Paul Tan’s Automotive News Archives (page 5 of 5)

Proton Savvy TUV Audit

June 7, 2005 @ 12:14 am · Filed under Cars

Some brief information on the Proton Savvy and Proton factory’s TUV audit is on TUV Rheinland Group’s website. The audit/inspection carries the ID number 0000100995. Basically it says the audit certifies the technical capability and process effectiveness of Proton’s vendors and makes sure it complies with international quality standards.

There we have it… Proton’s attempt to get rid of bad vibes about it’s company’s quality control.

You can click more for the text on TUV’s website.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Savvy TUV Audit

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BMW Dominates 2005 International Engine Of The Year Awards

June 5, 2005 @ 3:45 pm · Filed under Cars

The International Engine of the Year awards are an annual awards chosen by an independant jury of 56 automotive journalists. This year’s awards were handed out on 1st June 2005 in Stuttgart, Germany in conjunction with the Engine Expo 2005.

There are 12 awards to be given out comprising of an overall award and 11 other category awards.

BMW pwnz the awards with it’s engines winning 6 throphies out of the 12 trophies to be given away. It’s 5.0 liter V10 engine inspired by F1 technology makes 507 horsepower and powers the BMW M5 sedan and BMW M6 coupe. And those staggering performance stats are achieved without using forced induction! This engine snatches the overall 2005 International Engine of the Year Award, the “Best New Engine”, “Best Performance Engine”, and “Best Engine Above 4.0 Liter” awards. Impressive!

The M5 V10 beat Ferrari’s new 4.3 Liter V8 engine from the new F430 in three categories it was contending in, the “Best New Engine”, “Best Performance Engine”, and “Best Engine Above 4.0 Liter” awards.

The BMW M6

The BMW M5

The BMW M5/M6 5 Liter 90-degree V10

The engine is a 90 degree V10 with a 5 liter displacement in a lightweight block that weighs only 260kg. The engine pushes the BMW M5 from 0 to 100km/h in a mind-blowing 4.7 seconds. And it does that with such smoothness and refinement. Redline is at 8250rpm and peak torque is 570Nm at 6100rpm with 450Nm already accessible at 3500rpm. The car also features Double VANOS variable valve timing. Power is transferred to the wheels by a 7-speed SMG gearbox which does not need the driver to engage a clutch. You move through the gears sequentially with a lever that you push up or down. The engine is truly a technological masterpiece.

Here are the results:

International Engine of the Year
BMW 5.0-liter V10 (M5, M6)

Best Performance Engine
BMW 5.0-liter V10 (M5, M6)

Best New Engine
BMW 5.0-liter V10 (M5, M6)

Best Fuel Economy
Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius)

Best Above 4.0-liter
BMW 5.0-liter V10 (M5, M6)

Best 3.0-liter to 4.0-liter
BMW 3.2-liter (M3)

Best 2.5-liter to 3.0-liter
BMW 3.0-liter Twin-Turbodiesel (535d - European model)

Best 2.0-liter to 2.5-liter
Honda i-CTDi 2.2-liter diesel (Accord, CR-V, FR-V - European models)

Best 1.8-liter to 2.0-liter
Volkswagen 2.0-liter FSI Turbo (2006 Golf, GTI, Jetta; Audi A3, Audi A4)

Best 1.4-liter to 1.8-liter
Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius)

Best 1.0-liter to 1.4-liter
Fiat-GM Multijet 1.3-liter diesel (European Fiat and Opel models)

Best Sub 1.0-liter
Honda Hybrid 1.0-liter IMA (Insight)

For the full results, read more.

Click here to read the rest of BMW Dominates 2005 International Engine Of The Year Awards

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Proton Savvy Photos

June 5, 2005 @ 1:13 am · Filed under Cars, Malaysian Makes, Proton

I’ve received an anonymous e-mail once again with photos of the soon to be launched Proton Savvy.

Proton seems to have established an identity with all it’s new cars. The bumper and grill has that same look with the Waja and Gen2. Not sure if I am making myself clear on what I mean. The headlights remind me of an eagle’s eyes, something like the BMW E60 5-series headlamps.

Nice wiper there. Like Toyota’s wipers. A good change from the old style of wipers that most cars have. I am not sure why they made the back area between the brake lamps indent in like that. Exhaust pipe is in the middle.

Overall… cute!

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Possible Proton Savvy Interior Shots!

June 3, 2005 @ 4:38 pm · Filed under Cars

A little bird passed me these photos of what could be the new Proton Savvy interior. I must say it really really looks good. Has a bit of BMW feel in it.

I do not know if this is the real Proton Savvy as it was given to me by an anonymous source through email.

Click more for the rest of the photos…

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Proton Savvy Launch on the 8th of June

June 3, 2005 @ 10:52 am · Filed under Cars

The Proton Savvy is set to launch on the 8th of June 2005. I will keep you guys updated if I find anymore information about the car.

BTW, one of the main marketing point that Proton is making for the Savvy is TUV certification. The TUV Rheinland Group is an indpendant product testing and certification body mainly to do with safety. Supposedly this will guarantee some form of quality and safety in the final product. Proton is trying to remove the bad karma surrounding their quality control issues. I wonder if the Proton Savvy’s power windows are TUV certified?

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Perodua Myvi Photo Album

June 3, 2005 @ 12:46 am · Filed under Cars, Malaysian Makes, Perodua

For those that have not been to showrooms to check out the Perodua Myvi yet, here are some photos which a friend of mine took when she went to the showroom. Her photography’s so so so so much better than mine. There are also shots of full grown adults in the car to get an idea of how spacious it is. Also available are photos of the back seats converted to a larger boot space for transporting… more stuff than usual? LOL!

The red one is the 1.3 and the silver one is the 1.0.

UPDATE: Perodua Myvi facelift 2008 launched in Malaysia!

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An Insight into the Proton Ultimate’s Specifications

June 2, 2005 @ 1:24 am · Filed under Cars

An article published back in year 2000 by Australian motoring website drive.com.au gives us indications as to what kind of specifications the Proton Ultimate will have.

It’s said that the Proton Ultimate will be based on the Lotus M250 Coupe. Sadly the M250 did not make it to the production lines. Maybe it has a second chance in this project?

The Lotus M250 Concept

Proton has confirmed that the car, which has been codenamed Proton Ultimate, will ride on a modified version of the super-strong but lightweight, all-aluminium Monaco chassis developed by the British car maker.

This chassis will first be used as the basis for the new Lotus flagship M250 coupe, which goes on sale next year. The M250, which will come with V6 power, effectively replaces the almost 30-year-old Esprit.

We’ve seen the M250 coupe’s dashboard and it’s evident that the Gen2’s interior takes several design cues from the M250 dashboard.

The new model is being developed at a $160 million research and development centre at Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur.

In order to keep the price down at this early stage, indications are that the car could cost between $40,000 and $50,000 the Ultimate will share components common to other Protons.

$40,000 to $50,000 Australian Dollars? That’s about RM150,000 here in Malaysia. I bet alot of people will not be used to pay this sum of money for a Malaysian make even if it’s a Lotus OEM. Trust is just not there.

Power will come from new four-cylinder and V6 engines. The four-cylinder powerplant will displace 2.0-litres and will be developed with Proton shareholder, Petronas, and will utilise technological knowhow gleaned from the oil companys involvement with Sauber in Formula One. The Sauber team uses a version of the Ferrari V10 powerplant.

The V6 engine, which promises to develop about 150kW, is a revised version of the KV6 Rover engine. It is expected to have a displacement of 2.5-litres. The Ultimate is not the first collaboration between Lotus and Proton, with the British car maker helping to develop the Satria GTi.

Now this is interesting. I’ve read up on the specifications of the Petronas E01 and it’s very very impressive. It was tested in a Proton Waja. Bet the Waja can fly. Comparable to Honda’s K20A. But with Proton’s Campro now we can’t say if Proton will still go for the Petronas powerplant.

Let’s just see what happens to this project. This article was back in year 2000 and plans could have changed. It’s alraedy mid-2005 now and Proton hasn’t even gotten it’s SRM and TRM models out yet.

Edit: This project has supposed be renamed to Sepang?

Source: Proton to take on the open roadsters

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Proton Ultimate - Proton Sports Car Road Test?

June 1, 2005 @ 12:56 pm · Filed under Cars

Is Proton’s new sports car already doing road tests? Proton was talking about launching 3 new models after the Gen2, which is the Tiara Replacement Model, the Satria Replacement Model and also a sports car which I presume to be based on one of the Lotus cars. The sports car project was code-named Proton Ultimate.

(Click images to enlarge)

In the images above you can see a camouflaged sports car which looks like a Lotus parked behind a camouflaged Proton Savvy. Is this the sports car Proton is going to introduce or is it just a new Lotus model?

I must say it looks good! Looks like a Lotus. The rims look like the ones on the first generation Waja. Definitely a hint of Proton styling there.

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Proton Savvy: Proton Renames The Sassy Tiara Replacement Model to Savvy

June 1, 2005 @ 3:04 am · Filed under Cars

Due to the bad comments going all around about Proton’s bad choice of name for the Sassy, they have renamed the Tiara Replacement Model to the Proton Savvy. This sounds slightly better and less ’sissy’ than Sassy. Sassy had a bad meaning to it in the dictionary anyway.

What does Savvy mean?

savvy n. Practical understanding or shrewdness: a banker known for financial savvy.

I believe this name change is not recent but has been decided for quite some time, as indicated by the registration of the protonsavvy.com domain name by a Malaysian who must have had insider information. The registration date was 28th April 2005. More than a month ago.

It’s a good move, considering all the bad comments about it’s name found in my blog post here.

(Click for a larger image)