Jaguar SS 100

Jaguar SS 100 (1936)

The SS 100 is a British 2 seat sports car built between 1936 and 1940 by SS Cars Ltd of Coventry, England. The last one is thought to have been delivered in 1941. In 1936 the name Jaguar was given to a new saloon car and from then on to all the cars. Following World War II, due to the connotations then attached to the initials SS, the company was renamed Jaguar.

The chassis with a wheelbase of 8 feet 8 inches (2.64 m) was essentially a shortened version of the one designed for the 2.5 litre saloon, a car produced in much greater numbers, and had first been seen in the SS 90 of 1935. Suspension was on half elliptical springs all round with rigid axles. The engine was a development of the old 2.5 litre Standard unit converted from side valve to overhead valve with a new cylinder head designed by William Heynes and Harry Weslake. The power output was increased from 70 bhp (52 kW) to 100 bhp (70 kW). Twin SU carburettors were bolted directly to the cylinder head. In 1938 the engine was further enlarged to 3.5 litres and the power increased to 125 bhp (93 kW). The four speed gearbox had synchromesh on the top 3 ratios. Brakes were by Girling. The complete car weighed just over 23 cwt (2600 pounds, 1150 kg).

On test by The Autocar in 1937 the 2.5 litre (20 RAC hp rating) car was found, with the windscreen lowered, to have a maximum speed of 95 mph (153 km/h) and a 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) time of 13.5 seconds. With the 3.5 litre (25 RAC hp rating) the top speed reached the magic 100 mph (160 km/h) with a best of 101 mph (163 km/h) over the quarter mile and the 0 - 60 mph (97 km/h) coming down to 10.4 seconds.

In 1937 the 2.5 litre car cost GBP395 and in 1938 the 3.5 litre GBP445. The coupé, of which only one was made, was listed at GBP595. A few examples were supplied as chassis only to external coachbuilders.

Widely considered to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing Jaguar cars it is also one of the rarest with only 198 of the 2.5 litre and 116 of the 3.5 litre models being made. Most stayed on the home market but 49 were exported. Cars in good condition will fetch well in excess of GBP100,000, a near concours example was sold by auctioneers Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2007 for GBP199,500.

 Insurance Info

In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or entity buying the insurance policy. The insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage, called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.

more info http://insuranceonlinemedia.blogspot.com

BMW 315 PS DA 2

BMW 315 PS DA 2 (1929)

The BMW 3/15 was BMW's second car, first produced in July 1929.

After the end of World War One the situation for BMW - which was founded as an aero engine manufacturer became difficult. The Versailles treaty strongly restricted airplane manufacture in Germany and companies had to look for other fields of business. So BMW turned to truck and boat engine, motorcycle and later car manufacture. When the BMW Dixi line collapsed, BMW took the opportunity and bought the license for the Austin seven as well as the Eisenach factory. For the first months the production of the car continued as BMW 3/15 PS DA1. The BMW 3/15 PS DA1 had many different body shells so it was one of the first customizable cars. The designation was derived from the taxation class (3), engine power (15 hp with PS being the German equivalent of hp) and DA stands for “Deutsche Ausführung” (German version).

Engine: 4 cylinder water cooled four-stroke, 750 ccm, 15 hp

Weight: about 400 kg

Top speed: 75 km/h (45 miles/h)

Acceleration 8 to 40 km/h (5 to 25 miles/h): 10 seconds

Fuel consumption: 5-6 liter/100 km (mileage about 45 miles/gallon)

Insurance Info

In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or entity buying the insurance policy. The insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage, called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.

more info http://insuranceonlinemedia.blogspot.com

Automotive info:Ford, Honda tops in U.S. customer retention; Kia rising fast

Automotive info:Ford, Honda tops in U.S. customer retention; Kia rising fast

Ford and Honda have vaulted past Mercedes-Benz to tie for the highest customer retention rate among automotive brands in the United States this year, according to a new study.

The two mass-market brands retained 62 percent of buyers this year, J.D. Power and Associates said in its annual Customer Retention Study released today.

Ford rose five spots from 56 percent in 2009 while Honda increased one spot from 64 percent last year. Mercedes fell five spots, from 66 percent in 2009 to 59 percent in 2010, J.D. Power said.

The firm said Ford's higher retention rate was driven mostly by the Edge, F-Series and Fusion models. Honda's retention was driven by the Accord, CR-V and Pilot, the firm said.

“Ford, specifically, (is) producing products that have vehicle appeal, that have good styling and are fun to drive,” said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power and Associates. “For Honda, it's still more about resale value.”

Kia Motors had the largest increase in brand loyalty from last year, jumping by 21 percentage points to a 58 percent retention rate.

Overall, the average customer retention rate for the industry remained at 48 percent, even though some brands shifted in the rankings. Of the 32 brands ranked by the study, 16 improved their retention rates from last year, 14 declined and four did not change.

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Automotive info: BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization

Automotive info: BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization

When you're auto giant BMW, with 24 production sites in 13 countries, you're going to have your share of important business applications.

1,000 apps to be more precise. Managing and deploying these applications for employees in 250 global locations had become an expensive, time-consuming grind.

Even though most of the application packaging was outsourced to firms in India, time zone differences, extensive compatibility testing and communication delays between India and BMW's German IT team would add two or three days to the application packaging process.

Often, BMW would go through packaging and compatibility testing two or three times for a single application. The whole process, from application request through delivery, could take up to four weeks.

BMW faced another problem: Because the application packaging process consumed so many resources, applications had to meet a minimum-user threshold to qualify for packaging and testing. Yet 40 percent of BMW's applications did not meet this criteria. For those applications, BMW could either pay a partner to send technicians to install the software on employees' computers, or have the employees get administrator rights to install the applications themselves.

[ For complete coverage on Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system -- including hands-on reviews, video tutorials and advice on enterprise rollouts -- see CIO.com's Windows 7 Bible. ]

Both of these options were still time-consuming and expensive. Having technicians do software installations cost $54 per visit, with an average of 3,000 technician visits per year. Employees who were granted administrator rights could accidentally expose their computers to software vulnerabilities when downloading applications, or they might install software that conflicts with other applications.

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Automotive info: Nissan car brakes automatically to avoid collisions

Automotive info: Nissan car brakes automatically to avoid collisions

A new safety system developed by Nissan ties together a car-mounted radar and computer to reduce the risk of collisions.

The "forward collision avoidance assist concept," which was demonstrated by the car maker this week at its research center in Japan, keeps a watch on the road ahead with a radar system mounted behind the car's front bumper.

When the system judges the car needs to decelerate, it sounds an audible alarm and gently pushes up the accelerator pedal up and smoothly applies partial braking. If the driver doesn't act and a collision becomes more likely it automatically applies harder braking and tightens the driver's seatbelt.

In a demonstration this week a Nissan Infiniti fitted with the system was driven directly towards a foam obstruction, formed to look like a car, at 60 kilometers per hour. At about 60 meters away the radar picked up the object and began trying to gently slow the car.

For the purposes of the demonstration, the Nissan driver didn't apply the brakes and with less than 10 meters to go before a collision the system applied emergency braking. The car came to stop about a meter from the obstruction.

Because the braking had been planned, and the seatbelts automatically tightened, the quick stop of the car wasn't accompanied by the sudden jerk that's typically felt when a driver slams on the brakes to avoid a collision.

Nissan said it will work at speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, which is the highest yet for a forward collision avoidance system.

The technology has been designed to reduce both the likelihood of a collision with a car in front and getting hit by a car from behind. The gradual braking it applies in the early stages should give drivers behind enough warning to brake themselves thus avoiding a crash.

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automotive:Pioneer preps laser head-up display for 2012

automotive:Pioneer preps laser head-up display for 2012

Pioneer is developing a head-up display for cars that links in with the navigation function available on many modern smartphones. A prototype of the device is on show this week at Japan's Ceatec electronics show, and the company said it hopes to have a commercial model available in 2012.

The prototype uses a laser to display bright, high-contrast, full-color images on a screen that would be mounted above the dashboard, between the driver and the windscreen. To the driver the projected images would appear in the lower part of the windscreen.

The screen used in the prototype is about double the size of a car's rear-view mirror, which makes it larger than most current head-up display systems.

A demonstration model was hooked up to an Android-based phone and displayed a navigation map on the left-hand side and an animated Android robot on the right-hand side that passed on information to drivers. (A video of the display can be seen on YouTube.)

The cell phone provides the visual output and network connection that keeps the system updated with road conditions and other information.

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