Car FYI

  My personal experience playing Sony's Gran Turismo 7 has involved about a hour a day earning wins and vehicles or the credit to purchase in-game vehicles. With over 500 vehicles available in the auto racing simulation, it's been a pleasure to have the virtual sense of driving a whole array of cars. High performance monsters such as the LaFerrari and the Pagani Zonda-R, purpose-built racers such as the McLaren MP4/4 Formula 1 car and the Sauber Mercedes C9 or wild concept cars such as the Renault Espace F1 or the Chevrolet Corvette CX have been a few cars brought under my control through a Sony Playstation controller. Besides exploring the thrill of speed in the virtual world, I've found Gran Turismo 7 to provide an engaging opportunity to test my somewhat middling artistic skills. The customization program within the game isn't perfect but it provided the right amount of challenge and reward when working on a creation. After some time learning the tools and limitati...

Photo Credit:BMW Group BMW 2024 Product Lineup: Alpina B8 Gran Coupe, 2-Series, 3-Series, 4-Series, 5-Series, 7-Series, 8-Series, i4, i4 Gran Coupe, i5, i7, iX, M2, M3, M4, M5, M8 X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, XM, Z4 Roadster Overall Brand Impression:  BMW automobiles have a tendency of inspiring a special sense of driving passion. In recent years, the German auto giant has placed an increased focus on high-tech amenities garnering some public backlash for monetizing these already equipped features on their vehicles behind subscription services. Other source of remarkable advancement is seen with the BMW i sub-brand of electric vehicles. For 2024, BMW’s Canadian product lineup includes the new 5 Series with an i5 all-electric variant, i4 xDrive40 and X2 crossover in addition to the reworked X5 and X6. What’s New for 2024: With a history dating back to 1972, the 5 Series has been and remains one of the German marque’s most crucial models. Entering 2024, the eighth generation BMW...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/Car FYI Canada Theme of the Show: Beyond Expectations For an event that featured the Canadian debut and/or exhibition of several high-performance vehicles, the opening ceremonies were a particularly high-octane affair. The late Sergio Marchionne, than-CEO of Fiat Group and later Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), took to the stage for the company’s press conference followed by a Q&A in an act that could be viewed as brave or foolish. Just ahead of the auto show, his automaker had been reportedly asking for $700 million in government assistance to upgrade their Canadian manufacturing short of five years after the company accepted nearly $3 billion in loans from the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments in order to restructure Chrysler Group. Despite the allegations there was some serious hardball being played by the auto company, Marchionne’s speech and tone attempted to divert any hostilities drawing heavily on his personal Canadian conne...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy The recently concluded 2020 edition of the Canadian International AutoShow wraps as a grand celebration of wheels and the motors that propel them. More than just a gathering for vehicle manufacturers to impress us with their latest designs and technologies, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre played host to a multitude of ideas lined to the classic, modern and futuristic automotive genre. Within the massive gathering space was a chance to amuse yourself with various types of interactivity. Branded with the theme of “Transformative Times”, the 2020 Canadian International AutoShow acted in an attempt to shed light along the many crossroads the automobile industry faces while also reminding us of the delight of more than 100 years of motoring. Photo Credit: Chris Nagy In recent years, the Canadian International AutoShow has benefited from a high-profile lead-in that was held in Detroit. Previously a staple for January, the North American Internatio...

In recent months, an app that has received a fair bit of usage through my limited free time is Real Racing 3. An amusing race game experience for a tablet or smartphone, the game has provided some wonderfully rendered digital representations of popular race tracks and automobiles. The list of race cars available on the app currently amounts to 146 spanning the gamut of classes and categories. Real Racing 3's gaming action is also an ever-expanding virtual world. During Daytona Speedweeks, an expanded collection of NASCAR experiences were added to the game. Real Racing 3 also provides a frequent assortment of limited-time challenges allowing users of opportunity to win game currency and even vehicles by accomplishing races on a scale. For April, a Generations Challenge had added a pair of BMWs to the Real Racing 3 platform. Representing an era where car manufacturers competed in auto racing with specially-prepped, limited-production factory vehicles, the BMW 3.0 CSL ha...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy The electrified auto sector has moved at a rapid pace in the past five years. Back then, Tesla Motors only attracted attention through the production of the odd all-electric roadster while the Nissan Leaf all-electric car and the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt were only entering the marketplace. Another car garnering attention during the infancy of the electric vehicle renaissance was prepared by a Californian based company Fisker Automotive. A premium vehicle designed by the same person behind the Aston Martin DB9, the Fisker Karma was a plug-in hybrid luxury car was heavily plagued during its short production run. Production itself was delayed by two years with the first sale examples of the Karma arriving in 2011. When the remnants of Hurricane Sandy hit the upper-part of the United States in November 2012, a large quantity of Fisker Karmas was ultimately written-off when they were caught in the massive flood. The vehicle itself was also affected by an...

Last year in New York, BMW teased a concept of their X5 sport activity vehicle operating on a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Combining the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine using BMW TwinPower Turbo technology combined with an electric motor, the X5 eDrive Concept was one of many interesting ways to envision BMW's top crossover vehicle. Recently, a diesel-powered version of the BMW X5 was imported into North America allowing owners to explore greater distances between fuel stops. Less than a year since the X5 eDrive Concept debuted, the vehicle has been granted the production green light as the 2016 BMW X5 xDrive40e. Employing a similar powertrain layout displayed on the concept, the 2016 model year X5 xDrive40e operates primarily on an electric power before relying on a gasoline engine for longer range driving. From concept to production, the BMW plug-in hybrid vehicle has undergone some gains as well as some loses. The one gain made with the showroom-ready version of the ele...

Photo source: Chris Nagy Toronto is in the midst of a mayoral election where transit options have dominated the platforms of every candidate. Subways, buses, above ground trams and trains have been pitched so far. However, no matter where public transit will go, car ownership will remain an aspiration for many urban dwellers. Privacy, the ability to command a vehicle towards any desired direction at any time is right the peace of mind a large group of Torontonians are seeking. For selected members of that group, it is possible to envision the grander modes of transportation. Some of those machines of aspirations is present at this week's Motorexpo in Toronto. A focused attendee of the Canadian International AutoShow just down the road, Motorexpo 2014 has been my first quest for another exhibit of automobiles in the Queen City. The fourth time the show took place in Toronto, Motorexpo is a free to the public event hosting a select amount of vehicles at the peak of engine...