OCTOBER 2001

Movable pedal box launched
Component manufacturer Continental Treves has developed a new adjustable pedal box designed to ensure that short people don’t sit dangerously close to the driver’s airbag. The box will appear first on American SUVs, but should spread throughout the worldwide market. Ironically, it could help tall people, too, who often find it difficult to find a decent driving position because the pedals are too close to the wheel.

Suspension that ‘thinks’
Electronics giant Delphi has produced a bi-state real-time damping monotube system (BSRTD) that will be branded the Road Sensing Suspension System and fitted to the 2002 Cadillac Escalade SUV. The system is said to improve ride, handling and even towing performance.

Digital radio gets MP3
A digital radio equipped with an MP3 player is being launched by Blaupunkt. The company claims it is the smallest, most up-to-date and modern storage media in the world. The Woodstock DAB 52 fits into a standard dashboard slot and can play up to 12 hours of MP3 files using a single CD ROM or an all-new multimedia card. The card provides two hours of music, the order of which can be configured on a home computer.

SEPTEMBER 2001

Carrera aims for efficiency
Porsche has taken a leaf out of Honda’s book with its new VarioCam Plus variable valve tinming and lift system on the new Carrera. VarioCam adjusts inlet cam timing, increasing and decreasing inlet and exhaust valve overlap. The ‘Plus’ part comprises a second cam, giving more lift at higher load and reduced lift at part load. Both functions combine to cut charge losses and improve efficiency, in exactly the same way as Honda’s new i-VTEC.

Direct route for Germans
Audi has revealed that its R8 Le Mans cars, which finished first and second this year, were using direct injection on the twin-turbo V8 engines to improve fuel consumption by around eight percent. Fuel is pumped at a pressure of more than 100 bar by a piston pump. The FSI (Fuel Stratified Injection) technology is already used on the VW Lupo, and Audi says it will appear on its production cars in the near future.

Toyota ups hybrid output
A four-wheel drive hybrid version of the Previa (called Estima in Japan) has been produced by Toyota. The company says it will build 300,000 hybrids by 2005. Toyota has also announced it intends to have its FCHV-4 fuel cell car production ready by 2003 and is testing it in Japan and California.