Wednesday, January 22, 2014

1 in 5 motorists name their car, do you?

By Noah Joseph

 

We all know someone who's named their car. And chances are – let's face it – that person is probably a girl. We're not being sexist here: we're just looking at the numbers presented by a new study from DMEautomotive.

The industry research group conducted a study that indicates that one in five American car owners have named their vehicles. But that one in five is likely to be female and between the ages of 18 and 24. The study upsets certain notions of men being more attached to their cars than women, and millennials not caring about cars: at 23 percent, women proved more likely to personify their vehicle than men (at 18 percent), and car owners in their late teens or early twenties are the four times more likely to name their cars than someone over 55.

Because most women (by far) view their car as female and men are pretty evenly split, there's about twice as many "female" cars on the road as "male" ones (those identities having been ascribed by the vehicles' owners). But this part had us scratching our heads the most: apparently one in four cars that have names, have names that begin with the letter B: as the tidy infographic above shows, Baby, Betsy, Bessie and Betty (along with Black Beauty) rank among the most popular names for cars in America.

Of course some cars may be more susceptible to being named than others, though the study (whose findings you can read below) doesn't get into that. As our friends at Road & Track discovered, Mini dealers have devised a simple way of figuring out whether an owner may be interested in trading in: if they've named their Mini, chances are slim that they'll be willing to part with it.

Courtesy of 
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/15/car-name-study-poll/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Chevy planning track-spec Corvette Z06X?

By Noah Joseph



If you were disappointed by the news that Chevy was not planning a new ZR1 version for the C7 Corvette, well, you shouldn't be. Because the new Z06 effectively takes the place of the previous ZR1, and we want some track time with the new King of Corvettes in the worst way. But if it's track time you're after, the Bowtie brand may have another trick up its sleeve.

At the SEMA show back in 2010, Chevy brought out a track-tuned version of the C6 called the Z06X. The concept (pictured in the gallery below) was put together by the Corvette's racing partner Pratt & Miller and packed the Z07 and carbon-fiber packages as well as competition-spec alloys fitted to an adjustable suspension, the C6.R's rear wing, a full roll cage and weight-saving plastic windows.

The concept, of course, never made it to production – at least not on the previous Vette – but it could get transferred to the new one, particularly since the new Z06, impressive as it is, seems to have grown just a touch softer with features like a removable roof panel and optional automatic transmission.

The Z06X could pose an effective challenger to the the likes of the SRT Viper TA and Porsche 911 GT3 RS(whenever the new one comes around) and bridge the gap between the road-ready Z06 and C7.R unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show this week and pictured together above. It would also, as our compatriots at Car and Driver point out, be a good stablemate to the Camaro Z/28. It would also surely cost even more than theZ/28's sticker price of $75,000, but then it would likely clock even faster lap times than anything General Motors has ever offered.

Courtesy of 
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/15/chevy-corvette-z06x-track-report/