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Porsche buyers put the brakes on stop-start technology

By Chris Chilton Motor Industry 23 June 2008 18:56 Direct injection and a clever new PDK dual-clutch gearbox have cemented the new 911’s reputation as the greenest performance car around, but Porsche engineers are being hampered from making the iconic sports car even cleaner by the public’s reluctance to accept further green technology Engineers at the launch of the facelifted 911 told CAR that fitting a BMW-style start-stop system could chop a further 10g/km from the Carrera’s 225g/km CO2 rating but that performance car buyers weren’t keen on having such overtly planet-conscious tech on their cars. Start-stop works by cutting the engine when the car’s stationary in traffic, and restarting automatically when you touch the pedals to move off again. Every manual transmission-equipped BMW 1-series comes with the technology, excepting the truly high performance versions.

Lamborghini Aventador J at 2012 Geneva motor show

There maybe other Italian sports car manufacturers looking to hog the limelight at the 2012 Geneva motor show (and Ferrari and its 730bhp F12 is one of them) but Lamborghini will vie for attention with the Aventador J. A two-seat, open top speedster based on the Aventador LP700-4, it has some intriguing bits of carbonfibre tech and highly individual design. Named 'J' after the FIA’s Appendix J that governs the tech spec of race cars in certain classes, it’s proper bedroom wall material – but little boys and girls are unlikely to ever see it on the road as it’s a one-off and will go to a lucky owner after its appearance at Geneva.

The future is cloudy

Last night before CES opened here in Las Vegas we met the principals of a start-up company called Driver Cloud. They said they had an idea about using the cloud to operate a package delivery service the same way other sites do ride sharing – you'd send out a notice on their network that you needed a package delivered and a bonded, licensed Driver Cloud truck owner would deliver it for you for a fee. The service, called Gofr, would work in conjunction with Driver Cloud's ride sharing component, called Chofr.