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30 May, 2007
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| Industry News |
Lorenzo Ramaciotti
heads Fiat design
 59-year-old
former Pininfarina design boss Lorenzo Ramaciotti will be Fiat group's
design boss from tomorrow. His official title will be Group Chief of
Design, overseeing all the design activities of Fiat, Lancia, Alfa
Romeo and Maserati, reporting directly to CEO Sergio Marchionne. This
mean Frank Stephenson will lose all his responsibilities except for
Ferrari. Will Stephenson leave the company ? Until now Fiat gave no
information.
Ramaciotti is a heavyweight figure in the design field. He joined
Pininfarina in 1972 and headed the design department from 1988 until
his retirement in 2005. During this period he designed some of the most
beautiful cars of the era - Ferrari 456GT, Ferrari Mythos concept car
(which became a collection of the Sultan of Brunei) and Peugeot 406
Coupe. As a design boss he also signed off virtually all modern
Ferraris, Maserati Quattroporte and new Gran Turismo and mainstream
cars like Daewoo Nubira. His rich experience is a sharp contrast to
Frank Stephenson, who is only remembered for designing new Mini. Expect
Ramaciotti will attract more talented young designers to Fiat.
Mini tweaked to
lower emission
After the 1-Series and 5-Series, BMW's Mini is also receiving green
technologies such as auto start-stop and brake energy regeneration to
reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emission. The new Mini D (diesel) emits
104g/km, down from 118g/km. Mini One, Cooper and Cooper S emit 128g/km,
129g/km and 149g/km respectively, down from 138g/km, 139g/km and
164g/km. Hopefully this will help lowering the average fleet emission
closer to the European interim target of 140g/km while reducing company
car taxation in some countries.
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18 May, 2007
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| Volkswagen Golf W12-650 concept |
 
We would not have seen this concept car if Bernd Pischetsrieder was not
ousted by Dr. Piech last November. Everybody knows W12 engine used to
be Dr. Piech's beloved brainchild. Before he retired from the post of
CEO in 2002, he wanted to produce a Giugiaro-styled 600hp W12
mid-engined supercar bearing the Volkswagen trademark. Unfortunately,
when Pischetsrieder took the leading seat he cancelled the project and
steered Volkswagen back to produce affordable cars. Now Piech takes
effective control of the group again (through the hands of CEO Martin
Winterkorn) and we can expect more fancy products from Volkswagen. The
Golf GTI W12-650 might be one of them.
The Golf GTI W12-650 is officially called a concept car, but I would
not be surprised if it get into a very limited production to boost
Volkswagen's image. Like Renault Clio V6, the "Super Golf" has little
relationship with its production sibling as it is converted to
rear-drive and mid-engined in the expense of rear seats. A twin-turbo
6-liter W12 engine similar to Bentley produces 650 horsepower and 553
lbft of torque in this application. It is mounted longitudinally to
drive the longitudinal 6-speed automatic gearbox and limited slip
differential. This mean the engine is really mid-mounted, unlike
Renault Clio V6 which had its engine mounted transversely right above
the rear axle. Surprisingly, Volkswagen does not go for 4-wheel-drive,
as it does not have such a system suitable for mid-engined and W12.
Compare with the regular Golf, the bodyshell of this car has 70mm
shorter wheelbase, 80mm lower height and 160mm wider tracks. Huge
intakes draw air to cool the radiators and intercoolers. The rear side
windows curve inwards heavily, leaving the C-pillars standing freely
like the flying buttresses of Ferrari 599GTB. It also draws part of the
air to cool the engine. The body is made of a mixture of steel and
carbon fiber, the latter including the roof. The lower center of
gravity, wider tracks and bigger tires (19-inch diameter, 235mm front
and 295mm rear) enhance handling. As for straight line performance, it
could top 202 mph and accelerate from 0-62 mph in 3.7 sec. Crazy.
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18 May, 2007
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| Audi TT Clubsport Quattro concept |
Another concept car from Volksqwagen group is Audi TT Clubsport Quattro
Study. Basically it is a "Speedster" version of the TT, with the
windscreen cut down and the roof deleted. It looks like a loaf of bread
or a German sausage in titanium color ! Anyway, it does look cool.
The car employs the base TT's 2.0 TFSI engine but tuned to produce in
excess of 300hp, even more than the one used by S3 (i.e. 265hp). That's
an astonishing 150hp-plus per liter ! The power is transmitted to the
6-speed S-Tronic dual-clutch gearbox to the 4WD system. The chassis is
also enhanced, getting 80mm wider tracks thanks to extended wheelarches
and sills. 265/30ZR20 tires and huge ceramic brakes complete the
package.
Audi said the car is possible to enter small-scale production, but I
would be curious to know how the pillarless design could be road-legal.
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14 May, 2007
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| Chrysler sold to Cerberus !! |
After 3 months of negotiation with
potential buyers, DaimlerChrysler finally sold its loss-making Chrysler
division to New York-based private equity firm Cerberus Capital
Management. For how much ? The German actually needs to pay Euro 500
million to sell Chrysler ! In the positive side, it no longer needs to
worry about further losses and substantial burden of pension funds from
its American subsidiary. The divorce means DaimlerChrysler will be
renamed to Daimler AG (it was called "Daimler-Benz" before the "Merger
of Equal" happened in 1998) and concentrated back on its Mercedes-Benz
and truck business, but it will retain a 19.9% share of Chrysler, at
least for the moment.
In Cerberus side, it will have to pay Euro 5.5 billion to secure 81.1%
of the newly formed Chrysler Holding company. Some Euro 4.5 billion of
which will be invested to Chrysler's automotive operation and financial
service operation. The German seller will earn the remaining Euro 1
billion, but at the same time it has to clear the Euro 1.2 billion
debts of Chrysler and grant a loan of Euro 300 million to Ceberus, so
in the end it has to pay Euro 500 million to sell Chrysler.
Now getting rid of its biggest headache, hopefully Mercedes-Benz can
upshift a gear to fight back its lost laurel from BMW.
To Chrysler, whether an investment company can give it a long term
future is doubtful. But getting back to build cheap and innovative /
expressive cars will be more sensible than DaimlerChrysler's strategy.
We are looking forward to see some exciting new cars from Chrysler in a
couple of years time.
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14 May, 2007
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| Suzuki Splash |
 
Splash is a new Suzuki small car derived from the platform of Swift.
Like Swift, it is 3.7 meters long and 1.7 meters wide, but it is taller
and roomier inside. Apart from Japan, the car will be produced in
Hungary together with sister car Opel Agila and supply Europe. It
offers 2 petrol engines (65hp 1.0-liter 12V three-pot and 86hp
1.2-liter 16V four-pot) and a 1.3-liter common-rail 16V turbo diesel
with 75hp licensed by Fiat and produced in India. Suzuki expects to
sell 60,000 cars in Europe.
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8 May, 2007
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| Supercars go open top ! |
 
Two very fast cars announced their open top versions recently. In
England, McLaren introduced SLR Roadster to boost its softened sales.
In Germany, Porsche added Cabriolet version to 911 Turbo as usual. Both
cars claim the same performance as their hardtop versions. One of them
tops 207mph and accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds. Another does
193mph and 0-62mph in 4.0 seconds, or 3.8 seconds if you select
Tiptronic S transmission. Both are absurdly fast for an open car.
 
SLR Roadster is derived from the standard SLR instead of 722, meaning
its engine produces 626hp rather than 650hp. Its chassis gets stronger
A-pillars and added rollover bars behind both seats to deal with
rollover, but otherwise the immensely strong carbon fiber monocoque
doesn't need any reinforcement. McLaren claims there is virtually no
weight increase – or perhaps a slight increase won't have any
significant influence to the 1693kg machine. To the steel chassis
Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet, the call for chassis reinforcement and
hood facilities added 70 kilograms to the kerb weight. The hood doesn't
increase drag (Cd is still 0.31), but it requires the automatic rear
spoiler to raise 30mm higher than in the coupe to generate the same
downforce at speed.
 
The 3-layer fabric roof of the German car also takes more time to
operate: some 20 seconds versus the McLaren's 10 seconds, but the
latter requires its driver to latch / unlatch the roof header manually.
Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet is not only more convenient, but its
generous cabin room, luggage space and ride comfort should make it a
better place to enjoy open air motoring.
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8 May, 2007
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| Downsized turbo engines become the
trend |
To meet CO2 emission target,
European car makers are introducing smaller turbocharged engines in the
range of 1.4 to 1.6 liters to replace their existing normally aspirated
1.6 to 2.0-liter engines. Here let me summarize the latest development:
Volkswagen
1.4 TSI engine with 122hp
Following the impressive 1.4 TSI Twincharger engine, Volkswagen is
going to introduce a turbocharger-only version of the TSI engine into
Golf this fall. Producing 122hp and 148lbft of torque, it will replace
the naturally aspirated 1.6 FSI engine, improving power by 7hp, torque
by 34 lbft and fuel economy from 40.4mpg to 47.8 mpg. The Golf 1.4TSI
will also feature a new 7-speed DSG gearbox to improve fuel efficiency
further.
Renault
1.2 TCE engine with 100hp
You might remember Renault announced a new 1.2-liter TCE (Turbo Control
Efficiency) light-pressure turbo engine in new Twingo. Now it is also
available to the bigger Clio and Modus. The 100hp and 106 lbft 16-valve
engine will gradually replace the existing 1.4-liter 16V (98hp), but
its flatter torque curve means the 1.6-liter 16V VVT (112hp) is also in
its sight. Pulling the hefty Clio, it returns 47.9 mpg and does 0-62
mph in 11.1 seconds. More important, it meets the EU interim emission
target of 140g /km.
Ford
1.6 turbo
Among all European big car makers, Ford is latest to join the trend of
downsized turbocharged engines. A 1.6-liter turbo engine is under
development to replace the company's 2.0 and 2.3-liter engines for
Focus, Mondeo and S-Max / Galaxy. However, Ford joined the party very
late, thus the engine is not expected to reach showrooms until late
2008. It is still too early to talk about its specifications.
Opel
Opel already has a 1.6 turbo engine, in the form of 180hp for Astra and
Meriva OPC or in the form of 192hp for Corsa OPC. However, a more
frugal detuned version is under development for debut in the next
Vectra to replace the 2.0 and 2.2 Ecotec engines.
Fiat
Fiat is offering a 120hp and 150hp 1.4 turbo in Grande Punto and Bravo.
PSA
and BMW
Their joint venture produces a 150hp and 175hp 1.6 turbo direct
injection for Mini and Peugeot 207.
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