Gong Xi Fa Cai

Advertisement

Mahindra and Renault compete to buy stake in bankrupt Ssangyong

May 31, 2010 at 11:43 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under International News, Mahindra, Renault, Ssangyong

Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra have announced their interest in taking over the now bankrupt Korean car maker Ssangyong. But that’s not all, they are facing competition from their Indian market partners Renault in the bid.

M&M and Renault have history together as they used to be partners in the production of the Logan series cars in India. Nissan came in later on in a threeway deal. But in 2008, Mahindra exited the venture and bought up Renault’s stake in Logan JV. Due to problems within the two companies sales of Logan suffered dramatically.

Other bidders in the mix include Ruia Group, the owners of Dunlop India, Korean aluminium producer SM Group, private equity fund Seoul Investment and a company that makes Daewoo buses. The Ruia Group as confident about their chances, as they feel that they have the expertise in turning ‘sick’ companies around. They have identified value in the business thus have put in a bid for the same.

Estimates from the South Korean media have stated that the bids put in place were somewhere in between $300 to $500 million. Clearly both Renault and Mahindra see some ‘value’ (as the Ruia Group put it) in Ssangyong. Mahindra that dominates the Indian SUV market, is planning to launch its own brand in the US, thus modern (some Mercedes-Benz derived) SUV technology such that used in the Rexton and Kyron would come in handy.

Mahindra is currently filling up it’s portfolio with a variety of buyouts which include the recent purchase of REVA electric. REVA previously had dealings with GM in the production of an electric car, but pulled out close to the time Mahindra announced its buyout of the EV producing company.

16 Comments      

Michelin wants to get back into Formula 1

May 31, 2010 at 11:35 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Unfortunately for Pirelli, the decision on who will be providing the tyres for the 2011 season hasn’t been made yet as previously expected.

The recent Turkish Grand Prix was supposed to be where the decision was to be made, but Michelin had a plan of their own and sent competition boss Nick Shorrock to Istanbul. This resulted in a 90 minute meeting with no clear decision being made.

Teams are now a bit worried as they have to start designing next years car. Many teams have remedied that problem by producing the ‘technical specifications’ of the tyre they want for 2011. This will allow the design process to continue while they base everything on the current Bridgestone tyres.

At the moment both Pirelli and Michelin have been earmarked as suppliers for the 2011 season. All we have to do is keep our ears to the ground.

14 Comments      


Bugatti has an 800hp electric car in their workshop?

May 31, 2010 at 5:22 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Bugatti, Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

According to certain sources, Bugatti, the luxury supercarmaker is planning to do something similar to that of sister company Audi with the E-tron. But being Bugatti and having the Veyron to live up to, they need to maintain that excessive amount of horsepower from the powertrain. Thus the power unit they’re looking at is somewhere in the range of 800 horses. Engineers will get some help from the VW Group’s repertoire of electric drive train units.

The car is supposed to have already been built but there are no plans yet to put it into production. It has also been said that the reason that the car has been built is only to showcase the technology, and hopefully will allow engineers to explore the possibilities of production of similar units.

The prototype is supposedly based on the chassis of a Bentley Continental GT and produces an amazing yet typical of an electric motor 2,200Nm of torque from just 0rpm. All this is produced from just two electric motors powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery.

As you can imagine acceleration of an electric car is already incredible, but the problem that the company seems to be facing is the discharge of the battery power after a simple bout of power. You might just have to tow the car back after hitting top speed once!

This wont be the first electric model that Bugatti has produced. Founder Ettore Bugatti built an electric Type 56 that he used to drive around his factory. Never intended for production, due to customer demand Ettore built it anyway. It would be good to see an electric hypercar in production, and hopefully by putting the word out there demand would grow among the insanely rich.

Source

12 Comments      

Webber is to blame says Red Bull bosses

May 31, 2010 at 5:14 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Formula 1, International News

After the dust had settled from yesterday’s race, Red Bull’s boss stood behind Sebastian Vettel in regards to the crash with Mark Webber. Webber went on to take third place after the incident with his team mate’s car in Turkey.

Team advisor Helmut Marko is now pushing the blame onto Webber and his race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam. “Webber was slower and Vettel had immense pressure from Hamilton, unfortunately Mark was not told about the situation accurately by his race engineer,” maintained Marko.

He apparently had radioed the pits to say that he was slower than Vettel on the straights.”Vettel was so much faster. If Webber and he had braked together, then Hamilton would have passed Vettel,” continued Marko.

In the end Horner indicated that he was angry with both drivers, but Webber had to swallow the bitter pill. Horner went on to say that Webber didn’t leave Vettel enough space and it was very clear that Vettel was at his side and in front. He went on to say that he will speak to both drivers about the incident.

Source

54 Comments      

25th Anniversary Proton Saga Snap & Win Contest

May 31, 2010 at 5:07 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Malaysian Makes, New Proton Saga, Proton

The Proton Saga ‘Snap & Win’ Photo Contest with the theme ‘Ease your Life’ is one of the activities that Proton Edar have planned in conjunction with Proton’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

The contest is broken down into 2 categories – Old Saga and New Saga. The Old Saga category includes the 85-91 Saga, 92-08 Iswara and the 03-08 Saga. And of course for the New Saga category, all new Saga of all specs can join.

Basically what you have to do is snap an original and creative photo of yourself or your family with any Proton Saga and submit the entry online at the Saga Snap & Win microsite, or via snail mail (address can be found below). You also have to submit a creative caption to describe how the Saga have eased their life in less than 140 words.

VIDEO: Proton Saga History

There is no purchase required and you don’t even have to own a Proton Saga to join. You can use your neighbour’s, friend’s or family’s Proton Saga. Each person is allowed to submit a maximum of 5 entries but of course you can only win once. I’m probably going to try to join using Danny’s old Proton Saga ;)

The criteria to win is 70% judging and 30% public voting. The judging will be based on relevance, originality and creativity among other judging criteria. The following are the prizes:

Old Saga New Saga
Grand Prize RM25,000 Grand Prize RM25,000
1st Runner Up RM8,000 1st Runner Up RM8,000
2nd Runner Up RM5,000 2nd Runner Up RM5,000
Consolation (10) RM1,000 Consolation (10) RM1,000


Click to enlarge – an example entry?

Winners will also be invited to the Proton 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner. The judging panel will shortlist 50 entries for public voting, which accounts for 30%. There is also a reward for public voters who consistently voted for the grand prize, 1st runner up prize and 2nd runner up prize. Each individual can vote once a day for their preferred finalist. There’s three prizes to be won – RM2,500, RM2,000 and RM1,000 for the voter category.

Head on over to the Proton Saga Snap & Win Microsite to find out more about the contest and how to join. For those who want to send in their entries via snail mail, you can send it to Proton Saga Snap & Win Contest, PG-15A, Ground Floor, Jaya 33, No.3 Jalan Semangat, Section 13, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Remember to send your 140 word caption, your full name, your IC number, your contact number and your email address.

Basic editing of the photos are allowed such as color correction, sharpening and etc but no heavy Theophilus Chin style photoshops are allowed :P
[Read more...]

39 Comments      

Video of Hamilton and Button testing out the new Mclaren MP4-12C supercar

May 31, 2010 at 3:20 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, McLaren

Fresh after their 1-2 victory at the Turkish Grand Prix, here’s a video of the two Mclaren F1 drivers putting the new MP4-12C to the test. Performed at the Goodwood Circuit in Southern England, the cars are prototypes and part of the testing regime.

Expect the same comradery between the two as they pit themselves against each other in these beautiful machines. This is the first offering from Mclaren that will be relatively affordable as compared to previous McLaren F1.

Watch the video and start salivating.

15 Comments      

Red Bull 1-2 collision: Webber was in fuel-save mode

May 31, 2010 at 2:33 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

It started of quite dull, but the Turkish GP saved up all the drama for the later part of the race, and the most memorable scene from Istanbul was of the two leading Red Bulls clashing into each other. The team has now confirmed that race leader Mark Webber was driving in fuel-save mode when teammate Sebastian Vettel made a move on him on lap 40.

The Aussie, who was heading for his third win in a row, turned down engine revs to ease to the finish line, but his young teammate had one more lap of full power to use before he also had to go into fuel-save mode. This means that on that particular lap, it was Vettel’s best chance to get past his teammate to snatch the lead.

“He had managed to save an extra kilogramme of fuel – as both cars start the race with the same amount of fuel. Effectively he had one more lap of the optimum engine mode, but we couldn’t back him off because he was under pressure from Lewis Hamilton behind,” team boss Christian Horner explained to Autosport.

He did put the blame squarely on one driver though. “I think Mark put Sebastian on the dirty side, gave him just enough room and Sebastian came across obviously quite aggressively – but he was quite a long way down the side. So, it was very, very frustrating. We saw the McLarens racing each other and giving themselves a bit more room, we’ve seen drivers racing each other previously in Malaysia – which springs to mind as a recent race and they are usually very, very good at giving each other room. Today, for whatever reason, that didn’t happen,” the disappointed boss lamented.

Webber came out of the incident better than Vettel. The Aussie managed a podium finish even after pitting for a new front wing and leads the championship with 93 points, five ahead of Jenson Button. Race winner Lewis Hamilton is third in the table with 84 points. With zero points for this round, Vettel drops to fifth in the standings.

29 Comments      

McLaren storms into surprising 1-2 victory as both Red Bulls crash into each other!

May 30, 2010 at 9:31 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

McLaren has just scored a 1-2 victory at the Turkish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton led team mate Jenson Button across the finish line. The duo were running behind the Red Bulls and pressuring both Webber and Vettel till the race distance crossed the half way mark. Unfortunately for the bulls both Webber and Vettel who were running in first and second crashed into each other when the latter tried to overtake Webber.

This put Vettel into retirement and took away Webber’s lead as the Australian had to pit for a new front wing. A couple of laps later both the McLarens nearly took each other out when Button tried to overtake Hamilton in a rather spectacular move. Mark Webber managed to limit the damage done by finishing the race in third place.

Michael Schumacher missed the podium and settled for fourth place for Mercedes while his team mate Nico Rosberg crossed the line in fifth. Renault’s Robert Kubica managed sixth place while both the Ferraris finished in seventh and eight positions respectively. Force India’s Adrian Sutil came home in ninth while tenth spot went to Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Lotus Racing suffered a double retirement today, again thanks to the hydraulics. Trulli was the first driver to retire from the race followed by team mate Kovalainen. Both Virgin cars and Hispania’s Karun Chandhok were classified as race finishers.

Mark Webber who started the race from pole position had a good start while Hamilton momentarily lost his second place to Vettel before gaining back the position. Schumacher was also charging ahead and went up to fourth place but settled down in fifth after Button eventually passed the German.

It looked like a two horse race between Red Bull and McLaren as Hamilton was pressuring Webber for the lead but the Red Bull driver managed to keep the Brit at bay. Fernando Alonso was one of the first to pit and as the dust settled it was Webber who was leading followed by his team mate Vettel. Hamilton and Button were close behind.

It was all looking good for Red Bull until both drivers took each other out on Lap 41 while approaching Turn 12. Webber was lucky enough to survive the contact and went on to finish in third and maintain his lead in this Driver’s Championship. He now has 93 points while Button and Hamilton both have 88 and 84 points. However Red Bull lost its lead in the Constructor’s Championship to McLaren. The Woking-based team leads Red Bull by one point with 172.

It was definitely an exciting race especially with the Red Bull crash and an interesting tussle between the McLaren drivers. If only Vettel and Webber handled the situation like how Hamilton and Button did. Formula 1 now heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix on June 13th!

You can view the full results here.

30 Comments      

Tony Fernandes: I was starting to dream about Q2!

May 30, 2010 at 2:51 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Formula 1, Lotus, Motorsports

While yesterday’s Turkish GP qualifying saw familiar results for the Lotus Racing team – Jarno Trulli finishing the session 19th and Heikki Kovalainen 20th – the mood in the camp is good, and they’re firmly setting their sights on the midfield teams ahead, listed by team boss Tony Fernandes as Williams, Toro Rosso and Sauber.

“All in all today’s been another good day and it proves to me that our future is very bright. To be honest I was starting to dream about Q2, and while we may still be a little bit off that we’re clearly getting closer and closer, and thinking back to where we started, that’s incredible,” the AirAsia chief said.

“Today we were just 3.2 seconds off the pace of the Red Bulls in Q1 and if you cast your mind back 10 short weeks to Bahrain you can see just how far we’ve come. There we were over five seconds away from the outright Q1 pace and anyone in the sport will tell you what an achievement it is to find nearly two seconds in just seven races.

“We were also just 2.4 seconds off Ferrari, celebrating their 800th race in Turkey, which is pretty spectacular for a team who are only seven races old – I think that shows to all those who expressed doubts about our participation that they were wrong. We’re also now in a position to turn our attention to the 2011 car, but we’re still here and fighting hard for this season,” he added.

Although Lotus has already shifted main focus on the 2011 car, Tony says that “there’s still more to come from the 2010 car, maybe even another 0.5 seconds.”

51 Comments      

Saab set to revive classic 92 model from the 1950s

May 30, 2010 at 2:28 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Saab

Much like how Fiat revived the lovable 500, Saab under new owner Spyker will be making a new small car based on a famous 1950s model. The classic in question is the teardrop shaped Saab 92 model that was in production between 1949 and 1956.

Saab is currently in discussions with a variety of automakers about technology and platform sharing on the new model, which will be a spiritual successor to the 92. “That will be on my plate for the next 100 days,” Saab CEO Victor Muller told Bloomberg.

Currently, Saab’s range consists of the 9-3 and the new 9-5, which goes on sale now in Europe. The ex-GM owned brand plans to sell 50,000 to 55,000 cars this year, with the new 9-5 contributing 17,000 units to the total. Next year, they have an optimistic target of 100,000 vehicles which will be based on 40,000 9-5s and 10,000 units of the new 9-4X crossover.

Muller, who is also boss of Spyker, revealed that the exclusive supercar maker will be moving the listing of the company from Amsterdam to Stockholm. The reason is that 99.% of their business is Swedish (meaning Saab), thus it would be impractical to list the company in the Netherlands any longer.

Read more on the revived Saab in our previous post here.

6 Comments