100th Anniversary INDY 500: A 95th Race For The Ages

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100th Anniversary INDY 500: A 95th Race For The Ages

One could tell through the driver introductions that this first race ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the 100th year that the race track, located near the postal stop of Speedway, Indiana, was going to one for the ages.

It is not just because the 95th race since the track was established was marking a monumental milestone in time, but that this was quite possibly, the most experienced and talented group of drivers, ever, to be fielded for an INDY 500 race ... really!

Five former champions, two 48 year-olds (John Andretti and Davey Hamilton), and a hoard of drivers with multiple starts, in the Dallara that will be running in its final year of competition, at this track.

Scott Dixon took the lead from the Green Flag and the field settled down with little incident thoughout the first eight laps until Tagliani passed Dixon for the lead.

Simona De Silvestra pulled in after brushing the wall, changed tires, adjusted the front wing and rejoined the field one lap down.

At the end of 15 the top of the order which is lapping at around 221mph sees Tagliani, Dixon, Townsend Bell, Dan Weldon, Dario Franchitti, Oriol Servia, Will Power, Ed Carpenter, Bertrand Baguette, and Buddy Rice With Graham Rahal making the biggest move of 9 positions from 29 to 20

Lap 21, Paul Tracy and Takuma Sato hit the wall in separate incidents. Tracy pulls onto pit lane and Sato's off brings a Yellow Flag.

Pit Stops on Lap 23 - Will Power leaves without a left rear tire ... the tire rolls along the pit wall and ends up in another pit.

At the Gree Flag on Lap 28 its Tagliani, Dixon, Bell, Franchitti, Servia, Weldon, Carpenter, Miera, Kanaan, and Rice - EJ Viso clobbers the wall and brings out the Yellow Flag going three wide with Hinchcliff and Viso touch. Scott Dixon had passed Tagliani on the restart.

This should be "IT" for EJ Viso ... the most expensive driver in modern open-wheel history.

Lap 32 Green Flag has Dixon, Tagliani, Bell, Franchitti, Servia, Weldon, Carpenter, Miera, Kanaan, and Rice on the double file restart. Everyone makes it through with Townsend Bell dropping positions.

Oriol Servia is also dropping spots all of the way back to 9th with the top five being Dixon, Tagliani, Franchitti, Weldon, and Carpenter on Lap 37.

Lap 44, Franchitti passed Tagliani placing Target Chip Ganassi teammates at P1 and P2.

Lap 50 has Dixon, Franchitti, Weldon, Tagliani, and Bell in the top 5 positions. Kanaan is up to P6 from P22. Rahal is up to P6 from P29. The biggest surprise is that NO Penske is in the top 10!

The top Penske team driver after 50 laps is Castroneves in P13, followed by Briscoe in P21, and Power in P26.

Pit Stops were just beginning when the Yellow Flag flew with 61 laps - Jay Howard was just coming out of a pit stop and loses a wheel and smacks the wall. Danica Patrick comes in for a quick fuel stop with the pits being closed.

Can't anyone tighten a single lug nut? Can we get a NASCAR wheel guy in there?

Andretti Autosport is also having its troubles with Danica Patrick being shown in P13, Marco Andretti in P16, and John Andretti in P24.

Green Flag Double file restart on lap 71 sees the top five as Franchitti, Dixon, Tagliani, Weldon and Bell.

Some of the tires that came off in the last round of pit stops were worn down to the cord (fabric) layer.

Lap 80 has P24 Ryan Hunter-Reay as the last car on the lead lap. He brushed the wall three laps earlier. Top five cars are pulling away - Dixon, Franchitti, Tagliani, Weldon, and Bell. P6-P10 ... JR Hildebrand, Servia, Carpenter, Graham Rahal, and Tomas Scheckter.

After 98 laps, Graham Rahal is in the top 10 at P8 ... Dixon, Franchitti Weldon, Tagliani, and Bell are the top 5. Marco Andretti breaks into the top 10 at P10 and Ryan Broscoe is the top Penske at P13.

Lap 100 has pit stops by many of the leaders - CRASH, Franchitti wins again as he just entered the pits ... that is twice in one race.

Oriol Servia's Newman Haas teammate, James Hinchcliff, gets high and skids into the wall Yellow Flag pit stops begin on lap 102.

On Lap 107 Green Flag drops with the top 10 being reset with Franchitti benefitting from his good fortune followed by Oriol Servia, Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, Scott Dixon, Dan Weldon, Alex Tagliani, Townsend Bell, JR Hildebrand, and ...... Ryan Briscoe. Four wide down the front straight with 18 cars on the lead lap.

Helio just passed Dario Franchitti to get his lap back on Lap 109 and is now using the rosary to get a Yellow Flag called so he can go around.

Lap 112 Oriol Servia uses P2P for the first time and gets by Dario Franchitti for P1!

Servia is using Helio Castroneves to draft for speed and stay away from Franchitti. Danica Patrick breaks into the top ten while Alex Tagliani is slowing and has dropped back to P13.

Servia dispatches Castroneves on lap 120 which gives him a temporary cushion as Dixon passes Marco Andretti to secure P3.

Two of the three Penske Racing cars are one lap down. Ryan Briscoe is in the top 10 at P8.

Dario Franchitti passes Servia for the lead on lap 130 placing him in a Ganassi sandwich.

Tagliani gets placed one lap down on Lap 134 at P17 due to poor handling. Dan Weldon pits from P5.

Dario in at Lap 136, Green Flag stops are in full swing. Rookie JR Hildebrand takes the lead.

Lap 148 and the next to last pit stops have been made. Top 10 are Dario Franchitti pulling away by about 10 seconds from Scott Dixon, Servia, Weldon, M.Andretti, Bell, Kanaan, Hildebrand, Patrick and Rahal.

Yellow Flag - Alex Tagliani, the pole sitter, slams the wall and this ends the day for Sam Schmidt Racing's best hope for a win.

Helio Castroneves and the rest of the lap down cars come back in to the pits for fuel and tires.

At this point the race looks as if it is Target Chip Ganassi's to win with his cars running P1, P2, and P8 (Rahal) running in the top 10.

Danica Patrick is up to P7.

Lap 155 Green Flag Restart has three abreast, and running two aside for most of the first lap.

Lap 157 Yellow Flag - Townsend Bell and Ryan Briscoe take each other out. Helio Castroneves is running without a tire on the rim. Bell chops down on Briscoe in a corner and the tangled mess slides into the wall. Penske Racing and Sam Schmidt Racing are having a horrible 500.

Lap 164 has Franchitti ducking in for fuel.

Lap 165 Green Flag leads with Servia, Rahal, Dixon, Kanaan, Weldon, Scheckter, Hildebrand, Patrick, Carpenter, and Franchitti round out the top 10.

Graham Rahal passes Servia for the lead.

Lap 169 Dixon passes Servia for P2.

Lap 172 Dixon passes Rahal for the lead. Kanaan passes Servia for P3.

Lap 176-178 Kanaan and Rahal duel for P2 with Kanaan on top for now ... no Rahal ... no Rahal pit Stop.

Patrick takes the lead with 20 laps to go ... needs about 4 extra laps of fuel to make it to the end.

Lap 185 - 15 to go - Patrick, Baguette, Scheckter, M. Andretti, Franchitti, Hildebrand, Dixon, Weldon, Kimball and Kanaan.

Lap 187 Bertrand Baguette passes Patrick on the back straight but both cars can not make it to the end on fuel. Tomas Scheckter pits for fuel so Franchitti moves to P4.

Patrick in for fuel on Lap 190. Franchitti in P2 behind Baguette.

Three laps to go and Rookie JR Hildebrand passes Franchitti for the lead as Baguette comes in for fuel.

The Panther Racing's National Guard sponsored Dallara receives the White Flag. The rookie hits the wall coming out of turn #4 giving Dan Weldon his second win of the INDY500 ... the 9th driver to do so. JR Hildebrand crosses the line with three wheels in P2. Ganassi's Service Central Sponsored Dallara driven by Graham Rahal sneaks in at P3 to finish the podium.

Brian Herta Motorsports William Rast sponsored Dallara WINS THE INDY 500.

The final finishing top 10 places - P4-P10 - Kanaan, Servia, Dixon, Baguette, Scheckter, M. Andretti, and Patrick.

What a beginning to the Centennial Era of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

... notes from The EDJE

2012 Volkswagen Passat

2012 Volkswagen Passat - Click above for high-res image gallery

The 2012 Volkswagen Passat is facing a kind of perfect storm of skepticism from long-time fans of the brand. Volkswagen has wasted no chance to tell the world that the company's newest sedan will be custom-tailored to the American market, with styling and packaging tweaks designed to set the vehicle apart from its European counterpart. If that weren't enough, the new North American Passat will also carry the distinction of being the first VW product to be built at the automaker's brand-new assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

VW fans have always embraced the German flavor of their vehicles, but as the company pushes toward its (massively ambitious) goal of selling 800,000 units per year by 2018, we can expect to see more market-specific products in our neck of the woods. That trend kicked off with the 2011 Jetta – a vehicle that sacrificed interior materials and suspension refinement to meet a lower price point while growing larger to accommodate American tastes.

Does the Passat share a similar fate? When the sedan first debuted at this year's Detroit Auto Show, it came packing a host of styling cues lifted directly from the smaller Jetta. That lead many onlookers (ourselves included) to conclude that in creating its new mid-sized sedan, Volkswagen had simply supersized the Jetta.
There's no denying that the 2012 Passat is cut from the same design cloth as the 2011 Jetta. In fact, when the two vehicles are parked next to one another, it takes a keen eye to distinguish between the two. That's thanks in no small part to the fact that Volkswagen has slathered its new familial nose over the fascia, hood and fenders of both vehicles. The look is right at home on the larger Passat, with its slightly aggressive headlights, three-bar grille and scowling hood. Along the sides of the vehicle, a new crease runs from stem to stern just below the window sills.

The rear of the vehicle is adorned with taillamps that do a smart job of integrating both that crease and additional body lines. While the overall aesthetics of the Passat's exterior is conservative compared to offerings like the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima, the overall effect is incredibly cohesive. Nothing seems tacked on. Instead, the exterior seems to be the product of a singular vision with a focus on getting the details right. No matter where your eyes rest, they're bound to fall on a line that runs nearly uninterrupted around the entire vehicle. It may not raise anyone's pulse, but in the flesh, the four-door carries itself well.

Base models wear 16-inch steel wheels with plastic covers, though 16-, 17- and 18-inch alloy rollers are also available depending on the trim specification. The options are somewhat smallish by today's standards, but larger sizes look sharp enough rolling down the road.

Indoors, we were happy (relieved?) to find a cabin that has lost very little of its German flavor on its way to the States. While the Jetta swapped most of its softer dash and trim components for well-grained but cheap-feeling plastics, the Passat has held onto higher-quality materials, at least in the places that matter most. The upper portion of the dash is clad in soft-touch goodness, though everything below the copious amounts of faux wood-grain trim is treated to the harder stuff. Still, touches like a leather-wrapped steering wheel in higher trims and excellent seating surfaces go a long way toward making the cabin feel like a quality space. Volkswagen said that it specifically wanted to focus on the vehicle's touch points – that is, where your body actually makes contact with the cabin – and that work has paid off.

For 2012, Volkswagen has built almost four additional inches into the Passat, and most of that length has found its way into the rear foot well. Rear passengers are now treated to 39.1 inches of legroom, which is nearly a full inch more than the Toyota Camry and almost two inches more than the Honda Accord. For drivers with kids, that translates into miles of motoring bliss without feeling Junior kicking you in the back from his car seat. It also means that even the jolliest of green giants can fit in the back without feeling cramped.

One of the biggest highlights of the 2012 Passat interior is its sound system. Volkswagen teamed up with Fender to create a nine-speaker audio system that pushes 400 watts of power. We aren't certified audiophiles, but to our ears, the stereo is capable of besting anything else in the segment. While an integrated subwoofer is part of the kit, the bass is never overbearing. Instead, deeper tones are nearly seamlessly integrated into the music. The system is standard on SEL models and optional on both S and SE trims.

Volkswagen has worked to slim its option sheet to just 16 buildable combinations down from 128 possibilities, and as a result, long-time Passat fans will find a few notable omissions. Buyers will no longer be able to enjoy a wagon version of the vehicle. Likewise, 4Motion all-wheel drive is nowhere to be found. Volkswagen admits it deleted those options to make ordering easier on both dealers and buyers and to focus its products where American shoppers spend the most money. Additionally, the 2012 Passat is only available with three engines. Those include a 2.5-liter gasoline five-cylinder with 170 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque as well as a 3.6-liter gasoline V6 with 280 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of twist.



The Passat will also be available with a 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel four-cylinder with 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. That means this four-door is the only sedan in the mid-sized segment available with an oil-burning engine under its hood, a move that wins it all sorts of points in our book.

The smaller of the gasoline engine options will be available with either a six-speed automatic transmission or a five-speed manual gearbox, while the larger V6 can only be had with the dual-clutch cog-swapper. We're happy to report that Volkswagen has left some quirkiness in the Passat line by offering the 2.0 TDI engine with both the DSG and a six-speed manual option.

You can probably guess which we'd opt for.



We were able to spend time in both a 2.5-liter, automatic-equipped Passat and its 2.0-TDI, DSG counterpart in mixed driving. Though the big German sedan weighs in between 3,300 and 3,400 pounds depending on engine and transmission choices, neither engine has a particularly hard time moving the Passat in any conditions. The five-cylinder gasoline engine offers similar power to four-cylinder options in both the Camry and Accord, and as such, there's enough grunt on hand to keep the vehicle on pace with the rest of traffic. The six-speed dual-clutch transmission offers quick, smooth shifts with excellent logic for choosing the right gear at the right time, though expect to downshift a gear or two for long grades or quick acceleration.

VW says that while the EPA hasn't finished its fuel economy evaluation for the Passat, the company expects the 2.5-liter powered sedan to see 21 miles per gallon in the city and 32 mpg on the highway in manual guise and 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway with the autobox of our tester. Those numbers put the base entry around three mpg behind the Hyundai Sonata on the combined scale and 1.5 mpg behind a comparably equipped Honda Accord.



Of course, if fuel economy is your concern, the 2.0-liter TDI is the engine to have. While down on horsepower compared to the larger-displacement gasoline engine, the four-cylinder lump kicks out a walloping 59 more pound-feet of torque. As a result, the TDI-equipped Passat feels and drives like a sedan you want to spend time in. The 2.5-liter plays Justin Bieber to the diesel four-door's Barry White – both are plenty successful, but after a while, you only really want to listen to one of the two.

As in other applications, all that torque comes on at a low 1,750 rpm, which means you're rewarded with an addictive amount of low-end grunt that pulls with a vengeance. As in the Jetta TDI, the 2.0-liter engine is quiet both inside and out, producing marginally more engine noise than its petrol counterparts. If this is beginning to read like a love letter to the little oil-sucker, it's not by mistake. All told, VW expects to see 31 mpg city and 43 mpg highway for a total of 37 mpg combined. Remarkably, those are all better numbers than the official ones for the smaller 2011 Jetta TDI, which scores 30/42/34 mpg from the EPA. We encountered just over 40 mpg combined during our time behind the wheel of the Passat TDI.

If there's a downside to going diesel, it lies in the fact that the Passat requires a urea exhaust additive to combat particulate emissions. The automaker says that the special tank only needs to be filled every 10,000 miles, even though the vehicle can theoretically make it 50,000 miles before running dry.

Unlike the Jetta, the Passat still comes with a four-link independent suspension out back, which, while more expensive to manufacture, makes for an incredibly solid-feeling vehicle no matter the condition of the pavement. Volkswagen turned us loose on a lengthy jaunt through Tennessee that covered everything from highway stints to twisting mountain passes and small-town traffic, and the suspension nearly delivered the coveted Goldilocks sweet spot of not-too-harsh, not-too-soft driving. Pavement imperfections were dispatched with just a little more float than we'd like, though understeer and body roll were both kept to a minimum in more athletic circumstances. This is a family sedan, after all.

Volkswagen hasn't announced pricing for the 2012 Passat just yet, but the company says that it's aiming for a price point in the low-$20K range with topped-out models landing in the lower- to mid-$30K range. Those numbers would be in line with the Honda Accord, which starts at $21,180 without destination, though they sit a good bit north of metal like the Toyota Camry at $19,820 and Hyundai Sonata at $19,395. The last Passat carried a base MSRP of $26,995 in 2010, though given the German automaker's recent insistence on being price competitive, we wouldn't be surprised to see the 2012 model land well below that figure.

Exactly where the company plans to price its newest sedan will play heavily on how successful it manages to be in a segment that's fiercely competitive. Thanks to reworked machines from Korean and domestic manufacturers, big players from Nissan, Honda and Toyota have found themselves defending their respective thrones in America. The 2012 Passat underscores the fact that Volkswagen plans to be a legitimate player in this fray for the first time in the nameplate's history – even if not every brand purist chooses to go along for the ride.

Video: Autoglass envisions the windshield of 2020

Autoglass windshield of 2020 - Click above to watch the video after the jump

We don't spend much time thinking about our windshields, yet we spend a good portion of our lives looking right through them. But that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for improvement. The folks at Autoglass envision a smart windshield that does away with a nav screen on the center stack in favor of all the necessary information being displayed on your auto's most important piece of glass.

Beyond the jump is a video simulation that shows what that windshield might look like from the driver's seat. Among the displayed information is data for navigation, music, speed and fuel. The futuristic, king-of-all-head-up-displays also warns of pedestrians and an arrow even points to potential destinations.

Apparently, the windshield isn't smart enough to know that the vehicle is driving on the wrong side of the road. And if you're hoping the five-speed auto transmission will be dead and gone by 2020, it'll be alive and well, at least according to this demo. Must be a Honda. Hit the jump to watch the windshield of 2020 in (simulated) action.

Millennials "Peer" Into Ride-Sharing Transportation Service

Image Credit: Getaway.com

Millennials "Peer" Into Ride-Sharing Transportation Service

In a tough economy, especially one where one might find themselves living in a high-density metropolis, car-ownership may not strike one as ownership at all. Most cars are purchased on time (so the finance company actually owns the car), it gets parked during the day at a parking structure near ones work (so a parking lot service takes possession of the car for a fee for this time), the insurance company owns an interest stake which the person who maintains the title on the vehicle pays in order to even out the potential for a catastrophe, and so on, and on, and on!

So here is an idea that is catching on with Millennials who are beginning to realize that if one owns a car, they actually have an asset that can help pay for itself. By renting the car when it is not in use, it can provide a temporary solution to a transportation problem for people who find themselves in need of a short-term, self-directed, closed-loop ride.

Enter Getaround - Getaround specializes in providing a seamless, peer-to-peer car-sharing experience by using smartphone technology to empower people everywhere to share vehicles and utilize smarter transportation options. For as little as $6 an hour, users can conveniently rent cars from people nearby … by the hour, day, or week and save hundreds of dollars on car payments, auto insurance, and maintenance. Car owners, while making a positive impact on the environment, can make money by renting out their cars to help offset the high costs of car ownership. Through building a community founded on trust and technology, Getaround can make it easy to, well … get around!
(description ht: Getaround website)

How it works - people who have a car they want to share can make them available by setting the price per hour or day for their car when they’re not planning on using it. People who need a car are able to sign-up for the vehicle. The owner maintains the final say in who can rent their car. When a rental is confirmed, a user gets a key on the Getaround iPhone app to unlock the car.

Getting access to cars is provided through a remote car kit that an owner installs easily in their car. A renter then uses the digital key found in the Getaround iPhone app to unlock the car when they arrive. The physical car key is left inside. Renters insurance is handled by Berkshire Hathaway, which provides liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage that supersedes the policies of both owners and renters during the rental period.

Getaround’s founder, Sam Zaid, outlined that the service uses a reputation management system with review and ratings so owners and renters can get a sense of who they’re dealing with. The start-up makes money by taking a 40 percent cut of each transaction.

Image Credit: Getaway.com

This excerpted and edited from Sustainable Industries –

Rent your neighbor's ride
By Sara Stroud - Sustainable Industries, May 2, 2011

San Francisco has emerged as the test bed for new peer-to-peer car sharing services like Getaround, RelayRides and Spride Share that hope to turn a profit while reducing the impact of carbon-spewing vehicles by eliminating the need to own one. These startups are betting that there are thousands of people like Prager and Lee in San Francisco, home to a population of techno-savvy, environmentally conscious early adopters already accustomed to sharing on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks born in the Bay Area.

And so Getaround and its competitors are using the city’s hilly streets to try out business models that could make borrowing your neighbor’s car only slightly more difficult than borrowing a cup of sugar.

But the companies aren’t just competing with each other. They’re going head-to-head with the idea of what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours, banking on seemingly un-businesslike concepts of trust and sharing, and hoping to create community along with profits.

The idea for Getaround was hatched in 2009. Two of its three founders, Jessica Scorpio and Sam Zaid, were among the inaugural class at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley interdisciplinary postgraduate program aimed at using technology to solve social, environmental and humanitarian problems.
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While many companies are focused on revamping transportation through electric vehicles, biofuels and other disruptive technologies, Scorpio and her colleagues wanted to focus on something that could have a more immediate impact.

Getaround’s founders decided they wanted to upend conventional ideas about car ownership. Established car sharing companies like Zipcar were a great start, as they saw it.
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Shelby Clark came to a similar conclusion in his own car sharing experience, which inspired him to start RelayRides, a peer-to-peer car sharing startup that was born in Boston and is now headquartered in San Francisco.

Clark turned to car sharing after a cross-country move in 2007. His car broke down, and after dragging his muffler across the state of Nevada, the car struggled across the Bay Bridge, collapsed in San Francisco and never started again. Clark signed up for Zipcar to tide him over until he bought a new car. A year later, he was still car free, and hadn’t missed the burdens of ownership.
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Since the cars in the peer-to-peer services are people’s personal vehicles, there’s a much wider range of rides available than there is through a typical car rental or a traditional car sharing service. There’s also likely to be personal touches, like random CD collections, or in Prager’s case, a little dog hair – call it the fuzzy-dice-in-the-rearview-mirror factor.

Cars range from Toyota Corollas and late- 90s Volkswagen Beetles going for $5 and $6 an hour to more exotic cars like a smart fortwo and a bright yellow 2007 Hummer, which rents for $13 per hour.

For anyone willing to shell out $50 an hour, Getaround also offers a Tesla Roadster. Getaround administers the rental and keeps the car in a garage in the city, on loan from its owner who wants people to have the experience of driving an electric car.
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The face-to-face interaction of the key swap is something Ishmael Riles says he likes about lending his car through Getaround. A web developer who shares a flat with roommates in San Francisco’s Mission District, Riles and his 2009 Subaru belong to both Getaround and RelayRides.

Riles was a longtime Zipcar member but bought his car when he got a job that required commuting. Now, with a different job, his car sits idle most of the time – Riles estimates he uses it himself only about once a week.

In the three months since he started his car sharing experiment, he’s lent out his car about once a week, and has made about $600 through both services combined. He’s also made a shift in how he thinks about his vehicle.

“It was definitely a change in my attitude towards my car,” Riles says. “I went from thinking of it as an expensive thing that loses value to something that can pay for itself.”
[Reference Here]

As more Millennials identify themselves with a sharing culture, the burgeoning social and business movement of collaborative consumption, people are trading ownership for access.

From power tools and children’s clothes to finance and housing, it’s a movement that’s taking root in a wide swath of markets. Personal transportation through services like Getaround are just examples of this social collaborative approach … but can one really achieve the desired ideals of needs-satisfaction while having to rely on the time, availability, and resources of others?

… notes from The EDJE

Mercedez Benz CLS Class

MERCEDES BENZ CLS CLASS 2012

Volvo XC60

Volvo XC60

Volvo S60 2012

Volvo S60 2012

Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Chevrolet Cruze Eco