Whoever said that the horsepower war is over. Quite honestly, with the what the Veyron and the SSC Ultimate Aero proving that breaching the 1,000 hp barrier is now a reality, many say that there’s no need to pack as much ponies under the hood. The guys from RENNTECH believe otherwise.

The Mercedes-McLaren SLR’s run has officially ended and yet RENNTECH wouldn’t give the darned supercar a rest. To mark RENNTECH’s 20th anniversary, they tried to wage war against all other Merc tuning houses (including Merc’s own in-house AMG), took an SLR, and tuned the car’s 5.5L Kompressor V8 to bring the total pony output to 777. Quite a mean machine this, capable of a top speed of 210 mph.

Aside from the engine tweak, the car also gets a new aero kit with a big rear wing, splitters and skits to optimize aerodynamics. To help handling, the suspension system has also been tweaked, a stronger transmission, and limited-slip differential.

Source: RENNTECH

You have to give credit to these tuning firms. Despite the car market crunch, they’re still just looking for more ways on how to squeeze out just a bit more juice from engines. When we all thought that the Veyron’s power was the holy grail of 21st century motoring, now we have American tuning house Switzer Performance making it common place. And of all cars, in a Porsche 911.

Their twin turbo kit can give the 911′s straight six more than twice its output raising its power to a mental 1,000 horses. The project was a mad experiment on testing how much juice they can extract from the stock internals of 997′s engine.

Dubbed as the Sledgehammer Porsche 997, the car has 1,000hp straight from the engine but the layout finally places 850 bhp on the rear wheels couple with 727 lb-ft of torque. Now you can just imagine how zippy this car is. 0-60 mph is rated at just above 2 seconds.

Now I wonder what else this car has got to offer aside from going fast in a straight line. Porsche engineers have made a ton of improvement despite the wrong engine placement. I wonder how they’d manage even 850 bhp for the corners.

View the video of the testing after the cut.

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In yet another move to improve overall road safety, Volvo has launched a 3-year research program that is geared towards mapping driver behavior in response to particular traffic scenarios.

Volvo’s research will be collating data on the driver’s view of the road, including viewing to the car’s rear and specific movements of the head and the eye. The research will also log the movement of the car. The research will span 3 years and 1.8 million miles of travel, after which the results will be assessed to come up with a model of driver behavior across different situations. The model will then be used to make cars that are able to help the driver react to such situations.

“In order to move towards a crash-free future, we need to learn more about what kind of mistakes and situations that might lead to accidents,” says Senior Research Engineer and Field Operational Tests (FOT) head at Volvo Cars, John-Fredrik Grönvall.

Chalmers University of Technology is also contributing to the research project, along with SAFER and other companies. This particular research is part of EuroFOT, a project sponsored by the EU.

Source: Motor Authority

Godzilla just got more reptilian! The COBRA N+ Tuning division at Germany’s Cobra Technology and Lifestyle has come up with a tuned concept for the popular Nissan GT-R, even if sales of the basic GT-R won’t start in Europe until the first quarter of 2009.

The all-wheel drive sports car will be powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine that can turn out 478 horsepower. The Cobra people have made a 2.2 psi increase on the turbo boost. They also tweaked the ECU and attached a couple of sport air filters. These additions help increase the car’s power to 543 horsepower at 502 lb.-ft. of torque.

Additionally, the team is developing an exhaust system with stainless steel tubing and high-flow catalytic converters that should reduce backpressure and help add even more power to the car. The GT-R’s exterior has been heavily customized for aerodynamic performance, while the interior has been modified with leather-and-alcantara-finished carbon-fiber racing seats and six-point harnesses.

The Nissan GT-R COBRA N+ Tuning concept also sports custom yellow decals to further highlight the car’s customized look. With the upgraded features and performance parts, the car should be able to turn some heads and turn out some pockets—especially in the UK.

Source: Motor Authority

Honda emerged as the top automaker to retain new-vehicle buyers, according to the results of the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Customer Retention Study. The study pegged Honda at a 64.7% retention rate, a marginal improvement from 2007.

The study measures the percentage of people who buy a new vehicle from the same automaker as their previously-owned car. Honda’s 2008 rate is about 2 percentage points higher than last year’s. Toyota had the second-best percentage at 63.2%, while Toyota’s luxury vehicle brand Lexus went third at 60.4%.

“Honda’s reputation for creating safe vehicles with high resale value has been instrumental in retaining owners,” says J.D. Power and Associates. In contrast, Jaguar retained a mere 25% of its buyers. The overall retention rate is 48%, which is down from 2007’s 49%. Land Rover posted the highest improvement; the company’s 49% is up by 18% from last year.

This is a clear sign that companies who put a premium on safety and value will get their buyers coming back for new models. If owners get satisfaction out of their cars, chances are they’ll go for the trusted brand the next time they buy a new one.

Source: 4wheelsnews

American automotive paint provider DuPont released its end-of-the-year color popularity results, and white emerged as the clear winner over the closest runners-up silver and black.

White (plus pearl white) took 20% of the cars, while silver and black are knotted at 17%. Again, the reason for this is that these are the three colors that are practically omnipresent in most cars’ basic car choices. These colors provide simple yet attractive or elegant color choices for owners.

DuPont’s color marketing manager for performance coatings Karen Surcina said that, while white, silver, and black remain the most popular, people are increasingly looking for other alternatives. “These colors and effects provide a higher degree of customization and luxury-effect which allow consumers a conservative differentiation from the traditional color palette.”

It should be noted that DuPont’s results is different from the one PPG released sometime in October, where silver was the winner in the car paint color race (20% to white’s 18%). PPG is another global supplier of automotive paints and other chemical products.

Source: Motor Authority

A study made by PPG Industries, a leading transportation coating manufacturer, revealed that silver is still the most popular car color in the world. However, the results released last October 15 showed that white and black are catching up.

This is especially true for North America, where silver reigned with 20 percent of car sales. White scored 18 percent, while black garnered 17 percent. Additionally, for certain car types, white and black are neck-to-neck with silver.

Silver has a more comfortable lead in Europe, where silver scored 35 percent. This is a comparatively-comfortable lead over black, which got 24 percent. Blue and white are even farther behind, getting 12 and 11 percent, respectively. Silver is still an overwhelming favorite, with 37 percent of the pie. White and black (14 and 13 percent, respectively) are distant runner-ups.

One thing to consider is that silver, black, and white are featured in most cars’ core colors. However, experts say that these figures might change dramatically in the near future, with designers putting a lot of focus on new color concepts with a focus on environment-based colors such as blue – the color being hailed as the next major color.

Source: Internet Autoguide

Now I guess this is where Mazda should place their arms akimbo and say “Hah!” to every car maker who’s gone way to sleek and soft with their designs. This latest study will make them so proud of their fierce Nagare design language because people apparently love angry-faced cars.

The study is anchored on the assumption that people see faces on cars. They took twenty each of sexes and asked them to rate cars based on the “traits represented maturity, sex, attitudes, emotions, and personality.” After which, they were asked as to “whether they saw a human face, animal face or no face at all on the cars.” Finally, they were asked whether they liked the car or not.

The study revealed that people like cars with more aggressive faces like the BMW M5 over the softer Toyota Prius. Well, I might have to agree to the results. There’s a reason why many see the Fiat Multipla as one f*ck-ugly car and for me, it’s because the Multipla looks like a car with a mutated face of a human-frog.

Source: MSNBC

Night vision is the human eye’s ability to see through darkness. Activities done at night like driving can be a bummer, especially if your night vision isn’t that great. This is one of the reasons why automakers are still investing a lot for smart headlight systems.

However, if you still need to drive or need to go out at night then you might consider employing techniques on improving night vision.

Hey, scouts do teach something you’d eventually find useful. Note that these tips are only for your natural night vision.

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Safe driving should be a prerequisite of having a driver’s license. However, it’s a sad fact that not all legal drivers on the road bear justice to their license. How many jerks do you happen to come by on the road? Or perhaps your a jerk as well.

This even raises the question as to whether legislators should raise the driving age to 18, just to minimize the number of hormonally-charged (emo?) drivers out there. But as with a lot of things, one can simply try to follow some core road rules to keep yourself and everyone else on the road safe.

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I really appreciate these kinds of investigative reports. They just seem to be so Mythbuster-y. Auto Express recently tried out the Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion to check whether their claimed benefits would be worth the extra buck you have to pay for the eco badge.

Here’s what they found out – it can take as much as six years to get back the premium you pay for the eco model from what you save at the gas pump. Seems like it’s pretty much like the trade-your-SUV-in-for-a-hybrid case where it would take you a long time before you break even on an investment.

Auto Express picked a range of eco cars and compared their prices to the standard list price and factored in how long they need to recoup the premium driving 12,000 miles a year. On the average, eco badges add £1,230 to the list price while offering a few more MPGs.

While the higher MPGs strike buyers as a catch, for the Polo Bluemotion, for example, it takes more than six years to recoup the premium damage even if the Bluemotion version adds 20 more miles to the gallon! In their test, only the Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi i-Blue offers demands no premium at all .

Price / Model / Time taken to difference recoup price difference

• VW Polo 1.4 TDI Bluemotion / £1,085 / Six years, six months
• VW Passat 1.9 TDI Bluemotion / £750 / Six years, two months
• Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi ECOnetic / £250 / Five years, four months
• VW Golf 1.9 TDI Bluemotion / £540 / Four years, six months
• SEAT Ibiza 1.4 TDI Ecomotive / £1,230 / Four years, three months
• Vauxhall Astra 1.7 CDTI ecoFLEX / £295 / Two years, five months
• SEAT Leon 1.9 TDI Ecomotive / £325 / One year, 11 months
• Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI Greenline / £205 / One year, nine months
• Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi i-Blue / None / Zero

Source: Auto Express

I haven’t really considered this question since I have yet to buy a brand spanking new car for my own from a dealership. But I am aware of the whole boatload of options sales people over at the dealership would pitch to you.

Some showrooms are said to offer “Protection Packages” that are supposed to help to preserve your car’s finish and charge $600. While the transfer price to the buyer is huge, material costs are usually only $10 for the fine wax. Having the same wax job elsewhere costs around $30.

So if you happen to shopping for a car and the salesperson offers you protection for hundreds of dollars, ask first what they’d be putting on your car for that much buck especially if these packages claim to protect your finish for 5 years. No amount or wax applied over the paint can do this.

Source: PR Log

Sometimes you have to wonder whether psychologists just have a tad too much time on their hands. They just come up with all sorts of studies for the benefit of humankind. Even, if say, the most that they can actually do for most is to amuse us.

Just check out the results of this study they conducted correlating sound from a car’s engine to men and women responses. They took the sounds of a Maserati, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, and a Volkswagon Polo then collected saliva specimen collected to check testosterone levels. And they found out that the sound does affect bodily responses.

The results found 100 per cent of female participants had a significant increase in testosterone secretion after listening to the Maserati, compared to only half for men.

Men fared better at the sound of a Lamborghini, with 60 per cent showing a testosterone increase.

I wonder how the Ferrari fared. The VW apparently caused a decrease in testosterone levels. Quite unfair for the VW. Even if they didn’t cite the engine displacements on the sports cars, I could only infer that the Polo only sports a 1.6L engine. Imagine what kind of “roar” that makes. That also shows that if you want to get some in-car action, better get the Maserati or better yet, plastic surgery.

Well, my conjecture still stays – the number of decibels the engine dishes out is inversely proportional to the size of a guy’s penis.

Source: The Telegraph

Our sister blog, Money Crashers, ran this post commenting on Smart Money’s take on the 5 Best Cars to Buy for College Students. But who comes up with such kind of “smart” advice anyway?

Come on! Buying a brand new car for your college kid? Sure they based their take on Kelly Blue Book’s list of cars to buy both used and old. But picking brand new cars for their list? Not all parents can afford $40,000 a year and throw in $15,000 (minimum) for a brand new car? This is just the reason why there’s a growing culture of kids expecting cars from their parents.

Gone are the days when getting a broken down Chevy Nova bought for a few hundred bucks complete with the “Sure it’s old, but it’s got character” motivational speech upon handing a kid the keys. No wonder kids are a lot brattier these days.

View Smart Money’s picks with my comments after the cut.

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Planning your trips and routes to take does help a lot in helping you get the most out of every buck that you decide to put into the gas tank and out through the exhaust. TripAdvisor, that directory, of getaway-related information has launched this service that lets you see which trip-worthy destinations are accessible from within the range of a full tank of gas.

The service is pretty straightforward, just enter your starting point (city/town) and select the range of where you’d want to go with choices ranging from a quarter, half and full tank of gas. Now this is great for those looking for accessible getaway points for those wanting to go on a mini-road trips.

However, one lacking feature to the equation is the car’s fuel efficiency and capacity. Obviously, the places you can get to if your car only has a wee tank or guzzles gas like an alcoholic on a binge. Oh not to mention traffic flow through certain routes. Oh well, yes, I’m nitpicking.

Visit TripAdvisor’s Tank of Gas service here.

The first-aid kit. Most cars released in the past decade include a first aid kit and I do believe that some nitpicky concourse judges look for them. But they’re not there only for show. They’re there to be used. Mishaps happen both in your garage and on the road. And mind you that these pre-packed first-aid kits aren’t fully equipped. So why not build one on your own (or supplement what you have). It pays to be prepared.

Usually, these kits are equipped with the common things like a variety of bandages, a tweezer, a pair of scissors, a roll of surgical tape, topical antibiotic cream, burn cream, and some antiseptic meds. But having those do not cover all the possible road emergencies you might face.

Here are a few more things you can consider adding to your kit: cotton balls, cotton swabs, petroleum jelly, calamine lotion, plain unscented soap, aspirin, antihistamines, antacids, a bottle of distilled water. Remember that some of these things have expiration dates, so be sure to swap out the expired meds with some new ones.

Ever had that temp guage needle spike up on you? I guess an overheating engine is one of the more common on-road problems that you might experience as a motorist. So what do you do?

Pull over. Pull over to the shoulder for an emergency pit stop. Turn the engine off and pop up the hood. If pulling over isn’t possible, turn off the A/C, open the windows, then set the heater to maximum. This will help dissipate engine heat. Just pay attention to the needle. Most modern cars have a failsafe feature where the engine will shut-off just as before the temperature reaches the red. The radiator cap also has a release valve to release excess pressure. If you have steam coming out of your hood or if your temperature continues to spike, pull over!

Wait for the engine to cool off a bit. One common mistake panicky drivers do when faced with an overheating engine is that they try to pop open the radiator cap to slosh in some cooling agent (water or coolant). Don’t try opening the radiator cap. A lot of pressure (from steam) has built in the radiator. Opening it would give you a nice scalding steam. Or worse a good shower of boiling water.

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It took them more than half-a-year to consolidate the data but the facts now show that US traffic-related fatalities are now at an all-time low. The number dropped 1,600 deaths from 2006 to 41,059 in 2007.

The fatality rate of 1.37 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled in 2007 was the lowest on record, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in its report.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is attributing this to safer vehicles and aggressive law enforcement but I think that’s just her way of blowing the horn. Hey, the government can’t take all of the credit for this one. Especially since they’re reporting that while car collisions account for less this time around, motorcycle deaths are also up from 4,837 to 5,154.

Hmm… Now wasn’t there a market trend that brings out a relation between the two? Aren’t Americans driving cars less and motorcycle and scooter sales up over the years due to ionosphere-high gas prices? Well, the economy’s still reeling and the government has got something to do with it. Maybe that’s one “accomplishment” they wouldn’t want to take credit for.

Source: CNN

Not for your girlfriend. Not for your parents. Not for anyone. Co-signing a car loan (or any loan for that matter) means that you will be partly responsible (together with the other person) for the payments. This is often done when the other party doesn’t have a good enough credit standing to be able to get the full loan needed and you are kind enough (or dumb enough) to lend the credibility of your credit standing to help out.

Erik, writing on our sister blog, Money Crashers, pointed three reasons why you should never subject yourself to such a predicament. To summarize:

• If the bank thought that the person should have a loan, they would have granted it.
• You might end up paying for it. If the other person has been responsible enough with his/her finances, then his/her credit standing would’ve been good. And often times, people who aren’t good with money, would pass on the burden to the responsible one. Guess who that is?
• Usually, you only know about what’s what when the shit hits the fan.

And who has cash to spare to pay for other person’s loan, anyway?

Source: Money Crashers

Owning is a car is complete pleasure – not. The moment you drive it home, you will be reminded by the many responsibilities and documents you’ll have to accomplish to register it. And of the many things a car will cost you, one of them is the insurance. You know how hard it is out there on the road. One can be too careful, but when disaster strikes, you’d hope you had car insurance. If the cost bothers you, take heed of these suggestions so you can be wiser about it.

Compare insurance deals. Just like any insurance deals, don’t take the first proposal you receive. Instead, look around for insurance companies that offer the best rates. It also pays to read the policies fully so that you will be knowledgeable of the insurance’s coverage and limitations. You’d want an insurance company that doesn’t give you any hassle during a claim. You could also ask your colleagues for referrals on car insurance.

Once a proposal interests you, bombard the agent with all the questions in your head until you’re a hundred percent sure that the coverage gives you the most advantages, as compared to the others. Read the fineprint!

Use the insurance for major damages. (Or, if your car gets stolen.) It would be unwise to avail your insurance just to cover a little scratch. Most insurance policies would demand a participation fee, which, oftentimes is more than the cost of having a small ding or scratch repaired.

Choose your car wisely. If you were to buy a car, don’t just think of its coolness factor or how shiny it is. It would be more practical to look at costs a particular car will have you paying in the long run. Usually if the car is kick-ass, the higher you will tend to pay for it because it’s more prone to theft. There was a time when hatchback safety records were so poor that insurance for hatches were a killer. So try to find out which car would have the best premium buck per bang.

If you’re shopping for a new set of shoes (tires) for your ride, then you might be baffled by the sheer selection of tire types in the market today. You have a whole selection of touring tires, all-weather, ultra performance tires, etc… So which one should you choose?

The thing is, it’s pretty much the same with a lot of things out there – it’s simply a name game. Understanding for which purpose a particular tire type is would help you in choosing what suits your need best.

All Season – Probably the one that most would recommended and rightfully so, given its versatility. If your car is simply a daily driver, all season tires would probably best for you as you only need one set of tires to use all-year round.

Summer – Ideal for dry climates. These tires are optimized to give you grip for dry surfaces and the heat caused by traction on such conditions.

Snow – These tires give you the best grip on low-traction surfaces of wet and icy roads. They aren’t really prescribed for summer driving since the added grip on dry surfaces causes immense wear.

Touring – Touring tires, while attractive, are the best ones if you’re in a budget. They provide a cushy ride and long wear but performance and grip is somehow compromised. Don’t plan on using them if you want to delve in street racing as, aside from lackluster performance, these might be unsafe for the stress of racing.

Dual performance/Track and competition – The choice of the weekend track racer. These perform well both on the street and track conditions. Ideal if you drive your car to and from the track.

Ratings – Depending on the types mentioned above, you might also find added labels. From best rated to least, they are: extreme performance, max performance, ultra-high performance, and high performance.

The first caveat of doing car repairs on your own is basically, can you really do repairs on your car? If you aren’t too sure, then you just might have to consider doing the pre-driving checks and maintenance yourself but leave all the repair work to the pros. However, I’ve learned long ago that some routine repairs can be easily done in one’s own garage without having to shell out money for service and that there are certain repairs that you can safely do without risking f*cking up your car. But before you do work on your car, observe these few safety rules.

Make sure that you have plenty of working and breathing space in you garage. You should be able to maneuver freely without having to worry about banging your elbows. Some of the car fluids can release fumes so be sure that you also get enough ventilation.

Wear protective clothing. No need for super sanitary gear, though some overalls would. Grease and dirt usually gets everywhere so it’s usually a shame to get some on your new jeans. Take off all jewelry, watches, and accessories. If you have long hair, tie it up or keep it in a bun. You don’t want your lovely locks get tangled somewhere in there.

Also, make sure that you work on a level surface. Ever had those nuts and bolts roll to some nook and cranny you won’t be able to reach? Now how about having your car roll somewhere? Be sure that wheels are blocked before jacking the car up.

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A lot of street racer wannabees often forget the importance of tires. I’ve seen a lot of ricers out there who sport 18-inch rims on their Civics and yet sport the cheapest rubber there is. There’s a reason why you should get good tires for your car plainly because they take a lot of abuse from the forces acting on them. To avoid being Bill Nye here, let’s just focus on some of the key ideas here.

There are three main forces acting on your tires when driving – 1) transferring power to the ground, 2) stopping your car when braking, and 3) providing grip against forces when cornering.

These are awfully powerful forces. For the first one, the power from the engine is channeled by the transmission to your wheels. Not getting enough friction and contact between the wheels and the ground (and that’s through the tires) would greatly affect the efficiency of your acceleration. When speeding up, weight shifts to the rear so cars built for drag racing are usually rear wheel drive cars.

As for cornering, remember Newton’s Law of Inertia? Steering forces your car to deviate traveling from a straight line, and again, much of the force needed there is through your tires. Stopping, is well, stopping. Aside from having a decent brake system, if your tires would not be able to handle the friction, you’re likely to skid.

The technical term to the area where “the rubber meets the road” are contact patches. You have four wheels on your vehicle so that would mean, that you have 4 contact patches. Generally, your car would more or less distribute its weight evenly among the tires. However, modifications like weight distribution, tire pressure, aerodynamics, would alter the area of these contact patches affecting overall performance.

Not all cars on the roads have them and not all cars coming out of the factory can have them as standard. But there’s a reason why anti-lock braking systems or ABS has been around as a safety feature. If you’ve driven a car without an ABS, you might have experienced wheel-locking when braking one time or another. Slam too hard on the pedal at a certain speed and your liable to screech to a halt. ABS prevents that. In most four-wheel ABS systems, this allows you to maintain steering.

Without being too technical, ABS is basically a system of a computer and sensors monitoring the speed of each wheel. When you press down on the pedal, the system kicks in and it takes over how each wheel should slow down to prevent unnecessary skids. If you’re new to the whole ABS thing, you might not notice anything strange at all save for the occasional pulsing of the brake pedal when the system kicks in.

However, this isn’t a foolproof system that would guarantee that skids won’t ever happen. Definitely, you have to consider other factors like the condition and grip of your tires. The road surface will also be a factor. Oil and tar on the blacktop will definitely give you less grip than a paved concrete road. Your speed and direction would also play a factor. The ABS doesn’t necessarily shorten the stopping distance of your car too.

You might want to test the system out in an empty parking lot when you get the chance. You might notice that driving on wet surfaces would affect overall handling but you will notice a difference when the ABS is working. You ABS usually just continues to work silently (unless your car has some options to turn it off). Usually, when it fails, it means that the system is not active (and the amber ABS light on the dash lights up). Usually, your brakes would work just fine, it’s just that you won’t have the ABS to help you out. But take it to a qualified mechanic as soon as possible for repairs.

Another trademark of a defensive driver is to drive by the book. Boring for the daredevils out there, but this is a surefire way of lessening accident risks. This means that if you have developed a driving plan towards a particular destination, stick to it.

As part of planning ahead, you should be able to give yourself ample time and space to position your car in the appropriate lanes so you can predictably make a turn or any other move at the right moment. Mind your blind sides (especially if your car doesn’t have the newfangled camera systems). Avoid tailgating and keep driving within the minimum and maximum speed limits. Even slow driving can be dangerous at times.

If you are not familiar with the area and need the aid of a map, then pull off to the side or a parking lot and not stop in the middle of the road. Be aware of your turn signals. Don’t forget to switch it back (if it does not auto cancel) to normal if you fail to make a turn. Do not confuse other motorists as well.