When we mention a recall we are normally talking about cars that us average people drive and normally it is a matter of public and driver safety, which is why a recall no matter how small or serious, is most defiantly and important piece of information. Especially if you happen to be the owner of the vehicle in question.

Fortunately in this case the recall only affects 520 cars, so that would normally not really warrant coverage, but when the car is a $250,000 Bentley Arnage, then it truly is a piece of interesting news.

Apparently there is a problem with the wheels, or rather the bolts that attached the wheels to the car, these are the wrong size and it is possible that they could work their way loose and ultimately the wheel could fall off, not the sort of publicity that a prestige auto maker like Bentley would like or need.

The owners of these vehicles have been contacted and the short change over will be done in no time at all. It would be really great to see all of those wealthy and famous Bentley Arnage owners queuing outside of the dealerships waiting for the wheel bolts to be changed over.

The whole episode is a bit of a mystery because these cars are virtually built by hand, and in fact the cars that have been recalled were built over an eighteen month period. One thing is for sure that something really went wrong here, because if you intend to spend $250,000 on a car, you would probably expect that the quality control would be the best that there is.

Source [Cars.com]

But don’t worry for it’s the departments own officers who have received the banning order. This comes in the wake of a strange accident involving one of the department’s cars and a Smokers Express convenience store.

It would appear that the soles of cowboy boots are not to good when combined with driving, this is because the sole is smooth and has little grip on it, as Officer Michael Herko found out, much to his embarrassment.

Officer Herko was peacefully driving along the road in his 1997 Crown Victoria police car, when his foot slipped off of the brake and onto the accelerator, naturally he was not speeding at the time and managed to get the brakes on, but not before the car had gone into the entrance doors of the store.

This happened in the evening at around 18.15 pm so it was lucky that nobody was injured. The damage was limited to the ten feet by ten feet doors, which are mainly glass with aluminum frames, these where pushed back several inches and the damage caused was in the region of $3,500. The officer and the car were both undamaged.

Officer Herko is a long term serving police officer, which had been with the Fort Pierce police dept before transferring to the Trenton police dept around seven years ago. Trenton Police Chief, Bill Smith has issued the following instruction to the departments officers “Effective immediately, cowboy boots are no longer acceptable for work”.

Source [Jalopnik]

Chrysler is celebrating the new era that they are entering, with the management change to Cerberus. The company wishes to pas on the good cheer to the car buying public by running what they call “The New Chrysler Premier Event” the main thrust of this will take place at the dealerships with a grand car give away.

Now it does not get better than that, a car maker giving away fifteen different brand new cars, these are listed below:

The cars that Chrysler are giving away:

Chrysler Aspen, Crossfire, 300C and Pacifica;

Dodge Caliber, Charger, Dakota Crew Cab, Durango, Magnum, Nitro and Ram Mega Cab;

Jeep Commander, Compass, Grand Cherokee and Liberty.

It is safe to say that there is car there everyone and every occasion, in order to be in with a chance of winning one of these cars. All a customer needs to do is visit one of the local Chrysler dealers on the 15th August and they will be given full details of the event and how they can enter.

To the Chrysler dealer nearest to your location all you need to do visit the Chrysler LLC Website, where you can find out more about the event and how to find the dealer nearest to you. However you will only be able to visit the dealer on the 15th August between 18.00 hrs and 21.00 hrs.

Source [Auto Blog]

Auto makers must really be feely the strain these days, for GM will no longer be sponsoring the US Olympic team after next years event in Beijing, China.

Obviously there will be many reasons for this, but today’s auto makers need to be focused and in tune with what is going locally in order to survive, we have seen this with Ford, they continue to try and release the burden of owning foreign car makes.

Spending around $1 billion on the Olympic team, does seen to be a little excessive, granted the investment is going to be worthwhile in a moving market like China, but when the 2012 Olympics goes to London, then would GM have anything to gain from this deal? It is doubtful.

Sponsorship can mean different things to different people, consumers may see that by sponsoring the US Olympic team as being patriotic, and therefore feel that the brand is good, whereas on the other hand there are many small teams and fringe sports that are in the USA who could also benefit from sponsorship, this would also look good, because the money would be staying in the US and going to good causes.

There is a tight rope that large companies need to tread when it comes to sponsorship, as there is going to always be organizations looking for money, it is a matter of choosing the right ones at the right times.

Source [Auto Blog]

The boss of Formula One Bernie Ecclestone is having a garage sale and no he is not selling a few nik naks from one of his many homes, he is actually selling the contents of his garage, or many garages in this case.

The 77 year old is said to be tidying up his life, maybe even preparing for the day when he retires from F1, in any case the sale of some fantastic cars is probably just the beginning of things to come.

Now who would drive a car like this?

2005 LAMBORGHINI MURGIELAGO E-GEAR ROADSTER

Color Chrome “Yes! Chrome!” with Black leather interior with Grey contrasting stitching, Black carpeting, E-gear, 20” wheels, Celebrity owned.

Details:

Year: - 2005
Make: - Lamborghini
Mileage: - 1414 miles
Engine: - 12 - Cyl.
Transmission: - Automatic
Exterior: - Chrome
Interior: - Black

Well this man is in the money, so much so, that he even has money in his name, the owner of this vehicle was a certain Mr. Cent, or as he is commonly known 50 cent.

This is a really cool car, in a brilliant chrome finish, which the picture do not really do justice to, the car is one of the most eye-catching car that you are likely to be seeing for sometime.

As you can imagine the in car entertainment is probably mind bending and it maybe a good ideas not to turn the volume up before turning it on, otherwise you could end up with a sonic boom.

This car was chrome not that long ago, about a year I think, so there are probably no blemishes or marks on it yet. Though obviously that will more than likely change when the buyer begins to drive around in it.

At the moment the current bid is at $225,300.00, and the reserve has not been met yet, by any of the four interested parties. However the auction is set to finish on the 9th August 2007 at 15.08 PDT, so you have plenty of time to get your bid in.

Source [Top Speed]

It’s a surprise that this has not been done before, because the Smart cars are actually a perfect partner for an electrical power plant and even a hybrid system.

Smart cars may not use a great deal of fuel at the moment, but still the need to get to the perfect zero emissions, is the ultimate green goal. Smart would use a 41 bhp electric motor, which is going to probably take the car up to around 70 mph, which is great, after all this is no racing car!

With the launch of the Fiat 500, things have begun to take for changes to take place, the most significant being the re-introduction of the Abarth branding for the little car and the Punto. But now it would appear that the chiefs at the Fiat Company are thinking of launching Abarth as a single stand alone business.

For fans of Fiat and Abarth this is truly a great move and it does only stop with the 500 and Punto models, there has been a clear indication that there is a real possibility that Abarth will be getting their own exclusive models which is really going to be something special.

If this does actually come through, the new business can be vaguely compared with Lexus, but instead of going down the luxury route, Abarth will take the sports route.

For Fiat this would herald a new era of car technology and styling, creating a new sports marque under the Abarth banner will attract many people who would not have normally even given Fiat another look, which is good for business and more importantly offers the market place a new a sports brand.

Abarth was founded by Karl Abarth in Turin in 1949, the company developed racing cars which competed in many different classes during the 1960’s, but it was when they started to build parts for road cars that Fiat took an interest, taking the brand over in 1971.

Could this be the return of Abarth in its own right, nearly sixty years after the company was first formed?

Source [Auto Blog]

Do you want to? If so there is a free Website that will help you do exactly that. My Mile Marker is a great site that will keep track of your fuel use and give you a complete record of your fuel usage and mpg. Naturally some people would say that this could easily be done by making a note of your mileage at the beginning and end of the month, add up all of your fuel receipts and then divide on by the other. But this is not hi tech; it does not involve computers and lovely graphics.

With My Mile Marker you make a not of the mileage of your car when you visit the service station and make a not of the fuel added, plus the price per gallon, you can do this by making notes an adding to your PC when you get home, laptop if you have it with you or you can even send off an SMS to the system via Twitter.

On the site you get some glossy charts and figures, that will show to you exactly how much fuel you are using, what your MPG is and how much each mile is costing you.

This is a useful tool for company vehicles to keep track of the costs of running different types of vehicles in different areas, with fuel and terrain being different all over the country; the results would be very interesting to see. We find out the most expensive and the cheapest places to drive in. I wonder where they are?

Source [Auto Blog]

Take six super cars, a 15,500 ft long Naval Air Station runway and a mission to hit 200 mph from a standing start, all makes for a high octane, adrenalin fueled contest.

The Road and Track team got together a Lamborghini Murcielago, Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren, Ruf RT 12, Lingenfelter Corvette, Bugatti Veyron 16.4 and last but not least the Hennessey Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper. Just a few cars off the street no doubt!! The cars were as they come, not race prepared cars and no special tires etc.

With one driver taking to the wheel, the test would be a straight forward blast from a standing start, and take it as quickly as he could to 200 mph, but there was a two mile marker which is the point where the driver would have to lift off and begin to slow right down.

Lamborghini Murcielago 0 to 200 mph, only managed to hit 190.1 mph by the two mile limit.
Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren 0 to 200 mph, did not reach 200 mph (199.5 mph) by the two mile limit.
Ruf RT 12 0 to 200 mph in 35.5 seconds.
Lingenfelter Corvette 0 to 200 mph in 26.5 seconds.
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 0 to 200 mph in 24.2 seconds.
Hennessey Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper 0 to 200 mph in 20.3 seconds.

So there you have it, the Hennessey tuned Viper is the winner, by quite a large margin. It is a bit of a surprise in the spread of speed and times set, considering that all the cars above, claimed to have a top speed in excess of 200 mph.

Source [Road and Track]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=34&article_id=5679