G. David Felt

Dwight, I am surprised as this is one of your shortest comments and I enjoy reading your technical insight. So other than refinement, what other specific issues would you have with this? I have changed my 94 Suburban from TBI to a FuelInjection which allowed me to convert to CNG so it runs on both and runs very well.

Neons are gone from the Seattle Roads except for one style which is in plenty around here. SRT4 Versions, you see them everywhere along with the STI's. Seems to be the two big camps for racing and getting into trouble.

I agree with you on what I have read about a single larger turbo, what do you think about a twin scroll single turbo? Do you still keep all the efficiencies of a large turbo but have the gain of the small section to keep a wide flat torque with minimal turbo lag? Lot's to learn still on Turbo's, I have always been a supercharger guy. I felt the 3800 SC V6 engine was awesome and still think they should have done this for the ATS, CTS and XTS

Great to see you back here Cort. Wishing you all the best and that this year turns around for you on a positive flow.

Are the changes visible big or small? Can you list what he changed as I kept this test theme and I changed and went back to it this morning but everything looks the same still to me. I might just not be that observant in little details.

Pricing has me impressed as it is a great starter car pricing and featured. What disappoints me is the gas mileage for this type of car. Poor Fuel Efficient engines. Also what is the torque as you can have all the horsepower in the world, but when you do not have the torque to move your ass then you either become an accident or worse. Not impressed with high HP engines and little bit of Torque and then having a 4 banger that gets no better gas mileage than a bullet proof american V8. There is something truly wrong with this picture.

I wonder if Mazda's mini 1.8L V6 had anything to gain over a 3 cylinder motor?????? Wondering if a balanced mini v6 or v8 would do better than a small 3 cylinder or 2 stroke motor.

Any time you want to visit Seattle, I be happy to show you around and if it is during ski season, I take you with me and my son up the mountain. A good Pink wax job or Avacado wax for our heavy wet snow but it is killer to hit the back side of Cowboy ridge and do 2 1/2 mile runs in poweder. http://www.stevenspass.com/

Drew do post, I love videos like that.

Still think they should merge with Mazda and Subaru and have a nice complete company of auto's to sell.

I do not see why they could not use a .5L generator running on diesel or CNG and use a step up transformer to get the amount of electricity into the battery pack.

TBI had it's day. That shipped sailed and we need to continue to find better ways and improve on current versions.

Wicked Cool! Me Likey Likey I like the tire, but I think it would be cool if we had an Engine option, Tranny option, etc. If you used the cut away view of those images with our logo I think that would be very cool indeed.

Seattle has a november like winter storm for our first day of Spring. Raining cats and dogs with heavy wind in the city and dumping like crazy in the mountains. Skiing will be awesome this week. Since the storm started shortly after midnight, 6" has dumped already and they expect 2-3 feet today.

I have always said that what's needed isn't more gears per say but a wider ratio spread -- the lowest gear divided by the tallest. The 7-speed and 8-speed boxes tend to have a wider spread, and this is where the overwhelming majority (like 95%) of the fuel economy advantage comes from. However, more speeds doesn't automatically translate to wider spread. For example:- The current GM 6L80 6-spds auto = 6.05 ratio spread (This is about as good as 6-speed conventional automatics get) ZF's 8HP 8-speed auto (used by BMW) = 7.04 ratio spread Aisin's TL80SN (used by Lexus) = 6.71 ratio spread GM's latest 8-speed to be put into the CTS 3.6 Bi-turbo = 6.71 ratio spread (I suspect it's the same Aisin sourced box as Lexus') Mercedes' 7G-tronic 7-speed auto = 8.86 (best in the world at the moment) Hypothetically, if you are to create a 6-speed transmission with a ratio spread of 7.05:1 it'll accelerate just as fast as the 8-speed ZF in 1st and be just as economical on the freeway in top gear. Acceleration performance through the gears is arguable. An 8-speed allows for closer ratios in between gears and keeps the engine in a slightly more optimal powerband. Yet, having 8-speeds and closer ratios means that you shift more often and in the fraction of a second when the shift occurs, engine power is temporarily interrupted. So, it is hard to say which will be faster. In a V8 or bi-turbo V6 engine with meaty and flat power curves, less gears may actually be faster. In a small displacement engine making peak power high up and in a narrow rpm range (like a Honda S2000 engine for instance) more speeds is probably faster. Hi Dwight, If the auto companies then properly program the tranny, you should get great performance from an 8 or 9 speed tranny equal to what you would get out of a 4 or 5 speed. The logic would go that under normal driving to improve MPG they move through the gears as needed to optimize shift points to get every mile out of each squirt of fuel. Under hard acceleration, the tranny should then move into performance mode and do a 1,3,5,7 or 8 shift or in the case of the 9 speed, 1,3,5,7,9 as it holds each gear longer and then shifts to the next gear based on RPM and throttle. Is this what I gather from your great info?

Seniors

They will try and try again but in the end they will be another footnote in the History Books.

For what they will charge for this car, I would pass as it is an AMG with an Over Boosted 4 banger that I expect will have a short life as an engine. With all the Nanny devices being rammed down our throats, there is no way this will be light enough to be a worthwhile driving machine. MB Lemmings will flock to it, but once they own it they will regret the crazy money they spent on it.

Right and if you believe that I have a awesome Ski cabin in North Korea to sell you too. The government requirements and tie up will make most companies rethink the situation. Take a high risk china company, let them buy the technology and then they will say they cannot make this work and declare bankruptcy and disappear along with the technology and then it will reappear in the form of a new Chinese company. They are good at pirating / stealing products from America.

Naw, most people do not care or really understand the tranny. Marketing has always pushed HP which is a bogus thing also unless you have the proper Torque. Torques moves everything.

XTS has a place and there are still plenty of baby boomers and livery that will want the XTS. With the TT V6, stretch an XTS into a Limo and you have a solid power plant as long as it is reliable.

Not bad for racing orange.

I like the idea of day time running lights in the shape of the company logo or brand name. Just imagen a cool outlined GMC, Chevy bowtie shape daytime running light, tri-shield lights, etc. Would be pretty cool.

This seems more of a regular rich person car...the uber rich will go for a Bentley and the mega rich will go for a Roller.. I like your thinking! Course they are all ubber rich compared to what I make.

Looks like any other normal high end conservative car. Seems to have noticeable body role. Not a fan of the 3 weird circle tail lights. Will still be very successful for them. Excess that the ubber rich will be happy to flaunt.