Cool Gizmos – Gizmora

This is a picture-perfect reproduction of the Knight Industries 2000. Unfortunately, after all that money and man-hours, the gooey center is still an ’80s F-Body. Canadian seller zapper80 has done an awesome job putting this car together, and claims a cost of over $40,000 CDN. Zapper80 cites original molds as the source for some of the body parts, which leads us to believe that the car was put together from the wealth of parts and information available from the enthusiastic Knight Rider fans on the web.
      The amount of information, and lines of communication back to KITT designer Michael Scheffe are truly astounding. No matter where everything came from, it’s a hoot to see it all lit up, and even better, it all works. Well, maybe not the “Turbo Boost” function that’d send 3000 pounds of Trans-Am hurtling over bad guys. This car probably has more mojo under its hood than the original KITT the Hoff tooled around in while doing good for FLAG.

Today Zap! has announced that the first product of their new collaboration with Lotus will be the ZAP-X, based on the APX. The ZAP-X will use in-hub electric motors in place of the V-6 gas engine. According the Zap! press release the combination of motors will provide 644hp in all wheel drive mode and potentially drive the aluminum-structured vehicle to 155 mph. The hub motors will also allow extra batteries and an auxiliary power unit to be mounted under hood. Zap! is estimating the range at 350 miles and a recharge time of 10 minutes, although that fast charge time would almost assuredly have to be via a 480V charging system.
      Presumably Zap! will using the new battery management system they licensed for this vehicle. Zap! will be displaying the APX at in North American Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting and exhibition, February 3 to 6 in Las Vegas. So far there is no information on price or timing of the new vehicle.

It’s a significant issue for the blind community who fear losing mobility if they can’t hear a vehicle passing through an intersection or especially in a parking lot where motorists don’t always follow prescribed traffic patterns.
      Yoshio Takaoka has built a electric 2-seater vehicle called the Girasole that has a clip-clop sound of horse hooves hitting the pavement to alert pedestrians.
      The car costs about $18,000 and can travel nearly 75 miles on a full charge. Top speed is only 41 mph, meaning that if it came to the U.S. it would likely be limited to NEV status.

Clarion Co., Ltd. plans to launch FB275BT, a car stereo with no moving parts, namely an optical disk or hard disk drive, which can play back music data stored in an SD memory card in the US in April 2007 at an expected retail price of $249.99 (USD). The stereo is being showcased in Clarion’s booth at the 2007 International CES event. Most portable audio devices use semiconductor memory media instead of using disks recently, but this is rare for a car stereo.
      The product has an SD card slot behind the front panel. It is also equipped with an FM tuner and a Bluetooth interface for hands-free calling. Four large, vertically oblong buttons are provided on each side of the central rotary volume control. “We have revamped the user interface and decided to use fewer, larger buttons,” says a spokesperson. The product features 50 W x 4-channel output

For several months now rumors have been rampant about an electric vehicle that General Motors would unveil at the Detroit Auto Show. That vehicle is now real, in the form of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is the first vehicle application of the GM’s new E-Flex platform. Volt is a C-Class sized four door sedan roughly the size of a Cobalt.
      In spite of the presence of an internal combustion engine, GM does not call this vehicle a hybrid. In fact, they consider it an EV with range extending capability. The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. The ICE runs at about 1800 rpm and drives a 53 kW generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack. The engine starts and stops automatically as needed to charge the battery.

The first Internet service provider specifically designed for cars. Fasten your seatbelt. Because the driving experience will never be the same again. With Autonet Mobile, the first ever, always-on mobile broadband network, you and your passengers can now enjoy internet services and Wi-Fi connectivity whenever you want to by turning your car into a Wi-Fi hotspot on wheels. IM, chat, stream media, email, games, on-line listen to music and more.
      Simply turn on, log on and surf. No cellular data cards or special software required. And because Autonet mobile makes your car a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can pull off the road, go sit under a tree and stay connected outside your car.

      Official pics of the new Rolls-Royce drophead (that’s convertible, yank) hit the webs last night, bringing full circle the narrative thread started with the 100EX concept in 2004. The newest of swank ragtops, which shares its mechanicals with the Phantom, will enjoy its deb ball at the Detroit show next month, ahead of its appearance in 4,200 hip-hop videos by 2009, followed by unflattering shots of its underpinnings hitting a gossip blog late in 2010.

Today at the 2006 San Diego International Auto Show, Suzuki unveiled the SXBox, a concept car with a complete integrated Xbox 360 media setup. The car features a dash integrated Xbox 360 console using a projector display. The projector actually projects the image onto the inside of the vehicle’s hood which can retract at the push of a button. Another 360 runs through two LCD screens located in the seat backs of the two front seats, and a retractable rear projection screen is located at the rear of the vehicle. The front seats include force feedback, the sound is produced by a surround sound system, and all 360s are played with wireless controllers.
        To top it all off, the driver’s control is mounted directly into the steering wheel. Why anyone would put this much crap in their car, we have no idea (we’d rather play on the couch) but if we had to have a kickass car with an integrated 360, this is definitely the one we’d pick.

This is the latest concept car from Toyota which is set to launch at the Detroit Auto Show on January 7. The new car from Toyota is 400hp Toyota FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept. The 0 to 60 in 4 seconds caught my attention towards this car and the price is obviously a big one but it is small compared to what we had expected. Toyota is thinking of keeping the mid-$30,000 price range.

Although I like the Toyota Prius, but I think I like it more. I am eagerly waiting for this car to be launched and we must see it soon on highway too.

The folks of Car & Driver had an article previewing the Jaguar C-XF Concept which was to be shown at the Detroit Auto Show. But unfortunately it was stolen by Edmunds who posted all the details online. It was designed by Ian Callum and it is a four-door coupé. It has XKR’s 4.2 litre supercharged V8 engine with six-speed automatic geargox. It is said that the model have more than 420 bhp and 368lb of torque which will give it a top speed of 180mph or something near to that.

The appearance is very pleasing and it has got killer looks. It is a Jaguar but not tweedy and old-fashioned.