Foursprung: We want you for editor!

You might have noticed that Foursprung is not updated as frequent as usual.
That's why we are looking for passionate readers who love cars and gadgets as much as we do to jump on the other side of the table and become an editor with us.

Besides the fun you will have writing about your favorite toys, we will split the ad revenue with you depending on your effort and buzz (read: revenue) you create with your posts.

If this sounds like the perfect deal for you, just drop us a mail to show your interest in the position.

We are looking forward to your application.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS (e.g. with Lamborghini)

Dear readers,
it's christmas time and as well the Foursprung team take it's time with traditions.
We hope you have some wonderful days in peace with a lot of gadgets.

Do it like the fellows at The German Car Blog and have the Lamborghini of christmases.

Enjoy your time.

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Source: The German Car Blog

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Safety: Non-rotating airbag

TRW intros a new airbag concept.

The next-generation asymmetric airbag / steering wheel system features a "non-rotating airbag" that stays put while the wheel around it moves to meet the driver's demands. By utilizing a circumferential gear to keep the airbag stationary, the mobilized unit provides "enhanced crash protection" while allowing automotive designers to add more "convenience and aesthetic features" (read: buttons, switches, and other gadget-controlling togglers) to the steering wheel itself.

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Source: Engadget

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Interiour: Green alternative to in-car foam

30 to 40 pounds of heavy foam rubber are in your car, mostly made of petroleum. But there are alternatives, green in two ways: it's lighter and made of soy.

Auto-foam makers have actually had a really tough time recently. With huge pressures to keep costs down, and fluctuating oil prices making that difficult, several foam companies have gone bankrupt. But Lear Corp. has begun producing a light-weight foam made of soybean oil that is sheltered from fluctuations in the oil market, and is just as cooshy as any petroleum based foam.

The foam has already made it into the Chevy Impala and the Ford 500, and it is likely that a wider market shift will begin. Soyfoam is currently a bit more expensive than traditional foam rubber, but that will likely change dramatically as oil prices increase and the use of soyfoam increases.

We may not even notice the change, but this light-weight natural foam will probably permeate the automobile industry in the next five years, reducing our dependence on oil, while making cars cheaper and more fuel efficient.

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Source: Treehugger

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GPS: Car-shaped Bluetooth receiver

There are lot of Bluetooth GPS receivers available. Here comes one a little bit different. If you don'lt like these standard boxes but current SiRF Star III technology made of plastic, have a look at these "Gold Kiwi" devices. They are made of plastic as well but look like toy cars. As this might entertaint your kids on the road as well, this is a classic two-for-one deal.

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Source: Engagdet

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Toys: Ford Racing Arcade Unit x2

Go back in time to the days when you were young and dreaming of your own racing game machine.

Amazon is currently selling a twin unit of the Ford Racing arcade game complete with force feedback steering wheels, foot pedals and racing-inspired seats. Unfortunately though now that I'm an older kid who has to pay for grown-up related things the $18,999 that Amazon is asking for the arcade unit will force me to let that dream pass once again...

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Source: OhGizmo!

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EV: Truly plug-and-play car from Phoenix Motorcars

Not a hybrid but a pure electric vehicle working fine.

this is the Phoenix Motorcars electric SUV, which can be plugged into a wall socket and recharged with the same plug that powers your garden party boombox. Just grab an extension cord, plug in your truck for six to seven hours, and bam, it's good to roll. Simple concept, right? Worried about power under the hood? It'll do 0 to 60 in under 10 seconds, and can sustain a top speed of 110 miles per hour. What about the range? It'll stayed juiced for up to 250 miles, which is a little more than half the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Wanna take one for a spin? You'll have to throw down $45,000 for the pleasure -- the first 500 are due out in 2007, and the next 6,000 will be out the following year.

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Source: Engadget

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Camper Lotus: 2 people, 2 Wheels, 0 emissions

The Camper Lotus promises a new way of driving.

The Camper Lotus, designed as "a personal commuter" for China in 2012. Seats 2, is rechargeable and is balanced by gyroscope technology. "With zero emissions, it offers a means of helping to achieve cleaner air. For comfort, it offers customisable personal space both inside and out. Its small footprint allows easy parking, and it is rechargeable with household electricity. Lotus may be customised and retailed both online and in showrooms. Short-term leasing options on parts such as external polycarbonate panels may be ideal so customers are able to enjoy updated looks, and old parts can be properly recycled."

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Source: Treehugger

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Toys: Car covered by 4000+ cars

Scientists say that all small things and strucutures are repeated those large ones. This car covered by thousands of small cars is the other way round.

You see, a London artist by the name of James R. Ford has taken his 1981 Mk III Ford Capri and turned it into a General Lee look-alike. Well, if you squint from a block away, maybe.

The "paintjob" on this particular replica is actually a mosaic covering that uses 4,342 scale model cars. James apparently made a global appeal for toy cars for his project, and received donations from as far away as Australia.

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Source: Autoblog

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Ford: Made by Mac

We all know about a Mac integrated to your car. But at Ford the cars are built by these wonderful little machines.

Ford Motor's contractor has installed the Apple-made computers in two of the automaker's northern Indiana factories as part of a sequencing solution to boost assembly line efficiency.

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A total of 14 Mac minis running on Intel Core Solo chips have been operational at the plants since early November, helping Ford assemble 800 cars a day.

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Source: MacCentral

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Gifts: Twelve last-minute tips

Christmas comes nearer and nearer. Do you have all the gifts for your beloved? We give tips on this every day, now Techno Ride but together twelve last minute gift ideas for car gadget enthusiasts. In the list are Microfiber cloth, Diagnostic tester, In-car laptop transformer, Universal car cell-phone charger, LED flashlight with lithium batteries and other gadgets.

Read the complete list here.

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Source: Techno Ride

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GPS: Garmin Nuvi with MSN Direct

There are only few GPS devices coming to market with new features these days. But here is one: The Garmin Nuvi 670 / 680 combine the GPS functionality with Microsoft's MSN Direct data services.

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Source: Engadget

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Motorcycles: Catalytic converter made of paper

Motorcycles get new catalytic converters. F.C.C. Co., a manufacturer of clutches for motorcycles and cars - developed it and uses paper as manufacturing material.

Conventional automobile catalytic converters are made from ceramics, but motorcycles use converters made from nickel and other metals that can better withstand vibrations. The weight of the devices and the high price of the metals has limited their application to larger and more expensive motorcycles.

...

The catalyst material was developed in collaboration with Kyushu University. The porous structure of the current paper catalyst increases its efficiency compared to earlier attempts as the air gaps are the site of the catalytic reactions. The catalyst powder is highly homogeneous and can cover a large area at low cost using the manufacturing method.

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Source: Green Car Congress, pic via alibaba.com

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Toys: Build-It-Yourself Land Rovers and Jeeps

What a gift for your kids. Great Build-It-Yourself Land Rovers and Jeeps.

Powered by one or two 12-volt, 180-watt direct-drive motors, these Toylander I & II kiddie cars are based on the Land Rover Series 1 and Series 2.

The heirloom-quality toys are built from half-inch thick birch and aluminum, and are built from plans sourced from UK-based Real Life Toys, which also offers other models, including Jeeps.

More pictures here.

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Source: Winding Roads

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Accessories: Never forget about your parking time again

Unfortunately automated paying for parking fees is not really wide spread so most of us have to pay in advance and guess how long they will need.

To forget about your parking time can end in a parking ticket and this is avoided by the Parking Timer Key Chain.

All you need to do is program how much money you've inserted into the parking meter, and the keychain will automatically alert you 10 minutes before your time expires. Forgetful types will also appreciate where they've parked their vehicle as it comes with a 10-second voice memo feature.

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Source: Ubergizmo

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EV: Free charge-up in London

If you live in London an EV becomes more attractive. The city installed two charching points.

"Putting free charging points on the street where people need them most is a simple concept which we hope will help galvanise broader appeal for electric car use," the local councillor said. Electric car owners in London do not have to pay the congestion charge and they park for free. About 750 G-Wiz cars have been sold in London, 250 in the last six months alone. Despite the introduction of the congestion charge, the city has the highest level of air pollution in Britain, due to volume and type of traffic coming in and out of central London.

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Source: Treehugger

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GPS: World's smallest Bluetooth GPS receiver (yet)

World's yet smallest Bluetooth GPS receiver comes for less than $100 from Emtac. (Let's see how long this title last for the device in the world of microelectronics).

You shouldn't have much trouble pocketing the 0.7-inch thick girth, and the no-slip rubber casing should make it easy to keep the widget up on your dashboard. Just like everything else GPS-related these days, the device is based on a SiRFstarIII chipset, and conveniences like a user replaceable 8 hour lithium-ion battery and a mini-USB charging plug always help.

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Source: Engagdet

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Parking: Space measuring system fom Bosch

Citroen already offers this new parking assistant from Bosch that measures if the parking lot is large enough for your car (actually the perfect gadget for me :-), as I don't drive a LEGO car).

The Bosch system already uses four ultrasound sensors on the vehicle to help drivers avoid collisions while parallel parking but now adds two additional ones for measuring the size of a prospective parking spot. I don't care how accurate your auto-parking system is, if the car's not gonna fit into the spot you have a problem.

With the Bosch system once an available spot is found the driver simply has to activate his turn signal so the vehicle knows what side the spot is on and then drive past at a speed of up to 20 km/h. The sensors will precisely measure the gap between the two vehicles and will let you know if the spot is big enough, a tight squeeze or too small.

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Source: OhGizmo!

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Car audio: Digital Power Station promises improvements

There is hope for you audiophilists: the Digital Power Station, a sound processing technique that squeezes sophisticated high-quality audio out of even cheap speakers. JVC brings this to market.

The Digital Power Station adapts intelligently to music to give even cheap speakers a full, robust sound and compensate for the deficiencies of the listening space. Bongiovi built an analog device to produce the same effect, but it was the size of a refrigerator. So he turned to Glenn Zelniker, a specialist in digital signal processing, to develop a chip to do the same thing.

The chip is programmed specifically for each car model, taking into account the characteristics of its speakers and interior. Bongiovi demonstrated the chip on the standard speakers for a Ford Focus, which produced radically different sound quality with the Digital Power Station chip engaged. The sound reportedly swelled to give an impression of space, and the bass was rich and distortion-free, thanks to the chip synchronizing all speakers to act as one "virtual subwoofer." Stereos with the chip installed will cost $700 to $1,000 depending on the make of the car.

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Source: Techno Ride

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Parking: LEGO toy car parks itself (with video)

Self-parking features are offered through various models. But none does as fine as this LEGO toy car does.

For a measly $249, the crew at Mindstorms NXT will sell you a complete kit to build an SPC (self-parking car) of your own.

The SPC will detect a space large enough to park, perform all steps necessary to successfully complete the often difficult task of parallel parking, and then with a verbal "GO!" pull out of the spot on to the road, only slightly tapping the "car" in front on the way out.

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Source: Autoblog

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Safety: Smart seats can predict a hit

Car seats will predict and move away from a hit in future.

The system shields drivers and passengers from 'T-bone' smashes, the most dangerous kind of collision. Sensors trigger a side airbag, and move the seat away from danger.
Leading airbag maker Autoliv wants to fit radar devices in vehicle doors which can detect an impact a fraction of a second before it occurs. If the car is struck, a seatback-mounted airbag is automatically activated and swings the seat towards the centre of the cabin.

Another airbag is sandwiched in the space underneath the chair and inflates on impact to stiffen the floor. This boosts resistance and prevents crumpling.

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Source: Auto Express

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VW: Purses with classic motives

The perfect gift for fans of old classic VW's.

Available Exclusively on The Samba... Featuring some of the best VW Promotional Photos, these Purses are hand made using a variety of colors, fabrics, and handles, that best accent the photo.

These are not iron-ons. Special, Inkjet-printable fabric is used. Then, with our own patterns, the purses are individually cut out and sewn together with handles, a snap, and even a cell phone pocket inside!

Other styles and photos are currently being made, and will be listed, so check back often! We will also create a purse for you, featuring your own car, or any photo you wish!

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Source: TheSamba

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Bio fuel: Cross the country for $47

Savings at its best.

A cross-country road trip in a hugemongous RV for a mere $47 of diesel fuel sounds like a bit too much fun to pass up. That's exactly the adventure the Adler family undertook this year, and while the $100k+ spent on the RV and waste vegetable oil conversion doesn't make the whole undertaking an exact steal, we've still got mad love for the project. With help from the crazies over at Frybrid, who specialize in diesel/vegetable oil engine conversions, Mr. MidLifeCrisis Adler was able to get his 21 ton, 40-foot luxury RV outfitted for sucking up waste vegetable oil from fast food joints, and converting that gunk into usable fuel on the fly as the Adler fam enjoyed the countryside. The whole trip, originally slotted for 3 weeks, ended up lasting 78 days and costing 6-year-old Julia her tooth fairy money to get through the final toll booth, but the story proves to be quite a bit more entertaining than Robin Williams' RV, and the alterna-fuel experiment is a notable one.

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Source: Engadget

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GPS: How to decide?

We present you a lot of GPS devices. But how to decide which is the right one? Inside Line provides you some help for the first step of the decision whether you like an in-built device or an PND.

Today, state-of-the-art onboard electronic navigation systems — whether a portable navigation device (PND) made by any of a wide range of brands, including Garmin, Pioneer, Sony, TomTom and more, or a built-in navigation system for your new car — can guide you with spoken directions and detailed maps, and there's no need to fumble with paper as you hurtle down the highway.

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Choosing a navigation system is no easy task, however, especially if you're shopping for a new car. Should you buy the optional factory-installed system, or get a PND? Your decision is one you'll have to live with for as long as you keep the vehicle.

Here we'll discuss the key differences between portable and built-in navigation systems, suggest some strategies to make effective comparisons and take a look at what's expected of new navigation systems down the road.

Read the complete article on how to decide here.

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Source: Inside Line

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VW: Unique fuel-cell

Volkswagen developed an unique type of high temperature fuel cell (HTFC).

It eliminates numerous disadvantages of low temperature fuel cells (LTFC) previously known and used in virtually every type of vehicle with this propulsion system in the world. Prof. Jürgen Leohold, head of Volkswagen corporate research comments: "The high temperature fuel cell independently developed by Volkswagen in seven years of research work will make the overall system in the car lighter, more compact, stable and cheaper. And those are the decisive criteria for putting fuel cells on the path towards mass series production." Prof. Leohold continues: "We believe that the high temperature fuel cell is part of the future. In contrast, we no longer give much chance to low temperature fuel cells going into series production."

In detail, Volkswagen Research specially developed a new membrane and new electrodes for the fuel cell. Membrane, electrodes, cells - these conceal the exceptionally complex process of extracting electrical energy from chemical energy to power the electrical engine of future fuel cell cars. If you disregard this complicated process and just look a the newly developed parts "membrane" and "electrodes", compared to the low temperature fuel cell the Volkswagen system provides the following advantages:

Low temperature fuel cells are operated at a membrane temperature of approx. 80 degrees celsius. If the temperature greatly exceeds this value fuel cell performance breaks down and irreparable damage is done to the fuel cell. This is why vehicle prototypes with LT fuel cells have an extremely sophisticated and expensive cooling system. The cooling surface alone is approximately three times as large as for diesel engines. In addition, in an LT system the supply of hydrogen gas and air must be continuously humidified, because otherwise the production of energy will also break down, permanently damaging the fuel cell. This humidification of the water molecules stored in the membrane also adds unwelcome additional weight, eating up both space and money.

In contrast, the high temperature membrane developed by Volkswagen can in combination with newly designed electrodes, be "driven" at temperatures of up to 120 degrees celsius with no loss in performance without humidification. Novelty and background: In the HTFC protons are exchanged via phosphoric acid. This acid has good electrolytic properties similar to water, yet demonstrates a higher boiling point. This is why a significantly simpler cooling system and water management is sufficient for the HTFC. And this significantly reduces the weight and costs. The space required for the fuel cell system is also lowered by more than 30 percent.

However, one problem remained unsolved up to now: What's referred to as product water formed, just as on the low temperature membrane. The water permeated the membrane and washed out the phosphoric acid. This in turn interrupted the flow of current. At this point all attempts up to now to make a high temperature fuel based on familiar materials useable have failed. For this reason, intensive Volkswagen basic research came to the result that in addition to a new membrane special modifications of the electrodes are necessary which are able to prevent product water from penetrating the membranes.

The solution: On a special screen printing machine like the ones used in the field of semiconductor technology the researchers at the Volkswagen Technology Center in Isenbüttel coated several cloth elements made of carbon fiber with a new type of paste. The newly created electrodes then underwent extensive testing in fuel cell stacks. The clear results: Product water can no longer penetrate the membrane and dilute the phosphoric acid. HT technology is thus ready for the next research step. A peek into the future could look like this: