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Tata keen to work with Proton, says DPM Muhyiddin

March 10, 2011 at 4:27 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, India, Local News, Malaysian Makes, Proton

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is on an official visit to India, has revealed that Indian carmaker Tata Motors has expressed interest to enter the Malaysian market. The maker of the world’s cheapest car plans to do this by working with national carmaker Proton.

“Mr Tata (Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group) is keen to work with Proton again. About seven or eight years ago there were some joint discussions to manufacture cars but nothing came out of it. Now our automotive policy is more liberal and there are new opportunities,” Muhyiddin said.

“It’s now up to the Proton management to study this proposal and whether a car like the Nano can be brought into Malaysia. Perhaps we can also come up with a kereta rakyat costing about RM20,000, modelled after the Nano,” the DPM suggested to Malaysian journalists in Mumbai.

“He felt there should be some synergy because they had been in the automotive industry for a long time. He can bring his technical team to discuss with Proton or Perodua,” added Muhyiddin, although we’re not sure if Perodua, which is part owned by Daihatsu and has its own compact car plans, will be interested in such a development.

A cheap Tata Nano based kereta rakyat, anyone?

202 Comments      

New Aston Martin Virage: Fits between the DB9 and DBS

March 10, 2011 at 3:05 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Aston Martin, Cars, International News

You might be wondering what’s new, but this really is a new model from Aston Martin. Called the Virage and available in both coupe and topless Volante form, it revives the famous old name last heard in the 1990s. Virage is derived from the French word viragem, which means bend or curve.

Although it looks similar to Aston’s recent models, the Virage is a new model that sits between the DB9 and range topping DBS made famous by Agent 007. In the UK, the Virage will be priced from £150,000, sandwiched between the £125,000 DB9 and the £175,000 flagship. Volante models will cost about £10,000 extra.

Built on Gaydon’s bonded aluminium VH platform, the Virage is powered by the familiar hand-built 6.0-litre V12, but with 490 bhp and 570 Nm of torque, as opposed to the DB9′s 470 bhp and the DBS’ 510 horses. Through its carbon fibre prop shaft, the engine is mated to a new six-speed ZF automatic transmission, which Aston brands Touchtronic II. Weight balance in this front engined, RWD car is exactly 50:50.

The Virage’s dynamics have been tuned to deliver an engaging yet more refined driving experience, where the driver can extract max performance with greater ease. The new Adaptive Damping System (ADS) intelligently ‘reads’ the road – it now selects up to five different stiffness settings within normal mode, and a further five stiffer settings within sport mode. A ‘Sport’ button on the dash allows for sharper throttle response and quicker gear changes. It also prevents auto shift up. Carbon Ceramic Matrix brakes are standard.

Inside, one will be “greeted by the aroma of seven hides of the finest Bridge of Weir leather”. Inspiration has been taken from luxury leather goods to produce a pinstripe welt which flows down either side of the fascia and along the seat and door. Apparently, each Virage will have 70 man hours of expert craftsmanship lavished on the interior alone.

Gallery after the jump.
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Proton Tuah to be showcased at Japan AEE show – organisers hoping that EMAS will be exhibited too

March 10, 2011 at 1:12 pm By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News, Proton, Proton EMAS Concept

The next show stop for Proton’s EMAS hybrid is possibly Japan. According to a Bernama report, the organisers of the 2011 Japan Automotive Engineering Exposition (AEE) in Yokohama – which runs May 18-20 – are hoping Proton will exhibit the EMAS at the Malaysian Auto Industry Exhibition (MAIE), to be held within the AEE.

The report quoted Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro)’s director of international trade fairs in the Trade Fair Department Yoichi Kimura as saying the event’s organisers were hoping Proton will respond positively, given the ever-increasing growing interest in hybrid vehicles against the backdrop of rising oil prices, which is now at US$105 a barrel.

The annual exhibition – which is organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan – attracts about 70,000 visitors, including top auto industry officials and motoring enthusiasts.

The MAIE, which began in 2007, has been instrumental in getting more Japanese companies to evaluate the capability and export quality of Malaysian automotive products, Kimura said.

He said an example is the Satria Neo hatchback, which first caught the eye of Japanese auto parts manufacturer CUSCO at the 2007 exhibition. Plans are afoot to import the car from the middle of this year, which is set to be developed and sold as rally cars for Japanese rallying enthusiasts.

Proton has indicated it will exhibit the Tuah concept car at this year’s MAIE, according to another official from Jetro’s Trade Fair Department.

78 Comments      

Affected by high oil prices, Spain slashes its speed limit!

March 10, 2011 at 11:56 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News

Spain has taken an unusual method to counter high and rising oil prices – slash the national speed limit! The Spanish government has lowered the 120 km/h national speed limit by 10 km/h to 110 km/h, which they say will save 15% on fuel bills. The move is temporary, and will stay in place until the end of June at the earliest.

Deputy prime minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said: “We are going to go a bit slower and in exchange we will consume less petrol and pay less money.” The José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero government also introduced other measures, which include cheaper train travel and subsidies for energy-efficient light bulbs and low-rolling resistance car tyres.

Needless to say, the move is not universally popular with Spaniards. Naturally, the fastest man from Spain isn’t too happy. “I don’t support this measure. There are other much more effective measures to reduce fuel consumption than this one. At 110 km an hour, it is even difficult to stay awake,” said two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who hails from Oviedo.

The BBC claims that Spain gets 13% of its imported fuel from Libya, where leader Muammar Gaddafi is currently at war with his own people. Oil production has been affected, and the unrest shaking the Arab world has pushed the price of crude upwards.

Will we see another round of fuel price hikes in Malaysia? The Prime Minister said yesterday that fuel subsidies are estimated to go up by RM4bil this year. Add that up with last year’s estimation of RM10bil (based on US$85 to US$90 per barrel of crude), and total fuel subsidies will touch a whopping RM14bil in 2011.

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Buy a Peugeot 308, 207 or 407, and get rewarded

March 10, 2011 at 11:53 am By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, Local News, Peugeot

If you’ve been thinking of bagging a Pug, it sounds like a good time to do so. The boys at Nasim have come up with some neat offers and rewards on the Peugeot 207 sedan, 308 Turbo and the 407. From now to the end of April, the three lions – which are infinitely more entertaining performers than their human counterparts – come bundled with some neat deals.

For the 207, purchase one from March 1 to April 30 and you’ll receive a three-year or 60,000 km free-servicing package (whichever comes first). This servicing package for the 207 sedan is applicable during scheduled servicing intervals (at every 10,000 km) and consists of free parts – set to be replaced at the intervals – and labour.

Customers who purchase the 308 Turbo from now to March 25 will get something different, in this case four tickets worth nearly RM800 to the Disney on Ice Worlds of Fantasy show on April 2 (at either 4.30 pm or 8.30 pm) at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil, while stocks last, naturally.

Meanwhile, customers opting for the 407 can either opt for instalment payments of RM1,260 per month or a low interest rate of 1.33%. Terms and conditions naturally apply for the offer, which runs till April 30.

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Lamborghini Aventador production limited to 4,000 units

March 10, 2011 at 10:37 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Lamborghini

The Geneva superstar that is the Lamborghini Aventador will have a production run of maximum 4,000 units, according to Autocar UK. This figure is quite near to that of its predecessor; Lambo made 4,099 examples of the Murcielago.

The Aventador has a full monocoque made from carbon fibre, and according to factory sources, the CF moulds that are used to construct the monocoque can be used up to 500 times before they have to be replaced. Sant’Agata has set aside eight sets of monocoque moulds for the Aventador project which adds up to 4,000 units.

The carbon monocoque saves weight, helping the new supercar tip the scales at only 1,575 kg. It is powered by a new 6.5-litre V12 has 700 hp and 690 Nm. 0-100 km/h is done in 2.9 seconds while top speed is 350 km/h. It looks every inch the poster king too, click here to revisit our story on the Aventador.

Billionaires, catch the bull while you can!

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BMW ConnectedDrive – paving the way to total integration

March 9, 2011 at 9:21 pm By Anthony Lim Filed Under BMW, Cars, Feature Stories, Technology

Integration. It sounds simple enough, but given the way the world has become these days, the idea has complexity written all over it. Gone are the days when a car had features you could count on all your fingers, when an in-car entertainment system was called a cassette deck (or four-track cartridge player) and when brakes were just brakes and didn’t have three-letter acronym suffixes attached to them.

No, these days, we need integration, because there’s simply more. Modernisation – or, if you prefer, progress – means that a plethora of technology is available in an automobile today, and all those new functions and features has brought about a serious need to redefine the terminology of the genre. After all, even functions have subsets these days.

Associating these and presenting them to the user is the perennial headache. So, what’s a manufacturer to do? Well, grouping them seems a smart enough idea, and giving a specific name to that particular bunching an even better one.

Thus, you’ll find that the likes of auto start/stop, brake energy regeneration, lightweight engineering and electric power steering are now assembled as a family of positives. In the case of BMW, these come under the banner called EfficientDynamics.

While that takes care of the mechanicals, it doesn’t sort out the other stuff, things that don’t fall under the ambit of ED, not directly, even if they happen to share the same body. Solution? Placing all the rest together into a singularity and cleverly calling it ConnectedDrive, which thus puts all the king’s men into two cleanly configured and coexisting sets – a rather novel idea, you think?

EfficientDynamics has been presented in significantly large fashion, even if not all the accomplices in the group have been made present for consumption here in Malaysia, but nevermind that. With that association pretty much nailed, the next step is of course to present ConnectedDrive and make it the next household term.

The best way to do this, naturally, is to showcase the host of technologies within that umbrella, which is just what BMW did in a dazzling blitz of presentations at an Innovation Days – ConnectedDrive meets EfficientDynamics event in Munich late last year.

Since there are so many things to talk about (well, it really was a blitz!), we’re going to have to do it over two parts, starting with the communications, infotainment and personalisation aspects first, with the driver assistance stuff – which crosses into ED territory – covered in the next article.

Full story after the jump.
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Proton R3 Satria Neo – short test drive impressions

March 9, 2011 at 7:50 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Malaysian Makes, Proton, Proton Satria Neo, Test Drive Reviews

We are back from a short test drive session of the Proton R3 Satria Neo, which happened at Proton’s testing ground in Shah Alam. Unlike the RM115k limited edition Lotus Racing Satria Neo (back when Proton and 1MRT were still on friendly terms), this version is much more accessible at RM79,797 but will still provide enthusiastic drivers with plenty of smiles.

To keep the price down, the R3 Neo doesn’t include the Lotus Racing Neo’s headline Ohlins suspension and AP Racing brakes, which were inspired by the real Lotus cars. The modded Campro CPS engine is the same. As we found out, the changes don’t detract from the fun factor and performance of the LR Neo, which makes it the better buy. There are even some improvements thrown in.

Continue reading the report after the jump.
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Ford Mondeo Facelift 2.0 Ecoboost Powershift – short drive

March 9, 2011 at 5:17 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, Local News, Test Drive Reviews

When we first reviewed the Ford Mondeo in February 2010, our man Danny enjoyed the drive and gave his overall thumbs up but commented that the package would be closer to prefect if it had an Ecoboost or a TDCI engine, as the 2.3 litre Duratec HE engine’s 159hp and 208Nm was a little underwhelming.

It looks like Danny’s wishes has come true as we hear SDAC is preparing for the launch of an updated Mondeo later this year. We jumped at the opportunity of trying out one of the new facelifted Ford Mondeos currently available in Singapore in Titanium spec with a 2.0 litre Ecoboost engine and a 6-speed Powershift transmission. Our current Mondeo is of Trend spec, with a normally aspirated 2.3 litre engine and 6-speed slushbox automatic.

Look after the jump for our findings after a short drive.
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Exclusive Q&A with Mercedes GP Petronas’ Ross Brawn

March 9, 2011 at 5:00 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

During our recent visit to Barcelona, Spain we have managed to catch up with the team principal of the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team, Ross Brawn. To refresh your memory, Brawn was one of the brains behind Michael Schumacher’s championship victories in Benetton as well as in Ferrari. The Englishman first started his Formula 1 career with Williams in 1978 as a machinist. He then moved up the ladder and landed a role as technical director of Benetton.

The famous race strategist then moved to Ferrari in 1996. After taking on a sabbatical in 2007, Brawn then became Honda’s team principal and served at the Japanese team until the end of 2008 before the team left the sport. To everyone’s surprise, Brawn fully acquired Honda and renamed it as Brawn GP, which went on to win both the championships in 2009 with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. He then sold a majority of his stake in the team to Mercedes which resulted in the birth of the Mercedes GP Petronas team.

2010 wasn’t a year that he is particularly proud of despite having top driver Michael Schumacher back in the cockpit. As the team moves into the 2011 World Championship, he shares his thoughts with us.

What are your comments after completing the 2010 season?

Disappointment in some ways. We obviously won the championship in 2009 and that is the standard we set ourselves and I know you can’t win every championship. I have been here long enough to know that is an unrealistic objective but it was disappointing that we didn’t challenge for the championship and of course we didn’t win any races in 2010. So that is our objective, that is our challenge for this year, to try and win some races and hopefully challenge for championships.

Can you comment about this year’s car?

I think the 2010 car was born during 2009 and 2009 was a successful season for us because we had so much happening, we managed to save the company, we had to find a future for the company and strategically I have decided, the best chance of securing the future success of the company is to make sure we won the championship so we put all of our resources to try to win the championship in 2009. And it was a much smaller team that it was previously so I think we felt the effects of that in terms of building a 2010 car.

What is your say about Pirreli tyres?

They are completely different to Bridgestone. They are quite high performance, high degradation which means we are going to have multiple stops for the races and I think the races are going to be a lot more eventful than we have had in the past. But I hope Pirelli have done a good to get us far ahead in such a short time.

What is your opinion on the re-introduction of KERS?

KERS I think is a good thing because it is a relevant technology and Formula 1 has been lacking a little in terms of pushing the technological boundaries so KERS is great, it is very relevant for Daimler so I think it’s a great thing that we are involved in that.

What about the moveable rear wing?

It is really an option that we can introduce or we can tune. It is there to try to improve the possibilities of overtaking and can try to create some performance differential between the lead car and the car behind. We can use it as much and with the FIA we can work at right levels to have it available and what we don’t want is overtaking to become so easy that it is not an event. But it will facilitate overtaking.

What do you think about McLaren’s U-shapped sidepods? It is as significant as the double-deck diffuser used in 2009?

No, I don’t think it is that significant. It is an interesting solution they have chosen. I think they have chosen that because of their exhaust layout so it’s a complete package of the car. It is probably too early to say, we have haven’t looked at their concept at great detail yet but will do so during the year. But it is just part of a package. I don’t think by itself it is so relevant but as part of the package it is quite relevant.

What is your take on team orders?

Generally I don’t like them but what I don’t want to have is a situation where there is ambiguity in what is going on where team orders are hidden behind some sham of secret messages or secret instructors that can bring this world (Formula 1) into disrepute. I think teams should try and avoid to use team orders but I would rather it was done in the open.

You see the problem with team orders is that if you hide them, you could be accused but you wouldn’t be able to prove or disprove otherwise. If you say that one driver has received a coded instruction, then the whole thing gets very messy and I think that is fooling the public more. We still have to make sure that we don’t bring the sport into disrepute, that is the cornerstone of the sport and we have to respect that as well.

Is it correct to say that Schumacher’s lack of performance in 2010 was contributed by the fact that the car wasn’t really developed with him in mind?

We can’t really develop a car specifically for Michael and both drivers give some sort of indication of what kind of car you ought to have. They tell you where you need to improve the car and where you don’t so I think Michael coming back after three years is a massive challenge. I think he did really well and I think he will do better this year so I don’t think there is such a thing that a car that is tuned to the driver but of course both drivers give you guidance through the season as to what sort of car they want.

Do you think if Schumacher, given the right car can become champion once again?

Yes. I think Michael is capable of winning races and I think Nico is capable of winning races and if either of them can put enough wins they can win the championship. Both are very capable of winning races.

Are you confident of winning races this season?

Definitely. You will never know how the competition is like but that is our ambition.

Do you think that the now postponed Bahrain GP can be held later this year?

I think it is very difficult in a 20-race calendar to find a gap because previously we had a few gaps and we could drop a race in but it would be very difficult in 2011 to find another gap. So I think we will lose it for a year.

You can also read our interview with Norbert Haug, vice-president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport here.

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