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Keep Your Eyes Open
There are some new vehicles that have arrived or will be about to roll onto showroom floors in Australia. Some of them are particularly stunning and will end up in the limelight, I’m sure. Thought I’d let you know, especially if you’re looking to upgrade in the near future.
In another year or so, the brand new Mazda6 with SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY and the SKYACTIV-G 2.0-liter gasoline engine will set the roads alight with its award-winning design and efficiency. Can’t wait!
How about the next-generation Subaru WRX? A new motor, a nice set of headlights, big wheel arches, big spoiler at the back, a new tail lamp design and a carbon fibre hood set the new WRX apart. If it’s performance you’re after, then this is the machine.
A new Jaguar F-Type with a supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine, and possibly a 2.0-litre motor as well, is nearing completion. Jaguar is making a statement with this one. Eight-speed automatics with start–stop technology, an aluminium body, and great handling promise to set the new F-type up against the Porsche Boxster and Audi TT-RS. The platform for this Roadster may also underpin an imminent XF sedan replacement.
If you can get your hands on one… mate, I reckon this has to be the hottest supercar for some time. 2013 will see the new Corvette. A grunty 5.5-liter V-8 with direct injection and higher compression provide the car’s awesome looks with performance and handling to compete with the latest Ferraris. Check out the sizzling rear lights and quad exhausts!
From supercar to supersuv, Porsche are on a mission to bring out their new Macan. Quite apart from the fact that the Macan, quite possibly, will be the best looking SUV in the medium-sized bracket, the performance will be remarkable. Porsche and Volkswagen continue to push the performance envelope here, and if the current Cayenne models are anything to go by the new Macan will be every bit as quick – as Porsches should be.
Enter the Mercedes Benz CLA. It will be well worth the wait and will be throwing its weight around as a big BMW competitor. The car should be rolling around in Australia by 2014.
Another car I’m really hanging out for is the new Peugeot 208. Very stylish lines, and Pulsion paintwork that changes its colour effects, will brighten up anyone’s day. Inside the new Peugeot 208 will be a crimson stitched leather interior, stripes and a panoramic glass roof. Powered by the efficient and responsive 1.6 HDi engine, the Peugeot 208 will be seen about next year.
Because we’re looking into the future, how about I finish with a car that runs on electricity? Holden’s new Volt is pretty much arrived, and will be an exciting car to drive. Plenty of zip and clean burning transport are what the Holden Volt is all about. Inspiring fresh looks, too.
Seagull magnets?
The exterior colour of a car presses many a person’s button but I wonder if the colour of a car has any other flow on effects?
Something a little funnier, though. Britain’s Daily Mail has recorded some results that some scientists have found out about car colour. Crimson coloured cars are much more likely to be splattered by bird poo! In a study, the scientists found that 18 percent of red cars were found to be poohed on, compared to just the 1 percent of green cars. Green cars were the least soiled of the car colours. I wonder if the red colour of a car spells danger for birds, which results in the bird having a bowel movement.
Silver is a very common colour for a car, and it’s amazing to see the number of times it takes out top spot for colour. One of the reasons for this is that silver does show off the car’s exterior lines very well. Choosing a grey car also helps to hide the dirt. So if you happen to live in an area with a high bird population, either buy a green car for a low hit rate or grey to hide the droppings. White and red are the worst for displaying bird droppings, though!
To the issue of safety: white cars are safest, so too are yellow cars. Green, black, blue and grey cars are not so easily seen, particularly in some lighting scenarios. The colour of your car does play a role on how easily seen you will be on the road.
Now, what about other sorts of grub and the car colours that suit them – or don’t suit them – best. Let’s take the type of car that’s most likely to get grubby: a 4×4 that actually goes bush rather than just transporting the family around town. Ideally, the best colours for these would be sort of brownish greens – khaki would be good. And you do see some green ones around. However, they tend to be darker green, which shows off all the light coloured dirt and mud. This may actually be the idea. Worst colours would have to be white and black. As many people have said, there are two sorts of dirt: the light sort attracted to dark objects and the dark sort attracted to light objects. So black and white 4×4 (meaning black ones and white ones; zebra striped Safari styles are good dirt-hiders) are mud magnets.
Trade vans also end up looking shabby. The ever-popular white van might be great for displaying logos and advertising but if the job involves anything dirty, there’s a chance you’re going to get it on the paintwork. So maybe white may not be quite so good after all. This is a good topic to mention a mate of mine who was an interior plasterer. He couldn’t find a cheap white van – not even a good old bog-standard Mazda van – but saw a dark pink one (Metallic Rose would have been the description if it had been a lipstick) that nobody wanted because pink isn’t the colour for a Real Man. He bought the pink one and is now very recognisable as The Guy With The Pink Van And The Bulldog. It’s good advertising, I guess. But white would have suited a plasterer.
The final word? Well, it really depends on how often you want to head to the car wash or spend time with a bucket of warm soapy water!
Elk Test Strikes Again!
Recently, the Moose Test, administered in Sweden by local publication Teknikens Varld, found another new SUV 4×4 to be wanting. I wonder what the equivalent Australian test might be? Maybe it would be the ‘Roo test’ or the ‘Camel test’ or the “Great Big Bullock test”. Maybe, the ANCAP crash lab might look at the new “Roo Test” as an interesting addition to their testing methods. Hey, it is a valid everyday test that provides a very clear yes-or-no, pass-or-fail result in an emergency situation that could jeopardise a family’s safety.
Unfortunately for Jeep, they were on the receiving end of a failed-to-pass mark. The new Jeep Cherokee was put through a sudden left to right turn at a speed of just under 64 km/h to simulate what a driver might have to do to avoid hitting an elk that might wander onto a country road in the Nordic countries. The Moose Test (or Elk Test) is standard practice in Scandinavia, and recreates a potential danger common in these Nordic countries. The Swedes found that the new Jeep Grand Cherokee failed the test. The new 4×4 nearly tipped over. Jeep’s parent company Chrysler contested the results, insisting that Teknikens Varld had tampered with the results by overloading the vehicle and switching the electronic stability program off.
To make sure that this wasn’t a mistake, Teknikens Varld went back and performed the test again. In fact, they tested the Jeep Cherokee seven times. What resulted was the Jeep Cherokee popped the left front tyre seven times in a row, and nearly toppled over.
Adding some balance, German magazine Auto Motor und Sport oversaw the same test with satisfactory results. Even at relatively high speeds, the new Jeep Cherokee did not tip over and passed the test with flying colours. So maybe Cherokee owners don’t have to panic if they spot a roo in the headlights. However, to be on the safe side, make sure you aren’t carrying half the house up top on the roof racks (it wrecks your aerodynamic efficiency, anyway) and keep the ESP switched on. And your speed down at night in rural areas where roos, camels and cattle are likely to think that the middle of the road is a nice place to rest.
Maybe Australian’s Wheels Magazine might be able to simulate a similar test at their yearly COTY testing. It would be amusing, to say the least. But what are they going to call it?
The TX4: A British Motoring Icon
Well, the 2012 London Olympics are ticking along nicely and (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!) we have picked up a medal of each colour so in the pool. Those who watched the opening ceremony would have noticed a little British motoring icon popping in here and there, especially during Rowan Atkinson/Mr Bean’s fantasy while playing Chariots of Fire. The Mini, Mr Bean’s favourite form of transport? The long, sleek Jaguar? The Rolls-Royce? No – this icon was the London Taxi, also known to the locals as the Hackney Cab.
The Hackney Cab’s local name dates back to the days of horse-drawn carriages, where the taxis tended to have just one or maybe two horsepower and left the sort of exhaust that one trod in rather than breathed in; hence the standard job of “crossing sweeper” who had the job of keeping the roads clear so that ladies with long skirts could get across without getting messy. Since the Industrial Revolution when London started mushrooming (the era highlighted in that opening ceremony), London has needed its taxis and the horse-drawn type lasted until the popularisation of the internal combustion and on until 1947. Very, very briefly, electric taxis ticked around London, but these were overtaken by the motorised type. Possibly, we’ll see a return to the electric version one day. The term “hackney carriage” refers to any taxi that is licensed to cruise the streets looking for passengers.
The iconic black London taxi currently puttering around London is the TX4, one of several taxi designs put out by a very specialist marque with a very unoriginal name: the London Taxi Company. The TX4 has the classic retro styling that give London taxis their distinctive look, which is based on the Austin FX4, another taxi design from the sixties. We all know what a London taxi looks like: the classic goggle-eye headlights, and the body that looks like a Mini crossed with a Land Rover – take the basic Mini look but give it the more upright lines and longish bonnet of a 4×4. The TX4 is not built for aerodynamics, but seeing as it’s built to cruise around an urban area rather than go flat out on the open road, it doesn’t have to be.
Under the bonnet of a TX4, you’ll find a VM Motori R 425 DOHC diesel engine that has a maximum power output of 74 kW at 4000 rpm and has a torque curve that peaks at 240 Nm when the engine gets to 1800 rpm. These specs are comparable to a number of private vehicles in the midsized range, meaning that if you ever filmed a chase scene in a thriller involving a London taxi (probably been done somewhere), the taxi can plausibly keep up with the average car. Most TX4s have a five-speed automatic transmission, but a very few come with a four-speed manual. The TX4 complies with Euro IV emission standards, which is one reason why the London Taxi Company went straight from TXII to TX4 – they wanted to refer to this standard and to have a link with the older FX4s. The TX4 also features ABS brakes, seating for five and a very tight turning circle.
The classic London taxi is black. However, there isn’t a rule about this, and the colour is more a tradition, like it is for top hats. The brochure for the TX4 lists eleven colours: traditional black (of course), white, four shades of blue (including Godiva blue; see below), three shades of grey, red and “spice”.
The TX4 is still made in Coventry, where it always has been. Coventry is one of those very old English towns. The best known legend of Coventry is the story of Lady Godiva, who, the story says, asked her husband to lower taxes on the locals. He said he would on the condition that she rode naked through the streets of Coventry. She did, having arranged for the townsfolk to stay indoors while she did her famous streaking act… and they all did, apart from a tailor named Tom who couldn’t resist looking and gave us the phrase Peeping Tom. The Coventry link is what gave one of the shades of blue its name: Godiva blue. One of the other shades of blue available is a reference to the sporting colours of a famous institution: Oxford blue.
More about the London Taxis can be found at the official website http://www.london-taxis.co.uk/index.jsp.
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