RoAb #77 - The 'April Foolish' Episode

On this week’s RoundAbout, Daimler shows off a new lineup smart-branded merchandise.  Who the Hell’s going to buy this crap . . . no one’s buying the cars! Somebody’s selling their trusty old Subaru, but only the most macho buyers need apply.  And a hipster’s Audi burns to the ground . . . to HILARIOUS effect.  Stick around for all that and much, much more on this week’s thrilling installment of RoundAbout, #77, the “April Foolish” episode.  John Voelcker of High Gear Media and GreenCarReports.com is our special guest.

Brought to you by Advance Auto Parts.

Play RoundAbout Episode 77

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Featuring: John Voelcker, Michelle Naranjo, Jeffrey Ross, Steven J. Ewing, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Show notes and Ustream video after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6:30PM ET/3:30PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

Show Notes:

Daimler shows off “new” smart collection

“Manly” Subaru for sale (via Subaru4me on Twitter)

Hungry squirrel stuffs engine air intake full of peanuts (via GMEmployee on Twitter)

Das Camping-Monster

$41,000 Th!nk

Hipster’s Audi Goes up in Flames

AutoBild.de Mashup

Montana Republican Defends Drunk Driving as a Way of Life

Video

Tesla sues Top Gear

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In the Garage

Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Long-Term Hyundai Equus

Lexus IS250 F Sport

RoundAbout RearView

RIP, David E. Davis Jr.

Hold On, Hold On . . . Keep it to Yourself

This story comes courtesy of Gizmag.com. Researchers at Clemson University
- that's the one in South Carolina - have come up with a way of turning a leftover substance called MBM, short for meat bone meal into a biodegradable plastic. You see, there's a BIG surplus of this powdery, brown byproduct that's made out of dried, crushed animal bits. It used to be fed to cattle as a dietary supplement, and it is still used in cat food in Europe. But in the mid-1990s MBM and other cuts of organ meat were found to spread mad-cow disease so these practices were banned . . . at least the cattle barons stopped using it. Scientists have found another place for this stuff, and this time not in Watson’s food bowl. Plastics made using it consume less petroleum, which is good for the environment. That would also help cut down on the 9 billion pounds of this stuff that gets dumped every year.

The AP reports a Las Vegas woman named Traci Pollard is in hot water for allegedly endangering her one-year-old daughter. According to police, she constructed a holster out of strips cut from a clear plastic tarp and support ribs from an umbrella so the infant could ride in the open glove compartment of her Mitsubishi Galant. Understandably this IS NOT a NHTSA-approved way to transport a baby, even if she was covered in bubble wrap. To make matters worse, police discovered Pollard’s rickety contraption when a security officer reported seeing the baby locked in the car at a Sav-Mor pharmacy. Pollard is being held on charges of child endangerment. Bail is set at $50,000.

According to the Times of India, Tata is developing a new type of fuel-injection system in partnership with researchers at Jawaharal Nehru Technological University. It’s still in the early prototype stages but the company claims it can boost the efficiency of a small car by 15 to 25 percent. Called “Multi-Jection” it allows a diesel engine to run on gasoline, ethanol, diesel fuel or any combination of the three, a cocktail one engineer says they’ve nicknamed “ethieseline.” Engines that burn this kind of mixed fuel have attributes of both diesel and gasoline powerplants. They have very high compression ratios and throttle plates to control airflow. The heart of “Multi-Jection” is a series of direct fuel injectors, four per combustion chamber, as well as in-cylinder pressure sensors. Through advanced computer software each injector is precisely controlled, adjusting the mixture, burn time and other attributes of the combustion cycle. This allows them to run efficiently on mixed fuel while minimizing emissions. This technology is still in its VERY early prototype stage and Tata isn’t saying when we could see it come to market.

Ustream Video

RoundAbout Episode 77