Aussie Motoring

Following its world debut in April at the Auto Shanghai 2007, the BMW Concept CS has been confirmed to appear at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney from October 11.

Showcasing a new design philosophy for BMW, the Concept CS is based on a bespoke platform, with this unique car offering a vision of future BMW design rather than the first look at a new product. The BMW Concept CS is a four-seat premium vehicle that takes sophistication and luxury to a new level in the shape of a four-door coupé.

The BMW Concept CS was created by a team at BMW Design Development in Munich and comes with several exterior and interior design touches that could make their way on to future models. Its body width increases towards the rear to emphasise the sporting pretensions and wide track of the car.

The BMW Concept CS is 400mm wider (1,978mm excl mirrors) and 67mm longer (5,106mm) compared to a standard wheelbase BMW 7 Series. Its sleek profile hinting at the low centre of gravity is confirmed by a roof line that, at its zenith, is just 1,367mm - 124mm lower than a BMW 7 Series.

A driver-oriented cockpit is consistent with BMW’s ethos of building drivers’ cars while a fresh look at ergonomics makes for superior comfort in the controls and displays. Ceramics as the material for the controls and instruments have also been introduced to BMW for the first time, while the driver and his three occupants are cocooned in innovative sports seats with a height-adjustable collar element.

The new design of seat houses elements of the car’s entertainment and communication features for enhanced personalisation.

The BMW Concept CS is a design study. However, it is likely that key elements of the car could appear on forthcoming new models and even if they don’t you’ll be able to the CS in Sydney this October.

While Aussie Motoring is all about cars and things on four or more wheels there are a lot of readers who are also interested in motorcycles so here is something of interest to them.

An American company has developed a way of driving the front wheel of a conventional motorcycle. So far it’s only available as an after-market add on for dirt bikes but the company expects to have a system for road bikes available soon.

You can read about it here

Kia Motors Australia has issued a recall for around 2,300 Sportage vehicles built between November 2001 and December 2002.

It seems that high temperatures in the engine bay have caused some fan blades to become brittle and break. Kia will replace the faulty fan blades free of charge.

The United States version of the latest Honda Accord has been released and it’s certainly something that’s going to attract a lot of attention.

Even someone who happened to be looking over my shoulder as I prepared the images wanted to know more about this classy looking 2008 Honda Accord.

When Range Rover released their new sports model in the UK there were some who felt that Range Rover was losing its grip. So the guys at Top Gear decided to put the new Range Rover to the ultimate test and try to outrun a Challenger tank.

Don’t be so sure about the outcome.

The video is here

by Stuart Livesey

I was just wandering around Motormouth – an interesting Australian automotive website – and I was attracted by the results of one of the polls they ran a few weeks ago. The question was:

What speed do you think it is reasonable to travel at in a 60km zone in good conditions?

And the answers were pretty much what you would expect. Some thought that 60km/h was a reasonable speed, a few more thought that travelling somewhere between 55km/h and 59km/h was ok and something less than 25% of respondents thought that it was ok to travel at anything up to 65km/h.

But what do the final arbiters of what is a safe speed … the courts … think is a safe speed? The answer may not be what you were expecting.

Many years ago I spent a lot of time in the New South Wales District and Supreme Courts, it was part of my job to be there and, at times, it was quite an interesting place to be. One of the Court cases that I was present for was an appeal in the Bathurst District Court that arose out of a guilty finding in a motor vehicle accident that had occurred on one of the widest streets in Bathurst.

At that time Bentinck Street in Bathurst was very very wide and it was tarred from kerb to kerb. Early one morning in the late 1970’s an ordinary motorist was driving down Bentinck Street when he was involved in an accident with another vehicle.

It was one of those weird accidents were the road conditions were excellent, visibility was good and there were only two vehicles on the road at the time.

As I recall both drivers were charged but the one who was appealing his conviction was originally charged with something like ‘drive manner dangerous’ and the dangerous manner of his driving hinged on the speed that he was travelling at.

He’d been convicted in the lower court and felt rather hardly done by so he appealed. The grounds of his appeal was that he was driving at the speed limit (60km/h) in excellent conditions (a matter not contested by the police) so how could that possibly be construed as dangerous.

To make a long story a little shorter, he lost the appeal and the Judge’s reasoning was that the speed limit had no relevance to the case at all. The fact of the matter was that the driver had collided with another vehicle so, no matter what speed he was doing, it was dangerous in the circumstances.

So do you always travel at a safe speed?

I’m not sure what it is but it certainly looked and sounded great when we spotted it in Hervey Bay on Saturday morning.

Fortunately she-who-must-be-obeyed had her camera in the car because I did not

A suitable sports car for the 21st Century

When Toyota asked that question of their US design team the answer they produced was the Toyota FT-HS hybrid sports concept and it was revealed to the public earlier this year.

The FT-HS incorporates hybrid capability while maintaining sports car essentials, such as a sleek profile, lightweight aero-dynamic materials, and an advanced high-output powertrain for revolutionary acceleration and optimal performance. This 21st century sports car is fun-to-drive with eco-friendly benefits such as ultra-low emissions and fuel efficiency. The FT-HS appeals to an emerging buyer who grew up eco-conscious and perceives technology as a necessity, not a luxury.

This two-plus-two concept is a front-engine, rear-drive sports car with a projected zero-to-60 acceleration in the four-second range. A powerful V6, 3.5L-engine is coupled with a 21st century sports hybrid system with a target power output of approximately 400-horsepower. At a mid-priced market position, FT-HS would be a true “attainable exotic” with 21st Century performance.

By eliminating the “B” pillar and creating a suspended “C” pillar, the minimalist style works in conjunction with subtractive mass. An integrated instrument panel surrounds the driver, creating an enclosed pod effect. Armrests flow seamlessly into the door and surrounding interior.

Seating is optimized for a lightweight appearance and function: the seating accommodates four and then coverts to a two-seater when the roof retracts. The passenger-seat area is open with a simple exposed airbag on the cross-car beam.

A telescoping hub-less steering wheel incorporates semi-automatic paddle shifters and allows the meter to be shifted forward in order to shorten the driver’s focus-time between the road and meter, and ultimately enhance driver focus.

There’s no doubt that the small car market is hot and getting hotter by the month and fuel consumption isn’t the only important factor in this market. Price point can be a major influence and there is a lot of competition at the lower end of the price range.

But for some people price isn’t really much of an influencing factor; some want the convenience of a small car but but want some flair to go with the size. So for those people here is a little French panache

The Citroen C3 is definitely not the biggest small car on the market but it’s price is certainly up there at the higher end of the scale. At a recommended retail price of around $20k for the base model 1.4 litre manual the Citroen is definitely not for those who stress about price point. But for that price you certainly do get something that’s going to stand out from the crowd.

The Citroen C3 also comes in a 1.6 litre version and right now Citroen Australia is offering the C3 1.6 litre Exclusive Manual from $21,990 drive away and the C3 Limited Edition Auto Petrol from $23,990 drive away.

Update - the Kia Kee has now been released at the Frankfurt Motor Show and you can see much clearer photos and the technical details here

Kia has released another teaser photo of their new 2+2 sports coupe and has announced that this new coupe will incorporate “a host of elements that will become the new face of Kia right across our product range”.

Just what those elements are will have to remain a ’secret’ until Kia unveil their new sports coupe at the Frankfurt International Motor Show on September 11.