Chevrolet Design Center Comes to Disney World

Beginning this fall, Epcot guests will be able to enjoy a re-imagined version of the popular Future World attraction, Test Track presented by Chevrolet.

This new version of the attraction will transform the current testing workshop into the sleek “Chevrolet Design Center at Epcot,” where guests can become immersed in the fun – and fast – world of automotive design. Here, guests will become automotive designers and create their own custom vehicles. Next, they’ll buckle into a six-person SimCar ride vehicle and test out their design on the challenging track of the Test Track course.

Afterward, guests can take a fascinating look into the future of transportation by viewing a collection of the latest Chevrolet vehicles in an all-new showroom.

This fun new experience is the result of a renewed, multi-year business relationship between Disney and General Motors, companies that have worked together for more than 30 years.

Read more: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/01/re-imagined-test-track-will-put-guests-in-the-designers-seat-this-fall-at-epcot/

Kia GT Concept

September 12, 2011
By Alex Nishimoto

Kia’s slow rear-wheel-drive concept striptease is finally over. We now have the full monty on the Kia GT Concept, which is debuting at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. The Korean automaker’s first foray into rear-drive sports car design, the Kia GT is an ambitious effort from a company that has just begun to build exciting, design-centric cars.

 

The GT Concept, which no doubt is squarely aimed at the burgeoning four-door coupe market, is powered by a turbocharged, direct-injected 3.3-liter V-6 producing 390 hp and 394 lb-ft of torque. An eight-speed automatic transmission sends that power to the rear wheels, which stand 112.6 inches from the front wheels. At 184.6 inches long and 54.3 inches tall, the car’s low-slung stance and profile contribute to its sporty look.

 

 

From the get-go, the Kia GT’s design team wanted to ensure that the concept couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a rear-drive sedan. The results are an elongated hood, short front overhang, and bulging rear shoulders that emphasize the car’s overall cab-rearward design. For inspiration, Kia says it turned to 1970s-era GT cars, an influence that can be seen in the Kia GT’s truncated rear end. 

The car’s styling is also influenced by aeronautical design, with a vent-heavy front valance and concept-style, propeller-like wheels. The front end borrows slightly from the Kia Kee concept of 2007, with the lines of the large front intake vents molding into, and in this case, overlapping, the LED headlights. The wheels are a multi-piece design, and feature lightweight alloy and carbon-fiber construction. Carbon fiber also appears to be used heavily in the rear diffuser, which should help stabilize airflow beneath the car. In place of side mirrors, a pair of sleek, jet-age rearview cameras jut out of the front fenders like fins on an airplane.

 

 

Copper is yet another running theme with the Kia GT, as the metallic color recurs several times on the concept. Copper-colored trim is used to highlight the car’s sloping rear roofline, and flows from the A-pillar all the way to the bottom of the rear window. The brake calipers are also finished in copper. To accentuate these details, the glass used for the windshield and windows is tinted an equally shiny, but brighter, gold tone. 

Entry into the Kia GT’s cabin is made easier with the help of suicide doors and B-pillarless body construction. The front doors open conventionally, while the rear doors are rear-hinged and open out and slightly upward. Inside, the Kia GT seats four, giving each passenger their own one-piece bucket seat. Front seat occupants get metallic-treated leather seats in a golden-brownish hue, helping to tie the concept’s copper-tone theme together. This material is used throughout the cabin, and was chosen by Kia to create a warm, welcoming interior.

 

 

Kia describes the layout of the cockpit as driver-centric, and kept the number of buttons and controls to a minimum. From the driver’s seat, a glass instrument panel like the one used on the recent Kia POP concept is seen front and center, while a small, concave, tri-spoke steering wheel allows the driver to control the central data display with buttons within fingertip reach. A large red ignition button does double duty, also acting as an electronic gear selector knob, giving the driver the ability to start the car and put it in gear using the same control. To round out the Kia GT’s driving interface, small LED screens are placed on the inside of the front doors, displaying the view from the fender-mounted rearview cameras. 

Whether the Kia GT will make the jump from concept to production car is unclear. With 390 hp, a rear-drive layout, coupe-like styling, and a generally upscale interior treatment, the car could target other four-door coupes such as the Audi A7, Jaguar XF, and Mercedes-Benz CLS if produced. We can’t say whether Kia and its newfound styling mojo are ready to hang with the veterans of the segment, but given the Korean automaker’s quickening pace in the industry, we’d love to see it try.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/future/concept_vehicles/1109_kia_gt_concept/#ixzz1igk35yL5

The Case for the Autonomous Car

From the March, 2012 issue of Motor Trend

By Todd Lassa

Yes, you should be worried about Google testing autonomous cars. It has been testing driverless Toyota Priuses and other models since competing with General Motors and other teams in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s autonomous vehicle demonstrations of the late 2000s. The ubiquitous computer search engine company has been reticent in talking about its project toMotor Trend, though The New York Times’ November 13, 2011, expose on Google X, the company’s research lab, reported that the autonomy project is part of a secretive effort to open and establish new markets and technologies.

“Unimpressed by the innovative spirit of Detroit automakers,” The Times reported, “Google is now considering manufacturing them in the United States, said a person briefed on the effort.”

One non-innovative Detroit automaker is experimenting with driverless cars too, though its efforts are more practical and palatable to those of us who don’t want to give up the wheel, throttle, and brakes, much less the gearbox. GM’s futurist, Chris Borroni-Bird, director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts, says some form of autonomy will be on the road before the end of the decade.

“You can address some of the aging population trends by keeping a vehicle almost the way it is and making it autonomous,” Borroni-Bird says, “but in an urban context, you almost need to rethink what the automobile does, in terms of range and speed and key performance requirements, and what it looks like.”

The result so far is GM’s Segway-based EN-V bubblecar concepts, last year renamed as part of the Chevrolet brand. When such vehicles hit the road some time in the future, Borroni-Bird says, they’ll likely look much different, but they’ll work much the same. The Chevy EN-V is designed to be a small, electric car that could have one, two, three, or four wheels, one or more seats, and be part of a megacity’s car-sharing program.

EN-Vs will have top speeds in the 25-mph range to coexist safely with pedestrians, bicycle messengers, and other vehicles, and can get a quick recharge during the day, between ride-share customers.

“It does things a bicycle and walking can’t do, and it does things a bus or train can’t do,” Borroni-Bird adds. “It’s kind of swimming upstream against what people want. But we recognize that we can’t keep selling just the same type of vehicle we make today, that goes wherever you want to go, 70 or 80 mph for 300 miles, and carry five people.”

The technology involves global positioning systems and short-range communications antennas, necessary because the tall buildings that make up urban canyons can hamper GPS. Often, the cars will run in tandem like schools of fish. Because autonomously operated cars in theory won’t have accidents, they won’t have to carry heavy safety features like airbags and 5-mph bumpers.

GM has a memorandum of understanding to study incorporating Chevy EN-V tech into the Tianjin Ecocity, a joint development between Singapore and Tianjin, a megacity of 12.3 million people, and a 73-mile high-speed rail ride from Beijing. The Ecocity just outside Tianjin accommodates 350,000 people, Birroni-Bird says. “If we can make it work in that size city, it’s definitely scalable.”

That means dedicated EN-V lanes and roads, Borroni-Bird continues. “We’re looking at how to integrate the next-generation of EN-V, not this one, but the next generation, into that city. The core of EN-V is really a small-footprint vehicle that’s highly maneuverable, that’s battery-powered and has network and sensing capability, to allow manual and autonomous operation.”

I briefly drove one inside a GM garage, limited to no more than 5 mph. The bubble car is incredibly easy to use, fun to drive, and finally makes good use of the Segway technology Dean Kamen oversold a decade ago. Buckle up, start it, and the “car” rises up and balances on its two wheels. Pull the yoke to go forward, and pull on bars on the back of the yoke to brake. It has a 0-foot turning radius, of course.

“We know we’re not going to solve congestion,” Borroni-Bird says, “but if you can make the travel time more productive and more predictable, it’ll reduce the stresses associated with congestion.”

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/future/concept_vehicles/1203_the_case_for_the_autonomous_car/#ixzz1icWbmhzN