Monday, December 8, 2014

MEGA-TECH SUPER SEDAN

 
Infiniti, born of Nissan 24 years ago, made a decision in 2014 to change model designations and name Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel the brand’s Director of Performance. Infiniti had always produced performance-oriented luxury cars; now they would get a more dramatic evolution of their designs along with tweaked engines, suspension and body kits. The result was the fifth generation of the compact G sedan, now called the Q50. And for us, it was the Q50S, with body and suspension mods on top of some serious high-tech driving aids.

There’s a familiar heartbeat under that long Infiniti Q50S hood – a 3.7-liter aluminum-alloy DOHC 24-valve V-6 with 328 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. Our 10,000-mile-old Q50S was rear-wheel-drive (all-wheel-drive available), routed through a seven-speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode and long leather-accented steering column-mounted magnesium paddle shifters.

 
The Q50S is a very quick sedan, launching with just a touch of rear wheelspin to hit 60 mph in 5.4 seconds and 100 mph in 12.8 seconds. Passing power is more than adequate and the engine offers muted snarls, blipped in paddle shift or “Sport” mode downshifts. Fuel mileage on premium was about 23 mpg.


Infiniti's Q50S lives on the current FM (front mid-engine) platform shared with the 370Z. It starts with a four-wheel independent suspension, a single pivot double-wishbone in front and a multi-link design with coil springs and shock absorbers with increased camber stiffness, stabilizer bars and a bit stiffer feel on the S. The S also ditches the base Q50’s 17-inch wheels for the 19-inchers with the P245/40R19 run-flat summer tires.


 
While the Sport settings can be customized to heighten throttle and steering response, they do nothing for the suspension and that’s just fine. The Q50S has a firm but fluid suspension that handles bumps quickly and with buffered rebound. It has a nice balanced feel as it tackles daily driving and flows into turns with confidence. You can control the tail via throttle, the rears caught quickly by traction control. It can be a bit tail-happy if you are too enthusiastic. Yet it feels a bit detached when pushed harder.

One of the like/didn’t likes was Direct Adaptive Steering, which allowed me to tune steering feel from light to standard or heavy, with casual, standard or quick response. Set at heavy/quick, the steering feel was far too firm and artificial, really loading up in turns. Set to light/casual, it was too wimpy. My favorite was standard/quick, which was just fine most times but still loaded up too artificially in turns.

 
The S did have sport brakes with upgraded rotors, four-piston front calipers and two-piston rear. They stop the car straight and quick with no fade or nosedive and great pedal feel. Don’t get me wrong – the Infiniti had great poise and grip in turns. It just didn’t feel like it was having as much fun as it could be, since the electronics were playing it safe.

The last G37 was smooth, but lacked aggression. So elements from the very aggressive ‘09 Essence Concept were implanted in the Q DNA. That included the glaring sculpted headlights with C-shaped LED daytime running lights and a white LED eyebrow when on, and flank a waved mesh pattern grill. The lower air intake is wide, with an air dam and gloss black side vents with amber LED turn signal bars and inset fog lights. Our tester had five-spoke Rays Engineering gunmetal gray forged alloy wheels wearing low-profile Bridgestone Potenza P245/40R19-inch summer rubber and with large disc brakes visible. 


There’s lots of new tech inside the Q50S. Tap the unlock button on the key fob at night and the headlight LEDs glare as more lights glow in the front door handles and under the sills.  Very sci-fi! You slide into well-bolstered leather buckets seats and settle into a very driver-oriented cockpit with slashes of silver, wood and glossy black. The 180-mph speedometer and 9,000-rpm tach retain the familiar purple Infiniti illumination and frame a color trip computer screen. The eight-inch upper screen handles navigation and displays SiriusXM weather radar, sports, stock, gas station and movies. The lower seven-inch Infiniti screen replaces knobs and switches for a myriad of functions.

 
You can display driver performance information like lateral Gs, steering wheel angle, fuel flow and acceleration. It displays lateral acceleration on a sine wave-like display, but only up to a half-g, and that’s practically any turn. There are no gradients on any of the fuel displays, just a moving bar. It looks cool, but doesn’t work as well as other sports car displays. Drive Mode sets throttle and transmission response to sport, economy, standard or snow; steering to light, standard or heavy with quick or casual response; and active trace control that brakes to help cornering. Some of the displays are really overkill.


And there’s more. The Bose audio system with 14 speakers sounded great. There’s a button to activate the surround view – a pseudo birds-eye camera system to show you what’s around the car, and a fisheye front or rear view to see what’s coming from the left or right.

 
We had Intelligent Cruise that maintains distance and speed with the guy in front, then slows, stops and resumes travel in stop-and-go traffic. Forward Emergency Braking warns the driver of what the car in front is doing but claims to also track the one in front of it and apply brakes if they are all slowing down.


Active Lane Control’s camera-based system beeps when you lane drift, and makes a small steering wheel input to keep you in lane. A Lane Departure Prevention system makes steering corrections when the camera detects road surface changes or crosswinds to get you back in lane if you wander. It constantly nudges the steering and actively fights input if you change lanes without a turn signal. I shut it off – too much of an electronic nanny.

A new thin front seatback design gives more rear foot room, and more head room despite the sloping roofline. The trunk was usable too at 13.5 cubic feet.

There are seven levels of the Infiniti Q50, starting at $37,150 on up to the hybrid starting at $44,400. Our Q50S started at $43,200 with lots of standard stuff. With all the tech goodies added, the MSRP was $53,530.

 
The Infiniti Q50S is drop-dead cool looking, plus roomy, quiet, comfortable and powerful. But for all its good looks, the Q50S seems to have too much tech on its side. Of course, if you really want an Infiniti with some Red Bull in its veins, just wait for the Q50 Eau Rouge with a 560 horsepower Nissan GTR under its even more aggressive body!

SHELBY GT350 MUSTANG: LEGEND RETURNS

 
The original Shelby GT350 introduced in 1965 established Mustang’s performance credentials on the street and road racing circuits worldwide. It builds on Carroll Shelby’s original idea – transforming a great every-day car into a dominant road racer – by taking advantage of a dramatically improved sixth-generation Mustang to create a truly special high-performance car.

Ford engineers took an innovative approach with the GT350. Rather than develop individual systems to perform well independently, every component and shape is optimized to work in concert; balance is the key.

“When we started working on this car, we wanted to build the best possible Mustang for the places we most love to drive – challenging back roads with a variety of corners and elevation changes – and the track on weekends,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development. “Every change we made to this car was driven by the functional requirements of a powerful, responsive powerplant – nimble, precise handling and massive stopping power.”
Early in development of the GT350, it was decided a high-revving, naturally aspirated V8 engine would best suit a track-focused Mustang.

“The final product is essentially an all-new powerplant unique to GT350 – and one that takes true advantage of the new chassis dynamics of the Mustang platform,” said Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer, Ford Global Performance Vehicles.


 
Powering the GT350 is a 5.2-liter engine, the first-ever production V8 from Ford with a flat-plane crankshaft, an architecture typically found only in racing applications or exotic European sports cars. Unlike a traditional V8, where the connecting rods are attached to the crankshaft at 90-degree intervals, this design evenly spaces all crank pins at 180-degree intervals. The 180-degree, flat-plane layout permits a cylinder firing order that alternates between cylinder banks, reducing the overlap of exhaust pressure pulses. When combined with cylinder head and valvetrain advancements, this permits better cylinder breathing, further extending the performance envelope of the V8.

The result is the most powerful naturally aspirated production Ford engine ever, at more than 500 horsepower, with a torque peak above 400 pound-feet. The track capability is enhanced by the output characteristics of the engine – the 5.2-liter V8 features an exceptionally broad torque curve. Combined with its high-revving ability, the flat-plane 5.2-liter V8 gives drivers an enormous amount of performance and flexibility within each gear of the lightweight six-speed manual transmission. A standard Ford-tuned Torsen limited-slip differential optimizes cornering grip and straight-line traction.

The new Mustang platform is the strongest in the history of the brand, with torsional stiffness increased 28 percent over the previous model. That stiff structure ensures the suspension geometry remains consistent, even under hard driving on back roads and tracks. Front stiffness is further improved on the GT350 with a cutting-edge injection-molded carbon fiber composite grille opening and optional lightweight tower-to-tower brace. The front track has been increased while spring rates and bushings have been recalibrated all around, with ride height reduced compared to Mustang GT.


Due to the significant speeds the car can develop, the GT350 features the most track-credible brake system ever offered on a Ford vehicle in terms of absolute stopping power, fade resistance and brake pedal feel. The brakes are two-piece cross-drilled iron discs mounted to aluminum hats. At the front are massive 394-millimeter rotors clamped by Brembo six-piston fixed calipers with integrated caliper bridges, while 380-millimeter rotors at the rear utilize four-piston calipers. GT350 makes use of extra-stiff 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels – 10.5 inches wide in front, 11.0 inches in the rear – shod with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires with GT350-specific sidewall construction, tread face and compound.

Ultra-quick responsiveness to changing conditions is provided by the first-ever Ford application of continuously controlled MagneRide dampers. The dampers are filled with a hydraulic fluid impregnated with iron particles. When an electric current is passed through the fluid, a near-instant adjustment of the suspension performance can be made. With wheel position sensors monitoring motion thousands of times per second combined with other vehicle data, changes can be made to each corner independently every 10 milliseconds for optimum handling performance. This is a system designed not just to make the car handle better but to instill greater confidence in even the best driver.

 “Everything we changed on GT350 is purely functional-driven design, with the goal of improving the overall performance of the car,” said Chris Svensson, Ford design director, The Americas. “We optimized the aero shape of the car, and then fine-tuned what was left to increase downforce and cooling airflow.” All bodywork from the windshield forward is unique to this high-performance model and up to two inches lower than a Mustang GT.

The new aluminum hood has been lowered and sloped, compared to the base Mustang, tightly wrapped around the engine for the smallest possible aerodynamic signature. Front and rear aero elements have been balanced to work together on the track. The fascia has been sculpted to provide the aggressive lower front splitter with maximum pressure and a ducted belly pan delivers significant downforce. The hood outlet acts as a heat extractor while also reducing underhood lift at high speed.

At the rear, much of the engineering was focused on creating an aggressive functional diffuser doing double duty to increase downforce and provide cooling air to an optional differential cooler. A subtle lip spoiler across the trailing edge of the deck lid increases downforce without adding excess drag.



The athletic stance of the all-new Mustang is further accentuated with re-contoured aluminum front fenders to accommodate the wider front track and wider wheel arches. Front fender vents work with vented inner fenders to draw out turbulent air in the wheel wells and smoothly direct it down the side of the car. The forward-angled grille is designed with individual openings to draw air through the radiator, high-pressure engine air intake, cooling ducts for the front brakes and, optional with the Track Pack, an engine oil cooler and a transmission cooler.

Like everything else about GT350, the interior has been optimized for driving, beginning with the specially designed Recaro sport seats with a unique cloth. Hundreds of hours and many prototypes went into a seat that is both comfortable in daily driving and capable on the track. A flat-bottom steering wheel makes it easier for the driver to get in and out, and is more ergonomic on the racetrack. Gauges are upgraded to reflect the enormous performance capability of the car. Chrome and bright finishes have been reduced or eliminated to prevent sun glare that may distract the driver.

The advanced technology inherent to Mustang has been deployed for duty in the Shelby GT350. An all-new integrated driver control system allows selection of five unique modes that tailor ABS, stability control, traction control, steering effort, throttle mapping, MagneRide tuning and exhaust settings, depending on driver preference, to achieve maximum performance.

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese

Martin Reese is a 28-year-old artist based in Daytona Beach Miami and heavy duty sports fans who turned this 1983 Mercedes-Benz into a mobile mural for the Miami Heat in just a few days. He is also the artist who painted the same car for Steelers fans in time for the super bowl last year.
Despite the fact that he did not have tickets to the game it did not stop Martin from driving his Immaculate Mercedes art car 300 miles down to Miami to be with fans in time for the big game.
He wanted to show off his favorite player LeBron [James] and create a work of art that really expressed the passion for the game that he, [Dwyane] Wade, and [Chris] Bosh show while also representing the city’s atmosphere.

The whole process took  about 100 hours, began Wednesday [June 13] and finished the following Monday. He really wanted to have the car done by Game 3 so some of the painting session took as long as 24 hours. There is nothing like a little “heat” to get the job done in time.
Reese has many works of art displayed on his web site, including many tributes to famous artist and athletes. He also has a large collection of painted paddles in case you have aesthetic or disciplinary needs in the near future.

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese
The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese

The Immaculate M.E.rcedes Art Car by Martin Reese