Latest News
  
May 30, 2006
Porsche 911 GT3 RS


This is the RS version of 997 GT3. Like the last generation, the Renn Sport version is a road-legal track car designed for homologation. It has full roll cage, carbon fiber bucket seats with racing harnesses and a striped out interior. Its rear bodywork is widened by 44mm (i.e. same as Carrera 4) to accommodate wider track for superior cornering speed. At 1375kg, it carries 20 kilograms less than the road-going GT3, thanks to plastic engine lid, Perspex rear window and carbon fiber rear spoiler. The latter is much larger than the standard GT3’s, and is adjustable, thus should generate much more downforce.

The 3.6-litre engine remains the same as the standard GT3 – at 415 horsepower, it is already highly tuned. However, the engine gets a lighter single mass flywheel to sharpen throttle response, and the lighter car shortens 0-62 mph from 4.3 seconds to 4.2 seconds. Top speed remains at 193 mph.



Porsche gave little details about the changes in suspensions – no mentioning of PASM adaptive damping. Only said it incorporates “technical solutions that will also feature in the racing version. These solutions will include the entire wheel carrier and split wishbones on the rear axle”.
   
May 26, 2006
Maserati MC12 Corsa


You can see this car as the Maserati version of Ferrari FXX. It is neither road legal nor road suitable (see its non-existent ground clearance). It is not homologated to FIA's regulations, so it could not participate any international racing. However, Maranello will organize 6 races in Europe specially for the owners of this car. Each customer pays 1 million Euro for the car - equalling Bugatti Veyron - plus 260,000 Euro for the race package (entry fees, fuel, tires and servicing). Only 12 cars will be built.

The Corsa is derived from the MC12 GT1 race car, but it has 2 seats, a 6-speed Cambiocorsa (F1) gearbox and a V12 without air restricter. The latter raises its output to 757 horsepower, some 127 hp more than the "regular" MC12 but 43 hp less than FXX. However, with a dry weight only 1150 kg, the MC12 Corsa achieves an astonishing power to weight ratio.

Below is the comparison with Ferrari FXX and Bugatti Veyron:
 
 Maserati MC12 Corsa
 Ferrari FXX
 Bugatti EB16.4 Veyron
Engine
 V12, VVT
 V12, VVT
 W16, VVT, 4 turbo
Capacity
 5998 cc ??
 6262 cc
 7993 cc
Gearbox
 6-spd Cambiocorsa
 6-spd F1
 7-spd DSG
Power
 757 hp
 800 hp
 1001 hp
Weight (dry)
 1150 kg
 1155 kg
 1888 kg
Power to weight
 658 hp / ton
 693 hp / ton
 530 hp / ton

   
May 26, 2006
Industry News

Honda Integra to end production



Honda is going to end the production of its Integra (hence Acura RSX) this summer. The sad news is not quite shocking, as the global market of affordable coupes has been moving towards SUVs and RVs in recent years. Last year, Toyota killed its long-standing Celica and MR-S. In the same year, Honda only managed to sell 3,000 Integras in its home market, which cannot justify the production costs.

The Integra was born in 1985 as a coupe-lookalike 5-door family hatchback. Today's car is the 4th generation.
  
May 25, 2006
Porsche Cayman


Since the introduction of Cayman S, the worst kept secret in the automotive industry is that there will be an entry-level Cayman. Now it has arrived.

The base Cayman is powered by a 2.7-litre flat-6 like the base Boxster, but it produces 245 horsepower, up 5 hp from the Boxster. Torque increases slightly from 199 lbft at 4700-6000 rpm to 201 lbft at 4600-6000 rpm. The gain is mainly achieved by the adoption of 911 and Cayman S's VarioCam Plus system, which has variable valve lift control in addition to the regular VarioCam system of Boxster.

To save cost, the base Cayman stick with a simple 5-speed manual gearbox and regular suspensions, although customers can always pay extra for a 6-speed manual box and PASM adaptive damping. The car runs on 17-inch wheels shod with 205/55 and 235/50 tires, obviously comfort-biased.

Performance is claimed to be 160 mph and 0-60 mph in 5.8 seconds. Compare with Cayman S, the Cayman has 50 less horsepower on tap but carries 40 kg less weight.
   
May 18, 2006
Seat Leon FR


The new Seat Leon FR has several strong cards. First, a very attractive styling. Far more convincing than its competitor Ford Focus ST and Renault Megane RS. Second, some powerful engines. You can choose between Volkswagen group’s 200 horsepower 2.0 TFSI turbo engine (same as Golf GTI) and 170 horsepower / 258 lbft 2.0 TDI engine. Both achieves good performance: 142 mph and 0-60 in 6.9 seconds for the 2.0TFSI, 133 mph and 7.8 seconds for the 2.0TDI. Third, the 225/40 tires wrapping 17-inch (or optional 18-inch) alloy wheels should provide abundance of grip. However, the FR won’t be the ultimate Leon. That will be left to the forthcoming Leon Cupra, expected to boost 240 horsepower from a higher tuned 2.0 TFSI engine.
   
May 18, 2006
Industry News

Honda Insight to end production

The 7 years old Honda Insight – the company’s first hybrid car – is to retire this September. Since the emergence of more practical alternatives, such as Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid, demand for the Insight dropped significantly. In the first 4 months this year, it sold only 320 units, which cannot justify the continuation of production. In the same period, Toyota shifted 30,000 units of Prius !

Honda said it is now developing a new hybrid family car to replace the Insight. It will be in the size of Jazz and cheaper than Civic Hybrid. Having a projected volume of 200,000 units a year, it will be an answer to Prius. However, the car won’t arrive until 2009.

Honda to expand

Last year Honda produced 3.4 million cars worldwide. Now it plans to lift that figure to 4.5 million cars by 2010, which means a growth of 34 percent ! to provide the additional volume, it will build new plants in the USA, Canada and Japan while expanding capacity of its plants in China, India and Brazil. This could be a nightmare to GM and Ford.

Caterham switch from Rover K-series to Ford Sigma

As supply of Rover’s K-series engine is going to dry up, Caterham Seven is switching to Ford’s 1.6-litre Sigma engine. It will be offered in 3 state of tunes, 115hp, 140hp and 160hp. The 115hp standard engine is EU IV emission compliance thus can be exported to other EU countries. Of course, if you need more power, the range-topping Seven CSR with Cosworth-tuned 2.3-litre engine is always available. It produces 260hp or 200hp (EU IV compliance). Later this summer, a new Superlight R400 with 210hp 2.0-litre engine will be launched.
  
May 17, 2006
New Opel Corsa


The new look is striking, isn’t it ? this is the fourth generation Opel Corsa, or what they call “Corsa D”. The 3-door model shown here looks like a smaller, bolder version of Astra GTC, especially in the way it shaped the side windows and C-pillars. I am glad that Opel finally gave up the conservative look of the outgoing Corsa C and switch to an emotional design.

The new Corsa was developed when GM and Fiat were still sister companies. Naturally, it shares platform with Fiat Grande Punto. The parts sharing allow both cars to grow bigger and higher quality without driving up their prices. As a result, the new Corsa is half a size larger than its predecessor, and runs very close to the Grande Punto. See below for their dimensions:
 
Corsa D
 Fiat Grande Punto
 Corsa C
Length (m)
 3.99
 4.03
 3.82
Width (m)
 1.71
 1.69
 1.65
Height (m)
 1.49
 1.49
 1.44
Wheelbase (mm)
 2511
 2510
 2491
 
The cabin is more spacious and airy, thanks to a cab-forward design which pushes the windscreen forward. The plastic used in the dashboard and center console seems high quality stuff, while the illuminated controls and heated steering wheel deliver an expensive feeling you won’t expect for this segment. It seems that Opel has successfully turned the weakest part of Corsa to its strength.



Like Fiat Grande Punto, the new Corsa employs conventional suspensions - MacPherson struts up front and torsion beam at the rear. There is no word about the CDC electronic adaptive damping, so I suppose the Corsa skipped it for affordability. However, there is a more advanced variable-assistance power steering and wider tracks to lift handling.

Engines include the following:

Petrol:

-    1.0-litre 3-cylinder 12V, 60hp (existing engine)
-    1.2-litre 4-cylinder 16V, 75hp (existing engine)
-    1.4-litre 4-cylinder 16V, 90hp (existing engine)
-    1.6-litre 4-cylinder 16V, 105hp (from Astra / Meriva)
-    1.6-litre 4-cylinder 16V turbo, 180hp (from Meriva OPC)

Diesel:

-    1.3CDTI 4-cylinder 16V turbo, 75hp (from Fiat)
-    1.3CDTI 4-cylinder 16V VTG turbo, 90hp (from Fiat)
-    1.7CDTI 4-cylinder 16V turbo, 100hp (from Astra / Meriva)
-    1.7CDTI 4-cylinder 16V VTG turbo, 125hp (new)

History of Corsa:

Corsa A (1982-93)

Corsa B (1993-2000)

Corsa C (2000-06)
   
May 17, 2006
Industry News

BMW hit 1.4 million units target one year early

BMW is going stronger and stronger. After recording strong sales rise in the first quarter this year, BMW CEO Helmut Panke has announced it will hit 1.4 million units sales in 2007, one year earlier than it planned in 2002. Now he sets his sight to 1.6 million units by 2010.

In the past year most European car makers are facing sales decline, including the once prosperous Renault and PSA. Only BMW, Audi and Fiat are on the track of growth. However, Fiat’s revival only reflects the momentary success of Grande Punto (it’s not necessarily repeatable in other models). Audi’s growth is offset by the decline of Volkswagen and Seat brand. Only BMW has a solid growth. Its pretax profit is estimated to reach a record US$5.13 billion this year.
  
May 16, 2006
Industry News

Hummer H1 dies

You can hardly hear news about SUVs here, except for their death, ha ha ! GM has just announced that its King of Pollution, Hummer H1, is going to end production this June. It has been soldiering since 1992, with around 12,000 units built for civilians. However, high fuel price and the birth of the smaller H2 and H3 Hummers dried up its demand, resulting in only 447 units sold in 2004, 374 units last year and 98 units during the first 4 months this year. Inevitably, GM decided to terminate it.

The Hummer was originally a military vehicle built by AM General for the US Army. The civilian version went on sale in 1992, catching the public fever for the 1990 Gulf war hero. GM acquired its sales right and the Hummer brand in 1999. The 3.5-ton, 2-meter high, 2.2-meter wide monster is powered by a 6.6-litre turbo diesel V8 in the latest version, but it returned only single-digit mpg.

Toyota record sales and profit

In the fiscal year ended this Mar 31, Toyota set new sales record (7,974,000 cars sold) and profit record (US$12.4 billion, up 17.2%).

Toyota is especially successful in the North America, where it scored a 12.5% sales growth to 2,556,000 cars. The USA contributed to 1/3 of its profit. This must be a nightmare to GM and Ford. In recent months, the company is also outselling Chrysler, so it is practically one of the Big 3 now.

In the last fiscal year, the firm sold 263,000 units of hybrid vehicle. However, the rapid growth also put a lot of pressure to its engineering manpower, in turn hurting the traditionally outstanding quality record. Last year, some 2.2 million vehicles were recalled to fix problems. In the North America, there is wide circulation from the owners that the new Camry is no longer as trouble-free as before.

TVR to build 5000 cars a year ?!

After the bad news about moving out of Blackpool, TVR still failed to confirm the new production site. However, its managing director David Oxley tried to persuade the press that the future of TVR were as bright as ever. He said Smolenski want to make 5000 cars per year and expand into RHD markets such as Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. Well, I doubt how many TVRs these markets can absorb. The next generation TVR models will be powered by a development of the current Speed Six engine and an outsourced V8. They are already in the drawing board. As usual, we won't believe until we see that.

Ion to die, replaced by Opel Astra



Unquestionably, Saturn Ion is a big commercial failure. Just 3 years after its launch, GM has announced it will die in this December. Saturn will have one more year to clear its stock, then in the end of next year it will sell a rebadged Opel Astra produced in Belgium. Undoubtedly, the European import will be considerably more expensive than the cheap Ion, about US$16,000 versus $12,500, no wonder GM does not expect the new car to be a large volume seller. Last year, Saturn sold 100,000 Ions, which is just half the volume of its predecessor S-series. The new car will be around 20,000 to 40,000 units.

Porsche Carrera GT production ended



Another death: Porsche has ended the production of Carrera GT supercar on May 6. Around than 1270 cars were built in total. Although it is less than the 1500 cars Wendelin Wiedeking once projected, it is nonetheless a profitable project. Porsche proudly declared it is the world's best selling supercar, beating Ferrari F40.

Karmann cuts heads

Poor sales, hence excessive stock of Chrysler Crossfire means Detroit won't import any Crossfire into the USA and Canada this model year. As a result, its contract builder in Germany, Karmann, is forced to sack 1,100 workers. Karmann is also hit by the fact that its production of Mercedes CLK will expire soon. Mercedes will take the production of the next generation CLK back to itself. Audi A4 Cabriolet is also likely to follow suit. Now only Renault Megane CC remains there.
  
May 16, 2006
R&T comparison test: The Hybrid Payoff
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=3430

R&T has a useful report on the effectiveness of hybrid vehicles. It compared a Honda Civic Hybrid with a regular Civic EX, a Toyota Camry Hybrid with regular Camry V6 and Ford Escape Hybrid with regular Escape to find out the difference between their fuel consumption and price, then calculated how many miles they need to travel to recover the extra cost.

In the end of the test, surprisingly, they found the Ford Escape Hybrid is the easiest to recover the cost - it takes 93,679 miles to do so. On the other hand, Civic Hybrid was the worst, taking 180,000 miles !

"Clearly, though, only the farsighted indeed would buy a hybrid utterly for fuel savings alone."

"What about hybrid batteries? Aren't they an environmental tradeoff? At first, this was something of an unknown. But our earliest Honda Insights and Toyota Priuses are now into their sixth year (eighth, in their home market). Indications are that battery packs are lasting the life of the car; that is, they're every bit as durable as gasoline engines. What's more, the recycled value of their nickel is high, and a secondary market of reconditioned batteries is evolving."

However, all hybrid versions are significantly slower in 0-60 mph then their conventional versions.
   
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