adekunle

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

Rolls-Royce at the drive-in

In a reciprocal gesture 60 years in the making, the British have sent back across the Atlantic the 563-horsepower, 6.6-litre, twin-turbo Rolls-Royce Ghost Extended Wheelbase. It similarly pairs incomparable luxury with improbable speed, thanks to its combination of leather, wood and V12 muscle.
In an age when darty handling has displaced cushiness as the desired luxury-car behaviour, the term “boat” rings as an automotive pejorative, chasing most carmakers away from nautical analogies. But Rolls-Royce continues to embrace the land-yacht persona, touting proportions that intentionally recall a vintage mahogany Chris-Craft.
But how to introduce English royalty to workaday America?
As our colleagues at BBC Culture recently observed, there are few more traditionally American automotive activities than going to the drive-in to catch a double feature. Drive-ins were once commonplace, but today they belong to a specialised realm of nostalgia-inducing entertainments, not unlike vinyl records (and manual transmissions). Though every US city contained them a half-century ago, only the hardy few remain.

It is considered poor form in rural Virginia to run over speaker posts in your Rolls-Royce.

Among these is the Family Drive-In Theatre in Stephens City, Virginia, about a 90-minute drive from Washington DC, nestled in Virginia’s historic Shenandoah Valley. This particular drive-in dates from 1956, and the hospitality and low prices could convince visitors that little time has passed since.
Parking spaces that often accommodate pickup trucks and Chevy Suburbans were just the place to moor the Ghost for the evening. The Rolls stretches 219.3in, a scant 3in shorter than those Suburbans. While such proportions are not problematic at the drive-in lot, a pilot should take care not to mow down the speaker posts sprouting across the grounds. (It is considered poor form in rural Virginia to run over speaker posts in your Rolls-Royce.)
The view from the Ghost's front seat is splendid, unsurprisingly. In many cars back-seat viewing would be made difficult by the roof’s intrusion, but the Ghost's sofa-like rear seats position occupants low enough for a clear view of the screen through the windshield. Traditionalists mount a classic drive-in metal speaker to the window for audio. But with the Ghost’s 600-watt, 16-speaker sound system, tuning in Hollywood surround sound via the car’s radio dial seemed the more suitable choice.
Granted, few sounds emanating from those speakers could compete for sheer drama with the Ghost’s V12, which even sounds expensive on start-up, sparking to life with the high-speed whirr of a jet engine. On the trip west to the drive-in, flattening the accelerator made the Ghost assume the nose-high attitude of a powerboat climbing up on plane. In such moments the Rolls’ Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament sooner resembled a ship prow’s figurehead.
Of course, the hydraulically smooth V12 never betrayed any effort, despite its tremendous output and hefty load. The Ghost’s eight-speed automatic transmission also faded into the background, with the only discernable shifts coming when changing from forward to reverse gear.
The Ghost is a luxury liner and never fails to remind occupants of this truth. At highway speed the car shoulders aside the air with its bluff front, but passengers never notice, as no wind noise penetrates the Ghost’s vault-like sheet metal, and the car’s air shocks erase any bumps not flattened by the optional 20in tires.
The English White worn by this tester was complimented by Seashell-hued leather upholstery. The white-on-white layout underscored the Ghost’s extravagance; who could live with such a colour scheme? Children with a modicum of dirt on their jeans would be forbidden passage. Even better, only passengers in all-white ensembles would be allowed inside.
Maybe this was the Ghost’s arch way of conveying that it truly was intended for the yachting set. But as the Hollywood studios know, it sure is fun to play make-believe.
Vital stats: 2013 Rolls-Royce Ghost Extended Wheelbase

Base price: $296,000
As tested: $356,290
EPA fuel economy: 13mpg city, 21mpg highway
Powertrain: 6.6-litre, 563hp, twin-turbocharged V12 engine, eight-speed automatic transmission
Standard equipment: Electronically retracting Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, 600w audio system, GPS navigation, power-closing rear doors, umbrellas built into front doors, leather and wood interior appointments
Major options: 20in forged aluminium wheels, front and rear ventilated massage seats, lambs’ wool floor mats, head-up display, night vision, panoramic sunroof

The new Mercedes CLA250 borrows from the familiar

Apparently Mercedes-Benz product planners see this as a salient strategy for growth, as the company's flashy new CLA rips a page right out of its larger CLS's book. The CLS, the original "four-door coupe”, has spawned so many imitators since its 2004 debut that it is only fair, Mercedes should be permitted to copy it, too.
On the eve of the 2013 Detroit auto show, Mercedes revealed its plan for recruiting a new generation of customers to the three-pointed star, and it took the form of a racy, nominally affordable compact sedan.
The CLA, like the CLS, features a low, sloping roofline and four doors with frameless windows in the manner of a coupe. But as anyone who has viewed the CLS from the back seat, the design invites rear passengers to bang their heads on the doorframe during ingress and egress.
Those lines do look slippery; according to Mercedes, the CLA's 0.23 coefficient of drag, a measure of aerodynamics, is the lowest number ever for a production model.
The car also breaks ground as Mercedes' first front-wheel-drive model for the US market. In an interview after its introduction on 13 January, Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler, the Mercedes parent, told BBC Autos that the CLA was based on the same front-drive platform used by the diminutive A-Class and B-Class hatchbacks in other markets.
"The US market isn't very fond of hatchbacks, as we are in Europe, so this car should be well-received", he surmised.
The result is very close to the Acura TSX in size and specification, and it is young drivers who grew up with front drive that the company is targeting with the CLA, which will start for less that $30,000 when it goes on sale in September. An all-wheel-drive 4Matic version will follow in 2014, as will a more powerful twin-turbocharged engine.
While the CLA has an entry-level luxury price, all of the expected Mercedes technology is present. A collision-alert radar system is standard equipment, along with a 5.8-inch infotainment display.
Power is from a 208 horsepower, 2-litre 4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. A 2.2-litre diesel engine is available for Europe, but is a long shot for the US, Zetsche said. The car's base engine in Europe will be a smaller-displacement gasoline engine developed in partnership with Renault and Nissan, he added.
Whether the CLS can, like Bowie, top the charts recycling old ideas remains to be seen, but Zetsche is undaunted. "We never talk about future volume," he said, "but we are very confident this car will be a success.”

The US Fords that Britain wants

Traditionally it has been. American drivers have looked on impotently as Ford has rolled out one brilliant European-market Focus RS after another. The Mk2 Escort’s brawny 2.5-litre turbo five cylinder engine would have devoured US roads, and cheaper fuel prices would have tempered the pain of its thirst, were it only sold in America.
UK family guys count their blessings daily for the Focus ST Estate, and those with bigger families cheer for ST-engined S-Max – a hot minivan if ever there was one, and a car that will never be spotted idling outside a Gymboree in Atlanta.
Past Fords that did make it over the pond were almost uniformly awful. In the 1990s, the UK got the Probe. It wasn’t very good. Then came the Cougar, from Ford Motor’s now defunct Mercury division, and it, too, was not very good.
But as any tire-kicking Brit who pays attention to the global motor shows has noticed, the tables are turning. The increasingly brilliant One Ford initiative, whereby the Focus or Fiesta sold in Bloxham is the same as the one sold in Biloxi, means that UK enthusiasts can keep fingers crossed that some lovely North American-market Fords might become “globalised” and make their way over.
What might these be? The rectilinear Edge mid-size crossover has long been on Brits’ wish list. Kuga, marketed as the Escape in North America, is a hit in the UK, and the Edge could fill the next rung up, for those who need the space – not to mention the extra style.
And why stop there? The Explorer SUV would banish memories of the crude laggard sent to the UK in the 1990s. It was pulled well before the Firestone scandal damned it, and nobody cared. But the current one, with its smart styling, EcoBoost engine and expansive interior? Why, it’s the people’s Land Rover LR4.
Conventional large minivans have been falling off the radar in the UK, but something as standout as the seven-passenger Flex, priced right, would be a novel alternative to the seven-seat Galaxy so often used by posh cab firms in London.
Then we come to the Mustang. Ah, Mustang. Brits love the idea of it. Even non car buffs in Britain know what a Mustang is, that it’s something special. A few enterprising importers have been bringing latest-generation models over for years to appease the handful of enthusiasts willing to put their money where their mouth is – and to drive sitting on the left.
Were the coming 2015 Mustang available with the steering wheel on the right side and a more fuel-sipping 2-litre EcoBoost under the hood, the opportunity to buy an all-American but Europe-tailored icon would create buzz typically reserved for new BMW M3s and the like.
Britain doesn’t want all of it, mind. Trucks wouldn’t work on our roads – or with our fuel prices – and the cumbersome Expedition SUV would be disastrous in tight spots. But there is a lot to like about Ford’s US range at the moment. Alan R Mulally, Ford Motor’s maverick chief executive, should consider the transatlantic shopping list duly submitted. Delivery in 2015 would be great, thanks.

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

LUTH acquires scanner that detects death in 10 seconds

Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH said they have acquired a CT scan equipment that has the capacity to run a check on all organs of the body, from head to toe in less than 10 seconds and fish out a patients death points for immediate treatment. The machine, called the 128-slice Aquillon CT scanner is the first of it's kind in West Africa.

Speaking on the machine, the Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Professor Akin Osibogun told Nigerian Tribune:

"The Aquillon CT scanner is a 128-scanner and the main advantage it has over other CT scanners of earlier generations is its ability to penetrate deeper into the tissues and organs to show clearly the state of those tissues and organs. Of course the CT scanner is an imaging device and because it is able to provide images of tissues and organs inside the body. We are able to see the state in which those tissues and organs are and we are able to make diagnosis that help us to provide appropriate treatment for the patients.

"Earlier generations CT scanners are of course far better in terms of diagnostic capability than the x-ray because they provide clearer definitions than the x-ray but moving to a 128-slice CT scanner, in fact, that it is in terms of where current knowledge is, with regards to ability to get clearer images of tissues and organs that are internal to the body and therefore we are able to make better diagnosis. A further advantage of the 128-CT scanner is its speed with which it works and that means it is able to capture parts of the body that are in motion.

“So the Aquillon CT scanner is a very fast machine, able to pick items in motion and that advantage enables us now to study even the heart as it is beating and as it is pumping out blood, so we are able to study the arteries, the veins as the blood flow through them, so if there is a thin blockage or a blockage is developing, the scanner is able to pick it.”

“So in coronary heart disease for instance, the scanner is a vast advantage over other imaging devices because we are able to pick them up early and we can then advise that patient on dietary changes or whatever changes that are necessary and if you have the capability, you can actually combine it with what we called interventional cardiology.

“You can remove small plague or small particles that are already forming on the way. It is just simply by introducing a catheter, you guide the catheter under the imaging device and go to where you want to go and remove what you want to remove, without opening the chest. The CT scanner can be combined to some extent with the interventional cardiology which we would introduce at a latter point. At this point because we just acquired the equipment, we will be using it largely for diagnostic methods to pick disease conditions and do that in a more precise manner.”

Commenting about possible kidney transplant in Nigeria, LUTH Chief MD said that the procedure was possible at the hospital with just N3 million but the donor must be a relative of the patient.

“Maybe if you help us make that public, that all they need to do, is to bring a relative who is willing to donate kidneys to them and with N3 million, we work them up, carry out the transplant and follow them up” he stated