The News for July 10th, 2015

raptor-1-1
Welcome to the Hooniverse News – Really Slow News Week Edition! Normally I bring you a convenient weekly recap of some of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or bull, but this week it’s whatever I was able to find. There’s the usual opinions of mine thrown in as well and hopefully more of your automotive news (especially since I ain’t got shit). This week:

  • Uhhmm

  • Things

  • Stuff

  • Other things

  • What’s your automotive news?

2016 BAC Mono gets more power and a Goodwood record

[youtube]https://youtu.be/_5Nlzl7WFLg[/youtube]
Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) has had a smash hit with their Mono single seat race car for the road. It’s light, nimble, and powerful and it’s neat to look at. For the 2016 model year, they’re looking to make it even better by keeping almost everything the same but adding extra power. It’s a simple formula but it’s already given the BAC an unofficial record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Power for the previous BAC Mono used to come from a 2.3-liter four-cylinder tuned by Cosworth and it was good for 280 horsepower. That’s insanely high for a car that weighs just 1,278 pounds. The 2016 model weighs about the same but now has an all-new 2.5-liter four-cylinder from Mountune capable of 305 horsepower. An easy 25 horsepower gain would hardly be noticed in a larger car, but in a car like the Mono, that’s a substantial gain. The car is still very new so many of the performance stats aren’t available yet – but there is one.
At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, BAC brought out a 2016 model and their test driver, Oliver Webb. Driving what was technically a prototype, he ran up the hill in as little as 47.9 seconds. They also said “he wasn’t really going for it” but that might just be the marketing people talking. The runs in their class were not timed though, so those numbers come from BAC’s onboard telemetry. Either way, it was faster than any other road car that weekend.
[Source: Briggs Automotive Company]

2017 Ford F-150 Raptor plays in the sand

raptor-2-1
The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor debuted at the Detroit auto show this year and Ford has gotten straight to the point and sent it to go play in the sand. After more than 1,000 miles [marketing speak for 1,001 miles] in the American southwest on a desert trail designed to parallel the Baja race course in Mexico. They had a 66-mile route mapped out that they lapped on to offer a wide variety of challenges for the truck including fast sandy washes, deep-rutted silt beds, steep climbs in deep sand, and slow meticulous crawls through tight trenches. You know, truck stuff. Speed ranged from a crawl to 100 mph blasts but they averaged a ~50 mph speed throughout testing, which sounds impressive off road.
Throughout the entire test, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor suffered no mechanical failures they were willing to talk about. All of this work goes to ensure that the new Raptor will be well-suited for sitting in traffic when it goes on sale in fall 2016.
[Source: Ford]

2016 Mazda 3 gets new options and a new price

001-2014-mazda3-sedan

2014 model is shown, but it looks more or less the same…

I like Mazda. They sell your typical range of family cars in all shapes and sizes, but there’s something a little different about them and how they build their cars. This generation of the Mazda 3 is a great looking car and it looks like a fun little car to take the scenic route in on your way back from doing family things. So it makes me sad when I see this pop up in my news feed and think “oh yeah, they’ve been building those for a while now” because I hardly ever see these on the road. Maybe I just don’t notice them… I hope.
Anyway, Mazda has a few new updates for the 2016 Mazda 3 sedan and hatchback in the form of more standard features and a lower base price. That low price comes partially because of some trim level management on their part – the once optional i Sport trim is now the standard baseline model, which costs about $600 less than it did last year. The base price for the 2016 Mazda 3 is now $17,845.
New standard features on the 2016 Mazda 3 include the legally required backup camera as well as radar cruise control, HID headlights, Bluetooth phone connectivity and audio streaming, a six-speaker audio system, and everything else you’d expect from a compact car in this price range. All drivetrain components are unchanged for the 2016 model year.
[Source: Mazda]

What’s your automotive news?

I probably should have just made this the entirety of the news this week. I’m really more interested in what you guys had going on this week, so if you saw, drove, bought, broke, or otherwise did anything newsworthy this week, sound off in the comments. Even if you saw a squirrel it’s more interesting than this.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

33 responses to “The News for July 10th, 2015”

  1. Citric Avatar
    Citric

    I had a tire with a slow leak, caused by the tiiiniest sliver of metal that could possibly cause such a thing.

  2. Frank T. Cat Avatar
    Frank T. Cat

    I immobilized my 900 a fair few months ago by breaking the distributor in my /girlfriend’s/ 900, whilst trying to get the drive gear off (oops)… which lead to me borrowing mine so she could get to work the next day. Not that it really mattered since the car’s ass-half is disassembled and the shock mount rust keeps me from driving it far.
    But I needed to move the car to another part of the garage, which was kinda hard to do with the sticky parking brake and a non-running engine. So yesterday I got a new (used) distributor in the mail, all the way from the UK… and my car saw sunlight for the first time since November 14th, 2014. We’ve still got a long way to go in PCH.

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Signs of (re-)new(-ed) life are what is most appreciated under the “your news” header. Keep up the good work! 🙂

      1. Frank T. Cat Avatar
        Frank T. Cat

        What I’m really hedging my bets on right now is finding a cheap 1999 9-3 5dr donor car. There was one barely a ten minute drive from here for $300 yesterday, but the scrappers got to it before I did. 🙁

        1. CraigSu Avatar
          CraigSu

          What do you consider cheap and where are you located?

          1. Frank T. Cat Avatar
            Frank T. Cat

            <$650, and the southern Adirondacks/capital region of New York.

          2. CraigSu Avatar
            CraigSu

            Hmmm, not quite enough money and too far from NC for my 9-3. Ah, well.

          3. Frank T. Cat Avatar
            Frank T. Cat

            darn. I’ll find a car eventually, it’s just a good exercise for my patience.

          4. CraigSu Avatar
            CraigSu

            Have you poked around on saabnet.com? There’s a 2001 9-3 SE for sale in the Parts section that was posted on 4/26 that’s closer to you. He wants $700 obo, it’s in Cumberland, ME, and he has pics (http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/class/parts.html). You’ll have to scroll down the page to see the ad. The ’01 and ’99 are virtually identical, only minimal trim differences, perhaps.

          5. Frank T. Cat Avatar
            Frank T. Cat

            Need a ’99 because they still have B204 engines and Trionic 5, but do have the hydraulic clutch, stronger diff and upgraded front spring perches, etc. That gives me everything I need to do a T5.5 swap and manual swap on my 900, plus the body panels I need.
            ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I’m probably just making things harder for myself.
            Oh, and I got my 9-5 off of saabnet, but I keep forgetting to check there for parts. Thanks for reminding me.

  3. Bradley Brownell Avatar
    Bradley Brownell

    http://www.ecstuning.com/TurnerAnnouncement/
    ECS Tuning (my former employer) purchased a majority share of Turner Motorsport (only the parts business, they don’t want anything to do with the racing team, and Will Turner probably wouldn’t have sold that anyway).

    1. Greg Kachadurian Avatar
      Greg Kachadurian

      That’s interesting. I’ve gotten several parts from Turner (I have their 2014 and ’15 calendars in my office lol) so it would be cool if they got more stuff in and/or got cheaper, but one can wish… And I really hope they continue racing.

  4. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    So far, there has been zero interest in purchasing my 2WD Postal IH Scout project as a ‘lot’. I’ve only posted it on Scout and IH forums, and only as an all-or-nothing sale, but I fear I may have to move to e-bay or CL, and perhaps be willing to sell it off in parts.
    It’s been less than a month, though, so I think I’ll let it ride for a while.

  5. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    Carpenter News: The garage has new planks where appropriate, the major cracks in the remaining old planks are filled. Now I’m waiting out what they call “green winter” so I can paint the entire shack.

  6. ReneM Avatar
    ReneM

    Alternator on my 95 Mustang failed last week and was replaced last weekend. It was the original alternator with 325,000 miles on it.

    1. JayP Avatar
      JayP

      The alt in my 2001 lasted just 30k miles. Lucky you.

  7. jeepjeff Avatar
    jeepjeff

    My automotive news is for the Tuesday Edition: I passed the California Skills Test and now have a full M1 endorsement! It was pretty easy on the TW200 (just put it in first and let it idle through the entire course), and now I can ride at night and on the highway.
    I’ve got a slight feeling of not knowing what to do with myself now. I mean, keep riding, but now I don’t have to be focused on training for this one test. I also need to find an excuse to ride over to SF soon, just to cross one of the bridges.

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      After I passed my HAM radio license exam I didn’t exactly know what the next phase would be. I still don’t.
      On the two-wheel side, I went through Dirt Bike Camp up by Chico, CA on my DRZ400, and haven’t gone to an OHV park since. Though, I do occasionally go to the sand pits and practice some flat-track moves (got the bent handlebars to prove it, too!)
      Follow through, I hasn’t it.

      1. jeepjeff Avatar
        jeepjeff

        I still need to head out to Carnegie too. In my defense, I was waiting until I got it through the break-in period. Not in my defense, that happened the other week… I’m trying to juggle logistics. If I slab out there, I have no extra fuel. If I trailer out there, I either have to buy a trailer or rent one. I have no where to store one right now, and U-haul thinks my Jeep is an unsuitable tow vehicle (due to not having a hard top). I’ll figure out the logistics eventually.

        1. Batshitbox Avatar
          Batshitbox

          Yep. I haven’t tried to get the DRZ into the pickup truck by myself, but from doing it many times with a helper I’m not inclined to try. So to go to Carnegie I would need a sidekick, and then there’s only one bike for the two of us.
          On the plus side, I don’t work Fridays, so I can beat the weekend swarm if I play it right.

          1. jeepjeff Avatar
            jeepjeff

            Is the problem “only room for one bike in the truck” or “only have one bike”. Because if it’s the latter, I know a guy whose got a bike and would be willing to help load.

  8. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    After the brake failure last week, I paid the 374$ for a caliper and pads mounted where they belong, plus 62$ for towing the car to the shop, to realize that laziness will make you poor. I also took the car to the mountains today, with six of seven seats occupied. We had a great day of summer skiing:
    http://s28.postimg.org/53ir8ae7x/IMG_20150711_000049.jpg

  9. Jeff Glucker Avatar
    Jeff Glucker

    “any other road car that weekend” Any other road car… ever, in fact.
    My news – Driving the truck this weekend. Planning my stints carefully so as not to get stuck somewhere with slow traffic. I just sent in an order list on a ton of parts though, and if it all goes through I’ll have new videos on the truck very soon.
    The wombat – We may wind up using steering… out of a Chevy Colorado. I still don’t know if that’s for sure yet, but stay tuned.

  10. mve Avatar
    mve

    I don’t know if this has been covered, but Turner Motorsports has been bought out by ECS Tuning. I hope Turner can keep racing. http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/118991-ecs-tuning-announces-acquisition-of-turner-motorsport

  11. ptschett Avatar
    ptschett

    Last weekend I took the rustbucketThunderbird for a drive. To judge from the background signage, South Dakotans of the 1960’s must have really liked US senator Francis Case… there’s a bridge with his name that crosses the ‘lake’ (Missouri River reservoir) named for him.
    http://oi57.tinypic.com/149qc9i.jpg
    The goal was to reach Tripp County, the largish one in a lighter shade of green at the SD/NE border on the map below. I’ve now finally visited every county in ND or SD that has any territory east of 100 degrees W.
    http://i60.tinypic.com/1ze9jmg.jpg
    Upon returning the car to its place of residence (Beadle County, the larger of the “lived in” counties in SD; not where I live now, but where my family lives) I went to disconnect the battery, and promptly broke the negative battery terminal by putting too much effort into the dinky little screw and breaking off the weldnut on the other side; I also decided I wasn’t happy with the positive terminal, which is something of a kludge. New crimped-on battery terminals are now in the plans.
    In the interests of benign neglectscience I’ve decided to monitor how much power steering fluid the Dakota is leaking before I go ahead and arrange for its steering rack seal to be addressed. So I took it out for a hoon a few nights ago, on a route I used to use with the KLR650 that visited all those orange counties. Coming back into town I had the urge strike me to drive up one of the streets that has a series of roundabouts. You wouldn’t think throwing 4700 lbs of 4×4/230hp/automatic extended-cab pickup through roundabouts would be fun, but it actually is.
    Not much to report about the Challenger, except that the ZF 8-speed is good enough that I honestly do not miss the TR6060 in its predecessor.

  12. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    I started the restoration of an Allis Chalmers Roto Baler a few days ago. It’s a hay baler built in the 40s-50s, and is a cool industrial piece.

    We’ve owned this for ~4 years, but this is first time any wrenches on it.

    Picture for reference:

    http://michelstrailersales.cartrucktrader.com/images.aspx/id-10566216-w-640-h-480/allis-chalmers-rotobaler-216-p1.jpg

    Video of one in action:

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Now this is a neat machine. What’s the plan with it? Are you going to use it on your farm or is this going to be exhibited…?

      1. Guest Avatar
        Guest

        A bit of both.

        We have a modern baler, so it’s not going to be a primary machine, but we’ll definitely use it a bit, just for fun.

        And if we can find an easy way to transport it, we’ll be taking it here at least once a year.

        http://www.leducwestantique.com/

        1. gerberbaby Avatar

          Are you from Leduc?

          1. Guest Avatar
            Guest

            Leduc County, actually. I’m a rural kid, but yeah Leduc is where we do most of our shopping.

    2. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      My, that’s a lot of moving parts! Very cool to see it working. Looks like yours might need some tires though; will you be upgrading from bias-ply to radial to enhance cornering performance? 😉

      1. Guest Avatar
        Guest

        Oh, that one’s not mine. Mine actually has okayish tires for the moment.

        But yes actually, cornering performance is important. You have to make sure your tires can hold up for 100s of turns at a blistering 5 mph!

        🙂