It sure ain't pretty, though beauty, in this case, is likely in the eye of the beholder. A few years back, a new take on the taxi was provided by Standard Taxi, a company based in Troy, Michigan. The design for the purpose-built people hauler uses GM running gear and is able to haul four passengers in relative comfort. We hadn't heard a peep from the company until today when we learned that Standard is now working on negotiations with AM General to build the vehicle in its plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, where AM General builds the Hummer H2 SUV and SUT. So far, no announcements have been made regarding whether or not the plant would continue working full-time in the face of lagging Hummer sales, though we imagine that plenty of excess capacity is available. According to AM General, the deal would in no way impact the assembly of military Hummer models.
We can't say whether a production version of the Standard Taxi would feature the pushrod 4.3-liter V6 that the concept had underhood, though there are plenty of options from the GM parts-bin from which to pilfer. A Standard Taxi equipped with GM's 2-Mode hybrid system could prove to be extremely well-suited for taxi duty in some of the world's toughest environments.
Audi has announced that its superlative R8 sportscar will serve as the safety car for the ever-popular DTM touring car championship, having also served in the same capacity for the recently-concluded 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi's performance division quattro GmbH prepared a pair of R8s for the German racing series – with the second serving as a "racing taxi" – but noted that, "because the R8 possesses the genes of a perfect sports car", little in the way of modification for duty was required.
The pair of R8 support vehicles made its debut at the Norisring Speed Weekend yesterday, where Mercedes-Benz beat out the new Audi A4 DTM with a 1-2 finish.
Last month China's Sichuan province was devastated by a massive earthquake that killed as many as 70,000 people. If you've wanted to donate to help the survivors but were waiting for just the right opportunity, this could be it.
Our friends over at China Car Times are holding several auctions with the proceeds going to the British Red Cross. Three of the auctions require a little travel for us Americans, but just might be worth a special trip. One is a private tour of the London Taxi factory with a chance to drive one of the iconic cars and some special merchandise from the factory. The second is for the chance to be one of the first people to tour MG's Longbridge factory in Birmingham, England, since taken over by Shanghai Automotive. Not only that, but the top bidder will get to drive the new MG TF LE500. The third auction is your chance to try out the latest vehicles from Lotus right there on its test track in Hethel Norwich, England.
Can't leave the country? Line up behind a couple of Autoblog staffers to bid on the 1:18 scale models of the Lifan 520. These are usually only given to VIP visitors to the Lifan factory and are produced in exacting detail. They're gonna look good in my collection.
The final auction should appeal to anyone with an international business hoping to break into the Chinese market. China Car Times will give to the winning bidder one month of advertising on its Web site, which is a great opportunity to see what your business could do over there.
Londoners could be swapping out black cabs for black vans pretty soon. EcoCity vehicles, through its subsidiary KPM-UK, has worked with LTI, the maker of the famous black cab, for almost 20 years. Now EcoCity has signed an agreement with Mercedes-Benz to produce cabs out of Vito Traveliner vans, which produce lower emissions than the LTI offering.
With 93-percent of the London taxi market owned by black cabs, we wouldn't expect to see Traveliners dominating The City any time soon. For EcoCity, it was more about offering a more environmental choice for drivers and customers. Former mayor Ken Livingstone was a big proponent of that, if you'll remember. And for the city of London, it could mean less of the brown stuff in the air. The Traveliner taxi will be launched next week, and go on sale shortly after.
The current Crown Victoria wears many hats here in the States, as it is the transportation of choice for taxis, police, mob hitmen and senior citizens. With the eventual phasing out of North America's last body-on-frame car platform comes the Transit Connect, which is already on sale overseas and ready for multitasking on our shores. We've already seen a Transit ready for taxi duty, catering, and cable installation, and now the Blue Oval is pushing the busy little work van into the performance market.
Ford of Europe has announced the Transit Connect SportVan, which comes fully equipped with Performance Blue paint, Ford GT-style racing stripe, and seven-spoke 18-inch rims. Power comes from a 1.8L Duratorq TDCi diesel, which likely won't set the streets ablaze, but Ford provides some sporty features to make the working man's Mini Cooper feel fast. Some features include a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear knob, high quality leather seats with eight-way seat adjustment, ABS, traction control, and some bright-work for the dash. In the past, such news would mean little to us here in the States, but since the Transit Connect is headed our way, there is a chance we could one day see a SportVan on Woodward or Hollywood Blvd.
It's a brilliant marketing come-on, really. Who wants to climb into a GAZ-24, however appealing it might be to obscure-car guys, when you could sink into the all-enveloping sumptuousness of a Maybach 62? Need to get to Gorky Park quickly? A Porsche Cayenne outfitted with a meter and checkerboard detailing awaits at the curb. It's not just a fancied-up VW, still carrying the VR6 behind the Porsche crest, either. No, this Cayenne is a TechArt Magnum, packing enough horsepower to light Long Island. Shaking that covey of shifty-eyed men in the shiny black Zil won't be a problem. It's not known if the fare is commensurate with the price of the vehicle, however.
During the 2008 New York Auto Show we took a short cab ride from the Javits Center to the hotel, and our driver straddled lanes, blew lights, and narrowly missed around three dozen cars. That's nothing compared to this video of a Baghdad cab ride from hell. Photographer Steve Bent of The Sunday Times was traveling to a shoot in an old Nissan 4x4 with a driver and a man he only refers to as the "boss" in the front seat. Bent needed to get to his shoot during morning traffic, and the driver went so far as to pull a Ronin, driving the wrong way down one-way streets while leaning on the horn.
That's kind of nuts, but then the boss man pulls out a 9mm pistol and starts waving it around so other drivers could get the hint that they really needed to move. The "boss" even fires to drive the message home just seconds before arriving at an army checkpoint, where his carries on a completely normal conversation with the soldiers, who seem not at all surprised at the gunplay. When asked why he fired his pistol, the "boss" explained the driver in front of them wouldn't get out of the way. That was enough for the soldiers, who then waved them through the checkpoint, according to Bent. In New York, a move like this would get your name in the paper and your butt in a jail cell. In Iraq, it gets you to your destination on time. Follow the jump to watch for yourselves. The good stuff starts about a minute in, so be patient.
Where better than New York for Ford to show off a taxi cab? And what better platform than the company's new Transit Connect van? Ford's Mark Fields and designer J. Mays were on hand for the unveiling of the Transit Connect Taxi Concept, and both were somehow amazed at the applause the concept generated. Seeing as how there were only a handful of us there and that the rest of the crowd consisted of Ford employees, we find it hard to believe there wouldn't be applause aplenty. Seriously though, this is one fun cab. After spending some time in the regular fleet of bumblebee-colored Crown Vics this past week, we can attest that the Transit Connect Taxi has a lot of things that make it a natural improvement over current standard taxis. Our favorite was the panoramic roof that allows passengers to take in tall buildings with a single glance, but we also liked the flexible seating and cargo configurations, as well as the funky interactive infotainment system for the back seat. Although it looks a bit large in photos, the Transit Connect Taxi Concept actually has a small footprint vehicle and seems like it could go four-wide where the Vics can only manage three abreast.
In the era of the greener taxicab, the extremely capable Ford Crown Victoria is now gauche. Ford knows this, and later this morning in the Jacob Javits Center, it will unveil a new taxi concept that's about as different from the Vic as you can get. The Ford Transit Connect Taxi that was spied last week combines spaciousness and utility with improved fuel economy and reduced emissions thanks to the 2.0-liter four it packs underhood (no hybrid, though, which would be really big in cities like New York). The yellow exterior is offset with matte grey accents, including the combo fascia/bumpers fore and aft.
Passengers ride in an airy cabin that feels even more so in the concept thanks to a vista roof that looks nice but would probably never make the cut on a real fleet vehicle. Ford and Microsoft's Work Solutions package powers the system feeding content to the 13-inch display facing the backseat passengers. In addition to acting as the meter and electronic payment interface, the display also supplies "infotainment" info, live traffic and weather, and GPS functionality. Folks who still pay their fares with wallet cabbage can send their greenbacks forward through the concept's fancy little orb in the rear partition (Ford calls it "Sputnik").
As good as the Crown Victoria taxi is, its days are numbered as cities move to green up their taxi fleets. If the Transit Connect can handle the amount of punishment the Vic regularly endures, it's a pretty compelling package. Not only is it more roomy and efficient than the Vic, it could probably be made readily accessible for disabled riders, too. Ford is intent on showing a variety of uses for its new Euro-sourced work van, and this seems like a good one.
The taxi business is quickly changing, with the Ford Crown Victoria set to take a permanent buyout, hybrids ready to invade Manhattan by 2012, and now robuCab. The driver-free robuCab was developed in France by Robosoft, and the technology is limited for now. It's a 4WD electric vehicle relying on a camera that reads a nearby curb and sensors reading both the curb angle and devices planted in the ground.
The slow-moving robuCab prototypes can carry four passengers, but we're not seeing a lot of luggage space in the pictures above. We also don't see robuCab taking jobs from New York's finest any time soon, as the technology still isn't close to being ready for prime time. Then again, we've already seen enough success with recent driverless car challenges to know anything is possible.
