2019 Harley-Davidson Ford F-150 Concept Debuts

Harley-Davidson and Tuscany Motor Company rolled out a Harley-Davidson Concept Custom 2019 Ford F-150 for the motorcycle marque’s 115th Anniversary Celebration this weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Harley styling crew and Ford-authorized specialty vehicle manufacturer Tuscany Motor Company co-designed the new concept pickup, which takes its styling cues from Harley’s most popular and iconic ride—the Fat Boy.

It will be on view at the Harley-Davidson Museum and it looks like the perfect hauler for next year’s ride out to Sturgis.

“Harley-Davidson is one of the most iconic brands in the world,” said Jeff Burttschell, Tuscany Motor Co. VP, in a statement. “The new truck was designed to evoke the same sense of power and freedom as the Harley-Davidson motorcycles that inspired it.”

And that it does. The concept truck gets a matching coat of Vivid Black paint (or Leadfoot Gray), plenty of H-D bar and shield badging, custom tuned BDS suspension lift with upgraded Fox shocks, lighted power running boards with unique integrated rocker trim, and a custom-tuned Flowmaster exhaust with H-D solid billet aluminum tips.

The custom F-150 also sports a ram-air hood, custom fender flares and vents, a front bumper cap with skid plate, LED light bar, honeycomb grille and mesh, locking ABS tonneau cover, and rolls on Fat Boy-style 22-inch milled aluminum wheels with 35-inch all-terrain rubber.

Inside, there’s a splash of orange accents on the door, dash, and steering wheel trim, plus stainless steel H-D gauges, billet H-D racing pedals, and two-tone diamond stitched perforated custom leather seats. Need more H-D? There’s also H-D-emblazoned floor mats, door sills, and a numbered center console badge complete with the Harley logo.

Source: Harley-Davidson

 

 

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Mercedes Teases Electric EQC Crossover Once More

Mercedes is revealing the first vehicle from its EQ electric sub-brand, an all-wheel drive electric crossover called the EQC, on September 4. Earlier this week, the automaker teased the vehicle’s rear end and headlights, but now we get an even better look at the front end as the video tease continues.

Unlike the prototype revealed two years ago, the production model will have a traditional-looking grille. That change dramatically tones down the show car’s futuristic look, but a few elements did survive the concept stage, including curved LED daytime running lights that connect with an LED strip above the grille. Though not quite the vivid blue light strip that framed the Generation EQ concept’s simulated grille and headlights, the light signature retains the same general shape.

Yet another teaser that Mercedes dropped this week gave us a good idea of what the EV’s interior will look like. The center stack and door panels look similar to the GLC’s (the vehicle the EQC is based on) but the MBUX infotainment system with its crisp-looking dual-screen layout is new. Like we have seen in other Mercedes applications, the instrument panel and multimedia screen (likely 10.25 inches each) combine to create one large display that spans half the dashboard. The rectangular air vents appear to be unique to the EQC, not circular like in many other Mercedes models.

As we learned from our ride in a prototype, the EQC will use a battery pack rated between 70 and 75 kilowatt-hours and will have a driving range between 200 and 240 miles. The front- and rear-mounted motors will generate about 400 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. The Jaguar I-Pace (on sale this fall) also uses front and rear motors but is powered by a larger 90-kilowatt-hour battery pack that generates 394 hp and 512 lb-ft and offers a driving range of about 240 miles. Both vehicles are capable of using DC fast-charging stations.

Mercedes will have more details next week, but we expect the EV to hit U.S. dealers by 2020 with a similar starting price to the I-Pace (about $70,000).

Source: Mercedes via Facebook

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Life-Size Bugatti Chiron Made of Legos Actually Runs

For nearly 70 years, Lego has shown us that just about anything can be built using its interlocking brick system. The company’s latest creation proves just that. Lego has built a life-size model of the Bugatti Chiron out of more than 1 million Lego Technic pieces. Oh, and the thing is drivable, too.

Lego says the Chiron is the first full-scale movable car it’s attempted. The engine uses 2,304 motors and 4,032 gear wheels from the Lego Technic parts catalog, which work together to create 5.3 hp and an estimated 92 Nm (roughly 68 lb-ft of torque). That’s good enough to accelerate the Lego Chiron to just over 12 mph. Though that’s well short of the actual Chiron’s electronically limited 261-mph top speed, it’s not bad at all for a car built almost entirely out of Legos.

Weighing approximately 3,306 pounds, the Lego Chiron is only 1,100 pounds lighter than the real thing. Lego says it used no glue in the build process—only genuine Lego and Lego Technic pieces. However, the company does note there are 58 types of “custom-made” Technic elements, so if you’re thinking you can build your own working Bugatti using off-the-shelf bricks, you may be out of luck. And because Lego Technic doesn’t currently have any 21-inch wheels in its parts bin, the car rolls on genuine Chiron wheels and tires. So yeah, you’d have to source those too.

Despite those few exceptions, the car is mostly made out of Legos, and that become more apparent the closer you look at it. A series of interconnected blue triangular segments make up the Bugatti’s curvy body shape. Builders even recreated the Chiron’s interior, replicating the seats, dashboard, gauges, and steering wheel, which is removable for easier access to the cockpit. The Lego Chiron is so convincing that it even fooled Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace from a distance.

“When I first saw the Lego Chiron, I was immediately impressed by the accuracy of the model and the minute attention to detail,” said Wallace, in a release. “In fact, from about 20 meters away it’s not obvious that you are looking at a Lego car. I can only imagine how much time and effort went into making this model.”

But you don’t have to imagine, as Lego says the project took 13,438 man hours to complete, including development and actual construction time. And we thought building the 7,500-piece Lego Millennium Falcon was a big commitment.

See how Lego did it in the videos above, and also see the Lego Chiron up close in the huge photo gallery below.

Source: Lego

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Lamborghini Aventador Successor to Get V-12 With Hybrid Power

How can Lamborghini make its outrageous flagship V-12 engine even better? With batteries.

After years of keeping the idea of hybrid power at arms’ length, Automobili Lamborghini will use a V-12 with hybrid-assist as the powerplant for the successor to the Aventador.

Maurizio Reggiani, Chief Technical Officer of Automobili Lamborghini, said emissions and noise regulations are forcing the automaker’s hands somewhat. But Lamborghini is making the best of the situation.

“The successor to the Aventador will be V-12 naturally aspirated. We can add a hybrid or plug-in to respect all the rules of fuel consumption and emissions,” Reggiani said in an interview with Motor Trend during Monterey Car Week, where Lamborghini revealed the Aventador SVJ (pictured).

How would the hybrid system work?

“Maybe we have hybrid boost for turbo-like performance,” Reggiani said. “When I have a tank of energy, I want to use what is best for homologation. Once you fulfill that requirement, the additional energy can be used for performance.

“We have the anima selector, for Strada, Sport, and Corsa driving modes. In Strada, we never use the [battery] energy as a boost [perhaps using hybrid power for EV-only operation in urban centers]. In Sport, we use the electric power in the rear axle with electronic torque vectoring to have more control. And in Corsa, we send the electric boost to the wheel that can best transfer the torque at any speed.”

Using turbos to boost performance likely is a one-off, just for the Urus, Reggiani added.

“If you want to move a car weighing 2.2 tons on every surface, even if it’s gravel or sand, you need an engine that provides huge torque at 1,500 rpm. Only a turbo can provide this. The decision of using a turbo was based on the mission of the car. Supersports cars don’t have this kind of mission,” he said.

Lamborghini may also add a fourth mass-production vehicle to its lineup, Reggiani said. Once Lamborghini gets its assembly processes up to speed with Urus and is confident of its consistent volume, it will consider another volume vehicle.

“When we did Urus, we were consistent with our history, in which the Espada was a real four-seater. If you also look at our history, we had a proper 2+2, which was the Islero,” Reggiani said, without clarifying if such a car would be a smaller SUV, a sedan, or a 2+2 coupe. The next-gen Aventador may not be the only product with electrification in its future, as it was previously rumored that the Huracán’s successor would be a hybrid, as well. Back in 2016, Reggiani also confirmed a plug-in hybrid variant of the Urus was in the works.

 

 

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