Volkswagen launched beetle today in India and sports a powerful 2.0L I4 petrol engine that generates 115Bhp. The engine is matted with a 6-speed automatic transmission and will give you an average of 13.5 km/l and also complies with the stringent Euro IV emission norms.
Volkswagen has recently announced the latest Limited Edition New Beetle Convertible called “Blush”. The important that will be noticed is its colour combination, Metallic White Gold paint with leather interior, red convertible top and boot. The new Limited Edition Beetle Blush will be added with 17″ alloy rims. The company which claims that the Blush is the only New Beetle Convertible currently offered with leather interiors (all other Beetle’s make do with leatherette). Mechanically, the new Blush Edition is the same to all other New Beetle Convertibles. The company has price this new limited edition Beetle Blush at $26990 USD and its $1000 more than the standard model.
Autoblog has reviewed the Lightweight goodness from British automotive company Lotus. Lotus Exige S 260 is a car which follows the companies policy to use the loopholes of the physics.
Lotus Exige
Lotus Engineering has a policy to make cars which are very light weight making even the car producing decent 200+ bhp car to compete with large hearted machines.
Lets come back to the specs of Exige S 260:
- 1.8-liter Toyota-sourced four-cylinder engine
- 257 horsepower
- 174 pound-feet torque
- Weighs 935kg
- 20 mpg in the city
- 26 mpg on the highway
- Y-Type 8-spoke lightweight alloy wheels in black F: 6.5Jx16 & R: 7.5Jx17
- Yokohama Advan A048 LTS F: 195/50 R16 & R: 225/45 R17
- Servo-assisted, track tuned 4-channel Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Lotus/AP-Racing twin-piston fixed aluminium alloy front brake calipers. Brembo single-piston sliding rear calipers and 288 mm diameter, 26 mm thick front and rear cast-iron ventilated & cross-drilled discs.
- 0-100 km/h - 4.7 seconds
Lotus Exige Rear
Lotus Exige Rear
“”"Lotus manages to achieve such a low mass (while meeting modern regulatory standards) by using a novel architecture built from a collection of aluminum extrusions riveted and glued together. The issue of ingress and egress stems from this: the chassis was originally designed for a convertible. The side beams are large enough to support most of the structure, meaning they’re both tall and wide. In an Elise sans roof, no big deal. You just step over the sill and plop your backside into the seat. With the roof bolted in place, the experience is closer to sliding through the window of a race car or, more appropriately, down the barrel of a cannon.”"”
“”"Once you’ve wiggled your way inside (helpful hint: place your right foot in the well, sit on the sill, grab the wheel and tug yourself through), you’re ensconced in a carbon fiber shell with a minimal amount of padding. The driver’s seat moves fore and aft (the passenger seat is fixed) and both thrones benefit from cut-outs to accommodate a five-point racing harness and HANS device. As the seats are solid pieces of carbon fiber, there’s no lateral give, so you’ll want to start shopping for diet books on Amazon… yesterday.”"”
“”"Climbing up the Exige’s graduated tachometer towards 9,000 RPM, you’ll notice there’s no marked redline. Instead, a series of three red LEDs illuminate on the dash when it’s time to shift. When the engine is cold, the indicators come on between 5,000 and 6,000 RPM. Once the coolant and oil are up to temperature, you can throttle down, spin the 2ZZ past 4,000 RPM – where the VVTi kicks in – all the way to its 8,500 RPM redline and enjoy the mechanical duet of the engine and supercharger ricocheting around the undampened cabin.
With the engine rocketing towards redline, the Exige’s gearbox is ready to deliver six perfectly spaced ratios to keep the supercharged four in its meaty sweet spot. The aluminum shift lever benefits from short throws, although the linkage on our (likely abused) press car could have been slightly more precise. The narrow footwell – a minor annoyance earlier – became an asset, with closely spaced pedals that made heel-and-toe action a breeze.”"”
“”"It’s no wonder automakers around the world tap Lotus Engineering to sort out their suspensions – the Exige is the perfect case study. Simply put, the roads in southeast Michigan suck. They’re loaded with bumps, cracks and heaves. But even though the Exige is clearly not tuned for comfort, the suspension does a remarkable job of dealing with Michigan’s worst. “”
””‘Another benefit of the Exige’s small engine and featherweight design is decent fuel economy. The EPA rates the Exige S260 at 20/26 mpg city and highway and we averaged 19 mpg on two fill ups of the 10.6 gallon tank. The Exige and its carbon fiber doesn’t come cheap though. The S 260 adds $9,000 to the starting price of the S240 and the out-the-door tab affixed to our example came to $77,115. That’s more than $30,000 less than a Tesla Roadster, which shares its lineage with the Lotus Elise. Given that most drivers of either this or the Tesla are likely to put on far fewer miles than on an average car, we’d opt for the 2-3 minute fill ups of the Lotus if it were our own money – assuming, of course, that we wedge ourselves inside.”"”
more here and here
Bangalore: Acer has launched new range of products which utilizes 3D and multi-touch technology. Their new products include notebooks, Projectors, and all-in-one PCs, according to think digit.
In their multitouch segment is a new Acer Aspire 5738PzG series notebook which comes with a large 15.6" multitouch screen, and comes with Windows 7 to make full use of the feature. The laptop is priced at Rs. 43,500 excluding taxes.
Another interesting product they have launched which used multitouch, is Aspire 5600 series All-in-One (AIO) PCs. The AIO comes with a full 1080p HD enabled 23" multi-touch screen, with a powerful configuration: a Intel Core 2 Quad processor 2.33GHz (Q8200), 4GB of RAM, a 1TB HDD, and a 512MB graphics card. The AIO PC will also come with an inbuilt DVD RW, and TV Tuner. Loaded with Window 7 Home Premium and a suite of Acer application to help ease users into their new touch environment. The series is priced at a starting point of Rs. 60,000 excluding taxes.
Among their new 3D-enabled products is the new 5738D 3D Notebook, and the X1261 3D-ready projector.
The new notebook uses a combination of a special 3D "coating" on the screen, and polarized glasses to bring you a 3D experience. It will also come with a software which will allow it to display videos, images, and games in 3D. The notebook is HDTV ready and comes with a connector which will allow it to be used with an external screen - although you will in most certainty lose the 3D functionality in this case. The notebook will also come with 4GB memory, and an option of either a dual-core Pentium, or a Core 2 Duo processor. The netbooks will start at a price of Rs. 43,000 for the Aspire 5738DzG.
The new X1261 projector showcases "2500 ANSI Lumens brightness, a contrast ratio of upto 3700:1 a native XGA resolution & a lamp life of upto 4000 hours." It is capable of displaying 3D images by projecting both right-eye and left-eye images which can then be viewed using an appropriate 3D glasses to get a 3D effect.
It's a great car - a full blown sedan with loads of space and some very enticing engine options that include not only a sweet 1.4 litre petrol mill, but also the awesome 1.3 litre Quadrajet diesel.
But there's something about the Indigo Manza that's even better than the powerplant and the space, in fact, better than the whole car itself - it's the price tag! Tata Motors launched the car today and has caused quite a bit of a stir with the entry level Aqua variant with the Safire90 petrol engine costing only Rs 4.8 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi)! From there to the top of the line Indigo Manza, the car is offered in four variants - the others being the Aura, Aura ABS and the Aura+. Buyers will have the option of choosing between the Safire90 petrol engine and the Quadrajet90 diesel engine for each of the four variants with the top of the line Aura+ Quadrajet90 variant priced at just Rs 6.75 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
As if all of the new ThinkPads weren't enough, Lenovo today announced the release of four all new IdeaPad notebooks. The 13-inch IdeaPad U330, 14-inch IdeaPad Y430, 15-inch Y530, and 17-inch Y730 are all offered in a variety of attractive colors and include multi-media features and performance making them the perfect notebooks for your home.
All of the new IdeaPad notebooks include the following features:
Intel Montevina platform system
Dual-channel DDR3 RAM, up to 4GB
Dolby Home Theatre
Array microphone
Integrated 1.3M fixed Camera
Frameless Screen
Stylish ID design & Multi-color lid options
Touch-sensitive controls
6-in-1 Multimedia card Reader
HDMI
Lenovo Designed Software includes:
VeriFace 3.0 facial recognition security softwareOneKey Rescue System 6.0
Easy Capture 3.0
Readycomm 4.0
Lenovo Energy Management 3.1
IdeaPad U330 Overview:
Dark blue glossy cover
Dolby Home Theatre 2 Certification with 2x1.5W stereo speakers
Ultra-slim LED panel
Light weight: starting at 4.18 lbs
Magnesium-Alluminum alloy top and bottom cover
13.3", 16:10 ratio LED panel 1280 x 800 pixel WXGA (250nits)
Up to 320GB HDD (2.5" SATA 5400rpm or 7200 rpm)
Intel 5100/5300 a/g/n WLAN
Switchable graphics Intel Integrated & ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 with 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
IdeaPad Y430 and Y530 Overview:
Red or Black Light Weave Texture top cover
Stereo speakers with Dolby certificated Dolby Home Theatre
Aluminum palm rest cover Anti-scratch, look and feel
14.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) Anti-Glare or Glossy type LCD (>200 nits) Nvidia Geforce 9300M GS 256MB
15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) res. Anti-Glare or Glossy type LCD (>200 nits) Nvidia Geforce 9300M GS 256MB or Nvidia Geforce 9500M G 512MB
Y430 starts at 5.2 lbs
Y530 at 6.1 lbs
Up to 320GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Intel 5100/5300 a/g/n WLAN
IdeaPad Y730 Overview:
Glossy orange cover or Glossy dark blue cover
Hot swap secondary HDD
Gamezone / Numberpad
Dolby Home Theatre 2 Certification with 2x2W +2x1W stereo, 1x3W subwoofer
Weight starts at 7.5 lbs
17.0" 1440x900 pixel WXGA (220nits)
17.0" WUXGA 1920X1200 (>300nits)
ATI Mobility Radeon TM HD 3650 512MB/256MB DDR3 VRAM
Up to Dual 320GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Surpise!!! Its raining new looks for Honda as it will be releasing the already high-selling Honda CBF 125 in some sporty new colors. Apart from the Red, Silver & Black colors currently existing, the “CBF-125″ will also be available in a “Black and White” color combination. We are all aware of the fact that bikes as such which have already made a place for itself in the highly competitive market do benefit from even such minor changes. However these changes are only to feast the eyes as there wont be any modifications to any of the parts or the bike’s performance.
