• Nissan introduces Color Studio on Versa Note

    November 16, 2015

    The Nissan Note is the second model to become part of the company’s Color Studio personalization program.

    The year-old program, which began with the Juke, allows customers to customize up to 13 accessories on their cars. A choice of six colors — black, white, red, black-purple, orange and carbon fiber look — can be applied right at the point of purchase at the dealership.

    Exterior-wise, the accessories that fall under the Color Studio’s purview are are the accents on the Note’s 15-inch alloy wheels, the wheel center caps, front lip, door handle covers, side mirror caps, and the rear roof spoiler. Inside, the programs apply to floor mats, kick plates, speaker rings, air vent rings, rearview mirror cover and interior trim appliqués.

    Though the parts do cost extra, they can be installed by the dealership and financed there as well. To view what your Versa Note might look like after passing through the Color Studio, there’s a website to “build” the cars.

    The program was launched at the LA Auto Show last year, in what Nissan calls “hometown of the original custom car.” Nissan will launch the Note Color Studio next week at the same venue.

  • VW TDI Goodwill Program receives halfhearted response

    November 16, 2015

    Volkswagen recently notified diesel owners affected by its emissions scandal about their eligibility for $1,000 gift cards, courtesy of the automaker.

    The TDI Goodwill Program, as it is known, was launched on November 9 and includes a $500 pre-paid Visa card that can be used anywhere, as well as a $500 gift card that can be used at any VW dealership.

    However, the gesture has not exactly been met with open arms, reports Automotive News. Many owners took to social media to complain that the $1,000 value of the gift cards don’t fully compensate them for the depreciation hit their TDI cars have sustained.

    Meanwhile, enthusiast-minded owners from the TDIClub.com forums, posted about taking the payout but avoiding getting whatever proposed fixes VW offers because they did not want to negatively affect their performance or fuel economy.

    Volkswagen called the goodwill package a “first step to regaining our customers’ trust.” It also ran ads in over 30 major newspapers touting the program while pledging that they are “working to make things right.” The ad also implores, “As we work tirelessly to develop a remedy,we ask for your continued patience.”

    It then provides a website, vwdieselinfo.com, where affected customers can go to redeem the package by entering a VIN.

  • VW: 430,000 Euro-spec 2016 cars affected by emissions scandal

    November 16, 2015
    Volkswagen has found that approximately 430,000 Euro-spec vehicles from the 2016 model year are programmed with an illegal defeat device designed to cheat on emissions tests.

    The list of affected TDI-powered cars includes an eclectic mix of models such as the Audi A1 (and the Volkswagen Polo that it’s based on), the SEAT Ibiza, the Škoda Rapid, the Volkswagen Scirocco and the new sixth-generation Volkswagen Transporter that was introduced last summer.

    As expected, the issue isn’t limited to diesel-powered cars. The list of illegal gasoline-burning engines includes the 1.0-liter TSI fitted to the SEAT Leon and the aforementioned Polo, the 1.2-liter TSI that powers the Jetta, the Passat’s 1.4-liter TSI, and the 2.0-liter TFSI that’s found under the hood of the Golf, among others.

    Volkswagen has sent its latest findings to the relevant authorities so that the cars’ CO2 emissions can be re-assessed, and it is complying with the on-going federal investigations in Europe and abroad. Websites have been published in dozens of languages to help customers tell whether or not their car is fitted with a defeat device.

    The Wolfsburg-based car maker is still looking for a way to fix the issue, and it stresses that all affected cars remain safe to drive.

  • Mazda presents limited-edition MX-5 Sport Recaro Edition

    November 16, 2015

    Mazda’s British division has introduced a limited-edition version of the MX-5 Miata called Sport Recaro.

    The Sport Recaro Edition is aimed at buyers who are seeking a more luxurious convertible. Inside, it gains Alcantara upholstery on the bottom part of the dashboard, alloy pedals, model-specific floor mats, and, as its name implies, heated Recaro bucket seats. It stands out as one of the best-appointed Miatas Mazda has ever offered in Europe.

    The more upscale cabin is complemented by 17-inch alloys and a full body kit that includes a splitter on both ends, side skirts, as well as a small spoiler on the trunk lid. The add-ons are painted in brilliant black, and the Sport Recaro edition is available exclusively in soul red metallic or ceramic metallic.

    Mazda hasn’t made any mechanical modifications. The Sport Recaro edition is powered by a stock, Miata-sourced 2.0-liter that sends 155 horsepower and 148 lb-ft. of torque to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission.

    Limited to just 600 examples, the Mazda MX-5 Miata Sport Recaro Edition is on sale now across the United Kingdom with a base price of £24,295, a sum that converts to roughly $37,000. At the time of writing Mazda isn’t planning on offering the posh ragtop in the United States.

  • Wi-Fi in F1: High speed isn’t just for race cars

    November 16, 2015
    Racing in the Rain, is both a book and an art form. While most race series halt a competition at the first signs of raindrops, drivers of Formula 1 race cars are used to plowing through the field, kicking up rooster tails like an unlimited hydroplane. That’s what F1 drivers encountered at the 2015 running of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Owing to a freak late-season appearance on Mexico’s Pacific Coastline by Hurricane Patricia, race-goers were subjected to a wet and wild weekend at the Circuit of The Americas racetrack outside of Texas’s capital city.

    With Formula 1′s emphasis on technology, why should they stop? Formula 1 cars, the fastest closed-course race cars in the world, utilize around 150 sensors around the car to allow numbers crunchers the means to shave tenths of seconds off the 19 circuits they run at each year.

    All teams in the series have data-acquisition methods, but the World Champion Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula1 team may have a super-trick added advantage with an assist by sponsor Qualcomm, and their new 5-GHz Wi-Fi data download system. While no team is allowed to mine data during an actual race, Mercedes Grand Prix can stream practice and qualifying data to the team’s computer servers as soon as three-time champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg in their Silver Arrows, hit the entrance to the pits at COTA and other circuits in the series.

    A typical race weekend yields approximately 7-billion data points that the team uses to adjust the cars for optimal efficiency and handling. A traditional setup requires the team to hook up an umbilical cord before data retrieval can occur. In the case of the Silver Arrows, and the use of Wi-Fi, the drivers and teams were presented with data and information before the cars were backed into the garage.

    Other teams still relying on the umbilical cord-style link from the car’s ECU were forced to wait until the car was in the garage before hooking up. During a rain-splotched weekend like the one teams experienced in Austin, the Mercedes teammates were returning to the track in rapid fashion, between Biblical sheets of rain that swamped the circuit, located about 25 miles southeast of downtown.

    An unfair advantage?
    Mercedes-AMG F1 technical directly Paddy Lowe: “In the past we have relied on the driver to tell us what was going on. Then came the data downloads via a wired connection. This new Wi-Fi system is used to help with all sorts of data including that from the infra-red cameras that are directed at the tires to help determine tire wear. They are not part of the normal race-legal telemetry that streams data during competition. Previously, tire data was stored on-board in a discrete (dedicated) storage area that would be accessed after a practice or qualifying run.”

    Derek Aberle, Qualcomm: “Formula 1 is such an exciting sport, that I personally enjoy. When we work with a partner, generally they are slower than we are. One of the gratifying things for us, and a thing that has really pushed us, frankly, is that Mercedes F1 is actually moving more quickly than we are. The advances they need to make to stay ahead of the competition really drive innovation at a pace that is faster than many other industries in the world.”

    The Connected Car
    According to company officials, the electronics firm has been involved with Daimler for a decade, and currently has around 40 other partnerships with (automotive) OEMs. A lot of future growth will come from leveraging their smartphone technologies and moving into other sectors that assist companies in bringing their products to market faster. The Automotive sector is at the top of that list, and the brand’s experience helps to push the envelope for Connected Car Technology, that according to Aberle is a very difficult environment to design in.

    Man and machine
    Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, when asked about the balance of man and machine in F1: “As talented as I try to be on the track, if I am not able to set the car up to my liking, I’m not going to be driving fast, and not winning races. When a team gets the car to the track, all tracks are different, and the cars need to be set up completely different as well. Both of us (Rosberg and Hamilton) start with the same setup. Then its up to me to tune it so that I feel comfortable and can attack it with improved lap times. So I work with the engineers, analyze the data, and there are so many parameters, its very complex, but I enjoy that part of it, it’s a big challenge.”

    “We get engine data and tire wear information. It immediately impacts our performance. In qualifying (during Qually 3) I have time to get pushed into the garage, they top me off with fuel and I have to go out again. In the past, by the time they connected my car with the cable, I’d have to go again so that data was basically useless to me.” He continued, “So from that point of view, the automatic data that already has arrived before I even get to the garage, helps massively. I can influence the engineers, say for example on tire temperatures and pressures, if they say that things were set too high, we can drop the tire pressures very quickly just in time to go out for the next qualifying session and that will put me on the Pole instead of in P2. It makes a decisive difference.”

    The data from practice and qualifying has become much more important since teams have been prohibited by Formula 1 Czar Bernie Ecclestone from coaching drivers to the car’s needs based on telemetry transmitted during the race. “Bernie didn’t like that we seem like little moppets controlled by the engineers, so he said to stop all the information flow, and leave the driver to his own devices. That has changed quite a lot now. We are out there by ourselves and that has made practice more important now in getting on top of things. And it’s good.” Rosberg implied that thanks to the data transfers from practice, “We are able to be out there on our own and able to figure things out that someone who needs more help or information wouldn’t be able to do.”

    Currently, the data is not required to be shared. Telemetry is pretty much standardized through next season but parameters relating to engine, gearbox, braking and such remain but are limited to a certain bandwidth that is inaccessible during the race. Examples like thermal cameras yield much more data than what is flashed to the team servers from the car’s ECU each time it laps the course.

    The current Qualcomm setup uses 802.11-AC Wi-Fi that is typical of most high-speed computer modem transfer rates sending between 200-600 MB per second at 5-GHz. The next Qualcomm system will use 802.11 AD, which is 3-4 times faster than that, and travels up to 4-GB per second. A tremendous amount of data will be able to be downloaded in a short period of time

    Results can be seen
    The Pole position of the 2015 U.S Grand Prix was claimed by Rosberg, but he was nosed out in turn one by teammate Hamilton, who after leading 14 laps, was in turn, overtaken by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton reclaimed the lead, and was then passed by Rosberg, who held on until an unforced error caused Rosberg to drift wide left on lap 48. From that point, Hamilton passed his teammate and held on for the final eight laps to claim the race win and an undisputed third world championship title.

    Photos by Mark Elias and Mercedes AMG F1.