Category Archives: Uncategorized

2012 Range Rover Evoque

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Unless you have been living under a rock for the past eight months you have likely seen some of the buzz around the 2012 Range Rover Evoque.  It first appeared in Canadian showrooms in October of 2011, as the newest addition to Land Rover’s 2012 vehicle line-up and since then there has been no shortage of marketing and PR support. However, recently the PR machine seems to have slowed down so we thought now would be a good time to take a closer look to see what all the hype is about.

The combination of Range Rover’s Illustrious lineage as the estate vehicle of royalty, celebrities and anyone who matters, certainly lends itself well to attracting attention when w models are launched. Much of the recent launch fanfare has been around Victoria Beckham’s (a.k.a. Posh Spice) involvement in the interior’s design as she provided input into the final design giving it a “chic” touch.

In spite of being Range Rover’s smallest and most efficient models ever built, the interior stays true to form and portrays the Range Rover luxury look and feel so many other manufactures can only aspire to ever achieve.

The Evoque is available in both a two door and four door model, its new sleek innovative design is intended to appeal to a younger, urban market versus the higher-end larger Range Rover models. And with a competitive starting price of $46,995 CAD it is priced right for the entry level, luxury SUV/Crossover segment.

Along with massive amounts of mainstream press coverage, the kudos and industry awards just keep flowing for Range Rover’s Evoque as it has now won a variety of global auto awards including; 2011 Car of the Year by Top Gear and Motor Trend’s 2012 SUV of the year.

Keeping with Range Rover’s royal theme connection we wanted to point out an amazing video of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II driving her vintage Range Rover in the UK countryside.  It’s absolutely priceless listening to her chit chat with the local rabbit hunters while driving through one of her estates.

So to close, I think it’s safe to say the new Range Rover Evoque is living up to the hype of its launch and if the older Range Rover models are good enough for the Queen, the 2012 Range Rover Evoque should certainly be at the top of the list for any car savvy soccer Mom.  But of course, the big question still remains. Has the Queen added the Range Rover Evoque to her royal fleet line-up?

To be continued….

And you thought your car stereo was loud….

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For certain car enthusiasts having a loud car stereo is on the top of their wish list. The RedlineNorth team came across the following video which simply blows other car stereos away, quite literally, in terms of pure loudness.

You have to be impressed when a car stereo can shake the windows of a store in a strip mall parking lot and shake women’s hair to the beat of the music.

The car in question is a 2001 SMD Chevy Tahoe installed with the following:

Mac Mini / 10.2″ Touchscreen
Pioneer P710 Bluetooth Headunit
4 18″ Ascendant Audio SMD Subwoofers
10 Rockford Fosgate 6.5″
2 Rockford Fosgate 8″
2 Rockford Fosgate 4″
12 Rockford Fosgate 1″
8 Rockford Fosgate T2500.1 bdCP (Bass) (2 amps on each sub)
2 Rockford Fosgate T1000.4 (Midbass/Midrange)
1 Rockford Fosgate T600.2 (Tweeters)
2 Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2 Processors
4 350 Amp Mechman Alternators
10 XS Power D3100 Batteries
Second Skin Sound Deadened Top to Bottom
Viper 5901 Security
Ridetech Shockwave Titanium Suspension
Wilwood 6 piston 16″ Caliper Brakes
DJM and Spohn Control Arms
“Meadecherry” Paint by Roy Devore

All of this equals 30,000 watts! Yes, that’s 30,000 watts.

The reactions of some of the people sitting in the Tahoe are priceless.

http://www.youtu.be/ZFJL_9pw944

Chaika

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A Chaika (Ча́йка), which means gull, is a luxury automobile from the Soviet Union that was produced from 1959 to 1981 by GAZ. There were only 3,100 vehicles built during the 22 year production run, largely because it was never for sale to the public. Chaika’s and its more upscale cousin, the Zil limousine, were only available to Soviet elites. Nikita Khrushchev, although entitled to a ZIL, was known to prefer Chaikas.

The early Chaikas model M13 produced from 1959 to approximately 1977 very closely resembled the American Packard Patrician from the same era. The M13 was powered by a a 195 horsepower (145 kW) 5.5L V8 with a top speed of 99 mph (158 km/hr).

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In the late 1970s the M14 was introduced with more modern styling and had an updated 220 hp engine.

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The Chaika model was discontinued in 1988 and can now be found in museums such as this unique museum outside of Moscow which features over 300 vehicles from the Soviet era.

Today, GAZ specializes in mid-price and premium cars all sold under the Volga brand.

The roots of Japanese Touge Drifting

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Tōge or Touge (峠) is a Japanese word literally meaning “pass.” It refers to a mountain pass or any narrow, winding road that can be found throughout the mountainous regions of Japan.  Historically, road engineers in Japan created a series of S bends in steep roads that provided access to and from high mountain elevations in order to decrease the incline, thereby making them easier for commercial trucks to pass on the two lane roads. Around twenty five years ago, these same roads became the hallowed grounds to which the sport of “Drifting” was born. Japanese, motorcycling legend turned driver, Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the foremost creator of drifting techniques in the 1970s. He is noted for hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and then drifting through the corner, preserving a high exit speed. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did local street racers “hashiriya”  and over the years, these passes have become mythical locations for auto enthusiasts as they provide a challenging and thrilling course to test the limits of cars. Although the J-Pop soundtrack is a bit dated, the video provides a flavour of the Japanese drifting culture in Osaka region.

Keiichi Tsuchiya (known as the Dorikin/Drift King) became particularly interested by Takahashi’s early drift techniques and began honing his drifting skills on these same mountain roads and quickly gained a reputation amongst the racing crowd as he took them to the next level. In 1987, several popular car magazines and tuning garages agreed to produce a video of Tsuchiya’s drifting skills in his Toyota AE86 (Corolla).The grainy low budget video, known as Pluspy, became an international hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. The video certainly mirrors the “Land of the Rising Sun” with its contradictions as the mood transforms from intense to melodic around 4 minutes 30 seconds while as a viewer you are wondering why someone left the slow motion button on.

The combination of Japan’s immense affluence in the late 1980s and early 1990s along with the rise in the aftermarket modifications available for their domestic car models resulted in a dramatic rise of the sport across Japan.  Drifting has since exploded into a massively popular form of motorsport in North America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Most recently, with the box office success of films such as Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift the whole World is now familiar with the Japanese car scene. This is the iconic heavily tuned Mazda RX-7 from the film.

Here are some other famous Japanese modified models widely used for “Drifting” – Toyota A86 Corolla, Honda NSX, Nissan Skyline R32, Nissan Skyline R34, Nissan Silva and Toyota Supra.

What is a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle?

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With all the press recently around Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), one technology that has perhaps been overlooked is fuel cells. Vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells are actually a type of electric vehicle. Instead of carrying around a lot of heavy batteries to draw electricity from, it creates its own electricity from a chemical reaction. This article provides a good overview of the technology. Major automobile manufacturers are still investing in fuel cell technology, such as Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, and GM.

While vehicle powered by fuel cells won’t be mass produced for a number of years, and there are still a number of significant barriers to overcome, they have the potential to become a very attractive alternative fuel vehicle.

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Waze Navigation App

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What is Waze? Simply put it’s a navigation app that gives you turn by turn directions and includes voice integration. This type of app finds itself in a crowded market up against. However, Waze distinguishes itself by using crowd sourced information to give you real time information on traffic conditions, all with a very user friendly interface.

Users can graphically see other Waze users in their area and click on an icon to get a report of their real time speed. No more guessing as to what the difference between a red and yellow line on a map means. Waze gives you the vehicle’s speed down the last kilometer.

Of course there are other features to Waze such as the ability to report traffic accidents, or the location of speed traps. All of this information becomes available to other Waze users instantly. In the age of digital privacy concerns Waze allows you to remain anonymous while using the app.

Waze is a free app and it’s available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia based phones.

The beauty of this app is that the more people sign on and start using it, the more it benefits the drivers in your community.

March Was a Good Month for Electric Vehicles

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Looks like things are looking up for electric vehicles in the month of March.  General Motors sold the most amount of Volts ever in one month with 2,289.  In addition, Nissan is reporting that Leaf owners are only traveling 25 miles (40 kms) per day.  This is well below the expected driving range of 73 miles (120 km) for the vehicle. The average daily distance of 25 miles isn’t out of line with what household travel surveys tell us about general driver behaviour.  The biggest challenge for electric vehicles in my opinion is re-adjusting the behavior of drivers from filling up once a week at outside of the home to more frequent ‘re-fueling’ in the home.

Nissan Leaf Interior

Finally, Forbes has an interesting article challenging the recent headlines over the past 18 months indicating electric vehicles aren’t selling. Their assertion, and I would agree, is that the vehicles are selling but it’s the original expectations were too high for a new technology.

Chevy Volt

Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three – L’autodrome, France

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Gymkhana events are time and/or speed events in an automobile. These can feature obstacles such as cones, tires, and barrels. The driver must maneuver through a predetermined “track” performing many different driving techniques. What separates gymkhana from traditional autocross events is that the gymkhana requires drivers to perform reversals, 180 degree spins, 360 degree spins, parking boxes, figure 8s and other advanced skills. Drifting is also encouraged where helpful or necessary. Essentially, a gymkhana is any event featuring a starting point, a finish line and some sort of “obstacle” to get through, around, or by, all within a certain time limit – Wikipedia.

The following is a video of Ken Block going through the L’autodrome in France.  His driving skills are simply amazing.

The Europeans…

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Wanted to share a very interesting car company I recently came across.  Based in Belgium, Imperia Automobiles is building vintage looking sports cars that use Plug-in hybrid engine technology. Leveraging the immense success of the vintage style designs of the New Beetle, the Mini, and most recently, the Fiat 500, Imperia has created a very innovative and beautifully designed automobile. With the combination of classic aesthetic lines that create an atmosphere of nostalgia along with state of the art electric hybrid technology it really does attempt to bridge the old world with the new.

Check it out.

Also, keeping with our European theme thought you would be interested in the following article that discusses the tax issues in Italy and how they are affecting the luxury car market.

KEN BLOCK TESTS FOR HIS ATTEMPT AT A 6TH CONSECUTIVE RALLY IN THE 100 ACRE WOOD WIN

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Check out this video of Ken Block testing the H.F.H.V. Ford Fiesta at Sayers Brook Bison Ranch in Missouri, gunning for a 6th consecutive win at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.