Ford Mustang GT

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Sam Hardy

18th November 2008

A new pony car has bolted into view! This is the 2010-model year Ford Mustang. Due to make its worldwide debut at the Los Angeles Motor Show this week, images leaked onto the internet ahead of its official launch.

It boasts a raft of updates, not least of which is its sleeker and more muscular body, which evolves the classic shape of the Sixties original with more modern, sharper lines. Inside, the new Mustang has made some bigger leaps forward.

Heavily criticised for its poor quality plastics, Ford has brought in upgraded materials. All the plastic surfaces on the dashboard are now soft to the touch and the central strip is aluminium rather than a metallic-finished plastic.

Performance gets a boost too with larger wheels and retuned suspension with many of the improvements made on the Mustang Bullitt special editon being carried across to the new car. Under the bonnet of the range-topping GT lies a 4.6-liter V-8 with power increased to 315bhp.

In future, Ford's direct-injection, turbocharged EcoBoost petrol engines will power entry-level models. Ford has no plans to bring the new Mustang to the UK, but the car will be available from specialist importers towards the end of the year

Jaguar’s green light for XF roadster

Auto Express Car Reviews

Text: Jack Rix / Photos: Poblete

20th November 2008

You heard it here first! Way back in September last year, Auto Express revealed Jaguar’s plans to expand its XF range.

And, just as we predicted, a source from within the maker’s parent company, Tata, has confirmed that a raft of sporty new models is on the way from the revived British marque. We can now bring you the full story.

Our pictures show how the big cat’s new litter will shape up, starting with a two-door cabriolet version of the hugely successful XF saloon.

The XF Roadster will employ a folding fabric roof, along with a slightly shortened wheelbase to improve structural rigidity, while maintaining the saloon’s handsome profile. Bosses will ensure there is a significant cost differential, so that the new model doesn’t poach sales from the XK Cabriolet. As a result, prices are set to start at around the £35,000 mark.

But that’s not the only XF variant which has been earmarked for production: a two-door Coupé is also on the way. Designed to lock horns with Audi’s curvy A5, it will add even more style to the XF’s taut bodyshape with a tapered roof and high waistline. This, too, will be pitched below the XK in the £30,000 bracket. Both models are expected to borrow engines from the XF saloon.

The line-up will include V6 petrol and diesel units, plus the firm’s 4.2-litre V8, available in normally aspirated 300bhp or supercharged 420bhp form.

Jaguar is tipped to take the wraps off the two newcomers in 2010. And don’t forget the hardcore 500bhp XFR, with its 5.0-litre supercharged V8.

It was seen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, and is set to debut at the Detroit Motor Show in January.

Our sources have also revealed that Jaguar is eyeing up the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes SLK – and seriously considering a ‘budget’ two-seater to compete in this lucrative sector of the market. We published images of the sporty roadster in Issue 1,012.

Following in the footsteps of the F-Type concept, this model will be pitched firmly in £40,000 Boxster territory – leaving room for a coupé model to rival the Cayman.

The small two-seater, which is due in 2012, will use a cut-down version of the lightweight aluminium chassis from the new XJ – itself due in 2010. Styling inspiration will be taken from the XF, while power is from a 4.2-litre V8.

There are also rumours that both cars could benefit from the top-of-the-range 5.0-litre V8 in the forthcoming XFR.

MG’s reborn ZS hatches out!

Auto Express Car Reviews

Text: Paul Bailey / Photos: Larson

20th November 2008

Get ready for a new British-built MG hatchback! It’s three years since the last ZS rolled off the production line, but MG’s Chinese owner plans to launch this stunning model in 2010, pitting it against the next-generation Vauxhall Astra, as well as established players such as the Ford Focus and VW Golf.

Auto Express has learned from MG insiders that Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) is set to introduce the new hatch initially in China. It will then roll out the same model – this time built at MG Rover’s old home of Longbridge in the West Midlands – Europe-wide.

Based heavily on the Roewe 550 saloon, the car has a pert rear, and an aggressive front end more in tune with the sporting ambitions of the MG marque. Its Chinese-built N Series engine (a development of the original K Series) comes in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged 1.8-litre forms. Outputs will range from 120bhp to 160bhp, and there are plans for a 200bhp hot hatch, too.

The MG will feature stiffer springs with compliant damping, and suspension settings are currently being honed in both China and the UK. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) – joint venture partner and the owner of the Rover brand – has tasked staff at Leamington Spa, Warks, with testing these sportier settings. Roewe 550 test mules have been seen pounding around the Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire.

It’s believed that the Longbridge-built model will be renamed in the tradition of the post-2001 ‘Zed’ range, and will undercut its mainstream rivals. NAC-MG’s sales and marketing director, Gary Hagen, recently stated that he was looking to position the cars with value for money in mind.

The new MG will look different in European and Chinese forms, with the Longbridge machine being specifically tailored for the western market. NAC-MG UK’s finances are currently somewhat limited, and a significant financial injection from China will be needed to ensure that the plans for Longbridge will come to fruition. However, top brass understand the value of building MGs in the UK to retain brand credibility.

Next year is expected to be a quiet one for Longbridge announcements. SAIC’s Leamington Spa staff will move en masse to the Product Development Centre at the historic facility. And a mainstream version of the TF roadster will be rolled out early in the year, maybe followed by a facelifted version created to coincide with MG’s 85th birthday celebrations

Do You Know How To Draw Anime?

Anime, or manga cartoons are nice. Despite the fact that so many people use and abuse them, a bunch of original anime characters can make a blog memorable. Of course, your readers could use some content around your characters.

But how to draw anime when you cannot actually draw anything, and all faces you try to sketch look like alien potatoes?

I started researching some drawing tutorial websites, and it didn’t take long until I found a place where somebody who did the same research on free lessons on how to draw anime and manga put together the results, in a compilation split on categories of students: beginners, intermediate and advanced. From simple pencil and paper sketching, to 3D computer drawing, AnimeCubed.com has a link and a brief review for everyone who wishes to learn how to draw anime characters.

Why do I need to know how to draw anime faces? Simply because I happen to own a free greeting cards website and I need some fresh cards for my subscribers.

How To Fax

I thought faxing was already obsolete these days, when we can scan and email all kinds of documents. However, a couple of days ago I needed to learn how to fax, because that was the only desired form of communication of a company I had to send an official paper. The only alternative to faxing being the snail mail, which I hate because of those immense lines of people waiting in post offices, I decided not to buy a fax machine but to discover how to fax using the internet.

How to fax to US or Canada for free

It took me less than 10 minutes to discover how to fax for free in the US and Canada without using a fax machine: use the Interpage free fax service or FaxZero free fax. I’ve tested the FaxZero website and it worked. I was able to attach my scanned document as a pdf file.

How To Fax Using a Fax Modem

Do you remember the times when we used to connect to the internet via dial-up lines? Many people are still using these services in many places of the world. The computer device which makes connection possible is the fax modem, and as the name shows, it also has the ability to send faxes, using the telephone line connected to it. All you need is a faxing software, which in the case of Windows XP is included in the operating system and you can make it work by following simple how to fax instructions.

In the case of a fax modem, once you set up the faxing module in the computer you can both send and receive faxes easily. This is not free of charge, you’ll have to pay the phone call bill.

Although it was not so difficult to learn how to fax, I still prefer emails, as they are much faster and more convenient. Faxis is for me pretty much like digital television conversion: I still don’t know why is it useful.

Choosing Webhosting Requires Research

Moving from free hosted web services to a self-hosted website can be very challenging. While all hosting companies promise lost of beautiful features, 99.99% uptime, an infinity of domains, subdomains or MYSQL databases, you cannot be sure that you’ll actually get what you were promised when you signed the contract. This is why new services started to make themselves known on the internet market. One such service is the web hosting rating, which ranks the best webhosting companies according to various criteria, thus making it easier for people to find lots of information in the same place.

Such websites, like WebHostingRating.com, also offer useful information for those who want to know more about technical stuff like Ruby-on-Rails, or payment options for an e-commerce site.

If you are looking either to choose a webhost for the first time in your life, or you are looking to change your actual web hosting company, research is a must, if you want to stay away from trouble as much as you can.

What Do You Know About Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a hot business nowadays. There are so many hosting companies that choice is most of the times at random. Even I own a hosting reseller account, so if I wanted I could have sold such services, but I’m keeping it only for my sites at the moment, because I’m sure there are details which are difficult to handle, especially customer service. Some of my customers would probably know more than I do. This is why I postponed this project until I get to know more about servers.

Speaking of knowledge, there is a web hosting blog where you can read more about various related issues, in case you are interested, or you are seeking for a new host for your websites. These Web Hosting Geeks write about preventing fraud on e-commerce sites, or other security issues. For example, I didn’t know that php has so many vulnerability issues. I was even upset with my former web hosting company, when I discovered that I wasn’t able to run certain scripts on their server.I didn’t want something very complicated, it was just a php function which was disabled by default without any possibility for the customers to enable it by themselves.

The new host allows those scripts, but in exchange, I see much more spam than before. I suppose everything has a price. This is why research prior to purchase is a good idea when buying web hosting. I can give you one more advice: do not pay for one year in advance, as you might be sorry sooner than you expect.

How To Zip And Encrypt Your Documents For Free

Do you remember how long ago you have heard about Zip for the first time? I think it was even before Windows was invented. Internet was an unknown word yet at that time. Computers were DOS operated and the instructions for compressing and decompressing documents seemed like magic words to me. What I didn’t know by then, but I’ve just found out tonight is that the .zip standard was invented by PKWARE. This explains why those commands were starting with pkzip and pkunzip. For those of you who are interested, PKWARE is giving away a non-commercial use license of a much more modern version of zip, the SecureZIP Express. Not only it is free of charge, but you have the chance to win cool prizes in the new “Decrypt and Drive” contest.
SecureZIP Express has several useful features. The basic ones are compressing/decompressing and encryption of files that you store or send. Compressing files is a great way to save storage space, especially on memory sticks and CDs; besides, there are situations in which we want our files to be secured, as they are not meant to be seen by anybody. The software also includes a digital certificate so you can exchange files securely with others without using passwords. Only the person the file was encrypted for can open it when you use a digital certificate. SecureZIP Express has no toolbars or spyware. For years, PKWARE has given free .zip software away. Now, together with the software, they are giving away a lot of prizes including a Honda scooter, bicycles, Wii games, gas cards, and more.

For entering the contest, you need to visit www.DecryptandDrive.com, download the free software, then come back to play the game. You need to have SecureZIP, and the digital certificate it installs, on the computer you play the game from. SecureZIP Express is also available for download at www.securezip.com. Good luck and let me know if you win something.

US110, the tiny little desktop from NEC

350g, 150x94x30.4mm this are the main figures to remember when we talk about the latest desktop from NEC. Not much info regarding the CPU and amount of RAM memory, but this little US110 can receive a Windows CE OS, play MPEG and WMV files, or be used for VoIP…

Gamer Uses Bicycle to Play Guitar Hero

Need raw power in order to boost your excel productivity? Well do not waste any more time on these crappy Core 2 Duo based computers, and jump into the Core 2 Quad laptop from TwoTop, the ViP Note-LX Q6624/DVR/87M. Under the hood you will find a Core 2 Quad Q6700 at 2.40GHz , RAID mounted HDD (3 in total) a GeForce 8700M GT video card with 512MB of VRAM, 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM, WIFI A/B/G/N,and a 17" LCD with a WUXGA resolution (1920x1200) for just less than 2000 euros.