Car FYI

Photo Credit: Renault Spring brings a certain amount of electricity in the air. If you have attended or kept abreast of the North American auto show season, you will realize automobiles are also seeing the a futuristic light in regards to alternative energy. Electric cars or vehicles featuring the propulsion assistance through electricity is becoming as common as alloy wheels. A new beginning where established automotive players have introduced like the Chevrolet Bolt EV, all-new Toyota Prius, Acura NSX and Hyundai IONIQ, the uncharted territory in the 21st century gives some newcomers a fighting chance to make a name. Tesla Motors comes to mind immediately as a disrupter to the traditional motoring landscape with the Model S and the Model X. One Canadian company in Terrebonne, Quebec ambitions to carve a niche in the electric car market passed through an important step earlier this month. AZRA Canada, a business that touts operating Canada's largest private network of f

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy On March 27th 1986, premium motoring received a major shake-up in North America. During a time when luxury was still seen as a big, heavily vehicle with an eight-cylinder engine, the gaining momentum of import vehicles would impact the way upscale automobiles you be viewed in the United States and Canada. The first of three Japanese auto brands who have successfully launched a luxury car brand, Honda introduced Acura to the world 30 years ago. Originally classified as "Channel II" by Honda in initial planning during 1984,   In creating the Acura brand, Honda reacted to a projection of growth in the luxury car market. The dedicated luxury car marque presented the ideal opportunity to promote even more aggressive vehicles and technologies in North America. Launching with roughly 60 dealers, Acura's model line-up consisted by the 3-door and 5-door Integra as well as a V-6 powered sedan called the Legend. Both promoting a blend of performance

Photo Credit: Chevrolet Through all the focus on electrified compact vehicles and vehicle technology that is rapidly advancing to the point the steering wheel may be taken out of our hands in the near future, fans of the high-performance automobile could be understandably unnerved on occasions. As United States and Canada instituted new fuel economy targets of 54.5 miles per gallon per manufacturer, the news was also arriving with wonder of what will happen to the current sports car landscape. To be honest, it actually appears to be getting better. Thankfully, a lot of the technology going into producing more efficient cars has presented desirable qualities to the newest examples of popular high-performance and sports cars. Advancements in aerodynamics, greater integration of lightweight materials and greater development into new engine technologies used to gain advantages to explore expanded levels of go-fast driving. The sixth generation Chevrolet Camaro introduced for the 2

Photo Credit: Chris Jones St. Petersburg, Florida once again serves as the launching pad for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ 2016 campaign. The 1.8-mile street course in the vibrant tourist hot spot provided the first opportunity for open wheel drivers in the North American-based series to compete with a clean slate. The first race of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series would be contested by 22 drivers (18 returning veterans and 4 rookies to the Series) for a 110-lap main event on Sunday. Two drivers for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Canada’s James Hinchcliffe and Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin made competitive returns to the cockpit for a full season. Hinchcliffe’s 2015 season came to an end at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway following a severe crash in practice for the Indy 500. Aleshin’s suffered injuries in a practice crash in the 2014 race at Auto Club Speedway that took the driver out of the car for a year. Mikhail Aleshin was back in Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car for IndyCar

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy On International Women’s Day, it was prudent for Car FYI to recognize the many contributions of women to the auto industry. As a piece of complex machinery with no discrimination of gender itself, it is disheartening to note how past praise and innovation of automobiles have centred around men. Looking back into history, Karl Benz’s wife Bertha ultimate undertook the automobile’s first major publicity trip and endurance test. She was also instrumental in the financing of the automobile patent but could not be recognized in connections to due to her standing as a married woman in German law. With regards to the other half of Mercedes-Benz, the Mercedes name was derived from a customer of Gottieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. When it comes to vehicle design, the female influence on automobiles is a complicated story. In cases when men tried to identify with women, a laughable result was the 1955 and 1956 Dodge LaFemme that were even insultingly sexist fo

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images Keselowski Overcomes Penalty to Win Windy Las Vegas Cup Race Competing within the desert locale of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the third race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season provided an interesting challenger in the form of wacky weather. Extremely strong winds at the beginning of the race resulted in gusts that would have blown car covers off the Sprint Cup racing machine if not for some astute crew members. A very brief rain shower accompanied the wind minutes before the Kobalt Tools was scheduled to start. The momentary mist dissipated and Sunday’s race started with Kurt Busch’s #14 Chevrolet leading the 39-car field. Slowed six times due to yellow flags including a lap 30 competition caution caused by the previous rainfall on the track, the Kobalt 400's most serious melee came on lap 225 shortly after a restart. Matt Kenseth’s #20 Toyota slid loose leading to an incident that would also collect Chase Elliott and Car

Photo Credit: Audi AG This weekend, another major auto racing series receives the green flag for 2016. The Pirelli World Challenge season commences on a 3.41-mile Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas where seven categories of production-based race cars will be put through their paces by some talented sports car drivers. Presented by Nissan, the 2016 season opening rounds at the Circuit of the Americas will feature the first battles of a highly-competitive GT class. In the category where the Porsche GT3, Cadillac ATS-V.R and McLaren 650S compete door-to-door, one of Canada’s young sports car racing talents will make his debut. Barrie, Ontario’s Kyle Marcelli is the new addition to the CRP Racing organization. Making a rookie appearance in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge, Marcelli will wheel a #2 Audi R8 LMS sponsored by DeVilbiss in the GT class. Describing his new ride as an exciting team to be part of, the 26-year-old-year Canadian driver stated, "Competing in

Photo Credit: Audi AG When Audi introduced the design of their all-new Q7 last year, the luxury car producer prepared the marketplace for some radical technologies. The premium sport utility vehicle loses 325 kilograms (716.5 pounds) compared to the previous model, drivers are presented with Audi’s digital virtual cockpit and an e-tron plug-in hybrid version of the Q7 have already been established. As the spring approaches, the Audi Q7 line gains a high-performance spirt thanks to the automaker’s S model tailoring. For the European market, an Audi SQ7 TDI provides stellar acceleration through many innovative means. Despite the recent emission-cheating turmoil surrounding the presence of Volkswagen Group-supported TDI diesel products in the North America, the power source line remains a strong driver for the automaker’s brands in Europe. Not just a large portion of the sales volume of luxury brand Audi for fuel efficiency and torque production for everyday driving, diesel power