2009 Frankfurt Auto Show: 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia

September of 2009 will be the time to go to Frankfurt for one of the greatest German Auto Shows. The manufacturers are getting ready and start showing the teasers of new projects to the impatient audience.

Ferrari has developed the successor of the popular F430 which will go to the show named 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia. The pictures of the beautiful red coupe are already wandering on the Internet with the first details about the car. The main purpose of the project is to show that high performance can go together with fuel efficiency in one auto.

The Italian manufacturer has developed an absolutely new mid-engine for 458 Italia. The numbers in the name of the coupe speak about the size of the motor: 4.5-liter V8 helps the car to be absolutely aggressive and at the same time greenish-modern on the road. The 2010 Italia is absolutely faster than any Ferrari vehicle running as fast as 203 mph. It is also claimed to start and brake quicker than any Italian auto. The coupe is equipped with F1 Trac stability control and E-Diff which allow making even sharpest turns.

The engine sits under glass as a precious stone in a jewelry shop. It produces 570 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque. The 2010 Italia is controlled by dual-clutch automated manual transmission which provides quick shifting and seven ratios for speed acceleration.

High fuel-efficiency was achieved by direct fuel injection and low-friction engine components. However, the manufacturer has not named the actual numbers of fuel usage yet.

Felipe Massa Is Recovering from an Injury

During the Hungarian Grand Prix race Formula 1 driver was seriously injured. As the media reports Felipe Massa was hit by a two-pound spring that came lose from Brawn driver Rubens Barrichello’s car. The spring went right into his helmet which reduced the effect of the injury.

Felipe had to undergo an emergency surgery for skull fractures in a military hospital in Budapest. At this moment the driver has already left Hungary and went to São Paulo, Brazil where he began the rehabilitation process. Michael Schumacher, the most famous Formula 1 driver, is going to finish Massa’s job in the remaining races of the season.

Felipe feels good and he hopes to be back on the track as soon as possible, however, he thinks that the company could not make a better choice than Schumacher. “He knows how to win, he knows how to drive and he’s great. I’m sure that everybody will be happy to see him back on the track again,” Massa exclaims. As for himself, Felipe says he feels well, but he does not remember exactly what happened and he actually did not feel anything either. On the video issued by Formula 1 in several laugauges, the driver looks energetic and healthy except for a swollen eye and stitches on the left temple which he tries to cover with a baseball cap.

Mercedes-Benz BlueZero Trio

At the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show Mercedes-Benz is presenting a trio of Concept BlueZero models which do not use gasoline at all. The cars are absolutely different from any other vehicles in the world.

The manufacturer offers three variants of BlueZero model: all of them have same front-wheel-drive, rear-engine platform and similar body style; but they have different drive systems built around the compact electric motor.

E-Cell is a basic model which does not have a gas engine and operates on electric power only. E-Cell Plus adds a small extended-range gas motor. The third model is F-Cell with hydrogen fuel cell.

The small turbocharged 1.0-liter gas motor in E-Cell Plus is not going to move the car; it is aimed to generate additional electricity which goes to the auto’s lithium-electric batteries. This is a really important investment, because BlueZero runs up to 62 miles on batteries, but thanks to the gas engine the running range extends to 375 miles.

It takes six hours to recharge the battery pack completely from a standard household outlet. A quick-charging station can do it for less than an hour.

F-Cell is an incredible idea and it seems to work perfectly. Mercedes-Benz is going to launch the production version of the model in the end of this year. Around 200 cars will be made and sold for customers in the U.S. and Europe.

The Fuel Economy of Fisker Karma

Fisker has finished the testing and ran a public debut of Karma at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California in the end of August. Now the hybrid is going to the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show for an official big presentation.

Karma runs on two electric motors which output 403 horsepower and 959 pound-feet of torque. It is safe to drive up to 50 miles on electric power alone. If the charge is out the four-cylinder gasoline engine with 260 hp turns on to run the car and recharge the 200-kilowatt lithium-ion batteries.

According to the standards set by the Society of Automotive Engineers or SAE Karma uses 67.2 mpg and emits 83 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. The CEO, Henrik Fisker said that cars of this category cannot be judged by EPA standards because their fuel economy will show more than 100 mpg. This would really be a fulfillment of American government’s dream: sales of 15,000 Karmas a year could save 248 million gallons of gasoline and 2.5 million tons of CO2 emissions.