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New Grand Bentley unveiled: Bentley Mulsanne

Bentley Mulsanne

The new Bentley Mulsanne (pronounced mull-SAHN) will be the luxury carmaker’s star exhibit during the Frankfurt Show in September but they’ve already unveiled it to the public at the Pebble Beach Concourse, where it is likely that many of its potential owners are attending. After all, it is only the very rich who are able to restore rare classic cars to the pristine conditions that you can find at the Concourse.

The Bentley Mulsanne had been heralded as the “New Grand Bentley” in a teaser campaign leading up to this unveiling, and is inspired by the 1930s Bentley 8-litre. For now we only know what the Mulsanne looks like, but for whats under the hood as well as any other trickeries that Bentley have up their sleeves, we’ll have to wait for the Frankfurt show. Too bad they didn’t have anything up their sleeves with the design, as I feel it isn’t particularly interesting.

The Mulsanne will replace the Arnage as Bentley’s ultimate flagship. We have no photos of the interior yet thus far but Bentley says the interior is hand-crafted and takes a total of 40 labour hours to produce. They’re planning to sell about 700 units this year.

There is a circuit called the Circuit de la Sarthe in France used in the sports car endurance race 24 Hours of Le Mans. The road features the long straight Ligne Droite des Hunaudières leading to Mulsanne, making a tight right hand turn before the entrance of the village itself. The famous straightaway is often called the Mulsanne Straight, and the original Bentley Mulsanne that was launched in 1980 was named after this.

Look after the jump for more hi-res photos.
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2010 Devon GTX: full details unveiled!

Devon GTX

Here’s full details of the new 2010 Devon GTX, what the company calls a true American supercar. But seriously, is it really worth paying US$500,000 for what people would think is a rebodied and more hardcore version of the Dodge Viper? It isn’t even going to be a limited edition, but Devon will be making 36 cars annually in southern California.

Basically the car gets a whole new look that still carries cues from the Viper, and its 8.4 litre V10 sounds exactly like the motor in the Viper, except it puts out 650 horsepower instead of the 600 in the Viper. Not a particularly high-revving engine either, with peak power coming out at 6,100rpm. Funky high-tech twin clutch gearbox? Nope, you get a 6-speed manual, which Devon says is track-proven.

Devon says the 8.4 litre V10 uses two valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, a coil-on-plug ignition system with “platinum tip spark plugs”, and more. I can’t really find much enthusiasm about the specs list after reading about the kinds of stuff that BMW does with their M engines. The company goes on to talk about the diameter of their exhaust tubing – exactly like how a tuner in Sunway would be recommending a custom aftermarket exhaust system spec to a potential customer.

Devon GTX

Brakes are 380mm units from StopTech with 6-piston aluminum calipers at the front, and the car has an LSD. The wheels are either 18/19-inch or 19/20-inch lattice structured forged center-lock wheels wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres, which are the best in the Michelin range.

The carbon fiber chassis (with a 98.8 inch wheelbase – the same as a Dodge Viper) will also feature a Continuously Variable Damping System which will not even be available at launch time. The system uses electronically-controlled variable damping forces to provide better response and tyre contact to road conditions.

The car also has an articulating front splitter (again, only available later and not at launch time), which travels approximately 80mm forwards or back via hydraulics to produce optimum downforce. The dampers can also be adjusted about 60mm up or down, which Devon claims is an “uncommon application”. The higher ride height is set to be softer while the lower setting are stiff.

Can’t wait to see how many pre-orders the company gets at the Pebble Beach event where it has been unveiled in person.
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Karamjit’s Neo S2000 ditched in SS2 Leg One

Karamjit Singh

It looks like our friend Karamjit Singh is not having much luck at Leg One of the Malaysian Rally 2009 today. The course is a tricky one and rain had made it even worse. The Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 ended up in a ditch during SS2 and had to be towed out. “In SS1 we stalled many times and we had to reverse many times so we lost more than a minute. Then in SS2 we were doing much better but unfortunately I clipped a corner too early and ditched the car,” said Karamjit.

The duo of Karamjit and his navigator Jagdev will start again tomorrow. Motor Image Racing Team’s Cody Crocker finished Leg One in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds in his Subaru Impreza WRX, while his rival Katsu Taguchi who looked like he was going to finish second place crashed his Evo 9 in a ditch in SS7. He had earlier also damaged his car in SS3. Full results available here.

Look after the jump for shots of both Crocker’s WRX and Taguchi’s Evo 9.
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VIDEO: New BMW ActiveHybrid X6 in motion

BMW ActiveHybrid X6

The BMW ActiveHybrid X6 isn’t about saving the world. It’s about recovering every bit of energy that could have wasted as you’re barrelling towards a corner and braking hard to prepare for it, and using that power to help you get out of that corner faster. It’s an X6 with a KERS booster system. It’s also meant to give the owner that feel-good factor of driving in EV mode.

When the ActiveHybrid X6 and ActiveHybrid 7-Series were unveiled on BMW’s press site simultaneously a few days ago, only the 7-Series had beauty footage accompanying its press pack. The X6 hybrid not have any video, until now that is.

Watch the video after the jump.
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Devon GTX: America’s bid at beating the GT-R

Devon GTX

American company Devon Motorworks had originally made a US$5.5 million bid to Chrysler to buy over the Dodge Viper and everything to do with it so it could use its platform to build a new supercar. Devon Motorworks owner is the same guy who runs frozen food company Cole’s. It lost the bid (Chrysler was actually asking for at least US$10 million), but nevermind that – the new supercar became a reality anyway.

The car you see above is the Devon Motorworks GTX which it calls a supercar, and Devon claims that it had set a 1:35.075 laptime at the Laguna Seca raceway in California, beating the Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911 Turbo’s 1:39.62 and 1:39.89 laptimes respectively. The company also intends to beat the Nurburgring lap record with this car sometime in the future.

Not sure what platform the car is riding on – the company may have ended up licensing the Viper platform or some other platform or maybe even built their own? We don’t even know what kind of engine the car is running.

What we do know is the price – US$500,000! There’s also an optional “Racing Package” that goes for US$25,000. You can place a pre-order with US$25,000 and then pony up another US$175,000 upon order confirmation. The balance of US$300,000 is due on delivery.

These photos you see here are just rendering but a prototype of the car will be shown at Pebble Beach today. It was designed by Swedish designer Daniel Paulin, who has penned cars such as the Ford Focus C-Max. From MPVs to a supercar, not bad.
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Current model Jumbuck to be phased out to make way for all-new Proton Jumbuck (Arena)

Exora Pickup
Click for enlarged image

The latest news from the land down under is that Proton will be phasing out the current Wira-based Proton Jumbuck (known as the Proton Arena in Malaysia) over the next few months in preparation for the launch of an all-new Jumbuck.

According to the story, the new Jumbuck/Arena will be based on an existing passenger car platform. It would make sense for Proton to base the new Jumbuck on the Exora’s platform and they’ve actually hinted at this during the Exora’s R&D showcase earlier this year. The rendering you see above was provided by Proton and shows what a new Jumbuck/Arena based on the Exora could look like.

The Exora’s platform was designed to be modular and flexible with even the option of changing the rear torsion beam into a multi-link setup for more versatility in tuning the suspension behaviour for passenger car usage.

Related Posts:
Proton Exora platform to spawn new models

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One-off Bugatti Grand Sport Sang Bleu

Bugatti Grand Sport Sang Bleu

Here’s yet another limited edition Bugatti Grand Sport (essentially roofless Veyron) called the Bugatti Grand Sport Sang Bleu. And how limited is this car? One unit. Yes, it’s a one-off car, and it uses carbon fiber and aluminium in its design. The carbon fiber is painted Royal Blue while the other half of the two-tone design is thanks to aluminium. God knows who the owner of this one-off model will be but I can’t really find any excitement for the various “limited edition” versions of the Veyron anymore. Yes, it’s got a massive 1001 horsepower with a mind-boggling 1,250Nm of torque and all but it isn’t exactly the most pleasant thing to look at.
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New Infiniti M37 and M56 unveiled at Pebble Beach

New Infiniti M

The new Infiniti M is here. It was shown at the 59th Annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance as a 3D projection on a clay model but Infiniti have also released some product photos including one of the interior so we can check out the car’s details.

Two models will be offered – the M37 and the M56, with a V6 and V8 engine respectively. The M37 will be powered by Nissan’s new 3.7 litre V6 engine while the M56 will be powered by the 5.6 litre VK56DE twin-cam V8.

I can imagine many tuners flocking excitedly to the V8 engine as a smaller displacement variant of the VK engine is also used by Nismo in FIA GT1 racing in a V8-powered Nissan GT-R, producing over 600 horses. In stock form though it makes about 317 to 320 horses installed in various Nissan and Infiniti trucks depending on tune.

I’m not really digging the design – it feels too American but I suppose that’s how it has to be considering the brand’s primary market is the US. The current Infiniti M is sold in Japan as the Nissan Fuga so I think we can expect this to end up as the new Fuga.

Look after the jump for 4 photos of the new “M”.
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Next-gen Audi MMI to feature handwriting input

Audi MMI

Apparently the next generation MMI set for debut in the next generation Audi A8 will feature a system to use handwriting to input addresses for the GPS navigation function.

Currently most manufacturers implement text entry via either spinning a knob to choose letters from an on-screen alphabet list, or for those with touch screen interfaces, just touching the letters from an on-screen virtual keyboard.

One problem pops into my mind – while turning a knob is quite simple for both our hands to do, I would think that if the handwriting pad is located on the center console area that runs through the two front seats, a right-handed person writing in a right hand drive car would be a challenge as he would have to use his left hand, since the pad would be on his left. The same problem goes for left handed people writing in a left hand drive car.

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How to calculate the correct tyre size when upgrading or downgrading your wheel size?

Tyre Size Calculator

I stumbled upon this really nifty utility on the internet. Kouki Tech has this really cool Flash-based utility where you can easily compare different tyre and wheel sizes both through hard numbers (end result of circumference, diameter, sidewall height) as well as visually see how different the tyre sizes will be. It’s very useful if you want to change to a tyre size that’s different from your car’s original size. The utility will also tell you how off your speedometer reading will be. Click the image above to access the Visual Tyre Size Calculator by Kouki Tech.

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