Special edition Alfa Romeo GT Quadrifoglio d'Oro

Part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the brand Alfa Romeo, the company introduced a special edition coupe GT Quadrifoglio d'Oro, which can be translated as "golden clover". In the past, Alfa Romeo has used a similar logo, which was applied only to "Extra" Class.

In the case of the Alfa Romeo GT Quadrifoglio d'Oro is all it is, here supplemented by 18-inch alloy wheels, shod in wide tires 225/40, with red brake calipers and chrome bodywork. Inside, a special issue added several features, including sport leather seats, aluminum pedals and a new dashboard.

Alfa Romeo GT Quadrifoglio d'Oro is only available with 2.0-liter gasoline engine JTS, power of 166 hp and connected to a five-speed gearbox Selespeed.

The company said that will be released 60 units, worth about 44,300 dollars.

A wireless charging for electric vehicles

To charge the car using the system Plugless Power enough to put the car near the station.

How the system works Plugless Power, developed by Evatran, based on electromagnetic induction, but fine-tuning the transfer of energy required from the developers of some effort. Prototypes Plugless Power, according to Earth2Tech, showed the transfer efficiency of 80%. The serial product, as expected, up to 90% of the energy will transfer to its destination.

Device charging station is quite unusual. It consists of a small column, the transformative power of the electric current in a certain frequency and voltage. On the floor of the garage (since the first time the system is uniquely designed for personal use) underneath the car set a flat "pad", but the car is equipped with a sink the size of a shoebox and weighs about 13 kg.

In the sale of wireless charging for electric vehicles arrive in the spring of next year, according to Technology Review, and while the company's website Evatran placed calls to the owners of electric vehicles, living nearby, to take part in testing new products in actual use.

The main reason for choosing this type of charge, according to developers, may be the risk of forgetting the evening drive in the car plug into the socket. The prospect left in the morning without cars may encourage consumers to purchase a wireless charging station, which is automatically activated when the recognition of a car.

Racing Carrera 124 classic cars-video

A short video of a night of racing with my friends, we put the Carrera classic 1/24 cars shod with Ortmann tires on a wood track.

New Ninco September releases *updated

Electric bikes ignored?

When the UK government announced earlier this week it was ring-fencing £43 million for Plug-in Car Grants, there was a mostly positive response from the motor industry.

However, the exclusion of electric motorcycles from the scheme has been met with criticism. The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) is not too happy, and it has already contacted the Department for Transport demanding an explanation for the omission.



Quite rightly, the MCI points out that electric bikes beat congestion better than any car and so reduce journey times. Its stance is that the government should therefore be encouraging them, not ignoring them.



There is already a selection of electric motorcycles and scooters available on the market. These include the Econogo Yogo and the Zero range, with more - such as the KTM Freeride - coming soon. In general, these bikes are more expensive than their petrol-powered counterparts, due mainly to the cost of the batteries. Therefore, some cash from the government would help to narrow the price gap.

But maybe the government feels that as two-wheelers usually emit less CO2 and use less fuel than cars, the benefits of getting riders to switch to electric won’t actually be that great?



Or perhaps it’s a question of economics. One of the objectives of the Plug-in Car Grant is to encourage the development and manufacture of low emissions vehicles within the UK.



With the likelihood that the majority of electric bikes (especially scooters) would come from the Far East, the government may have already determined that including motorcycles will be of little advantage to the UK. And after all, why should it spend taxpayers’ money on grants that effectively subsidise imported products?

Spa 24 qualifying results

2008 FIA GT2 Champion Gianmaria Bruni took the overall pole position for the 2010 Total 24 Hours of Spa in the AF Corse ALD Team Vitaphone Ferrai 430. On a drying track the second of the three qualifying sessions proved to the deciding factor, with Bruni setting a best lap of 2m22.403. The time was just 0.146 seconds faster than Dirk Werner's best in the BMW Motorsport BMW M3, his lap of 2m22.549 proving to be the best in the GTN Class and good enough for a front row start. The third place went to the nr50 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS, with Marcel Fässler posting a 2m22.807 lap and will line up on the second row alongside the nr51 Phoenix Racing Audi. The GT4 class pole went to the RJN Motorsport Nissan 370Z of Alex Buncombe who set the best time in the final third session.

News used with permission from GT2Europe.com.

Porsche 918 Spyder is go

Following its showing at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and at Auto China in Bejing, Porsche has now decided to develop a limited series production version of the 918 Spyder.

Part of the company’s ‘Porsche Intelligent Performance’ strategy, the 918 Spyder is a plug-in hybrid. In concept form it featured a 493 bhp (368 kW / 500 PS) V8 engine, plus electric motors that produced an extra 215 bhp (160 kW / 218 PS).

With all that power, 0-62 mph (100 km/h) acceleration was said to take just 3.2 seconds, while the 918’s top speed was 199 mph (320 km/h).

However, the real headline numbers were CO2 emissions of only 70 g/km, and an astonishing combined cycle fuel consumption of 94.1 mpg (equivalent to the magic 3.0 l/100 km).

It remains to be seen quite how many of those performance parameters - and the car’s styling details - make it into production. For the moment, Porsche are just saying that further details will be disclosed in the coming months.

That just leaves the question of price. Latest estimates are that the 918 Spyder will cost €500,000 (around £418,000 for UK buyers or $655,000 in the US).