Pure American muscle

The Prius accelerates sales of Toyotas

Brawn humiliates Ferrari in its own house

Page 1

Dodge Challenger is a real American icon of the age of the muscular cars of the seventies, which four decades later has returned with a spectacular design. The SRT8 Limited Edition is the most powerful version of the line, a super sports coupé with an engine HEMI V8 and a series of equipments of high yield, but very comfortable of handling. photo: Chrysler LLC / AP

Carlos Guzmán
Autoproyecto.com

New Dodge Challenger has a design like no other. Few cars I have handled that pay so much the attention; it seemed that in every corner in which I was stopping someone was doing the approval gesture to me with the thumbs up. And the fact is that this new Dodge is almost a work of art and a real American icon of the age of the muscular cars of the seventies.
The SRT8 Limited Edition is the most powerful version of the line, with an engine HEMI V8 and a series of equipments of high yield. But being still this one a super sports coupé capable of raising the beats of the heart to anyone, the big surprise is “the civilized thing” that is in his interior, with wide dimensions and a gentleness that they it make a car perfectly tolerable for the daily handling.
Exterior design
The Challenger obviously takes elements of style of the original model produced between 1970 and 1974, but it does it with cleaner lines still. The side lines are fluid, with solid panels that lack any adornment. As good muscular car, the central side line is solved in big shoulders after the door, which give him this masculine and sober appearance.
The SRT8 is characterized also by sports transfers with pattern of graphite, ensigns of SRT8 and HEMI in the bodywork, chrome tops of the tailpipes, and rims of 20 inches that, certainly, have one of the most attractive designs that I have seen lately.
Pleasant interior
A surprising element of the Challenger is it cozy and wide that it is the cabin, with capacity for four adults comfortably. The SRT8 has sports front armchairs with excellent side support, but commodes for long trips. The access to the later seats is difficult, but once there, they are comfortable and the passengers have space sufficient for the legs. The porter also is spacious.
Esthetically, the design of the interior is less impressive than the exterior, but it still supports certain air of the original design of the seventies. Nevertheless the frill, the switches and the clocks of the board are the same that are in other Dodge cars.
Optionally a sound system is free with changer of 6 CDs and 13 loudspeakers, controlled by means of a screen tactile LCD along with the navigation system for satellite. The system sounds very well, with a subwoofer mounted in the porter that of course there will like the lovers of the low frequencies.
In the frill
The SRT8 feels agreeably refine both to falls and to high speeds. The cabin is silent, with only little noise of the engine that slips in inside. The engine roars with big fervor, especially on having spent 5.000 revolutions per minute; a sound that is a pure music for the enthusiasts.
In general, the SRT8 is easy to handle and it offers big diversion to the driver, thanks to an explosive acceleration and a reliable maneuverability. The handling sensation is different from most of the cars on the market nowadays, since it is a big and heavy coupé, but with 425 horses under the hood.

A worker of Toyota Motor Corporation examines a new motorcar Prius newly assembled in the plant of Tsutsumi of the manufacturer Toyota, in Japan. Photo: Shizuo Kambayashi / AP

Tokyo
Agencies

Toyota will open 800 squares to temporary workpeople in Japan, in his first increase of work places in more than one year to face the dynamic sales of his hybrid car Prius to gasoline and electricity, he announced on Tuesday, the 8th the Japanese self-propelled company.
Experts consider that it should be called it will spread to other parts of the world, especially in the United States, where the sales of his compact, economic and hybrid models – between them the Prius - they have being accentuated positively in the last weeks.
Most of the new ones hired in Japan will begin to be employed from the next month at the plant Motive Tsutsumi de Toyota Corp., in the center of the country, which makes the Prius and other models for the Japanese market.
Toyota uses at present 1.300 temporary workers, or for contract, in Japan, while 70.000 employees of finished time with whom the company is provided have guaranteed “I work for the whole life” in the country.
Toyota uses more than 300.000 workers on a global scale.
The Japanese manufacturer has happened for difficulties since the global sales collapsed last year. It stopped hiring temporary workpeople in Japan in June, 2008.
The manufacturer of the luxurious model Lexus and of the sedan Camry had his worst historical loss, of 4.600 million dollars, during the tax year that ended on March 31. The company has predicted one tax year even worse with term in March, 2010, although analysts hope that the calculation will be checked to show a better panorama after some signs on which the sales might be repuntando.
“ The decision to open positions to temporary workpeople reflects a gradual global recovery in the sale of cars”, allowed the spokesman of the company Paul Nolasco. “We would like to be prepared for a foreseeable demand”, it pointed out.
Incentives of the government and fiscal reductions helped to impel the popularity of the Prius, not only for offering fuel economy but because he is considered to be a "friendly" vehicle of the environment.
The Concessionaires' Association of Motorcars of Japan announced that Toyota, sold 21.669 cars Prius last month, while the entire sale cars anualizada increased in Japan for the first time in 13 months.

Paul Logothetis
Monza, Italy / AP

Rubens Barrichello (in the first plane), of Brazil, to the frill of his racing car Brawn GP, enrumba towards the final goal to gain the Big Award of Italy of Formula 1, continued by the Briton Jenson Button, of the same racing team, on Sunday, the 13th. Photo: Antonio Calanni / AP

The Brazilian Rubens Barrichello took Sunday, the 13th his second victory in three careers, on having gained the Big Italian Award of Formula one, giving also to the team Brawn GP 1-2.
Barrichello and his partner Jenson Button dominated thanks to a strategy of only one stopped in the pits, sweeping in the Italian Monza circuit, humiliating especially to the racing cars of the racing team Ferrari in their own house.
Precisely Barrichello, Ferrari's ex-pilot, that was coming from his first victory in five years in Valencia last month, reduced two points of the advantage of Button like leader of the general table, obtaining 14 points when four careers are missing scarcely to the period.
Barrichello was filled with enthusiasm by the perspective of a duel with his team-mate after being a second of Michael Schumacher for so many years in Ferrari.
“ I am going to show who I am to the frill”, affirmed Barrichello. “I am going to give the best thing that I have. It is going to be a good fight”, it added euphoric.
Lewis Hamilton, of McLaren, hit in his last return when it was going third, what opened the doors to Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari.
The hopes of Network Bull to obtain a title remained hung by a thread, then that Mark Webber was shocking in the first return and Sebastian Vettel was finishing eighth.
Webber, which started in tenth place, left in the curve Della Roggia after an enredón with Robert Kubica, of BMW Sauber, and his deficit saw growing to 28,5 points. Vettel is now 26 points under the leader.
“ It is a blow for us, there are no doubts”, admitted Webber. “I have not obtained points in three careers”, he said seguidamente.
Hamilton was heading for his third closing in the podium in the last four careers before leaving in the Curve I gave Lesmo.
Giancarlo Fisichella finished ninth in his début for Ferrari, in substitution of Luca Badoer.
Hamilton, that as Raikkonen and Subtle it had two stops in the pits, had obtained an advantage of almost 15 seconds on Barrichello after 15 returns, and one of 3,7 seconds on Raikkonen and 4,7 on Subtle, and it went down to third, behind the Brawn pilots after his visit to the pits.
Barrichello was supported in front of Button after the stops of both in the middle of the career, and the two overcame Hamilton when this one did his second stop, with Button gaining an advantage of almost four seconds on his compatriot and behind Barrichello for five.
Barrichello was supported in the top, for a victory of 2,8 seconds opposite to the bleachers, in his first victory in the most rapid track of F1 since it gained the career for Ferrari in 2004.
Subtle it finished quarter, to obtain his first points in F1, the Spanish Fernando Alonso de Renault was fifth and Nick Heidfeld, of BMW Sauber, seventh.
The Liuzzi comeback after an absence of two years concluded the F1 after 22 returns, when the pilot of Force India, which had replaced Fisichella, had to withdraw from himself.