Hicom-Potenza, the JV company that owns Westfield Sports cars, had a shakedown in Sepang today to showcase two of its cars. The story on them will be featured later. Of more interest is this piece of breaking news: Hicom-Potenza tells us that a new road-going sports car is in the works.
The concept is simple: a lightweight, two-seater, rear-wheel drive sports car that you can drive to work daily and then take to the track on Sunday. Sounds familiar? Although comparisons are inevitable, these new cars are not a re-badge of Lotus cars in spite of the fact that DRB-Hicom is involved in both brands.
No concept sketches yet, as the car is only half-a-year into development. I have been told that the new sports car will have its own unique styling, with design identities coming from the current crop of Westfield cars.
There are no specifics on the engine or the supplier they will be going with as well. Westfield will be looking into Ford and General Motors engines, which are currently used in its cars. Other possibilities include engines sourced from Toyota and Proton. Also unconfirmed is the placement of the engine, whether it will be in front, middle or rear mounted.
Price will definitely be a factor. Hicom-Potenza is looking to make these cars widely acceptable and affordable. This means that the new Westfield will be mass-produced and not handcrafted. The production of this car is targeted to start in a couple of years, and this will be the first time that DRB-Hicom will produce a car from scratch; the company has been assembling cars of other brands for years.
This is one car that we’ll definitely keep a close eye on.
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Great news indeed..Quote “engines sourced from Toyota and Proton” unquote..is Proton in the final phase of the 1.8 engines?
…and the engines are from Proton?
I will believe it when I see it…
Should be interesting, but 2014 sounds very far away…
agree
Heard about this potenza thing for quite some time already and 2014 is still 2 years away…
Coincidentally, a new car development requires about 2 years and early this year, DRB just took over the only automotive company with R&D capability in Malaysia…
Yeah. Like Dany boy’s prposal of 6 super sport cars in how long is that, 5 yrs? End up he got sacked. Yeah, i’ll believe it once i saw it alright
whooaa..! say what? so… hicom has had potenza westfield for how long? whut hicom done so far for it? needs 4 years to turn around? now lotus needs how many years to turn around too..?
smells fishy this crew…
can’t help but to get excited
proton’s engine? maybe CFE engine
zzzz …
potenza? westfiled?
just pick here which one.
http://www.westfield-sportscars.co.uk/
Seems like they’re going head to head with Caterham…again! Caterham also planning a modern road car.
What is the purpose of all this I wonder. Why can’t anyone come up with something original these days