Touge California a Vintage Japanese Car Only Rally

This weekend is the Touge California a vintage Japanese car only rally. Mazda is collaborating with a Japanese Nostalgic Car to be the title sponsor of Touge California a vintage Japanese car only rally. The rally will take place on April 2, 2016, participants will travel up the California coast to Mazda’s Irvine based R&D facility.

They are expecting have to have 28 rare and original Japanese vehicles from the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s, and 11 of the vehicles are Mazda’s, participating is a 1975 Rotary engine pickup (REPU), a 1978 GLC compact hatchback and of course what would a rally be without a 1985 RX-7 GSL from Mazda’s own heritage collection? “Our heritage cars aren't just museum pieces; they're meant to be driven,” said Robert Davis, MNAO's Senior VP, U.S. Operations.

The California Touge rally was founded by Ben Hsu, editor in chief of Japanese Nostalgic Car and rally master Patrick Strong in 2015, after seeing many famous rallies for European cars and not seeing anything just for Japanese cars. 

The reason why the route was chosen to go from San Diego to Irvine is that according to Ben Hsu “70 percent of Japan's terrain is mountainous, our goal with Touge California is to give owners of Japanese cars the experience of driving on roads similar to those on which their cars were born.” 

The idea for the Touge rally came from the infamous and daring underground Touge races in Japan. The word Touge means “mountain pass.”

2018 Lincoln Navigator Concept

Check out Lincoln’s latest version of its larger than large SUV, the 2018 Navigator Concept. Lincoln wanted to give us an idea of what the next generation of the Navigator could look like. It’s hard to miss the massive gull-wing doors and the deployable concertina steps that allow passengers to enter and exit the SUV easily. The exterior body features sleek uncluttered lines and a beautiful Storm Blue paint color. However the gull wing doors most likely will not make it to production.

The elegant theme continues into the interior of the Navigator with teak trim pieces and even a wardrobe management system that holds everything from a jacket, shoes, wrist watch, sunglasses, etc. The Navigator offers six seats with 30 way adjustments for your maximum comfort. There are screens for passengers to connect everyone’s different smart phones and tablets, one tablet can play a movie for all the passengers to view, each screen will have its own CarPlay and check this, for all of you gamers, passengers have the ability to play video games with each other on their own screens. There is even an intercom system to make chatting with people in the rear of the vehicle easier and there’s more, how about a video chat  so that not only can you chat without yelling to front of the SUV you can actually see the person while your chatting.

Some of the latest safety features include, pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection which uses radar and a camera to watch for potential hazards that could cause a collision, when the system detects a possible impact the driver is warned and if the driver does not respond the system and apply the brakes the system will engage the brakes. The automatic braking is wired to radar, camera sensors and a 300 degree camera.  In addition the vehicle has a lane keeping system that when a driver starts to veer out of their lane the steering wheel will vibrate and induce a light steering inputs to position the vehicle back towards the center of the lane. For those of you who find parking something as big as a full size SUV a challenge, the 2018 Navigator features a park assist system that makes use of the 300 degree camera giving the driver a birds eye view all around the Navigator. Another feature of the latest navigator is an adjustable ride and handling system that allows the driver to select one of the numerous drive modes that can alter the steering and suspension.

Some version of this Navigator Concept Vehicle should be in production in a about a year. Oh, one more thing, the 2018 will have a 3.5 liter 400 hp EcoBoost engine.

1970 Ferrari 512 S Modulo Concept Car

The 1970 Ferrari 512 S Modulo Concept car was designed to allow people to break away from the design constraints of time and was not designed as a racing car prototype. You have to admire the design of the two overlapping body shells, one of which was a glass canopy that moved forward to allow the occupants to enter and exit the car easier. The two moving shells were separated by a rectilinear indentation in the center of the car.

In inner workings of the car were straight out of the Ferrari 512 S, with a mid-rear V-12 60 degree 550 hp and a five speed transmission that was rear wheel drive. The overall height of the Modulo was only about 36 inches. Interesting bit of information about the original Modulo was that It could only travel in a straight line due to the front wheels being incorporated into the bodywork.

The Ferrari 512 S Modulo was the winner of many design awards, unfortunately the car was dismantled for parts. There was a replica of the Ferrari 512 S Modulo built.

The 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket Concept Car

The 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket Concept was a look into the future for Oldsmobile fittingly named the Golden Rocket, the car resembled a rocket, painted a gold/bronze pearl exterior color with upholstery done in blue and gold leather. The Golden Rocket was a two passenger car with  a 234 V-8 that was tuned to produce 275 hp, impressive at the time considering the car weighed about 2,500 lbs. The Rocket had a fiberglass body with nerf-like bumpers and rear bumpers looked like rockers.

One of the more unique features of the Rocket was a system that when either of the doors were opened the roof panel raised up, while the seats move up about 3 inches and swiveled outward to allow easy entrance and exit for the occupants. The cockpit looked like something from a fighter jet, with a windshield design that swept back, the Rocket was one of the first known in cockpit tilt steering wheels with  buttons on the steering wheel that allowed the steering column to tilt down giving the driver easier access. The speedometer was mounted in the center of the two spokes of the steering wheel.

The Golden Rocket was debut at the 1956 General Motors Motorama and was featured at many other shows, but was never produced for the public. 

The 1955 Ford La Tosca Concept Car

The Ford La Tosca Concept car was a remote controlled car designed by Alex Tremulis who at the age of 19 began his automotive design career in 1933 at Auburn.  During WWWII he worked on advance aircraft aerodynamics at Wright Field, he designed the Tucker 48 and in 1952 he was hired by Ford Motor Company as the head of the advanced design studio.

The La Tosca car concept car was a 3/8 scale model and was an experiment to show design students in the Advance Studio just how difficult it was to design a car. The car was radio controlled, with a system that was built by adapting 6 volt car batteries, Lincoln convertible top motors, a power seat unit and power window relays. In addition the car featured power turning and braking. Reportedly the radio system also operated the brake lights, turn signals and the headlights. Due to the canted fenders ( a radical design at the time) and the radio controlled chassis the project took four times as long to complete as was planned.

Apparently the little La Tosca R/C car had a radius of more than a mile and the design crew had a lot of fun terrorizing Oakwood Blvd and Village Road with the R/C car. The security guards would salute the little dream car as it passed by, however the upper executives were not too happy when the little car got in the way of one of Fords executives full size sedan and that was the end of the radio control experiments (according to Ford lore).

The La Tosca later became the inspiration for the 1958 Lincoln.

The 1966 Electrovan Experimental Alternative Fuel Concept Vehicle

Today alternative powered cars are a big part of the automotive industry, but did you know that in 1966 General Motors developed an Electrovan Experimental? GM’s Electrovan was the world’s first known application of fuel cell technology in a vehicle. The Electrovan was an important step in moving towards the use of alternative power in vehicles.

The Electrovan was a converted GMC Handivan that showed electric propulsion with fuel cell was possible and was credited as being the first hydrogen fuel cell ever produced. General Motors was the first company to use a fuel cell to power a vehicle (fuel cells have been around since early 1800’s).

The fuel cell power-plant was able to supply a continuous output of approximately 32 kw with a peak of 160 kw, it had 32 thin electrode fuel cell modules that were connected in series. The Electrovan was able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 30 seconds with a range of about 150 miles. GM had concerns about the safety of the Electrovan so the vehicle was only driven on company property.

GM chose to mount the motor and control system between and under the two front seats and the 32 fuel cell modules were located under the floor, there were about 550 feet of plastic piping. Mounted behind the middle bench seat were cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen tanks and an electrolyte reservoir that weighed 550lbs making the total weight of the van 7,100lbs.   

The Electrovan project was scrapped just after GM showed it off to journalist in 1966. The Electrovan was just too costly to produce just the Platinum alone used in the fuel cell cost as much as the purchase price of an entire fleet of vans. 

You and your significant other have an amazing weekend getaway planned, you’re all packed and ready to go. You go out to your car and notice that both back tires are completely flat. Now your going to have to take the tires to get the holes repaired and you think to yourself, how do I safety lift my car and put it on jack stands?

No worries 2CarPros has a video that will teach you the correct way to lift your car and put it on jack stands just go to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLFn_bMkZc0&feature=autoshare

In addition you can ask one our expert automotive repair technicians questions for Free by going to:

www.2carpros.com/questions/new\