Auto Trends

We’ve had front seat airbags in consumer vehicles ever since the Oldsmobile Toronado hit the showroom floor in 1973. Some of the earlier systems would actually be found to do more harm than good, and would not truly become a popular safety feature until 1988 when Chrysler made them standard fare in all their vehicles. By 1998, gas inflated airbags were mandatory in every car built and/or sold in the USA.

Time went on, and soon side airbags were introduced to protect passengers from the event of a serious side collision. Today, there are airbags that have been designed to protect just about every aspect of a passenger, including their precious knees.

Up until until now, however, all these features have neglected one obvious portion of just about every vehicle… The rear seat passenger.

Ford Rear Seat Airbags
Ford has announced this week that they intend to become the first auto maker to design an airbag specifically for the rear passengers. Visions of bags shooting out from the rear portion of the front seats come to mind, but this is not exactly how these will be designed. In fact, there will be very little bag to inflate period.

The Ford airbags will be a very small tubular sized air cushion sewn into the seat belt strap portion that runs across the front of the chest (as shown in above photo). As a collision occurs, the bags will inflate, creating a buffer zone across the chest and neck, offering more cushion and spreading the force of the belt related impact to more area of the chest.

The end result will be less chance of injury occurring from the narrow seat belt pushing into the chest cavity and the side of the neck. The bags have yet to be tested and approved for use in vehicles, but by most expert opinions, there should be no problems getting them passed. We will likely see these towards the tail end of 2010 on the Ford Explorer.

[Photo via ABC News]

Chrysler Building, originally uploaded by Mr Yankee

Chrysler in in the midst of spreading the news of their new 5-year plan. Let’s take a look at a few of its highlights and rumors:

Well, we have a few deaths and births of the Chrysler line to announce. As far as mid-sized pickups go, the Dodge Dakota will definitely be buried for the 2011 model year. It will be replaced by a unibody-based midsize truck that has yet to be announced.

The Dodge Caravan will stay on the boards through 2014, along with the Dodge RAM pickup truck Line. The RAM will be getting a major overhauling in 2012, featuring improvements to its fuel economy and emissions output. We’ve also will see a new commercial-grade van coming out for 2012, using a Fiat platform.

2011 will not see any Dodge Vipers in production, but there will be 500 introduced for 2012. Unfortunately, after this the model will be indefinitely laid to rest. Rumors tell us Fiat/Chrysler will have an all new (possibly Alpha inspired?) sports car ready to unleash later that summer.

Chrysler promises to be doing a total revamp on processes, focusing on overall quality, structure and strategy. They plan on designing vehicles with an all-American look, with only the inside portion being undoubtedly Fiat.

Chrysler reported today, that unlike what some experts have pointed to, Chrysler is sitting in a respectable position. They are “not burning through cash” and actually had $5.7 billion dollars on hand just two short months ago.

Chrysler has eluded to taking their focus away from older buyers, but not necessarily because they are going to focus on younger buyers, but because older buyers aren’t buying “mature” vehicles anymore. The new product line will be fresh, youthful, economical, clean burning, and will focus on fewer models. They will strive to deliver a much more powerful message.

The fuel efficient Pentastar V6 will be taking over a lot of the vehicles in the upcoming lineup. Expect power levels to be around 280 horsepower. 2010 should also see a diesel introduced for the Jeep Wrangler. Not only that, but it will feature stop/start technology, shutting the engine down at stoplights to help conserve fuel.

Look for Jeeps new slogan coming to advertisements near you:

i live. i ride. i am. Jeep

The Wrangler will most likely be the only true off-road Jeep made by Chrysler. The remaining will adopt Fiat car platforms, and focus on highway worthiness. In addition, the Chrysler badge will be making a change to retro-modern styling, spreading its “wings” once again.

Chrysler appears to have an intelligent plan on the table. Let’s see how they put it to use!

A few years ago when Camaro rumors started to surface, there were a number of Pontiac fans speculating that GM was going to pull out a version of the Pontiac Firebird, to go along with it. Well, that never happened…

The Pontiac Firebird and Trans Am are legends in their time. One of the more infamous would have to be the famed T/A 455 Super-Duty (made even more famous by the film, Smokey and the Bandit). Back in its glory days (early 70s), the Super-Duty featured a full fledge 455 cubic inch big block, and 4-speed Muncie “Rock Crusher” transmission. Even though it had a pile of government emissions restrictions nearly chocking it to death, it still managed to muster a tire squealing 290 horsepower and 395 ft-lbs of torque.

Imagine what a T/A 455 would be like in this day and age?

…Well, imagine no more!

The 2010 T/A 455 Concept

The famed performance guru, Lingenfelter, has taken it upon themselves to make a few altercations on the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro body shell, interior, and engine cavity, and come up with his best rendition of what a 2010 Pontiac Trans Am should have been. And they have done a darn fine job, if you ask most fans.

The Lingenfelter Trans Am 455 Concept has a number of notable modifications To begin with, they have custom fabricated a front fascia, which pays excellent homage to the original split grill design. They threw on a shaker hood, classic-style, “wrap around” rear spoiler, functional front fender air vents, modified rear quarter panels, and a nifty set of custom 20-inch honeycomb rims.

Next, they replaced the interior with some classic vinyl seats, vinyl trim, and a little chrome bling here and there, but the engine is where things would really get interesting.

Starting with an aluminum 455 cubic-inch (known as a 7.5-liter in today’s tech language) big block, Lingenfelter took a pair of their ported and polished heads (11.5:1 compression), a forged crank shaft, performance intake, and stainless Corsa exhaust, and tuned the old/new bird to the tune of about 655 horsepower and 610 lb-ft of torque.

Who would have guessed we’d have to wait nearly 40 years for that 455 to hum like it was meant to.

…But who cares, we like it!

[Photos via Car and Driver]