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Nissan starts March production in Thailand

March 15, 2010 at 2:33 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Nissan

Nissan Motor Thailand (NMT) has announced that the new Nissan March will be the first model offered for sale under Thailand’s “eco-car” program, created to encourage the development of energy-efficient vehicles. Still fresh from its Geneva debut, production has started and the car will be launched at the Bangkok motor show on March 26.

Designed to appeal to both developed and emerging markets, the March is built on a new platform. It will come with a new 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder engine with 78 bhp/108 Nm. Nissan’s Thai dealers have begun accepting bookings, and vehicle delivery will start within a few weeks for the five-speed manual version. The CVT variant will reach buyers in June. The price range is from 375,000 baht to 537,000 baht.

Our northen neighbour will join China, India and Mexico as global manufacturing hubs for the March (known as the Micra in some markets), which ultimately will be offered in 160 countries. NMT will export the March to countries in the Asian and Oceania markets, according to Toshiyuki Shiga, COO of Nissan Motor Co.

As a recap, to obtain eco car status, a car has to achieve at least 20 km/l and emit less than 120g/km of CO2. Engine capacity must not exceed 1.3 litres if petrol-powered and 1.4 litres for diesels. The manufacturer is rewarded with a 50% cut in excise duty, no income tax for eight years and no import duty for factory machinery imports.

Live images of the March from the Geneva show is after the jump.
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Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi Powershift – RM128,888!

March 15, 2010 at 2:21 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, Local News

You’ve already read about it here on this blog, and now you can buy it in the showrooms. The Focus TDCi is now officially part of the Sime Darby Auto ConneXion line-up here in Malaysia and it goes for RM128,888.

The 2.0 litre Ford Duratorq engine makes 134 horsepower and a class-leading 320Nm of torque, which beats the Peugeot 308 Turbo’s previous class-leading 240Nm figures. The 2.0 TDCi’s 320Nm can also be boosted 20Nm up to a total of 340Nm for a short period of 8 seconds, although the ECU manages this feature automatically. There’s no “push to pass” button. The Pug does have more horsepower of course.

It’s not an apple to apple comparison anyway since one is turbodiesel while the other is a turbo direct injection petrol engine. The 308 has a quicker 0-100km/h acceleration time of 9.3 seconds versus 9.8 seconds for the Focus.

And of course, the other star feature is the nice 6-speed Powershift transmission, which is a twin clutch transmission. Shifts quicker and moves power more efficiently to the wheels than a slushbox automatic. Combined with the inherent frugality of a diesel engine, Ford pegs the Focus TDCi’s fuel consumption at just 5.8 litres per 100km on the combined urban and extra urban cycle!

Other features include a leather interior, a 6-CD changer with MP3 support, auto up/down power window controls for all four windows, dual airbags, ABS brakes, ESP stability control and TCS traction control. That ESP is a must have feature in a car that makes so much torque at a low rev count as a mid corner surge in torque from an over-eager right foot without the aid of stability control in keeping the car true to its line could result in hefty repair bills.

Only two colours are available – Diamond White or Panther Black. Only the hatchback body is available and it is a CBU from Philippines. The Diamond White car you see above has been kitted up with optional racing stripes which are an RM600 option. For the Panther Black car, the racing stripes are light silver in colour instead of blue. The stickers on the side of the car come standard.

We’ve already reported our first impressions of the car on a short drive, but we’ll be back sometime next month with a full test drive report including fuel consumption – how much does the car really consume on an average Malaysian driving cycle? Look after the jump for a nice hi-res gallery of the new Focus TDCi.

Related Post:
Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi Powershift Short Test Drive
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Getrag’s new Boosted Range Extender Hybrid

March 15, 2010 at 1:06 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars

The world threatens to move towards the electric vehicle with every motorshow that passes by with the various concept cars that are being released. With range extender electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and the Proton EMAS proving to be a plausible solution for reduced emission and fossil fuel reliance motoring in the mid-term future, transmission manufacturers are getting worried – with electric motors taking over the duty of driving the wheels and the combustion engine re-designated for generator duty, there will be no need for transmissions!

So it’s understandable that transmission manufacturers will try to diversify, and here’s one attempt, a Boosted Range Extender that was presented by Getrag at the METAV 2010 manufacturing and automation showcase late last month. Getrag’s “Boosted Range Extender” is basically a two-cylinder internal combustion engine combined with an electric motor, an alternator and a Powershift 2-speed transmission. Getrag’s configuration calls of the components to be mechanically integrated together in one package, thus losing the packaging flexibility of range extender solutions that separate the electric motor from the combustion engine such as in the Proton EMAS.

Basically when you take off from a stand still, only the electric motor runs in first gear. The combustion engine can also be coupled to provide power whenever needed in parallel hybrid operation. But the combustion engine will also run in series hybrid mode, charging the vehicle’s batteries for the electric motor usage using the alternator I mentioned earlier. This is in fact a series-parallel hybrid like the Toyota Prius but seems to use a Getrag 2-speed gearbox and only 1 electric motor instead of 2 electric motors like in the Prius.

Getrag Range ExtenderOn Getrag’s website, there is a teaser of what car the new range extender engine might just be slotted into as a demo unit – a compact Ford Fiesta hatchback.

The same Fiesta image can be found in a PDF presentation where Getrag unveils certain vehicle performance findings after installing such a system into a prototype “B-segment vehicle”. Top speed has been given as 140km/h with 160km/h possible for a few minutes. 0 to 100km/h acceleration took 11 seconds.

This was based on a 30/50kW electric motor, a 10kW generator, a 5kWh usable capacity battery and a 30kW internal combustion engine. The range achieved was 600km total when the combustion engine helped, but electric drive range on the NEDC cycle was 50km, while electric drive range at 50km/h constant was 70km.

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Lotus-Cosworth to join IndyCar, pilot is Takuma Sato

March 15, 2010 at 7:21 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Lotus, Motorsports

Lotus and Cosworth will partner established IndyCar competitors KV Racing Technology to run in the 2010 IndyCar Series. Behind this deal is the “real Lotus”, unlike Formula 1′s Malaysian owned Lotus Racing, which has little to do with Lotus Cars or Lotus Engineering. The American based series is where hottie Danica Patrick races in.

The Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will use the classic green and yellow livery used on the firm’s race cars in the 50s and 60s. The man behind the wheel will be former F1 driver Takuma Sato, and the car will make its debut at St. Petersburg, Florida, the second race of the 2010 season. We suspect that, for this season at least, the Lotus-Cosworth will be a reskin of KV Racing’s existing car. All IndyCars run on Honda V8s, and so will this.

Lotus competed in the IndyCar Series in the 1960s, winning the Indianapolis 500 race outright in 1965 with the pioneering Lotus Type 38 driven by Jim Clark, and narrowly missing victory to come second in 1963. The return to the IndyCar Series follows the recent announcement by Lotus and Cosworth to form a strategic partnership to develop engines for Lotus cars.

“Racing has always defined Lotus and on many occasions in motorsports history Lotus’ numerous innovations have re-defined racing. It’s only fitting that as the Lotus Racing name re-enters Formula 1, we will also race and innovate again in IndyCar. The Lotus name will, once again compete in the top two open-wheel racing series for the passion and enthusiasm of car fans around the globe,” said Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus.

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New Kia Optima official images released!

March 15, 2010 at 5:06 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Kia, Koreans

These are the first official images of the new Kia Optima (Magentis in some markets) that will make its world premiere at the New York International Auto Show on April 1st. The Korean carmaker previously revealed the Optima’s design sketches, which you can see here.

Kia latest features a new interpretation of the company’s “tiger” grille that’s joined to the headlamps to create a mask-like face, as seen on the Forte and new Sportage. The fog lamps get LED driving lamps as “eyebrows”. Longer, wider and lower than the current car, this is another new entrant with the mention of “coupe-like profile” by its maker. Kia says that the sweeping chrome arc that flows A to C pillars visually lowers the car while making prominent its “cab-backwards proportions”.

“The Optima embodies Kia’s confident new design direction. It’s a global car with individual appeal,” says Peter Schreyer, Kia’s Chief Design Officer. “The next generation Optima possesses the power to surprise. It’s a car that people will simply not expect from Kia – and that’s exactly what we set out to achieve,” the man added.

I disagree with Peter on his last point. Seeing the company’s great run of form when it comes to design these days, this is exactly the kind of car we expect from Kia – clean, bold, distinctive and totally removed from the previous generation, which in the Optima’s case was worthy but dull. More pictures after the jump!
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Volvo V50 2.0 Powershift Test Drive Report

March 15, 2010 at 2:28 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Test Drive Reviews, Volvo

Estates, or station wagons as they’re more commonly known here, appeal to a very small segment of buyers in Malaysia. Most associate them with hearses, but there are fans. I for one, love the idea of wagons even though I’m not married with kids or involved in business that requires lugging around goods; favourites include the B5 Audi RS4 Avant and Alfa 156 Sportwagon, cars which shapes I admire more than their saloon sisters.

Not many choices in this market if you’re after one, so the locally assembled Volvo V50 stands out as a sporty and classy European estate that’s relatively affordable. New for 2010 is a 2.0-litre engine and Powershift double-clutch gearbox replacing the old 2.4-litre five-pot. No change in price, but your RM185,950 will buy you more equipment than before. We see if it’s a compelling package.

Continue reading the report after the jump.
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Ferrari takes 1-2 victory, Lotus completes the Bahrain GP!

March 14, 2010 at 9:43 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Ferrari is officially the team to beat as the Prancing Horse scored a 1-2 victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Double World Champion Fernando Alonso was the leading Ferrari as he crossed the line about 16 seconds ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who started from pole and who was leading halfway through the race suffered from a mechanical issue which forced him to let go of his lead. He managed to keep on racing but had to settle for fourth.

Third place was taken up by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren. Fifth and sixth spots were filled by both the Mercedes GP Petronas cars led by Nico Rosberg. Michael Schumacher showed that he still has what it takes to race in Formula 1 as at times the German was pressured by reigning World Champion Jenson Button in his McLaren and Mark Webber in the other Red Bull.

Button and Webber finished in seventh and eight positions respectively. Force India managed to make it into the top ten as Vitantonio Liuzzi finished in ninth. His teammate who started from tenth was part of an incident on Lap 1 which pushed him out of the top ten. The final point paying position was taken up Rubens Barrichello in his Cosworth-powered Williams.

Lotus Racing was definitely the top team among the rookies. Both Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli made clean starts and Kovailanen finished the team’s first ever Grand Prix in 15th place. Both Virgin and Hispania failed to finish the race as all four cars went into retirement due to mechanical issues. Karun Chandhok of HRT was the first to retire followed by Lucas Di Grassi of Virgin. The Timo Glock and Bruno Senna joined the list later on. However before Glock retired he was exchanging positions with Kovalainan which was quite interesting to look at.

Jarno Trulli almost crossed the finish line but his car came to a stop at the final moments, most probably due to lack of fuel. Nevertheless he was classified in the finish list and took 17th position. A total of seven drivers retired today.

Lap 1 wasn’t really incident free as Mark Webber’s Red Bull produced a cloud of smoke and Adrian Sutil along with Robert Kubica in his Renault spun after Turn 1. Vettel led Alonso, Massa Rosberg, Hamilton, Schumacher, Webber, Button, Liuzzi and Barrichello at the beginning part of the event. Refueling mid-way through the race is banned this year and all cars ran on a one-stop strategy strictly for changing tires.

There were only few incidents and highlights were made up by Nico Hulkenberg’s spin at the beginning part of the race and Vettel’s mechanical problem that cost him the victory. Unfortunately, there weren’t many overtaking moves despite the FIA’s actions to make Formula 1 more entertaining.

Schumacher spent the entire day behind his younger teammate but as mentioned he managed to keep his nose clean and crossed the line about 4 seconds behind Rosberg. Under the new points system, Alonso scored 25 points and Massa bagged 18. Hamilton scored 15, Vettel with 12, Rosberg with 10, Schumacher with 7, Webber with 4, Liuzzi with 2 and Barrichello with 1. Next stop: The Australian Grand Prix on March 28th!

Please click here to view the full results.

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Ford’s Noise Vision Technology for quieter Fords

March 14, 2010 at 8:29 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, Technology

Ford Noise Vision

I had the privilege of visiting Ford’s development centre in Dearborn, Michigan earlier this year during the Detroit Motor Show. Ford wanted to show us some of the technologies they used in their car development and one of them is Noise Vision, a system that they use to help reduce the interior noise levels of Ford vehicles.

We were lucky that we were allowed photography in the centre. Most manufacturers ban cameras in all of their facilities and it makes it really hard for us to tell a story once we are back at our workstations.

Ford Noise Vision

The black device you see is nicknamed Pythagoras by Ford employees, but its officially called the Noise Source Identification Tool, or Noise Vision. As you can see, it is a small black sphere and it is placed inside a vehicle cabin.

Covering the surface of Pythagoras are more than 30 highly sensitive microphones and 12 special cameras. The system of microphones are directional so they can measure the direction of sound as well as the volume of sound.

Ford Noise Vision

Placed outside the car in the lab area, this is the view that Pythagoras provides the Noise Vision’s computer system. It’s basically a 360 degree view of the place, which doesn’t really tell much at this point of time because the sound measurement hasn’t been activated yet. The Ford engineers who was demo-ing Noise Vision to us then placed a small sound generation device in the room – I think it was a metronome.

Ford Noise Vision

And this is what we were able to see on Noise Vision. The exact source of the sound has been pinpointed, and you also get to see the volume level of the sound here using graphics that simulate thermal imaging. I drive car that’s more than 10 years old and as you can expect, the interior has started to squeak and rattle here and there especially when I drive over the typical Semi-Value kind of roads.

But all I hear are squeaks and rattles and I can’t exactly pinpoint where the rattles are coming from. Using Noise Vision, I would be able to pinpoint the exact source of sound and try to fix it. That’s exactly what Ford’s engineers are doing.

Ford Noise Vision

So anyway, it was time to show give us a demo on how Noise Vision works. Before they do anything, the Ford engineers will tape up the obvious sound leak holes of the car such as the rubbers and seals at the doors and etc. This is to get the car interior down to the most silent condition that’s logically possible. Then Noise Vision is used to see where else the external noise leaks in.

Ford Noise Vision

I’m not sure what that device you see in the boot does (is it an industrial vacuum cleaner?) but for this exercise all it’s supposed to do is become a source of sound. The device was turned on and then we proceeded to look at what kind of data Noise Vision was giving us.

Ford Noise Vision

And this is the result generated by the 360 degree Noise Vision system inside the car. As you can see, there seems to be actually two predominant spots where the sound from the device in the boot is leaking through into the cabin. Both are somewhere around the rear speakerboard but one part seems to be leaking much more sound than the other.

Ford Noise Vision

The engineer can then zoom in to that particular area of the interior where you can see the sound sources clearer. Ford now knows that those two spots near the rear speakerboard are leaking sound into the interior, so it can work on perhaps some better seals in that area. In this case for demonstration sake, an engineer patched the two areas with something.

Ford Noise Vision

The Noise Vision test was ran again and here’s the new result – much less sound coming in through the boot. Basically this process is repeated and repeated with a cabin in its original state in a wind tunnel or on the road or whatever conditions they would like to test it in, and the interior sealing is refined until they get the noise levels down to the quietest possible!

“The key to world-class interior quietness is to pinpoint the source and location of every unwanted sound, no matter how subtle it is. We used to rely on trial and error to make a vehicle quieter. It was a process of elimination that often led us to mask the issue with thicker glass or more sound insulation. Noise Vision litreally shows us where the noise is and allows us to eliminate it once and for all. Noise Vision already is paying off for Ford, with the new 2010 Taurus, Fusion, Flex and F-150 achieving the quietest interiors in their class,” said Bill Gulker, Ford’s leader of Wind Noise Engineering.

Noise Vision is not revolutionary. Some other manufacturers use such a system as well and I managed to dig out at least two names – Mazda and Nissan. But of all the big three US automakers, Ford is the first to use such a system. I can’t believe there are still some companies using trial and error? But in any case it has allowed Ford’s North American NVH engineers to reduce 200 hours of wind tunnel testing time a year which translates into US$300,000 in testing costs. It may not be unique but there you have it – an insight into the R&D process of achieving better interior NVH thanks to Ford!

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F11 BMW 5-Series Touring – first looks

March 14, 2010 at 9:34 am By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, International News

BMW has unveiled the wagon version of the new 5-Series, and it’s called the BMW 5-Series Touring, which I find amusing because the “Touring” seems to have a larger storage area than the “GRAND Touring” model. Less is more? This is the proper estate with a huge boot space – starts at 560 litres and goes up to a maximum of 1,670 litres by folding down the 40:20:40 split rear seats, which are also individually inclinable by 11 degrees in 7 stages by the way!

All of the new stuff that made its debut in the new F10 Sedan is also found in the Touring model such as the new range of engines, Electric Power Steering on all models and the new 8-speed automatic transmission that is optional in Europe but will no doubt be standard here in Malaysia as at that price point, not many people are interested in manually operating the clutch!

I’ve also found out that the iDrive system’s featureset has been expanded in the latest version. There are news and RSS reader functions with text to speech so you can listen (and not read) the latest while driving. Your navigation point of interest database can now be supplemented by Google Maps, though without the option of BMW ConnectedDrive’s wireless EDGE model here in Malaysia you probably won’t be able to use this.

The audio system can now also play audio from a Bluetooth Audio Streaming source other than the existing CD, USB, iPod and aux in sources. The Bluetooth featureset has also been expanded beyond the new audio streaming feature – iDrive can now display SMS, tasks, memos and calendar entries all from your mobile phone through the new “Office” function.

Look after the jump for a hi-res gallery along with the full release and a video.
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Sebastian Vettel grabs pole in Bahrain!

March 13, 2010 at 9:50 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Red Bull, the team that gave Brawn GP a good fight last year has started the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship with a bang! The team clinched pole position for the season-opening race in Bahrain with a lap time of 1:54.101 set by Sebastian Vettel.

The German will start tomorrow’s Middle Eastern event ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who makes his return after a horrific crash last year. Massa was just about 0.1 seconds slower.

Although losing the pole position battle, the Prancing Horse is set to go head to head with Vettel’s Red Bull as Fernando Alonso secured third place. The double World Champion who wears red overalls this year was about 0.5 seconds behind Vettel’s lap time.

2008 Champion Lewis Hamilton will start from fourth place ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg. The other Red Bull settled for sixth place with Mark Webber behind the wheel. 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher who makes a sensational return with the “Shining Silver Star” outfit will start in seventh in front of reigning World Champion Jenson Button of McLaren and Robert Kubica of Renault. Force India is set to impress the paddock again this year with Adrian Sutil’s tenth place.

All rookie teams managed to qualify their cars for the Bahrain Grand Prix. However as most of us expected all three teams filled up the final six spots. Both Lotus Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen were sandwiched by the Virgin Racing drivers. Virgin’s Timo Glock secured 19th place with Trulli and Kovalainen in 20th and 21st positions respectively.

Lucas Di Grassi in the other Virgin positioned himself in 22nd place. Hispania Racing also known as HRT will start the Grand Prix from the very back. This is not surprising as the team which was formerly known as Campos missed crucial pre-season tests. As a result, Bruno Senna who brings back the legendary Senna surname to Formula 1 only managed 23rd. His Indian teammate Karun Chandhok was about 1.7 seconds slower putting him in the final grid position.

Both Virgin and Lotus were about 6 seconds slower than the pole sitter’s lap time. HRT is further down with a gap of about 10 seconds behind Vettel’s time. With such a gap the front running teams should be able to lap these slower cars after about 20 laps. These Cosworth-powered cars are clearly much behind in terms of pace which is probably due to the lack of preparation compared to other teams. Williams is also using Cosworth engines but the team’s lead driver Rubens Barrichello finished in 11th and his team mate Nico Hulkenberg managed 13th. As always tomorrow should be an interesting 49-lap race at the Sakhir race track and dry weather is predicted.

To view the full results please click here.

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