Jonathon Ramsey
Etc., Toys

If current driving games have left your pulse cruising in the slow lane, then Codemasters, the company behind the well-received DiRT rally game, believes it has the racing game for you: Grid. Using an evolution of the engine from DiRT, Grid is all about racing. And if you think "racing game" means spending hours adjusting damper settings and orange-peel-metallic-fade-to-lilac paint jobs, then prepare to be shocked. Says Chief Game Designer Ralph Fulton, "This is not a game about collecting cars or spending all of your time in the front-end tuning suspension settings or designing liveries. We want to make racing exciting again." Well, for some, adjusting dampers is exciting, but we digress.

Grid says it will be a "step-change" in the racing game world, offering tracks in Japan, Europe, and America that highlight local racing flavors: drifting and underground in Japan, classic race tracks in Europe, and street venues in America that include Detroit. Cars will run from Koenigseggs and Astons in Europe to Camaros and Challengers in the US. We aren't sure how much more focused you could be on racing than in the driving games currently offered, but we're always up for a new player. Grid arrives in the middle of next year.

[Source: Joystiq]

Source: New racing game announced from creators of DiRT

Ford doesn't have to look very far to see the dramatic shift in the marketplace -- away from gas-hungry, larger SUVs to more fuel-efficient, car-based ones.

The automaker just has to long in its record books at the Explorer and the Escape to see the tale of two SUVs.

Throughout 2002 and 2004, Ford sold roughly 20,000 to 30,000 Explorers every month. During the same 2002-2004 period, Ford sold roughly between 11,000 and 17,000 Escapes a month. In 2002, 10,000 to 15,000 units (except for one month) separated the two. In 2003, the difference narrowed some, and, by 2004, the difference ranged from a mere 1,245 units to more than 12,000.

There was one dramatic exception -- in August 2002. Ford sold a stunning 51,021 Explorers -- 37,150 more than the 13,871 Escapes it sold. In fact, the 52,021 Explorers that Ford to delivered to U.S. customers set a new industry SUV sales record, breaking its own record of 46,684 Explorers sold in March 2000.

Upon that milestone, Ford called the Explorer, which had been the best-selling SUV every year since it was introduced in 1990, a "benchmark for SUVs." By mid-September of 2002, Ford has produced more than five million Explorers.

Aside from this remarkable anomaly, the true shift between the Explorer and Escape began in 2005, when the Escape, which continued to sell in the same number per month, while Explorer sales plummeted. In five months of 2005, the Escape outsold the Explorer. Ditto for 2006.

This year, Escape outsold Explorer in every month through October except January when Explorer outsold Escape by a scant 82 units.

Photos by Ford

Left - Ford Explorer

Right - Ford Escape

Source: Ford Explorer, Escape: Tale of Two SUVs

Ford’s first Escape plug-in hybrid vehicle is ready to start real-world testing along with electric utility South California Edison. Ford today delivered the first of the 20 research vehicles, which use high voltage lithium-ion batteries and have a fuel-economy figure of 120mpg.

Full charge of the battery takes six to eight hours. The vehicle is not range limited by the amount of charge available in the high-voltage lithium-ion battery because once the charge is depleted the vehicle continues to operate as a standard Ford Escape Hybrid.

The two companies are exploring new business models related to the electrification of vehicles that could help lower the cost of plug-ins and make them more affordable. According to Ford, the cost of the advanced lithium ion batteries is the main factor holding back the roll-out of such vehicles.

Source: Ford delivers first Escape plug-in hybrid SUV