Motoring awards to be announced in Sharjah
It's just about motor show season already, and the International Automobile Show at Expo Centre Sharjah, which starts on November 28, has just released a short list for the Middle East Motor Awards that will be presented on its opening day. The awards are judged by a panel of 17 motor journalists from the region, and it covers 17 classes of cars. You'll have to wait until the motor show to find out the winners of each class, though. For a full list of the nominated cars, visit www.carofmiddleeast.com.
Cameras needed to watch cameras
In a suburb of Washington DC, Big Brother is even watching Big Brother. According to TheWashington Post, authorities in Prince George's County are having such a problem with speed camera vandalism that they are installing cameras to watch the speed cameras. In the past, speed cameras have been shot at, flipped over and burned. "It costs us US$30,000 [Dh110,190] to $100,000 to replace a [speed] camera," said Major Robert V Liberati of the Prince George's police. "That's a significant loss in the program. Plus it also takes a camera off the street that operates and slows people down. So there's a loss of safety for the community."
Audi nearing BMW for luxury's top spot
Audi is very close to becoming the largest luxury carmaker in the world. The German brand, having surpassed Mercedes-Benz last year in sales, moved to within 2,110 vehicles of market leader BMW last month. Last year at this time, that gap was 40,513 vehicles, according to Automotive News. Audi has sold 961,000 vehicles so far this year, a total helped by strong sales in both of the world's largest car markets, US and China, where figures jumped 18 per cent and 33 per cent respectively.
DeltaWing race car getting back on track
Remember that odd-looking DeltaWing race car that was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year? It was doing rather well until it crashed out, but the Nissan-powered racer has been confirmed to compete at the Petite Le Mans in the US from October 17-20, fielded by the Japanese carmaker. You may even see more of the car in the future; Don Panoz, who was involved with the Le Mans project, said he intends to field a car in the American Le Mans Series next season. And Nissan said provisions have been made to include the DeltaWing in the newly revised rules for ALMS for 2014, meaning the door is open for the company to field a car. Let's hope so, as it's always refreshing to see new ideas in motorsport.
Fresh look at old-style braking system
Hydraulic brake systems on cars are difficult to improve on these days, considering the technology has been worked on for almost 100 years. That's why TRW, a major car parts producer, has gone a different route in a novel new system that eschews the master cylinder, brake lines, hydraulic fluid and vacuum booster for a single electric motor. The motor would activate all the brakes, either through driver input or linked with computer safety systems. Not only does it improve braking time - capable of 1g of deceleration force in just 150 milliseconds - but it also shaves about 3kg from the weight of a car. TRW says the system should be ready for the road by 2016.
