Citroën Lacoste Concept Car by broadbandsportsCitroen Lacoste

Automaker Citroen has tied up with leading French fashion house Lacoste to sweep everyone off their feet by revealing a new gracefully charming concept at the next month’s Paris motor show. The official pictures released show a buggy concept which embraces stylishly minimalist design and elegantly laid-back looks.
 

A product of inventive tinkering with conventional car design, the C1 amuses the onlooker with no roof or doors. Instead the car has a bar which stretches from the windshield to the trunk with supporting handles for easier access to the rear seats. The roofless car, however, doesn’t leave the occupants exposed to the elements, for there’s a covered stowage in the dashboard and bright yellow soft-top that automatically inflates in the rain. The front styling integrates the lights into the bumper instead of the sheet metal.

In fact, calling it a buggy wouldn’t be fair. The car is longer, wider and taller as today’s C1 with a similar wheel base and is powered by a three-cylinder petrol engine. The car wears square relief designs on the bonnet resembling a tennis court, whereas the material used for the seat bears similarity with the weave used on the polo shirt.



2012 Toyota HiLux Pickup Truck gains Refreshed Looks and More Powerful Diesel

2012 Toyota HiLux Pickup Truck gains Refreshed Looks and More Powerful Diesel

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 Categories: Diesel, Frankfurt Motor Show, New Cars, Toyota, Toyota Hilux |

Toyota has blessed its European market HiLux pickup truck with a mid-life facelift for the 2012 model year. The cosmetic surgery starts with the exterior that gains a redesigned front end sporting a different grille dressed in chrome, new bonnet, headlamps and front bumper. The changes continue with the redesigned front and rear wings, a new crop of 15- and 17-inch steel and alloy wheels, plus new door mirrors.

On the inside, Toyota restyled the upper part of the dashboard and the instrument binnacle, while the company also claims to have improved the perceived quality “through the adoption of uniformly darker finishes with a greater colour consistency throughout the interior, and the addition of silver ornamentation”.

Beneath the sheetmetal, thanks to the introduction of variable nozzle turbocharging, the 2012 Hilux 2012 2WD 2.5-liter D-4D models benefit from a 24HP increase in output with the four-cylinder diesel engine now rated at 144-horses at 3,600 rpm and 343 Nm at 2000 rpm.

Toyota says that in spite of the power increase, combined cycle fuel consumption has been reduced by 1.0 lt/100 km to 7.3 lt/100 km (32.2mpg US or 38.7mpg UK) while CO2 emissions have been lowered by 26 g/km to 193 g/km.

Furthermore, the 2012MY 2WD versions are now equipped with the chassis of 4WD models, which improves vehicle ground clearance and increases towing capacity to 2.5 tons.

For the 2012MY, both the 2.5-liter D-4D and the more powerful 3.0-liter D-4D come equipped with a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF).

Aside from the two diesel engines, European buyers of the 2012 HiLux also have a choice of three body styles, manual and automatic transmissions and two- or four-wheel drive layouts.



2012 Ram Trucks Receive New Six-Speed Transmissions

Posted by Mike Levine | June 23, 2011

The Ram truck brand is increasing the number of gears available for its 2012 light- and heavy-duty pickups with the introduction of two six-speed transmissions.

Light-Duty Ram Transmission Changes

The 2012 Ram 1500 half-ton sees the previously offered 545RFE five-speed automatic gearbox recalibrated and upgraded to take full advantage of the split 2nd gear, so all six speeds are available to the driver in a newly available “Electronic Range Select” mode.

The 545RFE transmission was unique. Even though it was identified as a five-speed transmission, 2nd gear was split into two cogs, depending on whether you were upshifting or downshifting. On the way up, it was 1.67, but there was a 1.50 “kickdown” ratio on the 3-2 downshift to smooth out what would otherwise be a large gap between the gears. Fourth and 5th gears were overdrives for improved highway performance and fuel economy.

Electronic Range Select mode lets the driver manually limit the highest available transmission gear, allowing manual upshifts and downshifts based on road speed and engine speed. It’s especially useful for towing through hill country when the climbs and descents are closely spaced together.

The recalibrated 545RFE in the Ram 1500 is now called the 65RFE automatic six-speed.

In full auto-shift mode, the 65RFE behaves the same as the old 545RFE, keeping the split 2nd gear and kickdown behavior. Also added is a new torque converter that’s expected to marginally improve fuel economy, but not enough to boost EPA mileage ratings.

The 65RFE is standard with the 4.7-liter V-8 and 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 gas engines.

Heavy-Duty Ram Transmission Changes

The 2012 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty pickup also gets a new six-speed automatic transmission, called the 66RFE. It replaces the previous Hemi V-8 gasser’s 545RFE gearbox, which was shared with the light-duty Ram.

The 66RFE transmission is a hybrid of sorts. It combines the internals of the 68RFE heavy-duty six-speed automatic (including the gear ratios) that’s paired with the 6.7-liter Cummins six-cylinder diesel engine and repackages them in the 545RFE’s case.

Like the 65RFE, the 66RFE offers Electronic Range Select to lock out gears on demand.

The 66RFE is standard with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 on all Ram 2500 models.