As more cars start to gain Internet connectivity, we need to have a serious discussion about automotive cybersecurity.
Author Archives: Igor Magun
Messing about with car configurators – Porsche edition
Porsche has an obsession with creating as many car variants and optional extras as possible. They’ve got 25 versions of the Porsche 911 alone, each offering what feels like the world’s longest options list. To find out what kind of bizarre, interesting, and expensive cars their obsession can create, I dove into their online configurator.
The world needs another Bugatti Veyron
At $2 million, the Bugatti Veyron is a seriously expensive car with equally expensive maintenance – an oil change alone costs $21,000. The car’s not exactly a looker, either. But the Veyron is an exceptional kind of insane, and the world could use more of it.
Perfecting the art of sim racing – The need for downforce (Part 3)
You don’t realize how useful downforce is until you hop out of a high-downforce racecar and straight into a road car. Suddenly, that car feels awfully clumsy and difficult to drive, and it’s all thanks to aerodynamics.
Perfecting the art of sim racing – Going sideways (Part 2)
Drifting is much harder than television might have you think. You need to find precisely the right balance of steering and throttle, then sustain it for as long as necessary. The ability to find that balance, however, is very useful if things go south during a race. As such, my fellow sim racers encouraged me to spend some time getting the hang of it in Assetto Corsa.
Perfecting the art of sim racing – How hard can it be? (Part 1)
I’m off to a brilliant start!
Thanks to the recent arrival of Goat Simulator, simulation games have become the butt of jokes throughout the gaming industry. And it’s not an unfair criticism per se – there is a plethora of ‘simulators’ that were meant to be realistic, but pack a physics engine that makes Mario Kart look believable. Make no mistake, however – the simulator genre has some true gems, and no community knows this as well as sim racers.
The star of this year’s Canadian International Auto Show — the McLaren P1
The Canadian International Auto Show has seen its fair share of epic automobiles over the years. The Lamborghini Diablo SV still stands out as my fond first memory of the show, and I’ve returned every year since then to see the likes of the Aston Martin One-77, Bugatti Veyron and Porsche Carerra GT. However, this year something very special was on display — the McLaren P1.
Germany’s ADAC car club caught vote-rigging coveted yearly auto award
Car awards are greatly sought after by manufacturers around the world — there’s no greater marketing pitch than a ‘Car of the Year’ title. In the competitive domestic market of Germany, it doesn’t get much better than the Yellow Angel award from Europe’s largest car club, ADAC. Unfortunately, the club admitted to meddling the numbers for this highly-coveted distinction on Monday.
Michelin develops new tire that doesn’t lose traction as it wears down
Tires are a very important part of the automotive equation that is oft overlooked. Most of the time, innovation in this area is simply too subtle to report on. Michelin, however, claims they have a new tire that has “been able to break the traditional paradigm.” This tire, unlike regular tires, does not lose traction as it wears down.
Self-driving cars to take over the world after 2050? I’m not so sure
Even the computer likes to have fun sometimes!
Well, it’s official folks — the robots are taking over. A new study by IHS Automotive suggests that nearly all of the vehicles in use after 2050 will be self-driving, getting rid of the weakest link in the automotive chain of being — the driver. And while the self-driving car definitely seems slated for mainstream sales within the next 10 years, the time frame provided by this study strikes me as a little ambitious.