| B-N's first 'smart fortwo' car hits streets
McDaniel is smiling, too.After a nearly yearlong wait, he has the Twin Cities' first “smart fortwo" car. He picked it up in St. Louis on Monday and spent most of the day Tuesday showing it off to friends and co-workers.“I think it's great," said John Rediger, heating and air conditioning supervisor at Country Insurance. “I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's got plenty of room."You wouldn't guess it from the outside. The car, which only measures 8.8 feet long, 5.1 feet tall and 5.1 feet wide, takes up only half a parking space.“It only looks small from the outside," McDaniel said. “It's half of car. It has three cylinders instead of six and weighs 1,700 pounds instead of 3,400."That leads to decent gas mileage — 41 miles per gallon on the highway and 33 miles per gallon in town. (It uses premium gasoline.)“It has an 8-gallon tank, and I had 200 miles on it and still had half of tank of gas," McDaniel said.It's also ecologically friendly.The smart fortwo, produced in France by smart, a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, is painted with water-soluble paints.
Waltrip's Cup team is now riding high
Michael Waltrip's interest in numbers focuses on mph and rpm, while new partner Robert Kauffman is more of a profit and loss guy.
That's just fine with Waltrip, who's still recovering from a disastrous first season as an owner-driver.
Last February, Waltrip had to apologize to Toyota, his sponsors and fans after NASCAR inspectors discovered his team used an illegal fuel additive in his car for Daytona 500 pole qualifying.
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Diane von Furstenberg finds fashion muse in wartime Berlin
NEW YORK — In the first real bellwether collection of the fall season, Diane von Furstenberg favored retro glamour with an international flair, bucking just about every trend that seemed to be emerging at New York Fashion Week. The first looks on her runway Sunday evening were inspired by wartime Berlin, including a camel-hair with epaulettes and exaggerated pockets over a feminine georgette dress, and a glen-plaid blazer with blue satin elbow patches worn with a wool jersey illusion dress. For the evening in a secret supper club, there was a siren's wrap gown in copper jersey. .
ESPN Radio back on the air
A sports radio station that's been off the air since Saturday was restored Tuesday.High floodwaters knocked ESPN Radio 1300 AM off the air Saturday and an attempt to get back on the air Monday only lasted two hours.Though the water was down by Tuesday, radio personnel still needed to be escorted in a boat by members of the Sugar Creek Fire Department to safely get to the site, according to a Crossroads Communication news release.The tower, near the Wabash River on the west side of Terre Haute, is one of two operated by ESPN radio. The other tower is in Brazil, and provides the signal for 1130 AM. The station also broadcasts online at www.espnsportsradio.com. - Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums. .
Luxury car prices to soar as EU cracks down on exhaust fumes
Drivers face steep price rises for luxury cars under measures to force manufacturers to meet strict CO2 targets. Those who go green by buying a car with low emissions will be rewarded with savings on fuel over the lifetime of the vehicle, according to plans unveiled yesterday. With several commissioners dissenting, the European Commission set a four-year phase-in period from 2012 for fines on manufacturers whose fleets exceed an average of 120 g/km of the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. A proposed system of fines linked to exhaust pollution will hit the manufacturers of larger cars hardest and brought protests from Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, on behalf of her country’s market leaders such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The mandatory measures are designed to reduce CO2 fumes from cars by one fifth in line with the EU’s desire to be a world leader in cutting greenhouse gases and find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol from 2012.
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