German Car Scene

Month: June 2013

  • Wolfsburg receives first public quick charging station for electric vehicles

    Volkswagen e-up!
    Volkswagen has inaugurated Wolfsburg’s first public quick charging station for electric vehicles with the help of its e-up!, the first car available with new CCS-charging technology.

    Previous concepts of pure electric vehicles have needed six to eight hours to fully charge, but with the e-up!’s optional Combined Charging System (CCS) loading system the charging time is dramatically reduced: an 80% charge takes just 20 minutes, while the remaining loading speed is lessened to sustain battery life.

    “Charging via the charging socket on the fuel filler flap is easy to use and – thanks to DC charge – fast in execution. This is an important step to provide customers with a fully suitable for everyday use,” said Thomas Lieber, Volkswagen’s director of the Electric Traction.

    With an underfloor-mounted 18.7 kWh lithium-ion battery feeding the electric motor, continuous output is 40 kW (54 hp) with a peak power figure of 60 kW (80 hp) achievable, while the 210 Nm of torque is available from the first revolution. On the road, 100 km/h appears in a respectable 14 seconds before the silent citycar hits its top speed of 135 km/h.
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  • Porsche 911 GT3 in action

    Porsche 911 GT3
    Following on from DRIVE’s review, here’s a new video from sport auto featuring the magazine’s test driver Christian Gebhardt hitting the hills in Porsche’s new 911 GT3.

    The 350 kW (475 hp) track weapon uses active rear-wheel steering, which improves agility and stability by steering in the opposite or the same direction as the front wheels depending on the speed. Other dynamics include an electronically controlled, fully variable rear differential lock and adjustable height, toe and camber of the newly developed all-aluminium chassis.
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  • 911 Carrera S Cabriolet vs F-Type V8 S and V8 Vantage Roadster

    Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet
    This new episode of DRIVE sees Chris Harris take to the road and track to compare Jaguar’s pretty F-Type with established machines from Porsche and Aston Martin.

    The F-Type V8 S is propelled by a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 developing 364 kW (488 hp) and 625 Nm of torque, while the 3.8-litre flat-six engine in the 911 Carrera S produces 294 kW (400 hp) and 440 Nm. Finally, Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage Roadster has 313 kW (420 hp) and 470 Nm at its disposal thanks to a 4.7-litre V8 unit.
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  • Volkswagen agrees to freeze WRC car development

    Volkswagen Polo R WRC - Rally Portugal
    Volkswagen Motorsport has agreed to freeze WRC car development in order to keep Citroen and M-Sport in the championship next season.

    With Volkswagen’s Polo R WRC, the Ford Fiesta RS WRC and Citroën’s DS3 WRC reaching the end of their homologation cycle this year, the cost of developing a new car – around £3 million – would probably see M-Sport disappear from the competition.

    Even though the Polo R WRC has dominated the series, securing four wins from six events, the team is currently working on an evolution version. However, Volkswagen’s decision to lobby the FIA to maintain the car’s current specification means that the upgraded vehicle won’t appear until 1015.

    “We talked about what is best for the future and what’s the best to keep the level of entries up in the championship, and we found that the best way is to stay with the cars we have for this year,” said Jost Capito, Volkswagen Motorsport team principal.

    M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson added: “We are very grateful for this. As you can imagine for the likes of myself and Yves (Matton, Citroen team principal), it’s a real positive move. We know we can still be competitive next year without having to spend millions on development”.
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  • Rauh Welt Begriff Manila

    RWB Victoria
    Following his brand’s recent invasion of Canada and Thailand, here’s some footage of Rauh-Welt Begriff founder Akira Nakai-San’s visit to Car Porn Racing in the Philippines to create the first Porsche 911s for RWB Manila – Victoria and Akira.

    The Japanese chain-smoker flew to the company for six days to create these extreme machines, initially butchering the rear quarter panels and front fenders with an air saw before trial-fitting those cartoon-like arches. Both the 993 and 964 ride achieve that ground-scraping stance thanks to an AirRex air suspension system.

    We can’t see many Porsche purists going down this route, but their visual impact can’t be denied.
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  • Porsche 918 Spyder hot weather testing in Nevada

    Porsche 918 Spyder
    Porsche has released yet another 918 Spyder video, this time highlighting hot weather testing in the Valley of Fire outside Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Porsche engineers have put almost one million miles on the prototype plug-in hybrid hypercars which will start at €633,000 when it becomes available towards the end of the year.

    Propulsion comes via a combination of a 453 kW (608 hp) 4.6-litre V8 engine along with a 115 kW (154 hp) hybrid module at the rear along with a 95 kW (127 hp) electric motor driving the front wheels. With all systems go and the full 661 kW (887 hp) a its disposal, the Spyder can hit 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and 200 km/h in 7.9s, while top speed is 340 km/h (211 mph).
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