Rally de Argentina
28 abril, 2012 | 
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Con más de 200 kilómetros de especiales cronometradas, la primera etapa del Rally de Argentina parecía que iba a ser complicada, y así fue. Sébastien Loeb y Daniel Elena subieron posiciones según avanzaba la jornada y cuando quedaba menos de un cuarto para que finalizara, se colocaron en cabeza. El resultado no puede ser mejor para el Citroën Total World Rally Team, con Mikko Hirvonen y Jarmo Lehtinen en la segunda posición a sólo una décima de segundo de sus compañeros de equipo. El rally comenzó el jueves por la tarde con una primera pasada por la superespecial de Villa Carlos Paz. Con la intención de guardar el mayor número posible de neumáticos blandos para los tramos largos, los pilotos del Citroën Total World Rally Team montaron los Michelin Latitude Cross duros en sus coches.
Esta elección no dio muy buen resultado y Seb y Mikko se clasificaron 10º y 13º respectivamente. Al día siguiente ya estaban en el parque de asistencia a las 5h45. Por la mañana recorrieron dos largas especiales: La Pampa/La Pampa (37,51km) y Ascochinga/Agua de Oro (51,88km). Esperando que lloviera, todos los equipos montaron neumáticos blandos. Al final ni llovió ni hubo niebla, pero según los pilotos, esta había sido la elección correcta. A pesar de haber hecho un trompo, Sébastien Loeb marcó el mejor tiempo en la ES2. En la siguiente, el ocho veces campeón del mundo perdió 26 segundos: “Volví a hacer un trompo y nada menos que dos veces. La segunda tuve que maniobrar para colocarme en la dirección correcta. Tuve que luchar con un coche que sobreviraba mucho en las curvas cerradas. Vamos a colocar los reglajes anteriores”.
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VW Up: World Car 2012
The jury, consisting of 66 top journalists from 25 countries, voted by a majority to name the up! ‘World Car of the Year 2012′. In the end, Volkswagen’s city car beat off two other finalists to secure the internationally recognised prize. “This award shows once again that in the up! our designers and engineers have reated a vehicle that has been thought through in minute detail. A vehicle that sets standards in its class for efficient use of space, safety, motoring fun and environmental compatibility,” remarks Prof. Dr.Martin Winterkorn, Chariman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG.
Within just a short time of its launch last December, the up! was, for example, already topping the statistics for new vehicle registrations in Germany. At around the same time, consumer protection organization Euro NCAP awarded the up! a top score of five points and also gave it an ‘Advanced Award’ for its city emergency braking system. The highly regarded iF Design Institute in turn gave Volkswagen’s smallest car the ‘iF design award in Gold’. Nor does it end there! The up! has to date also won the ’2011 Goldene Lenkrad’ (Golden Steering Wheel) in Germany and three awards from British motoring magazine ‘What Car?’: ‘Car of the Year’, ‘City Car 2012′ and the ‘Safety Award’.
800.000 Honda Hybrids
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has announced that Honda’s cumulative worldwide hybrid vehicle sales surpassed 800,000 units as of the end of December 2011. This milestone was reached 12 years and 2 months after the start of sales of the first generation Honda Insight in Japan November 1999, which delivered fuel economy of 35km/liter* then the world’s highest fuel economy among all gasoline-powered vehicles. Honda introduced the first generation Insight, Civic Hybrid and Accord Hybrid equipped with Honda’s original lightweight and compact IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) hybrid system. More recently, following the introduction of the second generation Insight in 2009, Honda introduced a total of six new hybrid models in the last three years to expand the hybrid vehicle line-up and sales.
Honda’s annual worldwide hybrid sales for 2011 was approximately 200,000 units (up 30% compared to 2010), and Honda’s total hybrid sales during the last three years exceeded 500,000 units. In Japan, the ratio of hybrid vehicles exceeded 45% of all new Honda vehicle registrations for the month of December 2011. As of today, Honda sells seven hybrid models in approximately 50 countries around the world. In addition, the market introduction of the ILX, the first Acura brand model equipped with a hybrid system, is scheduled in spring 2012 in North America. Under the global environmental slogan of “Blue Skies for Our Children”, Honda will continue its efforts to realize the further market penetration of hybrid vehicles to realize a low carbon society.