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Yellowwheels.com

automotive webzine

We aim to inform, entertain, and surprise you ! We like to do things our own way and bring you original content from the motoring world, and it doesn't have to be yellow !

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Mercedes C220 C-Class

We drive 4000 miles in a Mercedes C220 CDi - Read test our report

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The car that launched a website

Why yellowwheels.com ? - This is the car that inspired a website - Read how Yellowwheels came to be

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Lambo & Mini USB test

Useful stuff: Lambo & Mini USB test - we check out these miniatures for your laptop and fingers

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UK Amazon shop

Buy your next satnav or accessory at our YW UK Amazon shop - Help support this site by buying via us !

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YW electric kiddy car race

Electric BMW & Mini - We hold our first electric kids car race - follow the race and tantrums!

Cummins 3,500 bhp powered Mini sports 12 turbos

On July 12, 2010, In Auto Shows, Cars, Concepts, Construction vehicles, Custom, Events, Loaders, Other Vehicles, by yellowwheels

Cummins 3,500bhp Mini

Most powerful Mini yet with 3,500 bhp on tap

You can hear it now: you work for a company making slightly invisible products usually topped out with another manufacturer’s glossy body and want to shout about it. The boss says “make something wild and attention grabbing”. The result is baffling and downright stupid, but put it on display and….the public will love it, won’t they?

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Tagged with: 3500 bhp • Cummins Diesel • Festival of Speed • Goodwood • Mini • pickup

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 – Supercar gallery

On July 8, 2010, In Auto Shows, Concepts, Convertibles, Coupés, Electric, Events, Motor Racing, Sportscars, Supercars, Trackday, by yellowwheels

Ferrari 599 GTO at 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Yellowwheels presents a supercar gallery from the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood FoS is a fabulous feast of motoring extravaganza, with vehicles of all ages, sizes and types wanging it up the Earl of March’s garden path. Modern F1 cars mix with historic Le Mans cars, motocycles, legendary Grand Prix cars and beautiful, sometimes bizarre classics. But we were drawn to the fleet of immaculate and outrageous supercars assembled for the Sunday Times Supercar run up the hill. Many of these have not been seen in action before; just glimpsed in motorshow reports and the spreads of the glossies.

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Tagged with: 2010 • Festival of Speed • gallery • Goodwood • Sunday Times • supercar

YikeBike electric bike – is this the future of personal mobility?

On June 8, 2010, In cycling, Electric Bikes, Events, Interviews, Personal Mobility Devices, PMD, reviews, by yellowwheels

YikeBike - folded and ready to go

YW test drives the latest electric bike invented by YikeBike

Top gadget or serious last mile commuter electro-cycle? The bulky Segway really put a firecraker in the staid environs of the PMD or Personal Mobile Device. Their electric twin wheeled lean-mobiles are a triumph of lateral thinking made possible by the availability of new battery technology and gyroscopes. Their success spurned inventors to create other revolutionary devices and for the results to be taken seriously by investor and public alike. Electric longboards, trikes and trad-bikes in all shapes have appeared. Most striking one of these was on display and available for test drives at the recent Gadget Show Live exhibition: the YikeBike. Kiwi inventor and entrepreneur Grant Ryan and YikeBike co-founder Peter Higgins flew in with their team all the way from Canterbury New Zealand to show their carbon fibre YikeBike to press and public.

Unable to resist making a fool of himself our valiant scribbler Timtim queued up for a few tentative laps of the test area. Over to you Timtim.

Safety gear donned and disclaimer signed I approached the YikeBike a trifle nervously. I’d just watched a demo of how the “bike” folded from adult sized electro-penny-farthing-for-the-23rd-century to briefcase-sized-carbon-centrifuge with the flick of a few catches and levers. I’d also sampled the minuscule weight. Would 10kgs of carbon and li-po battery form a stable platform from which to navigate the urban roads it’s designed to handle? That’s the weight of a normal bicycle without battery, electric motor, control box, front and backlights, indicators!

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Tagged with: Birmingham • Gadget Show • Grant Ryan • NEC • personal mobility device • Peter Higgins • PMD • YikeBike

Renault World Series Megane Trophy Racer Hirschi

On April 27, 2010, In Cars, Events, Interviews, Motor Racing, Racing Cars, by yellowwheels

HiFi-Filter Megane Trophy racecar - Driver: Pierre Hirschi

Nurburgring hosts Renault’s Megane Trophy race

The scene is the Nurburgring, weather splendidly sunny, crowds basking in the aura generated by the weekend’s racing. There’s a mini funfair, bars aplenty, Renaults everywhere in all shapes and styles. Classic Renaults bid for attention next to slick single seaters, all powered by the french marque. But we are strangely drawn to the menacing shape of the Megane Coupe racers nosing out of pit the garages.

Pierre Hirschi - cheerful banter with the team

These silhouette, mid-engined monsters race in a one make/model series that’s part of Renault’s World Series. These events are free to the public and consequently well attended. We pick, slightly at random (and guess what, it’s yellow), a Hifi Filters sponsored Megane amongst a trio of Oregon Team prepared cars. Driver Pierre Hirschi speaks broken English which is a start, and perfect Swiss-French which suits us fine. We decide to follow him for the day rather than write a race report about a formula we’ve never witnessed. This genial 50 year old is clearly not out to be the next Schumacher, but enjoy a weekend’s racing. He qualifies as a “Gentleman Racer”, an amateur sub-class of the large field contesting the Megane Trophy Series.

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Tagged with: HIFI Filters • Jonathan Hirschi • Megane • Nürburgring • Pierre Hirschi • Renault • Trophy • World Series

Geneva Show Peugeot SR1 concept bike

On March 17, 2010, In Cars, Concepts, cycling, Events, Motor Shows, Road Biking, by yellowwheels

Geneva Motor Show - Peugeot SR1 Concept bike

Is this the shape of cycling to come?

We’ve never featured a bike, here on YW, but there’s always a first time. And this bike caught our attention because of the prominence it was given on the Peugeot stand at the Geneva Show. It stood proudly next to Peugeot’s SR1 concept car, almost eclipsing it. Sculptural purity should be celebrated, whether functional or not, and this techno-cycle had shed loads of it. Shame that the spoke-less, hub-less rim drive rear wheel isn’t matched at the front with a similar, innovative wheel.

Peugeot SR1 Bike concept pedal and cranks detail

Clearly this bike isn’t going anywhere, judging by the stretch leather “tyres” and other non-working gizmos. And just what is the glass vial bubble-level right above the cranks? And what is the fake energy meter inlaid into the handlebars ? Maybe some sort of hybrid drive to match the SR1 car beside it ? None of this is explained. We can only assume electric power and regenerative braking. Certainly, the whole concept bike is just a design exercise to supplement and complement the car, and in this respect it does an excellent job. It mirrors the car’s unusual controls, techno bleached-look materials, and fancy layout. Bikes have been extracted from the same, standard mold for so long that a concept such as this is refreshing and welcome. Just enjoy the photos realising, that, like the spaceship designs of yesteryear, the reality will be somewhat more sober.

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Tagged with: 2010 • Bike • Concept • Geneva Motor Show • Peugeot • SR1

Geneva Motor Show Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid Racer

On March 8, 2010, In Auto Shows, Cars, Events, Hybrid, Motor Shows, Racing Cars, by yellowwheels

Geneva Motor Show Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid Racer and kinetic drive

Not content to launch a new Cayenne in hybrid form and a stonking 918 hybrid concept at Geneva, Porsche showed a hybrid version of its new GT3R racing car. Set to race for real at the Nürburgring, this is no concept but a fully fledged 911 endurance racer. What sets it apart from the competition, particularly in the hybrid sense, is that it runs a flywheel type energy recovery, storage and power plant to supplement the 4 litre flat-six petrol engine engine in the tail rather than a battery pack.

Geneva Motor Show - Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid racer

Electrically spun, the flywheel stores kinetic energy and transfers it back to twin front electric drive motors, effectively giving 4 wheel drive on demand. Braking electrically respins the flywheel for a 6-8 second burst of extra power and traction. No word from Porsche as to whether there are any negative gyroscopic effects in the corners (or at all), but it should be more stable at high speed if the flywheel mass is sufficient. The system appears to rely on its high rotation speed rather than pure spinning weight. And anyway most cars have four spinning gyroscopes covered in rubber; one at each corner

So how would you feel about sitting next to what looks like a personal nuclear fusion reactor ? Should be fine really as it’s just a disc spinning at, err, 40,000rpm….but at least it has been developed by Williams Hybrid Power Ltd and Torotrak so does have some F1 technology built in.