Hello and welcome to Overdrive a program that ponders the purpose of cars and transport
- Jaguar Land Rover: new vehicle for a new approach (1:20)
- Can the Haval H9 SUV make it here? (2:07)
- The standout design feature in the Citroen C5 (3:08)
- A hydrogen-electric ute (4:04)
- A new meaning to “Heavy Metal Fan”: (5:00)
- We put a call in to the UK to speak to their head of Future Mobility Dr Tim Leverton about where Jaguar is going in the future (6:04)
- And Brian Smith has some quirky news
- Electric Planes (13:56)
- Segway mobile chair (17:53)
Dr Tim Leverton And Jaguar Land Rover’s Vector Project
Jaguar Land Rover have just shown a new concept car its Project Vector.
Dr. Tim Leveton has specialized in product development at the highest level in his 40 years in the industry. He heads Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility Research Project. Their first concept vehicle is electric, has side doors like a train carriage and seats that can be arranged to suit various functions because:
What we can see is that in the future, it’s not only the design of the vehicle, which will help in the way that we can create zero emission vehicles, for example. But how those vehicles integrate into a completely integrated mobility system for assistance. Our aim has got to be to reduce the number of vehicles. And this can only be achieved by sharing vehicles and by getting higher occupancy in those vehicles.
Haval H9
Great Wall Motors the Chinese company that makes Great Wall, Haval and several other brands is said to be the biggest ute and SUV manufacturer in China. Can they make it here.
The Havel H9 is a large SUV. Plain on the outside with a moderate sized two litre turbocharge petrol engine.
But its big strength is the features on the inside. The top of the range Ultra has heated, ventilated and massaging front seats.
There’s huge rain sensing panoramic sunroof, a 10 speaker INFINITY sound system, heated steering wheel, and Comfort-Tec seating
But no sat nav.
It has six driving modes Auto, Sand, Snow, Mud, low range and Sport
The base model is $42,000 and the upmarket is Ultra $46,000 and that’s drive away prices.
Competent off-road and value for money without paying for a brand name.
Citroen C5
Citroen models have become more mainstream than the heady days of 50s and 60s. But their C5 Aircross makes its own statement this time in digital technology.
Citroen have made some unique cars in their outward design and their mechanical attributes the pinnacle of which was the never copied DS range.
The new Citroen C5 Aircross is a medium sized SUV.
There are a few outward features that give it character, but the digital dash is, to my mind, the thing that speaks of clever design.
Digital graphics are often dominated by colour and movement: the more the better. I prefer simplicity and clarity.
In the C5 you can chose five different dash layouts and the centre screen shows controls that are just plan usable.
The C5 is priced from $39,990 to $43,990 plus on roads
This hydrogen-electric ute could be your next workhorse
It has been said that only a ute powered by petrol and diesel can serve the great Australian outdoors. But the Nikola Motor Company has other ideas.
The Nikola Motor Company in the US has announced their Ute – the Badger.
It is a hybrid vehicle in the sense that it drives its four electric motors (one for each wheel) off both battery and hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Not directly using fossil fuels is not a problem.
They claim it will have peak power of 675 kw and peak torque of 1329 Nm and a range of 965 km (half from battery half from the hydrogen fuel cell).
And will accelerate from zero to 100 km/hr in 2.9 seconds.
It is due out in America in September. No price has been mentioned.
Holden history – A Young Man’s Dream and a stern lecture about money
With the demise of Holden, we have been collecting stories from people who have fond memories from the past including some mishaps along the way.
I know Alan Finlay as a well presented and respected professional traffic engineer.
I knew he liked cars I didn’t realise his adventurous background when he raced an EH Holden.
I was competing at a hill climb at Amaroo Park in the early 70s and trying to better my times. It was towards the end of the day. And I think I’d had about six runs and I was going for a really good time on what would have been my second last run. And as I revved the car to its limit in first gear, I heard an almighty bang and I thought the worst. I thought I’d blown the motor. But as it turned out, the bang was created by one of the fan blades coming off the fan and actually almost piercing right through the bonnet. The fan blade was actually sticking out through the bonnet, and thankfully the rest of the motor in the car was alright. So the solution was to actually remove the whole fan blade assembly and then another frame friendly and helpful competitor managed to have a hacksaw in his tool kit and so we sawed off the other half of the blade that was still attached to the assembly and put it back on the car. So I limped home with a two-bladed rather than a four-bladed fan. Thankfully, didn’t get stuck in heavy traffic, so didn’t overheat.
One quick witted colleague lamented how he missed the time when a “heavy metal fan” was only referring to a motoring component.
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Originally broadcast 29 February 2020 across Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) and Torque Radio affiliated commercial radio channels.
