Monthly Archives: September 2013

MINI takes another step closer to autonomous vehicles with an automatic transmission…

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MINI takes another step closer to autonomous vehicles with an automatic transmission that harnesses GPS to decide when to shift

Is Mini’s GPS-aided automatic the transmission of the future?
BMW is bringing technology introduced on the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the low-end of its lineup with GPS-enhanced control of the automatic transmission in the next-generation Mini.

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Theodore Suess Giesel was a hero for reasons that go beyond his wonderful books

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Theodore Suess Giesel was a hero for reasons that go beyond his wonderful books

During world war II Dr Suess did some remarkable propoganda cartoons

Reshared post from +Mitch Wagner

"Dr. Seuss was not even in the general area of fucking around."

Dr. Seuss propaganda cartoons from World War II http://goo.gl/CrbCRk

#ftw

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Interesting article, although General Motors has been doing competitive teardowns…

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Interesting article, although General Motors has been doing competitive teardowns for decades

As a engineering co-op student at GM in 1987, there was a room at the engine plant where I was working where they had laid out in painstaking detail the V6 engine from the then-new new Acura Legend plus a couple of others.

Tearing competing products apart is only of value if management gives you the development resources to take the lessons learned and actually make something superior. In the case of GM in the late 80s, that didn't really happen. The product that resulted from those efforts was the 3.4-liter "Twin-Dual-Cam" V6 that only lasted a few years in production. Instead of building a great engine from the ground up to be better, they hacked together a lump that was huge, heavy, and only had so-so power and fuel efficiency. 

It wasn't until GM did the so-called "high-feature" 3.6-liter V6 in the 2000s during Bob Lutz's reign as product development chief that GM really had a competitive modern engine design. 

General Motors is literally tearing its competition to bits
…so its 3D scanning can reverse-engineer others’ vehicles, increasing speed to market.

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You must go see #Rush, it's a fantastic film regardless of the subject matte…

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You must go see #Rush, it's a fantastic film regardless of the subject matter

The cinematography was amazing and the story of Niki Lauda and James Hunt had plenty of drama without having to embellish it.  

Plus it's always great to see the Tyrell P34 six-wheeler in action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrrell_P34

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This is going to be very interesting to watch over the coming months

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Unlike the typical smoothly paved track, this is much more of a replica of real roads, at least here in Michigan

Reshared post from +Road & Track

Introducing our new test track: The Motown Mile http://Roadandtra.ac/6267wfk3

Introducing our new test track: the Motown Mile
No matter how good our words are, no matter how finite we can get on the description, eventually we need to run what we brung on a track. And now we have one. Introducing Road & Track’s own Motown Mile.

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