Sure, it wasn’t necessarily a cure for cancer but judging from the elaborate celebration Kia hosted after rolling out production car no.1 in the US, it sure looked like one.
The 2011 Kia Sorento made history of sorts in the US after it became the first ever vehicle to be rolled out of the Kia Motors Manufacturing plant in Georgia. The occasion marks a milestone achievement for Kia as the Sorento likewise became the first-ever Kia vehicle to be built in America.
Kia’s vision to become a major player in the US took a huge step forward after the Korean automaker officially opened the 2,200 acre facility in Georgia. As it stands, the plant has over 2,500 employees and, more importantly, has the potential to produce 300,000 cars per year.
According to B.M. Ahn, president and CEO of Kia Motors America and KMMG, “The start of production at our first manufacturing facility in the United States further demonstrates our commitment to growth in North America and we are proud to be adding 2,500 jobs to the local economy.”
With the opening of the KMMG, Kia has spiked its global production capacity to over 2.56 million units year after the Georgia plant joins other production plants located in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Relatively speaking, this occasion is monumental given the circumstances surrounding the auto industry over the past couple of months. Opening a state-of-the-art facility amidst strenuous times shows that Kia is moving on to become one of the major players in the industry now and in the future.
If you can find a car manufacturer that has had a more successful time crossing over into making mainstream items than Ferrari, then we’d love to know who it is.
The latest brainchild of Ferrari – and one that is quite a ways away from supercars – is a carbon fiber guitar, which it created in partnership with Blackbird.
The Blackbird Rider Ferrari Edition carbon fiber guitar was created by Joe Luttwas, who, incidentally, spent some years working for Ferrari. In addition to being lightweight, compact, crisp sounding, the guitar comes with some pretty noticeable designs that are well and truly inspired by the Prancing Horse, including a red interior, a red A string, and obviously, a Ferrari insignia on the head of the guitar.
Before you start fawning over this guitar, we do have to say that, unfortunately, all of the guitars – which, by the way, was autographed by Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa - have already sold out. Don’t worry though; we do have a video of the Blackbird Rider Ferrari Edition carbon fiber guitar in all its musical glory.
At some point, our threshold for seeing exotic car crashes is going to be snapped. But until that time, we just have to stomach them and move on. The latest victim of the lethal mix of bad driving and bad weather is an Aston Martin DB9. In this video shot in Warsaw, Poland, the DB9 was speeding along a wet road when it loses control before slamming into a tree, breaking it in half in the process.
The DB9 then spins a couple of times before resting to a stop with the fallen tree just a few feet away from the car. Imagine what would have happened if the impact of the crash forced the DB9 to stop and the tree falling on top of it. Despite the damage done to his ride, the driver was enormously lucky not to have been crushed under a tree trunk.
It may not be the most aesthetically-pleasing car out on the market, but the Tango electric car does have Jay Leno’s stamp of approval. And in the auto industry, that speaks volumes.
The pencil-thin, yet surprisingly-fast electric car was the subject in the latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. In the episode, Leno talks with the inventor of the Tango, Rick Woodbury, and the two discuss the uniqueness of the car despite its rather peculiar appearance. In a rare moment of seriousness, Leno looked as if he was genuinely interested in what Woodbury had to say, which is pretty significant because the comedian wastes little time in trying to crack jokes at other people’s expense. One particularly important point that was stressed was the Tango’s use of lead acid batteries as compared to the lithium-ion variety, which Woodbury admits the company still doesn’t have the budget for. Nevertheless, the inventor of the Tango stressed that the company is proceeding plans with putting lithium-ions in the Tango in the near future.
After their conversation, Leno then takes the Tango out for a ride and is pretty impressed with the ride, even saying that the car’s unique ability to split lanes – according to 63 police officers Woodbury asked, all of them have said that it’s perfectly legal – makes it the perfect traffic buster.
Another Leno quip that made us crack was when he said that the Tango’s the only car that you can hang both your arms on both windows. The man hasn’t lost his touch.
This animation ad isn’t in any way shape or form associated with Tesla, but judging from the professionalism done behind it, you’d figure that it would be something that they’d wanted to have on their portfolio.
The homemade video was done by some dude named Kirk Perry and, suffice to say, it’s pretty good – good enough to get our endorsement, at least. The modest designer even said that this particular work involving a digital model of the Tesla S is nothing more than just practice for him, saying that he was just experimenting with some new techniques using After Effects.
If anybody over at Tesla happens to see this, you might want to give Mr. Perry a project - or two.
Its six minutes long, but we guarantee that it’s worth the watch.
And no, this is not an ad for the Nissan GT-R. What it is, is a independent short film by Dylan Osborn titled ‘Inheritance’.
The whole plot revolves around four siblings whose wealthy father recently died. As part of his will, he orders his children to race around the estate, on to the backroads, and back home to the finish line. The price? His entire riches, complete with ‘the keys to the kingdom’.
As you can expect, the kids came with some pretty nice rides of their own, except the ‘rebel daughter’ Emily, which, brought with her a Datsun 240Z. Having pretty much thrown in the towel, Emily gets a nice surprise from the family butler, who hands her the key to a Nissan GT-R.
We’re not going to spoil the ending so as not to ruin the whole thing. Better watch it.
Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo - what is it all about? Racing of course! but there is another aspect about this trophy you do not know about! During each race an impressive number of supercars, expensive and exclusive supercars, are being killed!
The earlier report we had of the man who drove his Bugatti Veyron into a lagoon has been made a little clearer after a video was taken of the accident by a civilian who happened to be in the area when the ‘accidental dive’ took place.
Also, according to the Galveston Daily News, the identity of the man behind the wheel of the Veyron was one Andy Lee House, a man who, ironically, owns Performance Auto Sales, a shop that specializes in restoring exotic cars.
We can’t argue against the irony in this story, other than the fact that, contrary to previous reports, there were no pelicans in sight during the whole ordeal.
Suffice to say, it was just a case of a driver going too fast for his – and his cars – own good. Fortunately, he won’t have too much trouble looking for a place that can piece his Veyron back in tip-top shape.
After a highly-successful inaugural event last year, the GoldRush Rally is back for a much-anticipated second serving.
The 2010 GoldRush Rally, which is being billed as gR2KX, will take place from June 8-13, 2010. From what we’ve heard, the route for the second GoldRush Rally will being in Seattle going to Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, before concluding in Las Vegas.
The GoldRush Rally is a great way for car aficionados to get their fix of the latest and fastest machines in the planet today. Taking from the success of the inaugural this year, the 2010 GoldRush Rally is shaping up to be one for the books.
Check out this video for a small teaser of what to expect for the 2010 GoldRush Rally.
This year’s Ferrari World Finals in Valencia, Spain was supposed to be the culmination of a year-long Ferrari racing series that takes place all over the world. What was supposed to be the final round of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy and the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge ended up being overshadowed by a rather amusing and dim-witted incident involving three of the brand’s biggest names, Ferrari chief Luca Di Montezemolo and Ferrari’s 2010 F1 drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
In respect to both Massa and Alonso, they weren’t really to blame for the incident because they just happened to be sitting in the same car as the real culprit, Di Montezemolo himself.
The trio were parading around the track in a Ferrari California when Di Montezemolo – he was the one driving, by the way – decided to make an unplanned pit stop and drove into the gravel pits. Predictably, the California ended up getting stuck into the gravel after the rear tires got beached.
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