Showing posts with label Car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Car. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2018

KEN Block and co-driver are okay, but the Cossie burned beyond recognition




Remember Ken Block's rally-spec Ford Escort RS Cosworth? Sadly, memories and some charred structures are the only things that remain of the Cossie, as the car is no more.

After hitting a rock at the New England Forest Rally in Maine, Block's Group A rally car rolled over and burst into flames, which quickly consumed the Euro-spec '90s legend. Luckily Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino were able to get out of the car after noticing it was on fire and escaped serious injury. In an Instagram post, Block even says he wanted to continue after rolling the car, as they landed wheels down, but the quickly advancing flames put an end to those plans. The YouTube video above shows just how little time they had to exit the car.

Part of the blame can lie with the Escort's gearbox, which, according to Block, messed up a shift as he approached the corner. In the onboard video, the engine note does sound a little funny just before the incident. Block's racing line, combined with the unfortunate timing for the gearbox malady, caused him to clip a really big rock, which sent the Cossie rolling. It's a shame, especially as Block and Gelsomino were at third place overall.

A Reddit thread analyses the gearbox issue further, with some blame placed on a confused transmission position sensor. 


Tuesday, July 28, 2015

GM is making big money again as SUV and truck sales soar

GM reported a surge in second-quarter profits as sales of more profitable SUVs and pickup trucks gain steam amid cheap oil prices.
Now that oil and gas prices are cheap again,
is capitalizing on stronger demand for SUVs and crossover vehicles. That's critical because those gas-guzzling vehicles are more profitable for GM.
The shifting consumer trends helped drive GM's profits sharply higher. The auto maker on Thursday said it earned $1.1 billion profits last quarter, quadrupling its haul from the year before.
GM posted adjusted profits of $1.29 per share, blowing past Wall Street's forecast of $1.08. That's why GM shares soared 7% on Thursday morning.
GM said its results were boosted by a "positive mix" of sales in the U.S. That's code for stronger demand for high margin vehicles, especially full-size SUVs and pickups.
Just look at how GM's U.S. market share for trucks ticked up by nearly one percentage point to 24.4% last quarter. Crossovers, which are also profitable, also increased in market share.
On the other hand, GM's U.S. market share for cars dipped to 13.1% from 14.9% the year before. To lure customers to their cars, auto makers often have to resort to heavy discounts that eat into profits.
GM relieved investors by reporting encouraging results in China, which is grappling with a significant slowdown in growth. GM CEO Mary Barra acknowledged "challenging conditions" in China, but the auto maker still generated $500 million of profits there last quarter. Market share ticked up as well during the first half of 2015.
Overall, the backdrop for the auto industry looks positive. Not only are
, but consumer confidence is on the rise as the jobs market continues to recover. While
, Americans do seem willing to replace their aging cars and truck. The average vehicle age stands at a lofty 11.4 years, according to S&P Capital IQ.
All of this explains why Barra sounds upbeat about the future. The first female auto chief said GM remains on target to improve earnings and margins this year and believes the results in the second half of the year could be even better than the first.

Friday, August 29, 2014

A judge investigates the theft of a 'estelada' by civil guards

A car without identification of the body was carried the flag of a roundabout of Vilobi D'Onyar last weekend

The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating the alleged involvement of Civil Guard officers in the theft of a estelada hoisted at the entrance of the village of Vilobi D'Onyar (The Jungle) in the early morning hours of Sunday. The event has been denounced by a neighbor and the local town hall, and is already in the hands of a magistrate's court of Santa Coloma de Farners, according to have confirmed the COUNTRY sources close to the investigation. The events under investigation occurred shortly after midnight on the last Saturday, when a car stopped at a roundabout at the entrance to the town. In the traveling "three or four people", according to detailed the same sources. At least one of them under the car, he crawled up to the mast and pulled up the flag of a strong jerk. Then the vehicle left the area, according to the complaint which has given rise to the case. A neighbor who witnessed the robbery scored the number plate of the car and later advised the facts to the municipality of the town, formed by three cores of population -Vilobi, Salitja and Sant Dalmai - and with some 2,000 inhabitants. The flag indepentista was one of the four estelades that Vilobi hoisted in november of 2012 at many other masts raised in points visible next to the roads in the township. In the last European elections, CiU was voted the most force in the municipality with a 39.9 % of the votes, followed by ERC (36.3 % ), PSC (5.6 %) and ICV (5.5 % ).

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"The car smelled of tobacco, but don't smoke inside," says the girl


The third victim of the pedophile, last Saturday during the reconstruction with the police. / CARLOS ROSILLO

The youngest of seven years of Dominican origin that was kidnapped last friday 22 by the pedophile of Ciudad Lineal gave a full description of the man who captured it, as shown by the declaration that the lesser made to agents investigating the case and to which access has had the country. A striking detail is that the aggressor did not know what was the name of the girl nor the age he was, what makes you think that has changed the way they act. On other occasions, especially in the first, he had addressed to its victims by the name of stack. When the girl was heard in declaration (exploration in technical terms when it comes to minors), gave some very precise details of how his captor. The first thing he said is that a lord he had "lied" and "had done bad things". No gave many more explanations. From there, offered a complete description very meticulous with details of how it is the abuser of Linear City. According to his testimony, it is a man who spoke with Spanish accent. This last detail is important because the other two girls told a principle that had a marked foreign accent. That yes, they did not describe that part was due to his young age. The description that the small makes the pedophile continues: Is a man "strong [muscular], with brown hair and brown eyes". That yes, the girl does not remember the hairstyle you had been wearing them at the time of his capture.

The small, which was not drugged at any time, as if it were the two previous victims, took about an hour to observe the criminal within the car and remove all luxury of details of extraordinary importance: "the skin is white with two moles in the mofletes face". It subsequently explained that one of them was on the right cheek and the other to the height of the mouth. Its position in the rear seat of the vehicle is also fundamental to the description that makes. In fact, it is fixed at "two small wounds [marks in the skin] which is in the right arm, just below the shoulder". In another statement later, already speaks of scars on his right arm to the height of the triceps. This is the best vision that gets the girl and what can be repaired from their position and given its height. In other expansions of their exploration, the third victim adds that his kidnapper "has a normal nose and that does not have entries" in the hair. Once you have finished with the physical description, focuses on the clothes the afternoon of Friday the criminal. And this he does accurately: "wearing a shirt with wide straps of dark gray, dark blue pants and sports shoes with white cord," he said. Another detail that is fixed in the small is that his assailant "he sweated a lot". At a given moment of the tour, the kidnapper is directed to the Dominican minor and asks how it is called and which years has. As stated in the declaration, the raptor doesn't tell you anything about the same (no name or data) and she does not dare at any time to ask, for fear that it would "upset". Researchers ask the girl if there is some detail that will attract your attention. And gives them one rather significant: "The car smelled of tobacco, but don't smoke inside". So far not had transcended this important fact for the agents. The minor also agrees to describe the car in which he travelled the offender as small dimensions, type utility. Sources of research added that it is the same brand as the 78,000 cars that they were investigating the agents of Operation Candy (candy, in English). What changes is in the model. According to the third victim, a model is something that is bigger than in the other two cases. Also speaks of a light color, possibly white or silver-gray.

The statement goes on to say that from the time the scan does not give you any medication. In this also changes with respect to the two previous cases. The offender most sought after Madrid supply lorazepam (a benzodiazepine) to the minors, what the left sedadas. This erased much of their memories, in particular, in the case of the second girl, forcing him to swallow a very high dose, which almost became a lethal. The minor also said that Dominican in the kidnapping, which lasts less than an hour, according to police sources confirmed yesterday, doesn't give "no food or drink". The police also asked if at some point he noticed if the abuser you toward any photo with your mobile or with some other device. The small denied him. To the minor's parents have informed them that there is a department of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, the intervention center in Child Sexual Abuse (CIASI), specializing in treating this type of victims. The Dominican minor was found at 1950 across the street from Mesquinenza (district of San Blas), next to a booth under the M-40. The first thing they said to the man he saw it and that was way to the metro is that I was very cold. "All this is full of patrol cars and ambulances in a matter of seconds," he remembered a neighbor in the area.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Rita Barbera pulls his car from the garage of the Town Hall where she had been 23 years




The Compromis municipal group in the city of Valencia has ensured this Friday that the mayoress Rita Barbera has been removed from the garage of the Consistory your vehicle, an old Lancia, "that has been parked for twenty three years on the ground floor of the Town Hall" and "it was full of dust and with the wheels fully inflated" in a state "totally abandoned". The coalition now ensures that the mayor "must indemnify the City Hall" for having "used fraudulently a public space for their personal benefit".