrying on the unique RS6’s legacy, and including 30 extra ponies and 37 pound-feet of torque to its already highly effective drive system.
However, because the world turns extra to electrification as the way forward for the auto trade, the 2024 RS6’s four-liter twin-turbo V-8 could also be gas-electric, however it’s nonetheless gas-guzzling. In an period of producers which have managed to mix pace, efficiency, energy, effectivity, and sustainable design, Audi’s revival of the RS6 with electrical motors is a key choice in securing the automaker’s eco-friendly future.
2024 Audi RS6 Avant
Layout
Twin-turbo Gas/Electric V-8
Horsepower
621 horsepower
Torque
627 pound-feet
0-60 MPH
3.3-2.9 seconds
Top Speed
174 MPH
Price
$126,895
(Data sourced from Audi)
Who Poses A Threat?
Nio
2023 gave the impression to be the 12 months of reviving the station wagon in an electrical format. Other station wagons with one hundred pc electrical powertrains are set to enter the market within the coming years. Most notably, the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer will mark the automaker’s foray into electrical station wagon territory. Chinese automaker Nio additionally introduced in June it might launch an all-electric station wagon, the ET5 Touring.
Audi’s RS efficiency vary is continually setting new requirements and this is each Audi RS mannequin accessible right this moment, ranked by acceleration
Audi Partners With Porsche To Boost Audi’s Historic Wagon Driving System
Audi
Audi’s models have been regarded as an alternative option to Porsche already, so the automaker’s use of the identical platform comes as no shock. The distinctive partnership between Porsche, Audi, and the VW Group builds upon all three German producers’ huge reputations for shifting in direction of electrification. The RS6 e-tron, like the A6 e-tron, is about to stem from that very same design platform.
The VW Group’s PPE Platform
The VW Group Premium Platform Electric (PPE) is a collaborative mission that enables for competing producers like Porsche and Audi to share Volkswagen’s electrical expertise. When creating the A6 e-tron idea, Audi credited the PPE platform for enabling “superior performance” by means of design, 800-volt charging capabilities, and high-performance metrics.
“We benefit greatly from the synergies in the Volkswagen Group both in hardware and software: PPE scales high-performance features for the broader market,” Audi stated in a press release. “Shared platform is not an obstacle to realize brand-specific vehicle design and characteristics.”
Audi’s use of the PPE, MEB, and J1 {hardware} BEV platforms has lower prices together with allowed for carry-over components. For instance, Audi stated that the Audi e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan use comparable large-scale components after implementing the J1 platform.
Audi’s Race Toward Electrification
Audi
Like most producers in right this moment’s ever-changing local weather, Audi has a strict timeline to succeed in each full electrification and a net-zero carbon emissions standing. Audi goals to decarbonize by 2050 whereas spearheading sustainability and electrical charging infrastructure community infrastructure growth within the meantime.
By 2025, Audi aims to have an additional 5,000-plus fast-charging points with a max charging output of 350 kW all through greater than 1,000 completely different areas of Europe. Additionally, that 12 months marks Audi’s deadline to construct wind farms and photo voltaic parks with Audi websites being as carbon-neutral “as possible,” in keeping with Audi. The deadline coincides with the anticipated unveiling of the Audi RS6 e-tron. “The goal is to increase the proportion of regeneratively produced electricity through the partners along with the continuing increase in the share of electric cars,” stated Audi.
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