Tune–up Tps For Today's Driver

Tune–up tips for today's driver to help keep your car in great running condition. Learn how to do a tune-up on your car and why it's important. Spark plugs, oil and oil filter and the cooling system flush and fill are all important for your vehicle. (NC)—Back when your parents were teenagers, getting a Canadian drivers license was a true rite of passage. It meant independence and responsibility. It also meant that if you were fortunate enough to have a car, you knew how to take care of it. However, today more than 40 percent of consumers don't know how to tune–up their cars. How to solve this quandary? Here are three must–dos to keep in mind next time your ride is in need of service. 1. Replace The Spark Plugs – According to Autolite, a leading spark plug brand, one of the most economical...

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Posted in: Repair Car

Driving Courses for Teens

Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death of teenagers in this country, with 81,000 deaths attributable to accidents involving teen drivers between the years 2000 and 2009, according to SafeRoads4Teens.org. Even if your teen is a responsible driver, others on the road may not be. Preparation and training may make the difference between having an accident and avoiding one. Statistics show that defensive driving classes substantially lower accident risk. Hands-On Driving Experience makes the driver, and your teen will get plenty of that at many hands-on driving schools. Teen students will be placed in mock hazardous driving situations and given training by experienced personnel. The Danny McKeever driving school in Southern California...

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Posted in: Safety Drive

GT-350 Mustangs

Given that Carol Shelby manufactured only a handful of GT-350 Mustangs, to find one on the streets of Melbourne would be about as rare as running over a pile of rocking horse shit in a McLaren F1, don't you think! Perhaps it's for this reason that - whether it's in Australia or any other country for that matter - replicas are the norm. Not that there's anything wrong with 'mock-ups', so long as the owner isn't one of those jerks who likes to insult one's intelligence by lying about a car's authenticity. Not that air conditioning engineer, Peter Furmedge would ever contemplate such an insult. Nosiree. Matter of fact, the number plate adorning...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Black Cat

We all know cats get nine lives. But judging by how many times this defiant Fiat's been let off the hook, maybe our feline friends and Italian cars are two and the same... Born into this world in 1974, this amazing Fiat - named 124 Sport - first nearly met its maker more than ten years ago after it was completely stripped down to a skeleton and left to rot in a factory. Certainly no way to treat a pedigree. It lay motionless for years gathering dust - until, one marvellous afternoon, Adam Pavirani stumbled across her and had to throw in a lifeline. And on this day, the sun did shine... First off, the little sweetie was painted red and powered...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Volkswagen's Bulli

The tale of Volkswagen's Bulli goes back to Wednesday, April 23, 1947. That's the day Dutch VW importer Ben Pon drew a rough sketch of the now internationally famous Transporter 1, or T1, van. In the States, it was known as the Microbus. In Germany, marketers labeled it the Bulli. And this year, in concept form at the 2011 Geneva show, the Bulli has returned with a retro-inspired design, modern usability, and a zero-emission electric powertrain. The latest six-passenger Bulli is a reinterpreted reinterpretation of what's been billed as the world's first van. VW showed a retro van in 2001 at the Detroit auto show, and like that concept, the more...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Toyota, the FT-86 II

For the heavyweights over at Toyota, the FT-86 II concept announcement was almost a throwaway remark in the statement made by Didier Leroy, President of Toyota Motor Europe. At the press conference on Tuesday, Leroy devoted nearly all of his speech to a detailed discussion of Toyota’s hybrid strategy and only briefly referenced the FT-86 II concept at the end of his remarks: “I want to focus on the passion that’s returned to Toyota in recent months. That passion is back in everything we are doing and in every new product we are developing. You can feel the passion in the only non-hybrid we’ve got on the stand, our FT-86 II concept car. This is...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Nissan Ellure

Revitalizing the sedan isn't anything new to Nissan -- just three years ago it introduced the current seventh-generation Maxima as the new age affordable "four-door sports car" (or 4DSC) fit for mall sprees and canyon runs. Even still, Nissan's design leaders say, the well-aged segment remains bland. For 2010 and beyond, there is a need for the sedan (otherwise known as the "rational or functional choice", Nissan Design America vice president Alfonso Albaisa explained) to evolve into a vehicle with "more emotion". "A new customer is coming into this mature segment," Albaisa mentioned at a private media gathering. Said customer is no longer predominantly...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Rocketman

Hardcore Mini fans have long lamented that with each new model, the brand's lineup heads farther away from its core mission of producing small, fun-to-drive cars. Someone at Mini is apparently listening, because its Rocketman Concept is proof that the brand can still think small. The Rocketman, which makes its world debut at the 2011 Geneva auto show, also serves as a rolling showcase for new Mini construction techniques and ideas in modular packaging. To start with, the Rocketman is almost a foot shorter than a standard Cooper and is built on a carbon-fiber spaceframe to save weight over the traditional steel unibodies employed on Mini production...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Mercedes SLS AMG

From tomorrow, Mercedes-Benz among others, will display their cars at the Dubai International Motor Show. Rest assured, their latest offering the SLS AMG ‘Gullwing’ will not be left behind. And what better way to introduce the 571 horsepower supercar to the ‘City of Gold’ than in an all new Golden avatar. Specially created for the Dubai Motorshow, this one-off SLS sports a dull-gold paint job, known as ‘Desert Gold’, with black coloured AMG alloy wheels, decorated with a golden outer rim. As of now, only one SLS AMG exists in this colour, but Mercedes say that if customer response is appropriate, it could be made into a standard option. This...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Mercedes A-Class

Mercedes' A-Class has historically been a four-door hatchback more concerned with environmentally friendly utilitarian duties than making a statement about style. For the 2011 New York and Shanghai Auto Shows, Mercedes intends to change that frumpy image with an aggressively styled concept that looks more performance hot-hatch than green hipster-hauler, taking the A-Class in an entirely new direction. Thought it is just a concept, it might show the direction the front-wheel drive platform is headed-one that will appeal to a more youthful and enthusiastic buyer.Looking ready to go head-to-head with the likes of the Audi A3 and Volvo C30, the A-Class...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Lotus CEO

Three months after announcing a trio of supercars using a supercharged version of the Lexus-Yamaha V-8, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar says the company is looking at designing its own engine instead. "I believe that if you're selling a $160,000-plus sports car, not having your own engine is a disadvantage," he says. "So we're doing a feasibility study to see if we can do our own road-car engine. The Lexus engine is ready for the Esprit, the first of our new cars to launch, but we still have the choice." Lotus' engineering division certainly has the ability to do engines, and has done several high-profile ones for clients over the years.Bahar stressed that...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

BMW Vision

BMW has announced the name and the date of its two all-new alternative-powertrain high-tech carbon-bodied cars. The plug-in diesel-electric AWD supercar, based on the Vision EfficientDynamics concept, will reach dealers as the i8. The artist formerly known as the Mega City Vehicle, a pure-electric city car, will be called i3. Both will be launched in 2013. The i8 name was predictable: It will be a topline car, the pinnacle of BMW's brand of technology, performance, and frugality. It will be expensive, too: You can get similar performance, though not economy, in an M3 for a fraction of the price. The name i3 for the smaller car is a surprise....

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Posted in: Futured Cars

BMW M3

With the amazing EfficientDynamics supercar unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, BMW promised a four-seat gullwing machine with the acceleration of an M3 and the fuel economy of a Mini diesel. At that point, the car's complex hybrid system had never been tested. Now, production is just two years away, in 2013. Testing has proven engineers' original simulations, so the car will proceed with very few changes. Nestled behind the back seats is a tiny 161-horsepower combustion engine linked to a compact double-clutch gearbox to drive the rear wheels. That isn't enough to do the acceleration numbers BMW promised: 0-62 mph in 4.8 seconds. So between...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Alfa Romeo 8C

The baby Alfa Romeo 8C has landed in Geneva, and to little surprise it's called the 4C. Shown in concept guise, the 4C assumes the sportscar ethos with a mid-mounted engine, rear-wheel drive, and compact dimensions suited for maneuverability. Like the most traditional sportscars, it has just two doors and two seats. The 4C is around 157.4 inches long, has a wheelbase less than 94.5 inches, and is pegged to have a weight split of 40/60. Sounds like a recipe for some old-fashioned driving fun. Sitting amidships is the company's turbocharged and direct-injected 1750 TBi inline-four. Power output for the 4C wasn't specified but the mill develops...

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Posted in: Futured Cars

Toyota 7M-GTE

Why not? That's the question that Michael Galluzzo often bounces back at people who query his move to drop a Toyota turbo engine into his precious Datsun 240Z. For sure, the Zed purists cannot stand the thought of such an act. But - as you'll read - there is reason behind this 'madness'. First of all, the name Michael Galluzzo might ring a bell with Australian soccer fans - he plays for Sydney's Leichhardt Tigers. Michael - together with his father - bought this 1969 Zed (one of the early-bird ones) with the full intention of making it something special. They began their build-up by rejuvenating the standard body (which involved removing quite...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Daihatsu Feroza

Most of us can accept that we - people who modify cars - are a bit loopy. It's as our parents always tell us, "why would you tamper with something if it isn't broken"... Of course, then there are the insurance hassles, the legal hassles - not to mention the massive financial outpouring that we seem happy to accept. God, we car lovers must be mad. But let's take 'mad' to a whole new level - let's take a look at one Ben Barlow... Ben is the Master of Madness. The object of his madness is none other than this 1991 Daihatsu Feroza - a most unusual choice for the automotive enthusiast. Ben scored this Datswho as his first car about 5-6 years ago...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

The X7 Road Rocket

This Super 7 based road rocket is damn scary. Two hundred and forty six horsepwer at the wheels from 5.7-litres of LS1 power in a car weighing around 900kg is going to make your eyes widen as you squeeze the throttle, let us tell you! Mash the pedal to the floor and bitumen is dispersed underneath faster than your brain can keep up. Mike Moore started his working life as an electrician, but always had a hankering for performance cars. While working in the UK, Mike reckons he "built about 20 cars", mostly as projects for himself and other people. He then moved into the hi-fi business, but lost interest in that. He swears he "was never in the car...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Honda S600

Phil Penny - the owner and creator of this amazing Honda - is no stranger to building a show-stopping car. He's owned a grand total of 58 cars - each one well and truly done up. In the last ten years, he's had a business called Auto Art, focussing on vehicle restoration. His somewhat unusual decision to embark on this S600 project was motivated by the fun he'd had with a Honda S600 convertible a few years ago. Of course, the extreme light weight of the li'l Honda also made it easier for him to extract the decent straight-line performance that he'd become accustomed to. Phil was lucky enough to find this particular S600 - albeit just the body...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Toyota 20-valve

Is it true that all Mini Moke owners are nutters? It sure looks that way. But Scott Walker isn't the same kind of flower-power freak that you often see behind the wheel of a Moke. He is still a bit "out there", however. How else can you regard a guy who rips around in a 13-second, mid-mount engine'd '76 Californian? Scott started getting just a little bit nutty back when he owned (and fell in love with) a stockie 1275cc Moke. Knowing how much fun they could be, he later leapt at the opportunity of purchasing this particular Moke. At the time, he was drawn to its aftermarket mags, roll bar - and its nitrous whiffin' 1380cc Cooper S engine! Of...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Mitsubishi FTO

When Craig Dean (the owner of Cross-Over Sports and Luxury Cars) was last over in Japan boy, did he make a find. The sort of find an archaeologist makes once every 20 years (although, in this case, Craig didn't cry out loudly for everyone else to come and take a look!). He kept this little treasure to himself. While out and about looking for tidy used Soarers and Supras to ship back to Oz, he happened to trip over this Mitsubishi FTO. "A good little car, the Mitsubishi FTO," Craig first thought to himself, but - as it turned out - this one was a bit better than the average example... Craig popped the bonnet and took a look at the thought-to-be-stock...

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Posted in: Classic Cars

Hyper Gas Hemi T04

T04-equipped and running straight LP-gas, this six-pack Val's ready to unleash its tyre power of 280kW (375hp) down your street! But you'd never tell by just looking at it...... Colin Townsend is the man responsible for one of the most awarded modified vehicles in Australia - his immaculate black quad-Weber'd FJ Holden. So it's no great shock to see his family's second car is something also quite out of the ordinary. That wasn't the original idea though; Colin's a Holden man through-and-through and he thought that big gold Val in the driveway would never catch his creative attention. Oh well, we all make mistakes... The 1970 VG Valiant you're...

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Posted in: Classic Cars