Legendary Studio’s Newest Title Wins over 30 Industry Awards, Ships Over 3 Million Units Becoming BioWare’s Sixth Consecutive Blockbuster Franchise
Apple on Tuesday released the next major update to its photo editing and management software, with Aperture 3 sporting over 200 new features, including Faces, Places and Brushes for $199 new, or $99 to upgrade.
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Ford, Chicago Auto Show, Natural Gas
Ford’s electric vehicle (EV) naming scheme is becoming clear: add the word “electric” to a vehicle’s standard name and presto, you’ve got the name of your new EV. Example Number One: the Ford Focus Electric. Example Number Two: the Ford Transit Connect Electric, which will get its official North American debut at the Chicago Auto Show this week. The 2011 Transit Connect Electric will go on sale into production later this year and will offer a range of 80 miles per charge and a top speed of 75 miles per hour. The van’s 28 kWh battery recharges in six to eight hours.
Businesses that like the style and practicality of the the Transit Connect but don’t necessarily think a plug is the way to go can choose a Transit Connect version that is powered by Ford’s engine prep packages that burn compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane (LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas). This model, too, will arrive later this year. More details after the jump.
Gallery: Ford Transit Connect Electric
Gallery: Ford Transit Connect Taxi
[Source: Ford]
Continue reading Chicago Preview: Ford Transit Connect Electric and CNG-powered taxi van
Chicago Preview: Ford Transit Connect Electric and CNG-powered taxi van originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Toyota Motor Corp. launched a global recall Tuesday of 437,000 hybrid vehicles, including its popular Prius hybrid, as the world’s No.
This is not a rainbow. It’s a moonbow, an extremely rare atmospheric phenomenon caused by the near-full moon that it’s extremely hard to catch. So hard, in fact, that you can only see its colors thanks to long-exposure photography.
It was captured by Wally Pacholka last January 20, at the Haleakala Crater on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. The moonbow—or lunar rainbow—is caused when the near-full moon at less than 42 degrees in a dark sky. The colors are so faint that the human eye color receptors can’t be excited enough for the brain to identify them. Therefore, they appear as white arcs to the naked eye. Only by using long-exposure photography you can reveal the diffraction of the moonlight through the microscopic water droplets suspended in the air.
By the way, that red thing shining on the sky? It’s Mars rising. Check out the rest of Wally’s amazing images at [Astropics]
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4 (X360)
Ubisoft revives the tactical shooter.
By Andrew Liszewski
Sometimes luxury doesn’t come in the form of a diamond-encrusted cellphone or an expensive sportscar. To some people, luxury can be as simple as being fanned with a palm leaf all day, and now such a luxury doesn’t require you to hire anyone besides a handyman to install one of these slick LoftWing ceiling fans. The fabric covered wing is made from high strength carbon fiber rods and its gentle sweeping motion will cool a large room with less electricity that a conventional spinning ceiling fan. A German-made electric motor quietly powers the fan’s mechanism (which is machined from lightweight 6061 aircraft aluminum) and the wing is available in custom colors to match an existing motif.
[ The LoftWing ] VIA [ I New Idea Homepage ]
Turbocharging the Pinto 2.3 was a good idea. Intercooling it and bolting it to the SVO Mustang was a great Idea. Now, Nice Price or Crack Pipe wants to know if Volvo-izing an SVO 2.3 gives you any ideas.
1980 Canada felt your warm embrace yesterday, as the Aurora Cobra GRX grabbed a 77% nice price win for its $29,000 asking price. Now, that’s a lot of hockey tickets and Alanis Morrissette records, so today we’re going to go for something newer and cheaper. And some mights say, weirder.
Here we have a 1984 SVO Mustang, that refuses to stand still. For those unfamiliar with what an SVO Mustang is, here’s a quick run-down: Having discovered that car buyers were finding favor in cars that were able to turn as well as go in a straight line, Ford decided to build a Mustang that used BMW as its role model. The SVO (Special Vehicles Operation) iteration emerged as the most expensive and highest performance ‘Stang in Ford’s mid-eighties corral. A 175-bhp turbo’d, fuel-injected and intercooled Pinto 2.3-litre twitched nervously under under its NACA-ducted hood while underneath, a revised geometry suspension with adjustable Koni shocks and big-ass disc brakes made the fox platform be all that it could be. Inside, ‘80s plastic-fantastic Ford met Lear Siegler bolstered seats and a short-throw shifter for what was the best the Blue Oval could offer at the time, demonstrating that most of the money went into what was under the hood rather than under the roof.
That was all well and good for 1984, but the world has moved on, and even a secretary’s ‘Stang today puts out over 200 ponies. Not only that, but bi-plane spoilers are like parachute pants, having had their day and are now out of fashion. But that doesn’t mean you have to have an SVO that’s stuck in the era of Bret Easton Ellis, and you can take it from Less Than Zero to American Psycho with some rockin’ mods.
That’s the case with this $6,950 SVO that’s seen some underhood tweaking which included a Swedish massage for its head. Overall, the car doesn’t look all that special, and in fact the top plane of the spoiler has been removed, lending the car even greater anonymity. Inside it’s a little rough, but the basics are there- there are chairs to keep your ass off the carpet and an aftermarket wheel for you to saw with when the boost knocks the back end out on you.
There’s a reason you’ll want to hang onto that Grant wheel for dear life, because what’s living under the hood is a Pinto motor that’s been to the island of Dr Moreau, and has come back with a second frontal lobe and a Swedish accent. You see, Ford had been developing the 2.3-litre turbo for years, and had screwed it into the engine sockets of the T-Bird, ‘Stang, and Merkur XR4Ti for most of the ’80s. But, at the same time the pocket-protected and horn-rimmed glasses-wearing engineers were beefing up the 4-banger, down the hall were a bunch of guys in white tee-shirts with packs of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeves, and they were working on the cheaper, and eventually, higher-reaching 302 HO. The 302 gave the SVO turbo a wedgie, and development ceased on the Pinto four, just before a twin-cam head was set to debut as an aftermarket part through Ford Motorsports. As all the cool kids have twin-cams these days, this seller adapted a Volvo B23F head to the Pinto bottom end, and obviously, hilarity ensued.
Now you might think that’s something akin to grafting Megan Fox’s head onto Janet Reno, but it looks like it’s working, and he says the oil leakage is only minor. The seller also makes the supposition that, based on a different car, this SVO should be pumping out between 240 and 250 bhp. Maybe. Helping get those hypothetical ponies to the pavement is the bolt-in IRS and vented discs from a Cobra, as well as Cobra spindles and brakes up front, meaning that stopping will result in skid marks on the street, not in your tighty whities.
His list of updated and add-on parts reads like the back pages of 5.0 magazine, and you can bet that the $6,950 asking is less than he’s got in it, unless he’s some sort of Mustang parts Robin Hood who forgot the part about giving to the poor.
So, would you like to part with $6,950 for an ‘80s SVO whose engine is now Danish Modern? Or, does that price make you say its just So Very Old?
You decide!
Nice Price or Crack Pipe: 1984 Mustang SVO for $6,950.(poll)
Roanoke Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to JSmith53!
Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.
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AutoblogGreen for 02.09.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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