Auto News 5

Nissan Motor Thailand hopes to sell over 100,000 vehicles in Thailand during the 2012 fiscal year, equivalent to a 10% market share, new company president Takayuki Kimura said.

Scandinavian supplier body, FKG, says Saab's new electric vehicle venture will directly recruit 200 engineers although uncertainty remains as to the future of any naming rights.

Redesigned Rocketman concept has been built as a showpiece for the London Olympics

Car production in Poland fell 28% year on year in May while the tally made in Tychy, Gliwice and Poznan in the first five months of the year fell almost 20% to 303,000.

Jaguar Land Rover has won a European Union court challenge over limiting its sales network, after a dispute with Auto 24 SARL, which had sought unsuccessfully to distribute JLR's vehicles in France.

The new government in France is considering reviving state aid for local automakers after Renault asked for help.

Audi will reveal a hot Q5 SUV at Le Mans this weekend – and a new line-up of other fast SUVs is expected too.

Audi reveals hot diesel Q5 SUV at Le Mans – and a new line-up of other fast SUVs is expected too

Audi will reveal a hot Q5 SUV at Le Mans this weekend – and a new line-up of other fast SUVs is expected too

General Motors European unit Opel is talking with union IG Metall and works councils about extending a deal to avoid compulsory layoffs from 2014 to 2016 and delay a 2012 wage rise agreement.

If Mazda produced a coupe version of the MX-5 Miata, we'd imagine it being similar to

The 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster once owned by Baroness Gisela Josephine von Krieger will be offered for sale by Gooding and Co. at its Monterey auction in August.

It's like stepping through the movie screenand#8212;or the looking glass, or maybe the windshieldand#8212;and right into your favorite animated car movie.

GM, moving toward the first shuttering of a German auto factory since World War II, is only addressing a fraction of the European supply glut.

Takanobu Ito took the helm of a teetering Honda Motor Co. in June 2009 with a curious mixture of pride and angst.

Daimler will offer a high-powered AMG version of the Mercedes A-class compact in a bid to attract younger customers and boost sales of the high-performance models by 50 percent.

Global suppliers, attracted by stunning growth prospects, are shrugging off this year's slowdown in auto sales in China and investing heavily in the world's largest auto market.

BMW says it is sticking to plans to sell the i8 hybrid supercar for more than 100,000 euros ($125,400) when the model reaches customers in about two years.

Recently, I had the opportunity to step aboard a vehicle powered by no less than 224 pistons, and developing an aggregate 32,000 horsepower.

While the vehicle is now a static display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, it performed at least once, managing to fly approximately 1.6 km (1 mile) at an altitude of 21 m (70 ft), reaching 217 km/h (135 mph) in 1947.

Of course, I'm talking about the Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat, more commonly known as the Spruce Goose. This huge aircraft - one of the largest ever built - was developed by Howard Hughes, a world famous tycoon, along with Henry J. Kaiser.

Photo: Rob Rothwell

The Second World War was raging and the United States needed a reliable means of transporting up to 750 troops or large military assets such as tanks. With steel, particularly aluminum, in short supply, there was no option but to construct the flying boat with wood.

While we know of it as the Spruce Goose, the H-4 Hercules was comprised of only 4% spruce. The plane was largely composed of a composite of plywood and resin. And while the structure of the Spruce Goose is fascinating, it's the eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 28-cylinder radial-design engines that boggled my mind.

Each engine consists of seven banks of four cylinders offset from one and other to allow better air circulation and cooling. The final two banks were water-cooled due to the inability of cold air to reach them.

Exactly how 224 carburetor-fed cylinders were kept in perfect tune is a mystery to me. Would you even know if one, two or a dozen cylinders weren't firing? Given the massive size and weight of the Spruce Goose, 180,000 kg or 400,000 lb, fullpower was needed to get it out of the water and airborne.

Standing in the cavernous belly of the flying boat left me dumbfounded by its enormity. What an amazing piece of American aviation history.

Due to the end of the war, the Spruce Goose became obsolete before it was ever pressed into service. Sadly, it was mothballed and never flew again.

I can't think of any other vehicle that was powered by more than 224 cylinders. Can you?

Photo: Rob Rothwell

Feature picture from: UNLV Librairies Digital Collections

Toyota Racing press release

Toyota Racing drove into the night at Le Mans for the first time in the first qualifying session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking provisional top-six starting positions for the 24-hour race.

Wednesday's 120-minute qualifying session, which is followed by two more on Thursday, saw the TS030 HYBRIDs participate in their first competitive action after an intense period of testing and development.

When the chequered flag fell at midnight, the No. 7 TS030 HYBRID of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima was fourth. Nicolas set its best time of the session; 3m27.191.

Photo: Toyota Racing

The No. 8 TS030 HYBRID of Stéphane Sarrazin, Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi ended the session in sixth, although traffic severely disrupted its fastest lap. Anthony set its fastest time of 3m28.295.

Earlier in the evening the No. 8 car lost most of the practice session after an engine failure left Anthony stranded on the track after only five laps and 34 minutes. The engine was changed in time for qualifying.

“First of all it's great to be back in competition; this is what we have been dreaming about for many months and finally the big event is here," said
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President.

"In terms of performance, we appear to be on a reasonable level and this meets our expectations following the test day. Unfortunately we lost the practice session for the #8 car due to an engine failure, which is the first time we have suffered this problem. The engines have regularly completed more than a Le Mans distance without trouble on the dynos and the track, so this looks like a one-off problem. Finally at the end of qualifying, a minor hybrid system error prevented Alex finishing his stint, which is frustrating. Therefore we still have work to do tomorrow when we aim to improve in terms of pace and reliability.”