Buh-bye Hummers... hello smarts!

It's hard not to laugh at the misfortune of the ill-fated HUMMER brand. They post the highest monthly sales losses by brand every month, GM is desperately trying to sell off the name, and their dealers are closing at an unprecedented rate.

Subsequently, it's impossible not to laugh when one such dealer, the largest HUMMER dealer in the US is not only closing... but is soon going to be selling smart cars instead!

You can read the FULL STORY HERE.

Rallye R.E.A.L.

What: Rallye Énergie Alternative des Laurentides 2008 (or in English: Alternative Energy Rally of the Laurentians 2008) (A "regularity rally" run over open roads with scoring being based on precision of timing and speed, not outright, full-throttle craziness!)

Website: http://www.rallyereal.com/

When: October 2nd, 3rd, & 4th, 2008

Where: Alma, Quebec City, & St-Jerome - Quebec, Canada

Climate change has became a subject of concern whose stake is on the scale of planet. One cannot ignore it, which is why the promotion of alternative means of transport are from now on of crucial importance. The consequences of the massive use of the car in our cities is well known: air pollution, sound pollution, congestion of the downtown areas, accidents, deterioration of the quality of life of the citizens, to name only a few.

Rallye Énergie Alternative des Laurentides 2008 represents the ideal occasion to see various vehicles driven by alternative energies in action at the time of this exclusive rally open to the general public and to help promote other types of energies that that of gasoline.

The rally comprises two stages, over a 2 day period and adding up more than 800 km. The pilots and copilots will have to navigate, and drive their car conscientiously under optimal conditions to obtain minimal fuel consumption while traveling the splendid panoramic route, and to respect the speeds imposed during each test of regularity.

(Translation courtesy of WorldLingo.com & yours truly)

Unfortunately, the 2007 edition was almost exclusively a hybrid affair. There were 2 electric vehicles... one production based, and one home-brew Chevy Cavalier. The rest of the field was made up of Priuses, hybrid Civics & Insights, and 2 hybrid SUVs... a Highlander and an Escape. (Interesting side note: my strictly gas powered, 175 horsepower, sedan can get better highway mileage then either of the EPA ratings for the hybrid SUVs entered.)

This year the event is open to hybrids (yawn - what else?), electrics (Tesla, anyone? Yes please!) as well as vehicles powered by alternative fuels, including biodiesel, natural gas, LPG, etc.

I'm curious how many smarts might be entered this year. The cdi smart can be run on biodiesel, and it puts out a mere 88 g of CO2/km, which is well under the event's regulated limit for biodiesel vehicles of 100 g of CO2/km. And while they don't have a class for gasoline powered high-efficiency vehicles, the regulations state that any car using more than 30% fossil fuels will be limited to 120 g of CO2/km. The petrol powered smart falls under that limit as well.

Sadly I don't own a smart of either type, I can't even come close to affording a Tesla... and since I'll never be caught dead driving a hybrid, I can't enter this event. However if you own a smart cdi and would be willing to hand over the keys and spend the 2 days as a copilot I'd be more than happy to team up. (I'm not holding my breath...)

I'll try to make it into St-Jerome in a few weeks to catch the end of the event and see if anything besides the jellybean snob-mobiles showed up!

Anti-Greens Torching Priuses

While I'll certainly never mourn the fact that there's one less "overly smug, self-righteous greenie" driven Prius on the road, torching someone's car is just WRONG!

Mind you, I never shed a tear for the excessively wasteful SUVs that got torched or vandalized a few years back either. I guess the drivers of those gas guzzlers just got tired of ugly little Priuses (aka: poster vehicle for the "I'm a better human than YOU" crowd!) buzzing around town congesting traffic with their utter lack of acceleration and low-speed "oooh noes, I don't want to drive fast because it makes the gas engine work" shenanigans!

Full article HERE, courtesy autoblog.com

Q: What does a smart have that no hybrids can offer?

A: 50% off parking in NYC!

In Europe smarts are allowed to park nose in towards the curb, thus allowing two to get into a single parallel parking space.

Until North America climbs out of the automotive stone-age and catches up, this would never fly here. In the mean time, Meyer's Parking of New York City is only charging smart owners half what it would normally charge for space in it's garages, which include Madison Square Garden, Javits Center, Times Square and Upper East Side.

Full article HERE.

A Keen Grasp Of The Obvious

"Friends Of The Earth" have done a study as part of their forlesspollutingcars.com initiative and have come up with the following revelation after questioning 5000 people in various Eurpean countries:

Two thirds believe that lowered fuel consumption would allow citizens to spend their money in other ways, which would help the economy.

Wow! That's brilliant! Who ever could have imagined that money NOT spent on gas could subsequently be spent on something else far more interesting?

Open Your Mind!

And avoid backseats!

Cool Diesel News!

I came across some cool diesel news on Autoblog.com this afternoon. While diesels are still in for a long fight to gain acceptance in North America (as opposed to outnumbering gasoline powered cars in Europe), the dim light at the end of the tunnel is slowly brightening.

All of VWs TDI powered cars, as well as Mercedes Bluetec vehicles, now qualify for a federal alternative-powertrain tax credit. (I would assume that the soon to be released Audi TDI cars will get the same benefits as they are essentially VW engines under the hood.)

Oddly enough, several Ford hybrids like the Escape hybrid two-wheel drive qualify for 2 to 3 times as much of a rebate. Perhaps a little favoritism? Seems like it to me.

Also today, there's a great myth debunking video on GMNext.com pointing out that there are no real legitimate reasons for diesel to be the "outcast" fuel that it still is here in North American.

Performance + >50mpg + Exclusivity = ALPINA

Start with a 3 series BMW coupé & a 1 series diesel powerplant.

Then put it in the capable hands of the ever subtle BMW tuner ALPINA and let them work a little magic. The result is an even better looking Beemer that still gets well over 50 miles per gallon (52.3 to be exact, or 5.4L/100km) while putting out 214 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque, which is enough to propel the coupé from zero to 60 in less than 7 seconds and keeps pushing it all the way to a 152 mph (244 kph) top speed.

Oh, and don't forget that APLINA is only going to make 100 of them, so you'd better get your name to them ASAP... if you live in Europe.

LINK

Getting Better Mileage Is As Easy Changing Your Driving Habits

As I often say, there's no need to sacrifice your driving enjoyment to the tree-hugging hybrid gods just to get better gas mileage. While it's true that commuting in a huge car with a gas guzzling V8 is generally pointless, fuel efficient driving can still make a dent in the economy of that pointless car. Of course, making a responsible choice when buying a vehicle in the first place helps too.

But regardless of what car you drive, changing your driving habits can help keep money in your pocket.

Popular Mechanics tests the TT TDi!

After two weeks out of my office, I'd like to say it feels great to be back.... but I can't. It's Monday. Monday never feels great. Perhaps tomorrow will.

In any case, Popular Mechanics got tired of waiting for Audi to bring the diesel powered TT over here for a test, so they went over there to try it out. And they liked it!

A killer looking sports coupe that can top 40 mpg (US mpg no less)... what's not to like?

Read the full article HERE.