ZA Car

Cast your mind back to the last time you were at a trackday or gymkhana day, and you got in the car with a bad driver. If you don’t like it, you just ask them to stop and you get out, right?

Well, what if the driver is a computer? And it’s not programmed to stop just because the squishy humans are crying like babies? All you can hope for is that the computer is a pretty good driver. In the case of Google’s self-driving Prius, you’re in good hands. Watch it go around this gymkhana track at tyre-squealing pace, without causing panic or crashes.

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Welcome to the 49th recording of the ZA Car Show. This is a very full week packed with international and, of  course, breaking local news news. We suspect if manufacturers actually launched cars at auto shows instead of  leaking pictures on the ‘net, half of the sparkle will not be lost at the actual events.

Jeep kindly gave ZACS a Jeep J8 for a bit of a comparative test…with a Suzuki Jimny, we’re still trying to work out of we are surprised about the Jimny or the Jeep  both of which equally thrilled when thrown into ridiculous off-road situations.

Jeep J8 and some of its siblings.

For more show notes, pictures of the Suzuki and Jeep excursion and other interesting news  clickerize ‘more’ under this post.

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The team tries hard this week to make sense of hybrids, hydrogen and fuel saving technology. In a world that is changing, is it slowly heralding the death of the petrol engine? One might think just that, but then the Volkswagen Golf TSI comes along; probably one of the most astounding cars to come along this year, but Trevor van de Ven won’t buy it, why?

The 3-point seatbelt turn 50, saves many lives.

The space wheel shows what is used on the moon, but will it be the tyre of the future on earth?

Show notes, cool pictures and links to news after the jump…

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Episode 12 of ZA Car Show with Christo van Gemert, Patrick Gearing Trevor Tuck and Trevor van de Ven covers some interesting news on the environmental front, from new hybrids, podcars and electric Porsches. We are also first to drive the new Ford Fiesta and play a sports car challenge. 

Episode 12 the ZACS team covers:

• New Cars: Toyota Prius 
• Podcars 
• The RUF electric [Porsche] 911 
• Electric cars and the silly things that manufacturers are having to build because electric cars are too quiet
• New Cars MINI E – electric car 
• Fiat’s new downloadable fuel economy tool: For Fiat drivers with Blue&Me only, sorry. 
• New Cars: Ford’s Focus RS Christo has pictures of the car in the flesh which we cannot share unfortunately 
• Smart2Go city commute concept – ready for South Africa or not? 
• New Car Drive: 2009 Ford Fiesta launch in South Africa 
• ZACS challenge: Pick a sports car for under R500 000, sounds like a lot of money, trust ZACS there is not much to choose from. The results, again, are surprising.
• And finally the answer the Episode 11′s challenge on rotary engines

and more…

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In Episode 8 of ZA Car Show we welcome Christo back who brings with him a bumper load of new car news and test drives while the ZACS plays the best model game again. We are full of surprises in this episode.  

In Episode 8 we discuss:

The CitiWolf – is this a sheep in wolf’s clothing, mutton dressed as lamb we could go on…

Golf VI GTI, a case of de-ja-vu. Take a look at the W12 and new GTI, we can’t believe we never saw this coming

New Car Launch Drive: MINI JCW, BMW’s new pocket rocket, not be confused with the MINI Cooper JCW kit, all very confusing we know

ZACS Best Car Challenge: This week we battle it out arguing what is the best Toyota. The results are surprising once again

The Toyota Prius causes a fight while we explore some of the other models we did not pick – Tuck is a hybrid hater

Test Driven: Range Rover Sport TDV8 – Christo’s rollin’ on dubs and he even took if offroad…

Test Driven: Mercedes Benz C63 AMG – Mercedes Benz’ monster car developed to kick Beemer in the nuts and it does! But is it a good car? 

And more…

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