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By Tim Pollard
First Official Pictures
01 August 2014 04:30
Hyundai today issued this pair of design renderings of the new i20, revealing a supermini with even more aspirations to be German.
With shades of mini Golf in both the front and rear design sketches, the new 2015 Hyundai i20 looks more European than ever.
This, of course, should come as no surprise, since the new i20 has been styled at Hyundai Motor’s Design Centre Europe in Rüsselsheim, Germany. And the man in win charge of the company’s design is none other than Peter Schreyer, formerly responsible for Kia’s wardrobe change and Audi design before that (including a role on the original TT).
What else do we know about the new 2015 Hyundai i20?
Hyundai is calling this next iteration of its design language Fluidic Sculpture 2.0. This tagline has been used for some years to describe the company’s more sober couture compared with Kia’s edgier look – and the digital sounding 2.0 suggests an upgrade of sorts, rather than an altogether new direction.
The company claims the front of the new i20 encapsulates Hyundai’s new corporate face: the hexagonal grille bleeds into a thin horizontal strip connecting the headlamps – it’s a feature we should look out for on all future Hyundais.
Although this pair of renderings are heavily stylised (check out the ludicrously dished alloy wheels bursting out of the arches!), they do serve up a few other clues to Hyundai design trends. The C-pillar is confirmed to be black gloss, mimicking the original BMW Mini’s wraparound glazing for a floating roof aesthetic. This will be carried over into production, CAR understands.
Hyundai i20: the launch schedule
Look out for the new 2015 Hyundai i20 at the Paris motor show in October. Full photographs and details of the i20 will be issued in August 2014.
The Europeanisation of Hyundai is intentional. The company sold 422,930 cars in Europe in 2013 – and more than 90% of them are designed and built in the EU.
In the UK, Hyundai has risen from the 21st most popular brand to become top 10 since the scrappage scheme of 2008. It sold 77,500 vehicles here in 2013.
“Another would be the Bugatti Atlantic. Bugatti was a sculptor, you can see in the way the body is made, the details on the car are nothing to do with the world of cars. There’s nothing rational or reasonable about how the thing is riveted together, how many wire loops he would use, how he treated the interior, the shapes of the door, this tail as it comes away, the element at the front – it’s just amazing.”
Chennai, July 17 (IANS) Eighty-seven student teams from as many colleges will compete for a prize with race cars designed by them at the third edition of the SUPRA SAEINDIA Student Formula contest that starts here Friday, officials said.
The total prize money is around Rs.1 million, officials of the Society Automotive Engineers (SAE) India told reporters Thursday.
“Student teams from 87 colleges have entered the final stages of the SUPRA SAEINDIA Student Formula competition this year. It is not just a boys’ event. There are two girls teams that are competing with their own race cars,” said Rajesh Kumar, general manager for marketing and communications at Defiance Technologies Ltd.
According to SUPRA SAEINDIA convener S. Thirumalini, the event gives the students experience in designing as per specifications, sourcing of components, fabricating, costing and even marketing.
The students who participate in the competition have a definite edge over others in the job market as they gain practical experience – from designing a car to its launch and team work, said SUPRA SAEINDIA 2014 advisor N. Balasubramanian.
“The maximum allowable spend on building the car is Rs.10 lakh. Till date, the lowest cost at which a race car was built is Rs.1 lakh,” Thirumalini said.
The weight of the cars also has come down over the past two editions.
“Over the past two events, the average weight of the cars has come down to 263 kg from around 400 kg due to use of different materials,” Thirumalini said.
Unlike in the past two editions, where Maruti’s 800cc engine was specified, this time the competing teams have to build their race cars with 610cc engines.
Over the next three days, the 87 race cars would be subjected to various kinds of tests – noise, brakes and endurance.
“The cars will be driven by a student team member at the Madras Motor Race Track near here. The cars will have to do five laps during which the time taken, fuel consumption and other parameters would be measured,” said SAEINDIA deputy director general K. Shriramchandran.
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By Tim Pollard
First Official Pictures
29 July 2014 10:48
Fiat has a record of letting fashion labels design its cars. Just look at the Fiat 500 special editions by Gucci, GQ and Tracey Emin. So it should come as no surprise that the Italians have let trainer company Vans have a go at making its podgy 500L a bit cooler.
The Fiat 500L Vans Design Concept is the result – unveiled at the weekend’s Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California.
They’ve taken a regular Fiat 500L and given it a makeover which combines the rough ‘n’ tough flavour of beachwear and surf culture with the motifs of Vans trainers. It’s like a sneaker on four wheels.
What happens when a trainer firm dabbles in car design: the Fiat 500L Vans Design Concept
Look closely and you’ll spot some details from Vans original hi-top shoes throughout this one-off 500L, which rides on blacked-out 18in alloy rims.
The roof is trimmed in Vans checkerboard pattern while the sills and grille are finished in Waffle Sole design. So even if this car has no soul it may have sole… Naturally, there are surfboards lashed to the roof and there’s a basket to transport all the suncream and wax accessories that surfers need to look cool on the beach.
Inside, a clutch of Vans stickers adorn the dashboard while there’s more Vans Waffle Sole material on everything from the storage bins to the pedals. Even the wettest beach feet shouldn’t slip on these rubberised pedals.
Why?
It’s all to do with establishing the Fiat 500L in America. The boxier, bulgier 500 has been launched in the US to tap into the growing B-segment. It’s sold alongside the 500, Abarth, cabriolet and electric 500e.
And if building a one-off trainer-inspired 500L can reach out to a new generation of surfer dudes in California, then it’s job done. Even if we have a sneaker-ing suspicion this is just Fiat shoe-ing off for all the wrong reasons.
Carson Magee, 11, stands in Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Park next to his winning race car design for the “Our Everyday Heroes” contest. His design pays homage to firefighters, emergency medical technicians, police and the U.S. armed services. (Full-size photo)
When Coeur d’Alene resident Carson Magee was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7, he thought he would be cured with a few shots at the hospital.
But when he realized how the disease would affect his life, he made it his mission to find a cure. At only 11 years old, he has now become one of the nation’s top youth activists for type 1 diabetes awareness.
“Diabetes never really gives you a break,” Magee said.
His work to bring more awareness to the form of the disease that used to be called juvenile diabetes has reached national recognition.
On July 7, he won the “Our Everyday Heroes” race car design contest for JDRF, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The contest, which asked kids with type 1 diabetes around the country to create a design for a race car, was co-sponsored with Ford, Motorcraft and Quick Lane Tire and Auto Centers. People voted by giving donations, and JDRF and Ford picked a winner out of the top 10 designs.
As a prize for winning the contest, Magee and his family were flown to Denver to see how his design looked on the race cars, and he was interviewed by ESPN.
“Not only is he a talented artist, as evidenced by his race car design, but he is one of the nation’s foremost youth activists in support of JDRF and bringing awareness to the effort to create a world without T1D,” said Mary Lou Quesnell, director of marketing for the Ford Customer Service Division.
Carson’s design honors firefighters, emergency medical technicians and the armed services. He said he knows a firefighter and an EMT who both have diabetes, and he created the design with them in mind.
His design raised $3,735 for JDRF, part of over $53,000 raised in this year’s contest. JDRF has raised more than $400,000 over the course of the race car design contest’s seven-year history.
“He’s very serious about the work he does, and I think he’s realized that he has a voice and an audience now,” said his mother, Fondra Magee.
From 2001-09, the prevalence of type 1 diabetes in people under the age of 20 rose by 23 percent, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
The race car design contest is just one way Carson Magee has advocated for diabetes research over the past few years.
He also was a delegate to the 2013 JDRF Children’s Congress in Washington, D.C., and has spoken publicly about the disease. He’s met U.S. Sen. James Risch and U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho as well as Gov. Butch Otter.
But all of his accomplishments have not sidetracked him from advocating for a cure. “I think he lays awake at night and dreams up stuff,” his mother said.
He plans on working with JDRF to unicycle from town to town around the Inland Northwest to get the word out about type 1 diabetes.
He also is looking to start a club consisting of friends who also have diabetes around the area.
“It’s kind of cool when a young kid has a passion for something and they see that in him,” Fondra Magee said. “Most people don’t do that.”
Said her son, “Until there’s a cure I’m going to keep doing it. I really think there’s going to be a cure someday.”
The funky little Fiat 500L-Vans design concept has debuted at the US Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach in California, sporting a unique look and styling cues taken from the US-based shoe brand.
Based on the five-seat 500L but equipped with four ringed LED driving lights, a two-tone paint scheme, roof racks and a double-decker surfboard carrier, the Fiat 500L-Vans takes inspiration from the company’s original hi-top shoe.
Created exclusively for the California Open in an effort to “interact with the young audience attending this event”, the 500L-Vans features a checkerboard pattern roof, palm-patterned canvas seats and waffle sole covered pedals and storage bins.
Topping off the surfy/skater look are 18-inch matt black wheels and a collection of Vans stickers plastered across the lower dash.
The 500L’s standard 119kW/250Nm turbocharged 1.4-litre four-cylinder remains unchanged and is teamed to a six-speed manual transmission.
MEMPHIS, July 26, 2014 — The Sonata has been one smash hit for the Korean automaker. Hyundai recently announced its seventh generation model of this amazing car. Hyundai Sonata was nothing short of a smash hit in the midsize sedan segment, and so was the one before that and before that and before that.
The new generation trades some of the swoopy curves of the previous version for more conservative lines that take the styling to a much higher level. The outgoing generation of the Hyundai Sonata was a bold move that has paid off big time for the automaker, drawing attention to Hyundai with its daring yet practical design, strong yet efficient engines, and good value all around. The new model is a little bigger than before, and rear passengers benefit from a little more hip and legroom. The chassis has also been overhauled to improve both the Sonata’s handling capabilities and its ride quality.
The new Sonata is 1.4 inches longer and 1.2 inches wider than its predecessor, and rides on a 0.4-inch longer wheelbase. Its new body boasts torsional and bending stiffness increases of 41 35% according to the folks at Hyundai, and 52% of its steel is of the advanced high-strength variety. Hyundai says the new Sonata will be safer than ever, too, thanks to the stiffer body as well as new driver knee airbags.
So what is it about Sonata that is so attractive and why is it taking the car consumer world by storm? It offers comfort, great driving dynamics, astonishing styling, great value, responsive handling and driving, and it offers a plethora of driver assistance, such as adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and lane departure warning. Hyundai has them all and does a better job than the immediate competition and I was very impressed with the adapt cruise control full range mode where even if you go down to 0 mph by simply tapping the resume button it will start up again.
So how do you raise the level of quality and refinement in a vehicle that seems to have it all? The answer lies in keeping the same manufacturing and assembly formula, this model being the third one built in Montgomery’s Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA), and excel in having a classy and even-tempered look, a smoother and more quiet powertrain, and have a body that’s tight and stamped together even more effectively than before… after all, the competition is fierce and even though Sonatas do sell at the rate of about 200,000 per year, the Camry, Accord, Mazda 6 and Chrysler 200 are all itching to take over the lead.
And as if this was not enough to make this car a great value and amazing vehicle, the actual design isn’t the only attribute that stands out. The number of features available is impressive, such as available heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats, a panoramic sunroof and segment-exclusive rear sunshades. You can upgrade the multimedia head unit between two touch-screen audio setups, with the ultimate option featuring a seven-inch touch-screen and the Hyundai BlueLink telematics system. Using this system Sirius XM subscribers can even record live radio to listen again later. Hyundai also promises Apple CarPlay support and Android Auto compatibility in the near future that will allow users to let their smartphones to further enhance their infotainment experience with brought in apps, locations and improved integration between the phone and the car. An impressive compliment of safety technologies can also be special ordered, including Blind Spot Detection with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and Lane Change Assist, Lane Departure Warning and Forward Collision Warning.
Hyundai also revised the engines, but instead of upping the horsepower and torque in the 2.4-liter and two-liter turbo models Hyundai decreased output. The 2.4-liter model makes five horsepower less, while the turbo model loses almost 30 hp. That decrease is supposed to make peak power more easily accessible. While the engines don’t feel particularly powerful, they both offer smooth acceleration and are both relatively quiet.
We were very impressed to learn the fuel economy in this new Sonata hovers around 25 mpg in the city and 37 on the highway for the 2.4-liter engine and 23 mpg in the city and 32 on the highway for the turbo. For the truly mileage-minded, another option for the Sonata is a turbocharged 1.6-liter Eco engine with 177 horsepower and 195 horsepower that gets 28 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway.
Prices for the Sonata start at $21,125 for the base model with an automatic transmission, while different engine and equipment packages can set you back to around $33,495., excluding an $810 in destination fees automatically tacked on to every car.
We have had numerous family members and friends get into a Sonata over the years and thus far we have not had one contact us with any sort of complaint or grievance. They have all been great cars, especially from the fourth generation on up… a terrific car despite some shortcomings, but this new 2015 Sonata takes the cake in so many different areas, which puts it in the lead against so many challenging competitors in one of the toughest segments in the car business today.
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Here’s your first look at the upcoming fifth generation Seat Ibiza, snatched from a suit-filled presentation last night. It’s the bottom one. Not that much to go on, we agree, but then the car is still a long way off.
This all came about at an event celebrating 30 years since the very first Ibiza was launched way back in 1984, and each of the supermini’s designers were present to talk up the new car.
Current Seat design chief Alejandro Mesonero noted: “it will be an opportunity to redesign an icon. It will be a revolutionary design, not just because the market demands it, but also because it has to set itself apart from the Leon.”
Information at this early stage is limited, not least because they’re still playing with the current Ibiza, which Seat admitted has got lots of life left in it. And while the design lines of the new Ibiza will change, “its character won’t. It will look like it’s moving at standstill, but will still clearly look like an Ibiza.”
In fact, former Seat and Lamborghini design chief Luc Donckerwolke, said the new car had to be a revolution. “There’s nothing worse than making a global car design,” he said. “The global car was one of the worst ideas ever, and I’m glad it’s finally disappearing.”
He later explained to TopGear.com how “people have learned the lessons of globalised design [one car design for the world], it’s a thing that comes from logistics and simplification of the project, but it’s actually counter-productive for design and for the market.
“We’re not being asked to have a car that fits everybody – you have to fight that as a designer. You cannot be mainstream, because that means nobody notices you anymore,” he added.
Another former Seat design chief, Walter de Silva – who now heads up the entire VW Group design – hinted to TopGear.com how the connectivity of the new car would be key. The man behind the very first Ibiza told us: “We are looking at lot at how the younger generation operate, at interconnectivity and new technologies coming in. They need a car that is fun to drive, but also functional too.”
It’s going to be on sale in 2017. Plenty of time for us to get some better pictures for you.
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