The world has been filled with aplomb with the emergence of the economical hybrid machine in a class of its own. Being the brain of General Motors after years of struggles and lack of funds, the new entry in the Saturn vue hybrid presents a more economy minded vehicle affordable for all classes of people. Being a form of mild hybrid machine, it has a 3 KW power capability and a battery pack generating 42 volts. The hybrid system of the green vue presents a direction injection of power to gasoline engine by the use motor generator which comes in to replace a conventional alternator.

The Saturn Vue hybrid normally does not use electric power to power it unlike the full hybrid vehicles. For this reason, the Vue hybrid reaches the average of 30 mpg or simply about four mpg slightly above the twenty six it commands on the road. Even if most car enthusiasts argue that the presence of this vehicle is all about foreign oil reliance and environment, the truth is much more that.

(more…)

Here is a little different type of show for you car buffs! The California Mille is a salute to the Italian Mille Miglia race which means “Thousand Mile”. Event starts with a car show to show off all of the contestant at San Francisco’s Nob Hill on the 25th of April. There will be a second show at the end of the event at Sausalito on April 29th.

The cars take on some of the back roads of California between the two shows giving bystanders a parade of about 70 historic race cars along the way.

So, even if you’re not near one of the two cities where the shows will be, you still have the opportunity to check out the cars as they drive through the towns on California Highway 1.

This Year’s (2009) IIHS Booster Seat Evaluation

The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety has made an evaluation for this year’s round of booster seats. This is very good for you parents with children from 4-8 years old. Why you might ask? They may have grown out of their car seat but that does not necessarily mean they are ready to go to a straight seat belt.

While seatbelt work great for full-grown adults they are not meant for anyone under 4’ 9” and your 4 year probably isn’t quite there yet. So what do you do then? Use a booster seat. Now if you are looking to give your kid the best safety possible, which I’m guessing you are because you are buying a booster seat in the first place and reading this article, You need to search carefully for the proper booster seat for your child. Not all of them do quite as good of a job as the manufacturers would like you to think they do.

You might say well that’s easy, I’ll just look for the most expensive or a name brand booster seat. Sorry, to tell you that won’t work either. The best rated booster seats range from anywhere from $20-$250 and guess what, so do the booster seats that were given a bad rating. So if price and looks don’t tell you how good a booster seat is, how do you pick a good one. This article will tell you how to pick a booster seat that works best for your child and also show you some of the best rated booster seats. (more…)

In 2004 the General Motors introduced the world’s first full sized hybrid pickups which were the ½ ton Silverado /Sierra. These hybrids did not use electric energy for propulsion like the successive models by GM. Then in 2005 the Opel Astra which was a diesel hybrid concept vehicle was introduced. Then came 2006 and the introduction of Saturn Vue Line which was the first passenger vehicle from GM is also a mild design

Currently, the GM is offering two types of hybrid systems the first was used in the Saturn vue and Saturn astra which is called the BAS hybrid system which is a type of hybrid canceled in 2009. Then the GM together with BMW and Daimler AG co-developed a Two- Mode Hybrid which is currently used on the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC’s Yukon

(more…)

For many years the Corvette was American’s only sports car and it has entirely been the most consistent while others have come and gone; and it has remained essentially Americans, despite the steady inward flow of Italian exotica. In a land where speed limits have applied for many years, outsight top speed has been less important than accelerative ability and the Corvette has long supplied that, with its top range option.

None more so than the ZR-1, the first to have a European engine; it was designed by Lotus at the time the company was owned by General Motors, although it derived from a previous project for the still born Lotus Etna. The first Corvette rolled off the line in 1953, a pioneering glass fiber body on well tried mechanical components with a 3.8 liter six cylinder engine developed to produce 150 bhp.

(more…)

It’s a new year and it’s time to start lining up the Northern California Car shows again!. Last year was a great year for car shows. Our list started in February last year with 3 great shows one in Sacramento: the Autorama and two in San Francisco: Wekfest and the Rod, Custom & Motorcycle show.

This year is shaping up to be another great year! January started off with the Silicon Valley International Auto Show on January 7-10 and will once again have the Autorama, Wekfest, and Rod, custom & Motorcycle shows in February.

What made our list great last year were the many shows that sent in information and pictures so we could add them to the list. We hope to get another awesome showing this year!. If you know of any Northern California car shows that didn’t make it to our list last year, contact the organizer and remind them to send us their information.

In addition to Northern California Car Shows, this year we are starting a new list of Southern California Car Shows. So if you’re in the southern part of the state be sure to chick it out.

In 1972, the year that Munich was host to the Olympic Games, BMW founded their subsidiary BMW Motorsport GmbH. While the two door 2002 series and the four door saloons had been raced with great success by private entrusts using tuning conversation from Alpina and Schnitzer, rule changes demanded that any special competition parts be available in specified quantities, which could really only made by a manufacturer.

So BMW had to get involved if the cars were to continue racing, even if the tuners ran the actual race team. Setting up a competition department, separated from the production in factory, was common practice among the companies that had works entries in International events. The long hours required didn’t upset the factory unions it was also sure way for the lessons learnt in racing to be transferred back to the factory engineers.

(more…)

The German factory has a long history of producing high speed coupes. In the thirties, the construction of the autobahns encouraged manufactures to create ever faster cars; the BMW 327/ 80 was an elegant streamlined coupe that would reach over 90 mph on its 80 bhp and its design was carried over to become the post war Bristol 400 with a style that was still modern ten years later.

In the ‘fifties BMW were struggling for an identity, making big V-8 powered saloons and little motorcycle powered Isettas with nothing in between. The 507 was the two seater sports coupe, using the running gear of the bigger saloons in a somewhat different style, the traditional twin intakes on a horizontal plane – very much a period classic.

(more…)