Aurelia Butler

Porsche Design has restored this 1962 Porsche 911 Targa as part of 50th-anniversary celebrations for the industrial-design firm.The theme of the restoration: the look of the all-black Chronograph 1 timepiece.The car and watch will be sold later this month by RM Sotheby’s at auction, with bid acceptance running from November 29 through December 14. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Porsche Design—an independent industrial design consultancy and brand—has teamed up with its vintage-vehicle cousin, Porsche Classic, to restore a 1972 Porsche 911 Targa. A factory-restored vintage 911 would be cool enough on its own, but this one has the additional lure (or ignominy) of having been rejuvenated to resemble a special wristwatch.Founded by Ferdinand Alexander “Butzi” Porsche—the original designer of the 911, and grandson of company founder Ferdinand Porsche—Porsche Design was meant to bring the German marque’s intensely focused engineering and minimalist aesthetics to other product categories. The first commission came from the automotive company itself, to create a premium timepiece that could be gifted to deserving employees and clients. The result was the Chronograph 1, the world’s first watch with an all-black matte case and dial. Inspired by Porsche’s signature non-reflecting dashboard gauges, the design flowed from Butzi’s stated desire to “create a watch to match the car.” Porsche Classic and Porsche Design have taken that instruction quite literally, sourcing a red 1972 911 T and converting it to matte-black spec, just like the Chronograph 1.The donor car for this process was quite tatty when it was located. “We had rust, and a lot of corrosion on the body. And the engine wasn’t running, or the gearbox,” said Uwe Makrutzki, manager of factory restorations at Porsche Classic, who oversaw the process. Worse, it had suffered notable physical molestations during the Me Decade. “This was one very funny thing which was modified,” Makrutzki said. “In the ’80s, whale-tail spoilers were very fashionable, and so a lot of customers, like this one, changed this to make their cars become more ‘sporty’ looking.”Fortunately, Porsche Classic is skilled at cetacean amputation. Even more fortunate, it has excellent parts availability for restoring these cars. “90 percent of the new parts were available,” said Makrutzki. Particularly deviling, however, was locating the proper camshaft housing, as the car was also to be upgraded to a hotted-up 2.4-liter “S” spec during the rehab process. After some searching, one was located, as new old stock from a dealer in the special procurement network. “This was not challenging,” Makrutzki said. “It just takes time, so we just have to be patient.”Happily, owners of classic Porsche 911 Targas will reap benefits from this process. “Prior to this project, the replacement Targa top we had in stock was only just close in texture to the original surface from 1972,” Makrutzki said. “So we took this opportunity to rebuild the material in exactly the surface and specification from 1972. And we got it.” That new manufactured piece will now be available for purchase via Porsche Classic.More Porsche ClassicsIn honor of the 50th anniversary of Porsche Design, an updated iteration of the Chronograph 1 was also created. “We kept the watch design entirely true to the 1972 original, including the brand’s old historical logo on the dial and crown,” said Roland Heiler, chief design officer of the Porsche Lifestyle Group. However, the company changed the case material from steel to titanium, for enhanced light-weighting and durability, and updated the works with modern mechanicals. The only other significant update appears on the rear. The rotor—the device that transforms the wearer’s motion into winding energy—now hosts a shape that will be familiar to any fan of vintage 911s. “It mirrors the original Fuchs wheels of the sports car,” Heiler said. Both the restored car and the special watch will be sold at auction by RM Sotheby’s starting November 29. Since the car has non-original engine and transmission, another numerical correspondence has been created to service high-end collectors’ obsession with matching numbers. Heiler said, “The timepiece features the car’s unique VIN on the case-back.”This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Amazon now has more than 1000 Rivian delivery vans on U.S. roads and they’ve been used to deliver more than 5 million packages since their launch in July.The online retailer has placed an order for 100,000 electric delivery vans with Rivian, a figure it hopes to achieve by 2030. The company plans to have multiple thousands on the road by the end of 2022. Amazon began rollout of its new electric delivery vans last summer to a dozen major metropolitan areas, with that figure growing to roughly 100 cities now. While the rest of us are overindulging on cheap Halloween candy and starting to think about all that gravy we’re going to have to try not to drink at Thanksgiving, Amazon is already listening to Bing Crosby Christmas albums and going through its gift list. The retail/delivery giant is quickly expanding its fleet of electric delivery vehicles, from the dozen cities it started with to over 100 cities today. Since they started delivering packages in July, the Rivian-built vans have delivered more than five million Amazon packages, the online sales giant said.Now, with the uptick of online shopping that is expected this time of year, Amazon is not only expanding the size of the fleet but the reach as well. Among the newest cities to receive the vans are Austin, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Madison, Newark, New York, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Portland, Provo, and Salt Lake City. More on RivianAmazon has invested a lot of money in Rivian over the past few years, led by a $700 million investment in 2019. That investment came with an order for 100,000 custom delivery vans by 2030. According to Amazon, there are now more than 1000 of the delivery vans on the road, with the hope of having multiple thousands by the end of the year. The custom vans are built exclusively for Amazon, though Rivian offers a similar-looking fleet van on its website. The current Amazon delivery fleet consists of Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, Ram ProMasters, and Ford Transit vans. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

The 2023 Honda Pilot has been redesigned with a more rugged look, a roomier interior, and increased capability. The Pilot also has a new powertrain, a redesigned 285-hp 3.5-liter V-6 and a 10-speed automatic transmission.The TrailSport trim makes the Pilot truly capable off-road thanks to all-terrain tires, steel skid plates, and a lifted suspension.Ever since the original Honda Pilot debuted back in 2003, it has basically been a minivan dressed up as a three-row mid-size SUV. However, its shared bloodline with the sliding-door-toting Honda Odyssey wasn’t outwardly obvious until the outgoing third generation. That’s when the Pilot showed its true colors, with a bulbous shape and bland bodywork that deviated from its boxier predecessors. That’s also one reason it failed to stand out in a competitive segment full of more interesting alternatives. Well, Honda has flipped the script, with the new fourth-generation 2023 Pilot getting bigger, brawnier, and better at doing off-road stuff.New Above and Below the HoodLet’s start with the obivous. The 2023 Honda Pilot no longer looks like a lifted minivan. Along with being a lot squarer than before, it has an upright front end and front roof pillars that sit farther back, giving it a longer dash-to-axle ratio. The Pilot is also 3.4 inches longer from stem to stern, and its wheelbase stretches by 2.8 inches, too. Its front and rear tracks are also wider, growing by up to 1.2 and 1.5 inches, respectively.The increased dimensions are part of a new platform, which makes the Pilot the most rigid it’s ever been, according to Honda. The company also says its new chassis includes a stiffer suspension, a quicker steering ratio, and other changes intended to make the Pilot handle and ride better. A set of larger front brake rotors (13.8 versus 12.6 inches) and a shorter overall pedal motion are improvements in the braking department. The addition of extra sound-deadening materials should also make for a quieter interior.It would’ve been easy for Honda to take the 280-hp SOHC 3.5-liter V-6 and nine-speed automatic transmision from the outgoing Pilot and plug it into the new one. Instead, the automaker completely redesigned its venerable engine, keeping the same displacement but making myriad improvements. In a nutshell, the new DOHC V-6 has better packaging. While the 3.5-liter makes the same 262 pound-feet of torque, horsepower rises to 285. A cylinder-deactivation system also joins the party in pursuit of better fuel economy. However, Honda hasn’t yet announced EPA estimates. All Pilots now have a 10-speed automatic transmission (paddle shifters included).TrailSport: A Truly Rugged TrimThe 2023 Pilot won’t be the first with a TrailSport-badged trim, it’ll just be the first one where it actually meant something. That’s because, unlike the glorified appearance package that came before, the new TrailSport model is truly capable on most trails—as we learned during a prototype drive.Equipped with all-terrain tires and steel skid plates, the off-road-oriented Pilot can go places its predecessors couldn’t. Adding to its capabilities are a 1.0-inch lift that increases ground clearance and provides better angles front and back for clearing obstacles. The TrailSport’s suspension has also been revised to do more than regular models. What if it gets a flat? There’s a full-size spare tire. What if it gets stuck? There are sturdy tow hooks built into the front bash plate and one on the standard trailer hitch.To help the TrailSport avoid getting stuck, Honda fits it with a specially calibrated all-wheel-drive system. We won’t get too complicated, but when the Trail drive mode is activated, the setup effectively manages traction to the appropriate wheels. Also useful in this mode is the aptly named TrailWatch camera system, which provides four different angles otherwise not viewable by the driver. It can be manually turned on or display it on its own at speeds below 15 mph. Speaking of low speeds, when combined with sloped surfaces, every 2023 Pilot has hill-descent control for the first time. An Inside JobSure, a model that can shuttle the whole family into the wilderness is cool, but that’s not the Pilot’s full-time job. It’s a people mover. And moving said people is much easier when the space inside is big and comfortable. Well, Honda says the second row has an extra 2.4 inches of legroom and the third row adds a half-inch of leg space. For those sitting in the middle row, those seats recline farther.The 2023 Pilot still has room for up to eight people, and the middle seat in the second row is removable. However, instead of having to leave that seat behind, there’s now room for it under the rear cargo area. The latter is also bigger than ever, measuring 22 cubic feet behind the third row and a massive 114 cubes with the second and third rows stowed. Honda improves small-item storage, too, with the return of a useful parcel shelf built into the dashboard. No one should have a problem finding a cupholer, either, as the Pilot has up to 14 of them.Overall, the inside of the new Pilot looks ritizier. The materials appear to be more upscale and the design is undeniably more mature. The standard gauge cluster is part digital, part analog (as seen in other Honda models). Those who opt for the top-of-the-line Elite trim exclusively get a 10.2-inch digital cluster and a head-up display. Apart from the base-level Sport, which features a 7.0-inch touchscreen, every Pilot has a 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.Availability and PricingHonda hasn’t yet told us how much it’ll charge for the 2023 Pilot, which will be offered in Sport, EX-L, TrailSport, Touring, and Elite trim levels. The previous generation ended with starting prices between about $39k—$53k, and we expect to see those costs rise by a couple thousand dollars across the board. We’ll likely know the exact MSRPs before the new Pilot goes on sale next month.Supplemental Pilot StoriesThis content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Women are more likely to die or be injured in a crash, and one reason might be that we’ve been using crash test dummies based on the average male (as shown above).When crash test companies wanted to represent women, sometimes they used a scaled-down male dummy, but soon they may be able to use a new, better-designed dummy, thanks to the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute.Crashes do different things to the average male and female bodies, given size and muscle differences.You can learn a lot from a dummy, especially if it’s a better representation of the average woman. For decades, crash test dummies were based on the average male body size, leaving the average woman less protected in crashes. We’ve known about this since at least 2013 when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a safety report that found that women were more likely to be killed or injured in a crash and were especially “susceptible to neck and abdominal injuries.” The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) published a report with similar findings in 2019.More to KnowOne of the researchers whose name was on all of those papers is Astrid Linder, director of traffic safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (known as VTI). Linder recently told the BBC about the work she and her team have done to develop a dummy that accurately mimics the average female body. This is not the first female-based dummy. IIHS has been using female crash test dummies since 2003, for example, and some crash test sites use scaled-down male dummies that represented women inaccurately. Linder said the one VTI developed is more than just a better size at five feet, three inches tall and weighing 97 pounds; the way it moves better represents how female bodies move in a crash, given their different muscle strengths.Automotive safety engineers have worked on solutions for the past decade, too. In 2012, researchers published a paper on neck injuries in crash tests using “a new female dummy prototype.” Work continued on crash dummies that better represented female bodies. European researchers, for example, explored how better-designed dummies could help with whiplash injuries (2017) and quickly moved on to a broader discussion of how more representative “occupant models” would help more people in society (2019). “We have differences in the shape of the torso and the center of gravity and the outline of our hips and pelvis,” Linder told the BBC.This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.First crash test dummy designed to protect women – BBC NewsWatch onJust because we now have a better way to test the impact of crashes on both male and female bodies does not mean that vehicle safety features will change tomorrow. No laws anywhere require crash tests to use male and female dummies, and engineers can’t fix problems they can’t identify. Some automakers are already using gendered dummies in their crash tests, but Linder said she hopes their use becomes much more widespread. After all, she said, all parts of the population deserve to be safer in vehicles.This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Clocks across the U.S. will be set back an hour this weekend, and one unintended consequence is that more deer will probably be struck by a vehicle next week.New research published in Current Biology found that the week after the fall time change sees an average of 16 percent more deer-vehicle collisions.How much more dangerous dusk driving will be in the coming week depends on where you are. Counties on the eastern edge of a time zone are likely to see more deer being struck than those on the western side.Criticisms of how the United States handles daylight saving time are about as old as the practice itself. We now have one more reason to think about not switching the clocks every six months: more roadkill.A new study published in Current Biology by researchers from the University of Washington found that the week after the annual shift back to standard time sees a 16 percent increase in deer-vehicle collisions each year. Without falling back out of daylight saving time, the U.S. would see 36,550 fewer of these collisions—including 33 human deaths and over 2000 human injuries—and save $1.2 billion in collision costs each year, the researchers estimated. On average, around 2.1 million deer-vehicle collisions happen in the U.S. each year. These incidents are responsible for over $10 billion in economic losses as well as 59,000 human injuries and 440 human deaths.The reason there are more collisions when the clocks fall back is relatively easy to understand. The researchers found that deer-vehicle collisions are 14 times more frequent in the two hours after sunset than before sunset. Animals, of course, stick to their pattern no matter what human clocks say, going about their lives even as traffic patterns shift to an hour “earlier” and causing more driving at dusk. Moving our clocks in November increases the amount of low-light traffic, which puts more deer and vehicles at risk. The potential for deer-vehicle interactions is already increased in November because that’s when white-tailed deer (and some other ungulates) have their short breeding season.Deerly DepartedThe study’s authors also found that there is a difference between eastern and western areas within a given time zone. Counties on the eastern edge (which have earlier sunrises and sunsets compared to the western side and a correspondingly higher amount of low-light dusk driving) had an average of 1.4 times more collisions than counties on the western side of a time zone. These findings extend to the expected changes in deer-vehicle collisions should the U.S. permanently move to daylight saving time (as the U.S. Congress is considering), with some states, like Kansas, seeing an expected 2.5 percent increase in such collisions. In comparison, Maine would see an 8.3 percent decrease. If the U.S. got rid of biannual clock shifts and instead shifted to using only standard time, researchers estimate, deer-vehicle collisions would increase all across the country by an average of 5.2 percent, resulting in an expected additional 66 human fatalities and more than $2 billion of economic loss each year. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More