The last few weeks have seen some great news and some bad news for the industry - on two and four wheels. Personal transportation is going through a difficult time yet there are some highlights. On two wheels, The Economist magazine reported that Harley-Davidson is going through a rough patch - not the first in their 116 year history. In the US they have seen sales figures … [Read more...]
Honda Joins SoftBank in GM Cruise Automation
It is an interesting time in the automotive industry with lots of money sloshing around trying to find a profitable home to make lots of future money. A few weeks ago Motoring Weekly ran an article about SoftBank, a Japanese investment company buying a stake in General Motors Cruise Automation business. They committed to put in $2.2B in investment. GM spent a mere $1B on … [Read more...]
GM Cruise Holdings to Get Full Investment
In a recent article I discussed Ford’s new division called Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC and this article covers an update to their big rival General Motors, with their Cruise Automation business, now called G.M. Cruise Holdings (GMCH). In a recent announcement, a fund affiliated with SoftBank, a Japanese company, has stated that they will be injecting $2.25B into GMCH with … [Read more...]
Flyin Miata
Ever since the car was invented, people have wanted to go faster and as engineers started to figure out ways to make cars more powerful and therefore faster, others have followed a tried and true method: take a lightweight car - typically a two seater, remove the original engine and shoehorn in a bigger one and that's usually a V8! I would say that the idea really took off … [Read more...]
V12 LS1 Engine
When you hear of a V12 engine, most people’s minds drift off to their favourite sports car - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar or some German motors from BMW or AMG. Well, here’s one from Australia and it’s based on a General Motors LS1 V8! V12LS have developed the motor with a capacity of 9.2 or 9.5 litres and capable of delivering over 640hp. They showed it a year or so ago as … [Read more...]